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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Paying Off the Debt
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“Mommy. Here's the newspaper.”
“Thanks.”
Nibelria, who had delivered the morning paper in her pajamas, asked,
“Can you be my guarantor, Mommy?”
“You've picked up something new again, haven't you?”
Seletrina smiled brightly.
“I asked Daddy, but he said no...”
“A guarantor is a really serious thing, you know. You shouldn't ask just anyone. It's cool to pay your own debts yourself.”
“That's how it is, huh?”
“That's how it is.”
“Guess I can't help it...”
As a reward for running the errand, Nibelria pulled a debt reduction certificate from her pocket.
“Stick it on, please.”
The certificate had a big drawing of grapes. Every time she completed a task, the adults would stick a purple sticker on the grapes.
Once she filled all 128, her debt would be cleared.
“For delivering the morning paper, I'll stick one on.”
“Can't I get two?”
“No.”
“You're so heartless, Mommy.”
“'Heartless' is your catchphrase these days, huh, Nini?”
“'It's tough' is a catchphrase too!”
“...Who did you learn that from?”
Seletrina stuck one sticker on the certificate.
Nibelria's face showed the hardship as she scanned the certificate, which wasn't even half full yet.
“Sigh, earning someone else's money isn't easy.”
Pfft!
Seletrina, who had been sipping tea while reading the paper, choked hard.
“Mommy! What's wrong?!”
“Cough, ack...!”
“Mommy's dying! Mommy's dying!”
Nibelria hurriedly called the servants waiting outside.
Since she had helped in an emergency, she got another sticker.
“I hope Mommy gets sick again!”
“......”
Seletrina, barely recovering from the coughing fit, just smiled silently.
A child's innocent malice could be cruel at times.
Nibelria's efforts to clear her debt continued.
She ate a variety of foods, picked up any trash she saw and gave it to the servants, and gathered fallen twigs in the garden into one pile.
“How about selling the leftover cookies?”
Dether, who had been by her side, suggested.
“The leftovers?”
“If you sell all the cookies, you can turn that into money, then exchange it for stickers to put on the debt certificate. You'll pay off the debt in no time.”
“There's a way like that!”
Nibelria rushed back to her room and pulled out the leftover cookies.
There were 19 unopened bags of cookies left in the box from right after the bankruptcy.
“How about selling these to the people working in the mansion? Cookies have a fatigue recovery effect, after all.”
“Right! When you eat them, the tiredness, uh, goes away!”
“What about the price?”
“25,000 Uba each.”
The clever Nibelria hadn't forgotten what Kaleo had said.
“Then for three... um...”
“75,000 Uba.”
“Wow...!”
It was an enormous sum, whatever it was.
Nibelria folded and unfolded her fingers, doing her own calculations. A dark smile bloomed on the child's face.
“If I sell them like this and get rich, I can rule the world...!”
“Our young lady has big ambitions.”
“Ruling the world makes you king.”
“I see.”
“And ruling the king makes you a saintess!”
“The saintess is the strongest, then.”
“Yeah!”
After putting the cookies in a round woven basket, Nibelria went around the mansion selling them.
“Buy!”
“Pardon?”
“Buy! I said buy!”
“Young lady, that's not how you sell things.”
After calming Nibelria, who had been blocking a passing servant's path and trying to force a sale, Dether demonstrated how to sell.
“Hello, this is the bankrupt Meow Shop. We're clearing out inventory—take a look at these cookies. Cheap prices!”
“Ah, so you're doing an inventory clearance.”
The servant finally recalled the bankruptcy news and nodded.
“How much?”
“75,000 Uba for three cookies.”
“...Pardon?”
The servant glanced at the cookies in Nini's hand.
Three small, ugly-looking lumps that appeared to be cookies for nearly 80,000 Uba. 80,000 Uba was the price of a jin of beef.
“These aren't ordinary cookies.”
Dether explained the cookies' effects.
“They're great for headaches, toothaches, menstrual cramps, stomachaches, backaches, and more.”
“W-well, I'm a man, so I don't need anything for menstrual cramps...”
“But you have a head and a back. It's good for wrist joints too, they say.”
“These are cookies, right?”
Even setting aside the effects, the price higher than meat was the biggest hurdle.
“...Hng.”
Nibelria's shoulders slumped as she sensed the failed sale.
The servant, feeling unnecessarily guilty and about to apologize—
“Um, by any chance.”
—pulled something from his pocket.
“Would this work?”
What he took out was a purple round sticker—the exact debt reduction sticker for Nibelria's certificate.
“Oh!”
Nibelria's eyes widened.
“Lady Seletrina gave it to me this morning. Could I give you three of these for the cookies?”
“Yes! Stickers work!”
“Then we'll trade the cookies for these stickers.”
Nibelria quickly held out her grape-depicting debt reduction certificate. The servant stuck three stickers on it and took the cookies.
“Young lady.”
Dether gave her a look.
“Thank you for buying!”
Nibelria bowed her head.
The servant bowed back.
“No, no. I hope you prosper too, young lady.”
“What's prosper?”
“It means make lots of money.”
“Then can you be my guarantor?”
“No, that won't do.”
“It won't, huh...”
Riding this momentum, Nibelria diligently sold cookies for stickers. Some tried to haggle the price down, but she firmly held the line each time.
“This is Nini's pride.”
“Oh my, you even know the word pride? That's a hard one.”
The green-haired maid giggled as she stuck stickers on the certificate.
“Pride is like a person's legs. You have to protect your pride to stand tall. Without pride, you'll collapse someday.”
“I like how you say cool things sometimes, young lady.”
“If you like me, will you be my guarantor?”
“Not enough to be your guarantor.”
“Oof...”
The debt reduction certificate, which had seemed endless to fill, was now more than halfway done. Only two cookie bags remained in the basket.
“Hee hee!”
Nibelria's face bloomed with a full smile as she looked at the certificate.
“Now I don't have to try so hard anymore!”
“You should work hard to pay off your debt.”
Dether peered into the basket and asked,
“Two left—keep selling?”
“Mmm-no.”
Nibelria shook her head side to side and tucked the cookies into her pocket.
“For brother. And grandma and grandpa too.”
Nibelria was the youngest in a large family where three generations lived together.
Grandparents, parents, and her older brother.
There was one aunt wandering around, but unfortunately, Nibelria didn't remember her.
She had left on a trip when the child was even younger.
In any case, Nibelria had a 10-year-old brother.
Unlike Nibelria's white hair, he took after his dad and grandfather with red locks. His eye color matched his mom Seletrina's green.
Nibelria really liked her brother.
“Nini!”
“Haaack!”
But she bared her teeth at her brother who appeared with a loud voice.
Nibelria, who had been playing with her wolf doll on the fluffy carpet, fled to the corner in surprise at her brother's sudden entrance.
Then she threatened him, showing her tiny teeth.
“Haaack! Haack!”
“Nini, calm down. It's brother.”
Whoa, whoa.
Solles Dayamor was quite familiar with this situation and naturally soothed his little sister's startled heart.
Dether, watching from a step back, thought he looked like a beast tamer training a wild animal.
The only flaw—and advantage—was that the beast was too pathetic.
“Did I scare you? Sorry. I hurried because I missed you, Nini.”
“......”
“Do you recognize brother now? It's okay to be startled.”
“Brother!”
Nibelria jumped up, huffed, and swung her fists.
“You scared me! Dummy! Dummy!”
She whined for quite a while, still mad about being startled earlier.
Solles took just one punch, dodged the rest, and instead hugged her tight.
Nibelria wrapped her arms around her brother's back too.
“Did you miss me? I love you, brother!”
She had been so mad just moments ago, but now she grinned like a fool from the hug alone—her little sister was utterly adorable.
“Where were you, brother? I was a little curious since I hadn't seen you.”
“I was looking at mushrooms in the forest. Found some poison ones and made medicine from them. It was super fun?”
“Poison mushrooms are dangerous! Eat them and you're done for!”
“Done for?”
The siblings walked down the hall hand in hand amiably.
Dether, following behind, asked Solles,
“What mushrooms did you find in the forest?”
“It was spring, so not many. Yellow bride mushrooms, silk funnel mushrooms...”
“Mushrooms mostly grow a lot in summer and fall, after all.”
“But I found something super rare.”
Solles suddenly made a scary face and shoved his face toward Nibelria.
Nibelria, who had been secretly picking her nose, quickly pulled her finger out.
“A pink mushroom!”
“Pink!”
“It was such a pretty color. But it's the most dangerous poison mushroom.”
“Wooow...”
Nibelria nodded repeatedly with a serious face.
Solles asked,
“Wanna go see it? I brought it to show you, Nini.”
The adults in the living room were already discussing the mushroom.
“It really looks just like a deer's antler.”
“Don't touch it. The surface is extremely poisonous too.”
“Dear, could you handle the brokerage for us?”
“Of course, ma'am. What price should we set?”
“As high as possible. First, to the information broker and the Magic Tower...”
“I brought Nini!”
The adults, debating what to do with the poison mushroom, turned at Solles's voice.
“Nini!”
Nibelria raised both arms high to announce her presence.
