The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 52

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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 52

Time, which had briefly stopped while the new passage was being built on the site where old streets and buildings had been demolished, began flowing again with the opening of Pearl Gallery.

Port Nantes was packed with crowds day after day as people came to see the new attraction after hearing rumors, and as I blinked my eyes, the seasons flew by until suddenly the new year when I would turn twelve was right around the corner.

“Ugh, it’s cold.”

My shoulders trembled involuntarily in the icy wind. Then Camille draped a shawl over my shoulders and carefully fastened it with a small brooch.

“I’m going to eat Antoine up!”

“Kyaaa! Eek!”

As I fluttered the soft edges of the shawl like a flying squirrel and hugged Antoine, his clear, high-pitched giggles mixed with white breath that scattered into the air.

“Our Antoine, how can we send such a small, young child to school?”

“But Father said I have to go to school to become a great viscount!”

Ahem! Antoine puffed out his chest with all his might and spoke proudly.

Antoine, who turned six this year, had been frequenting the bookstore in Pearl Gallery like a library and could now read fairly difficult books.

When Camille informed our parents of this fact, Father was greatly pleased and showed his excitement about enrolling Antoine in a boarding school.

‘This time too, you’ll attend that place.’

Lycée François le Grand, one of Loire’s prestigious schools along with the Academy and the finest royal boarding school for noble boys.

In my past life, Antoine had to quit when our family fell to ruin, but this time is different.

I’ll make sure you graduate no matter what.

“To attend school, you first have to pass the entrance exam, so you’ll have to study hard, right?”

“Ew. I don’t like studying.”

Of course, there are last resorts like donation admission and alumni recommendation admission. But I believe in Antoine’s potential. If this round fails too, you’re the only one I can rely on!

“Also, to become a great viscount, you need to grow at least twice as tall, and you need to know how to sleep alone at night, right? You still sleep with your older sister.”

Though I said that, Antoine had grown quite a bit taller over the past two years. I smiled contentedly as I pictured the grown-up Antoine from my memories.

I thought all I’d done during this time was wait for the passage construction and Guillaume’s safe return, and peek in on Mother’s shop to see how Bastian was doing, but time really flies.

Everything had been going smoothly.

At least until now.

As we came out of Pearl Gallery, I could see the street had become much cleaner as well.

The merchants who couldn’t get into the gallery chose coexistence—or more bluntly, parasitism—instead of being jealous of and slandering Pearl Gallery for stealing their customers.

The shops that previously had signs of different sizes and awnings of various colors and widths stretched over the street were now competing to bring in foreign goods and imitate the gallery’s display cases.

That alone made the entire street look much more sophisticated, as if it had been reborn.

On top of that, construction on Port Nanterre Station began as soon as the passage construction ended. Passing by the workers busily moving construction materials, I said to Antoine.

“Let’s see… If things go well, you might be able to take the train when you come home for vacation. Your older sister will come to meet you in advance. But you have to bring presents, promise?”

“Yes!”

Antoine nodded cheerfully, as if the idea of being separated from his family didn’t feel real yet. Oh my, is it really okay to send this child to boarding school?

“Let’s eat lunch and get back to work!”

Perhaps having gained some insight from the passage construction, the Loire Railway Company management made separate contracts with nearby restaurants from the time they posted job openings for workers. A kind of on-site cafeteria, you could say?

It was good for the restaurants because they could secure regular customers, good for the workers because they could have hot, freshly made meals with guaranteed taste, and good for management because the rate of workers quitting midway was lower.

Of course, there weren’t zero complaints.

“What’s on the menu today?”

“Yesterday was potage, today is pot-au-feu, tomorrow is stew. The day after that is potage again.”

“Tch, when Bastian was here, at least there was the fun of choosing what to eat…”

Even so, I chuckled as I watched them hurry off to the restaurant, worried someone else might take all the food first.

“It must be hard to work outside on such a cold day…”

A rough wooden necklace swayed at Antoine’s neck as he muttered with furrowed brows. It was a kind of anti-lost child necklace.

Two years ago, on the day there was a commotion when Antoine almost went missing, I waited for our parents to calm down somewhat before suggesting we make an anti-lost child necklace.

‘That’s really a good idea! If we include the family crest, it would be an even more certain proof.’

‘That won’t work. It would have the opposite effect.’

‘The opposite effect?’

Father, who had been ready to call a jeweler immediately, looked puzzled and raised his eyebrows. I explained the reason step by step.

‘It would be good to make it with fancy jewels or engrave the family crest to show off the family’s power, but what if bad people take advantage of that instead?’

Father still looked like he didn’t understand. At times like this, I feel a bit bitter thinking that Father is inevitably from a privileged background.

‘Instead of bringing the child back to the estate, they might just steal the necklace, break it apart and sell it, or they might target the necklace from the beginning.’

‘But if someone returns a lost child to their parents, the parents would naturally want to reward them, wouldn’t they?’

‘They might stage a fake scenario targeting exactly that.’

‘…Adelaide. Aren’t you seeing the world too negatively? Father gets sad every time you say things like this.’

Oh no. Did I speak from too pessimistic a perspective for a young child? Father drooped the corners of both eyebrows as if he was genuinely upset.

‘…How about a wooden necklace instead? Not ordinary wood, but if we make a pendant carved with the family emblem using expensive, top-quality wood, or sculpt it with that as a motif, I think that would be fine.’

While I was at it, I explained the concept of Code Adam as much as I knew. Father immediately presented it as a formal agenda item at the Merchant’s Guild meeting, and the merchants, who didn’t want anything unpleasant to happen to the wealthy children who were Pearl Gallery’s main customers, adopted it unanimously. I just hope it never needs to be used.

Fortunately, Code Adam hadn’t been activated once in the two years since then. The anti-lost child necklaces, enhanced by the craftsmanship of Pearl Gallery’s artisans, were being sold as the most popular souvenirs among parents visiting the gallery.

“Those people don’t even have coats and must be very cold. I wish spring would come quickly…”

I turned my head at Antoine’s words, having been lost in reminiscence. As he said, workers in worn-out clothes without thick coats or shawls were shivering by a portable brazier, warming themselves by the fire.

Looking closer, there were also what appeared to be sailors from the port together with the construction workers.

Oh my. The weather will get even colder now, so they should at least put up a tent to block the wind! While they’re at it, they could install underfloor heating, and water heaters, cup noodles, coffee mix…

Things like that couldn’t possibly exist here. At best, maybe heated wine.

Hmm.

If it doesn’t exist, I can just make it myself, can’t I?

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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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