The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Villainess Establishes a Department Store

Chapter 30

Bastian’s warning soon became reality.

“Hey! I’ve been watching and watching, and really! Are you going to keep trickling over like this?”

“Hmph! Are you the owner of that land? We’re all in difficult circumstances, so we should live together!”

“You should cross over in moderation if we’re going to eat or spit together! Clean it up right now!”

As soon as we passed the main road and entered the narrow street, the carriage entered a congested area.

Street vendors roughly spread out on the ground were stuck like barnacles on both sides of the road, simultaneously bargaining, fighting, and soliciting customers.

Even when a huge shared carriage passes by, it makes me feel dizzy and precarious just watching.

The passing pedestrians also looked full of irritation.

“It would be better to pass through here quickly.”

It was the moment when the carriage wheels were about to start moving.

“Huh?”

A girl walking precariously down the street, being pushed this way and that by pedestrians, caught my eye.

It was a familiar face.

“Wait! Wait a moment.”

“Adelaide?”

Why is she here?

As soon as the carriage stopped, I jumped out. Then I supported her just before she was pushed by people and driven onto the road.

“Hippolyte! Are you okay?”

“…Ah, Sister Adele…?”

Hippolyte recognized me and opened her eyes wide.

“Why is Sister here…?”

That was what I wanted to ask.

What on earth had happened for the banker Rivers’ only daughter to be walking the streets in such a state?

Her hair, braided and hanging down in two parts, was disheveled with the ribbons completely undone, and her face was a complete mess with tears.

On top of that, as if she had fallen, her clothes were covered in dirt and there were scrape marks on her palms.

“Adelaide. What happened? Oh my! Isn’t this Miss Rivers? Come in quickly, dear.”

After wiping her messy hands and face and comforting her, Hippolyte finally calmed down.

“Sniff. I, I came to visit Father at his workplace. I came out to look around for a moment… but, but I didn’t know which way to go, the road disappeared… sob. People kept pushing me, so, so…”

“Oh dear. You must have been very scared? I’ll take you to your father, so don’t worry anymore.”

At the gentle voice, Hippolyte’s heaving shoulders gradually subsided.

“You’re going to see your father, but how can a lady be so dirty? A lady must never lose her elegance, anywhere and anytime.”

When I even put on the bracelet I had bought earlier, Hippolyte was able to regain her smile.

“It suits you well!”

Hippolyte’s ears turned bright red as she bowed her head in greeting.

When the missing banker’s daughter returned in the Baroness’s carriage, chaos erupted.

“Hippolyte!”

“Ah, Father…!”

“Polly. Are you hurt anywhere? Hm? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine… Sister Adele saved me. The Baroness braided my hair and also gave me a bracelet.”

Hippolyte smiled brightly with her face clearly showing traces of crying.

“Thank you so much! If it weren’t for the Baroness, Hippolyte would be… How can I ever repay this kindness.”

“We were lucky. It was Adele who found the child.”

“Miss Adelaide. Thank you so much. If you ever plan to use our bank in the future, please come find me anytime.”

Even then, Mr. Rivers went on about how precious a daughter Hippolyte was to him and shed tears.

“When the child was only as old as Monsieur Antoine, it wasn’t this chaotic like now.”

Mr. Rivers, who had finally calmed down, reminisced about the past with a gloomy voice.

“When the Eastern trade succeeded and the port grew, people naturally started flocking here. Sigh, we can’t borrow non-existent land from anywhere.”

My ears perked up instantly.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t it around this time?’

When the order came down in the name of the Royal Family to completely renovate Loire’s old city.

“If you had land, what would you want to do?”

At my sudden question, Mr. Rivers just blinked.

“Well… first I’d drive out all those illegally occupying the roads, widen the roads too, anyway it would be completely different from the current Nantes.”

“If you drive them all out, then where would those people go?”

“Haha. Don’t tell me you’re worried about them? You have such a kind heart.”

At Mr. Rivers’ praise, I could see Mother’s shoulders visibly puff up with pride.

“Instead of driving them out, couldn’t you make proper shops for those people?”

At this extremely good and simple idea that a child might have, Mr. Rivers’ eyes looking at me flickered.

But I was being serious.

“I heard at the exhibition recently that Nantes will have a train station now too. Then many people will come, right? They might come looking for work at the port, or to buy trade goods a little cheaper, or just to sightsee.”

I had already seen that scene. That’s why I could argue with confidence.

“If we make a market targeting those people, wouldn’t it be good as a tourist attraction too? The street vendors would also be somewhat organized.”

Mr. Rivers seemed determined to score points with Mother this time, so he listened to my words and then lectured me.

“Miss Adele. They are lawbreakers who didn’t even get proper permits in the first place. To make shops for such people with taxes that your father shed blood and sweat to pay, wouldn’t the Baron be upset?”

“Of course it wouldn’t be free!”

No, just how young do you think I am? Who would do such charity work for whose benefit? Bastian alone is enough charity work for my lifetime.

“Even if they’re street vendors, what they handle isn’t wood scraps carved at home but fragrant wood pieces imported from across the sea, right? Those people probably aren’t completely broke. If you offered loans at cheap rates, they’d think it’s worth trying, wouldn’t they?”

“Oh my, I thought you were just a young miss, but you’ve thought that far? Your insight is remarkable. But we’re not gamblers who bet our entire fortune on luck, but bankers who make optimal choices through numbers and calculations. I would rather build a new logistics warehouse in that spot.”

“A logistics warehouse?”

“Yes. Eastern trade will flourish even more in the future. Who knows, someday we might be able to move an entire foreign building here.”

Mr. Rivers said something chilling with a smiling face.

That better be brought over after paying the proper price and getting official permits.

Otherwise, the red blood within me won’t forgive it.

“Adele. That’s enough. Talking back to adults like that is not polite behavior.”

Ah, Mother! It was going so well!

“No, Baroness. Miss Adele’s opinion also has merit. Even if it’s an idea from a child, diverse opinions broaden one’s perspective.”

Mr. Rivers, nice!

“But Mr. Rivers, land just exists there unchangingly, but people bring interest, don’t they?”

“Interest?”

“Yes. The interest called rumors. Between rumors that Nantes only has logistics warehouses and rumors that it has a market, which would bring more people?”

“Hmm…”

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