That night, the stationery store was deserted, quiet after the storm of children had passed. I sat down on a bench, trying to calmly collect my thoughts. How should I deal with Hessmann and Babyloa?
The sky grew darker and darker. Still, I could clearly see the Duchess of Babyloa's general store building, standing tall on this very street.
But just then, in the distance, I saw a group of people waving red flags and walking vigorously.
'Who are those people?'
I squinted, trying to make out the face of the person in front. It was Ressa, the owner of the tavern where we had made beer candies together. As they drew closer, I stood up from the bench and greeted them cheerfully.
"Welcome, what brings you all here?"
"Mel, I heard there's a new general store opening near the stationery store." As soon as Ressa saw me, she quickly spoke.
"...Oh, the story has already spread." Apparently, the sheer size of the new building had quickly spread word among the nearby merchants.
"Flyers have already been distributed for generations."
"It's going to be tough." The people behind Ressa spoke, one after another. They looked at me with warm, approving eyes.
"So… it's not much, but we looked for a way to help the alley merchants' association."
"How can I help?"
They held out a thick paper bag to me. As I took the envelope, I asked cautiously, "...What is this?"
"This is a petition. It's not enough money to buy a building as big as that…"
A petition? My eyes widened as I looked at the countless petitions filling the paper bag.
"We wanted to help you this way."
"..."
"It goes against commercial ethics to ignore someone who reached out to us when we were in trouble."
Someone who reached out to them when they were in trouble? Were they talking about me? I looked at them with bewilderment.
"If you submit this petition to the government office, you'll be able to delay the opening date by half a month. He said such a thing is in the Commercial Code."
"I studied law at the Commoner Academy."
In other words, they were returning the favor to me. They had gathered their courage for the sake of those who believed I had killed the 'Red Cult Pirates' for them. I nodded, looking at each of them, who seemed full of earnestness. Some already had wrinkles on their foreheads at a young age, and some had gray hair. These were all traces of suffering from their work.
So, in this case, it would be better to say thank you rather than clearing up the misconception that "I didn't hurt the Red Cult Pirates for you."
"Yes, this is how my good deeds see the light."
Is that a bit shameless? If Dominic were next to me, he'd probably say, "I just wanted to beat up the pirates. I'm going to rip it off." But he's currently working upstairs. There's no one to stop my lies.
"I'm impressed that the merchant association is working so hard." It was a somewhat dispassionate greeting, but I was sincere. At first, I had simply wanted to quickly defeat the Red Cult Pirates. But now, I was determined to protect these humble commoner retailers from Hildegard's dark influence. I was the only one who could protect the precious alley business area in front of the academy against commercial infringement.
"If the work goes well, we'll have a concert on the bench later."
"A concert?"
"Yes, of course, with old instruments! Like a recorder or a harmonica."
"Oh! I play the harmonica well."
"This one is very familiar with recorders."
"Oh, I can't play an instrument, but! I'll use my stomach as a drum to hit my stomach!"
…North Korea? I imagined the pot-bellied man of the merchant association hitting his stomach.
'No.' I definitely didn't want to see such a scene. I turned away from the merchant who said that.
"I'll look forward to it, except for the drum. We will have a concert together soon." I bowed my head deeply toward them.
When I opened the envelope, I saw that the letters "Petition for the Protection of the Alley Business Area" were filled with countless signatures. They wouldn't know yet that I was the daughter of the Duke of Babyloa. It was obvious that rumors were circulating among the aristocracy. Therefore, this petition was a precious gesture that the people who ran small shops in the alley wrote only for me, even though it meant being disliked by the powerful Duke.
Of course, in the face of a great Duke, the validity of this petition would be almost useless. After all, the Ministry of Justice was on the side of the aristocracy. But I was so grateful for their sentiment. I earnestly decided to endeavor not to let this petition be in vain.
While I was living as Meldenique, my family treated me like garbage. But these people were different from the children with whom I truly interacted. I liked these people.
'…There haven't been many people who have treated me sincerely.'
The exchange between people made me realize many things. If they were unfortunate, I would help them as much as I could. Just like when I defeated the Red Shenip Pirates. Just as they wrote a petition for me, one by one.
The next morning dawned. Outside, the splendid general store building, built by Hildegard and Lennox, was slowly revealing itself. I had invested all kinds of magic and money, and I received the unfortunate news that it would take about two weeks to build such a large building.
'That unlucky building. I hope it collapses completely.'
I stuck my head out of the window on the second floor of the stationery store and looked at the building above. 'It's really magnificent. When it's finished, it will be fifty times the size of my stationery store.' When the building was finished, it was obvious that no one would even know about my stationery store.
'…Do I feel a sense of crisis?'
There were a few customers who frequented my stationery store. Among them were Axion and Mirissa, who were quite influential, and Carat, who kept paying attention to them as if he were nonchalant. However, it wasn't enough to spread the name of the stationery store.
'In terms of popularity, it's a complete defeat.'
After taking a shower, I walked down the stairs from the second floor and said to Dominic, "Dominic!"
"Huh?" Dominic was staring at his sword again today. Perhaps he was thinking of the demons he had sealed within.
I turned to Dominic and spoke, "You know, we're going to be in the red if we go on a normal path."
"Even now, it's not particularly ordinary."
"I have to show something more gorgeous and cool." I interrupted Dominic and said firmly. I had all kinds of ideas swirling in my head. However, in implementing them, I failed time and again.
"The only way to do this is to hit the rocks with eggs, but the question is which one to hit them with." Dominic, who had heard my grim declaration, nodded.
"What should we do, us? Shall we sweep it away?"
"Nope. Let's take advantage of this crisis." In fact, another word for crisis is opportunity. An opportunity to rewrite this absurd version from scratch. Many people miss out on good opportunities because they don't deal with crises properly. However, there are many people who take advantage of a crisis and make a comeback.
'Is there any way to reverse this situation?'
While I was thinking about it, I heard someone outside the door. I looked toward the door. With a rattling sound, children walked in like a cascade of candies.
"Mirissa, Axion, Carat!" I looked at them and jumped up, spreading my arms. It's important to deal with crises, but it's also important to find joy with cute children after a long time!
"Sister!"
"There's a strange building in front of there, Mel!"
"…I checked the commercial law and found out that it is illegal to build such a big building in front of the academy. Mel, you understand, right?"
Mirissa, Carat, and Axion huddled in front of me, each speaking a word. While all the other kids in the academy were focused on the collaboration between Hessmann and Babyloa, these kids were willing to support me. However, contrary to the naive belief of children, the law was often on the side of the powerful. Still, I nodded as if I understood, without bothering to tell him about it.
"Thank you for your concern, boys."
"I was really worried about it, so I came as soon as I woke up this morning!"
"We seriously thought about it." I asked, patting Mirissa's silver hair.
"What?"
"The Academy will soon be holding a 'Petit Debutante'."
"Yes." I had never been to an academy, so I didn't know much about the culture, but I knew what a petit debutante was. It was the largest annual event held by elementary academy children between the ages of seven and thirteen. As the name suggests, Petit Debutante had a strong character of a preliminary debutante. However, it was a much freer ceremony than the debutante, which was the largest party of the year in the social world.
'In fact, it was more like a festival than a debut party.'
Like the concept of a candy party at the end of the semester, Petit Debutante was similar. And on this day, all the children bring 'the most precious and cherished thing they have' from their mansion and share it. Some children brought food made by the family chef, some brought their own products, and some bought expensive items to share. Originally, the petit debutante was a kind of ritual to promote harmony by sharing things and bringing food from home.
"Sister, sister! I think the evil Hesman family is going to sponsor something on Petit Debutante Day." Mirissa, the faithful spy of the wicked Hesman family, sneered continuously.
"Hey, that's amazing." Most of the children at the academy were aristocrats. Therefore, it would have cost hundreds of millions of Becquerels to satisfy the children's eyes. Unlike the Hesmanic and Babyloa families, I did not have that much wealth.
"Me, Mel! So, the three of us have been thinking about it." Mirissa held out her white, delicate hand to me and whispered.
"We chose Mel!"
"...Huh?" I didn't understand what she was saying right away. The children smiled brightly at me and replied,
"Mel isn't a wizard, but she's a wizard!"
"Mel is the most precious being we're going to take with us!"
"Make cool stuff for us."
"Then we'll do our best to promote Mel's stationery store!"