Claire looked utterly baffled. "????? What are you talking about!"
Only then did Sophia continue, "I've taken a liking to you. Come work for me."
After saying that, she blinked at Claire and smiled. "Also, that expression you made just now was so amusing. Did you think I was going to eat you?"
Claire's mouth twitched. This woman was really hard to deal with. "No, I'm afraid my modest abilities wouldn't be of much help to you, Madam."
"You can sell iodized salt worth a dozen or so Copper Coins for hundreds of Gold Coins, and you call that having no ability? Then everyone under me ought to go die."
"I already have my own shop." Claire politely declined.
"How much can that little shop of yours make with just the two of you? Even if you opened them throughout the kingdom, you'd make at most two or three million a year. Come work for me, and I guarantee you'll earn over ten million Gold Coins a year. That's only the baseline. If the opportunity arises, I can even promote you, a mere viscount, to an earl. What do you think of those terms?"
Sophia genuinely admired Claire's abilities. During their conversation, she had grown increasingly fond of her. She dodged key questions, could lie through her teeth about even something as unremarkable as manufacturing costs, and didn't feel the slightest embarrassment after being exposed, simply admitting, "Then let's say a dozen or so Copper Coins."
Most importantly, there was her business acumen. Even something as low-value as iodized salt could be sold at such an outrageous price in the royal capital under her management, fooling all the nobles there senseless. That was incredibly important to Sophia. With an assistant like this, things would become much easier for her in