TBDS 01

Chapter 1

The Villainess Builds a Department Store

One day in December, when the bitter cold was at its worst.

People stood in a long line along the walls of a magnificent building, staring only at the hands of the clock.

8:59:10.

Thirty seconds.

Fifty-five seconds.

Ding!

At the sound of the bell, the uniformed doorman threw open the glass doors.

“Move!”

“I got here first!”

“Please, stop pushing!”

The people rushed into the building as if someone were chasing them from behind.

Above their heads fluttered a banner with beautifully decorated letters.

<Le Marché de Rêve Department Store Year-End Customer Appreciation Sale>

Unlike the first floor, which was packed so tightly that there was barely room to stand, the second floor was relatively quiet.

It was a special section reserved only for a select few important customers of the department store.

“It’s been a while, Madame Revelle. Did you come to see the new arrivals too?”

“Madame Lescion! It’s even nicer to see you here. My daughter was making such a fuss about it. She tries to follow everything you do.”

“My daughter is the same. Well, you can trust the quality at Rêve. Otherwise, how could it be an officially approved store?”

“I like it here because the prices are fixed. It wouldn’t be proper for ladies like us to haggle…. But buying something without negotiating is also worrying. What if we end up being overcharged?”

The noblewomen, dressed in thick fur and silk dresses, exchanged greetings with bright smiles.

“Oh, by the way, did you hear the news? Her fiancé was actually a prince!”

“Oh, please. A prince? Do you really think the royal family would accept someone who was raised among commoners?”

Just then, a clear voice interrupted the noblewomen.

“Shouldn’t we ask the person in question what he wants first?”

The noblewomen recognized the owner of the voice, and their faces turned pale.

“M-Mademoiselle Charmoize! And… Monsieur Bellueur….”

Adelaïde smiled gracefully and gave them a small nod. Unlike the smooth curve of her lips, her bluish-violet eyes were ice-cold.

They hurriedly covered their faces with their fans. But Adelaïde had already memorized their faces.

Without saying anything else, Adelaïde tilted her head slightly and asked her fiancé,

“Are you going back?”

The moment their eyes met, a tiny flame flickered in his red eyes, which had seemed languid, as if submerged in water.

“Why would I?”

His immediate answer was as sharp as a blade. He gave a charming smile and let out a quiet laugh.

He sounded as though he wouldn’t go even if the royal family offered him the throne itself.

The man lightly kissed the back of Adelaïde’s hand before adding,

“Why would I, when you’re not there?”

His low, languid voice was filled with affection, and somewhere nearby, a girl let out an envious gasp.

“Seb. We’re in front of people.”

Yet even as Adelaïde pushed the man away with her fan, an unmistakable smile remained on her lips.

The man chuckled like a playful boy and rested his chin on top of Adelaïde’s fan.

“A prince wouldn’t be able to do this.”

Having your lips sparkling above my head is all I need.

At those words, the eyes of the girls who had been watching them while holding their breath grew even wider.

Adelaïde shook her head with a sigh, as though she were already used to him acting this way.

But the affection in her gaze as she looked at her lover could not be hidden.

“…Anyway, that’s what the person in question thinks.”

“……”

Adelaïde spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“Please look forward to our spring sale as well. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something to suit your taste on the first floor.”

It meant that the noblewomen who had spoken ill of her lover would no longer be invited to the special section.

In other words, they had been expelled from high society.

But the noblewoman could not even protest.

Adelaïde’s word was practically the law of high society.

“Let’s go, Bastian. We should look around the first floor too.”

“W-Wait! Please, wait! That’s not what I meant….”

Tap.

Bastian lightly knocked away the hand of the noblewoman who belatedly tried to cling to him.

“I’m sorry, madam. Since I’m just a lowly commoner, I suppose even the manners I learned are rather crude.”

There was not the slightest hint of regret in his attitude. Just as the noblewoman was about to lose herself in anger and forget her situation—

“Oh, right. About the fixed-price idea.”

Adelaïde added as if she had just remembered something.

“……?”

“That idea was Bastian’s. He’s an even greater genius than I am.”

With that, Adelaïde calmly walked past the noblewoman, who had been left completely speechless.

Truly.

Having dealt with him twice already, she could personally vouch for it.

“You shameless little thing!”

Splash!

Cold water was poured over my head.

The shock of the cold instantly cleared my mind, while the stench of plant stems that had rotted from not having their water changed stabbed at my nose.

“You don’t even know how grateful you should be for everything I’ve done for you! How dare you!”

In the end, the flower vase shattered with a crash, sending sharp fragments flying in every direction.

I rubbed my cheek at the sharp sting of pain, and a thin smear of blood came away on my fingers.

You’re really going all out, aren’t you?

“You were kicked out by your own husband, and now you’re crawling back here? Huh? Where do you think you are?”

“He was the one who cheated first. I raised myself when I was young, and this is the estate where I grew up and which I inherited. Aren’t you ashamed, Uncle? How can you swallow up your nieces’ and nephews’ inheritance like that and still….”

Smack!

Pain tore through my cheek as if someone had gouged it with a red-hot poker, and a scream escaped me.

Of all places, he had to hit the side where the fragments had struck.

“Get out right now!”

I was driven out by the servants’ rough hands, but even after I reached the front of the estate, I could barely bring myself to walk away.

Damn Uncle.

After my parents both died in a train accident, my uncle became the guardian of my younger brother and me. He squandered all of our parents’ considerable fortune in no time.

And now he was even trying to sell off the noble title that belonged to my younger brother.

How could he learn about his own nephew’s engagement from a newspaper instead of being told directly?

To make matters worse, my brother already had a woman he had promised to marry.

I had immediately taken the newspaper and gone to the estate, but all I got in return was a shower of rotten water and a slap.

In the end, the walk home felt unbearably heavy, weighed down by helplessness and despair at having failed to solve anything.

The person who greeted me when I returned home with weak, dragging steps was not an empty house, but Antoine, whose face was worn out with exhaustion.

“Antoine? Why are you home at this hour? D-Did you… get fired?”

“Fired? Me? Of course not, Sis. I just came back to get some documents I left behind. More importantly, what happened to your face? Don’t tell me Uncle did it again….”

“I’m sorry…. I tried to persuade him one last time, but it didn’t work.”

“Why are you apologizing, Sis? Let’s put some medicine on it first. It would be terrible if it left a scar.”

“Forget that. What did the boss say?”

“He said that whether I become a son-in-law or a kept man, he’ll still be my employer, so I should just go back to work.”

“…That’s a relief.”

Honestly, what a personality.

Yet that very arrogance of his somehow put my mind at ease.

Sebastian Bellueur, commonly known as Bastian.

Once again, he had saved our siblings.

He was a commoner who employed nobles, the owner of the officially approved Bellueur Department Store, and above all, the unparalleled genius who had first created the concept of a “department store.”

For the most part, he despised nobles and royals equally, as though they were nothing more than insects.

There was only one exception.

He showed generous tolerance toward those who proved their own worth.

Antoine was one such example.

If Bastian had not recognized and acknowledged my brother’s talent, he might have been shivering in some back alley by now instead of living in a modest but clean residence.

“He really is a wonderful person, isn’t he? Make sure you tell him how grateful I am.”

“I will. Oh, right. The boss said we should have a meal together once everything at work is settled. You should come too, Sis.”

“Me?”

At those unexpected words, tension returned to my shoulders.

I had only met Bastian once.

‘Antoine? And behind you… Who is that…. W-Wait, don’t tell me Uncle borrowed money in our names again? I don’t have even a single coin to give you, not even if I starve to death! So leave right now—!’

‘He’s our boss….’

‘…Then come inside and at least have a meal! I may not have enough coins to eat and die, but I do have enough soup for two people to eat until one of them drops dead.’

Of all the possible memories, why did my first and last meeting with him have to be like that?

“Yeah. I think he has something to say to us. I’d better get going. See you later, Sis.”

“Take care.”

After seeing Antoine off, looking so exhausted that he seemed ready to collapse if someone so much as touched him, I returned inside.

Then I froze when I saw the documents neatly placed on the table.

Those are… the documents he came back to get, aren’t they?

“Antoine! You left your documents!”

It was the moment I ran outside without thinking, intending to chase after him.

Bang!

With a tremendous roar, my body was thrown into the air.

The next moment, I heard something being smashed and crushed.

Ah.

I’m going to die.

I knew it instinctively.

A series of images began flashing before my eyes.

But… this montage is awfully long.

The images continued moving backward through time, passing through my happy childhood and going even further into the past.

Wait.

What’s this?

Unfamiliar scenery, unfamiliar people, unfamiliar languages.

They surged through my mind like waves.

Then I remembered.

This was the world of the book I had been reading.

‘Are you kidding me? You should’ve remembered something like this… much sooner…!’

That was my last memory.