A Handsome Kinky Gangster Reporter

I answered Ferronel right away.

“Excuse me? No.”

No matter how much money I had, I wouldn’t go into a fancy boutique. The price of a piece of clothing is very expensive here.

“…Oh, I see. What’s your mother’s name?”

“Why are you asking?”

“Oh, nothing. I apologize for my rudeness.”

Ferronel tried to relieve her burning cheeks with a fan and threw an excuse that she seemed to have mistaken me for someone she knew. When she looked flustered, I started with a light question.

“Today, we’re going to interview Madame Ferronel about her success. First of all, I would like to know about Madame’s story when she was young. What were Madame’s parents like?”

Her eyes turned slightly red at my question. She wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and answered gracefully.

“They were commoner. Quite a harmonious family. However, there was a fire accident and caused them dead when I was 18 years old.”

“Oh, Goodness. You must be missing your parents a lot.”

“That’s right. Therefore, I want to hold a fashion show at the salon in behalf of them.”

Hmm? Isn’t it too soon for that?

Don’t people usually feel depressed for a while after their parents have died?

I held my notebook in my hand and nodded my head while making eye contact with her. Because I had to show my body that I was listening to you.

‘Or maybe he has come to accept the fact that his parents died a long time ago.’

Within that period of time, I didn’t know what kind of hidden story the lady had and I rudely continued. You must appear ridiculous, Haley. I should have asked more carefully.

“A fashion show? So, does it mean only a few invited guests are allowed for entry?”

“Yes, it will be held only for the customers of our store. They will be shown very original dresses and new designs first before they’re released to the public.”

“Is there a theme for the fashion show?”

“Longing and eternal happiness.”

The Madame casually told me about her personal event promotion. As expected, the speech of someone in the service profession was impeccable. I knew I was caught in Madame’s stride, but I had no choice but to follow her. I asked, while writing down the interview in my notebook.

“I’m really looking forward to it. It would be an honor if you could give me a call later.”

It was a polite remark, but Madame just smiled without trying to muster up an answer. I quickly moved on to the next question to keep the atmosphere from becoming awkward.

“So, did you come to the capital after the fire accident?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Can you tell me more about your hometown where you spent your childhood?”

One of Madame’s eyebrows twitched slightly after hearing my question.

“It’s not very important, so we can move on to the next question, can’t we?”

I didn’t want to go against Madame’s feelings for no reason, so I passed to the next question. Actually, this question was the one I wanted to hear the answer the most.

“Oh, it’s fine. Well then, let me ask you about the day you opened the P&P boutique. Did you start your business as soon as you arrived in the capital?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. How much money does a country girl have back then? I had no money even just to buy food. At first, I went to other clothing shops and worked on sewing station there. After a while, I think designer profession looked really cool. Therefore, I learned design while saving money.”

“Sewing. I supposed it didn’t make a lot of money. I can’t believe you can save up from that alone and open a boutique under your own name. You’re really amazing.”

“Right? When I was younger, I said that the times I got into trouble and suffered. Those were difficult times, but now that I look at it, I think it was proper in order to achieve success.”

The title of the article only came up to my mind. ‘The Suffering Youth.’

If you suffer from pain, you should see a doctor, although some readers may say what youth is like. To me, the Madame’s success story sounded like the title of a bestseller book in my past life. However, could such a simple title grab the reader’s attention? I quickly scribbled two lines above the title in my notebook.

‘No, I’d need a more provocative title.’

I dug deeper into the story of her suffering.

Madame Ferronel told about the long story from the dress shop owner who stole her designs first until she got to meet the Marquis, who then led her to become an exclusive designer and rake in the big bucks. It was the story of suffering and success that couldn’t be heard without having tears welled up in your eyes.

“Wow, so many people must be envious of your success, Madame. I wonder how you still be able to maintain your high reputation.”

“There is no secret. It’s just that I work hard while maintaining my standards.”

The Madame came up with the stereotype that perfect scores on the CSAT were learned mostly from the textbooks.

‘Hmm. This kind of generic answer would be boring for the readers.’

In my past life, internet articles had to be titled with some provocative remark. It attracted attention with their technique of adding words from cut-up sources. For example, the most effective method is making provoking titles.

‘Shocking.’

‘Huh, it turns out that…’

Such a method can be said to be one of the basics ways for grabbing attention.

Of course, I have a lot of potential skills, so I should return to the office and think about it more later.

“So, do you have any advice for people who want to become famous designers like you, Madame? Is there anything you want to say to them?”

The Madame pondered for a moment before giving a response.

“Genius and the ability to attract people’s attention are also matter. Most importantly, I would like to tell you that sincerity is necessary in this.”

Those boring words were quite ridiculous. I closed the interview with a smile while trying to hide my disappointment.

“Oh, I see. Thank you for taking your time having an interview with us.”

I finished the interview quickly because of the Madame’s schedule must have been pakced, but other than that, I still had a few more things to settle with Madame Ferronel. 

“Excuse me, Madame. There’s something I’d like to ask you personally.”

“What is it? If possible, just tell me the gist of it. I’ve already made a reservation to an appointment in an hour.”

“That there’s….”

I presented the proposal I thought of in my mind to Madame. If Madame refused this job, I was thinking of immediately skipping to another boutique. However, Ferronel, who heard my suggestion, agreed while showing a great interest.

“I’d love to. Are you fine with this? He is someone who has a very bad temper.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take care of everything, so, please make a pretty dress for me, Madame.”

“Alright, I can do that.”

On the receipt that Madame gave me was the price of a good amount of gold coins. Oh, I should have just gone to another boutique. I gave her the money and exclaimed when something came up to my mind.

“Oops, Madam. I’ll take some pictures of this. Is it okay if I put them in the newspaper?”

“Hmm… It’s just a picture.”

Madam narrowed her eyes to indicate that she was not interested in my suggestion.

“Can you take a picture of my shop so that everything can be seen? I wish this shop could be so small so that they could fit in one picture.”

“Yes, that is possible. Please come out of the shop when you are ready.”

I unloaded the camera and set it up inside the darkroom cart parked outside the P&P boutique. Due to Philip’s assistance, today’s shoot seemed to be completed effortlessly. By the way, I realized that something had been missing while I looked for the glass plate in my bag to be attached with the camera. The crime scene photos that I took earlier. Almost all of the images were missing. Except for one picture that I took from afar.

“Oh? Where’s the picture I took earlier?”

“Why, Haley? Are you looking for something?”

“Philip, didn’t I take some photos in the alleyway earlier? How did they disappear just like that?”

“Oh, I’ll go look for them. They must be left in the carriage.”

D*mn it. You ruined the pictures of the scenery. I rushed back to the scene after taking pictures of Madame’s dressing room and P&P from afar.

Meanwhile, the sun had already risen on the center of the sky, and I was able to dig into the police officers and the crowd, and get a picture of the other crime scene earlier.

‘That would have been a disaster. Our newspaper needs a sense of realism to it.’

I almost gone into a major accident when I was president of the newspaper. I started to sense a crisis so I had to quickly teach Mary and put her in the field.

*  *  *

Inside the Queen’s Bedroom, Orleans Castle.

Empress Fionia Eton was sitting in the armchair embroidered with red velvet and gold thread. She read the newspaper while pressing her fingers into the sticky top corner of the newspaper.

Shocking! Serial killers, Emerging in the Capital City!

Early yesterday morning, another dead body was found in a back alley in District 5. According to A, who runs a grocery store nearby, this is the third time this has happened in this week. The Golden Goose Daily published a photo of the reporter who visited the scene personally in the newspaper to inform readers about this shocking fact.

According to police officer B from the National Police Agency, the name of the person found was Fabian, an ordinary head of household who has a daughter. Fabian’s daughter is now in an orphanage, and his wife was known to be missing…….

“I know about it. Is the corpse in this newspaper the one we hired before?”

“Yes. I found out that all the people hired to destroy the Dunger Family at that time committed suicide.”

“Uh-huh. I see.”

The Empress’s lady-in-waiting, Countess Marice, seemed agitated. She seemed to want to say something to the empress. Marice hesitated before opening her mouth again.

“Your Majesty, will you be fine?”

Hearing the servant’s words, the empress put the newspaper away as if nothing had happened.

“Why wouldn’t I? You should as well stop minding about this.”

At that time, it was the empress who cursed those involved. Despite the fact that it was revealed that she was an empress because the curse she had to walk with. She remained unfazed because the curse cut off limbs of cursed person if they ever try to reveal the truth of the incident.

“And Thomas Dunger is said to have woken up. As you can see in the newspaper, this camera is also used exclusively by a newspaper company called Golden Wild Goose Daily.”

Upon Marice’s words, Fionia seemed shocked. When she checked the article again and read the newspaper carefully, she spotted a clear b&w image, which was used in the original newspaper.

“Sigh. I blocked it out like that, but it turned out like this.”

The Empress was interested in Thomas Dunger after hearing that he had imported the camera from abroad and brought it to the Imperial Palace. However, the wet-plate camera did not find its place in the palace for unknown reasons.

“Your Majesty, the owner of the Hyron Gambling House has brought in a new item from abroad. They would like to have an audience with you first.”

“Really? Send him in.”

Thomas, whom she met at that time, explained the camera in front of her and expressed his desire to work with this in the empire. Then, he held the object in front of him and took a single picture.

Click.

Along with the sound of the shutter, Fionia felt a strong pain in her chest. The spirit of the body’s owner, who had fallen asleep without his own will, opened his eyes and struggled to get out of his body. A bottle of liquor left in the closet near the bedroom finally began to shake.

“No way!”

The Empress blew on her body and grabbed it just before the soul bottle fell, she looked at the confused Thomas who wandered in the air.

“Take that thing, destroy it right away and banish its maker from the palace!”

The original soul of this body was almost released. That meant the end of Fionia’s long parasitic life. This was an occupied body. After going through many suffering, she finally defeated the red witch, Parbella, and became the empress which allowed her to put the world on her feet.

As a witch, Fionia wanted to live for eternity. However, such magic didn’t exist, and in the end, the way she found the way was to take other’s body. That way, she could live for hundreds of years.

‘How hard did I work to reach this position? I finally defeated Parbella. D*mn it.’