Their carriage eventually made it to the Ruby Merchantry, Rosalia’s base of operations. And well, it was safe to say that she was completely swamped.
The entire lobby had been flooded with nervous and angry merchants complaining about her war with Felix at the crystal mines, resulting in their goods being hassled by officials and whatnot.
Several of the larger merchants had responded by withholding their supplies entirely. They could afford to absorb the temporary losses, and continuing to transport goods would only allow the officials to extract more money from them.
This caused supplies to dwindle. And of course, as supplies dwindled, demand continued to grow.
Prices for just a single loaf of bread nearly tripled in price, causing the entire city to be quite miserable.
’Felix isn’t only attacking Rosalia anymore.’
Luckily, the clerk at the front desk managed to recognize the three of them in their disguises, through the waves of complaining merchants.
"The mistress is upstairs!" she shouted over the surrounding complaints. "Please see yourselves in! I can’t leave the desk right now!"
Normally, it would look bad on Rosalia not to greet her guests properly. But seeing the situation, Rian wasn’t going to make a fuss about it.
Heading upstairs, they found Rosalia barely awake at her office. There were about a hundred stacks of different papers and documents that flooded the place.
Rosalia barely heard them step in, managing to straighten herself to make her somewhat presentable to her youngest brother and his fiancée. Compared to the Rosalia he had spoken to in the garden, this one was a lot different.
"Rian. Glad you could make it," she sighed, wiping her face with a wet towel. "As you can see, things aren’t going particularly well."
"I noticed."
Rian removed several documents from the nearest chair before sitting down.
"What happened?"
"They’re burying us in paperwork."
Rosalia gestured toward the mountains surrounding her. "After I reported the undeclared crystals in my warehouse, Felix’s officials used it as evidence of collusion to hassle the other merchants."
"But Father hasn’t accused you of deliberately stealing from the mine, has he?"
"No." Rosalia shook her head. "He confiscated the undeclared stockpile and left the mine sealed, but he accepted that it happened because of poor oversight."
"Then my plan worked."
"You call this working?"
"The fact that you aren’t in prison and Father hasn’t directly handed Felix the crystal mine is evidence enough, isn’t it?" Rian replied. "I never promised Felix would politely accept what would happen after the fact."
"You promised to help me deal with him!"
"And here I am."
"After he brought half my businesses to the brink of collapse!"
Rian sighed and picked up one of the rejected permits. Three separate reasons had been stamped across its surface, each contradicting the one before it.
"He’s giving your merchants a choice. Abandon the Ruby Merchantry and receive approval from his officials again..."
"Or perish..." Charlotte finished his thought. "Felix Rosenheim really is a petty one. He knows Rosalia is already playing a losing hand, yet he wants to dismantle her entire faction."
Then, the two girls suddenly turned toward Rian. With Rosalia voicing her concerns almost immediately. "So, what are you going to do? How does my brilliant little brother intend to rescue his poor older sister from this one?"
Well, Rian couldn’t exactly divulge where he knew the knowledge from. So he decided to poke around the bushes a little bit.
"Rosalia...have you heard of any rumors about people going missing in this city?"
"Going missing...?" Rosalia scratched her chin. "I guess I have? But it felt more like rumors rather than anything concrete."
"What kind of people?"
"Mostly laborers. Workers, hired hands, people without much family in the city."
"Well, there were a few people who raised some concerns," she continued on. "But most of those complaints have been squashed by the knights already."
Rian and Charlotte exchanged a glance the moment "the knights" were mentioned. He leaned forward, clasping both hands together.
"What did they say?"
"Exactly what I just told you." Rosalia sighed. "Wait—why are you asking about missing laborers? How the hell is this related to what we’re doing?"
"Edwin Voller was murdered before we could interrogate him. One of the four witnesses killed alongside him used his final moments to write Eisenbran in his own blood."
Rosalia’s expression stiffened.
"On our way here, bandits attacked us while wearing genuine Eisenbran armor," Rian continued. "The guards at the city gates then covered for the false toll without knowing a single detail about it. Now you’re telling me those same knights have been suppressing reports of missing people."
He placed the rejected permit back onto her desk.
"Does any of that sound unrelated to you?"
"..."
Charlotte crossed her arms. "Even if the disappearances are connected, how does investigating them help Rosalia’s merchants?"
"Felix’s advantage comes from his control over Eisenbran’s officials," Rian answered. "Every restriction hurting Rosalia only carries weight because those officials appear legitimate."
"And if we prove that they’ve been arming bandits and concealing disappearances..." Charlotte slowly realized. "Then Felix can no longer present his control over Eisenbran’s officials as proof that he’s the more capable person to govern the mine."
"Correct," Rian nodded. "His foundations will become shaky."
Rosalia looked between them. "So that’s your plan? Chase rumors until you find something embarrassing enough to use against Felix?"
They were already racing against time, and Rian had seemingly proposed gambling everything upon a handful of rumors.
But Rian knew the disappearances were real.
In the original novel, this incident had eventually been uncovered by one of its major characters. If his investigation reached a dead end, he could simply involve that same woman earlier than intended.
"Say..." Rian leaned back in his chair. "Does Nadine still reside in Eisenbran?"
Upon hearing the name, Rosalia suddenly crashed out.
"Of course she does!" She slammed both hands against her desk. "Every plan I’ve made in this city has been complicated because that woman simply...exists here!"
Charlotte blinked. "Is she really that troublesome?"
"Kugh... Just because she’s the Ice Witch doesn’t mean she can meddle in everyone else’s affairs!"
"How long has she been here?" Rian asked.
"She has been for months!"
"Perfect."
Rosalia stared at him as though he had lost his mind. "What part of anything I just said sounded perfect?"
"Felix’s authority depends upon silencing anyone who questions him," Rian answered, "then we need someone his officials can’t intimidate. If she can cause trouble for your faction...then she could absolutely do the same for Felix."
"Okay...? So what does that mean for us?"
"It means—"
He rose from the chair.
"The pieces are aligning a lot better than I initially thought."