What She Built
A few days had passed since I promised to find Cristelle something to come back to after her revenge.
We hadn't made much progress, but Cristelle seemed to be opening up.
Then someone came looking for us.
Excuse me. I was told the President was here.
He seemed to be a Morrel Ocean Traders employee. Cristelle recognized him right away.
What brings you here?
I came to give you an update on the dissolution.
Can we postpone today's training? This sounds important.
Sure.
We met at the same cafe where Cristelle had met with her employees before.
Last time, she hadn't even touched the tea she'd ordered. Now, she looked more at ease.
I'm sorry for dropping in unannounced, ma'am.
Not at all. I'm the one about to be unemployed, so I should work around your busy schedule.
They say even money can't buy Cristelle de Montua's time, yet here I am taking up yours. I must be moving up in the world.
Fuhuhu. Congratulations on moving up in the world.
After their brief banter, Cristelle got down to business.
Many branch managers worry their existing clients may cut ties once the Morrel name is gone.
To make sure that doesn't happen, I've sent out several letters of introduction for Melissa. Tell her to attend every party she can for a while and make herself known.
Her eye for merchandise and her negotiating skills already surpass mine. She'll do just fine.
Understood. Next, there's an official letter from the Eastern Continent Trading Company. They want to know what will happen to the branches there currently managed by the Morrel Ocean Traders.
Leave them to Ian. The Morrel name draws as much envy and resentment as it does admiration.
Ian will know how to capitalize on their waning hostility and lowered guard, making him even more successful.
Cristelle gave orders without pause. Her judgment must have been sound, as the employee quietly wrote them down without objection.
When she finally finished giving instructions, the employee muttered ruefully.
...It would all be perfect if only we still had you at the helm, ma'am.
Well, look at you making jokes. What happened to the ambitious young man who told me when we first met that he wasn't meant to work under anyone?
Even that arrogant brat eventually found someone he wanted to serve.
Melissa and Ian asked me to pass on a message. They said if we weren't good enough, you should've fired us instead of leaving. They said they'd hold it against you.
Cristelle must have heard similar complaints from Melissa and Ian many times before. She smiled as though she missed them.
Both of them have surpassed even this Cristelle de Montua as merchants. Tell them to pursue their ambitions to the fullest.
Yes, ma'am.
The employee bowed and left the cafe. Cristelle stretched and spoke wearily.
I wonder how many more times I'll have to go through this.
So, Captain. Have you found anything to fill your precious Journey member's life with?
She sounded completely unconvinced. I could even hear a hint of mockery.
I hadn't found anything specific yet, but I was certain of one thing.
I remembered her smile as she hugged Haydee and teased her.
Then there was the look on her face as she reminisced with a longtime employee.
None of it had been an act.
And both happened to be tied to the very company Cristelle wanted to erase from the world. I knew what to tell her, but I played dumb.
Everyone in the company seems to respect you.
I worked hard at it. Putting on a friendly face to win them over was only the beginning...
I found a good doctor for one employee's ailing mother, and even tracked down another's long-lost younger sibling.
You worked so hard to build that company, and now it's going to be gone...
Won't you miss it?
Not at all. The Morrel Ocean Traders is just another scar left by Morcerf's hatred.
Don't tell me Morcerf founded the Morrel Ocean Traders...?
I did build it myself.
Cristelle raised a hand to cover her right eye.
But like this eye, it's another thing Morcerf left me with, just for her own amusement.
But you said you built it yourself.
I resolved to take my revenge by any means necessary.
After that, I used everyone I met as a tool for my revenge.
Naturally, I couldn't let them see that, so I wore a mask in public.
It wasn't difficult. I had the perfect role model.
The only difference was that she saw people as toys to play with and discard, not tools.
I didn't need to ask who she meant.
It had to be Morcerf.
Isn't it absurd? I keep living this wretched remnant of a life Morcerf left behind once she'd lost interest...
And I built a company by imitating the methods of Morcerf, the woman I despise.
Morcerf would probably laugh herself sick if she saw it.
But I don't care how ugly the struggle is, as long as I get my revenge.
So the first step in my revenge is to cut that scar out cleanly.
Then Cristelle gave a faint smile.
Only Haydee knows this secret about the Morrel Ocean Traders.
Consider it a small reward for keeping faith with me, even after learning the secret of my eye.
Then, since I've been rewarded, can I ask one more thing?
Go ahead.
You said the Morrel Ocean Traders was a scar Morcerf left behind and that it had to disappear.
So why did you care so much about what would happen to the employees of a company you hate?
If all she wanted was to dissolve the Morrel Ocean Traders, there were far simpler ways to do it.
She didn't need to spend so much time planning how to retain the employees or manage the company going forward. Yet even during the Journey, she made time to meet with its executives.
Fuhuhu. So that's what you wanted to ask.
You want to say I'm actually kind, don't you? I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.
I may view everyone as a tool, but I never give them cause to resent me.
I've lived on resentment alone, so I know what a powerful motivator it can be.
And those executives are highly capable. It would be disastrous if they resented me and interfered with my revenge.
So of course I'm making sure we part on good terms.
As she said, revenge was probably why she founded the Morrel Ocean Traders in the first place.
She was probably telling the truth about seeing her employees as mere tools.
What kind of owner worries about their tools?
And what kind of tool would miss its owner?
At first, her desire for revenge blinded her to it. Later, her guilt and self-loathing over imitating Morcerf did the same.
The employees of the Morrel Ocean Traders were sincerely grateful to her.
That kind of bond was only possible because you were sincere with them first.
Cristelle instinctively rejected what I said.
That is not so.
Every favor I did them was calculated to turn them into loyal tools.
They gave me their loyalty only because I deceived them and used them for my own ends.
It was no different from the way Morcerf once deceived me with her whispers...
She denied it, but I knew better.
Even as she imitated the enemy she hated most for the sake of revenge, even as it plunged her into terrible self-loathing, one thing never changed.
You're not Morcerf.
No matter how deep the wounds Morcerf left, they did not define who she was.
It doesn't matter whether you came to care for them out of responsibility or felt responsible because you cared for them.
What matters is that you care about the Morrel Ocean Traders, right?
...
So don't abandon the Morrel Ocean Traders.
It was no remnant of Morcerf. It was something Cristelle and her employees had built together.
Don't say your life will have no meaning once your revenge is over.
Cristelle de Montua was not an empty shell with nothing left but revenge. She was a person who could still laugh and keep living.
Wouldn't that be a waste?
All her efforts to fill that empty space, and the life ahead, would be wasted.
Cristelle's canvas wasn't blank except for a single black dot. There were already plenty of other colors on it.
She simply hadn't noticed them because the place she'd started from lay in deep shadow.
A waste... even if it was all just a facade...?
Cristelle fell silent, lost in thought. Even without looking at her trembling shoulders and hands, I could sense her confusion. I waited patiently.
Merchants know what's worth more, whether it's time or money. The president of a major trading company certainly would.
I thought I was only living behind a mask, imitating Morcerf...
But what I gained from that life... was real after all. You saw it at once, yet I never did...
And at last, the president of the Morrel Ocean Traders realized who she was.
All those shops I bought in NOA for the Captain have been sitting idle.
What a waste! It's time I took care of what I've been putting off.