Chapter 102: Charlotte's Mountain of Stress
Chapter 102: Charlotte’s Mountain of Stress
“P-pardon me, but what did you just say?”
Robert raised his head and stared in bewilderment at the young girl sitting on the chair in front of him. Charlotte maintained the same impassive expression as she replied calmly.
“Your license to operate on Ausier Street has been revoked. You’re given 3 months to pack up your stuff and leave Ausier Street, otherwise we’ll be enforcing it from our side.”
“W-wait a moment, Lady Charlotte! You have seen our financial reports, so why are you asking us to move out? I can’t accept this!”
Robert exclaimed in astonishment as he demanded a reason. What he received instead was a sharp, cold gaze from the girl.
“Your numbers are good, and it’s true that your business is booming. However, it’s another question whether the money is still with your business or not, right?”
Charlotte’s words brought a jolt to Robert’s heart. Through his many years of experience, he forced himself to maintain a poker face as he tried to explain the situation. However, Charlotte wasn’t interested in hearing his explanation.
“You need not say anything. Do you still not get it? The scent of fortune isn’t on you anymore. Let me see why that is so… Ah, is it gambling?”
The fiery-haired Charlotte took a document that was being passed to her by one of her attendants and quickly scanned through it, showing barely any emotions on her face at all.
On the other hand, Robert’s face had already completely gone dark.
There was a rumor that the Sorofyas had the ability to turn anything into gold. Anyone with the slightest bit of common sense would know that it couldn’t possibly be true, but rumors don’t just come out of nowhere.
While they couldn’t make gold, they had something almost as good—the Sorofyas have the ability to sense wealth. From uncertain technological investments to wily commercial partnerships, the Sorofyas, who had inherited the blood of the high elves, only needed to choose the path where the scent of money was heaviest.
And today, Robert had become yet another lucky one to witness this incredible ability in person. He sought to say something to turn the situation around, but Charlotte had no intention of giving him the chance to do so. She waved her hand casually, and two guards standing by her side stepped forward to escort him out of the mansion.
“Lady Charlotte, please give me a second chance! I swear that this year…”
Robert cried out as he struggled to free himself from the grip of the guards, but it was futile. The door of the reception room closed after he was dragged out, drowning out his cries.
The other merchants in the reception room watched the sight in nonchalance as they chatted with one another.
“That fellow is from the Roche Merchant Association.”
“Hmph. A newcomer that only started rising last year thinks that he can fool Lady Charlotte. What a fool.”
“It’s futile to attempt anything before Lady Charlotte. She’s a prodigy that only appears once in a century in the Sorofya House.”
The veteran merchants chatted amongst themselves as the newer ones listened in wonderment, reminding themselves to never end up with the same fate as Robert.
“It isn’t a problem that will happen next year. Your body no longer carries the scent of fortune anymore. It’s inevitable that you’ll fall into destitution.”
Charlotte sighed deeply as she muttered to herself, seemingly answering Robert’s final plea. One of the attendants behind her stepped forward and spoke to her respectfully.
“This is the fate that awaits most gamblers when they choose to cave in to irrationality. Young miss, please do not be too bothered by it. Shall we take a rest for now?”
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”
Charlotte was a little tired after having checked quite a few merchants, so she agreed with the attendant’s suggestion.
The attendants immediately got into action after receiving the order. They swiftly moved the work-related furniture away, and the roof above slowly turned into a transparent skylight that allowed natural light in. Several potted plants that gave off a relaxing scent were carefully placed around the room under the instructions of the designers.
In just a few minutes, the room had been converted from a solemn conference room into a light-hearted resting area filled with greenery. Charlotte’s auburn hair seemed to glow under the natural sunlight. As the skylight was made out of a special material that filtered out the elements that damaged one’s skin, there was no need to bring out the usual parasol.
An afternoon tea table for one was laid out before Charlotte. The attendants brought out top-quality imperial tea brewed by a tea master, followed by exquisite desserts that were freshly prepared by world-class patissiers.
Charlotte took a sip of tea and sighed pleasurably. After relaxing for a little, she turned to the black-haired attendant standing by her side and asked.
“Grace, how is the development of the Land of Chaos coming along?”
“Young miss, the development has been going slowly. The environment is too unstable, and our manpower is lacking too.”
“I see…” replied Charlotte helplessly.
She had no intention of blaming her subordinate as such an outcome was within her expectations too.
Charlotte Sorofya, the beloved daughter of Bruce Sorofya, was the successor to the Sorofya House. Despite only being 10, she was already being dubbed as the Uncrowned Princess and was one of the most powerful people in the world. At least, this was what most people knew about her.
However, behind the glitz and glamor, she bore a heavy responsibility that most were oblivious to.
Charlotte was one of the rare ones who had inherited the bloodline of her ancestors, succeeding the beauty and the powers of the legendary high elves. In the centuries of the Sorofya House’s history, there were only a small handful of patriarchs and matriarchs who could match up to her.
Greater power, however, meant greater responsibility.
Charlotte, with her sharp senses for money, began dipping her hands into the family business when she was just 7. Initially, she had taken more of an auxiliary role, managing some of the minor businesses and offering strategic advice. However, when her father, Bruce Sorofya, obtained a bizarre oil lamp half a year ago, the pressure on her as the successor suddenly increased greatly.
All sorts of high-level business decisions were tossed her way, and she found herself having to review all sorts of development plans. Recently, Bruce Sorofya even entrusted two major projects to her, asking her to take on one of them. One was the development of the Land of Chaos, Tansen, and the other was the development of the Twohorn Port.
Neither of these two projects were easy to pull off, even when taking the financial ability and influence the Sorofyas commanded into account. Hardly anyone in the Sorofya House was willing to take them on. The intention behind Bruce Sorofya’s action was very clear—he wanted Charlotte to use her abilities to resolve one of these two problems that had bothered them for a long time, and through this, prove herself to the rest of the family.
In the face of her father’s expectations, Charlotte bravely stepped forward to take on the challenge. Who could have thought that her nearly omnipotent ability would stumble here?
Between Tunsen and Twohorn Port, Charlotte, through her sharp sense for money, unhesitatingly chose the former.
As the name, Land of Chaos, suggested, Tunsen was a lawless region with an extremely messy political landscape involving a multitude of major powers. It was known for its domestic production of magic tools made out of demonic creatures, which was also the reason why multiple countries sought to build up a presence there.
There were rumors that a god had once fallen in Tunsen, and the blood of the powerful being seeped into the land, dyeing the ground red. The extraordinarily high concentration of mana greatly increased the chances of animals residing in the region undergoing a mutation, leading to a proliferation of demonic creatures. Due to that, the region was deemed to be extremely dangerous and unsuitable for humans to live in.
Most who chose to live in Tunsen despite the risks were transcendents, especially heretics and evil cultists who were driven out of their homes. They made a living through hunting down demonic creatures and selling their parts, though the number of demonic creatures they were able to hunt tended to be severely limited.
If the Sorofyas could enter this demonic creatures market and develop a complete business model around it, it could potentially earn thousandfold of its initial investment. From such a perspective, Charlotte’s sense for money was indeed spot-on.
However, based on the reports of previous attempts made by the other family members, the demonic creatures residing in the area were too dangerous. It was one thing to launch a single expedition into Tunsen, but if they really intended to reside in the area, they would need to hire a frightening amount of guards for protection. By no means was it an exaggeration to say that it would be almost equivalent to raising an entire army. If so, the cost would be too high for them to sustain in the long-run.
Charlotte pondered over this problem carefully, and after great consideration, she decided to use the influence of the Sorofyas and spend a great amount of money to purchase a magic tool that could repel demonic creatures, thus ensuring the safety of the merchants they would dispatch to Tunsen.
Ever since the request was sent, there had been dozens of responses from all of the branches, but none of them fit the criteria to a satisfactory degree. Most of the magic tools were still effective on ordinary animals and demonic beasts with a lower degree of mutation, but they couldn’t stand their ground when it came to the hell level difficulty Tunsen.
“I didn’t expect things to be harder than I expected. If we can’t find a suitable magic tool within the next two months, I’ll have to make changes to the proposal.”
Charlotte remarked with a sigh, worried about the progress of the development. Grace sighed along with Charlotte as she couldn’t help but feel a slight grudge toward Bruce.
While this world didn’t have the idiom of ‘hastening the growth of a seedling by pulling on it’, it was still common sense to take things step by step. Bruce Sorofya had doubtlessly heaped a great deal of stress on Charlotte over the past half a year, and it left Grace feeling anxious inside.
“Young miss, there has been a piece of good news regarding the Land of Chaos recently. A merchant has approached us with the intention of getting into a partnership with us. They claim that they are able to resolve the problem of the demonic creatures.”
“Oh? Do they have the magic tool that we’re looking for?”
“That’s not it. However, they have some clues to solving this problem. It appears that the indigenous population of Tunsen have been using a certain kind of magic tool to protect themselves from demonic creatures, and they have some leads that we do not possess regarding the matter. They have expressed their willingness to negotiate with the indigenous population regarding this matter.”
“That’s great news! Tell them that the Sorofyas are willing to pay them handsomely for that. As long as we can get a footing into Tunsen, we’re willing to negotiate any conditions that they have!”
This was the first good news that Charlotte had heard over the past month, so it was inevitable that she would get so excited about it. If they could get one of the major powers stationed in Tunsen on their side, there would be a far greater chance of successfully developing the market there. However…
“Make it clear to them that they are not to use forceful methods during the negotiation, so as to avoid incurring the hostility of the indigenous population.”
“Yes, young miss. I’ll take note of that.”
Grace answered with a lowered head. A slight smile formed on her lips as she added.
“If this matter goes well, we’d have set the foundations to developing Tunsen. The old master should probably give you a break after that.”
“Indeed. It has been far too tiring over the past half a year.”
Recalling all of the stress she had been put under during this period of time, Charlotte could only sigh helplessly to herself. However, there was a doubt that had been floating in her mind for quite a while now.
What in the world incited my father to anxiously rush things all of a sudden? It’s almost as if he wants her to build a strong foothold for herself as soon as possible. Additionally, what is with that bizarre oil lamp…
“Could he have fallen under the influence of evil cultists or something?”
Charlotte wondered, but she could only bury such thoughts in the depths of her heart.