The Villainess is a Millionaire Solver - Chapter 1

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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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Chapter 1

Prologue

They say there’s a building owner above the Creator, but honestly, this was too much.

“What is this! You completely copied what my mother made!”

Ashley, a maid at the Duke’s mansion, had come to help her mother on her day off, only to be horrified. The building owner had set up an identical knockoff store in the very spot where Ashley’s family bakery used to be.

The very same ‘Honey Lemon Cupcake’ bakery that had become famous through word of mouth for her mother and sister’s special touch.

“You said you were kicking us out to open a clothing store? This was your plan all along! You wanted to steal our recipes because our shop was doing well!”

“Steal? What are you talking about? Did your mother create ‘Honey Lemon Cupcakes’ for the first time? You just combined honey, lemon, and cupcakes! Are you claiming your family was the first to make honey, lemons, and cupcakes?”

The building owner and his son raised their voices with shameless audacity.

Ashley was known for being quite capable at the Duke’s mansion, but seeing her mother suffer such injustice made her body tremble and tears well up in her eyes.

“Stop being unreasonable! Our shop is the only place where people line up from dawn! My mother researched for 10 years to make it refreshing without sourness even when adding whole lemon juice! And you just copy all of that?”

“We also researched for 10 years! Get lost before we call the guards!”

The building owner and his son roughly kicked out the three women of Ashley’s family.

“Please don’t buy from that store! They’re thieves who stole our shop’s recipes!”

She appealed to people, but no one was interested. They were only busy lining up, saying “So this is that famous cupcake?”

“What do we do now?”

Her mother’s soul had left her body. After the sudden notice, they had barely managed to get a loan to move the shop, but now they were about to lose everything and end up on the streets.

“This is too much. Mom and sister only slept 4 hours a day to get this far…”

Ashley finally burst into tears that she had been holding back.

But then.

A loud BANG! echoed from behind them.

“What? Did a war break out…?”

People who turned around were startled.

Fireworks exploded in the middle of the street, and as the covering was removed, a magnificent three-story building revealed itself right next to the building owner’s knockoff bakery.

【Authentic Honey Lemon Cupcakes】.

Under the blindingly flashy sign, dozens of staff members in pristine white uniforms lined up on both sides.

Click-clack.

With the clear sound of footsteps on stone pavement, the figure who appeared was a dazzling blonde noble young lady.

A dress decorated with jet-black lace embroidered stitch by stitch by an artisan. That surreal beauty surrounded by the rainbow-colored brilliance reflected by the finest diamonds.

Her slightly upturned eyes and rose-colored pupils looked down on everyone arrogantly, as if no one else mattered.

Ashley was shocked.

“Y-Young Lady?”

That’s right. This noble young lady was none other than the master’s daughter of the ducal mansion where Ashley worked. Everyone stared at this scene in a daze.

Princess Aristina Bianca Rosen!

So famous that everyone knew her just by saying ‘Princess Aristina’ without even mentioning her family name.

The nation’s most hated person. A regular on newspaper social pages. The destroyer of all parties. So notorious that she was the only one in the empire called by the derogatory title of ‘villainess.’

But the only daughter of an incredibly wealthy duke, with money rotting away in abundance.

The fact that this famous princess had appeared here meant, surely…

‘Is that incident going to happen again?’

The people who had shown no interest in the three women’s pleas were different when a celebrity appeared.

While everyone stared without even blinking, the building owner trembled and shouted.

“Hey, Princess! Setting up an identical shop next to someone else’s and hanging up an 【Authentic】 sign! Just because you’re a noble, does that mean you can steal other people’s businesses?”

“Steal?”

Aristina replied while opening her fan.

“Did you create the dessert called Honey Lemon Cupcakes for the first time? You just combined honey, lemon, and cupcakes! Are you claiming you were the first to make honey, lemons, and cupcakes?”

After throwing back the exact same words he had used, the princess turned her gaze to glare coldly at Ashley, her own maid.

Ashley gasped and knelt down.

“I was wrong! Young Lady! Please forgive me!”

“Do you even know what you did wrong when you’re begging? You committed a very grave sin!”

“Gasp! Please spare me!”

“…When you have such a good business item, you should have introduced it to me. Your mother is a genius!”

“Pardon?”

“Still can’t get it together? Prepare yourself. As punishment for neglecting your duties as a maid, you’ll have to sign this agreement right now. Butler!”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

The Duke’s butler stepped forward and presented a document.

It wasn’t a slave contract or organ trafficking agreement that Ashley had imagined. It was a business contract.

I, Aristina Bianca Rosen, will purchase all cupcakes made at Ashley Family Bakery, including current inventory, at more than twice the current highest price for exclusive sales. All costs for sales and promotion will be entirely borne by the princess’s trading company…

When fully interpreted, it meant this:

You just need to make them. I’ll buy everything at twice the highest price, promote them lavishly, and sell them. The better the response, the more I’ll raise the purchase price to 3 times, 4 times, infinitely.

Ashley’s pupils shook as if hit by an earthquake.

“Y-Young Lady…?”

“What? Do you have complaints?”

“N-No, it’s not that… This contract is incredibly beneficial for our family, but… buying at several times the highest price, operating the store, and considering distribution and promotion, it seems like Young Lady would lose too much money. Are you really okay with this?”

At that moment, the jeweled fountain pen in Aristina’s hand cracked! The butler hurriedly signaled with his eyes.

“Oh my, Ashley! Young Lady got tired of buying luxury goods and jewelry, so she just wants to waste money somewhere new. How could you not know that while serving by her side?”

“I-I understand!”

“Then hurry up and humor her!”

The butler said this and turned around.

“Now then, everyone! There will be a Royal Opera Troupe performance to celebrate the contract signing! Also, today we’ll be giving lottery tickets to everyone who purchases the ‘Ashley Family’s Authentic Honey Lemon Cupcake Set’! First place winner gets 50 million! Two second place winners get 10 million each! Three third place winners get 5 million each…!”

The onlookers couldn’t believe their ears.

“That’s crazy! What bakery lottery has such a huge scale? Give me all those cupcakes!”

“Here too! Take my wallet!”

Ashley’s family was simply bewildered.

No matter how much the thief struggled, they couldn’t match the original taste that had been perfected over 10 years.

With ultra-luxurious marketing giving it wings, the building owner’s knockoff shop instantly became deserted.

To think they’d have to close down with massive losses right after opening.

Seeing the devastated building owner and his son, Ashley’s family felt a refreshing satisfaction like drinking carbonated water.

But that aside…

Ashley’s mother’s face turned pale after quickly calculating on her calculator.

“How much did your Young Lady spend? The cost of buying the adjacent building, interior costs, event costs… Even roughly calculated, isn’t it billions? Ashley, what exactly is going on here?”

“Well, that’s…”

Ashley didn’t know how to answer.

Her mother and sister didn’t know because they were busy baking day and night, but the Young Lady had been acting strange lately. Should she say she was doing her hobby of ‘money wasting’ in a weird direction?

She had spent vast fortunes several times to save people who were unfairly bullied, earning her the nickname ‘Millionaire Problem Solver.’

“Your Young Lady wasn’t originally like that. Did she perhaps decide to change her ways and live kindly from now on?”

“No! Not at all! She’s still cruel and violent.”

Aristina’s profile as she looked around the new business location was dazzlingly beautiful, yet as menacing as a cat that would scratch at the slightest touch.

Nevertheless, Ashley couldn’t contain her curiosity and carefully approached.

“Um, Young Lady. You didn’t help us because you felt sorry for our family, did you?”

At that moment, Aristina’s eyes flashed menacingly.

“Are you accusing me of doing good deeds right now?”

Ashley’s legs immediately gave out.

“I’m sorry! How dare I make such a personal attack on Young Lady…! Please forgive me! I just! I really asked because I didn’t know. Why exactly did you willingly invest such money in our family?”

“Hmph, there’s no point in questioning it now. Since we’re bound by this wicked financial contract that can never be broken with me…”

Behind her fan, Aristina’s face showed a wicked smile as if embodying evil itself.

“You won’t be able to think about killing me anymore.”

“…?”

Ashley asked back with a dumbfounded expression.

“Pardon?”

* * *

“M-murder?! Haha, Young Lady! What kind of violent joke is that…!”

“Right. Exactly. I was just making a joke.”

I replied while fluttering my fan back and forth.

But it wasn’t really a joke.

The reason I’m going around causing all this commotion is truly to escape the fate of being murdered.

You think I’m being overly paranoid? Not at all. When I opened my eyes, the owner of this body had already been murdered.

‘At the very least, why couldn’t I be a villainess who’s still alive and well…?’

There’s no point in lamenting my fate like this. What can I do? I just have to work hard to survive.

In a situation where there’s not even a clue about who the murderer is, and murder flags are scattered everywhere like landmines.

All I had was money.

So I had no choice but to use that very money as a weapon to diligently clear those landmines. That strategy seemed to be working, fortunately.

“A-anyway, thank you so much!”

Ashley bowed repeatedly with her reddened face until her head nearly wore out.

Hehehe… It was hard to figure out her weakness, but who knew she was going through such hardship. Now that we’re tied together in a business relationship, it would be your loss if you murdered me. Ashley, you’re completely caught.

I crossed out ‘Preliminary Suspect #71: Ashley Bales’ from the blacklist in my head.

‘With this, I’ve gotten one step closer to survival today!’

Amidst the shower of attention, I returned home in splendor.

Thinking that the culprit who killed Aristina might be hiding somewhere watching me even at this very moment, I can’t let my guard down.

But even so, there has to be some breathing room. Since I accomplished something today, let me rest for a bit, and continue this fierce game afterward.

Returning to the Ducal Mansion, I threw off my coat and said,

“Rose today.”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

At the end of the corridor, massive doors swung wide open.

A space where a beautiful night view, said to be One of the Eight Wonders of the Empire, spread out beneath my feet. One of the Seven Baths Owned by Duchess Aristina.

In the center of various famous paintings and sculptures, a marble bathtub as large as a swimming pool was placed.

The bathwater floating with fragrant rose petals was perfectly warm, and as I dipped my toes in, my whole body relaxed languidly.

“Here it is, Young Lady.”

Harp music that supposedly contains the divine power of saints, making your skin smooth just by listening to it.

Listening to that melody, I flipped through the catalog the maid brought me page by page.

“This one. And this one. One of each color for everything.”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

It might seem like luxury shopping, but I’m actually hunting for new items essential to becoming the survival king.

Still, it was shopping, and splurging like this did relieve some stress.

“Oh my, your fingers have gotten stiff from all that shopping.”

My maid, who possesses the finest massage skills in the Empire, quickly and gently loosened my fingers.

Feeling refreshed all the way to the tips of my hair, I gulped down the golden fruit wine in the glass cup beaded with dew.

Perhaps because I felt drowsy, I found myself thinking about numbers for the first time in a while.

‘The price of this fruit wine equals my former monthly income. All the rose petals floating in the bathwater combined would be worth a compact car. That pure white luxury bathrobe over there costs as much as the deposit for my studio apartment…’

As you can see, I was originally the epitome of an ordinary citizen. But suddenly I became the only daughter of a Duke’s Family, achieving a quadruple crown of tremendous status, vast wealth, heavenly beauty, and the worst personality.

“You really never know what life will bring.”

Leaning my head languidly against the bathtub, I slowly closed my eyes.

How my life ended up like this, well…

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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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