How to Tame That Gentle Male Lead - Chapter 7.3
“Don’t sell them. For the time being.”
“Pardon?”
Resena calmly told the manager.
“If all the raw stones you have are already reserved, don’t sell any more from now on. Amarast won’t be exporting obsidian raw stones anyway because they’re preparing for war. I heard from other stores that the prices of fruits imported from there have risen to murderous levels.”
“Ha. But then the sales…”
“Don’t worry about sales until mid-August. I’ll try to somehow normalize the purchase price of obsidian, so don’t take reservation orders until then. I’ll personally step in to normalize the obsidian distribution channels, so don’t worry about sales.”
“Miss…”
The store owner’s eyes welled up with tears. Resena smiled slightly and patted the owner’s shoulder.
“Trust me and wait. I’ll resolve this without putting undue strain on the merchant guild.”
“Thank you. Thank you, Miss…!”
Resena wore a kind expression in response to the store manager’s grateful greeting mixed with expectation.
After exchanging a few more words, Resena left the store.
“Take care, Miss! We’ll be waiting!”
After looking around the store once more, Resena got into her carriage, receiving the manager’s farewell. She was about to visit the third store, but it seemed there was no need to personally visit the next stores. The detailed contents would be written in the reports that would come up, and though each would have various difficulties, all imported products, including fruits and raw stones that weren’t being imported, could be handled according to today’s decisions.
‘More importantly, the most crucial thing is to stop Amarast’s war preparations.’
Only then could she reduce the damage to the Arnasus merchant guild and prevent the ‘Demon King’s Advent.’
Resena leaned back inside the swaying carriage and looked outside. She would arrive on time for her appointment, but it would take time for her confused mind to be sorted out neatly.
But when she entered the third store, she was surprised.
The store was in complete disarray.
Products were overturned on the floor, and hardly any looked intact. Crushed fruits and herbs were clumped together in several places, and the cash registers at the counter were all open.
“What on earth happened? Where is the manager?”
Seeing the terrible state, Resena approached a young clerk who was sobbing.
“Thieves broke into the store and stole all the silk from Amarast. And it wasn’t just one or two, but several of them. The manager and I discovered the remaining thieves as we were opening the door, and while trying to catch them somehow, the manager was assaulted and taken to the hospital…”
“Then, this scene…”
“They could have just silently stolen the Amarast silk, but sob… They had some grudge against the store or something because they left the store in this state before running away. A-and they opened all the cash registers and stole almost all the sales money too.”
Resena bit her lip. And clenched her fist. She was furious that thieves had broken in despite this being a safe area, and that they had opened the cash registers without breaking them.
‘There was a rat in the merchant guild and the guard… In the past, nothing happened so they couldn’t commit such acts, but when the sky-high priced Amarast silk arrived at the store, they stole it to sell it and took all the sales money too…!’
“By any chance, has anyone who used to work here recently returned to the merchant guild or been fired?”
The young clerk nodded.
“There was a guy named Aeri who had bad habits. He kept stealing store items and taking gold coins from the cash register, so the manager fired him.”
“Hmm… Then, among the guard, who usually visits here?”
“There’s a knight named Tom Baker…”
Tom Baker…!
Resena’s eyes widened. She never expected to discover Tom Baker here, who was widely known as a serial killer before her regression.
Her heart pounded violently.
Tom Baker was a knight who had killed seven of Eldis’s loyal subordinates. Though not a Sword Expert, his swordsmanship was excellent enough to kill knights who had reached the level of experts, and when knights were dispatched to catch him, dozens of innocent people were sacrificed.
Of course, Eldis, who later deduced that Tom Baker was a knight with excellent swordsmanship, personally captured him and imprisoned him in the underground dungeon. But the corrupt Emperor, upon learning that Tom Baker, who had killed his son’s trusted associates, was a member of the Imperial faction and that his grandfather was Baker Count, a financial magnate in the banking world, accepted bribes and kept him alive as a hostage. Eventually, Tom Baker escaped from prison and went into hiding in the slums.
‘And he kills Lorona, who sacrificed herself for Eldis. Very, cruelly.’
Even though Lorona had holy power, he slit her throat and stabbed her heart before its healing power could take effect. After seeing his beloved cruelly murdered in front of him in his place, Eldis eventually used Sernaus’s light to turn the entire capital into dust.
‘…If only her spirit of sacrifice hadn’t been displayed for him.’
Since she herself had lived because of Lorona, she didn’t want to disparage her spirit of sacrifice anymore. Although she still didn’t know why Lorona had developed such a spirit of sacrifice, she had to acknowledge the will that endured pain far beyond what an ordinary person could bear.
“Tom Baker… What’s that knight’s reputation like?”
“Most stores around us didn’t think well of him. He seems to guard well, but strangely his eyes seem intoxicated and glazed, and there’s something shiny about him that makes you feel creepy…”
That would be natural. As later revealed, even before the official investigation began, he had committed dozens of murders and buried the victims in his hideout garden.
“I see. That’s enough. I’ll send someone to guard the store. Since the manager won’t be able to come to the store for a while, I’ll also send someone to replace him.”
After consoling the crying clerk, Resena got into her carriage. There seemed to be no need to visit other stores anymore. Above all, stopping the Kingdom of Amarast’s war preparations was the priority, and catching the thieves who robbed the store was a matter to be resolved by sending knights.
‘Other stores would be at worst like this one, and usually they would be confused about what to do with products imported from Amarast. I’ll send people to all those stores to tell them we’ll proceed according to today’s decisions, and for places that have been robbed, I’ll send knights and people to help the stores.’
But after making that decision, there was one more problematic item remaining. It was the issue of Tom Baker, who had colluded with the thieves and kept watch for them to steal the Amarast silk.
‘His swordsmanship is excellent, so ordinary knights can’t catch him. To catch him safely without sacrifices, I need Eldis’s cooperation.’
Resena pondered deeply. Even if she were to catch him immediately, without evidence of his crimes, she couldn’t arrest him. He was a knight who had served in the military and was a member of the guard… She could find his hideout and dig up the bodies in his garden, but since it was Eldis who had discovered his hideout in her previous life, and she hadn’t conducted the interrogation herself, she didn’t know where the hideout was.
‘Judging from the illustrations featured prominently in the newspapers, if I went there directly, I could probably find where the bodies were buried…’
With dozens of bodies reportedly discovered, digging in places that looked like hiding spots would surely yield corpses. But to discover the bodies, she would need to work while Tom Baker was away from home, which meant someone would need to keep him occupied in the meantime.
‘If it’s just keeping him occupied while digging up bodies… I could do it myself. But it would be dangerous alone. So I should take Renard with me.’
Or… should she ask Alken for help?
‘But we haven’t known each other long. Would it be appropriate to bring this up with Alken?’
Given Alken’s personality, he would readily agree to track a serial killer, but… she worried he might think strangely of her.
‘…And that’s not all. I also need someone to go with me to Amarast.’
While tracking Tom Baker was urgent, if they didn’t stop Amarast’s war preparations, the dark mages might bring about the “Demon King’s Advent” in this world. Moreover, with goods imported from Amarast being stolen to this extent, the most pressing matter was halting Amarast’s war preparations.
For now, she headed to the “Spring’s Ode” café to speak with Alken. As she stepped out of the carriage, she spotted Alken through the glass window, sitting leisurely with an Americano in front of him.
“Alken.”
“Resena.”
Resena approached Alken’s table with a bright smile. When he rose from his seat, she waved her hand dismissively with a chuckle.
