Act 5: Chapter 25: Protection of the Lost Child
When I returned to the 《Fairy's Wings》 in a hurry, the sign "Close" already hung down on the door of the store.
As expected, it was too much for Pomera to handle the store by herself.
And Philia didn't count as manpower to begin with.
I went along with Mel and Rosemonde to meet the big-shot merchant of Polorock introduced by Isabella and to further refine the contract with her.
But what she needs the most right now is a shopkeeper. Since I judged that Rosemonde was plenty enough as Mel's advisor, I head back to 《Fairy's Wings》.
We were strongly advised by Isabella that we shouldn't close the store today to prevent the buyer from feeling anxious about the number of products; thus, we appointed Pomera to man the store as the shopkeeper, but… She might reach her limit pretty soon.
「Are you alright, Pomera-san?」
I called out her name while opening the door of the store, but there was no reply from her.
I also couldn't see her figure in the store.
When I entered further into the store, I found Pomera's figure distressed in front of the official document.「Ah! You're finally back, Kanata-san, but…」
Pomera heaved a deep sigh upon seeing me.
「What kind of document is that?」
「It's a contract or written application written by Isabella-san… We should send it as fast as possible. Pomera is trying to skim through it to explain it to Mel-san since we need her approval.」
「I see. So that's why you closed the store.」
「That's one of the reasons, but… The customer has also left on their own after they saw that we're running out of items, so I sorted our inventory and kicked out the persistence merchant who asked a question that I couldn't answer before closing the store. Sorry for doing this for my own convenience.」
Pomera spoke feebly.
「I- It's no big deal… You did a good job, Pomera-san. I also know that we're understaffed; that's why I actually want to close the store for the day…」
I let out a wry smile and looked around the store again.
「… Where's Philia-chan?」
「Philia-san is… The matter seems to be becoming more complicated, even though Pomera just let go of her eyes for a moment.」
「… Complicated matter?」
Pomera nodded upon hearing my question.
「Philia left the store before I realized it, and I became a stray child.」
Would Philia really leave the store that easily?
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Despite her innocent nature, as far as I know, Philia was not a selfish girl.
It was already strange enough that Philia would leave the store without notifying Pomera.
But then, since the 《Fairy's Wings》 were really busy with business contracts, shopkeepers, and polishing the product, Philia ended up being neglected.
Philia might feel lonely.
「She left the store… And I became a lost child. You know what that means, right? Sorry, but I guess I forgot about that possibility too.」
「Eh no, Philia seems to be taken care of by a really nice person. That person seems to be worrying about a kid like {hilia wandering closely to Dark Ward, so he brings Philia to his house, which happens to be nearby. That person's messenger just came to tell me about this.」
「I see, meaning that she isn't a lost child anymore.」
Here, I thought that we had to look around for Philia, whose whereabouts were unknown.
But since a kind person had sheltered her in his house,
「I want to come to take Philia-chan back, but since Pomera might be passing each other with the person who might escort Philia back, Pomera decided to wait in the sotre. But it's already been close to an hour since then…」
It seems she was struggling to make that decision since the other party might bring Philia back when she was out of the store.
「Since I've returned, there are two of us now, meaning that we don't need to worry about passing each other. I don't want her to overstay her visit after all. And since the other party still has no idea about Philia-chan's identity, she might cause a huge problem. I'll go take Philia back. Uhm, and the person who is taking care of her is…」
「That's the most complicated point, and that messenger is leaving this behind.」
Pomera handed over a card to me.
I thought it was a business card, but it had strange thickness and a gold ornament.
Somehow, I got a really bad feeling about this.
「Greed Company, CEO Greed…」
When I raised my face after reading the letters written on the card, my line of sight intersected with Pomera.
「It's the big boss of our enemy himself…」
Mel was in the middle of a confrontation against Wontz, the big shot of Greed Company.
And the reason Wontz went all out against Mel was simply because Greed, the CEO of the Greed company itself, told the former that he didn't want to see a newly emerging merchant appear.
And to Mel, Isabella, who is also one of the big shots of the Greed Company, told us that she was in fact in a hostile relationship with the Greed Company, the CEO himself.
Isabella had long since given up on Greed, who was completely immersed in his dubious research on black magic, and started to grow her own faction.
Though she didn't go as far as quitting Greed, she definitely plans to backstab her own CEO.
The problem was how Philia ended up in that CEO's hand.
In the first place, what was Greed doing anyway?
Wait a second; sheltering Philia in his mansion might also be part of Greed's scheme.
Though Isabella labeled him as an old and decrepit man, it wouldn't change the fact that he was an outstanding man who amassed wealth and status in just a single generation.
「That's right… What shall we do, Kanata-san? Pomera can't make a decision since it might lead to a trap.」
Surely, but that didn't mean that we could leave him on his own device too.
Should we consult with Isabella before we raid Greed's mansion?
No, she was a busy woman after all.
Anyhow, let's head to Greed's mansion first while thinking about our enemy's scheme.
「… I'll go to meet Greed. Please wait in this store while waiting for Rosemonde-san and Mel-san to return… If possible, it would be great if you manage to meet Isabella-san.」