#01

“Be careful of Michael. He is not a good man.”

Laura, whom I encountered by chance, whispered these words to me and then got on the carriage as if being chased by someone.

‘What’s going on?’

At the time, I thought my friend who was about to get married was having a change of heart. It couldn’t be helped.

Three years ago, when Laura became engaged to Marquis Michael Paine, all the young ladies of high society were envious.

Even I was.

The memory of when I first met Michael was still vivid in my mind. As I blankly stared at the departing carriage, Cedric, my secretary, spoke to me.

“Boss, do you know her?”

“Yeah. She was a friend.”

“I see you’re using the past tense, so I assume you’re not friends anymore.”

“Well. Maybe so.”

After all, it was she who cut ties with me after getting engaged.

“The friend I just saw is named Laura Swilton.”

At my words, one of Cedric’s thick, dark eyebrows rose. His gray eyes widened in surprise.

“You mean that rumored villainess?”

“Villainess? What do you mean?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I heard that this Laura person has been going around badmouthing you. I don’t understand why Marquis Paine got engaged to such a woman.”

Right. That’s what they say.

I found out after our ties were completely severed. That the woman I thought was a close friend had actually been spreading strange stories about me to people in high society.

Even when I sent letters asking to meet and talk things out, Laura ignored my contact without even replying.

One rumor begets another.

People who realized that my relationship with Laura had completely ended gave me belated advice.

‘Charlotte. Don’t trust that Laura person too much. Do you know how much she badmouths you behind your back? Actually, I misunderstood you all this time because I only believed what Lady Laura said.’

‘Badmouthing? What do you mean?’

‘Oh my, you didn’t know? She’s been going around saying that you’re dirty and lazy. She even said things like the man who marries you, Charlotte, would be pitiful, and that you actually have complicated relationships with men.’

At that time, I firmly believed in my friend’s innocence.

So I responded very harshly to such words from others.

‘I’m sorry, but Laura is not the kind of friend who would say such things. You must have mistaken her for someone else. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear this.’

After she saved my life, we had been close friends for several years. I believed that Laura would not make up non-existent stories and badmouth me to others. I thought it must be gossip made up by the talkative high society people who were jealous of Laura’s happiness. After all, Laura, a baronet’s daughter, had suddenly risen in status to become a marquis’s fiancée.

I was truly naive in the past.

But now I’m not sure what the truth is. Perhaps, as people say, the one I thought was my friend might actually be a villainess.

I deliberately changed the subject in front of Cedric.

“Speaking of Marquis Paine, did you contact him yesterday? What did he say?”

“Of course, he refused to sell, as expected.”

“Tch. He’s so stubborn.”

To expand the department store I run, I needed Marquis Paine’s land. And a large investment as well. I had bought up almost all the land around the department store, but the most crucial piece of land was in the hands of one of the richest men in the Ostonia Empire, which was giving me a headache.

“However, Count Douglas expressed interest in investing and asked to be contacted.”

“Oh? Then send him a message asking to have dinner together tonight.”

Cedric’s brow furrowed. He didn’t seem to like what I said.

“He’s a man with sinister intentions. It would be better if I accompany you two, rather than meeting him alone.”

“Is that really necessary?”

“He has bad drinking habits. I heard he recently divorced his wife, so he’ll definitely use the investment as an excuse to ask for personal meetings with you.”

“Then maybe I should try using my feminine charms. Should I seduce him with my beauty and extract a huge investment?”

I said it jokingly, but Cedric’s expression immediately hardened. I lightly hit his shoulder while watching my secretary who was emanating a cold atmosphere. Then I exaggeratedly said it was a joke.

“I’m kidding. That man’s not my type. Do I have time to leisurely date men right now? The department store still has a long way to go before it grows as big as I dream.”

“That’s a relief then.”

Well-run businesses tend to become famous. Thanks to that, even the high nobility have been showing interest in me lately, saying they want to invest. My department store business was growing day by day.

“Boss, have you had any good dreams lately?”

“No. It would be nice if I dreamed of Marquis Paine coming to me and saying he’d hand over the land.”

“Indeed.”

The occasional dreams I have tend to be quite accurate. Cedric is vaguely aware of this fact.

They call this kind of thing a premonitory dream, don’t they?

It was with the help of my dreams that I, who used to run a small fabric shop left by my father, was able to create ‘Liv Department Store’ and grow the business this big.

‘It’s really amazing. How did I have such a dream?’

One day while sleeping, the name suddenly came to me in a dream.

Liv Department Store.

A space decorated like a palace with a huge crystal chandelier covered in gold leaf hanging from the ceiling, and wide open on all sides. A place where you can shop for various products in one building, have meals and coffee, and spend a happy day before leaving.

I saw this place that contained all women’s wishes and desires in my dream a few years ago.

It sounded too absurd to say that I was simply putting into practice what I saw in a dream to run the business. So I explained to those curious about my business that I just wanted to capture women’s desires.

‘Fortunately, it sounded plausible to investors.’

The reason I was able to become the owner of Liv Department Store was thanks to the initial investment from Countess Roland, who seriously listened to my plan. When I used the investment to expand the building size and made it possible to buy everything cheaply at fixed prices, the number of customers grew day by day. The surrounding shops still haggled over prices, so customers got tired just trying to buy one item.

Cedric pointed at someone and raised the corner of his mouth.

“Another customer has been tempted by the show window.”

A young female customer was staring blankly at something in the show window before entering the department store as if enchanted. That show window was also something I saw in my premonitory dream. The clean glass display case captured women’s attention by boasting vivid colors in the soft sunlight.

I approached the show window and pointed at the bag on display today.

“The arrangement is too ordinary. Will customers like this? Especially that one, tell them to change it to a leather bag dyed with red dye to really catch the eye.”

“Understood, boss.”

Cedric, who is the general manager of the department store as well as my secretary, carried a notebook and carefully wrote down everything I said.

“This won’t do. Let’s set a date and barge in on Marquis Paine without notice.”

“What if you get kicked out again?”

It was about 2 years ago, wasn’t it? I had already been kicked out by Michael once before. My secretary had witnessed it all by my side. Feeling embarrassed, I took out my frustration on my secretary.

“Ugh. This won’t work, that won’t work. How annoying.”

“Seeing you get irritated, I think you must be hungry. Let’s go have a cozy meal with the employees in the basement cafeteria today.”

“What’s on the lunch menu?”

“They say it’s chicken and steamed fish.”

“Ah, that doesn’t taste good.”

“If you say that, the employees will curse at you.”

“That’s true. Should we raise the employees’ meal costs while we’re at it? I wonder how much money we’ll need?”

Cedric shook his head with a gentle smile. It was a smile that seemed to say he couldn’t help it.

***

Was it because I met Laura after a long time?

That night, I had a dream with strange content. It was so vivid that it even gave me an ominous feeling.

“Thank you for coming to Laura’s funeral.”

A gaunt Michael appeared in my dream and proposed a deal to me. The content of the contract was blurry and hard to see.

“If you keep this promise, I’ll hand over the land to you.”

What promise?

Maybe because it was a dream. The scene changed in an instant. Laura, whom I had met the day before, appeared dripping with blood, grabbed my collar, and poured out her resentment.

“Be careful of my fiancé! He is not a good man.”

Her eyes were bloodshot as she let her hair down. What funeral are you talking about, and why are you appearing to me like this?

“Wh-what is this!”

When I woke up startled, my whole body was drenched in sweat and I couldn’t get my bearings. My head was a bit dizzy. Above all, it was hard to judge where I was between the boundary of reality and dream.

‘It’s just a bad dream, right?’

Surely Laura couldn’t have died in that short time.

I agonized until the sun rose. Should I visit the Paine mansion without contacting them? But would they open the door to me now, when they refused to meet me 2 years ago?

With an uneasy feeling, I went to work at the department store, and around afternoon, Cedric burst into my office without knocking.

“Boss! There will be a funeral held at the Paine family tomorrow. They’ve asked you to attend without fail.”

No way. It can’t be, right?

I steadied my trembling voice and asked my secretary.

“Who passed away?”

Right. I heard rumors that Marquis Paine’s only sister was in poor health. Was her name Gabrielle? Just as I was thinking it must have come to that…

“That villainess! Ah, no. I mean Lady Laura, the woman you believe to be your friend, has passed away!”

My head went blank for a moment. Cedric’s words sounded faint, as if buzzing from far away.

“The police say she threw herself from the top of the Paine mansion.”

My premonitory dream was right again this time.