Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 77
“…”
“I donât necessarily have to help you. But you? Now that your identity has been exposed even to me, can you really achieve your goal?”
Diana hesitated. Cecilia thought her hesitation was presumptuous, but from a human perspective, she could understand it.
People who did not know of the future inevitably face conflict. Fear originates from the unknown. She knew Diana, but in this life, Diana had only met Cecilia for the first time today.
“…I could use what you said today to blackmail you.”
“Hmm, wouldn’t you be dead or expelled from the household before that?”
It was a cynical yet realistic response. There was no way the information Cecilia unearthed wouldnât reach the Lasphilla family head.
Diana was as good as living on borrowed time. Perhaps Adam had already known her identity and merely left her be.
“So youâre saying I should listen to you?”
“Yes.”
“But I donât care if I die now.”
Would my father think the same? Cecilia briefly considered her parent’s perspective and then shook her head. She was not one to talk, given her own flagrant disrespect.
“The Hollings family amassed a vast fortune transporting military supplies during the war but went bankrupt overnight due to that one shipwreck. Moreover, the shipwreck happened in foreign territorial waters. At that time, your father was accused as a political criminal and had to bear the war’s blame, right?”
It was an era when the struggle for trade bases was fierce. Though it seemed peaceful from within the country, it was not the case outside. Wars were always happening somewhere across the sea, and the number of navies and ships equated to military strength.
Because war accompanied gold, not all businessmen supplying military supplies during wartime faced the same disgrace as the Hollings family. The fact that the shipwreck occurred in a foreign territory could have been a coincidence during drift.
However, the Hollings family’s secret ledgers contained transactions with enemy nations, constituting a serious legal offense of treason.
“My father never traded weapons with any country that wasn’t an ally of Caswick! It’s clear Adam Lasphilla made things up and pinned the blame on my father.”
At that time, Adam was one of his investors. Though called an investor, Adam was essentially a business partner since he was involved in all decisions. But Adam was a nobleman, while Diana’s father was a commoner nouveau riche.
Though it was an era when capital could override class, the type of information each class could gather to draw in capital was different.
The risky talks between the nobility and the royal court first leaked from the nobilityâs exclusive clubs. They were also the first to know about the wartime atmosphere.
“Lasphilla was forewarned about the surprise attack. Otherwise, there’s no way they could have withdrawn so quickly.”
Adam suffered no losses from Hollings’s bankruptcy. If he had, Cecilia would have remembered it. Adam, when he lost money, became more irritable and harsh than Lilith’s hysterics.
“Youâre right. Father must have known.”
Diana’s eyes reddened at Cecilia’s affirmation. Cecilia didnât offer consolation. She believed she had no right to.
“It might be difficult to restore your father’s honor.”
“âŚ!”
Diana glared at Cecilia, her eyes widening. Ceciliaâs head lowered.
“Sorry, actually, thatâs a reach. Itâs impossible, no matter what. Even if you kill my father.”
It might have been possible if Diana’s father had been an aristocrat. But the Hollings family had simply chosen one of many surnames not listed in the nobility directory.
The Caswick Kingdom simply wasnât a place that cared about the honor of individuals as much as families.
“But what if there’s a chance to reclaim the money my father earned from investing with the Hollings family? It seems better to aim for that than to waste your life away.”
“…”
Diana’s father cherished her like a princess, but he was not a great man. To everyone but his daughter, he was incredibly harsh, even to himself.
Diana remembered her father, who earned a fortune yet wore shoes with flapping soles as he headed to work. She had wanted to buy him new shoes one day, but her father returned to the earth before she could even celebrate her coming of age.
Next to his daughter, what he cherished most was the money he had earned through hard work, not superficial honors like reputation.
“Do you know? You’ve just given me another way to avenge my father. Youâve betrayed your own father.”
Cecilia furrowed her brows at that.
“Anything is better than dying, isn’t it?”
Then she smiled childishly.
“I don’t really want to see someone die in our house.”
“Hah… after stabbing me so mercilessly just now?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It seemed like the quickest and surest way. Did it hurt?”
“âŚYou’re strange.”
“How so?”
“Youâre quick-witted and intelligent enough to investigate me just from hearing stories about Mary. Then why haven’t I been wary of you until now?”
Cecilia thought for a moment before replying.
“Well, I’ve learned to live my life in silence.”
Then she looked back and forth between Diana and her arm.
“That should be enough for now. Let’s get some treatment first. Honestly, I’ve been worried I might die from tetanus since earlier.”
“It’s not that serious.”
“No, I’m truly worried that I might die.”
“âŚA mere scratch on the arm won’t kill you.”
“You don’t know this, but people can die from the most ridiculous things. You could even break your nose just by falling backward.”
