The Potion Shop, The Red Forest, Opens (2)
Just before the doors opened, Blow—who had meant to leave the raffle to Skadi and Hervena—walked them through how it would work.
"This is going to be fun!"
"You two just handle this, then you're free to go. Sorry. Megan and Hans are losing their minds getting the restaurant ready to open on Sunday."
"Sorry for what! Ask us for this kind of thing anytime!"
Skadi smacked the flat of his shoulder with her palm. Hervena, who had been checking over the goods in the meantime, spoke to Blow in a quiet aside.
"Skadi really ought to be the one hosting. I saw her at the booth last time—she was good."
"Me?"
"Yeah. I'll hand out the prizes in time with your patter."
"Keep it lively."
At that, Skadi answered in a bright voice.
"Mwahaha! Obviously! So how much is all that stuff worth?"
"A silver, at least?"
"The raffle tickets are five pennies."
"Truth is, they're all old things. Strictly speaking, that's about what they're worth."
"Even so, they don't look it at all."
"The inn crew just scrubbed the tarnish off and polished them up."
Hervena hesitated, then went on in a voice that shrank.
"...If you've got work for me too, you can call me."
"Hm? I only held off because you're so busy."
"I can do my assignments here, you know..."
"Next time, then. Thanks for saying so."
"I'm not just saying it..."
She had gone sulky. Blow patted her shoulder.
"All right. Thank you, Hervena. Next time I'll call you for sure."
"Yes."
"And over winter break I'll work you so hard you'll wonder if it's even allowed."
"Why is there never a middle with you?"
"That's just how Blow always is."
"That's not what matters right now. Anyway, I'm counting on both of you!"
"Is the setup all done?"
"Just write the numbers on the leaves and drop them in the box."
"How many kinds?"
"About forty, looking at the list. That's a lot."
The two of them went over the inventory. Skadi, reading it closely, twitched an eyebrow and nudged Blow with her arm.
"Can I add a prize?"
"What are you putting in?"
"Since it's come to this, I want to help properly."
"No weird stunts."
"Obviously."
"Well... suit yourself."
Skadi nodded and looked over at Linne and Jane, who were darting about the shop.
"So is this potion shop's concept ponytails?"
"Jane always goes around like that. For Linne, I figured that look would suit her better."
"Then I should do it too!"
At once she twisted her long hair up. Seeing her, Hervena was already twisting her own hair back to match.
"Well? Does it suit me?"
A white nape, stark against hair red as blood. Struck by an odd feeling, Blow turned his eyes elsewhere.
"It suits you. Brings the old days back, too."
"Right! I used to go around like this."
Meanwhile Hervena, her hair pinned into a bun, stood there fidgeting.
Blow gave her a thumbs-up.
"You wear it pretty well too, Hervena."
"...Thank you."
Hervena fiddled needlessly with her hair.
Jane, finished with the tidying, came up to Blow and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Young master, preparations are complete."
"Good. Shall we draw the curtains?"
"Yes."
Bright, airy, and clean.
That was the customers' first impression of the potion shop.
"I-it really doesn't feel like a potion shop at all!"
"Right? It's so sharp and vivid."
The Traffic Light Trio's eyes sparkled as they pressed to the window and peered inside.
Then came the click of the door, and a clear, bright voice reached them.
"Welcome to the potion shop, The Red Forest!"
Jane Foresti stood at the entrance, smiling with her eyes.
The trio hurried over to her and went straight in. Once inside, they paused to look around.
Sunlight poured through the great plate-glass windows, and the ivory floor gave everyone who entered a fresh, lifted feeling. Instead of the musty potion smell a potion shop usually brought to mind, the scent of damp earth and wood tickled their noses.
"Whoa..."
"Uh... where do we even start?"
"Let's look at the writing supplies first."
What caught their eyes farther in was something you would never find in another potion shop: writing instruments laid out systematically by kind and price.
Everything was arranged so neatly that the three hardly dared to touch it, and they glanced around for permission. Blow came over and said, kindly,
"Look all you want!"
"R-really?"
"Yeah. The staff and I do the tidying."
"Thank you!"
Only then did Cosette lift a quill from the display.
Seeing that, Blow turned to another customer. Alice watched his back, her face gone red.
Radness's expression turned sly. She swooped in and called out.
"Alice!"
"Eep... huh!? What."
"If you stare a hole through him like that, don't you think the boss will get uncomfortable?"
"Wh-when did I ever..."
While Alice answered in a shrinking voice, Cosette, comparing several quill pens, spoke up brightly.
"Having the prices written out makes them so easy to compare."
"Yeah? But there are papers stuck under the price tags. What are those?"
A strip of paper, no wider than a fingernail, ran long beneath each one.
Linne approached lightly and explained.
"Y-you can try writing with them!"
"Senior Linne, hello!!"
"Ah, hi! Anyway! Th-those are there so you can try. T-try one, then buy."
"Really? If I write with it, I don't have to buy it?"
"Th-the ones that aren't packaged are samples! Try this one. I-I use this. Th-the writing feel is nice."
Linne dipped a goose-feather pen in ink and held it out to Alice.
Alice took it and carefully wrote her own name.
"Wow, the feel is really good!"
"I want to try too!"
And so the Traffic Light Trio wrote their names, one after another, as if leaving a guestbook. Blow, watching from a distance as they kept gasping in admiration, wore a smile of private triumph.
He was letting everyone experience what had been ordinary to him in that other world. Once people had felt this, they would never be able to go back. The potion shops around them would find it very hard to survive the arrival of The Red Forest.
Seeing the trio's faces brighten so completely, he thought his goal would be reached soon enough.
Then he shifted his gaze to another corner. The place drawing the biggest crowd was the cosmetics counter.
"Whoa! They even put a mirror up? Hey! Why didn't you tell me my hair looks weird!"
"Huh? I thought you'd done it that way on purpose."
"Who walks around with every flyaway sticking out!"
Cosmetics, in a potion shop.
When Blow had first brought it up, Jane and Linne had tilted their heads as if they couldn't make sense of it. His aim was not an ordinary stationery shop. He wanted to give the students the feel of a place like Olive Young, the bright catch-all beauty shop he remembered from his other life. That was why the interior was so airy, and why he had set out things like cosmetics.
Watching the students crowd in, Jane finally seemed to understand, and nodded.
"Young master!"
He turned at the bright voice. There stood Yulia in comfortable clothes, a smile on her lips.
"You've come."
"This is your first real step, young master—of course your partner had to be here! There's a cosmetics corner, too?"
"Yes. As I said last time, I wanted to carry as many kinds of goods as I could."
"I think it's a wonderful idea! Wanting to look pretty—or wanting to look handsome—is everyone's wish."
To that warm response, Blow said what he had been turning over.
"I've been thinking we might widen the range of cosmetics. I don't know them well, but... I think it would be good to have eyeshadow and lipstick in a lot of colors, too."
From the idle hours of his life as Han Ji-hoo, he remembered the girl-idol vlogs he had watched out of boredom: foundations and lipsticks marked with more than ten shade numbers. He couldn't even tell the pinks apart, and the idols would swatch them on their wrists and fuss that the payoff was different, that the color was unreal. Unable to understand any of it, he had skipped ahead to the eating shows.
To think a vlog he had watched so carelessly would prove useful—there was no telling, with people.
"That sounds excellent!! As expected, young master! After the restaurant, cosmetics?"
"It's only a sketch, so I desperately need your help, senior. Cosmetics are completely outside what I know."
"I think it would go very well with the hotel I'm running now, too. I want to get it moving quickly."
"If... we made a cosmetics company, what about a name like this..."
"What name?"
"Yulia Amorepacific?"
"Pardon?"
Yulia looked at him without a trace of understanding. Abashed by her reaction, Blow turned his eyes elsewhere.
"Never mind."
"Young master, I did catch it through Yulia Amore..."
"It's nothing..."
"A little plain, I'll grant—but we can take our time with the name. Still, having my name in a company name you came up with feels rather nice."
As they browsed, they reached the potion corner before they quite noticed.
The Traffic Light Trio, who had been nearby, bowed to Yulia.
"Hello, senior!"
"Ah, students from our academy. Hello."
Once the greetings were done, Cosette carefully picked up a single pale blue-green potion that filled an entire corner, and spoke.
"Boss, what's this? A hangover cure?"
"Ah, that—it's one of our signature potions. Jane compounded it herself."
"Does it really help with a hangover?"
"Yeah. Try one after you've had a drink."
"Should I?"
At her question, Blow pointed at himself with one finger and said, perfectly sure of himself,
"Blow Deblique guarantees it."
"Young master! That carries a tremendous weight!"
Jane looked at him with her mouth pressed into a flat line.
But the line worked well enough. A few upperclassmen who knew him were already gathering around the potion.
Yulia, having looked over the interior, spoke as if worried.
"Young master, this potion shop—it looks as if it'll take quite a lot of hands."
"Jane and Linne will be almost entirely assigned to it, but yes, I suppose it will."
"I don't think the two of them can manage this whole store easily. Linne already looks overwhelmed."
Linne was rushing back and forth between the writing instruments and the notebooks. Unused to it, she looked even busier than she had at the restaurant.
"You said you were also going to have Linne and Jane research the sparkling water and the potions."
"The busy hours are pretty well fixed to morning and evening, so I was thinking of giving them work in the gap between, but..."
Yulia glanced at Jane, whose dark circles had sunk nearly to her cheeks, and said,
"Jane is an outstanding talent, but that seems like too much."
"I was so caught up with the booth that I let it slip."
"If you're pressed, I'll lend you some of our people."
"No. Tomorrow's a day off anyway. I'll have to hire within the week."
Yulia nodded at that, and presently stepped away from him.
Cosette, who had been looking at the potions beside them, edged a little closer.
"Boss."
"Yeah?"
"Do you need staff?"
"Ah, you heard. Sorry—you were shopping."
"No. I got rather interested...."
Blow looked at her once: blue hair, glasses, a cute impression. A first-year who had finished settling into the academy would already know most of what a potion shop carried. The trio's faces were familiar besides, and they greeted people well; the impression they left was quite good.
Of course, something more important than that still remained.
"You'd have to get along with Jane."
"At the potion shop, I'd be working with Senior Jane?"
"Jane's the manager of the potion shop."
"Even better. I heard Senior Jane has a real hand for research."
"I'll post a notice next week. Put your name in then."
"I want to apply too!"
"I... me too!"
Radness and Alice cut in all at once.
Jane, looking at them, nodded to Blow as if to say it was fine.
"True enough. The restaurant needs people too."
"I—I want to work at the restaurant!"
Alice cried it with her face scarlet. Finding that rather unexpected, Blow tilted his head.
"Hm? Why? The restaurant side is brutal."
"Because... you'll be at the restaurant, boss."
"Yeah? The work's pretty rough, but the pay ought to be better there. I'll post for the restaurant next week too, so put your name in."
"Yes, sir!"
They answered with the vigor of staff already hired.
Jane, watching the three chatter, murmured so only Blow could hear.
"You really do make it look easy."
"Better than making it hard."
Then Hervena approached and said quietly,
"Young master, the setup is done. Shall we begin?"
"Good. Now's perfect."
Hervena bent in a single bow, glared at the brightly smiling trio, and pouted. She looked ready to say something, then turned instead toward Skadi. Unable to read her expression, Blow looked to Jane.
"What's with her?"
"Who can say...."
Jane slipped neatly past the question. From the deepest part of the shop, by the stairs up to the second floor, Skadi called out so everyone could hear.
At once, everyone who had been heading for the door turned that way as one, and drifted toward her as if spellbound.
On the right, Hervena stood before a wooden basket whose inside could not be seen. On the left, Skadi stood beside a great many numbered prizes.
"All right—who'll go first?"
Being first seemed to give them pause. Skadi pointed at a timid-looking boy among them and beckoned.
"Customer? This way, please."
"M-me?"
"Yes! The first customer draws free, as a special exception! Come here and pull one slip."
"What do you win?"
"The numbered prizes beside me, and a special prize!"
Most of what was on display was useful at the academy.
Called over by Skadi, he put his hand into the basket on the principle that the worst he could do was break even.
A moment later, a leaf lay in his hand. On it, in crooked letters, was written the number ninety-nine.
"Ninety-nine!"
"Ninety-nine?"
Blow, who knew the numbering stopped in the forties, looked that way in alarm. Jane looked too, plainly at a loss.
Meanwhile Skadi spread her palm wide toward the boy. And there, written bold across the smiling girl's hand, was ninety-nine.
Blow covered his face with one hand and hurried over.