Dear Ex-Fiancé, I Hope You Regret Everything - Chapter 27

I won’t let this end like this.

(I’m so disappointed in you, Brother)

It’s obvious I’m the better woman, yet you treat me like a child just because I’m not an adult yet. To go out of your way to bring that unhealthy-looking woman of all people from Isac.

(I never thought you were that kind of person)

I’ll marry someone more handsome and wonderful than you and make you regret it for sure.

And I’ll make that woman Iris or whatever utterly humiliated.

My trembling hands won’t stop shaking. Both of them are chatting happily.

But when I look closely, the cold glances toward Iris seem to remain unchanged.

Right now, watching that seems to be the only thing that can calm my heart.

I randomly take a glass from a server and gulp it down.

“…Oh my? Excuse me, my lady, but your dress has juice on it.”

“Eh…!?”

A black-haired man knelt and pressed a handkerchief against it.

“If we remove the stain immediately, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The person who suddenly looked up had green eyes directed at me. Though not as much as my brother, he has a handsome face.

(If you let your slicked-back hair down and paid a bit more attention to your skin, wouldn’t you look even more wonderful?)

“This is Lady Nia, isn’t it! My deepest apologies for my rudeness. Wouldn’t it be better to change your dress? I’ll call a maid right away.”

“…You too…”

“Huh?”

“You also think I’m a kid?”

Looking flustered, he bowed politely and said:

“My apologies for the late introduction. I am Dragoark Maison. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

(Maison…? The prime minister’s son, I wonder I feel like I’ve seen him before, but also not…)

Dragoark, with his hand on his chest maintaining his bowing posture, looked at me piercingly and said:

“Lady Nia, you must not lower yourself like that. You are nobler and more beautiful than anyone else. Just because you’re not an adult yet means you’re a child? Then when you become an adult, you’ll simply become a woman everyone envies.”

“So, you’re saying I am a kid right now after all?”

“You’re quite fixated on age, aren’t you?”

“…How old are you?”

“I’m 17, but…”

“See? People who are already adults and have composure probably don’t particularly care, but…”

I felt an unintentional flutter at the faint smile on his lips that carried a masculine charm.

“No man could maintain composure before someone as beautiful as you.”

(Oh?)

Is he trying to sweet-talk and use me? How amusing.

I warded him off with just a smile.

“And if I recall correctly, Lady Nia is 14, soon to be an adult, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I’d like to be the first to invite you to dance once you’ve come of age. Would that be possible?”

(That’s…)

“I’ll take that as a proposal.”

“Please interpret it however you wish.”

Whatever schemes he might have, I’ll just use him right back.

“We’ve successfully reached our opening day today. Everyone, thank you for all your hard work in preparations and setup until now. But the real work starts now. Let’s do our best to make Orangette widely known to everyone in Haira.”

Saying this with a smile, Lady Iris has grown somewhat thinner.

Not only with import negotiations, but she was particular about the shop design down to the smallest details. Regarding sales staff hiring, she deliberated extensively together with Lady Starelesska. On top of these numerous demanding tasks, Lady Iris is also diligently studying to eventually become the queen consort, sparing no time for sleep.

Even so, achieving this in the short period of three months was largely thanks to Haira’s transportation methods, which allow travel between countries using spatial magic.

Just from this alone, Haira is clearly a country with overwhelming advantages in trade with other nations.

(For Lady Iris’s sake, for Haira’s sake, I must ensure the success of Orangette’s sales no matter what)

In Egiana, the country we negotiated trade with this time, cocoa is abundantly available and there are also many orange growers.

Since reducing import costs was the top priority, the cocoa and orange import negotiations were the key to this business.

It was none other than Lady Iris who softened the tense atmosphere simply by being from Haira and ultimately made Egiana agree to the deal. Without her, these imports wouldn’t have been possible.

(To be honest, her negotiation skills were almost enviable)

Lady Iris not only distributed Orangette to the lords but also to cocoa and orange farmers, brewing tea and encouraging them to taste it together while passionately explaining its appeal.

The two lords—Viscount Tarley, whose main source of wealth is cocoa cultivation, and Margrave Othei, who owns vast lands and also grows oranges—initially showed reluctance.

But they ultimately agreed precisely because they witnessed Lady Iris’s attitude of showing respect through and through.

(I must learn from this)

I had thought trade was about dealing with others as “equals,” but that’s not the case. Especially for Haira going forward, an attitude of respecting the other party might be crucial.

After easing the tension of the lined-up sales staff with her smile, Lady Iris opened the door with a clang.

“Chocolate Bitter, now open for business!”