The Villainess Builds a Department Store - Chapter 73

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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 73

“Look here! What on earth is going on!”

“Can we really trust this?”

“I only bid because I listened to you!”

“Now, now. Please calm down everyone. That was truly a mistake earlier. I just misspoke in my excitement! And the results aren’t even confirmed yet, are they?”

“If by any chance, if perhaps, if there’s even the slightest possibility you’re wrong…”

Despite the employee’s attempts to stop him, not content with climbing onto the stage, a gentleman pulled out a cigar from his coat and pressed the thick, unlit cigar against the fraudulent appraiser’s chest.

“You’ll have to take responsibility for that.”

The fraudulent appraiser repeatedly assured them that would never happen.

Meanwhile, the employee who had gone to fetch the journals returned. Breathing heavily as he climbed onto the stage, the employee set down three journals.

“Then Guillaume Hedebeau, could you please draw the shape of the moon you saw on this paper?”

Guillaume readily accepted the pen and notebook. The appraisers flipped through the journals, comparing them with Guillaume’s drawing.

“Gasp…”

“Really, truly…”

Sounds of disbelief and sharp intakes of breath erupted from among the appraisers.

The journalists, their curiosity reaching its limit, shifted restlessly as if they might climb onto the stage at any moment.

At the same time, the fraudulent appraiser let out a strangled groan.

“…A black shadow began to cover the moon from below. The moon, bulging only at the top, looked like a round loaf of bread with a bite taken out of it… Gawri’s food isn’t bad, but I still want to eat the bread my wife baked…”

The last sentence wasn’t necessary to read.

As the auctioneer read from the journal, an appraiser held up Guillaume’s drawing high for everyone to see.

The moon Guillaume had drawn matched the journal’s description exactly.

Guillaume just shrugged his shoulders and added a comment.

“By the way… it seems none of you appraisers are well-versed in Gawri literature.”

“…”

The appraisers who had loudly insisted the painting couldn’t be a forgery could only blush without saying a word.

“Longing heart, sorrowful love. It melted not only the heartstrings but even the moon…”

Amid the shock where no one could even breathe, a voice humming like a song echoed through the space.

Guillaume lightly snorted at the fraudulent appraiser and delivered the final blow.

“Isn’t it too round for a melted moon? Language is the first thing one should learn to understand unfamiliar cultures and customs, but surely… you all didn’t just read books written by others and then pose as appraisers, did you?”

The appraisers couldn’t respond and just buried their reddened heads toward the floor.

It was the moment when it was revealed that not only the fraudulent appraiser, but most of the appraisers there were fake.

* * *

The journalists’ notebooks fluttered as pages turned rapidly. Having caught the scent of a big story, they gathered in front of the stage with faces like starving beasts about to lose their minds from hunger.

“Guillaume Hedebeau! Please say something about the forgery incident!”

“Is the auction house truly innocent? Can you guarantee that all the other works are authentic?”

“How do you plan to compensate for this damage?”

“A forgery incident at an auction targeting high-ranking members of social circles… This is a scoop, a scoop…!”

In an era where the concept of journalistic ethics didn’t exist, they competed to ask questions while thinking about how to write more sensational articles.

By tomorrow evening at the latest, other ‘customers’ who heard the news might personally come out to catch the fraudsters.

And at the very front of those ‘customers’ would be Uncle and the fraudulent appraiser, frantically trying to escape.

Just imagining it made me feel refreshed.

At the same time, I was worried about Father.

“Come to think of it, didn’t Marquis de Charmeuze also participate in the auction? Wait, doesn’t that person… usually do business with Guillaume’s Company?”

At one journalist’s casual remark, dozens of pairs of eyes began searching every corner of the auction house for Father.

“There he is!”

“Marquis de Charmeuze! Please give us a brief interview!”

“Who’s that person next to him?”

“I don’t know, just grab him!”

As journalists competed to climb up to the box seat, Father’s expression was too painful to watch.

‘Father…’

Rather than running away from the journalists, Father just gripped the railing of the box seat tightly and froze like a relief sculpture.

His eyes, wide with shock, trembled mercilessly, and his tightly pressed lips looked like they would crumble at the slightest touch.

What must Father be feeling right now?

The betrayal of a younger sibling he had trusted one last time, the shame that he of all people had fallen for such a scam, the regret and guilt for not listening to others’ advice and even pushing them away…

Then Father turned his head. It was precisely toward the location of my—no, Guillaume’s—box seat.

I hurriedly hid below the railing of the box seat. Father didn’t know I was here.

Felix looked puzzled and tilted his head.

I put my index finger to my lips, signaling him not to say anything.

‘I really can’t forgive Uncle.’

To think that an incident I had almost dismissed as ‘something that happened when I was young’ actually had such enormous implications.

Father had almost suffered the same pain. No, not just Father, but our entire family would have struggled.

They say time heals wounds and makes us forget memories, but it would be better if the wound never occurred in the first place.

‘Right now… let’s consider this a vaccination rather than a wound.’

So if only he had listened to people around him earlier… Ah, no. The person who deceived is the one at fault.

I barely managed to redirect the resentment I was about to feel toward Father and aimed it at Uncle instead.

Well then, I’ve done everything I needed to do for now.

The news will spread throughout Loire through the journalists’ hands, the victims will protest to Uncle, and while Uncle is fleeing, the ship carrying the problematic ‘cure-all medicine’ will arrive in Nantes.

If it’s revealed that even that is fake, Alain Lemur, having found his pretext, will gladly lead the charge in pursuing Uncle. If things escalate this much, the Royal Family will also issue stern orders to capture Uncle.

All that’s left for Uncle is a lifetime of guaranteed safety through prison life and a future of becoming fish food without anyone knowing.

There’s no escape route for Uncle.

Ah, there is one. The bottomless pit leading to hell.

“Felix. I should head home now.”

“That would be best. You must be quite shocked too…”

I had been planning to use exactly that excuse, so when Felix said that as if he had read my mind, I momentarily forgot what to say in response.

“…Thank you. And you’ll definitely become a better merchant than Guillaume.”

With those final words, I left the box seat.

Thanks to Monsieur Laurent clearing the way with his characteristically large build and fierce expression, I was able to safely reach the carriage.

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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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