Just then, I heard a cute voice near my thigh.
"We're here!"
Four classmates from Sufia Academy, still in their uniforms, raised their hands and waved enthusiastically.
"Oh, hello, Haley!" I said.
"Yes, I brought my friends," Haley replied, her chubby cheeks puffed out. She introduced me to her short friends next to her. They were here specifically to help with the pop-up store today.
"Hello!" The three children greeted me, their faces full of excitement.
"It's so nice to meet you all!" I said, returning their greeting.
"What should we do?" one of the children with pigtails asked.
"You can eat something delicious right here!" I offered.
Haley stared up at me and said, "No. We want to help." Her tone was surprisingly mature, as if she'd learned it in class. "Just watch!" she added proudly, clenching her fists and bringing them to her cheeks. She was trying to be serious, but with her chubby cheeks, she looked like a hamster with a mouth full of sunflower seeds. I had to resist the urge to laugh.
Just then, one of Haley's friends, with her slender eyes, pointed down the road. "Oh, the kids are coming, Haley!"
"Really? It looks like class is over."
The main gate of the Commoner Academy opened, and students of all sizes began to stream out. To get home, they had to walk past my pop-up store, which was exactly why I'd chosen this spot. As expected, the children were rushing past on their way home.
"Something's strange!"
"Huh?"
"Is this a new store?"
Children with school bags slung over their shoulders stopped and stared at the pop-up store. However, no one came to the parasol. It was understandable, since my products were probably very unfamiliar to them, so they were naturally wary.
The real problem was me. I couldn't approach them. They were so small, like little chestnuts! So cute my heart felt like it was going to melt. Unlike the students at the aristocratic academies, the children at the Commoner Academy seemed to be a bit shorter on average. Their tanned faces, likely from a field trip, made them even more adorable. I stood there speechless, unable to approach them.
Then, Haley's voice cut through the silence. "Let's begin the origami!"
"You want to be so bossy?" I asked with a smile.
"Yes!"
Haley rolled up her sleeves and grabbed a magical megaphone from the parasol table, then began her sales pitch with gusto.
"Dear students of the academy!" she announced.
The results were astonishing. The children who had been passing by stopped and focused on Haley's stern, mature voice. Being the same age as them, she seemed to inspire more trust.
"I will show you something very interesting," she continued.
The word "interesting" made the children hesitate, and then Haley spoke even louder.
"It is said that this origami paper contains all the mysteries of the universe."
'Wait, does it have such a profound meaning? I just happened to make it,' I thought with a flicker of doubt.
"Wow!" Haley's friends clapped their hands, and the children gathered around the parasol exchanged curious glances.
"Hey, is it true?" one of them whispered.
Haley nodded at me. "Then let's begin, Ms. Meldenik!"
"Uh, yes, Haley. Thank you," I replied, feeling like I had been demoted to her assistant. Still, I was happy to see the children's joyful expressions.
I held up a piece of the colored paper and waved it at them. "Let's start! Now, guess what this is."
Before I knew it, there were more than ten children gathered around the parasol. I held up a piece of red paper and smiled.
"What is this?"
"It's paper, but the color is strange!"
"It's shiny red paper!"
"That's right! And this is a very special kind of paper." I folded the red paper into the shape of an apple and placed it in my hand. The children gasped, their mouths agape.
A child in the front swallowed hard and asked in a trembling voice, "Is it... an apple?"
"Correct!"
"Wow! I got it right!" The children laughed and clapped.
But the magic of the origami wasn't over yet. "You guessed correctly, so I'll show you something even more interesting." I crumpled the tip of the paper apple and threw it onto the patch of grass next to the pop-up store. The children held their breath as they watched my hand. A moment later, a tiny seedling sprouted where the paper had landed, quickly growing green buds.
A small boy with glasses reached out his hand and shouted, "It's an apple tree!"
"That's right, an apple tree!" I confirmed.
The children's eyes sparkled as they stared at the small apple sapling.
"This paper has a spell on it. If you fold what you want, you can make it real, just for a little while."
"Then... can you make a cheat sheet for a test?" one child asked.
I frowned at his question. "That's not good. Besides, I can only do a very small amount of magic."
"Wow!"
My pop-up store was a massive success for several days, and I enjoyed my time with the commoner students. One afternoon, while I was preparing items for the students leaving school, I felt a sudden commotion outside and stopped what I was doing.
'What's going on?'
I looked out through the glass of the pop-up store. More than ten adults were gathered near the parasols, and some were even rudely shouting. If I hadn't asked Basil, one of my Kinnoa relatives who was helping today, to station a few knights there, they might have rushed in and attacked me.
I put down my inventory and approached the door. A few minutes later, Basil had somehow managed to calm the protesters down and send them away. However, there was some damage. I stepped outside and looked around.
"Basil, what happened here?" I asked.
All the items I had prepared for the children were ruined. Beer candy, stretchy jelly, and the sweet, bunny-shaped cotton candy were all broken and scattered on the table. The unpacked cotton candy, in particular, had fallen to the floor and was no longer edible.
"They... protested that our products were a copy of their own. It's a ridiculous claim..." Basil said.
"Again?"
"And they also said that operating a pop-up store right in front of the academy is a clear violation of the law!"
"Oh."
"But that's not possible! It can't be a violation of the law!" he insisted, clearly believing in me.
I just grinned and gripped Basil's shoulders. "Yes, it is a violation of the law."
Basil's mouth dropped open. "...No, why would you say that? So, are you going to jail?" he sputtered.
I patted him on the shoulder, looking sadly at a protest letter I'd received from the authorities. "No, I'm not going to jail. Everyone has a plan. But this... is a ridiculous attack, isn't it?"
"Yes, you have a plan! But it makes no sense to say we can't sell colored paper when they sell plain paper!" he complained.
To send a legal protest to a high-ranking noble like the Marquis of Kinnoa family, someone must be backing them. If my prediction was correct, it had to be the Pope.
"There's no way he'll interfere with us just a little bit." I folded the protest letter and tucked it into the inner pocket of my dress. I wondered what the Pope would do next to put me in a difficult position.
Just then, Basil's voice cut through my thoughts. "Oh, Ms. Meldenik, can you hear the sound inside the pop-up store?"
As if on cue, the video orb inside the pop-up store began to vibrate and sound an alarm. Danny had given it to me to use only in case of a big problem or special event.
"Let's check it," I said.
Basil and I went inside and picked up the video orb. The screen flickered, and then Danny's face filled the screen. His cheeks were pure white, and his plump, roe-like lips looked like they were pouting. I asked, holding back a laugh, "What's going on? Weren't you at the academy?"
The stationery store had been temporarily vacated to expand the business. I had given Dominic a short vacation and asked Danny to monitor Malton Academy in case the Pope decided to cause trouble there.
"Yes, I was at the academy," Danny murmured in a low voice. "The paper that Mom gave me is going on a rampage!"
"What about the kids? Are they hurt?" I asked, my heart pounding.
"No, they're not hurt!"
Danny relayed the situation through the video orb, and the scene was much worse than I had expected. According to Danny, some of the Pope's spies had gone undercover and set off a magical bomb using my paper. Thanks to Danny, who had secretly hidden among the children, no one was hurt. He had blocked the magical paper bombs as they flew toward the children.
However, it was clear that my stationery had been used to cause the explosion. Half the classroom ceiling was blown off, desks were in a mess, and other parts of the academy were damaged as well. The children, who had been happily using my supplies, now had a flicker of fear in their eyes.
"And Danny... was just watching the students..." he said, pouting. Danny was a curious baby dragon, so I knew he'd make a few mistakes.
"It's okay. No one was hurt, so it's fine," I reassured him.
"Are you... disappointed?"
"No, it's really fine."
I looked closely at the video Danny was showing me. There was nothing wrong with my paper. I had inspected it thoroughly, knowing that children would use it. This meant that a third party had intervened and tampered with it.
I carefully captured the situation inside the academy from the video.
'...Now, where are they?'