The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 2

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

The Villainess Establishes a Department Store

Chapter 2

So let me organize the situation I’m in.

1. I, who worked as a department store salesperson, got into a traffic accident on my way home from work and possessed the villainess in a book I used to read.

2. And somehow I succeeded in twisting the original story to some extent without even knowing it.

Though I died without knowing that fact.

Anyway, the proof was that in the original story, my younger sibling who should have cut ties with me long ago remained affectionate until the very last moment.

3. But what I thought was death from an unexpected accident turned out to be a regression to the past.

When I first realized the fact of regression, I was so shocked I thought I would faint.

I was clearly hit by a carriage, but when I opened my eyes, I had become a child wearing silk pajamas!

At first, I thought I had gone crazy.

But after pinching my cheeks, this was undoubtedly reality.

Crawling down from the bed, I couldn’t speak for a while at the dear and familiar scenery before my eyes.

This was the bedroom where I had spent my childhood.

The ceiling painting, the wallpaper. Everything was exactly as I remembered it.

However, unlike the last appearance I remembered that was no different from ruins, the furniture was intact without a single broken piece, and the windows were also sparkling with shine.

A strange yet nostalgic face was reflected on the spotlessly clean glass window without a speck of dust.

When I took a deep breath, the girl in the glass also breathed deeply in and out together, her shoulders rising and falling.

Blue-violet eyes like amethyst submerged in the sea stared directly at me.

The cat-like primly upturned eye shape and pursed lips, and the ruler-straight neat silver bangs were definitely young me, the childhood Adelaide.

“…Right. Regression, it’s called regression. Fine. I already possessed someone, so what’s stopping me from regressing? Phew. Then if I die again this time, would that be reincarnation?”

As I muttered nonsense, I furrowed my brow at a question that suddenly occurred to me.

So how old am I now?

“Hmm, judging by appearance, I look roughly around ten years old… Ah!”

That’s right!

I hurriedly ran to the desk drawer and pulled out a square tin box.

The cookie box with strawberries, lace, and ribbon drawings on a pink background was my treasure box from childhood.

“One, two, three… ten cards…”

What was contained inside were the birthday congratulation cards that Father had sent me every year.

Father, who was often away from home on business trips, sent me wonderful gifts along with cards every year on my birthday.

[To our beloved princess.]

[Congratulating you on becoming an older sister.]

[To my treasure who has become a proper young lady.]

As the cards accumulated one by one, the little princess who couldn’t even read yet grew into an older sister with a younger brother, and then into a little lady.

Since there were ten of them, it meant I had returned to being ten years old.

“Father…”

Thinking of Father naturally made one corner of my heart ache and hurt.

My father, Viscount Charmeuse, was a person who was not aristocratic in many ways.

Starting from how he understood the importance of commerce despite being a noble and usually got along with merchants without formality.

Though he met Mother through a political marriage, he loved Mother more sincerely than anyone, and he gave generously anything he could give without distinction between son and daughter.

Mother was also someone who loved us more than anyone, enough to risk her life to give birth to Antoine and me.

Though Mother’s already weak body eventually completely collapsed due to the strain of giving birth to children.

In my memories, Mother was always half-lying in bed.

Still, when her condition was good, Mother would take my younger sibling and me to the garden and teach us the names of wildflowers and butterflies.

Looking back, those two were always present in my happiest moments.

Though the hot spring trip the two took for Mother’s frail health ended in the tragedy of a train accident…

From that point on, Antoine and I, as well as the fate of this estate, plummeted.

“Uncle…”

Damn Uncle, thinking of that spiteful face made my teeth grind automatically.

Come to think of it, Uncle had also destroyed this bedroom.

After driving us out and taking over the estate, when Uncle became short on money, he stripped and sold anything that could be sold, from the estate’s paintings and furniture to even the floor tiles.

“It’s still there, as expected.”

When I drew back the curtains, I could see a large fountain beyond the window facing the garden.

Despite it being a dark night, water was continuously spouting from the fountain’s sculpture.

It was the marble fountain that Father had given Mother as a gift when they got married.

Every wedding anniversary, Father would add small sculptures depicting our family’s memories to the fountain’s sculpture.

Their wedding, my birth, younger sibling’s birth, and various small and large precious memories.

Ironically, the moment I saw the fountain, tears that hadn’t flowed even when I saw Father’s cards streamed down endlessly.

I really had returned. Only then could I truly feel it.

I wanted to run to my parents’ bedroom right away. To go there and act spoiled in their arms.

If I sniffled and whined that I had a terrible nightmare, they would pat my back and comfort me.

I wanted to confirm that they were safe, that this wasn’t a dream.

But at the same time, I didn’t want to worry them by showing them my crying face.

Since I was meeting them again after such a long time, as much as I had missed them, I wanted to face them with a smiling expression when I met them.

The hand touching the window wasn’t the adult hand that was skinny and had bamboo-like protruding knuckles from hardship, but a child’s hand that was soft and plump as if kneaded from flour dough.

With hands like these, it seemed like I could start anything anew.

“No, I will start anew. I can do it.”

I had already confirmed in my previous life that the original story could change due to my existence.

The original story’s plot was simple. Set in the modern era when trains and light bulbs were just appearing, against the backdrop of the first department store, fallen noble Antoine and commoner Company President Bastian compete for the female protagonist Colette… that was the story.

My role was the villainess who drove all three people equally into misfortune.

After my parents died and I was divorced by my husband, I became a parasite to my younger brother.

I ignored Bastian for being a commoner…

And I was a villainess who tormented Colette to the point where even a sister-in-law from a makjang drama would hesitate, eventually trying to kill her.

In the end, Antoine, unable to bear it anymore, declared our relationship severed, and Adelaide met her miserable end alone in prison.

That was supposed to happen.

But in my previous life, Antoine called me older sister until the very end.

Bastian also treated me with gentlemanly courtesy to the end.

Colette also followed me like a real older sister.

Depending on how I acted, the world and everyone’s fate would change.

Then this time, it’s time to change everything.

I remember clearly.

Not just the events that drove Antoine and me to despair, but also who does what later, and how each region changes, everything.

And that’s not all.

I had gained the memories and knowledge of living as a department store salesperson in South Korea.

If I utilize that, I can pioneer a better fate, not just change fate at a simple level.

‘I can repay the debt to Bastian, to the people who helped me. I can get revenge on Uncle!’

Like a tree extending its branches, countless paths spread out before me.

Though they were paths no one had ever walked before, what lay at their end was clear.

‘My parents will live a full life. Antoine will be happy with Colette, and Bastian will be able to spend his unfortunate childhood a little less difficultly.’

And most importantly, I could prevent Uncle from ruining the family.

After finishing everything I need to do, I will leave for some sunny and warm seaside resort.

‘There’s no point in interfering with the original story only to get entangled with the protagonists and become tired.’

Bastian confesses to me instead of Colette?

Or Uncle reforms and then the real mastermind behind him becomes obsessed with me and tries to make me his daughter-in-law?

I absolutely decline such things. Supporting characters who possess someone have the right to live quietly.

I rummaged through the desk and pulled out paper and a pen.

I needed to make a plan from now on.

It was the moment I was about to grasp the pen in my hand.

“Waaaaaah! Waaaaah, uwaaah, uwaaaah!”

I was startled by the loud crying that came through the wall and put down the pen.

“A child crying?”

The child was wailing and sobbing so loudly it seemed like the estate would collapse.

No, but with a kid crying like that, why isn’t anyone comforting them?

Tsk, whose child is this, really….

It was the moment I was about to click my tongue in sympathy.

Clatter. The pen in my hand rolled across the desk.

Whose child indeed!

Right now, at this point where I’ve returned to being ten years old, there’s only one child who would cry loud enough to shake the estate like that.

“Antoine!”

Antoine. My younger sibling.

Your older sister is coming right now!

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