The rest of the week went by pretty quickly and I was headed towards Lisa’s shop again during the weekend as promised.
True to her word, there were actually quite a number of people that were visiting her store that day and the streets were especially bustling.
The only thing was that she neglected to tell me that most of her customers were children.
Standing at the front of the store and waving a group of children off was Lisa with a bright smile one her face.
“Be careful on your way home! Ahhh~ Children are soooo cute! I want to have one with Aster~ I want a daughter… No! Two daughters! No, no, no… Four daughters! And I’ll pamper them all! Ahhh!! They’ll definitely be so cute!”
While she was having that weird imagination, I tried to focus on her face to see past whatever was preventing me from recalling it.
Now that I’m focusing on that, I only just realised that while I can perceive her facial features so that I could tell that she’s smiling, laughing or even just looking at me, I can’t form the image of her face in my mind.
What an interesting magic this is.
I briefly entertained the thought of calling her out on that magic but decided against it.
Everyone has secrets after all and I’m guessing that perhaps she has some ugly marks on her skin that she wished to cover up.
I’m quite sure that if she wanted to tell me about it, she would have.
Oops, while I was thinking about that, Lisa had already gone back inside the shop.
Well, at least it doesn’t look like she’s having monetary problems with how popular this shop is compared to her potions one.
I went up to the shop and pushed open the door, finding it also full of kids who were scurrying around the place, a few of them accompanied by their parents.
Looking around the shop, I realised that it certainly looked like a general store where a little bit of everything could be found around the shop. The only problem was that it was obvious the children were only there because of one thing only.
“Sweets!!” I gasped before quickly covering my mouth.
Thankfully, the children’s voices were just as loud so no one paid me any attention.
Anyway, she had various sweets on sale including cookies, pastries, and even something that looked like some kind of funnel cake displayed as well.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she knew how to make these considering she had both cooking and alchemy skills at tier two.
Honestly though, she might as well just make this shop into a sweets shop at this point since the sweets section was the most popular with the rest of the shop being practically empty.
I really, really, really, wanted to dive straight into the sweets section and get a taste of all the delicacies there, but there were so many kids there that I wouldn’t be able to reach there without squeezing through that crowd.
I’m still able to control myself for such things ok?!
Thus, I went to the other part of the store to take a look around to see what else was being sold.
True to her word, I found several items that would be helpful to a student including notebooks, inkwells, pencils and also other stationary objects you might need for classes.
Naturally, the designs were all quite basic and focused more on functionality than decoration, which I would assume the shops in the higher district might provide for the nobles.
Still, as long as it works, it’s good enough for me.
I would have been fine with picking these myself but Lisa already said she would help pick some things out for me so I didn’t need to.
I was going to look at the rest of the store when something suddenly laid itself on my shoulder.
The action was so unexpected that I let out an ‘Eep!’ while also jumping slightly and turning around to see what it was that touched me.
“Ehehe~ Did I scare you? Sorry, sorry! I didn’t think you would react like that~ Welcome to Lisa’s General Shop!” Lisa giggled.
I puffed my cheeks at her, “Mou! What was that for? Don’t you have other customers to take care of?”
“Oh, did Aster not notice? You’re the only one in the store now!”
I looked around and sure enough, all the children from earlier were gone. How did I even miss that?
Lisa saw the confused look on my face and smiled at me, “That’s because it’s lunchtime now~ The children are expected back home or they will miss out on their food~ Does Aster want to eat with me?”
I raised an eyebrow at her, “Is that your attempt at asking me out on a date?”
A playful smirk materialised on her face, “Eh? Didn’t we just go on one the other day? I was sure you enjoyed it too!”
“Oh my? If your definition of a date is paying me to escort you to a cave full of bandits to pick mushrooms, I’m not sure if I should look forward to our future dates.”
“Ahhhh! I’m sorry, I take that back!” She panicked while waving her arms around. “I… I just want to… Ah! Umm… I prepared all the things Aster might need for your school here!”
Hehehe~ She’s so cute when she’s flustered~ I should tease her more~
She went towards the store counter and retrieved what looked like a briefcase designed for women to use.
“I managed to make some really nice ones even if I do say so myself! What do you think?”
Opening it up, she laid out a selection of stationary and notebooks that were different in design to the ones sold in her store. And by different, I meant that each one had a picture of her pasted somewhere on them with the words “Aster” and “Lisa” coupled with a heart in between our two names.
“Rejected!” I shouted out immediately.
“Eeehhhh! Why?” She cried.
“If I go to class with such things on my first day, I’m definitely going to be labelled as a weirdo and bullied relentlessly!”
“Pfft! As if anyone would dare to bully someone like you, Aster! You’re too beautiful and charming and cool and pretty and awesome and–“
“That’s beside the point!” I interrupted her, trying my best not to blush at her sudden praises. “This is basically making me commit social suicide if I were to bring these to my class! Can’t I just use something more normal?”
“Uuuu… But I spent an entire day and night to make these…”
Eh? What?
Oh yeah, she did say she made them…
I pointed to the things she had laid out on the table, “You… Made these?”
“Mmhmm… I make everything I sell myself…”
“Wait… Even all the notebooks, the ink in the ink bottles and those wooden toys I see over there?”
“Yep! What do you think? Don’t you think I’m pretty handy? I’m really good with my hands, you know? I’m sure you would like it when I use these hands of mine to make you feel good!”
I cleared my throat, “Ahem… Like I said… I’m still twelve years old…”
“Oh~ It seems like Aster is old enough to think about such things already? I was talking about giving you back rubs and massages~ Ehehehe~ But I’ll definitely do those things for you when you get older~”
I grinned and slipped my hand over hers, “In that case… I’ll look forward to experiencing it~”
“Awawawawa?!”
Ehehe~ She really is worth teasing~ Her reactions are just so cute!
I then directed my gaze to the things she made, “Anyway… I suppose I can take these for my own use… Just because you already made them and I’d feel bad if I didn’t take them ok? But could you at least prepare a more normal set for me to use?”
“Eh? Ah! Of course! Ahaha~ If Aster wasn’t going to use them, then I would have felt a little sad since I made a set for myself too! That way we can be a couple!”
Right, of course she did.
Still, it’s quite surprising to hear that she made everything in this shop herself. I already know she could make potions but being a craftswoman… Erm… A craftsfuta as well was a surprise to be sure.
“Let me guess… Did your grandma also teach you how to make all these?” I asked while she stored the things back into the briefcase.
“Oh, not at all! I learnt these myself~ Before grandma taught me alchemy I just did all the odd jobs around and I had to learn how to fix most things since grandma was too old for them! I also started learning how to cook for grandma and she eventually opened up this separate store so that I could sell the things I made too! It was really fun!”
She then brought out another briefcase and laid out its contents on the counter, revealing the exact same items just without the weird designs the first ones had.
So she actually expected me to reject the first one huh…
Her response to my stare was to stick out her tongue while giving me a cutesy pose.
Whatever, I’ll let her off since she’s cute.