The Power of the Saint is All Around (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 2.5

Behind the Scenes I

THERE WAS A KNOCK on the door to the king’s office. The prime minister answered it, and the door opened. A young man stepped into the room.

“Special Service Agent Oscar Dunckel, reporting for duty.”

“Thank you for coming. Take a seat.”

This Oscar was the same young man who served as an assistant to the chairman of Sei’s company. He had worn the clothes of a wealthy merchant to meet Sei at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora, but now he was outfitted as a knight. He carried himself differently as well—he was the very image of a knight.

At the prime minister’s prompting, Oscar headed to the king’s desk.

“Did the meeting go well?”

“Yes. Without a hitch. The Lady Saint happily agreed to start her own company.”

“Excellent.” The prime minister nodded in satisfaction at Oscar’s report.

At a glance, this new company looked like it would be spearheaded by Johan Valdec, the head researcher at the Research Institute of Medicinal Flora. However, the king and the prime minister were the real power behind its establishment. Everyone working at the company was affiliated with the palace, including Oscar.

“Did Franz agree to join as well?” the prime minister asked.

“He’ll be the chairman,” Oscar confirmed.

“We can rest easy knowing everything is in his hands.”

The king sagged as if a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Franz was profoundly loyal to the royal family, and his abilities had been proven time and again. Both the king and prime minister had utmost faith in him.

Franz had a unique history; as a younger man, he had been the king’s personal spy, but his brilliance had led to his recruitment by the Special Service, i.e., the kingdom’s most uniquely skilled forces. He had served as an agent, just like Oscar did now.

“Did Franz manage to recruit any of his old crew?” the king asked.

“Indeed he did. Several joined the company at Franz’s invitation.”

A number of people who had also once been part of the Special Service or otherwise affiliated with them were now reemployed as part of the company. Those in the Special Service had long since proved their loyalty to the royal family, and they all possessed the skills required to manage an operation like this.

The palace had gone to such lengths to establish a company full of people loyal to them, starting with Franz and Oscar, for a specific reason. In short, Johan Valdec had reported that certain people were trying to take over the company with which Sei was affiliated.

The cosmetics Sei created were incredibly popular with the noblewomen of Salutania. Even the king and his associates knew that her products flew off the shelves. They also knew that the company selling her products had a close relationship with Johan’s family, House Valdec.

House Valdec had been allowed to manage this business because they were entrusted with the Saint’s safety. They had no sinister designs on using the Saint for their own personal gain, and they ensured an appropriate percentage of the profits went straight back to Sei. 

The noble families attempting to overtake the company in question were different. These individuals had never even tried to conceal the fact that they used and abused people for their own ends.

House Valdec had handled them thus far, but Johan suspected this would become more difficult in the near future. Agreeing with his prediction, the king and his associates had decided to take matters into their own hands.

At present, while the palace was preparing their intercession, talks between House Valdec and their rival families had already started to turn sour. One could say that their prediction had been spot on.

The king’s strategy was to establish a new company that would divert attention away from the company with which House Valdec enjoyed a close relationship. Of course, Sei would be the owner of the new company, and as such, House Valdec’s rivals would be left unable to complain about their unfair influence on her. It was only natural that the owner of a company should enjoy the benefits of the products she herself had devised and sold. 

Also, as the Saint’s social status was equal to that of the king’s, the palace was ready to assume that no nobles would openly try to take her company with the same underhanded means they had been attempting to use against House Valdec. 

Sei had no interest in status symbols and power; she could not be bribed with court rank or land. In any other situation, she would have firmly refused to become the owner of a company. However, the palace knew she would agree, if reluctantly, once they told her that the nobility would leave her old company alone if she were to accept ownership of the new one.

Their prediction was again correct. Sei had agreed.

Now that they had the go ahead to create the company, they had to hire employees. They rapidly came up with a plan of action. As a number of nobles had plotted to try and usurp control of the original company, they decided that all the employees of the new one would have some kind of affiliation with the palace.

In brief, Sei’s knowledge was a precious commodity. Her knowledge of cosmetics alone had already made a significant impact on the kingdom’s economy. If her knowledge inadvertently fell into the hands of an unscrupulous noble, there was no telling what might happen next. The palace was dearly interested in preventing this from happening and had thus devised a way to protect her by ensuring that everyone who worked at her company was one of their handpicked agents.

Among the employees, they also included personal guards for Sei. While these individuals would perform their duties in service to the company, their primary objective would be protecting the Saint.

This was already more or less the case. Wherever Sei went—to the research institute, the dining hall, and elsewhere—guards followed in her wake. Up until this point, Johan had handled all the Saint’s business interactions, but from now on, Sei would be doing so on her own. Therefore, she needed guards in these situations as well.

“Excellent,” said the king. “Now, I pray you will continue to watch over the Saint. Remain alert. Should anyone suspicious approach her, intervene at once.”

“As you command, Your Majesty.” Oscar bowed and left the office.

Once the doors closed and Oscar was out of hearing, the king let out a deep sigh.

The palace moved quickly once they received Sei’s consent to establish the company. They decided where the new shop would be located, and Franz and Oscar were both busy getting it ready to open.

“Franz, here are the items you asked for.”

“Thank you.”

In the chairman’s office on the second floor of the shop, Oscar handed over the documents he had been asked to deliver. They had come for Franz from a palace official, and they included various permits and licenses required for founding a new company.

Franz scanned the documents while Oscar sat himself down on one of the sofas.

“How have our dear ‘customers’ been behaving?” Oscar asked.

“It seems like they’re employing a wait-and-see approach.”

“Ah.”

They were talking about the nobles who had meddled in the previous company’s affairs. The nobles who had heard about the new company had begun investigating it. Although the company had yet to be formally founded, they had earned a fair amount of attention. It was known that they would be taking over a certain line of skincare products at the height of their popularity, and it was generally agreed that this new company was about to dominate the beauty care industry.

Franz and Oscar hadn’t gone around advertising that the owner of this new company was the Saint, but it didn’t take much probing to find out the truth. That was the point at which most nosy nobles dropped their investigations.

But there were exceptions—individuals who wanted to take advantage of the inevitable chaos that came with starting a business in order to steal confidential information, for one. Franz had thus far been able to thwart their plots—as well as to find out which families had sent which agents—and he had done so with aplomb.

Franz seemed to suddenly remember something, and he extracted a bundle of documents from the locked drawer of his desk. “Oh, yes. Could I ask you to deliver these for me?”

Oscar took the bundle, and as he scanned the top few documents, a surprised smile crossed his face. “Oh, Franz, quick as always,” he said with no small amount of wonder.

“Why, thank you.”

The documents Oscar held were itemized lists of the illegal doings of the aforementioned nobles who just couldn’t let things go. He had even included, in detail, the location of a cache where proof of their illegal activities could be found. Franz might have retired, but his abilities hadn’t faded in the slightest.

Thanks to this list, we should be able to take care of these nobles, Oscar thought as he rolled the documents in his hand. But in order to do that, we need to seize the evidence.