Chapter 95
Recently, Reinke’s image had changed slightly, and its circumstances had improved a bit, but it still hadn’t become a place where people wanted to come live.
Despite various factors, environmental issues were significant, so there were limits to what could be done.
Therefore, the chances of high-level personnel capable of office work wanting to come to Reinke were actually very slim. Why would people who could easily find decent jobs anywhere choose to go to a dangerous and barren remote area?
Nevertheless, if there were people willing to come to Reinke to work, it meant they had very complicated circumstances.
The people Ruan aimed to recruit were all those with such “complicated circumstances.”
In other words…
People who belonged to the anti-Volker faction, or those who had fallen out of favor with Volker and found themselves in an awkward position after his ascension. Especially lower nobles who couldn’t cope properly and were swept away by the turmoil, falling into ruin.
In “Tales of the Sirah Empire,” when the war starts, Louise recruits them to extract information from Ardenheim and use them to create chaos.
It wasn’t difficult for Louise to recruit these people who, despite their abilities, had spent a long time in situations where they couldn’t even get a chance to demonstrate their skills, let alone advance in their careers.
Moreover, they were children of lower nobles who had lost their connections, not high-ranking nobles who could significantly influence the balance of power. Even if they were from the opposition faction, they weren’t targets Volker would pay attention to in the urgent situation of war.
They move relatively freely, using their talents to passionately help Louise. And they serve their purpose by being ruthlessly abandoned by Louise. After all, Louise had taken them in as disposable pawns from the beginning.
They end up dying in the hands of Raphael Betin, who opposes Louise, resenting her.
In fact, they weren’t unaware that Louise could use them and discard them. But they were so desperate for opportunities to demonstrate their abilities and gain recognition that they had to grasp even such chances.
‘They worked so hard… only to die like that.’
Isn’t that too much?
And… Reinke was in a situation where they were even employing people with amnesia and putting the daughter of a knight in charge of administrative duties because she couldn’t wield a sword due to injury. How could they discard talented individuals who were not only competent but also full of passion? Ruan couldn’t accept Louise’s atrocities, who seemed to have more than enough resources.
Ruan planned to persuade them to become indispensable workers for Reinke instead of Louise’s disposable pawns.
Of course, he wasn’t unaware of Volker’s watchful eye in this process.
‘But as in “Tales of the Sirah Empire,” Volker doesn’t pay much attention to them, and there’s also Marquis Elenroth who can shield us from Volker’s gaze in most matters. I should be able to bring those people to Reinke without much trouble.’
Ruan recalled the Marquis he had met at the recent banquet. The Marquis seemed to like the Grand Duke as a ruler, not hiding his desire to see how much Reinke could grow under the Grand Duke’s reign when speaking to Ruan.
He’s quite an insane person, but… thanks to him, problems that should have caused headaches were being resolved one way or another.
With all the complex issues resolved in this way, the only concern was how to approach them.
“I didn’t know the Guild Master was acquainted with those people,” Ruan said.
Ralph replied with a bright smile, “My job is to meet people. I’m glad I can introduce you to such good people, Assistant.”
Ruan smiled a little at Ralph’s appearance, exuding the sentiment ‘Good person plus good person equals a very good situation!’ with his whole body.
In “Tales of the Sirah Empire,” only the tragic situations of individuals, their abilities, and their desire for opportunities were dealt with. It didn’t go into detail about what kind of personalities they had. As such, Ruan had been slightly worried that there might be people mixed in who could cause discord.
But seeing Ralph speak like that, it seemed they were people suitable to work with.
‘At first glance, Ralph seems to like everyone and approach everyone, but… he’s actually a puppy who can clearly read people’s boundaries and only approach that far, with clear discernment.’
Knowing this, Ruan tended to trust Ralph’s judgment quite a bit.
Well, there were exceptions.
Like a certain cat beastkin where misunderstandings seemed to occur due to communication structure.
A smile hung on Ruan’s lips as he recalled a cat and a dog facing each other, one wagging its tail because it was annoyed and the other wagging its tail because it was happy.
The smile didn’t last long as the cat’s attitude from last night and the subsequent thoughts followed.
Was the Grand Duke already more comfortable with other people? Would he become unimportant to the Grand Duke like this? What did he want to do about it? As these thoughts revived and depression began to creep up…
“By the way, Assistant… you look very tired today. Are you alright?”
A sudden question came from beside him.
Realizing he had been lost in thought while Ralph was next to him, Ruan turned his head with a start. Ralph, who had looked purely happy just moments ago, was now looking at him with eyes dripping with worry. If his ears and tail were visible, they would probably be drooping lifelessly.
Had he read Ruan’s brief depressing thoughts in that short time and become gloomy in response?
Feeling a pang of guilt for making the happy dog sad because of him, Ruan quickly composed his expression and said, “I just didn’t sleep well last night. There’s no need to worry.”
But despite Ruan’s quick answer, Ralph couldn’t shake off his concern. Unable to feel at ease, he fidgeted, examining Ruan’s complexion with an expression that said ‘What should I do, what should I do, this is terrible…’ As Ruan’s guilt grew watching Ralph’s restless behavior, Ralph, who had been circling around Ruan, suddenly spoke up.
“Was the mansion I prepared uncomfortable or…”
No, that couldn’t be. What on earth was this puppy thinking?
Had he become so worried that he even felt Ruan’s insomnia was his fault? Caught off guard by Ralph’s unexpected words, Ruan hastily waved his hands and said, “No, not at all. On the contrary, I’m just grateful for preparing such a nice place. It has nothing to do with that, I just couldn’t sleep well. You know how it can be hard to sleep when you’re in a new place.”
Although it was actually a problem completely unrelated to that, Ruan made up an excuse as best he could, his heart aching at the sight of the dejected Ralph. However, such an obvious excuse wasn’t enough to alleviate this kind dog beastkin’s worry.
“But…”
Ralph couldn’t stop examining Ruan while whimpering.
Ruan looked at the dog beastkin who was fretting as if Ruan’s depression was a world-ending crisis. His guilt towards Ralph grew, and he had completely forgotten about the depression that had been creeping up his nape.
Just like when he had unconsciously smiled upon seeing Ralph running towards him with a bright smile at the meeting place earlier… This puppy really didn’t give him time to be depressed.
In the end, Ruan stroked Ralph’s head in the way he liked and said in a cheerful voice, “I was so happy to meet you, Guild Master, that I forgot about being tired.”
And unlike the previous words that failed to remove Ralph’s worry, this seemed to be the right answer.
Ruan felt for a moment as if he had seen Ralph’s non-existent ears perk up.
“Hmm…”
Ralph’s whimpering stopped. His bright eyes rolled around.
Then he suddenly stretched for no reason.
Finally, as if a hundred light bulbs turned on at once, he burst with joy.
At the same time, Ralph, who had been maintaining a consistently polite distance, suddenly hugged Ruan tightly and exclaimed, “I’m so happy to meet you too, Assistant! Really, really happy. Actually, I’ve been so glad since earlier…”
Although Ruan staggered for a moment from the large dog who, despite being much bigger than him, didn’t consider his own size and hugged him recklessly… And although he was overwhelmed receiving the overflowing affection while enduring the large dog’s sincere embrace…
In the end, Ruan could only diligently respond to Ralph’s words interspersed between expressions of extreme joy – “But you must tell me if you’re too tired,” “Assistant mustn’t get sick” – while repeatedly patting the clinging Ralph.
It took quite a while for Ralph to calm down.
