1. 28 years old, 17 years old
1. 28 years old, 17 years old
"Huuu......."
I part my lips slightly and exhale a breath imbued with mana, and at the same time, a freezing blizzard forms.
The snowdrifts soon pile up to create a mound of snow, and when I do that....
"The freezer is ready, too."
A perfect Snow Woman's freezer that won't melt for at least three days is created.
A specially crafted box, two meters wide and long, and about one meter high.
Although the inside is packed full of ice and snow, just in case, the box made with special materials is....
"I can keep ice cream in here."
It's going to be the freezer where things like ice cream will be stored from now on.
Even though it was specially made with expensive materials, using it was entirely up to me anyway.
Besides, wouldn't it be most effective when used like this?
No problem at all, I'd say.
Anyway, after finishing the freezer construction, I slowly step back, ttubeok, ttubeok... I'll just gloss over the fact that my chest, which I've gotten used to for 26 years, jiggles with every movement.
"Hmm.... Is this enough?"
I looked at the interior, which became more visible with every step backward.
Since this is a fantasy world, unlike the modern world of my past life.
It wasn't a concrete ceiling, but made using materials like wood and stone... The interior, not just the ceiling, but the floor, walls, pillars, and everything else were made of such materials.
If you look at the whole room from the entrance where I'm standing, you can see the counter on the left as soon as you enter, various shelves in front, and a refrigerator on the wall.
Besides that, there's also a table and chairs for a quick meal on the right wall.
Actually, with the preparation of the refrigerator and freezer, all the preparations were practically finished.
To be precise, I'll have to stock the items one by one now, though?
That's something to do after the ordered goods arrive.
"Finally, it's really, truly starting."
It's already been 26 years since I collapsed from overwork and was reborn as a Snow Woman.
After being born in a rural village, I prepared and prepared hard, and I could smile with satisfaction at the completed result.
Unlike my past life, where I struggled to make money, trying to switch to better companies or climb the corporate ladder, this place is for my plan to live this life as thinly and as long as possible.
[Academy Convenience Store]
"Hehehe......."
Sales are bound to be steady, and the work won't be insanely hard either.
It was the perfect place for me, as it's quite easy to do business thanks to my racial trait of being a Snow Woman.
Since graduating from the Academy in the winter of my 19th year, I've only done work I could do, specifically work that made money, and that's how I created my own business item.
It's a superior version of the small shops, general stores, and kiosks that have existed in this other world until now.
Plus, it's much more comfortable, clean, handles far more products, and has good accessibility.
The convenience store is finally complete.
"In this life, as comfortably, thinly, and as long as possible.... Yeah. Let's do that."
Because I've already realized there's no reason to struggle and live luxuriously like in my past life.
In this life, I'll just live by picking the pockets of the snot-nosed 17 to 19-year-old students at the Academy.
Of course, I won't be making a huge amount of money, but the important thing is surviving.
As long as I live reasonably well, that's enough.
Besides, who would be foolish enough to overwork in this life when I already died from overwork in the last one?
"Hehehe...."
Standing in front of the convenience store door, just looking at the interior made me keep smiling.
It was a place that contained my 26 years of life, and it was also the place where my happy future would unfold.
Naturally, I couldn't help but smile.
If I could live happily, joyfully, and uneventfully here, that was enough for me.
In my past life, there was a common rumor that all sorts of villains would always show up whenever you worked at a convenience store, but this is a fantasy world, not the modern one.
Although few in number, it's a world where non-human, human-like demi-humans also live.
Like in my case, a Snow Woman... even though there are only females.
It was a world where a race lived that was more familiar with mana than humans, and could produce a blizzard just by exhaling with mana, without needing to chant spells or draw magic circles.
Furthermore, the location where I opened the Academy is none other than the Imperial Academy, where only the smartest kids gather within the Empire, the only powerful country in the world.
"Hehehe...!"
As expected, my plan was bound to be perfect...!
*
"Ha, fuck, they broke a bottle and ran away again."
Fuck.
Do they not even have the strength to hold a bottle at 17?
When I was a male high school student in my past life, I was picked for every task the P.E. teacher assigned, carrying and moving all sorts of heavy things.
How can they not even hold a single glass bottle and end up breaking it like this?
Even if they aren't men, shouldn't a 17-year-old be able to handle at least that much?
"...Tsk."
Such rough complaints slipped out before I knew it, but there was only one thing to do anyway.
Bring the dustpan and broom from the corner and clean up the glass shards.
No matter how much people wear shoes, I just didn't like the situation with glass shards scattered everywhere, and if the floor got more scratches for no reason... my base, which I'd worked hard to cultivate for two years, would look worse.
I started by cleaning it up so other customers, those green, young students, wouldn't step on it.
It's still class time, though....
"......Sigh."
I definitely thought I would succeed when I opened the convenience store at 26.
Is there really nothing easy in this world?
Things were definitely proceeding quite smoothly in terms of profit, but....
"...I'm tired."
Is it because I've grown... aged from Skadi at 26 to Skadi at 28?
"...Am I getting old?"
I've felt a bit tired lately.
My back, or my knees....
...I'm definitely a Snow Woman.
My body was sturdy thanks to mana, and because of that, it wasn't a body that aged quickly.
There's definitely nothing wrong with my health.
Is it just a psychological issue?
It's been over two years since I started running the convenience store alone, so maybe I'm just sick of the work.
"Ugh...."
On top of that, the 17-year-old first-year students who entered the Academy this time were noisier than usual.
Even in my convenience store located inside the Academy, it's much noisier than last year, and incidents of things breaking and soup being spilled happen whenever I'm bored.
It makes sense that I've been feeling tired lately.
"Since it's class time right now...."
I've finished cleaning, so I decided to take a short break in the break room behind the counter.
After all, it was the Imperial Academy, where kids born into decent families and talented kids enroll.
There weren't many who skipped class at this time.
If they skipped class for no reason, all sorts of rumors could arise, and for nobles, such rumors were quite troublesome.
Unlike a woman from a rural Snow Woman village like me.
"......."
By the way, maybe it's because I've lived for 28 years, but I find myself thinking of myself as a woman without even realizing it.
"Tsk."
Anyway, after finishing the cleaning, I checked one more time to see if there were any more customers in the convenience store, then opened the door located inside the counter.
As soon as I opened it, what caught my eye was a really small room, about 70 square feet.
There's a bed, and two shelves next to it.
Other than that, there's a trivial mirror or clothes just thrown on the desk....
"Skadi-nunim, why did you come in?"
"...Noah, just how long are you going to stay here like this?"
"I plan to stay here until the swordsmanship class is over."
"Haaa......."
A 17-year-old male brat occupying my break room bed comes into view.
A brat with black hair and gold eyes.
He's not particularly ugly, but there was no way the guy occupying my bed, where I was just about to rest, would look pretty to me....
Besides, he's a guy who's much taller than me, too.
There was no way such a guy would look cute.
No, in the first place, it's definitely class time right now, so what is he doing here....
"Just move aside. Why are you occupying my bed?"
"If I said I was savoring Nunim's scent, would I get scolded?"
"Then you'll get scolded. Do you think you wouldn't? Stop talking nonsense and just move aside."
"Yep."
He's a guy who visits so often that I'm used to this kind of thing, so I just told him to move aside.
I don't understand why a 17-year-old brat keeps coming to find a 28-year-old.
What I don't understand even more is since when the Academy became a place where you could skip class so easily... I felt anew that the world is going to hell.
When I attended, it was a place where they'd throw a fit even if you went to the bathroom for a moment during class.
That's why I really thought the world was going to hell.
"So, are you planning to sit there on the edge of my bed until class is over?"
"Nunim keeps saying such scary things. If I get closer than the edge for no reason, wouldn't I get scolded?"
"If you don't want to get scolded, you shouldn't have come in here in the first place."
"Haha, I don't want that. I want to get closer to Nunim, so how could I do that?"
"...Tsk."
It's not like I haven't received advances from guys with dicks in my 28 years.
Because I'm pretty, after all.
I think 28 is an age where I'm slowly becoming like a middle-aged woman, but the Snow Woman race definitely had something that transcended age.
In the first place, it's basically a race that is much more beautiful than ordinary humans.
White hair as beautiful as snow and blue eyes as clear as the sky.
Pure white skin and, not to brag, but a figure that's amazing and incredible, like a snowy mountain... I know that I have the kind of appearance that men are bound to be interested in.
But... still, I'm 28.
"...Tsk."
I thought again that the guy sitting on my bed was a strange guy.
I don't know what a 17-year-old brat likes about me, or why he keeps doing this to a middle-aged woman who is 11 years older than him.
Even after living as a Snow Woman for 28 years, for me, who has a past life of living as a man, it was just a series of absurd situations, and I could only keep sighing.
Unless he had an overwhelming masculinity that could break down these thoughts of mine.
Since that's not really the case.
I guess that won't happen, right?
In the first place, while doing this and that until now, I've never even had a crush on a man, let alone dated, so it's only natural.