Chapter 64

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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: I Thought I Was the Protagonist
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“Can't you hear me? Get the owner!”

The unreasonable guest was utterly brazen.

“Sir, may I ask what business you have with the owner?”

Even though the employee must have been flustered by the strange customer, her response was impeccable.

“What do I need some lowly employee like you to know for?”

But her opponent was someone common sense didn't apply to.

“I need to know what it's about so I can...”

The employee tried to respond calmly despite being caught off guard mid-sentence.

“I've got no business with a mere employee, so get the owner out here!”

This time, the man raised his voice quite loudly.

It was a deliberate show, and in an instant, the air inside Mabel turned icy.

The employees panicked.

The customers enjoying their desserts furrowed their brows.

I knew that once Mabel started doing well, someone would try to sabotage us.

‘But isn't this too fast? Isn't it too much on the very first day!’

I trembled with the urge to rush out and confront him myself.

“Miss, hold it in. You said you had to stay out of sight today, right?”

Billy, who knew my temper well, pressed down on my shoulders with both hands to keep me from charging out.

Having spent so much time with me, he could read exactly what I was about to do.

“I'm holding it in. Holding it in.”

The words came out through gritted teeth.

“Look over there. May's noticed. She'll handle it well.”

Billy tried to divert my attention.

I spotted May, who had belatedly realized what was happening, hurrying over, and that calmed me down a bit.

May pushed the rebuked employee behind her and stepped forward to face the disruptive customer.

“What's the problem?”

The guest, standing arrogantly with arms crossed, looked May up and down.

“You're the owner here?”

“Yes. But what's with this commotion? If you have something to say, you should visit properly with manners. What kind of rudeness is this during business hours?”

Well done, May!

She fired off the perfect words in a calm, measured tone.

Any normal person would have felt ashamed.

But the guest just snorted.

“With manners? You're the one who broke them first. I'm the owner of the shop across the street. Aren't you the ones who violated business etiquette first?”

“!”

When she learned the man's identity, May gasped in surprise.

Marygold's owner was its head pastry chef.

In other words...

‘Pam! Bell's nemesis!’

I'd only read the documents Delia investigated, so I didn't know Pam's face, and even I was startled.

I hadn't expected him to act so directly and so soon.

“That guy's the owner of Marygold.”

“Why would Marygold's owner come here?”

“He must be pissed that we opened a competing shop right in front of him, so he came to inspect us.”

Pam was quite famous around here.

It was only natural that the owner of a popular shop was seen as the top expert.

Stunned by Pam's unexpected appearance, May snapped out of it at the customers' murmurs.

“If you'd like to talk, let's move to a quieter spot.”

May suggested calmly.

But...

“As I said, you broke etiquette first. If you're opening a competing shop right across from me, shouldn't you have asked for my permission? And not only that, but selling this cheap junk.”

Pam spat his venom as if it wasn't even worth May hearing.

He raised his voice so everyone could hear, and the other customers ended up catching every word.

The customers' faces hardened with displeasure.

“Watch your words. Cheap junk?”

May shot back coldly.

Right, she couldn't let that slide.

We were selling at a discount for the opening event, but every product at Mabel was far superior to anything at Marygold.

She couldn't let May and Bell's efforts be belittled like that.

“Why sell something that's not cheap junk for so little?”

“It's our opening promotion. We've made it very clear it's temporary.”

Pam's sneer deepened at May's rebuttal.

“Promotions like this are low-class. If you were confident, you should've competed with quality from the start.”

Her icy retort soured the customers' moods more than May's.

‘He planned this from the beginning.’

I realized the source of the unease I'd felt from Pam's behavior.

He was deliberately shouting loudly and repeating provocative words.

At first, I'd thought it was just to pressure May.

But now I saw his real aim: he wanted the customers here to hear it.

When people are happily eating...

“Why eat that cheap junk?”

It plants the doubt: Is what I'm eating really cheap junk?

Even if it tasted great before, your appetite vanishes.

Especially if the one saying it is an authority in the field.

The top dessert artisan calls it cheap junk.

What you'd thought was great value suddenly feels like overhyped trash.

Sure enough, I could sense the customers growing restless.

They set down their forks and eyed their desserts with uneasy expressions.

May seemed to pick up on it too.

“I'm confident in our products. We used fresh ingredients and gave it our all.”

May rebutted with all her might.

“Are you the head pastry chef? Did you oversee every single product being sold now?”

“I'm not the head pastry chef, but I did help decide the menu.”

“Whatever. What's the point of talking to someone who doesn't even know? Get the head pastry chef.”

Pam demanded the head pastry chef, citing expertise.

But there was no way we could grant that.

Bell had just regained her energy; I couldn't let her meet that man and get hurt again.

The two of them still couldn't meet.

May must have reached the same conclusion.

“Why do you need the head pastry chef? If you're curious about the taste, just ask to try it.”

“I don't need to taste it. I'm famous in this business. I know the taste of every dessert worth knowing.”

“What does that have to do with our desserts?”

“If you're boasting such confidence, your head pastry chef must be someone famous I know. Not some amateur who apprenticed somewhere and quit halfway, right?”

“!”

Pam added with a smirk.

‘He knows Bell is here.’

I knew it would leak eventually, but not this soon.

‘How?’

Even though the shop was named Mabel, that alone shouldn't have tipped him off to Bell's presence.

‘Someone must've seen her coming and going.’

With the shop right across, someone must have recognized her.

“You judge desserts by the creator's name? I told you, if you're curious about the taste, try it yourself.”

May straightened up and cut off Pam's demand.

She could probably guess how much worse Pam would get if Bell appeared now.

Pam's arrogant expression grew even stronger.

“Ha, so it was made by some no-name. Well, if it were someone I knew, they wouldn't dream of opening a dessert shop in front of my store. Or if they did, they'd at least ask my permission first.”

Pam declared confidently.

It was the confidence of someone who knew May wouldn't call Bell.

Even if Bell did appear, it might not matter to him anyway.

Unable to rebut, May left most customers looking thoroughly uneasy.

“Is it really made sloppily?”

“It tasted good, though...”

“Pam says it's no good. Why would the top guy lie?”

The customers muttered negatively, their appetites gone.

The overall mood soured.

This on the first day was extremely bad.

Just as Mabel's reputation was about to solidify like this...

“I made them.”

A calm but clear voice rang out.

‘Gasp!’

I swallowed a scream and whipped my head around.

Bell had emerged from the kitchen entrance, her face pale but her posture straight.

When Bell's eyes met Pam's...

“I'm confident that the desserts I made are better than yours.”

She answered with surprising strength.

‘Whoa, she's like the protagonist.’

Even though Pam's presence must have intimidated her, her courage was so cool.

My efforts to praise her all this time seemed to have paid off; I was moved.

‘Bell's the best! So cool!’

Pam glared sharply at Bell.

He must have found her words incredibly insolent.

“So you're the head pastry chef here, Bell?”

“Yes. It's me.”

Despite her forceful words, Bell's complexion was awful.

She looked precarious, barely standing.

When Bell's gaze flicked behind Pam, I spotted a flash of dismay.

Among the people behind Pam, the only man avoided her eyes and bowed his head.

He was fidgeting anxiously.

‘Bell's ex-fiancé.’

How vicious.

He must have deliberately brought that man along.

“You, who couldn't hack my apprenticeship and ran away—a loser like you talks big.”

Pam, who had been glaring at Bell, soon smirked mockingly.

“It's really Bell?”

“Yeah, she ditched saying she couldn't handle it anymore, and now she's shamelessly making desserts again.”

The people who'd come with Pam, recognizing Bell belatedly, started chiming in one by one.

“You didn't copy the head pastry chef's recipes, did you?”

“Yeah! You stole the recipes, right?”

And soon they spun their wild imaginations.

It was absurd speculation.

But the problem was that to outsiders hearing it, it sounded plausible.

“What? Stolen recipes?”

The greatest mentor and a disciple who couldn't endure the training and fled.

“No wonder it tasted so good.”

The audacity to open right across from him on purpose.

“Wow, impressive.”

Cold stares spread from the spectating customers.

Bell and May's faces drained of color in an instant.

“No! We developed them ourselves!”

“We created them from scratch!”

May and Bell quickly shouted, but the suspicion had already spread.

No one seemed inclined to believe them.

As reproachful looks poured in on May and Bell, Pam grinned in triumph.

“That's just like you.”

You could see the joy of someone foreseeing the new shop's ruin in a single day.

And in contrast, despair spread across May and Bell's faces.

They'd worked so hard.

They'd truly given their all.

For a few words to crumble it all.

I couldn't bear to watch their frustration any longer.

“They say you're the capital's top dessert shop owner. Did you reach that top spot through slander?”

I threw open the office door and stepped out.

I Thought I Was the Protagonist