TVBDS 13

Chapter: 13

The 10 francs Uncle Guillaume had presented were worth roughly 100,000 won.

It was by no means a small amount of money, but it was also not enough to buy something that could fill this enormous room.

The children each fell into thought, sighing or frowning as they tried to come up with an answer.

“What can you even buy with just 10 francs?”

Felix complained.

What do you mean, what can you buy with 10 francs?

If the old me, who almost got thrown out in the middle of winter because I didn’t have even those 10 francs, had heard him say that, I would have smacked him.

The other children only kept their mouths shut, but they seemed to secretly agree with Felix.

“This is why people need to experience many things.”

“What?”

“You can buy a basket of flowers, no, even an entire cart of them if you just go to the market!”

“The market? Why would I go to such a dirty place?”

At Felix’s attitude, which naturally made me sigh, I looked at Uncle Guillaume with a brief expression of pity.

Ironically, Felix’s own father, Monsieur Hedebo, was making huge profits by bringing goods from that very “dirty market” across the sea.

Uncle Guillaume also seemed unable to believe that such words had come out of his son’s mouth, and the corners of his lips stiffened.

“Then what are you going to do, Felix?”

“Hmph! Of course… They’ll bring something suitable themselves!”

“What?”

His attitude wasn’t just confident.

It was so arrogant and certain that I wondered if he had suddenly gained the ability to see the future.

“What are you so surprised about? You’re familiar with it too, aren’t you? Merchants coming to us first, begging us to buy their goods.”

“……”

“The ability to choose the most suitable item among the things they bring—that ‘eye for selection’ is what a merchant needs. Isn’t that right, Father?”

Sigh.

When am I ever going to turn this idiot into a proper person?

The son of a merchant was saying that instead of personally putting in effort, he would simply move his finger and choose from whatever was brought to him.

For a moment, I was speechless.

Instead of answering immediately, Uncle Guillaume stared at his son with unreadable eyes.

Then, in an instant, he changed his expression and replied in a playful tone.

“Who knows?”

The moment of hesitation from Uncle Guillaume was so brief that no one else would have noticed.

But because I was standing right beside the father and son, I saw it clearly.

The disappointment toward his son that even a short silence couldn’t completely hide.

And the despair and resentment of a son toward a father who did not praise him.

…Could there be another reason why Felix became like this?

After that, the children gathered together and began thinking seriously.

But there was no way the answer to the problem would be some random collection of useless things a child bought after spending 10 francs while trying their best to think.

Even I, after considering it carefully, couldn’t come up with a brilliant idea that made me think, “That’s it!”

“Haha. Then let’s meet at the next meeting. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone brings back.”

And so, Uncle Guillaume left us with homework and walked away with a much lighter step.

After the incident with Madame Severin, my parents created a new playroom in the mansion for Antoine and me.

It was spacious enough for us to run around as much as we wanted, and the floor was covered with soft carpets so we wouldn’t get hurt even if we fell.

Naturally, it became the place where we spent most of our days.

I was lying around with Antoine on a pile of cushions near the sunny window, hugging whichever cushion my hands happened to grab while groaning.

“Hmm… I can’t think of anything suitable…”

What kind of answer did Uncle Guillaume want?

It couldn’t simply mean that we should develop our eye for choosing goods as merchants.

But it also couldn’t mean that we should use 10 francs to somehow expand it until the room was filled with money.

Even adults would have difficulty doing something like that.

Then what was it really?

Was he simply planning to laugh at whatever things the children bought and end it there?

At this point, I even started suspecting that Uncle Guillaume had just said the first thing that came to mind.

I released the cushion I had been tightly hugging and collapsed back onto the floor.

A pleasant breeze entered through the half-open window and brushed against Antoine’s and my bangs.

The wind smelled like flowers, probably because it had passed through the garden.

The large room was instantly filled with a sweet fragrance.

‘The scent fills the room?’

Oh.

Wait.

That’s it!

My eyes widened.

The tangled thoughts inside my head suddenly became clear, as if a knot had been undone.

There was no need to fill the room with something that could be seen and touched, right?

“Antoine! Do you want to go to the market with your sister? Let’s go do Uncle’s homework!”

A customer trying to lower the price by even a single coin.

A seller refusing to lower it no matter what.

Between the two people who looked ready to grab each other, a fish merchant casually passed by while pulling a cart that reeked of fish.

“Oops!”

“You crazy bastard! Open your eyes properly!”

Meanwhile, across the street, a flower-selling girl and a pickpocket exchanged glances while searching for prey.

Hmm.

A market scene that was no different from usual.

“Sister… Can we go somewhere else? It smells weird here.”

Antoine covered his nose tightly with his small hand and clung to me while speaking in a nasal voice.

Although the carriage windows were tightly closed, an indescribable smell slowly seeped inside through the gaps.

Camille, who had accompanied us as our guardian, also looked uncomfortable as he took out a handkerchief from his pocket.

“Let’s hurry.”

Only after crossing a bridge did Antoine finally release his nose.

“Phew!”

Antoine’s nose had turned completely red.

Perhaps feeling suffocated, he opened the window wide and took a deep breath.

Across the river, the horrible stench had changed into the delicious smell of freshly baked bread.

Unlike the market, where not only our ears but also our eyes and noses suffered, entering Rière Street, where guilds and workshops lined up side by side, almost felt like entering the royal palace.

Through the spotless glass windows of each shop, employees wearing black satin vests over white shirts explained things to customers.

Their elegant and polite manners were clearly not something achieved overnight.

After passing several such stores, the carriage finally stopped in front of one workshop.

Among all the shops we had passed so far, this one had especially large glass windows, and the brass decorations on its signboard shone brightly even from a distance.

It was obvious how prestigious this workshop was.

“Sister, where are we?”

“A watch workshop. A place where they make watches and machines.”

Before I knew it, Antoine had rushed toward the glass window and began looking inside as if he was about to crawl straight through it.

“Wow. There are so many amazing things.”

“All the items here are works carefully created by craftsmen, so you can’t touch them carelessly. Promise me you’ll only look with your eyes, okay?”

“Yes!”

Honestly, he really was good at answering.

When we entered the shop, a receptionist wearing a black apron over a shirt with rolled-up sleeves greeted us.

“Welcome!”

Behind her round glasses was a gentle smile.

A name tag on her chest read:

Emily Tonel.

She was the greatest engineer in the history of Loire and a genius inventor who would later become the first woman to enter the Royal Science Academy’s Hall of Fame.