I Only Raised Men for Revenge - Chapter 7

The Marquis, who had been smiling brightly at Elzer, instantly frowned.

“A favor? Typical Sesenia. You never do anything that’s not to your advantage.”

“I have a small ambition of my own.”

“Small? What, are you going to compete with your sister or something?”

“No. I have no intention of taking over the Marquisate.”

“Then what do you want?”

It was an extreme reaction.

‘He’d be kinder to a foundling.’

Sesenia, who had resolved not to live virtuously, looked at him with a cold expression.

“I’ve wanted to run my own small business since I was a child. Let me do that. If you do that for me, I won’t demand any rights to the Marquisate.”

“Even if you did demand them, do you think you could take over the Marquisate?”

Sesenia was about to say, “Yes,” but quietly closed her mouth. Without her, the Marquisate would collapse.

It had been that way in the past, and it was no different now. But she didn’t want to argue here. She was currently in a position where she needed the Marquis’s help.

The flat, even curve of her lips twisted slightly.

‘Cowering before you end here.’

Once she got what she needed, she no longer needed to act like a dog wagging its tail, hoping for love.

Waiting for that day, Sesenia nodded.

“I know. I know it’s not a place I can dare to aspire to. I was just awkward asking for a favor, Father.”

“Hmm.”

Perhaps it worked better to be docile than to come on strong, the Marquis nodded awkwardly.

“You make me feel like I’m in the wrong.”

If you felt that, at least you weren’t clueless.

“Of course not. Father is always right.”

Sesenia wasn’t one for flattery. In that respect, Sesenia and Elzer were starkly different. As a result, Sesenia often unintentionally received misunderstandings or hatred from others.

‘But for my future, and to keep that woman from having everything, I can do this much.’

“Ahem. Hmm. Well, if that’s what you want… what do you want to do?”

“I want to open a small shop. It was Mother’s dream, wasn’t it? To open a small shop in the Imperial Capital.”

Sesenia’s mother, who had passed away at the age of five due to poor health, was a humble woman. A commoner by birth, her mother felt a great sense of disillusionment with the life of a noble, and she often sat Sesenia, a five-year-old child, down and told her:

When you’re all grown up, I want to open a small shop and live as myself, not as a noble.

But the Marquis, who loved his wife dearly, feared that someone else might steal her away, and ignored his wife’s words.

“…That’s right.”

“I want to do that. If you just give me a little support, I want to live like my mother. By opening a shop named after her.”

Knowing that the Marquis’s sore spot was his late wife, Sesenia wore a sad expression.

“Wh-what do you mean, name a shop after your mother? That’s ridiculous.”

Elzer immediately retorted as if she couldn’t understand. But the Marquis slowly nodded and stopped Elzer.

“So be it. If you’re carrying on your mother’s legacy… I’m grateful.”

“Father!”

“Why are you shouting like that, Elzer?”

“Ah… no, it’s just Sesenia is starting a separate business, isn’t she? I didn’t think that made sense. And you decided to entrust the Marquisate to me, without even consulting me.”

The Marquis suddenly snapped.

“Elzer. Do you already think you’re the Marquis?”

“Father, are you angry with me? I’m surprised.”

“Be quiet. You’re not the Marquis yet. I’m in the stage of looking at which of you would be best to become the Marquis. I can throw you out at any time if I don’t like you!”

Elzer didn’t know her father well enough. She always got away with things by acting cute, so she seemed to think it would work this time too. Why didn’t she still know that the Marquis wouldn’t easily let anyone get away with defying his authority?

Eventually, Elzer pouted, as if she was overwhelmed by the Marquis’s spirit. She looked like a childish, immature child.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Good to know. Anyway, your sister isn’t greedy and is just carrying on your mother’s legacy, so help her.”

“Yes.”

How could a person change so much? The Marquis smiled and looked at Sesenia.

“So, have you decided what kind of business you’ll do?”

“Not yet.”

“Alright, alright. Take your time to find out. It’s something you’re doing in your mother’s name, so don’t feel too pressured. I’ll give you some financial support. I’ll have the butler give you the money, so do as you please. It may be difficult to start from scratch, but it will be more enjoyable because it’s entirely yours.”

“Yes.”

He said that, but in the end, he had no intention of handing over the Marquisate to Sesenia.

He hadn’t originally intended to hand it over to Sesenia anyway, so Sesenia wasn’t moved at all, knowing that. She simply bowed her head and stood up from her seat.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Alright.”

With those words, Sesenia came outside. But Elzer followed her out and stuck to her side.

“Sesenia. You’re acting strange.”

“What?”

“You’re flattering Father with words you’d never say before?”

“Flattering Father? Do you think all men are a species to be seduced, Sister?”

As if she had hit a nerve, Elzer’s face flushed red.

“W-what do you think of me right now?”

“What do I think?”

A woman who seduces this man and that man, even going so far as to touch her own sister’s husband. And then, a shameless woman who made her own sister die for her sake. A human trash.

‘A human that can’t be described in any other way. You’re just trash, Sister.’

Sesenia chuckled and patted her sister’s shoulder.

“Anyway, do your best. The Marquisate has become yours, after all.”

“Are you provoking me right now?”

“Yes.”

“As if I’d be scared if you did that. Just don’t come to me later and ask me for more money when you need it.”

“Okay.”

Sesenia gave a curt answer and turned away. She could hear Elzer’s huffing and puffing behind her, but she didn’t care anymore. Rather, a smile spread across her face. It wasn’t until she returned to her room that Lizbeth spoke to Sesenia.

“Miss. You really are strange.”

“Me?”

“Yes. It feels like you’ve become a different person.”

“Now that I’m an adult, I guess my way of thinking has suddenly changed. It feels like I’ve never had anything of my own in my life. So, I’m going to be a little greedy.”

“Great! Then I’ll do my best to help you. I can do that. So, what are you going to do first?”

Sesenia looked at Lizbeth and smiled silently.

‘I need to start a business in the necessities of life.’

In the past, after her coming-of-age ceremony, Sesenia started a new business with the Marquis’s permission. The things that people needed to live: clothing, food, and shelter. She decided to touch those. Something that anyone could think of, but no one had thought of. The first was ‘clothing’.

That didn’t mean anything grand. The foundation was the Empire’s weather. The Empire originally had uniform weather throughout the four seasons.

But this year, a sudden change occurred in the Empire, where weather changes had been unclear. Heat began to arrive. It was a heat so strong that people collapsed.

Before long, autumn arrived. It was hard to believe that such intense heat had come, as the weather quickly cooled down. People were happy that the original weather had returned, but Sesenia felt that something was wrong with the weather.

At that time, Sesenia launched a business that no one had expected.

Everything was thanks to the fact that she had been studying steadily.

That this winter would be colder than ever. Feeling the sudden heat and the quickly approaching autumn, she was sure that the winter would be cold.

So, she decided to buy Hepria cotton.

Originally, Hepria cotton was one of the items with no demand. The Empire had almost no change in weather throughout the four seasons, so there was no demand for clothes with Hepria cotton.

Hepria cotton was a very thin, fluffy cotton that was used to make cushions, pillows, or blankets, or placed between fabrics when making winter clothes.

It was cotton that wasn’t used anywhere else. In addition, Hepria required a lot of labor, so farmers were reluctant to cultivate it.

Since the winter wasn’t cold, there was no need for it. Since there was no need for it, there was little demand. Since there was little demand, fewer and fewer people bothered to cultivate Hepria. On the contrary, the winter was so warm that you could feel the heat if you used Hepria cotton.

Fortunately, thanks to the low demand, the price of Hepria was very low. Sesenia told the Marquis about it. But the Marquis didn’t understand buying Hepria cotton.

He said it was a stupid thing to do, a waste of money. Even if winter came, there would be no need to use Hepria cotton. Most of the items that used Hepria cotton were used for a long time, so it would only be difficult to store.

But Sesenia asked him to trust her just once and received support to buy Hepria cotton and firewood. Dry firewood before winter came.

And that year, an enormous cold struck. Her prediction came true beautifully.

Sesenia had purchased all the Hepria cotton from the Empire and neighboring countries at a low price. People were dying from the sudden cold, and the demand for Hepria cotton suddenly soared.

‘But Sesenia had already purchased all the Hepria cotton, and I didn’t release it to the market.’

Eventually, Sesenia released Hepria after the price had increased 20 times the price she bought it for. The enormous cold that struck in early winter. But some people didn’t buy Hepria, saying that this was the beginning of winter, and the demand for firewood also skyrocketed. The reason she didn’t sell the cotton on the market was to raise the price of the firewood she had.

If the cotton was released to the market late, the demand for firewood would increase, and those who didn’t buy cotton would try to endure with firewood. In the end, she successfully launched her first business in a spectacular fashion. It was a complete victory for Sesenia.

Thanks to that, the Marquisate took on enormous wealth and at the same time, raised the status of the family, and this fact was even known to the Imperial Palace.

‘And Elzer, my sister’s life also changed.’

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