Chapter 21: 19

“Now, I have 2 problems left.”

Klein muttered to himself with a serious expression after he returned to his office.

Brynhildr and his Head Butler are with him but the Head Butler is only standing there on the side.

The only one whose eyes are on him was only his secretary.

“Problems, Your Excellency?”

“Yeah, we identified the culprit, that’s fine and all but…….”

Klein who sat down in his chair looked up and paused.

His eyes focus on Brynhildr in front of him.

“President Hermes was in on it as well, surely.”

“……May I ask, for what reason do you think so?”

Brynhildr’s expression remains a gentle one and Klein couldn’t read her at all.

Anyway, Klein sighs and replies while placing his elbows on the desk.

“First, when I cornered Saga, that man immediately looked at President Hermes.”

“If he was going to beg for his life then he should have done it directly to Klein-sama. Even so, I believe that asking President Hermes, who was the second most influential person at that meeting to intervene in his place is quite normal though?”

That certainly is plausible.

However, what got Klein suspicious was Saga’s attitude before he died.

“No, the look on Saga’s face when he turned to look at Hermes was [You betrayed me? I can’t believe it]. He would only make that kind of face if they were in cahoot together or if he was ordered to do so by Hermes. Rather, I can only think of Hermes as the mastermind behind the whole thing.”

“With only that, I think your conjecture is rather weak, Your Excellency.”

He was ordered to assassinate the Lord. Either that or he was cut loose by his accomplice.

Saga’s reaction before he died indicated that they have that kind of relationship.

Naturally, Brynhildr could see that as well. However, she shook her head.

It is obvious that she doesn’t want to come to a conclusion with only circumstantial evidence.

“……then my second point. That restaurant is being run by the Hermes Company.”

“That’s why it would be easy for them to poison Klein-sama there, is that it?”

“That’s right. Since it’s impossible for Saga to do it alone, Hermes was definitely in on it as well.”

The waiters, chefs, and the sommelier are all employees of the Hermes Company.

Because he had full reign over the food preparation, he had the ability to poison Klein using whichever method he liked.

On the contrary, Saga did not have any power over the restaurant staff.

If he did not cooperate with Hermes at all then the risk and difficulty of his assassination attempt would be too high.

“That certainly sounds likely but do you have anything else?”

“…..then third. That man just waltzed into someone else’s restaurant and tried to poison someone you know?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not something someone from a company with the weakest standing would do right. He was obviously ordered to do that.”

With its weak standing, the Saga Company would be easily crushed anytime the Hermes Company wanted.

If the positioning was successful then rumors would spread that [it was done at the Hermes Company’s restaurant].

If Klein was in Hermes’s position, he wouldn’t forgive anyone who did such a thing in his establishment. It’s obvious that he would set out to find the real culprit and crush them.

“Moreover, the Hermes Company is a company that’s being endorsed by the Lord, a company that conducts business personally with me. Do you think that a man like Saga would have the guts to cross Hermes?”

If the two are not accomplices then Saga should have realized that he would be crushed later by Hermes in retaliation.

This time, Brnhildr agrees with his reason.

“No, with a single glance, anyone would be able to tell that he is a coward.”

“Right? In the first place, the wine that was served was not the aperitif (TLN: Appetizer Wine, served in a set) but a wine that someone else prepared you know? Do you think that old man will make that kind of mistake?”

It was an opportunity for his restaurant to be given the Lord’s approval.

Logically thinking, he should have served the best meal the restaurant has to offer to please Klein.

However, even though the highlight meat dish was prepared using the best ingredients, why did he allow such a dish to be accompanied by someone else’s wine?

If he wanted his restaurant to appeal to the Lord then it doesn’t make sense.

After all, course meals usually included wine as a set.

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—–Hearing that, Brynhildr brings up a counterpoint to Klein.

“However, the wine brought by President Sag was also a first-class item. It wouldn’t be strange to gift such a wine to Viscount though.”

“To maximize the restaurant’s appeal, someone like Hermes should have already prepared something similar right. For Hermes, he should have prepared the same brand……or something that’s even better than Saga could prepare already.”

A flexible restaurant that can prepare a wide selection of food to suit the mood of the day.

If the Lord had such an impression of his restaurant, the future of his place should be safe.

If Klein chooses his place for private meetings with other aristocrats then he would have the chance to meet and acquire new connections as well.

Klein is saying that since Hermes just opened his store here, he has no reason to let a smaller company make more appeal than him.

After he finished his sentence, Klein looked away with a sigh.

“The fact that Saga brought the wine is annoying. Since it was something Saga prepared, he simply cut Saga loose and escaped the blame…….that old man is such a cunning tanuki.”

In a sense, it’s like a lizard ditching its tail.

The mastermind was Hermes and Saga was skillfully used by him.

That’s the most plausible theory.

“Assuming that they were indeed working together behind the scenes. Why would President Hermes try to have you poisoned at his own store? I think that will only attract suspicion to him right.”

“Let’s say he gave me a bottle of wine. He wouldn’t know when I would decide to drink it right? He wanted to see me drink it in front of him. Probably.”

Suppose they gave Klein a bottle of poisoned wine.

Klein might set it aside until some kind of celebration or at worst, it might be years before he decides to open it.

Once he brings it home, it will be entirely on Klein to decide when to drink it.

At best, Klein might open the bottle and enjoy drinking it alone in the evening but in the worst-case scenario, he might even share the wine with another aristocrat who visited him.

He might end up poisoning an important aristocrat that is not even his target.

Rather than taking such a risk, he would rather do it in his own backyard.

“Besides, even if I suspected him, under the current circumstances, it would be difficult to get rid of him right?”

“Certainly.”

Because he already prepared a scapegoat, no matter how things turn out, there would be no major damage to him.

That’s his reasoning.

“If he wanted to make sure that I drink it, having me drink it in front of him at the meeting would be the surest method. The poison was also the slow-acting type…….probably.”

Almost letting it slip that he knows more than he let on, Klein hurriedly added.

In truth, Klein knew all about the type of poison since he tasted it himself several times already but the current Klein should have no knowledge of that.

Since he did not check the wine this time, he can’t deny that it might be the fast-acting type that would kill him on the spot either.

“Well, that’s my reasoning why Hermes was the mastermind. 4 points should be enough right?”

“Yes, it’s plenty enough.”

“Haa……the only thing I got from this whole thing was the property confiscated from Saga Company’s branch office too. What a low-return.”

Since all they had to do to poison Klein was ordering the employees, it is possible to poison him even when Hermes himself was not present.

That’s why it’s useless to exclude someone from the meeting because the culprit would have his minion do it in the end.

To the tired Klein, Brynhildr suddenly asked him a question as though she just remembered something.

“Ahh, come to think of it, you said that there are 2 matters that are troubling you at the moment right. If the first one was about President Hermes when what is the second one?”

“…….well, I was wondering if I met His Highness’s passing score or not with my reasoning. I don’t even know his criteria after all.”

When Klein said that, Brynhildr made the biggest smile today.

Since it seems like he got a passing score, Klein strokes his chest in relief.

There’s a reason why he’s so exhausted.

Since he found the culprit, Klein was killed twice by Brynhildr.

Because of that, Brynhildr once again holds the record of the Most Klein Killed.

In conclusion, Jean Hermes and Dominique Saga were working behind the scenes together and the First Prince is also testing him in this incident.

His test did not end with the negotiation in the capital, this one is his second trial.

From this point on it’s the tale of how Klein returned by death and confirmed his future, the events that only Klein is aware of.

Twenty Sixth Run, Problems

TLN: Yep, the rest of this arc will focus on his Twenty Fifth Death

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