Inside the gilded foyer of Maison de Lumiere, Madame Colette froze for two seconds before bursting into a harsh, rattling laugh. Above on the second-floor crystal balcony, Princess Sofia giggled behind her lace fan and clinked her champagne flute against the brass railing.
“Buy every coat, handbag, and haute-couture dress on all five floors?” Madame Colette cackled, wiping a fake tear from the corner of her eye. “Young man, do you think you wandered into a flea market on the edge of the Seine?”
Madame Colette swept a manicured hand toward the towering marble columns and the spiral staircase lined with glowing velvet mannequins.
“This is the global flagship of Maison de Lumiere!” Colette sneered, looking down her nose at Lin Mo, Grandma Chen, and the fifty Alpine orphans. “Our winter collection isn’t sewn from ordinary mortal cloth. Every coat on the third floor is woven from Andean spirit-vicuna wool, and every gown in the Haute-Couture Salon is stitched with dust-repelling spirit-silk and crushed starlight diamonds!”
Princess Sofia leaned over the balcony rail with an arrogant smirk. “Tell him the total price, Colette! I want to see his face when he realizes how poor he is.”
“The complete five-floor flagship inventory is valued at forty million High-Grade Spirit Stones—four billion US dollars!” Madame Colette announced loudly, puffing out her black tweed jacket. “Even a sovereign royal family requires six months of board approval and a syndicate bank guarantee to touch half our vault! And you want to ask a fired…
