The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 35

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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 35

Guillaume also made an equally suspicious, no, bizarre laughing sound as he got up from his seat and returned with a black box.

“Kekeke… Kekekeke… Kehaha! Adele! You were right! Black ginseng, it really existed!”

With each step he took, Guillaume’s lips twitched, and finally unable to contain himself, he burst into joyful laughter as he held out the box.

The lacquered box decorated with mother-of-pearl was already a treasure in itself.

But what was contained inside was an even greater, no. An incomparably greater treasure.

“This is exactly….”

“The black ginseng of Gawri you were looking for. Steamed nine times and dried nine times.”

When the box was opened, what looked like blackened, dried, twisted pieces of wood lay side by side.

However, despite their appearance like rotten wood, the scent they carried was anything but ordinary.

‘Ah, the smell of a traditional medicine clinic.’

Sniff. Taking a deep breath, the distinctive aroma spread through my chest, making me feel somehow healthier.

Now it was done. With this, Mother could become healthy.

“Thank you so much. Wasn’t it difficult to obtain?”

“Hmm? Well… it certainly wasn’t something easily found in the marketplace.”

“Then… surely not smugg…ling…?”

“Hey now! Where else would you find a merchant as honest as this old man. I’ve maintained good relationships with local officials precisely for times like this.”

For a moment, I felt like I’d been hit on the head.

He spoke as if it were nothing special, but I could tell that those ‘good relationships’ weren’t built just by playing chess together.

Alcohol, gold, and pride lowered to the point of humiliation. Perhaps there were other sacrifices I didn’t know about.

The black ginseng in this box was something so difficult to obtain that it required mobilizing all the connections built that way.

“…You got it from the market, right?”

“Ahem?”

“From a shop in the market, right?”

“My, this wine is delicious. Wine should definitely be drunk straight without mixing it with water.”

Guillaume avoided answering my question to the very end. At least I could tell it wasn’t obtained like shopping at an airport duty-free shop in broad daylight.

In that case, in the worst scenario, he might have completely ruined even the good relationships he had and been driven out.

Guillaume had risked his life once crossing the sea, and once more obtaining the black ginseng.

Belatedly, gratitude came flooding in along with guilt, and regret about what I had asked for.

“Ah, Adele?”

Hot droplets fell onto the back of my hand. Worried that the black ginseng might get wet, I quickly set the box down.

“…Really… thank you so much…. Thank you….”

My voice was trembling terribly. My eyes were wet, making Guillaume’s face hard to see clearly.

If things had gone wrong and Guillaume had been branded a smuggler, if he could never return, I wouldn’t have been able to look Felix in the face ever again.

Perhaps if it had been Father who brought the black ginseng instead of Guillaume, would I have been as purely happy as I was now?

‘And I demanded such a thing as if it were just merchandise…!’

“Adele, Adele? Stop! You need to stop! Now we can cure Mother’s condition with this! Stop… please stop crying, won’t you? Hmm? If you cry, how can I face your father. Hmm? Do you want to see this old man get beaten to death?”

“…Waaah…!”

Guillaume’s attempt to comfort me only made me burst into even louder tears.

In this life too, I had incurred an unpayable debt to Guillaume.

So I would have to repay it over a lifetime.

I gladly resolved to do so.

* * *

“Eleonore. How is your fever? Can you… eat dinner?”

“Haa… ha…. I must eat. I must eat… to have strength….”

Eleonore sat up in bed with Charles’s support. Her pale face was covered in cold sweat.

“I’m sorry. I think I got too excited these past few days….”

Not only had she gone out several times in a row since leaving the estate after so long, but recently she had even ridden a bicycle.

The price of overexertion, believing she had recovered, cut to the bone.

Seeing her struggle even to breathe, Charles could only clench the bed sheets.

When the maid brought clear chicken soup and soft bread, Charles took the spoon himself.

“Here, say ah.”

“I can eat by myself….”

Though she complained with her mouth, Eleonore didn’t reject her husband’s affection.

At the sight of the loving couple, the maid hid her pleased smile and quietly returned to the kitchen.

“Ugh! What is this smell!”

However, the kitchen, which should have been filled with the gentle aroma of warm chicken soup, was full of an indescribably awful smell.

“Ah, Miss Adele? What are you doing here…? And what is this smell?”

At the center of it was the estate’s young lady.

Standing firmly by the fire like a doorman, constantly fanning, the maid sent questioning looks to her colleagues asking what on earth she was doing.

‘What is that supposed to be?’

‘I don’t really know either. She’s brewing medicinal herbs brought from the East?’

‘Guillaume Hedebeau brought medicinal herbs from the East to cure Madam’s illness’

What kind of medicinal herbs would produce such a terrible smell?

Unable to contain her curiosity, the maid crept closer to Adelaide.

“Gasp! M-Miss! This is rotten wood!”

What was boiling vigorously in the pot were black, twisted tree roots.

“Rotten! One root of this is more expensive than a gold nugget of the same size. You couldn’t buy it even with money.”

When the young lady retorted seriously, the maid could only be even more shocked.

‘This is such expensive medicinal herbs? No matter how I look at it, it looks like mushy rotten roots?’

The water brewed from the rotten roots, or rather medicinal herbs, was equally black.

It was worrying enough that eating such a thing might cause an even worse illness.

‘Co… could Guillaume Hedebeau have…. No, no. He might fool others, but not that person.’

He was an old friend of the estate’s master, so surely he wouldn’t have deceived his friend’s daughter.

The maid shook her head vigorously to drive away the bad thoughts.

“No matter how I look at it, it looks like tree roots dredged up from the bottom of a swamp…. I really don’t understand what kind of effects such a thing could have….”

Though she hesitantly expressed her anxiety, instead of scolding her, Adelaide cleared her throat.

“Speaking of the effects of black ginseng, first there’s immune system strengthening, blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol as basics, plus menopause for mothers, fatigue recovery for our children, anti-aging for the elderly, and even anti-cancer effects….”

Counting on her fingers while explaining the effects of black ginseng, Adelaide suddenly realized and shut her mouth.

The servants were each looking puzzled, muttering about what cholesterol was.

This was the estate’s kitchen, not a holiday Hong-sam gift set sales counter.

“…Anyway! It’s practically a cure-all.”

“Really…?”

The maid still looked skeptical.

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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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