Chapter 5 Day at The Store
– Should we close the store early today?
The store was pretty busy today, lots of traders and travelers coming to the store today, they wanted to visit the rumored bread store in the countryside that sells the rumored cookies.
Yuika is also helping in the store today, she was visiting the store to meet Erwin again and after that, the store starts to become quite busy, she helps Ilya and Erwin to pack up breads and cookies for customers.
"Pretty busy today eh?"
The door bell's ringing and a middle-aged looking man showed up at the store, he brought a sack of flours and a wooden crate.
"Yeah, I can't believe it too, Alto-san, people are keep coming, Yuika-chan and Erwin are helping out the store though" ( San is an honorific to address people who are older / to respect them)
The man just walked to the kitchen and put down the flour he brought and the crate that maybe carries some stuff like sugars and eggs and or stuff to use to make bread.
"Oh boy, you help out your big sister eh, as always you sure are a good kid aren't you"
Alto-san praises Erwin and pats his head, Erwin looks like he's enjoying it.
Alto-san is a trader and also a supplier for Ilya's store, he has been helping the store for so long time now, even before, when Ilya's mother is still around.
"How old are you again Erwin?"
Alto-san is so friendly with everyone in this little city, he always stopped by when he has to go to the other kingdom to do some business going.
"Six"
Erwin answers excitedly with a big smile on his face.
"Ah Alto-san, Erwin says he wanted to learn magic some days ago, he really excited about it, so I think I will close the store early today since there were so many customers today and everything at the store is just sold out"
Ilya took off her apron and pick up a broom to start to clean up the store a bit.
"Ohh… Erwin, boy, you want to learn magic eh, show me what you got boy"
Alto-san seems to be excited when he heard Erwin wanted to learn about magic, he knew not all people can use magic, they have to be accepted by the mana itself, it requires someone to have enough soul power to be able to use magic.
"I think I had some books Erwin can use to learn about it more, he already learns how to read right?"
"I teach him before a bit, he keeps bugging me to teach him everything and he's a fast learner"
Ilya just sighs and smiles, she put the broom in the corner of the room and walks back to the storefront.
The first time Ilya teach Erwin how to read was when he's almost 4 years old, Ilya teaches Erwin how to read and she got surprised by his ability to learned it in no time.
One day Erwin says that he wanted to try to learn how to write on his own, he showed it to Ilya and Ilya can't do anything but amazed at first, she can't believe 4 years old kid can really learn how to write on his first try.
"He really surprised me though.. I can't believe my eyes at first, I didn't even blink because of it"
Ilya and Alto-san just laugh together inside the store because of Ilya's story and they looked at Erwin after that.
Erwin was drawing with Yuika all this time when both Ilya and Alto-san busy with Ilya's story, Yuika seems to just keeping her eyes at Erwin, her face is a bit red, she seems to enjoy watching Erwin draw some stuff on that paper, she just smiles all time watching everything Erwin's labor.
"Well that kid is quite something though, I have an acquaintance who gave me some books, I think there should be a book or two about magic, I'll look for it in my carriage"
Alto-san went out of the store to find the book he mentioned, Ilya approach the kids to see what they're doing and Erwin's showing his drawing when he notices his sister's coming towards them.
"Big sis, look…look.."
Erwin's so excited he shows his sister the drawing.
"Woahh.. what is this? isn't this too good? she's so beautiful"
The drawing Erwin shows to his sister was Yuika, he drew her.
A beautiful face with yellow hair, she can feel the drawing is alive even though the drawing isn't even colored.
Yuika, in the back just blushed a little, it seems that she's embarrassed because Ilya said that the drawing was beautiful.
Erwin still able to make such happy faces, he didn't even notice Yuika feels so embarrassed when he drew her.
– Why is my little brother so dense
Ilya feels so stupid thinking about her little brother.