Chapter 50

Chapter 50

What Roen meant was that if you’ve entered the circle of someone who rarely gives their heart, you shouldn’t cause trouble even if you can’t repay that heart.

“If you work yourself to exhaustion every day for Luwin’s sake, how do you think Lord Cassis feels watching that?”

I kept my mouth shut and lowered my gaze to the floor.

It wasn’t wrong, so I had nothing to refute. 

But it’s not just for Luwin.

If I had to say, it’s closer to working this hard for an extremely personal reason.

‘Besides, I’m surprisingly well-suited for this kind of business.’

[Really?]

‘It’s fun, isn’t it? Even if it’s a small amount of money, it keeps coming in, accumulating. Expanding the business.’

Moreover, because I have the system, my risks are very low.

 It’s almost like taking a test with a cheat sheet.

“Well, it’s not that Miss Irina did something wrong, just please take a little more care of your body.”

Roen sighed deeply as if the floor might cave in, then spoke with a softer expression and a more relaxed voice.

“I like and care for Irina too, so of course I’m worried.”

“Mr. Roen…”

I looked at Roen once with a touched expression, my eyes sparkling. 

Then, relaxing my expression, I asked with full of doubt.

“You like me, Mr. Roen? That can’t be.”

“…You have a lot to say even when I’m being nice.”

Roen returned to his usual self, grumbling and starting to scold me again. 

I whined at him, showing him this.

“But Miss Irina, it’s not a lie that I care for you.”

“Why?”

“Because you remind me of the little sister I left back home?”

Ah. 

That’s the story.

He said that nonchalantly while offering me a wine glass that I didn’t know when he had prepared.

Meanwhile, Apple brought out some light snacks to eat with the alcohol and quietly disappeared.

“I nearly died earlier, and now you want me to drink?”

“Ah, of course, the lady can have grape juice.”

“Why are you talking like that? It’s really annoying.”

“Oh, right. That rude way of speaking is exactly like my little sister.”

I don’t know who his sister is, but somehow I felt like we’d get along well if we met.

Roen poured real grape juice into my glass and wine into his own, then sat down heavily.

Normally, I would have insisted on drinking alcohol too, but today I stayed quiet since just a few hours ago I had been crawling on the floor.

I was still feeling the aftereffects and my stomach was unsettled.

Roen started emptying his share of wine while rambling on about everything from how great a person Cassis is to how scary his older sister, the current heir to the Blende County, is.

“Oh, is Mr. Roen perhaps weak to alcohol?”

“No? I’m very strong.”

“I see.”

[He’s completely drunk.]

[He’s lost it.]

[Tsk tsk.]

He had only emptied two glasses and was already starting to talk nonsense with a red face.

“No, really, my sister is so similar to you.”

“Your sister must have a strong personality.”

“Yes. She’s incredibly stubborn.”

Yes, after just two glasses of wine, a lot of conversation had passed between Roen and me. 

As a result, Roen…

“Can’t we be a bit closer?”

“I’d like that. Should we drop the formalities?”

“…We should still use respectful language.”

“Yes, Mr. Roen. I look forward to our friendship.”

Roen, whose eyes had been hazy from the alcohol, suddenly focused and flatly refused. 

He’s only quick at times like this.

“Honestly, don’t you think the title ‘Mr. Roen’ is too stiff?”

“Then should I call you senior?”

“Senior?”

To him, who kept muttering the word ‘senior’, I smiled and called him with the new title.

“Senior Roen.”

He lifted his head sharply at my call.

“Yes, this! You always do this to Lord Cassis too.”

When I just blinked, not understanding what he meant, he hit his chest as if frustrated.

“Miss Irina, you sometimes have a way of striking right at someone’s core.”

“Me?”

“Yes. That’s why Lord Cassis can’t think straight. He’s always swayed…”

Is that so? 

I’m not sure.

[Well, isn’t it good if it’s good?]

I tilted my head once, then straightened it and called him brightly again.

“Senior Roen!”

Roen put the wine glass to his mouth then lowered it, turning his head to the side. 

The corners of his mouth twitched, looking quite pleased.

‘He likes it.’

[I know, right? haha]

“Then Senior Roen, for me…”

[Let him call you by your name?]

The corners of Roen’s mouth, which were already twitching, rose even higher.

“You?”

“Senior, just keep calling me as you have been. With the ‘Miss’.”

“Huh?”

I knew teasing Roen was fun, but it’s even more fun than I thought.

Especially since he’s usually just a bit proper on top of being slick, when I tease him, it comes back twice as much.

But after giving him alcohol, there was just a dazed person sitting in front of me.

“Why? You’ve been calling me ‘Miss Irina’ just fine.”

“…”

The twitching corners of his mouth were gone, leaving only wavering pupils, and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

I laughed so hard I bent over at the waist.

“Ah, I’m in a good mood. Alright. I’ll allow you to call me by my name, Irina.”

“…Thank you very much.”

Roen gritted his teeth and gave thanks that was clearly not thankful at all, then sighed.

“So, Irina, did the ice cream sell well? How much did you make?”

He doesn’t seem to know that I gave it out for free today. 

Therefore, the sales are 0 jurang.

“I sold out all 300 that I prepared, and the sales were 0 jurang!”

“…?”

“I gave them out for free!”

Roen stared at me blankly, and slowly focus started to return to his hazy eyes.

“Free…”

“I wanted to see people’s reactions, so I gave them out for free as promotion, and it seems like it wasn’t a bad strategy.”

Thanks to that, I also pulled in ‘Minion 1’ and ‘Minion 2’ as my people.

“Is it… really okay?”

“Senior, do you trust me?”

“No.”

The first thing out of his mouth was a negative ‘No’. 

He shook his head vigorously.

“Why don’t you trust me? I’ve been working so diligently and hard”

Don’t you know things have been going well since I came to the North? 

I organized the existing business, sold what needed to be sold, merged what needed to be merged, all by myself without the system’s help.

Roen’s eyes became full of distrust, saying that’s one thing, but business is a different area.

“Honestly speaking, how much could you earn selling ice cream? It’s just a dessert that won’t even make a few coins.”

“I’m telling you, Luwin will be saved by this ice cream that won’t even make a few coins.”

“I hope so.”

I was planning to actually sell tomorrow anyway, so now that it’s come to this, I thought about inviting Roen too.

I can’t be certain whether it will sell well or not, but since it’s come to this, I thought it might not be bad to let Roen experience the ground level from the beginning.

“I’m going to sell ice cream again tomorrow.”

“Giving it out for free is not selling.”

“No, tomorrow I’m going to sell it for 3 jurang!”

Roen’s face became full of thoughts like whether it would actually sell, and even if it sold a lot, how much could be earned.

“Where?”

“In front of the Salome Theater.”

“Alone?”

“No, I hired two kids.”

I tapped Roen, who was covered in fatigue, and said,

“If you’re bored, come by tomorrow.”

“I won’t, I won’t go.”

* * *

When I went to the place where I had been selling ice cream diligently yesterday, I rubbed my eyes at the colorful stand that stood out even from far away.

The clean, impressive sign with ice cream and waffles drawn on it was definitely my ice cream stand.

“It’s much more colorful than yesterday?”

Yesterday, it showed signs of being hastily made, but today there was not a single flaw to be found.

[Our Irina… you didn’t just get a simple designer slave?]

[This is amazing?]

Originally, it was a shabby wooden table with a long pole rising above it to hang a sign.

It was said to be the typical stand structure you’d often see on the streets or in marketplaces.

But now, not a trace of the original wood color could be found in the stand.

The sign had changed to an awning, and that awning was alternating pale yellow and pink, giving off an atmosphere that suggested something colorful was being sold even from far away.

And the pole was also delicately painted with pale yellow paint, with no trace of the original wood color visible.

[Since the waffles and ice cream aren’t physically placed in the space, but are in Irina’s inventory or created by skills, this is just perfect.]

“That’s right.”

The table of the stand was all pure white, probably painted with white paint. 

Instead, it was decorated like a kind of sign underneath, with the base painted in the pale yellow paint also used on the awning, and a large drawing of an ice cream waffle on top of that.

If space was needed for the ice cream and waffles, and if the ‘ice cream waffles’ had to be made directly at the stand, a slightly different structure would have been necessary.

But for the current method of summoning waffles from the inventory and using skills to put ice cream scoops between the waffles, this was enough.

“Miss Irina?”

“Hello Yen, Yuri. Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon to you too, Miss Irina!”

Yuri scurried to my side and started fidgeting with a face that looked like he had a lot to say.

“Yuri, did you do all this by yourself?”

“Yes! How is it? Do you like it?”

He looked at me once, then at the stand once, repeating this with eyes full of worry and expectation.

“It’s really perfect. How did you do this alone in just one day?”

“Hehe, I just did this and that by myself because it was fun, and it turned out like this!”

What I was really amazed by was that in this era, no one used this style of color combination, but Yuri boldly attempted it.

Moreover, what was surprising about the drawings on the sign was that they were slightly simplified forms of realistic drawings.

‘What exactly is the art trend in this place?’

Is it okay for pop art to pop up like this without any historical context or plausibility?

A trace of the 20th century, standing alone in the middle of this city with such an old-fashioned atmosphere.

[That’s because… I made it a bit roughly, moderately!]

[And there’s also some plausibility that was created from the moment Irina was transmigrated.]

Anyway, I liked it. 

If there’s something unique and interesting but also aesthetically pretty in front of you, people of all ages and classes will stop for a moment to look and see what it is.

I put about ten ‘ice cream waffles’ that I had prepared in the morning on a tray and handed it to Yen.

“Yen, are you ready?”

Yen grinned and said,

“Of course. Be prepared to sell out all 300.”

And so, the ‘Ice Cream Waffle’ sale began.