117. At that time, Vivian was (2)
[Episode 117] – At that time, Vivian was (2)
No matter how much I washed my eyes, it was a bizarre house. The ceiling was made of chocolate-covered crackers, the window frames decorated with cookies, the handles were smooth lollipops, and even the glue used was whipped cream.
“It’s surprising that bugs don’t get caught…”
“Because it’s magic.”
What is that damn magic?
I frowned as I looked at the sticky-looking cookie house, but Fran, as if nothing was wrong, grabbed the handle made of lollipops and opened the cookie door! Opened.
Is it okay to touch that thick lollipop? At first glance, the candy looks melted and sticky, but would it have gotten on your hands? I felt like I wanted to hold Fran’s hand right now and run to the spring to wash myself.
When I thought about that, Titania suddenly came to mind.
‘I remember when Titania ate chocolate when she was young.’
When she was six years old, Titania had her hands full of chocolate and was happily licking the chocolate off her fingers. The memory of thoroughly washing Titania’s hands came to mind. It was really cute back then.
Feeling helpless when I thought of Titania, I pinched her cheek and came to my senses. Now was not the time to miss Titania. Because right now in front of me is the witch from ‘Hansel and Gretel.’
Fran opened the door and entered the house and called the witch’s name.
“Katarina, are you there?”
The interior of the house made of snacks was more normal than expected. A floor made of wooden planks or ordinary wooden furniture. Unlike the strangeness of the outside, the inside was very ordinary.
If there is a problem…
‘…Dirty.’
The inside of the house was seriously dirty.
Except for the kitchen where snacks were made, the rest of the space was dirty. Garbage and dust on the floor, laundry that hasn’t been put away. This was one of the reasons I didn’t want to meet this witch.
As Fran walked around the house, digging through the trash piled up on the floor, the sound of trash falling over was heard from inside the house. The innermost door burst open, and a half-dressed woman jumped out.
Rubby green hair. Dark circles extending down to the cheeks. Underwear worn in matching top and bottom. It was almost pitiful to see him hurriedly getting ready, turning his clothes inside out.
Katharina, dressed in her haphazard skirt and dress, smiled brightly and bowed her head to her waist to greet me and her Fran. It was her greeting to welcome me, but I looked at her blankly, feeling like I wasn’t being entertained at all.
“Uh, uh, uh, welcome…! “To my bakery…!”
“Katarina, it’s me. “Kirven’s Franc.”
“F, franc?”
Katarina lowered her waist and looked at her Franc, only raising her head. She sighed in disappointment and collapsed on the floor, sobbing. It looked like a doll with its strings unraveled.
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“W-what… I thought I was a guest for the first time in a while…”
Will guests come to this dirty place…?
No, the exterior was definitely outstanding as a bakery, but it was clear that customers who saw the inside would run away. It’s so dirty that you don’t know where the shelves are and where the checkout counter is.
Fran continued speaking, ignoring Katarina.
“Katarina. “I brought in someone to work with me that I needed last time.”
“Uh, huh?! Me, really?! Uh, where?!”
Fran pointed to me, who was standing next to me. The moment Katarina turned her head and looked at me, who was standing next to her Fran, her murky eyes shook as if there had been an earthquake.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah-“
“…This is Vivian Liliensol. Please take care of me.”
“Ah!! Vivian!!”
Katarina screamed almost as if she had seen a ghost.
Yes, she had expected it to some extent. Most of the people who knew Vivian so far reacted this way. Rather, it was a new feeling because it had been a while since I had received such a response. Ugh.
Katarina’s eyes rolled back and she fell backwards. This was the second reason why I didn’t want to meet this witch. Even if a person is timid, he or she is too timid.
In other words, it meant that there was no communication between people.
‘Even in the original work, we had a hard time because we couldn’t communicate. Because the dialogue options were meaningless. This is why she didn’t really want to meet…’
Fran looked back and forth between Katarina and me, then shrugged her shoulders. ‘It’s not my fault,’ she says. Okay, what could be your fault? It’s all Vivian’s fault.
I sighed deeply and looked at the dirty corner of the house. Since Katarina had collapsed, she thought that now would be her chance, so she rolled up her sleeves and asked her Fran to take care of the fallen Katarina.
“I’ll ask for Katarina. “I… need to clean this dirty place.”
“It’s okay if I clean it.”
Fran pounded her chest as if she couldn’t see her own maid uniform. I smiled and patted Fran’s head as he looked confident, as if he was saying, ‘I’m in charge of cleaning!’
“I’m afraid that if you make eye contact with me as soon as you open your eyes, you’ll faint again. “When you open your eyes, explain me well.”
“That’s true too. All right.”
Fran picked up the slumped Katarina and entered the inner bedroom. After turning her head and looking at the house that looked like it had been bombed again, I sighed and started looking for a broom.
*
It took almost four hours for Katarina to come to her senses and for her Fran to explain me. It took Katarina a little while to understand that Vivian was dead, perhaps because she, unlike other witches, did not know about ‘me’.
“Well, that is. Rain with different contents, Vivian? “You mean that?”
“…Yes. “You’ve already asked this question dozens of times.”
“I’m sorry… I just can’t believe it…”
Katarina glanced at me, glancing at her eyes as if she couldn’t believe it. When I sighed at that frustrated sight, Katarina’s shoulder jumped up as if she had been burned by fire. Even with Fran’s mediation, it still looks like this…
I felt like I wouldn’t be able to talk about work even after a lifetime if things continued like this, so I quickly asked Katarina about the ‘job’ she had asked her Fran. In a situation where the applicant actually asked a question to the hiring manager, I almost laughed without realizing it, but I brushed it off and asked.
“Katarina? Now that you think about it, why do you need people to work?”
“Oh, that’s it… As you can see, my store is small and there aren’t many customers…”
“……Yes, so?”
“I can’t believe it, should I say that I can’t do business here… Now, should I say that the location is not good…? So, I’m thinking of moving the store, so I’m looking for employees to work with me there.”
“……I see. “Exactly, what does that employee do?”
“Uh, well, well, everything except cooking.”
“Yes?”
Everything except cooking? As I looked at him in bewilderment, Katharina flinched and shook her shoulders. Could it be that he feels like a threat just by looking at me? I sighed involuntarily when I saw Katarina starting to tremble.
“…So, you’re looking for an employee who will take care of all store work except kitchen work?”
“Yes, yes, that’s right. If possible… I’m looking for an ideal employee who will always accept customers instead of me and meet people instead of me… I’m looking for that kind of ideal employee.”
… At that moment, I had no choice but to unconsciously hold my forehead as the headache pounded in her head. She couldn’t help but feel that she had come for no reason. No matter how much I needed a job, this wasn’t enough.
I rolled my eyes and glared at Fran, but Fran, who had introduced this to me, didn’t seem to think anything of this situation. She probably thinks it’s possible because she’s the perfect maid.
It was a moment when Fran, who had seemed reliable until now, looked like a fool.
Just as I was sighing and wondering what on earth to do, Katarina’s belly button, which was lying on her bed, rang loudly. Katarina laughed awkwardly, her face turning bright red at the sound coming from her own stomach.
“I’m sorry. “Because I couldn’t eat properly…”
“…? “I don’t have any money?”
“Oh, no. Well, money isn’t the problem… I only focus on making snacks… Because the only thing I eat every day is the snacks I make… I don’t eat things like rice… hehehehe… !”
Is this something you should say as if you were bragging?
When she saw Katarina scratching the back of her head and smiling shyly, she felt embarrassed. Should I say that her every move is irritating, that she can’t be left alone?
She knew about Katarina through the original work, but seeing her with her own eyes made her know for sure. She was someone who thought that if Katharina was left like this, she would truly die of loneliness.
“Ha…Is it okay if I use the kitchen?”
“Yes, yes? “Gwa, it’s okay…”
“Then wait. “Fran, can you help me?”
“Yes, I understand.”
I got up from my seat and headed to the kitchen, which was the cleanest in the house, with Fran. When I opened the warehouse where food was stored, funny enough, it was full of ingredients for making snacks. Flour, sugar, eggs, etc –
I took out eggs from the storage and started cooking with Franc’s assistance. It was an omelet that could be made with just eggs and salt, but I had never used this kitchen before, so I had to get help from Fran.
‘Cooking is easy if you can handle the kitchen. ‘I didn’t cook when I came here because I didn’t have a chance to cook, but I used to live on my own.’
I put three well-made omelettes on a plate, then picked them up and headed them towards Katarina. Katarina stared down at the plump yellow omelette in front of her, her mouth watering.
“I’m sorry I can only do this. If I had a variety of ingredients, I would have made something suitable… I only had the ingredients to make cookies, so I just made a rough omelette. “Eat it quickly while it’s warm.”
“Okay, I’ll eat well…”
“Also, we cleaned up some of the dirty things outside. I haven’t done the laundry yet, but if you tell me where to do it before I go, I’ll do it accordingly. And again…”
“Honey, cleaning?”
Katarina, startled by the word cleaning, got up from her seat and looked out her door. Although she was still less organized, her insides were definitely different than when she first saw them, so Katarina couldn’t forget her words.
“Bah, I can see the floor…!”
Katarina looked at the slightly organized house and scooped up a spoonful of the omelette she was holding in her hand. The omelette was like pudding, as soon as it touched the spoon, it fell out in its original shape.
When the salty omelette reached her teeth, it went down her throat without even chewing it a few times. Her body was so full of warmth that she could feel the warm energy traveling down her esophagus to her stomach.
Katarina suddenly ran towards me, having hurriedly put the entire omelet on her plate into her mouth. When I was startled while sitting, Katarina hugged my waist where I was sitting and snuggled into my stomach.
“Chae, hiring! “We’re hiring!”
“Huh?! Oh, no, I don’t like it?!”
“Well, I refuse to refuse! Chae, we’re hiring! “You can’t go anywhere!”
“No, more than that…! “Get away from me!”
I tried to push her face, but Katarina, who was stuck like a leech, had no intention of falling off. She looked at her Fran with sad eyes as if asking for my help, but her Fran just nodded as she ate the omelet I made.
“Good. Vivian. “I found a job, so everything is okay.”
“What if everything is okay…!”
“Oh, Mom! Do not go!”
“Who, who is your mother?!”
…This was the opportunity for me to work with Katarina. Katarina cooked in her kitchen, and I did all the other work. Displaying the sweets made by Katarina or serving her guests.
After some discussion with Katarina, I moved to a small countryside far from the capital. There, Katarina opened a very small bakery in a small shop in the forest that she had prepared.
Although there were few customers and no money was made, Katarina said she was happy that others were eating the cookies she made.
She says that cookies containing her own ‘magic’ become ‘medicine’.
A country bakery whose sweets contain little magic that can cure colds and other minor illnesses. From there, Katarina and I started living in the country alone.
