My Ex-Boyfriend Gave Birth to My Child? What Does That Mean? - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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My Ex-Boyfriend’s Baby — What in the World Did That Mean? Episode 26
The guide continued to lead me deeper into the building. After passing through several rooms, I arrived at a vast conference hall.
It was the Merchant Guild’s hidden assembly chamber.
In my previous life, when I attended executive meetings as the lady of the Ocker Family, the hall had never been more than half full—but today it was bustling with people.
This was not a small meeting restricted to the guild’s senior executives, but a Regular General Assembly open to any trading company registered with the guild.
As I slowly surveyed the interior, calling up memories from my past life, a man’s voice came from one side.
“Is this your first time here, my lady?”
When I turned, there stood a neat man with deep red long hair bound tightly with a silk cord.
Like the other merchants here, he was dressed in clothing that smelled distinctly of money, yet by appearance he seemed far younger than the average age of those gathered—roughly my own age, in fact.
In short, we looked about the same.
“How did you know this is my first time?”
“If you’d come before, I couldn’t have failed to notice. I’ve attended every month for three years straight.”
The man smiled with easy charm and added another line.
“Besides, someone as beautiful as you wouldn’t slip my memory.”
“Forgive me, but I’m a matron, not a lady.”
“Oh dear, I’ve made a mistake.”
The man laughed lightly and gave a quick wink.
“But don’t such meetings often mark the beginning of new acquaintances?”
He answered playfully, then quickly straightened his posture. Once he abandoned his casual bearing, he presented himself as quite a respectable merchant.
This time he offered a formal greeting as though he were a different person entirely.
“I am Shand Ordore, proprietor of the Ordore Trading Company. I’m rather a novice, operating just a few small vessels.”
I nodded to him and offered a light formality in return.
“I am Irina Otrehaye, proprietor of the Argentor Trading Company. Though I maintain a small trading operation in the Western Kingdom, most of my business is conducted in the Capital.”
“Ah!”
A brief shock crossed the man’s face.
His eyes, which had been curved with cunning amusement, instantly sharpened into straight lines. He studied my face intently for a moment, his gaze taking on the serious intensity of an appraiser examining a precious gem.
He added a modest show of respect befitting nobility.
“So you’re the young lady of the Otrehaye estate! I knew you were an artisan proprietor, but I had no idea you were running a trading company.”
“You know of me?”
“There isn’t a merchant in the Capital who hasn’t heard of your name by now. But…”
“…?”
“Then you’re not yet a lady, are you?”
The man winked at me again.
Siril’s hand clenched into a fist almost reflexively, and I found myself at a loss for words.
What kind of person was this?
And at that moment, a sharp voice cut between us.
“Who on earth let that woman in? What are the doorkeepers doing?”
It was an expected attack, but from an unexpected voice. My fingertips went cold as I looked toward the speaker.
A woman in a black dress, adorned with an excessive amount of gold that looked decidedly out of place.
My mother-in-law from my previous life.
The Ocker Matriarch, who had despised and tormented me so bitterly.
She cried out again in that sharp voice.
“Just because you had a flash of success doesn’t mean you can flout the guild’s rules! This woman doesn’t even own a trading company. Remove her at once!”
I suppressed my racing heart and answered her accusation with as calm a voice as I could manage.
“I am the legitimate proprietor of the Argentor Trading Company, formally registered with the guild. And who, may I ask, are you to make such an unjust accusation against me?”
“Who?”
The Ocker Matriarch let out a cold laugh.
“How dare you! When you were trying to worm your way into our Ocker Family, you treated me with such deference—and now you ask who I am?”
At the mention of the Ocker Family, I noticed several merchants nearby instinctively step back.
The Ocker Family wielded that much power in the merchant world.
“I’m speaking about the accusations you’re making.”
I lifted my head, my fists clenched.
“I submitted a Pass Certificate from the Otrehaye Territory in the Western Kingdom, records of three or more trading missions conducted with five Caravans, a ledger documenting those transactions, and I’ve paid my contributions in full. The certificate is right here.”
“Otrehaye? You’re telling me that transporting goods to your hometown counts as merchant trading?”
“Whether those shipments constituted merchant trading or simple transport is something the people who reviewed the ledger would know.”
At the Ocker Matriarch’s outburst, the guild’s security officers who had approached us examined the Argentor Trading Company’s Registration Certificate from Siril’s hand and nodded.
“It’s a legitimate registration certificate.”
The Ocker Matriarch glared at me with a sharp gaze. It was the look one gives to an object—the look of someone watching a useless thing that had almost fallen into her hands but now belonged to someone else.
In that moment, I understood.
The battle had already begun.
I deliberately furrowed my brow and tilted my chin up slightly. The Chastain Pearls gleaming at my ears and chest caught the Chairman’s brilliant light, scattering it in soft iridescence.
“But tell me, Ocker Matriarch. You seem to know me quite well…….”
It wasn’t often I could express displeasure so freely. I decided to indulge in arrogance.
“Are you saying you insulted a noblewoman while knowing full well who she was?”
My cool question silenced the hall. The merchants who had been weighing me against the Ocker Matriarch only moments before now showed confusion in their eyes.
My gaze, held high with confidence, caught on the Ocker Matriarch’s face twisted in shock.
Until recently, and in my past life, she could shout at me freely. Before any question of hierarchy between noble and commoner, she had possessed an almost unassailable shield: the pretext of “family matter.”
But now?
“Ocker Matriarch. What relationship do we have?”
“…….”
We were complete strangers.
I looked around. Every eye in the room was fixed on me, on us.
I could not simply crush her beneath my heel.
Those gathered here were trading company heads, each backed by their own patrons. They had their pride. The pride of those who had built their social standing with their own hands—the conviction that even nobility must respect the rules of commerce.
I had no intention of touching that carelessly.
“Since we met in this place, I have shown you courtesy. Even when you insulted me personally and doubted my rightful authority.”
I held myself perfectly upright and spoke clearly enough for all around us to hear.
“But seeing this, I don’t think I even need further explanation of how the Ocker Company has oppressed smaller trading houses. Wielding power while ignoring Guild rules, disregarding the Kingdom’s laws, and persistently slandering the daughter of a baronial house—it’s all quite clear now.”
I took a step forward, toward the Ocker Matriarch.
“What does the Ocker Company think it is? Some omnipotent power above the law?”
“How unlike you, speaking so well. I don’t care for such——”
I cut her off.
“Ocker Matriarch. Address me with proper respect. And yes, an apology would be welcome. After all, we were once acquainted, so I won’t demand you kneel.”
I straightened my spine and looked down at her with my chin raised. The Ocker Matriarch was slightly taller than me, but now she did not loom over me as she once had.
“Apologize. Now.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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