Please Don’t Come To The Villainess’ Stationery Store! - Chapter 33

After school.

More people began to visit the stationery store.

Some of the children of the Academy’s senior class A bravely ran away and visited the stationery store. Children who were hungry for more beer candy knocked on the stationery store’s door.

“Is this the stationery store?”

“Commoner!”

It’s not yet widely known that Mel of the stationery store and Princess Meldenqiue Vaveloa are the same person. So the children shouted ‘commoner’ at her.

“Huh?”

I opened my eyes wide.

‘Finally, customers!’

Although, one, two, three.

Although it’s only three! Some children, who had come in with dignified or arrogant faces at first, saw me and stopped at the door.

Then they murmured quietly.

“Wow, an angel…”

Angel? Is he talking about me?

I could tell after seeing the children’s hazy eyes. They called me an angel! I grinned as I let my hair down to meet their expectations.

“Hello, young ones?”

Some of the Academy children grabbed their school uniform suspenders and looked at me as if they were possessed. Whether they were shy or cold, the children’s chubby cheeks were stained pink.

“We came because His Highness the Prince told us about this place!”

“Give us more of that candy!”

“That’s right! Give us more of that candy that changes your voice!”

The children spoke with great solemnity. It was so funny that I couldn’t talk because I was holding back my laughter. It seemed the same for Dominique. His shoulders were shaking as if he were a part-timer organizing the stands for the first time.

But seeing that I didn’t answer, the children seemed to have misunderstood something.

“W-we’ve brought enough money!”

One person spoke as if wind was leaking out, perhaps because he had missing teeth.

“Thath’s right! We have a loth of money!”

Looking at the children walking to the counter cutlet, I nodded, “Kids, do you just need beer candy?”

They exchanged eyes.

Among them, a boy with round eyes shouted. He was wearing a gold necklace around his plump neck.

“Give me a stronger one!”

“Stronger one?”

“Yeah, one that won’t make my voice come out.”

“Or one that hits!”

The eyes of the other children standing by the boys began to twinkle their eyes tremendously. I thought nervously.

‘If I sell such dangerous things, this Nuna will be arrested for violating the Food Sanitation Act.’

Although I didn’t know if there were any food hygiene laws in this world, problems must have arisen when toys or junk food go beyond the realm of mischief. However, I couldn’t refuse those children’s innocent sparkling eyes.

I asked the children seriously with my hand on my chin.

“Rather than that, should I give you something more fun?”

As expected, the children’s eyes grew bigger from the words ‘more fun.’

“Something more fun? What is it?”

The little boy asked, cupping his cheeks that were about to burst in his hands. He was so cute that I wanted to bite him.

I wiped my nose lightly to make sure I didn’t get a nosebleed and then spoke.

“You want to joke around, don’t you?”

“Yeah!”

I stood at the stationery store’s stand with my arms crossed and winked at Dominique, who was looking at the children with joy.

“Dominique.”

He replied half a beat late, looking at the row of children as if they had come to get candy on Halloween.

“…yeah.”

“What candy do you want?”

I think the beer candy was quite popular, so it would be good to give candy that’s similar but different.

‘I made candy similar to beer last night~’

I looked at Dominique with a remorseful smile.

“…how about that?”

He and I kept our eyes on each other while agonizing. I was standing at the stand with my hands on my waist, and soon handed them candy that turned the tongue either blue, red, or any other color.

It wasn’t as special as beer candy, but it was magical candy. Of course, the magic wore off in thirty minutes, so the coloring wouldn’t last that long.

“How is this? Do you want to try it?”

I smiled refreshingly as I handed the candy to the children.

The children received the candy with trembling hands. The children were glancing at the candy with wary eyes and then immediately put it in their mouths.

And a few minutes later.

The children’s exciting cheers began to shake the entire stationery store.

“My tongue turned into a monster’s color.”

“My, my tongue too!”

The children’s eyes opened wide and clapped their hands together. It was clear that they were excited to see their tongue change colors.

“Melong!”
(T/N: This is a korean sound used to indicate someone sticking their tongue out.)

“Eugh! My tongue looks like blue slime!”

They were excited and played with each other and soon looked at me.

Watching the children having fun, I got a little flustered.

“You’re not an angel, but a genius!”

“Magic genius!”

‘…the genius isn’t me, but Dominique.’

For some reason, I seemed to be receiving excessive praise for my skills. Since Meldenique had been ridiculed her whole life, maybe she’s getting a blessing right now.

At that time, a young boy, believed to be the son of a wealthy business owner, spoke while holding my hand tightly.

“I’ll buy this whole stationery store!”

“…what?”

“I’ll order it under my dad! I’ll pay a hundred times the price of my coat!”

“No. I-I want to buy it! How much will it cost?”

“I’ll buy it with money!”

These kids, they must have a lot of money…?

I crouched at their level. The children’s eyes scattered as my face came near theirs.

“You’re so so pretty, it’s burdensome…”

“The color of her pupils are also so pretty…”

“…don’t look at us. It’s embarrassing.”

One covered his face with his hands but kept peeking at me through his fingers.

I was about to burst into laughter. They’re such cute kids.

“I won’t sell the stationery store. Instead, if you come over often to play, I’ll give you extra things. Okay?”

I winked and stood back up. The kids nodded with pure eyes.

“Yeah. W-we’ll come again!”

“Please spread good rumors to your friends.”

Everyone nodded, and the most silent of the three, a gloomy-looking kid with his eyes covered, spoke while grabbing my sleeve.

“Um, you know…”

“Yes?”

I tilted my head and looked down at the child.

“Did you draw those black patterns on your hand on purpose?”

I flipped my hand up and down in a strange way.

‘There’s nothing there though…’

The child inflated his cheeks slightly and let go of my sleeve.

“Uh, the paint-like thing disappeared…”

“……?”

I wonder what he means. I scratched my eyebrows and looked at Dominique with wonder. However, he didn’t seem to know either.

The child shook his head a few times.

“I must’ve seen wrong.”

Well, children often can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy. I nodded and shook my hand.

They calculated the cost of the candy and handed me coins from their pockets and left the door.

I waved at them in anticipation of the cute gossip the cute children would spread. It was really, really fun to sell things to children.

Maybe I was born for a service job?

I put my hands on my waist and looked at Dominique.

“Today is the first time in my life that I’ve ever had a worthwhile moment.”

In my previous life, I was poor as a child. To buy a candy worth hundreds of won, I had to shake a piggy bank full of 10 won coins.
(T/N: 100 won is less than 10 cents)

Looking at the shelves every day, the stationery store lady reached out her hand to me. There was a small candy on her hand.

I finally took my first step to become a stationery store owner.

“That’s a relief.”

I hugged Dominique, who was nodding satisfactorily beside me.

“Yeah! I’m so happy!”

Dominique hardened from my hug. And he pushed me away in a hurry. It was callused hands that adjusted its strength for me.

“Never.”

“…what?”

I became more puzzled.

“Because I swore a prenuptial purity to God a few hundred years ago.” (T/N: Basically, he won’t do anything sexual before marriage.)

It was just a friendship hug. What were you imagining, you punk.

And purity…?

I nodded while looking at Dominique’s serious face. However, his absurd behavior was fully understood. Because I was so happy right now!

“Yeah! Live your whole life pure!”

“What, what?”

After tapping him on the shoulder, who seemed to be more embarrassed for some reason, I decided to work harder on my alchemy.

“I think we’ll slowly become a hit, so why don’t we start making new items?”

But during that time, a small child, sitting alone in the stationery store’s yard, opened the door and came in.