Chapter 9
A black-and-white photograph plastered largely across the front page of the newspaper.
In front of the familiar dressmaking shop, people wearing sleeping caps whispering in the background.
In the very center, the adulterous man crying pathetically with tears and snot streaming down his face.
Clear snot dripping all the way to his chin, the vest buttons that burst open from crouching and sobbing, and the bulging belly visible through the gap……
Ugh!
Because the camera had only been invented not long ago, the photograph was black-and-white and extremely blurry. It was only vaguely recognizable as a person.
Yet even in such a photograph, only the adulterous man’s protruding belly was unusually clear.
Once again, ugh!
“What are you looking at, Seraphina unnie?”
“Ellie.”
I turned around while folding the newspaper I was holding in half. Black shirt, white skirt, white scarf. Ellie, wearing the uniform, was jumping up and down in place.
Ellie took out a familiar letter from her skirt pocket and repeated for what must have been the tenth time today alone.
“I woke up at 6 a.m. as usual… and this letter was in our mailbox! When I opened it, it was letters that the adulterous man and woman had exchanged with each other!”
Yeah, that’s right. I had a hard time going to your house in the middle of the night yesterday.
“And then in the morning, a lady named Mrs. Oblonsky contacted me. She said she saw the article. She told me to come back to work.”
Mrs. Oblonsky is the wife of the adulterous man. The daughter of a merchant.
When Mrs. Scrooge decided to hand over the dressmaking shop to the Oblonsky firm, she became the new owner of this dressmaking shop, and she is also the one who saved Ellie, whose back was broken like a shrimp in the adultery fight.
“They say Mrs. Scrooge has been sued for adultery.”
Other colleagues came and sat beside us, adding to the conversation.
“That makes sense. There’s no way out. How many witnesses saw her in that state yesterday?”
“If the wife had kept holding out at the dressmaking shop, all the spring ball dress reservations would have been canceled one after another.”
“Of course. What noble lady would entrust her clothes to a designer who might be having an affair with her husband?”
“So she gave in obediently?”
“They say Mrs. Scrooge took out a huge loan when she bought this building. So she apparently can’t afford the fine and alimony. She decided to substitute this dressmaking shop for the alimony.”
“That’s why I got reinstated in just one day!”
“Ellie is reinstated, and the evil boss Mrs. Scrooge is kicked out.”
“The manager who used to act as Mrs. Scrooge’s lackey got fired too. It really worked out perfectly.”
A colleague glanced at the manager who was packing her things alone and leaving sadly behind the group of colleagues gathered to enjoy tea time, and said.
All workplaces in the empire are required to give employees a 15-minute tea time around 3 p.m.
It was a law we knew about but had never been able to enjoy, but with the change of owner, we were finally able to have tea time for the first time.
“So the adulterous man gets divorced with nothing, Mrs. Scrooge hands over the dressmaking shop… what about the adulterous woman?”
“That woman is already in prison.”
“Why?”
“I heard she slapped a maid at the Oblonsky mansion. Saying she was going to become the mistress of this house.”
“Turns out the pregnancy was fake too?”
“Adultery, assault, fraud…….”
“She was even dumped by the adulterous man. He said he only approached her for the adulterous woman’s money, and the one he truly loved was Mrs. Scrooge.”
“Good grief.”
“Anyway, this is all thanks to the Magic Saintess!”
Ellie shouted, clasping her hands together.
Ellie took the newspaper I was reading and opened the front page.
[The Appearance of the Magic Saintess?]
[A person claiming to be “Magic Saintess Sena”…]
“What’s a Magic Saintess?”
“It says here. 950 years ago….”
“But is this really true? A saintess might be one thing, but magicians no longer exist.”
“She could be a fraud pretending to be the Magic Saintess.”
“They say it was really chaotic here yesterday. Someone might have played a prank in the confusion.”
“But it’s true that letters fell from the sky, right?”
“Someone delivered a letter to Ellie’s house too.”
“I heard letters went to the Oblonsky mansion as well.”
“No, just how many letters were those people exchanging?”
“Whatever, one thing is clear!”
Amid the divided opinions, Ellie shouted with sparkling eyes.
“I don’t know who this person is, but she helped me. From now on, I’m going to be a fan of the Magic Saintess!”
“That’s right, me too.”
“Right. If you think about it, we’re also able to enjoy tea time like this thanks to the Magic Saintess, aren’t we?”
“Right. From now on, quitting time will be earlier, and unpaid overtime will disappear….”
“This is all thanks to the Magic Saintess. …But Seraphina, why do you keep dozing off?”
“Ah, sorry.”
Yawn. I stretched long and yawned.
“I didn’t sleep yesterday.”
“Aigoo. You stayed up all night reading books again, didn’t you?”
“Well, something like that….”
Strictly speaking, yesterday I stayed up all night dodging bullets…….
“Wipe your drool.”
Embarrassed, I wiped my chin while avoiding the eyes of my colleagues who were giggling.
-Question. Are you going to keep working at the dressmaking shop? Now that you’re also doing the Magic Saintess thing.
-Answer. Yes. Because if I don’t work, people might suspect where my money is coming from.
It’s also better to keep working at the dressmaking shop to collect circulating rumors.
You haven’t forgotten, right? Customers treat us employees like inanimate objects with no ears or eyes.
This is the best place to hear passing gossip.
And the Magic Saintess work is unstable. Since I don’t know when it might end, I definitely need a steady income.
“But who’s that man?”
Trying to change the subject from my colleagues who were busy praising the Magic Saintess and teasing my swollen face, I pointed with my eyes at the man who had been going up and down to the third floor carrying several boxes since earlier.
“He’s the new hire who started today.”
“New hire?”
“Yeah. To be exact, he’s not our new hire… Um, you know the tea leaves supplied by the temple?”
“Ah, the expensive ones?”
“Yeah. Mrs. Scrooge tried everything to bring those tea leaves into our dressmaking shop’s teahouse but couldn’t, but starting today, they decided to supply them to us too.”
“Good heavens.”
“I know, right? Isn’t it funny? Mrs. Scrooge probably wanted them not for customers but to feed her boyfriend.”
Anyway, from now on, that man will go back and forth between the temple and our dressmaking shop to supply the tea leaves.
“And he’ll also run errands when we’re busy.”
“Hmm.”
I rested my chin on my hand and looked at the man.
Just then, our eyes met as he turned his head toward me.
Silver hair, light sky-blue eyes. Features that somehow felt holy, contrasted by delinquent-looking eyes.
He gives off a thug vibe, yet his demeanor is strangely refined.
‘He doesn’t seem like a mere errand boy.’
Look at him, standing there doing nothing yet somehow elegant. As if he’s practiced standing posture thousands of times.
Arden sometimes does that too.
‘Wasn’t the man I ran into in the alley yesterday also sky-blue-eyed? Is that color common?’
“I was so sad thinking we wouldn’t see the handkerchief customer anymore!”
“Ah, that junior of Seraphina’s?”
“That handsome guy?”
“But that customer was kind of cold? The day Seraphina ran an errand for him last time, he was standing there alone, so I asked if he was looking for something. He just nodded slightly and left.”
“Really?”
Why did he do that.
I replied while still making eye contact with the man.
I missed the timing to naturally look away, so we’re like this.
‘Never mind me, but why isn’t that man looking away.’
I grumbled inwardly.
The man who had been staring at me slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
Without realizing it, I clenched my fist.
‘Why is he grinning at a woman he doesn’t know….’
“But you know, unnies. The handkerchief customer is one thing, but that new employee is also really handsome….”
That very moment.
“Heok heok heok heok.”
Huh?
I looked down under the chair I was sitting on.
At some point, Tofu wearing a yellow bag was looking up at me with sparkling eyes.
His warm front paw pressed against my shin.
What the!
“Seraphina, where are you going?”
“I need to use the bathroom for a second!”
Afraid someone would see, I quickly hid the puppy in my arms and ran up the stairs as if rolling.
I entered the empty changing room on the second floor and closed the door.
“Tofu, how did you get here!”
“I flew!”
“No…!”
Not that!
“Why! Why did you come!”
Don’t you know how rude it is to suddenly show up at someone’s workplace like this!
However, the puppy who couldn’t possibly know such things was simply excited.
What’s this? What’s that? Flapping his ears left and right while sniffing everywhere, Doufu whispered.
“Magic Saintess Seraphina!”
“what….”
“There’s a new mission!”
Already?!
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