Chapter 2: Tritus Corp Order
"I'm telling you, we don't know about anyone putting in this order!" Bellows Marquess Dahl as he gets into a rather heated argument with the man in sophisticated wear outside the door. This man looked as though he could be in line for the world's tightest suits, as he stood outside, pen and clipboard in hand, sguiggling some few words in the paper before facing the Marquess. His silver chained monocle hanging from his eye as he looked straight into the Marquess with squinted clear slits. Behind him stood in line at least five carriages worth of random wholesale products, each carriage filled to the brim of it. Why not just drop a whole piano on my head while you're at it?!
On a random Tuesday morning, Marquess Dahl leisured among his estate, standing and watching the men working under the construction of the greenhouse as one would do when he has nothing else to work for. The Emperor's beloved Greenhouse- Von Fleur. Von Fleur, under the demands of the current Emperor Norton Del Luca, is a greenhouse which grows one of the rarest flowers among the entire continent, never traded, never touched. The responsibility naturally falls under Duke Eckleis but with the current expedition that lasted for over 8 months Duke Eckleis could not even give the Emperor's flower a safe home even if he wanted to. Left with no other choice, the Emperor handed over the responsibility towards Marquess Dahl whom greatly accepted the royal orders.
"My Lord, a visitor has come to see you," Aliro said, a man in his late sixty's stood poised in front of the Marquess. Marquess Dahl's servant and his most loyal friend. Aliro, one of the few many servants of the Dahl family whom stayed serving them even before Marquess Dahl inherited the estate. Marquess Dahl turned in question at his butler. Aliro lowered his head, hands behind his back as he spoke. "Tritus Corp has come with a..." His rasp voice strayed from his lips as he searched for the right words.
"Tritus Corp has come to deliver your inquiries."
Looking at the never ending pile mounting up before him brought Marquess Dahl to his current situation. First, Jayus had thrown a cup at Viscount Deborah, now this generous charity case of things he did not need. Before the Marquess could make anymore complaints, the man finally spoke up. Eyes squinted in a smile, yet no trace of joy could be detected in such snake like features, rather than seeming happy to be there, he just looked rather annoyed.
"Morning greetings towards to you too, Marquess Dahl but it appears so here on our records that you purchased- a hundred bottles of cleaning liquids, another hundred bars of refresheners, fifty-eight bottles of ink, at least five bags worth of stationary, five hundred wiping cloths, another hundred feather dusters, snow globes and at least two hundred of them-" This man had not even stopped to catch his breath the moment he started reciting all of the things written on that clipboard of his, and with every item he had written off, another year had been taken out of the Marquess life instead.
"-One hundred barrels of wine,"
"Oh wait that's not so bad,"
"Three hundred wads of papers-"
"We won't even live long enough to use all of those!"
"And a spoon- Ah, mind you this is just the first page." The man, seeing as how he had already taken half of the Marquess lifespan smiled at the Marquess as he casted his clipboard to his side "The ones with me today are only four items on the list, the rest will be sent to the estate shortly after they make sure to package all the correct quantity of items. Marquess Dahl, rest assured that your products will arrive safely,"
After hearing this, the Marquess snapped back to life. Strong, rough hands grabbing desperately at this snake man, and with the force of a million storms shook the poor man like there was no tomorrow "No no no! You've got it all wrong, we made no such ridiculous order for such useless things!" Marquess Dahl was not quite sure of the situation at hand. Perhaps he had accidentally called the Tritus Corp and made a ridiculously long and unreasonable order in his sleep, after all his wife once told him how she had a full conversation with him once as he was unconscious. At that time it was funny, but when you wake up to find you're five hundred thousand Leons in debt to some bogus business? Admittedly it was funny but not when it's happening to him. Maybe to some other noble much like Marquess Dawerson, his greatest enemy, then it would have been funny. He could already imagine it now if somehow word got out of this ludicrous prank. Marquess Dawerson would be laughing his ass off right now. Tritus Corp is exceedingly known to be one of the Empires biggest companies and supplier. They dealt with huge orders, even orders that seemed ridiculously difficult to get a hold of. One of the reasons for their huge reputation was due to his Majesty, The Emperor's Request of obtaining the rare flower he had so desperately sought for. The same flower Marquess Dahl is currently possessing, and entrusted to care for now.
This felt like a never ending nightmare "Look, we never made such a huge order as I have been telling you for the last thirty minutes! I want you to send them all back," Hand waving to dismiss Mister Tritus, Marquess Dahl was ready to go back inside to enjoy a bottle of alcohol to forget this whole fiasco, however if there's anything someone should know about Tritus, it's that he's never had things taken back. Just thinking about having someone return they're order for the first time, not to mention that they haven't paid, was all but a fatuous joke to him.
"Marquess," Tritus bit back his tongue, his smile trembled on his face as it threatened to fly away "With all due respect, our business is not just some kind of yippity-yap that just gives and takes. Regardless of what you say we already have the documents signed by you on paper for this transaction. You should legally pay us for this," By this point, even Tritus was getting riled up in this conversation of mindless barks as he boldly tore off the supposed document and basically shoved it right up the Marquess Dahl. There on the paper that Tritus held was a letter with the set of lists that the Marquess had supposedly requested, down with his signature at the very bottom on his printed name. The letter itself was written in a bold and frantic way, which was very identical to his own hand writing. Like seeing what you had written on your diary from a very long time ago. He may not remember but it was definitely his own handwriting. The air around them grew cold as the Marquess snatched the documents from Tritus hand, face planted within the papers.
"This is not my own making!" Marquess Dahl argued. Incredulous by the Marquess claim, Tritus could not help but scoff right in front of him, unable to bear this sudden charade any longer, his eyes wandered away to stare anywhere but the man standing in front of him as he silently begged god for a way out of this.
"So the Marquess is telling me that is not your signature on the letter?" Tritus pointed out.
"No..."
"And is this not your handwriting?"
"It is,"
"Then for the love of the Sun and Moon please don't run away from your responsibility, Marquess." Tritus begged, the moment he arrived at the estate, he wore nothing but a smile hoping to finish work and go and be done, now the smile twisted into a very sickly frown, the young man now looking like he had aged for more then thirty years. Angered by this accusation, the Marquess was very much aware no one in his household had done such a thing. It did not take long for them to realize that someone had forged his handwriting, down to his signature. The problem lies where they did not have any potential suspects yet.
Clink!
A chime of a bell caught both men's attention as Tritus rummaged through his pocket, in it he picked out a pocket watch, it's rims decorated with tiny emeralds as the hands struck one in the afternoon. He sighed, Tritus had other businesses to attend to.
"Marquess Dahl, base on our terms and policy, you are not legally allowed to return the stuff you have required as we are not legally allowed to take them back. I will give you a week- no five days to pay for everything in this list-" As Tritus talked, he scribbled frantically on his clipboard, then attached the invoice before pushing it against the Marquess chest "-if you do not comply, then the Tritus Corp will be forced to take legal actions. I hope you think well about this, Marquess Dahl."
A cold breeze passed by the two men, slits for eyes behind clear monocles stared against Marquess Dahl's own beastly eyes, like phytons and bears.
"Toodle-loo, Marquess." With that, Tritus rode away from the estate, leaving dust to settle in his wake.
"Hey come back!" Marquess Dahl called out but the once snake like man was already gone.
"Five-hundred seventy-nine Leons and sixty watz," Marquess Dahl paced within his office, feet thumping on the floor menacingly as he seethed through his teeth, by now you could already see the smoke coming out through his ears, eyes bloody red as hands clenched into fists. "Five-hundred seventy-nine Leons!" He repeated, agitated.
"And sixty watz," Jayus helpfully chimed in.
"And sixty watz!" When Marquess Dahl first barged inside after his friendly interaction with Tritus, Marchioness Dahl was about to drop on the ground dying of laughter for her husband's exaggeration nut after seeing the price list of the invoice no one inside the household was laughing anymore.
"Almost a six hundred Leons, good goddess, how does this even happen? This is worth more than our entire estate and assets. Can't you take this back?" Worry grew more and more within the Dahl family. One hundred Leons were equal to one chunk of diamond, a watz equaled to one gold coin. Paying this kind of fee would lead them to bankruptcy and potentially selling everything they owned, not even leaving them their name. Even the Emperor's entire allowance wouldn't be able to foot the bill.
Marquess Dahl grunted, a bubble of frustration rising up his throat "That's what I have been telling Tritus, has he listened once? Yes... He did, but besides that-!" He waved his hands, frantically "-He says he can't stop the orders nor will he take them back. It's illegal he says. On what grounds?!"
Now it was Marchioness turn to worry, hand delicately placed on her pale face as the invoice was long discarded on the table.
"Don't worry," Marquess Dahl looked like he had gone to hell and back because he had dropped his shoe on the way. Dark brown hair that was earlier groomed to be slicked back now stands in an array poking out in different angles, brooch carefully placed on his chest stood crooked by the side of his neck from all the pacing. Watching him pace around the room anxiously did not help them think any more clearly but looking at him now, not a single trace of the man just a second ago could be found. Disgruntled, Marquess Dahl ran a hand through his hair, efficiently pushing away the strands of hair that got in the way of his face.
"I'll have someone investigate then we'll get to the bottom of this. Whoever did this is going to pay!" As all this went down, Jayus stared at the invoice. Fingers delicately picking up the piece of paper on the table, he could think of one person who could be behind this. Immediately, he shook the thought off his head, after all there was no way Viscount Deborah could have done this. If only he was actually smart enough to think of acting on it, however from what they knew, he was not the type of person who could think of an idea like this. Was the idea smart? Yes, but it was too brazen for the Viscount's taste. To have someone so confidently mess with the Dahl Family.
Really, how foolish. Behind the official paper between his fingers was placid smile Jayus failed to hide. Whoever did this will surely pay.
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