Part of the Interest

I looked down at the gold-coin chocolate in my palm again.

Gold foil that had flashed in the light. Clumsy Korean. That brazen little I'll pay you back. And the elementary-school girl staring straight up at me.

The memories circling in my head seemed, little by little, to be linking together.

"Da... ya?"

"Yeah!"

At that one word, the faint memory snapped into shape.

The girl who had been fighting for her life in that alley was a foreign princess?

"No—how does that even make— no. No, forget it. For now, we'll say it does."

I could hardly make myself believe it, but I took a moment to sort my thoughts and opened my mouth again.

"Why were you at a Korean elementary school, Princess?"

"A personal matter. My nanny and I had run off to Korea in secret."

A princess, fled to another country with her nanny.

That was even harder to swallow. It also wasn't the part that mattered to me just then.

"Then why did you come looking for me?"

"I told you. I came to pay back a debt."

"Hold on... before any debt, since when is marriage a reward?"

"Hm? If the person you're marrying is someone on my level, wouldn't that count as a reward?"

It was an incredibly obnoxious thing to say. Looked at coldly, though, she had reason to overflow with confidence. The money alone was enough.

Dayana was a princess of a country that produced oil. Teguren was a khanate ruled by a khan, but it lay near the North Caspian, between the Middle East and Europe. The reason had something to do with the great westward migration of the Oirat Mongols... or so the AI had gone on when I asked it on the way to work. Boring and pedantic, so I skipped it.

In any case, the North Caspian was one of the world's important oil regions, and the Teguren Khanate was a fairly substantial producer in its own right.

It wasn't only the fortune. The looks were the same story. Beneath the light brown hair, those slightly upturned eyes were sharp and clear, the face small, the features neat. I'd already thought her quite a beauty in the morning article's photo, but in person it felt as if the picture did her a disservice.

"Kidding, kidding. As if it would be a reward."

Dayana broke into a giggle at once.

"It's not that. If we got married, I could keep paying the debt."

What the hell was that supposed to mean.

"Uh... why would you have to get married to keep paying a debt?"

"Hmm...?"

The conversation wasn't catching. Dayana tilted her head, then rose from her seat.

"Mind if we go somewhere else to talk? This is going to run long."

"I'm sorry, but I'm on the clock."

I said it to draw a line, but the company had already logged me as out on business. The chairman's secretarial office must have arranged it ahead of time. Even for a foreign princess—was this really allowed?

"Hah... Fine, then. Let's hear it. Whatever this story is."

Courtesy of a foreign princess, I had suddenly acquired a perfectly legal way to skip out of work.

The car brought us to the luxury hotel where Dayana was staying. We were walking farther in, a little apart from her attendants, when she spoke.

"I did book a meeting room. But if we're going to talk somewhere quiet anyway... want to come up to the suite I'm staying in?"

The mischief in her voice stopped me mid-step before I knew it. Dayana turned.

"What? Why the face?"

The reluctance must have been pretty naked on it.

"We're not that close, Princess."

In truth, that close wasn't even the right phrase. There was no closeness to speak of at all, which made the proposal harder still to understand.

"I only said it as a joke..."

Dayana pouted, looking sulky.

The actual destination, at any rate, was the private meeting room she had reserved in advance. Once the attendants withdrew and the two of us were alone, Dayana set aside the playfulness of a moment before.

"I think I ought to explain one thing before we start."

"Explain what?"

"Тусыг тосоор хариулах."

Tusyg tosoor khariulakh.

That phrase again.

"Repay help with help. I saw it in the article."

Come to think of it, the woman in front of me had said something similar even as a grade-schooler. Probably.

"Yeah. But it doesn't quite mean you just give back exactly what you received."

Dayana thought for a moment, then went on.

"At least, that's what I was taught from the time I was little, as the Khan's daughter. If you've received a great kindness, you remember that person as your benefactor, and whenever they need you, you help them with what you have. It doesn't end because you paid them back once."

The interview I'd seen that morning came back to me. For the companies that had helped Teguren, Teguren ought to be an even greater help in return... something like that.

"......So that's why you called it a debt? I thought, back then, you only meant you owed me for a single piece of chocolate."

Dayana stared at me as if she couldn't believe her ears.

"What did you take me for! Even then, you shoving chocolate at me to calm me down was ridiculous, you know?"

"Then what, exactly, did I put you in debt for?"

"Back then, Jaeseong, you told me I had a good reason for fighting."

I groped back through the memory. Exactly what I'd said was foggy. I did remember, once I knew the other kid had said something vicious, telling her she'd more or less had it coming.

"I think I only meant it felt like the other kid had said something worth getting hit for."

"Same thing, isn't it?"

"Even so, what I did wasn't right. I basically egged a bunch of elementary kids into a fight."

"I know. But I liked it."

The answer came straight back.

"Thinking about it now, it was a little strange. No—even by the standards back then, was that the only strange part?"

And a grade-schooler fighting that full of venom wasn't strange? The words climbed as far as my throat while I watched Dayana chuckle, but I swallowed them.

"Was it really that big a deal?"

"At least you didn't force us to make up and call it finished when neither of us wanted to, right? Thanks to that, I got to settle it with my own hands."

Dayana thought a moment, then added:

"So I think of it as a kindness. A debt."

In my memory, it was closer to a dark chapter of being hauled around and stuck with in-school service. The person involved, apparently, remembered it nothing like that.

"And I won't accept wiping a debt like that clean by pressing a little money into someone's hand and calling it done. I said so a minute ago, too."

Right. Now I understood why she was calling it a debt. There was, however, one minor problem.

"Princess. I never thought of what happened then as a debt you had to repay."

I'd been passing by and stepped into a fight between elementary kids. That was all. Honestly, by any objective standard, it hadn't even been the right thing to do. It was not something to invoke as a kindness fifteen years later.

"If I don't consider it a debt, doesn't that just end the matter?"

"No? I received a kindness."

Dayana said it the way someone digs in their heels.

"I object to that view."

"Whether a debt was incurred or not is for the debtor to decide, isn't it?"

Reaching any agreement on this point looked unlikely.

"Hah... Fine. For now, we'll say that, too."

I didn't want to keep wrestling over it, so I decided to accept the premise for the moment.

"So why, to pay a debt, does it have to be marriage?"

Dayana didn't answer at once. She looked away and let the silence stretch, then opened her mouth.

"The truth is, marriage talks have been coming in for me for a long time. Even before I came of age, the royal house was already exchanging words."

To put the conclusion first, Dayana had not wanted that match. She had put it off all this time with one excuse or another, and she had originally meant to end the talks by her own strength. Separately, she had planned to settle that problem first and then seek me out on her own to repay what she owed. Time, however, had run out sooner than she expected.

"I can't put it off any longer."

"Can't you just refuse the talks?"

"If that were the end of it, I would. Even if I turn this one down, another just like it comes in. I hate the talks themselves."

On top of that, if she actually married the proposed partner, it would interfere with repaying me—more precisely, with repaying me the way Dayana wanted to.

"Imagine a married ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠princess who keeps looking after one particular foreign man."

Even if it wasn't that kind of relationship, people would talk.

"My standing in the court isn't that bad, but I have a fair number of enemies. They'd tear me apart like dogs."

At those words, the elementary-school kid fighting one against two in that alley, like a vengeful ghost, flickered through my mind. I nodded before I realized it.

"......Why are you nodding?"

"Ah, nothing. Something just came to mind."

"Anyway, so I thought about it."

Dayana looked at me.

"If I just married you, Jaeseong, both problems would be solved cleanly."

"In short, you're asking for a contract marriage?"

"One arrow, two rabbits."

Listening to her, my head was starting to ache.

"You said you came to pay back a debt."

"Yeah."

"But the more I listen, the more that sounds like an excuse, and the real purpose is solving your marriage talks."

"I won't make excuses. The debt comes first, but it's true the other purpose matters too."

She at least seemed to know it was shameless. Dayana smiled, a little sheepish. If I accepted, she would dodge the talks and settle the debt. In exchange, I would be dragged into the affairs of a foreign royal house I had never known a thing about in my life.

"Any way you look at it, I'm the one taking the loss."

"Right. So I was going to give you this."

Dayana took out a document folder and slid it across to me.

"......You even prepared something like this?"

"I came to propose. I should at least go this far, shouldn't I?"

If the marriage caused a loss to my work or my income, Dayana's side would make that loss good. If her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠circumstances put my safety or my social life in trouble, she would take responsibility for my protection and for the damages that followed. On the whole, the terms were considerably in my favor, the sort that reduced my risk.

Then my eyes stopped on one clause.

Half.

I didn't know exactly how much Dayana's personal fortune came to. Still, the private wealth of a princess from a country that produced oil and gas was not likely to be pocket change. I dropped my gaze a little farther down.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

If I said it was over, it was over. No retaliation, either. At least according to this contract.

At the very bottom, the name Dayana Aldar was written beside a signature in her own hand. Added to that was an ornate seal that looked like a princess's personal stamp.

"This is the original, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You're giving it to me?"

"That's why I brought it."

Proof that she had tried, in secret, to enter a contract marriage in order to avoid marriage talks the royal house was pushing. An original, no less, bearing her own signature and seal. What would happen if I so much as leaked it?

I had just heard from her own mouth that she had many enemies. I couldn't gauge the exact fallout, but there was no question this document could deal a serious blow to Dayana's position. In plain terms, she had placed in my hand a weapon I could hold to her throat.

"Why go this far? To be blunt, you and I are practically strangers."

"That's true, isn't it."

The princess added it as if it were nothing much.

"Still, I looked into you. Roughly. How you live. What kind of person you are now."

"Even granting that, it isn't a reason to hand this over."

Dayana looked at me for a moment, then said:

"Because I chose it."

"What?"

"I'm doing this because I don't want to marry someone somebody else picked for me. Badgering you about paying back a debt is something I chose, too."

So she did have some awareness that she was badgering.

"I get to choose... and the person I chose doesn't even get the minimum of a choice? That's a little ridiculous, isn't it?"

She let a beat pass, then added:

"So whether you accept this marriage, and if you do, when it ends—you choose, Jaeseong. I'll respect whatever you decide to do with that contract, too."

What was I supposed to say to that? At first I'd thought she was only pulling me in to solve her own marriage talks. Even so, it didn't seem she meant to dump nothing but the risk on me and use me.

"......At least I understand this isn't a one-sided proposal."

Of course, that was not the same as saying I would go through with a contract marriage.

"Even so, I can't."

The contract had been written blatantly in my favor—blatantly enough to call unfair. And still, this wasn't it. The politics of a distant country. Interests inside a royal court. A struggle for power. If I actually married her, I couldn't properly gauge, as I was now, what I might be dragged into. On paper she said she would protect me as far as she could... but I had my doubts. No way of looking at it made this something to grab with both hands.

"There's no reason I have to do this for you. Call it repaying a kindness if you like, but I don't have anything right now that needs a princess's help—"

The friction with Department Head Han Daegyu at the company flickered through my mind. I shook my head almost at once. It was an awkward mess, but it was no reason to step into a headache like this.

"...I don't have anything that needs it. This conversation ends here. Please take this back."

I closed the folder and slid it smoothly back toward Dayana.

"No—!"

The protest burst out at once. Dayana looked back and forth between the folder that had returned to her and my face.

"I went this far?! I really thought the mood was that you'd come around!"

"You said you'd respect my choice."

"Even so, isn't it only decent to at least pretend to think about it?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"If it's no, it's no. What kind of decency is that?"

"People have something called sincerity!"

I was starting to wonder whether this was the same person who, a moment ago, had promised to guarantee me the right to choose.

"......You're really not going to think about it at all? Not even a little?"

Saying it, Dayana looked fairly deflated.

"Hah......"

A sigh came out on its own. Seeing her wilt didn't change the judgment I had just made. Still, she had handed me this much of a choice. Then maybe there was room to think it over once more. Well... accepting, and thinking it over, were entirely different things.

I looked down at the folder for a moment, then drew it back in front of me.

"I'll consider it."

"Really?"

The glum look vanished as if it had been a lie.

"Don't expect too much."

"Okay, okay."

Just then came a knock, and the door opened. One of the attendants stepped inside and whispered something in the princess's ear. Dayana listened for a moment, then turned to me.

"Sorry. I think I have to get up first."

Then, as if it had just occurred to her, she added:

"Oh—and they said you can clock out now, Jaeseong."

"...I'm amazed our company's business gets handled this immediately on a princess's say-so."

Earlier she had shown up at the company out of nowhere on an unofficial schedule, and they had even finished logging my outside work for me. Now, apparently, the clock-out after that outside assignment had been tidied up as well.

"Chairman Choi Byeongju and I have known each other for a long time."

Dayana answered as if it were nothing.

"More precisely, the Teguren royal house has. Waaay back, from when Mansan was doing oilfield construction in Teguren."

The Teguren oilfield development. Now that she mentioned it, that was right. That project was what had let Mansan Construction grow into the Mansan Group of today.

"So for the new project this time, we looked at Mansan first, as a priority, but..."

Dayana, on the point of saying something more, suddenly closed her mouth.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"This isn't something I should be telling you."

"You can't just stop in the middle of a sentence."

"If it's no, it's no."

Getting my own answer handed straight back to me, I had nothing to say.

"Take your time. Have another cup of tea before you go. I'll head out first."

The princess rose, then turned back as if she had remembered something.

"Oh, right. Did you eat the chocolate I gave you earlier? It's surprisingly good with tea."

I thought of the gold-coin chocolate in my pocket.

"No. Not yet."

"Yeah?"

Dayana smiled, looking satisfied.

"It's small, but think of it as part of the interest on the debt. For being fifteen years late."

Leaving only that, Dayana departed first with her attendants.

Once I was alone, her words from a moment ago belatedly snagged at me.

Part of the interest...?

I took the gold-coin chocolate from my pocket. When I peeled away the gold foil, what showed was not brown, but the distinctive gleam of metal.

"A gold coin?"

It wasn't chocolate at all. It was a genuinely hefty fine gold coin.

A small inscription was stamped along the edge. Pure gold, no less. I was just starting to feel a little dumbfounded when something else caught my eye.

The gold-foil paper I had peeled off the coin. There was something written on the inside of that, too. Unfolded, it held a phone number, written with care in handwriting, and beneath it a short note.