Chapter 21
(T/N: Double Update 👀)
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Karina shakes her head and hurriedly wiped away the water around her eyes.
“I- I got something in my eye.”
It was a lie that even younger kids wouldn’t believe, but the children nodded their heads kindly.
“Aren’t you guys hungry? Do you want me to cook something for you?”
“We’re hungry!”
The children shouted in chorus.
“Okay, I’ll make you something delicious today.”
“Yesterday was delicious.”
“It’s more delicious than yesterday.”
Karina felt much better as she looked at the children whose eyes still remain shining with hope and her worries disappeared.
Children don’t have to worry about adults. No, they shouldn’t. It was a lesson from the past.
Karina had to worry about her mother who never looked after her throughout her short childhood. She wanted to give her children a different childhood.
‘If I had some money, I would have said let’s eat out today.’
Karina sighed as she recalled yesterday’s dinner. Cooking using fire in the guest room was prohibited, so Karina was extremely limited in what she could cook.
She could ask Roland and Melissa to light a fire. But Karina announced that the children shouldn’t use fire-related magic in case they got close to playing dangerous fire games.
The children were very confused at first and asked again if they really couldn’t. No one would stop them from playing with matches in the orphanage and Lord Lenque loved it when Roland do dangerous magic tricks.
Still, Karina was more precious than any other adult so the two children never used any fire-related magic as they were told.
She gives her all and tried to make bread by simply inflating it without using fire magic. Of course, the result was a room bombed with flour.
Fortunately, Karina wasn’t the only one in the neighborhood who couldn’t afford to have an oven at home so she was able to hear various recipes from the merchants.
“What’s the food for today?”
“Goose salad with ham and cheese baguette.”
“It looks delicious!”
The children exclaimed loudly, clinging to each of her sides, and stared at her.
“If you don’t stop you will get injured, step aside.”
Karina spoke sternly but the children knew it was just all talk so they didn’t even move.
“…Instead, you have to stay calm. Do you understand?
“Yes!”
The children kept their promise. Karina cut the ham and cheese baguette into sandwiches. The children stood by quietly waiting and ate the sandwiches that Karina made as they approached.
In the end, the only sandwich she ate was the tail of the baguette but Karina didn’t mind. It’s a good thing to be thankful that the children are eating well, not something bad to be scolded at.
She picked up a ripe apple to make a chopped vegetable salad, then immediately-
Bang
!
A roar rang out.
“…!”
Karina was so startled that she couldn’t utter a single word and hugged Roland and Melissa tightly with her eyes closed.
“Mom, mom.”
After a while, Roland called out moving around to get away from Karina.
“It’s just a tree. A tree.”
“…?”
Karina slowly opened her eyes. She expected a serious atmosphere, but she was relieved that she could hear the children’s laughter.
“…Right.”
Several apple tree saplings that seemed to reach Carina’s waist were lying on the floor. The situation is quite funny, but the fact that she had to clean them up didn’t make her laugh.
‘It must be because of me.’
Karina asked Roland embarrassedly in a trembling voice.
“Is this common?”
Clearly, she’s a beginner so she wouldn’t have been able to control her magic properly. However, she has never seen such a case in any of the children Lord Lenque brought in.
“Neither I nor Melissa has ever done this before. I’ve never even heard of a similar case. Did you just think about using magic a while ago?”
“No.”
She focused entirely on making food. She never thought of anything else.
“Isn’t that the magic aftermath from before?”
Roland shakes his head. Seeing that Melissa counted the number of apple tree saplings with a curious expression on her face, it seems that Melissa has nothing to say either.
Karina picked up the baguette that had, fortunately, landed on the tray on top of the floor. It takes energy to clean them up.
“I don’t think I can eat the salad now. Would you like to clean it up together?”
“But, I think something like this is going to happen again if Mom touches it… We’ll clean it up. Mom, just go take a rest.”
“That’s right. We ate all the bread…”
The children seemed very sorry that Karina happened to starved like this. Karina nodded in agreement and stretch her hands.
She felt uncomfortable thinking about the children who would move saplings with their delicate hands, but the most important thing now was to not let things get bigger.
“Okay. Will this happen again tomorrow?”
“I- I don’t know.”
Roland stuttered with an anxious look. Karina immediately blamed herself. How would Roland, who ran away with her in the middle of his learning, know how to deal with this unexpected situation?
“I can’t help it. No vegetables for the time being.”
“I’m fine with it!”
Roland cheered happily. Karina couldn’t help but smile. It was so cute to see him cheering at the news that he wouldn’t have to eat vegetables even though they were in serious trouble until a while ago. But Roland changed his words as soon as Melissa poked him.
“I- I mean… the field is fine. Even without vegetables.”
“Me too.”
Melissa answered and picked up a sapling. Though she was eager to help, Karina crossed her hands behind her back in case she caused another accident. A sigh came out of its own
“What the hell is going on…”
Roland shakes his head as hard as he could when he heard Karina talking to herself.
“Mom, we’re fine. We ate a lot so we’re full of energy”
“…Tomorrow, I’ll definitely ask Mr. Wilder to fix it. He knows what he’s doing.”
Karina decided to ask Wilder for advice after work tomorrow. The next morning. Karina who came to work earlier than Wilder found a small package.
The package was sent from the Duke of Tors to Wilder Jewelery Shop as the receiver, but the package was too large to contain magic stones.
‘What could it be?’
Little curiosity arose, but Karina didn’t unpack it until Wilder came.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a package from the Duke.”
“Open it.”
Karina quickly unpacked it. The shiny glossy wrapping paper felt more expensive than the clothes Karina was wearing.
‘If they don’t need it, I’ll ask for it. I think it’d be nice to make gloves for the kids.’
Karina’s hand who was carelessly thinking about her children completely stiffened. At the same time, Wilder shouted loudly beside her asking what’s going on.
Red, yellow, pink, white, the sky… Her vision was covered in all sorts of colors she couldn’t see anything at all. The thick scent of flowers weighing on her whole body informed her the true nature of what had happened.
“Hands! Raise your hands!”
Karina raised her hands in the air having barely regained consciousness. Only then did the feast of flowers that bloomed from her arms stop. Wilder looked around the store which had turned into a flower factory with a bewildered expression on his face.
“What the… lady, are you cursed by some eccentric wizard?”
“No, that’s…”
Karina confessed about what happened yesterday with a desperate heart. Of course, she didn’t forgot to apologize.
“I thought it would be fine because there were only jewels and magic stones. But I didn’t expect him to send a bouquet of flowers.”
Wilder clicked his tongue.
“What a waste of time.”
“That’s what I think. Just because I’m learning magic…”
“No, not the lady.”
“…?”
Karina stared intently at Wilder unable to understand his words. Wilder ignored her and took out the dustpan and began to clean up the flowers. He stopped Karina trying to clean up together.
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“Lady, sit still. You might end up just adding more things to clean up.”
“…Yes.”
After all the work was done, Wilder sat down half way in his chair with a tired face. Karina was very nervous and only looked at him in the eyes. No matter how useful she is to Wilder and the Duke, she may have to quit after she has caused such a big accident.
There was silence. It was because Wilder thought hard about something and said nothing. Karina looked down at the floor couldn’t control her burning stomach.
“There’s one good news and one bad news, what do you want to hear first?”