Chapter : 09
A large black-and-white photo was plastered across the front page of the newspaper.
In the familiar scene in front of the dress shop, people in nightcaps were gossiping in the background.
And right in the center, the cheating man was pathetically weeping, tears and snot streaming down his face.
The clear snot stretching down to his chin, the button burst from his vest as he sat crying, and the bulging belly visible through the gap…
Ugh!
Because the camera was only recently invented, the photo was black and white and very blurry. It was only vaguely recognizable as a person.
But even in such a photo, the cheating man’s protruding belly was especially clear.
Ugh! again.
“What are you looking at, Seraphina unnie?”
“Ellie.”
I folded the newspaper in half and turned around. Ellie, dressed in her uniform—a black shirt, white skirt, and white scarf—was bouncing in place.
Ellie pulled out a familiar letter from her skirt pocket and started telling the same story she had told at least ten times today.
“I woke up at 6 AM as usual… and this letter was in our mailbox! When I opened it, it was a letter the cheating couple exchanged!”
Yes, that’s right. I was tired from having to go all the way to your house in the middle of the night yesterday.
“And this morning, I got a call from a Mrs. Obolonsky. She saw the article. She told me to come back to work.”
Mrs. Obolonsky is the wife of the cheating man. The daughter of a merchant guild leader.
She became the new owner of this dress shop when Mrs. Scrooge decided to hand over the shop to the Obolonsky Merchant Guild, and she was also the one who rescued Ellie, who had suffered in the cheating scandal.
“Mrs. Scrooge has been sued for adultery,” another colleague joined in, sitting next to us.
“Of course. There’s no way out. How many witnesses saw that scene yesterday?”
“If the wife had kept holding onto the dress shop, all the reservations for the spring ball gowns would have been canceled.”
“Naturally. What lady would entrust her dress to a designer who might be sleeping with her husband?”
“So she just gave in?”
“Mrs. Scrooge took out a large loan when she bought this building. So she apparently doesn’t have the money to pay the fine and compensation. They decided to use this dress shop to settle the compensation.”
“And that’s how I got reinstated in one day!”
“Ellie is reinstated, and the wicked owner, Mrs. Scroog, is kicked out.”
“The director who acted as Mrs. Scrooge’s accomplice was also fired. It’s truly a good thing.”
Another colleague said, glancing at the director who was walking out alone, sadly packing her belongings behind the colleagues gathered for teatime.
Every workplace in the Empire must give employees a 15-minute tea break around 3 PM.
It was a law we knew about but couldn’t observe until now, but with the change of ownership, we were able to have our first teatime.
“So the cheating man is getting divorced with nothing, Mrs. Scrooge is giving up the dress shop… What about the cheating woman?”
“That woman is already in jail.”
“Why?”
“She apparently slapped a maid at the Obolonsky mansion, saying she was going to be the mistress of the house.”
“And apparently, the pregnancy was a lie, too?”
“Adultery, assault, fraud…”
“She was even dumped by the cheating man. He said he approached her for her money, and the one he truly loved was Mrs. Scrooge.”
“Goodness me.”
“Anyway, this is all thanks to the Magic Saintess-nim!”
Ellie clasped her hands together and exclaimed.
Ellie took the newspaper I was looking at and spread out the front page.
[The Appearance of the Magic Saintess?]
[Of the person who claims to be the ‘Magic Saintess Sena’…]
“What is the Magic Saintess?”
“It says here. 950 years ago…”
“But could this be true? A Saintess, maybe, but magicians don’t exist anymore.”
“She could be an impostor impersonating the Magic Saintess.”
“It was quite chaotic here yesterday, wasn’t it? Maybe someone played a trick during that commotion.”
“But isn’t it true that a letter fell from the sky?”
“And that someone delivered a letter to Ellie’s house.”
“I heard a letter went to the Obolonsky mansion, too.”
“Seriously, how many letters did those people exchange?”
“Whatever it is, one thing is certain!”
Amidst the diverse opinions, Ellie’s eyes sparkled as she shouted.
“I don’t know who this person is, but she helped me. I’m going to be the fan of the Magic Saintess-nim from now on!”
“Me too.”
“Me too. If you think about it, we are enjoying this teatime thanks to the Magic Saintess, aren’t we?”
“That’s right. Now our quitting time will be earlier, and there will be no more overtime without extra pay…”
“This is all thanks to the Magic Saintess. …But Seraphina, why do you keep dozing off?”
“Ah, sorry.”
Haaam. I stretched and yawned widely.
“I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
“Oh, honestly. You stayed up all night reading again, didn’t you?”
“Something like that, I guess…”
Strictly speaking, I stayed up all night dodging bullets yesterday, but…
“Wipe your drool.”
I sheepishly wiped my chin, avoiding the eyes of my chuckling colleagues.
-Question. Are you going to keep working at the dress shop? Now that you have the Magic Saintess job too.
-Answer. Yes. Because someone might suspect where I got the money if I’m not working.
It’s better to keep working at the dress shop, even just to gather rumors.
You haven’t forgotten, have you? Customers treat us employees like inanimate objects without ears or eyes.
This is the best place to hear all the rumors.
And the MagiSaintess’s job is unstable. Since I don’t know when I might quit, a fixed income ly necessary.
“But who is that man?”
I changed the subject, avoiding my colleagues who were busy praising the Magic Saintess and teasing me about my swollen face. I pointed to a man who had been going up and down the third floor carrying several stacked boxes.
“He’s a new hire today.”
“A new hire?”
“Yes. To be exact, he’s not our new hire… You know, the tea leaves supplied by the temple?”
“Oh, the expensive ones?”
“Yeah. Mrs. Scrooge tried everything to get those tea leaves for our dress shop’s tea house, but couldn’t, and they decided to supply them to us starting today.”
“Seriously.”
“Tell me about it. Isn’t that funny? Mrs. Scrooge probably wanted to feed them to her boyfriend, not her customers.”
Anyway, now this man will go back and forth between the temple and our dress shop to supply the tea leaves.
“And run errands when it’s busy, too.”
“Hmm.”
I rested my chin on my hand and stared at the man.
The man happened to turn his head toward this side, and our eyes met.
Silver hair, bright sky-blue eyes. In contrast to his facial features, which seemed almost sacred, his eyes held a delinquent look.
He had a hoodlum vibe, yet his demeanor was refined.
‘He doesn’t look like a mere errand boy.’
Look at that, he’s just standing still, but he’s elegant. As if he had practiced his standing posture thousands of times.
Arden is sometimes like that, too.
‘Didn’t the man I ran into in the alley yesterday also have sky-blue eyes? Is that color common?’
“I was so disappointed thinking I wouldn’t see the Handkerchief Customer anymore!”
“Oh, that junior of Seraphina’s?”
“That handsome guy?”
“But that customer was a bit cold, wasn’t he? Last time when Seraphina was running an errand, I saw him standing alone, and I asked him if he was looking for something. But he just bowed his head and left.”
“He did?”
Why would he do that?
I replied while still maintaining eye contact with the man.
I missed the chance to naturally look away, so I was stuck like this.
‘I’m okay, but why isn’t that man avoiding my gaze?’
I grumbled internally.
The man, who was staring intently at me, slowly raised the corner of his mouth.
I unknowingly clenched my fist.
‘Why is he grinning at a woman he doesn’t know…’
“But you know, unnies. The Handkerchief Customer is one thing, but this new employee is really handsome, isn’t he…”
It was at that moment.
“Heok heok heok heok.” (Panting)
Being?
I looked down under the chair where I was sitting.
Tofu, wearing a yellow bag, had entered without me noticing and was looking up at me, his eyes sparkling.
A warm paw landed thump on my shin.
What!
“Seraphina, where are you going?”
“I-I just need to go to the restroom for a minute!”
I quickly hid the puppy in my arms and practically tumbled up the stairs before anyone could see.
I went into the empty second-floor changing room and closed the door.
“Tofu, how did you get here!”
“I flew!”
“No…!”
Not that!
“Why! Why did you come!”
Don’t you know how rude it is to just pop into someone’s workplace!
But the puppy, who wouldn’t know such a thing, was simply excited.
What’s this? What’s that? Tofu sniffed around, flapping his ears on both sides, and then whispered.
“Magic Saintess Seraphina!”
“Why…”
“I have a new mission!”
Already?!
