How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 240: Lucent Philburg (2)

Loraine approached with zombie-like, staggering steps to identify her opponent, stretching out her arms.

“Why are you here? My stocks, give me back my stooocks!”

A voice filled with all kinds of resentment and anguish. Looking haggard from lack of proper sleep and acting like that, she was nothing short of a banshee.

Lucent Philburg stepped backward, terrified by Loraine’s appearance.

As it seemed he might flee outside at this rate, Osian naturally intervened and mediated with Loraine.

“Stop. You’re too excited right now.”

“B-but this person is the key figure in this Saint Tree incident! My money! He’s the root cause of my money falling!”

“Calm down.”

Osian firmly held Loraine’s cheeks with both hands and stared into her eyes.

“Ah…”

Loraine blankly stared back at Osian’s gaze for a moment, then slowly lowered her eyes and avoided his gaze.

“Are you calm now?”

“Y-yes, I’m calm. Now that I am, please let go of this.”

Loraine protested in a mosquito-like voice.

When Osian released her, Loraine rubbed her blushing cheeks with both hands.

Though she sat down quietly in her seat, her gaze never left Lucent.

“Is, is it okay now?”

“Yes. For now, that is.”

“For now?”

“I didn’t realize it, but you seem to be quite a big shot. For such a person to come all the way here, the request itself must be something extraordinary.”

Lucent gulped nervously.

Though he clearly wanted to run away immediately, he clenched his fists and nodded.

“Y-yes. I want to request help.”

“Not help, but a commission. We’ll hear the compensation, judge if it’s appropriate, and then accept the commission. That’s the basic rule. Understand?”

“Yes, yes!”

When Osian spoke firmly, Lucent answered vigorously.

Rather than appealing to emotions unnecessarily, speaking coldly seemed to increase trustworthiness.

“Oh my, do we have a guest? I was wondering what the commotion downstairs was about.”

Just then, Ronan, who had heard the commotion from the first floor, came down the stairs.

His narrowed eyes soon turned toward Lucent, and Lucent froze even more than when he had faced Loraine.

“That, that person is…”

“Greet him. This is Ronan Roland, the owner of Violet Fox and a broker.”

Ronan smiled at Lucent.

His narrowed eyes curved more sharply, and the smile on his lips deepened.

Though it was an action meant to appear as friendly and respectful as possible for the guest, it had the opposite effect.

Just from that, the suspicious atmosphere doubled, making Lucent look like he might faint at any moment.

“Huhuhu. A guest coming to request a commission in these times. This is quite exciting.”

Though it was a genuine laugh of joy at receiving a commission, Lucent felt like a young lamb that had entered hell’s slaughterhouse.

“Ah, um, well…”

Lucent looked back at the door, considering whether to cancel the request and leave now, but Loraine was already blocking the door.

Her eyes burned with intensity, as if she would never let him escape.

In the end, Lucent had to follow Ronan upstairs with slumped shoulders.

*

Facing Ronan on the second floor, Lucent couldn’t hide his anxiety throughout.

A steaming cup of black tea was placed before such a Lucent.

“Huhuhu. You seem nervous. I suppose this is your first time requesting something in this industry?”

‘It is my first time, but that’s not why I’m nervous.’

Unable to say those words, Lucent could only silently nod.

“Drinking this will make you feel much better. It helps relax tense muscles and relieves tension.”

Though it was purely offering tea, somehow when Ronan said it, it created an illusion that some kind of human experiment drug might be in it.

Lucent gulped and looked down at the teacup, then shook his head.

“T-tea is fine. Haha.”

“Huhu, is that so? How disappointing. And I had specially prepared this.”

Though it was genuinely said out of disappointment, Lucent couldn’t shake the feeling that Ronan was asking if he dared refuse his offer.

Lucent sent back the teacup while sweating profusely, and Ronan shrugged his shoulders in disappointment.

Ronan was truly disappointed. He had learned how to brew tea from Ena to personally serve it to guests, but now his first opportunity had flown away.

Osian, who was watching this scene while leaning against one wall of the room, shook his head.

It seemed the first impressions between them were going in a strange direction from the start.

“Since the client seems busy, shall we get straight to the main point?”

When Osian said that, Lucent nodded his head up and down so hard it seemed his head might fall off.

“Huhu. Very well. Then shall we hear your story? Mr. Lucent Philburg.”

“Yes, yes…But how did you know my name?”

Lucent belatedly recalled that he hadn’t introduced his name yet.

“I’ve seen it in newspapers several times, so it stuck in my memory. You’re quite famous, aren’t you? You’re regarded as the founder of plant engineering technology being developed at Saint Tree.”

It was information that anyone with even a slight interest in current affairs would know, but Lucent was strangely gripped by anxiety that Ronan might know about him through other routes.

“Y-yes. Haha.”

“As it happens, there’s been some noise recently regarding Saint Tree, and now a key party has come here. To be frank, I don’t think this will be a particularly fun story, am I right?”

Lucent hesitated on how to answer.

Even if he tried to say otherwise, the circumstances had already made it possible to infer.

“Don’t worry. We maintain absolute confidentiality if that’s what the client wishes.”

“R-really?”

“Yes. Really. So feel free to tell us whatever you want to say.”

Though Lucent felt anxious about Ronan’s words, he could feel himself being tempted in one corner of his mind.

That’s how much he was cornered, both physically and emotionally.

“As, as you know, Saint Tree is currently trying to proceed with construction related to new technology. Or more precisely, that’s how it appears.”

As the story began in earnest, Ronan and Osian pricked up their ears.

“As you’ve all probably guessed, Saint Tree actually has no intention of laying a plant-based wide-area network.”

A shocking truth flowed from the key party’s mouth.

Though they had expected it, hearing it directly was clearly a different matter.

‘It’s a thousand blessings that Loraine isn’t here.’

If she had known this fact, she might have gone berserk and tried to kill Lucent.

Suddenly, Osian felt a subtle sense of dissonance in Lucent’s words.

“Wait. Not that they can’t do it, but that they have no intention?”

Indeed, Osian’s point was accurate. Lucent nodded heavily.

“Yes. Saint Tree’s board of directors is intentionally not proceeding with the work.”

“Does that mean the communication network content written in the newspaper article is actually possible technology?”

“It’s possible. It really is possible. The elves are already using this technology. Modifying it slightly to work our way isn’t particularly difficult.”

That was rather more incomprehensible.

Ronan seemed to think the same as he asked a question.

“That’s strange. If it was possible, shouldn’t you have actually started the work? If you had done that, the stock price wouldn’t have crashed like this.”

If most of Saint Tree’s possibilities touted by the newspapers were true, there was no reason not to realize it but they didn’t. This was also related to why Lucent came here.

“Before continuing, I am indeed the originator of the core technology related to this development. I’m also the chief researcher and person in charge.”

“Now we’re getting to the main point.”

“As is usually the case, companies like this don’t run on researchers alone. There’s a board of directors and teams that select business models.”

The same goes for companies. There are various teams within a company.

Besides people who research and develop things, there are also people who advertise them externally or package them as commercial products.

The biotechnology that Lucent proposed was innovative technology with considerable potential.

“A plant-based wide-area network. If this is implemented, there’s no need to connect expensive telephone lines through base stations. Maintenance processes and costs will also be drastically reduced.”

Telephone lines are prone to breaking down if not properly managed.

They can short circuit when submerged in rain, and using telephones through telephone lines also demands expensive communication fees.

On the other hand, plants have the property of self-regeneration and growth.

Even if heavy rain falls, a network using plants will remain firmly maintained.

No additional costs are needed either. You just need to manage the plants well so they don’t die.

“Perfect in theory.”

“Yes. It would be perfect in practice too. But the board of directors thought differently.”

This is where the problems began.

“The city’s permission to use plants and collaboration with elves plus the additional planting of intermediary plants between points requires quite a large construction project.”

“You mean the construction costs to enter the business would be considerable and time is also an issue?”

“Yes. We need permits from the city, and we need to coordinate opinions and schedules with the elves. Moreover, since this is the first attempt at a wide-area network, constant management is needed to ensure the plants grow well.”

Lucent clenched his fists in frustration even as he spoke.

“The board of directors wouldn’t even try, saying they couldn’t bear those costs. Because of the time and money required.”

“At first glance, their opinion seems reasonable.”

“No. It’s just an excuse in the end. The recent rainy season has damaged many communication networks, and the ground contains enough moisture for plants to grow. The city is experiencing an unprecedented period of cleanliness due to one bout of rain.”

It was a funny thing to say considering the damage and deaths caused by the rainy season, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.

Soil that has been swept by water once tends to become fertile.

Of course, over time, Tirna’s poison would make the city sick again.

“This was our opportunity. But they wouldn’t even proceed. Rather, they did something worse.”

Osian recalled the article written in the newspaper.

“They intentionally spread rumors to raise the company’s stock price.”

“Yes. They bribed the media and spread false information. And they colluded with company insiders to obstruct technology development.”

“And the result is what we see now.”

This has gotten complicated.

If it had come to this point just from baseless rumors spreading, that would be one thing, but they actually refused to do something that was possible.

This clearly falls into the realm of financial crime.

“Do you have evidence?”

“Evidence, you say.”

“Yes. How much would people believe this if you just say it? And there’s something even more important.”

“What could that be?”

“What does Mr. Lucent want to do?”

At those words, Lucent closed his mouth as if struck.

“I’m grateful that you’ve told us the truth about this incident. It must have taken a lot of worry and courage to speak up. But the reality is, revealing such truths doesn’t make everyone in the world act as if they’ve realized something.”

“That’s, that’s true. Yes…”

Lucent must know too.

Even with newspaper articles exposing Saint Tree’s actions, people went mad with denial saying it couldn’t be true.

Rather, they even committed acts of terrorism like throwing Molotov cocktails or destroying printing machines, claiming those media outlets were making their stocks fall.

“Enormous money is already involved in this incident. One massive flow cannot be stopped by an individual’s appeal.”

“B-but…that’s too much! The executives deliberately spread false rumors to raise stock prices, and they made huge profits. They even took bribes from external companies! We can’t hide this fact!”

“Mr. Lucent seems to think the truth is absolute.”

“Are you saying it’s not?”

Lucent retorted angrily.

Those words were upright and idealistic, but that’s why they were ignorant of reality.

“Truth is absolute. Then, is that absolute truth really the truth?”

“What do you…?”

“Have you never thought that what you consider absolute truth might have been created by someone?”

“…”

“In Tirna, that’s possible.”

Ronan made a gesture with his finger.

“It’s money. With money, truth that didn’t exist can be created. That truth becomes the absolute law.”

“That, that…”

“And the people you have to deal with are shameless individuals who have accumulated massive funds and wealth through this series of incidents. Can you win against them?”

Lucent despaired. This meant it was beyond the scope of what could be solved even with help from a solver’s office.

“Then are you saying there really is no solution?”

“A fixer’s office isn’t god. We might investigate the truth of such incidents and inform the public, but we can’t change how people receive it or the environment.”

Lucent bit his lips tightly.

Those who drove countless investors to bankruptcy and pushed them into an abyss of suffering would rather be making more money and living luxuriously.

Is that right? Is that justice?

Lucent knew the world doesn’t always flow correctly.

But knowing doesn’t make this indignation, this suffering disappear.

Then Osian, who had been quietly listening, opened his mouth.

“There is a way.”

Ronan and Lucent’s gazes turned toward Osian.