The Villainess Will Live a Good Life

25. A Problem or a Boon?

Nana's shop sales had been steady throughout the season of scorch, but started declining when the season of colors arrived. Nana didn't think much of it at first, but Amil's expression turned ill after some time. He wouldn't spill what was wrong, but seemed to want her to stay away from the Middle. She sent Karan and Zen out to investigate instead.

Their findings were less than pleasant. Zen wore an irritated expression and Karan was likely plotting murder. Apparently, someone had enough beef with Nana to spread degrading rumors about her.

They started out small like, 'Why would a noble live in the Lower like that?' But they eventually progressed to blatant insults like, 'There is something wrong with that fox female. I heard...' The gossip was endless.

Nana had two thoughts on who was feeding them. Ada wasn't one of them. The lioness had been gone for two weeks and was no longer a problem. That left Nana to believe it was Yumi or Akito's doing. The only ones who would dare start trouble with noble foxes were imbeciles like Ada or those who held more pull than them.

Yumi could be spiting her just because. It wouldn't cost Yumi anything to socially cripple her daughter, as terrible as that sounded. But Nana thought she would have been more weary with Zen backing Nana up. Akito would do it if he benefited from it in some way, but not out of boredom. Nana doubted he'd purposefully antagonize Zen, but she didn't put a whole lot of faith in that. Akito just didn't have a moral compass. Or more accurately, the emotional capacity to care and act on one.

Unlike her mates, Nana was actually happy. The dip in her sales did bum her out, but not hugely. Avoiding the toxic environment was a great excuse to keep even more to herself than before. If she needed more reasons to run away, well, someone was doing her a favor by providing one.

There was something she needed to do before it got worse though. She needed to buy anything important now before she found prices rising on her. She did just that.

As expected, the whispers were harsh. Nana didn't let them bug her, but her mates weren't as lenient. Nana had Zen with her to make sure she was not cheated. She also chose him to come with her as he had the most control over himself.

Her sales proceeded to tank and Nana made the executive decision to move her business. The village Karan was talking about came to mind. She could establish out there and not look suspicious. It wouldn't be too strange if she sent a male of hers out to do business in another place. Nobles were used to the games they all participated in and had ways to get around setbacks.

The only hiccup, but a big one, in her plan was her lack of mates. Ideally, she wanted to send both Karan and Amil to set up a stall out in that village. Karan would show that her family was too strong to mess with while Amil handled the sales. Naturally, dividing up her family like that would strain them a lot. So basically, Nana had to wait.

Realizing that her cozy break and slow paced life would soon be no more, Nana pouted and denied reality for the next day. She would deal with hard stuff another time.

It took Nana three days to mentally prepare herself for the workload ahead. There was another option she could try if she couldn't find another male soon. It wasn't a bad option regardless of whether she found a male or not, but it was a hard one. She had to train.

Nana gagged at the thought. It sounded so tiring and painful. It was a miserable choice, but she reminded herself that it could save her tail one day. Nana begrudgingly approached Zen, the only male in her family that would even entertain the thought of training her, and effectively begged him with half-hearted pleas.

"You don't even want to." Zen called her out.

"But it'll be good for me..." Nana was trying to convince herself more than him.