126. Poison Apple (1)
126. Poison Apple (1)
[Chapter 126] - Poison Apple (1)
Looking out the window, leaves dyed in orange and yellow were falling, half-covering the glass. The sky was so blue, clear and bright enough to make my eyes ache just looking at it. It was full-blown autumn.
Watching the fallen leaves beginning to pile up on the windowsill, I took a bite of a sweet pumpkin cookie. As the sweet taste of pumpkin spread through my mouth, I felt autumn stepping a little closer to me.
I broke the cookie in half, popped a piece into my mouth, and stared blankly out the window while chewing. As a chilly breeze blew through the gap in the window, I thought I should start preparing for winter soon.
Perhaps because last year was my first time spending winter here, I was woefully unprepared. It was to the point where even getting help from the villagers wasn't enough. I decided I needed to prepare more thoroughly this time.
I need to buy plenty of firewood and stock up on food.
Besides, it's almost...
'Is it the festival after the coronation ceremony? Prices for goods will probably skyrocket during the festival, should I buy them in advance? No, is it already too late? I got hit by that last year and still didn't think of it...'
News that Titania's coronation ceremony would be held soon had reached even this rural area. Everyone in the village was buzzing with excitement at the news that a festival would be held for a week after the day of the coronation.
An ajumma I'm close with was excited about going to the neighboring city to make a big score, and the children were so excited by the word "festival" that they were busy waiting for the peddlers. After all, if there's a festival, peddlers will stop by here too.
They must be looking forward to the strange snacks and sights the peddlers bring. Maybe that's why the kids haven't been coming to the shop lately to save up their pocket money. It's a shame, but it couldn't be helped.
Anyway, it felt strange to think that Titania's coronation was already happening. Thinking that Titania was already turning twenty and becoming queen, I realized how fast time flies.
'Titania is twenty... am I already in my thirties? Huh? How old am I? 32? 33? Somehow, the older I get, the more indifferent I become about my age...'
Thinking about age, something like this happened a few months ago.
There was a young couple who had just moved to the village with a small child. A tiny child who couldn't even speak properly. Everyone was watching, saying how cute it was, so I went to see the child with a gift in hand.
A cute baby with a lisp who called their mom and dad "Ommu-a, Appu-a." The way they toddled around was so cute that I even thought about pinching those mochi-like cheeks.
When I gifted the small baby the "cookies that even babies can easily eat" that Katarina had made for gifts, the child looked at me, bowed their head, and said this:
'Ajuma, thank you.'
'What? Ajumma?'
The child's mother corrected them, saying, "You should call her 'eonni'." But the child called me "ajumma" until the very end. Until the moment I left. I even thought about snatching the gift back.
Not only that, but lately, there have been more cases of children I'm seeing for the first time calling me "ajumma." Kids don't know any better and just judge by what they see! They're kids who don't know anything!
Surely, they must be calling me "ajumma" because I look like the child's mother. Otherwise, there's no way I'd be called "ajumma" with this face, right? Isn't that right? That shouldn't be happening, right?
Besides, one of the biggest reasons I'm called ajumma is...
"Why, why are you glaring at me like that...?"
"...It's nothing."
It must be Katarina's existence. Because of Katarina's appearance, which looks under 15, I'm treated as the "mom" here too. Is it like that for the Great Witch too? Are all witches that young-looking?
Sighing deeply while looking in the mirror, I raised both arms and stretched. Thinking I should get moving, I looked at Katarina and checked what we were missing in the storage.
"Katarina. I'm going to the market for a bit. Do you want to come with me?"
"I, I'll watch the house..."
"Yeah, I thought you'd say that. It looks like we're only short on flour and eggs... Is there anything else you need? Don't say otherwise later, okay?"
"Uh... so... uh, I don't think so."
After finishing her deep contemplation, Katarina shook her head. We weren't that short on flour or eggs, but I was bored and thought I'd go to the market for a walk.
"You can watch the shop alone without me, right? If a customer comes like last time and you hide in the corner of the counter, I'll scold you."
"I, I don't do that anymore...!"
I wonder if that's really true...
Putting on my coat, I urged Katarina to watch the house well and stepped out of the shop. As I stepped out the door, the wind brushing against my face was quite chilly, so I hunched my shoulders without realizing it.
*
"She's gone, right...?"
Confirming that the sound of Vivian's footsteps had faded, Katarina poked her head out the door and scanned the surroundings. Confirming that there was no one around the shop, Katarina flipped the sign in front of the door from [Open] to [Closed].
Since Vivian would be talking to the villagers once she went out to town and wouldn't be back for two hours, closing the door in the meantime was fine. Thinking it would be the perfect crime if she flipped the sign back by the time Vivian returned, the moment Katarina was about to go back inside the shop-
"Is this the confectionery shop run by the 'Witch'?"
"Augh...!"
"But... is business already finished?"
Katarina jumped in place at the sudden voice of a woman from behind. Katarina, turning her head with a creak, saw a 'woman' approaching from right behind her.
Although her face wasn't very visible because she had her hood pulled all the way down, the voice and physique were definitely 'female'. Katarina trembled, not because of the usual village customers, but because of a customer she was seeing for the first time.
For Katarina, who finds it difficult to talk to people, dealing with a "new customer" was close to extreme difficulty. She wanted to foam at the mouth and collapse on the spot right then and there, but reality wouldn't allow it.
The customer approached the frozen Katarina, whose mind had gone blank, and waved a hand in front of her face. It was to check if the suddenly frozen Katarina was alive and breathing.
"Excuse me?"
"Ah, uh, welcome...! Ah, it's still open......"
"Oh, I see. You were changing the sign, so I thought business was over."
Actually, she wanted to lie and say it was closed...
What if this customer met Vivian? Since this is a small village, the probability of bumping into Vivian was too high. If this customer asked Vivian, 'Huh? Wasn't business over?', then...
Gulp.
Thinking it wouldn't end with just getting spanked like last time, Katarina trembled. Rather than lying that business was over, it was the right answer to serve the customer and send them away quickly.
"P, please come in...!"
Katarina greeted the customer with the most awkward smile in the world. Having repeated the simulation of the calculation in her head, Katarina walked to the counter with creaking steps and stood tall like a wooden pillar.
The customer who entered the shop turned her head and began to look around the inside of the shop. She looked at the cookies on the display case, chose them familiarly, and quickly approached the counter and placed them in front of Katarina.
"Uh, uh, so... the price is..."
"Excuse me, by any chance, where did the 'Witch' go? I don't see her..."
"U, uhe? The, the Witch?"
The Witch? Was she talking about Vivian? Katarina hesitated for a moment, wondering how to say it, and then decided it wasn't really something to hide, so she answered the customer directly.
"Sh, she went to the market for a moment. I think she'll be back in about two hours..."
"...I see. We missed each other."
Katarina tilted her head at the bitter voice. Could she be an acquaintance of Vivian? Since coming here, not once had an "acquaintance" of Vivian visited. Fran had visited occasionally, though.
"A, are you an acquaintance of Vi, Vivian...? If you have a message to leave, sh, should I pass it on for you...?"
"...No. It's fine. And, there are a few things I'd like to ask you, would that be okay?"
"Ye, yes? Me, me?"
Katarina was startled, but the customer lifted the corners of her mouth and smiled. Because of Katarina's personality, if she received a request, she couldn't refuse even if she wanted to, so she eventually nodded.
"Since this is the countryside... aren't there a lot of thieves?"
"Ah, no...? Even if children have stolen a cookie or two, there, there has never been a thief break in."
"Is that so?"
Katarina was flustered by the sudden question.
She couldn't grasp what kind of question the customer was asking. Could it be someone trying to open a new shop in the village? As Katarina tilted her head, the customer smiled and moved on to the next question.
"Then, what if... your precious item was stolen by a thief, how would you deal with it? Is there a way to deal with it in a countryside like this where there are no guards to protect the village?"
"E, eh...? So, so..."
It felt like steam was coming out of Katarina's head. Because she couldn't understand the customer's intention in asking her. A thief? If a precious item was stolen? How to deal with it?
Certainly, it would be troublesome if a thief broke in here where there are no guards. Unlike cities where guards are stationed, there's nowhere to report it here, and it's a place built only on trust between villagers.
In the first place, it would be enough to hide it with magic, but...
"If, if it's something really precious... I, I should manage it well, right...? Be, because there are no guards here... A, and if it really gets stolen by a thief, I, I think I would have to find it somehow, no matter the means or methods...? If it's something really, really precious..."
"...I see. Thanks for your opinion."
"Bu, but why are you asking me this...?"
"I recently had something very precious stolen by a thief. Eventually, I found out that the thief is near here... So, I was thinking about what to do about that thief."
"I, I see...! A, a bad person is near here...! I ho, hope you catch them for sure...!"
"...I hope so."
Katarina answered with her fists clenched.
She never imagined there would be a thief around her. The people in this village are all kind and friendly, so she wondered who on earth the thief could be among such villagers.
The hooded customer chuckled as she watched Katarina clench her fists, then placed 2 silver coins and a basket containing 3 bright red fruits on the counter. The ripe, bright red apples looked delicious.
Katarina stared blankly at the silver coins placed on her palm. She didn't understand why she received so much money and why the fruit basket was placed on the counter, so she calculated the change first.
But the customer shook her head.
"This is a token of gratitude. I saw them selling at the market and they looked tasty, so I bought them. There are 3 apples, so please give one as a gift to the Witch too."
"Ah, th, that's okay... And this is too much money..."
"Don't worry about it. It's just a 'token of gratitude'."
Because of the customer who insisted on refusing, Katarina didn't know what to do. It's troublesome to receive this much money, and since she seems to be an acquaintance of Vivian, shouldn't she at least ask for the customer's name?
The moment Katarina decided to look up and look at the customer, the customer had already left the shop, and she could see the customer leaving through the gap in the half-open door.
*
Creeak- The door opened, and Vivian walked into the shop carrying a basket of eggs in one hand. Katarina approached Vivian with pitter-patter steps and took the egg basket that looked heavy.
"Vi, Vivian. Yo, you're back?"
"Yeah. I'm a little late, right? I played with the kid who moved in the other day for a bit."
"Vi, Vivian, you really like children...?"
"Yeah. They're cute."
As Vivian, having taken off her coat, headed to the counter, the fruit basket placed on the counter caught Vivian's eye. The 3 apples in the basket were bright red, ripe, and looked appetizing.
"Huh? Did someone come by?"
"Ye, yes. A customer said it was a token of gratitude..."
"Really? They look like delicious apples."
Vivian reached out and grabbed one of the apples in the basket. The apples in the basket were well-ripened and looked delicious, and she was hungry after playing with the child, so she didn't suspect anything and took a small bite of the apple just like that.
Truly, without any suspicion, she bit into the apple, and sweet apple scent along with sweet juice spread throughout her mouth. As she chewed and swallowed slowly, a smile bloomed on Vivian's lips because it was truly delicious.
"Mmm- this is tasty? Katarina, you should-"
At that moment.
Before she could even finish her sentence, Vivian's knees suddenly collapsed. 'Huh? Huh?' Vivian opened her eyes wide at the sensation of her vision suddenly sinking. But that was only for a moment.
"Vi, Vivian?!"
The world in front of her spun, and Vivian collapsed to the floor in an instant. Katarina reached out her arms and called out to the falling Vivian, but it was faster for Vivian to fall to the floor.
Vivian, who had fallen to the floor, closed her eyes. Her vision was dizzy, so she couldn't open her eyes at all, and she couldn't even speak properly. She felt her consciousness fading away without even having time to think about what was happening.
In that fading consciousness, a nostalgic voice reached her ears.
"You said it, didn't you? That if you also had something precious stolen by a thief, you would find it somehow, no matter the means or methods."
Vivian somehow opened her eyes to look at where the nostalgic voice came from. In her spinning vision, a hooded woman was looking down at Katarina and herself, who had collapsed on the floor.
"I'm the same. I'm only satisfied when I return what was stolen to my side, no matter the means or methods. I just came to get back what you stole."
As the woman took off her hood, ebony black hair that reached her shoulders fluttered. Vivian held her breath for a moment and squeezed her eyes shut. It was because she didn't have the confidence to face those eyes.
The woman, who had knelt on one knee and stroked the face of the fallen Vivian, smiled once, then lifted her head and glared at Katarina as if to kill her. Truly, fiercely, as if she would tear her apart right then and there.
"You'll have to return my precious thing that you stole, now."