The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 43

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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 43

“From start to finish. Real estate purchase, store decoration, bringing in goods, finding clerks, and most importantly, maintaining absolute secrecy.”

“Well now. You’re just going to give your opinion and slip away to the back?”

“But I’m still young, you know?”

I slyly pulled Father’s hand over and placed it against my palm. Even with my fingers spread wide, it was incomparably small next to Father’s hand.

Instead, I’ll provide the investment funds. I smiled confidently, thinking of the money that would be accumulating in real-time in my account even now.

At that sight, Father eventually burst into hearty laughter and had no choice but to acknowledge it.

“Hmm. There’s one suitable candidate I can entrust all of that to.”

Hah, you should have said so from the beginning.

And a few days later.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Jean-Pierre Lorraine.”

Father had brought a big shot who far exceeded my imagination as the ‘suitable candidate.’

“Monsieur Laurent has sharper eyes than anyone. He’ll help you and your mother in many ways.”

Moss-like deep green eyes gazed at me quietly. I couldn’t help but feel tense before that inscrutable, stoic gaze.

“It’s… it’s a pleasure to meet you, Monsieur Laurent.”

My voice trembled at the appearance of such an unexpected figure.

Bastian had people who could be called his benefactors. Among them, Monsieur Laurent was the most important device and special existence who appeared when Bastian’s human side needed to be recalled.

Sharing the common trait of being a self-made man from commoner origins, he was literally like a father to Bastian.

To the hot-blooded young Bastian who had ambition and ability but didn’t know how to package them, Monsieur Laurent first bought him new clothes to wear.

‘Do you think they’ll care about your true abilities? Don’t be mistaken. Who would, and why should they, listen to some brat who can’t even dress appropriately for the occasion?’

And he taught Bastian the knowledge necessary to be a ‘gentleman.’ Elegant penmanship, precise pronunciation, basic etiquette, and even how to drink alcohol.

A scene vaguely came to mind where he self-deprecatingly said that without Monsieur Laurent, he would have become nothing more than a back-alley loan shark at best.

“Please take good care of me from now on.”

“Likewise!”

My heart pounded as if it would burst from elation.

* * *

Jean-Pierre Laurent didn’t think of himself as particularly moral or noble.

However, to act honestly, righteously, and uprightly. That was his conviction.

People complained that his character was too rigid and old-fashioned. However, Laurent never bent his convictions.

Therefore, when he heard that Marquis de Charmeuze had summoned him for ‘personal business,’ Laurent couldn’t help but be disappointed.

‘So he’s just another typical aristocrat after all.’

Being called to the estate rather than the office meant he intended to assign dirty work that shouldn’t remain in official documents.

Tax evasion, ledger manipulation, requests for other things that shouldn’t be done in a noble’s name…

Whatever it was, let’s refuse it. Even if it means getting fired. Laurent had firmly made up his mind.

However, the task Marquis de Charmeuze assigned him was neither illegal nor contrary to his convictions.

‘Please become my daughter’s secretary. I’d like you to take on the tasks she can’t do because she’s a ‘child.”

‘A secretary… you say?’

‘Yes. If I had my way, I’d like to help her as her father, but… perhaps because she’s such a good child, she’s always asleep by the time I get off work.’

He had heard about Marquis de Charmeuze’s daughter. That she was unusually intelligent for a child and had an extreme devotion to her family. The preserved meat that often appeared as snacks in the office was also her idea, they said.

But she was still just a child, wasn’t she? Moreover, she was a daughter, not a son who would inherit her father’s business. What she needed wasn’t a secretary but a tutor and lady’s maid.

Therefore, until he met Adelaide, Laurent hadn’t harbored any particular great expectations.

Taking care of a young girl – just imagining it made his head throb. Children didn’t particularly like him to begin with.

True to his fisherman’s son heritage, children who faced his bear-like large build and characteristically taciturn expression would often burst into tears and flee to their parents’ arms.

“It’s… it’s a pleasure to meet you, Monsieur Laurent.”

But Adelaide, though she stammered from nervousness, neither burst into tears nor fled to the marquis’s arms.

When she curtsied like an adult, slightly lifting her skirt hem and bowing her head, her silver hair flowed down below her delicate shoulders like waves.

The girl who looked as if she were crafted from all the sweet and soft things in the world seemed like she would shatter if he so much as touched her.

“Please take good care of me from now on.”

“Likewise!”

Eyes like water-submerged irises looked up at him with a sparkling gaze that was almost burdensome.

A corner of his heart tickled at the child’s gaze filled with pure affection and goodwill.

But it wasn’t unpleasant at all.

As if today’s purpose was just for them to exchange greetings, Adelaide soon stood up, saying she had a music lesson.

“You look disappointed.”

Charles habitually reached for a cigar box, fumbling around his desk before catching himself. This was his home study, not his office.

“She resembles you greatly, my lord.”

“So you are disappointed. I still remember what you said when you saw me at the job interview.”

“Ahem.”

Laurent coughed and feigned ignorance.

“Think of it as youthful indiscretion and don’t mind it. I hired you because I liked that boldness.”

With a light chuckle, Charles held out a bundle of papers. It was the proposal Adelaide had presented to him recently.

“This is…?”

“If you still look disappointed after reading that, you’re fired.”

Laurent carefully examined the document. The proposal written in crooked handwriting rather than a properly formatted report made it easy to guess who had written it.

Though it was clumsy handwriting and unrefined content, what was contained within was enough to make Laurent’s narrow eyes widen.

“This is…!”

[The passage is a completely new type of market. So the stores should be new too. That way, many people will come to look around.

Also, the passage stores should look similar to each other. Because people think stores where clerks wear uniforms are more luxurious, right? If buildings wear uniforms too, they’ll look that way.

If it’s a one-of-a-kind item chosen by Mother, everyone will want to have it. Because it’s pretty, rare, and proof that they have similar taste to a noblewoman.

If customers with similar tastes increase, Mother will have many more friends than now too.]

Though it was written in a childlike tone, sharp insight could be glimpsed in the argument advocating for the necessity of new stores.

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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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