episode_0126

[Episode 126] – Poison Apple (1)

When I looked out the window, orange and yellow leaves had fallen, covering half of the window. The sky was so blue that it hurt my eyes to look at it. It was full fall.

I took a bite of a sweet pumpkin cookie while looking at the fallen leaves that had begun to pile up on the window sill. As the sweet taste of pumpkin spread in my mouth, I felt like autumn was coming one step closer to me.

I broke the cookie in half, put one piece in my mouth, chewed on it, and looked blankly at the window. As the chilly wind blew through the cracks in the window, I realized that it was time to start preparing for winter.

Last year, perhaps because it was my first winter here, I was very unprepared. Even if I received help from the villagers, it wasn’t enough. This time, I thought I should prepare a little more thoroughly.

I need to buy a lot of firewood and stock up on food.

Moreover, slowly…

‘Is it a festival after the coronation ceremony? The prices of items seem to rise a lot during the festival period. Should I buy them in advance? No, is it already too late? I didn’t even think about it after it happened last year…’

Soon, news that Titania’s coronation ceremony would be held reached the countryside. Everyone in the village was very excited about the news that a festival would be held for a week after the coronation ceremony.

A close lady was excited about going to the next city and making a lot of money, and the children were so excited by the word of a festival that they were busy waiting for the peddlers. When a festival is held, vendors will stop by here too.

You’re probably looking forward to the amazing food and things to see brought by the peddlers. Maybe that’s why the number of children coming to the store to save up pocket money has decreased these days. It’s unfortunate, but I couldn’t help it.

By the way, it was a strange feeling to think that Titania’s coronation ceremony was already taking place. When I thought about Titania turning 20 and becoming queen, I realized how quickly time flies.

‘Titania is twenty years old… am I already in my thirties? what? How old am I? 32? 33? For some reason, the older I get, the more I feel calm about my age…’

Thinking about my age, something like this happened a few months ago.

A young couple who had just moved into town had a child. He can’t speak properly and is a shy kid. Everyone said it was cute and looked at it, so I went to look at it with a gift.

A cute, short-tongued baby who calls mom and dad “Mommua, apua.” The way he was toddling around was so cute that I wanted to pinch his rice cake-like cheeks.

When I presented the ‘snack that even babies can easily eat’ that Katarina had made as a gift to the small baby’s hands, the baby looked at me, bowed his head, and said this.

‘Ajuma, thank you.’

‘what? Madame?’

The child’s mother has to call him ‘unni’ somehow. I corrected him, but the child continued to call me ‘Ajumma’. Until the time I leave. I even thought about taking the gift away.

Not only that, these days, there have been a lot of cases where children I meet for the first time call me ‘Ajumma.’ Children don’t know anything and just judge by what they see! Because I’m a child who doesn’t know anything!

Obviously, they call me ‘Ajumma’ because I look to be around the same age as my mother. Otherwise, there’s no way you’d be called ‘ajumma’ with this face, right? Right? It shouldn’t happen, right?

Moreover, one of the biggest reasons for being called an ajumma is…

“Why, why are you glaring at me like that…?”

“…Nothing.”

Katarina’s presence is probably the biggest. Because Katarina looked like she was about 15 years old or younger, I treated her like a ‘child’s mother’ here too. Do all witches, including the great witch, look that young?

I sighed while looking at the mirror, raised my arms in my seat, and stretched. Thinking that I needed to move slowly, I looked at Katarina and checked to see if there was anything missing from the warehouse.

“Katarina. I’m going to the market for a while. shall we go together?”

“Well, I’m going to look at the house…”

“Yeah, I knew you would say that. The only thing I seem to be lacking right now is flour and eggs… Is there anything else I need? “Can’t you say something else later?”

“Uh… So… uh, I don’t think there is one.”

After thinking deeply, Katarina shook her head. It wasn’t that there was a shortage of flour or eggs in the warehouse, but I was bored so I thought I’d go for a walk and go to the market.

“You can go alone without me, right? “Like last time, if you hide in the corner of the stand when a customer comes, I will scold you.”

“It’s not like that anymore…!”

Is that really true…

After putting on my coat, I asked Katharina to take good care of the house and left the store. As I went out the door, the wind blowing past my face was quite chilly, so I unconsciously shrugged my shoulders.

*

“You went…?”

After seeing that Vivian’s footsteps had become distant, Katarina stuck her head out the door and looked around. After confirming that no one was around the store, Katarina changed the sign in front of the door from [Open] to [Closed].

When Vivian goes out to the village, she doesn’t come back for two hours because she’s busy talking to the villagers, so all she has to do is close the door during that time. It would be a perfect crime if the door plate was put back around the time Vivian came, and the moment Katarina was about to go back into the store –

“Is this a snack shop run by a ‘witch’?”

“Ugh…!”

“But… is the business over already?”

Katarina jumped up from her spot at the sudden sound of a woman’s voice coming from behind. Katarina turned her head with a squeak and saw a ‘woman’ approaching right behind her.

It was hard to see her face because she had a hood covering her head, but her voice and body shape were clearly female. Katarina’s shoulders trembled at the sight of a first-time visitor, not a regular village visitor.

For Katarina, who found it difficult to talk to people, dealing with a ‘new customer’ was close to the worst. I wanted to foam up and collapse in place right now, but the reality was that I couldn’t.

In front of Katarina, whose hair had turned completely white, a customer approached and waved his hand in front of her. It was to check whether Katarina, who suddenly froze, was alive or breathing.

“hey?”

“Ah, uh, welcome…! Oh, it’s still open…”

“Ah, I see. “They changed the sign, so I thought it was closed.”

Actually, I wanted to lie and say it was over, but…

What if this guest meets Vivian? Since this was a small town, the chance of bumping into Vivian was very high. There, this customer said, ‘Huh? If you ask Vivian, ‘Wasn’t business over?’…

gulp.

Katarina trembled, thinking that it wouldn’t end with her getting spanked like last time. Rather than lying and saying that business was over, the right answer was to accept customers and send them out quickly.

“D-Please come in…!”

Katarina greeted the guests with the most awkward smile in the world. Katarina, repeating the calculation simulation in her head, approached the counter with shaky steps and stood tall like a wooden pillar.

The customer who entered the store turned his head and began to look inside the store. He looked at the snacks on the counter and made his choice, then quickly walked up to the counter and placed them in front of Katarina.

“Uh, uh… I mean… the price…”

“Hey, by any chance, where has ‘Witch’ gone? “I don’t think I can see it…”

“Uh, huh? “Are you a witch?”

By witch, do you mean Vivian? Katarina hesitated for a moment, wondering what to say, and then answered the customer directly, thinking it was nothing to hide.

“Well, you went to the market for a while. “I think he’ll be back in about two hours…”

“…I see. “It got mixed up.”

Katarina tilted her head at the bitter voice. By any chance, do you know Vivian? Since coming here, Vivian’s ‘acquaintances’ have never visited. When it comes to francs, I often come here.

“Ho, are you by any chance Vivian’s acquaintance…? If you have anything to say, would you like me to say it for you?”

“…no. are you okay. Also, I have a few things I want to ask you, is that okay?”

“yes yes? “To me?”

Katarina was startled, but the customer lifted the corner of his mouth and smiled. Due to Katarina’s personality, she couldn’t refuse a request even if she wanted to, so in the end she had no choice but to nod.

“Because this is the countryside… aren’t there a lot of thieves?”

“Oh, no…? “The kids may have stolen a snack or two, but I’ve never been a thief.”

“is it so?”

Katarina was taken aback by the sudden question.

I had no idea what question the customer was asking. Could this be someone who is trying to open a new store in town? When Katarina tilted her head, the customer smiled and moved on to the next question.

“So, if… your precious belongings were stolen by a thief, how would you react? “Is there any way to cope in a rural area like this where there are no guards to protect the village?”

“Eh, eh…? Well, I mean…”

Katarina felt like steam was coming out of her head. Because I can’t understand the customer’s intention in asking the question. thief? What if something precious is taken away? How do you deal with it?

Of course, it would have been difficult if I had been robbed in this place where there were no security guards. Unlike cities where guards are stationed, this is a place where there is no place to report, and it is a place built solely on trust between the villagers.

It would have been okay to just hide it with magic in the first place, but…

“Well, if it’s something really precious… I should take good care of it… right? Well, there’s no security here… Oh, and if it’s really stolen by thieves, you have to do whatever it takes to get it back somehow…? “I think I will… if it’s something really precious…”

“…is it so. Thank you for your opinion.”

“Well, then why are you asking me this question…?”

“Recently, I lost something really precious to a thief. In the end, I found out that there was a thief nearby… So, I was wondering what to do about the thief.”

“I-I see…! I, the bad guy around here…! “I wish I could catch it…!”

“…Iknow, right.”

Katarina clenched her fist and answered.

Because he never imagined there would be thieves around him. The people in this village are all nice and kind, but I wondered who on earth would be a thief among them.

The hooded customer chuckled at Katarina with her hands clenched, and placed a basket containing two silver coins and three bright red fruits on the counter. The ripe, bright red apples looked delicious.

Katarina stared blankly at the silver coin in her palm. Katarina, who didn’t understand why the money she received was too much and why she put a fruit basket on the counter, calculated the change.

However, the customer waved his hand.

“This is my return. I bought it because it was sold at the market and it looked delicious. “There are three apples, so please give them to the witch as well.”

“Oh, it’s okay… and there’s too much money…”

“Never mind. “It’s just ‘thank you’.”

Katarina didn’t know what to do because the customer kept refusing. It would be difficult to receive this much money, but since you seem to know Vivian, shouldn’t you at least hear the customer’s name?

The moment Katarina made up her mind and raised her head to look at the customer, the customer had already left the store and was seen leaving through the half-open door.

*

Squeak – The door opened, and Vivian came into the store, holding a basket of eggs in one hand. Katarina walked up to Vivian at a brisk pace and accepted the heavy-looking basket of eggs.

“B, Vivian. Oh, are you here?”

“huh. A little late, right? “I got to play with the kid who moved in last time.”

“Bi, Vivian really likes children…?”

“huh. “It’s cute.”

As Vivian took off her coat and headed to the checkout counter, her eyes caught the sight of a fruit basket placed on the counter. The three apples in the basket were bright red and ripe and looked delicious and appetizing.

“uh? “Who came and went?”

“Yes, yes. “Some customer said in return…”

“okay? “That apple looks delicious.”

Vivian reached out and grabbed an apple from the basket. The apples in the basket were ripe and looked delicious, and it was probably because I was hungry after playing with my child.

Vivian, who had not particularly suspected that she had received many things from the villagers so far and that this apple had also been left behind by the villagers, took a small bite of the apple.

Indeed, as I bit into the apple without any doubt, my mouth was filled with sweet apple flavor and sweet juice. As she chewed and swallowed it slowly, a smile appeared on Vivian’s lips as if it was really delicious.

“Um, is it delicious? Katarina, you too-”

That moment.

Before she could finish speaking, Vivian’s knees suddenly gave way. ‘uh? what?’ Vivian’s eyes widened as she suddenly felt her vision sinking. But, that too for a moment.

“Rain, Vivian?!”

The world in front of her eyes spun, and Vivian instantly collapsed to the floor. Katarina stretched out her arms and called out to Vivian, who was about to fall, but Vivian fell to the floor faster.

Vivian fell to the floor and closed her eyes. I felt so dizzy that I couldn’t open my eyes and couldn’t speak properly. I felt my consciousness slipping away without me even having time to think about what was happening.

As my consciousness drifted further away, I heard a longing voice in my ear.

“You said, right? “If something precious to you is stolen by a thief, I will do whatever it takes to get it back.”

Vivian somehow opened her eyes and looked towards the place where she heard the voice she longed for. In his spinning vision, a hooded woman was looking down at Katarina and herself on the floor.

“Me too. I feel like I have to return what was stolen to me by any means necessary. “I just came to get back what you stole.”

When the woman took off her hood, ebony-black hair that fell down to her shoulders flowed. Vivian held her breath for a moment and closed her eyes tightly. It was because I didn’t have the confidence to meet those eyes.

The woman knelt down on one knee and swept Vivian’s face as she fell to the floor, then smiled once, then raised her head and glared at Katarina as if she were going to kill her. Really, with such ferocity that it feels like it could tear and kill you at any moment.

“Now I need to return the precious thing you stole from me.”