TVBADS ch.03

Chapter 03

The Villainess Builds a Department Store

“Antoine!”

Calling my brother’s name, I flung the door open.

Startled by the sudden noise, his loud sobbing stopped at once.

Over the railing of the crib, I met a pair of purple eyes so much like my own.

His tear-soaked eyes widened at the unexpected appearance of his sister.

Then, as if recognizing me, he began to whimper again.

“Nu… Nuna…?”

The word was clumsy, breath hitching between syllables—but it was unmistakable.

He had called me Nuna.

In that instant, an indescribable heat spread from my heart through my entire body.

“Uuuh… hic! Sniff!”

“W-wait, Antoine! Don’t wipe your nose on my clothes! Silk is hard to wash!”

But right now, he was nothing more than a snot-nosed baby, smearing tears, mucus, and even drool all over his sister’s nightgown.

Of course he was.

Antoine was six years younger than me.

Even though I had grown younger too, at four years old he was still a baby. A literal baby.

“Are you okay?”

“Huuuh… waaaah! Hic…!”

His fluffy black hair was drenched with sweat, plastered to his forehead.

From how much he’d cried, his delicate skin and eyelids were flushed red—it was painful to look at.

“Where’s your nanny?”

“Nan… nanny… waaah!”

The moment I mentioned her, the tears that had barely begun to stop started pouring down again.

Fine. It would be faster to find her myself than try to get answers from a crying child.

The nanny used the adjoining room so she could attend to him at any time.

But even now, the door to that room was tightly shut.

As if no one were inside at all.

“Nanny! Is anyone there?”

No response.

Not even a sound.

Did something happen to her?

A flood of ominous possibilities flashed through my mind.

I shook my head hard and grabbed the doorknob.

“It’s… open?”

Surprisingly, the door hadn’t even been locked.

“Nanny!”

But the room was empty.

“Antoine, where did the nanny go?”

“…S-she said… hic! When I wake up… she’d come back!”

“What?”

It felt like someone had struck me on the head.

She left a four-year-old child alone?

Antoine mumbled in a voice thick with sobs.

“N-nanny said… sniff… Antoine is four now… so he has to… hic! sleep alone…”

Sleeping alone didn’t mean abandoning him entirely!

So this is what it meant for your vision to go black.

There was nothing wrong with practicing sleeping independently from a young age.

And even though I didn’t remember her face or name clearly, I vividly recalled how strict and severe this nanny had been. She must have treated Antoine harshly.

But that was different from leaving him without any guardian to come running if something happened.

Why didn’t you tell anyone?

The question rose to my tongue, but I forced it back down.

The one to interrogate was the nanny who abandoned a child—not Antoine.

‘Mother and Father… probably don’t know.’

A mother who was always confined to her bed.

A father frequently absent from the estate.

Naturally, the care of the children fell to the nanny and the servants.

And since Mother herself couldn’t properly supervise them, the nanny practically held unchecked authority.

She could wield a whip instead of a rod and the maids wouldn’t dare protest.

It would be overstepping their bounds.

As a result, while I—old enough to manage on my own—was mostly fine, Antoine had effectively been neglected.

How had I not known?

The answer came quickly.

At this age, I hadn’t cherished Antoine much.

If anything, I’d seen him as a rival who stole our mother’s already scarce affection—a clingy nuisance who followed me everywhere.

So whether he was neglected or not, I hadn’t cared.

It seemed I would need to revise my plans drastically.

* * *

As Adelaide stared grimly at the empty room, Antoine grew frightened and glanced up at her anxiously.

“When you wake up, I’ll be right here,” the nanny had said.

He had believed her.

But when he woke, he was still alone.

He cried from sorrow and fear, and his sister came running to comfort him.

But she was different from usual.

Normally, she didn’t care whether he fell or cried!

What was happening? Was he dreaming?

His eyes darted nervously at the unfamiliar situation.

And now, the sister who had just comforted him was glaring into empty space with wide eyes.

Was she angry at him?

Because he hadn’t acted like a proper future baron…?

In a thin voice that seemed ready to dissolve into the air, Antoine apologized.

“S-sorry, Nuna…”

I was wrong. So don’t hate me, okay?

Would she scold him too? Sigh in disappointment like the nanny?

“D-don’t… hate meee…”

“….”

At that moment, her expression crumpled.

As if unwilling to let him see her face, she pulled him tightly into her arms.

“It’s okay. From now on, I’ll protect you.”

“N-Nuna?”

“Antoine. I’m your sister. It’s only natural for an older sister to protect her younger brother.”

It was too difficult for young Antoine to fully understand.

But even if he couldn’t comprehend it, he could feel it.

Nuna is on my side.

With that thought, her arms—once stiff and awkward—felt a little warmer.

“Antoine. Did the nanny say where she was going?”

Since he had calmed down somewhat, we needed to find her.

But Antoine only shook his head.

‘Well, no fool would announce they’re abandoning a child.’

But here’s the problem.

I have a pretty good guess where she is.

This had happened in my previous life.

The nanny had suddenly been dismissed, along with the stablehand and several servants.

Back then, I hadn’t known why.

Now, I knew all too well.

Adelaide looked down at the bare floor—without even a carpet—and smiled faintly.

“Antoine. Shall we go treasure hunting?”

“…Treasure hunting?”

He had played that game once in the garden with everyone.

The memory of that joyful day seemed to lighten his body, once heavy like soaked cotton.

His eyes sparkled.

“Mm-hmm. If you tap the floor tiles, they make this sound, right? But there should be one tile that sounds different. There’s treasure underneath.”

“I want to!”

They say when you cry and then laugh, your body undergoes a big change. Adelaide suppressed a smile.

Still sniffling, Antoine lay flat on the floor, grinning.

“If my memory’s right… it should be around here.”

“Nuna! This one sounds different! This one goes knock knock, but that one goes thud thud!”

“Just as expected! You’re amazing, Antoine!”

She ruffled his hair, and his tear-and-snot-covered face broke into a radiant smile.

At first glance, the wooden tiles seemed evenly fitted.

But on closer look, one section didn’t quite match—as if a rotten piece had been replaced.

When they pried it up, a small hollow space appeared beneath.

And there it was.

The “treasure.”

“That’s treasure? It’s just paper.”

“Yes. It’s a very precious treasure. Let’s give it to Mother and Father tomorrow.”

In my previous life, this “treasure” had been discovered during renovations to rip up the tiles for sale—driving the baron’s already fallen reputation straight into the abyss.

And now, it would become the means to save Antoine.

If that wasn’t treasure, what was?

“Mom and Dad?”

“If we say you found it, they’ll be happy. And tonight, let’s sleep together.”

“With you?”

His excited voice nearly reached the ceiling.

“I want to!”

The small body that leapt into my arms no longer smelled of loneliness and sorrow.

Instead, it carried that soft, sweet scent unique to babies.

Ah. He’s my brother, but he’s really adorable.

Children should laugh and cry and run around. They should fall down and sometimes throw unreasonable tantrums.

And above all, they deserve to be loved endlessly by those who love them.

‘Antoine. Just trust your big sister.’

* * *

The next morning, the maid who came to wake Adelaide discovered the empty bed—

and collapsed on the spot with a scream.

“The young lady is gone!”