Wiz groaned on the floor, her entire body covered in dust and burn marks that were already starting to fade. "I only broke four of them this time. Did you really have to use that?" She pled as she stood back up.
"Yes! You irritating clutz! What even was it this time?!" He shouted, and Wiz rushed into the back, then rushed out a moment later.
She was holding a glass menagerie, the covered dome had many small creatures inside, all made of glass, and all locked in mortal combat, "This magic item is supposed to teach people about how to fight monsters… the little figures are supposed to move and fight like the real things, so people study them… but I'm afraid they just break out all the time and…" She looked up from the product.
"Vanir… why are you powering up your murder ray again?" Wiz whimpered, but any further use of it was aborted when Komekko shouted…
"I got it!"
Vanir powered down his murder ray and tilted his head up.
"Got what?" He asked.
"You said you'd teach me magic if I could come up with something I could do for you, you meant it, right, Mr. Vanir?" Komekko exclaimed.
"Yes. A proper demon never lies about contracts." He insisted with professional pride stiffening his back.
"So, if I get stuff to sell in this shop, and I mean lots of it, you make a lot of money, right? And that means I did something for you, and that means you can teach me demon magic, doesn't it?" It was more demand than question, but Vanir nodded.
"I suppose it does, but that would be quite a feat. People do come in here a lot, but nobody ever buys anything, they mainly come in to laugh at the stupidity of buying such useless things thinking they would sell." Vanir sighed and put his palm to his mask, "It really is a burden to be bound to such a buffoon."
Wiz made fists in front of her chest, leaned forward and said, "Hey! That's mean! I work really hard!"
"For all the good it does you." Vanir remarked, then tilted his head up as Komekko leaned forward so that they were eye to eye. "Very well, Crimson Demon child, if you can turn a profit off of this place today, I will agree to teach you magic enough to make you a living legend one day."
He extended a hand upwards, and Komekko's small hand folded into his palm, her fingers all vanished when he clasped his hand around hers, and she replied, "It's a deal, now put me down and let me get to work!"
Vanir's hands closed around her waist and he picked her up over his head, then placed her down in front of himself.
"Now… if I'm gonna do this, you gotta do everything I say, otherwise it's not fair, right?" She asked.
Vanir thought that over, "Within reason."
"Alright, go bake cookies." She said.
"What?" Wiz and Vanir asked at once.
"You live here, right? Got a kitchen?" Komekko pressed the question.
Wiz nodded, "Yes, and I know how to make cookies, but how-"
Komekko stamped her foot, "Just go make em! And keep the window and doors open!"
Wiz looked at her partner and Vanir only shrugged. "It can't make things worse than leaving you alone with an order catalogue. Just do it."
"Meanie." Wiz snapped and vanished into the back while Vanir opened the door and propped it to remain that way.
"Now just get behind the counter, Mr. Vanir, and wait while I do my part." Komekko said, wagging a finger back and forth as if reproaching him, but he ignored it and did as she said, setting himself behind the register and waiting.
Komekko planted herself at the front just to the side of the register, and waited.
For the first fifteen minutes or so, nothing happened.
Then the smell of cookies wafted through the shop and out the front door.
A crying child and a rumbling belly preceded the first patrons. A plump, matronly woman with long brown hair and a young boy in tow. "Hi! Welcome to Wiz's shop!" Komekko said.
"From the smell, I thought this was a bakery but…" The woman said, and Komekko looked up at the woman to say…
"Well we are giving away free cookies with every purchase of a toy monster figure, it really moves, too!" Komekko said, "And I give away headpats to anyone who buys three or more so I can afford to go to magic school!"
The woman was instantly charmed, her reticence vanished.
Vanir was quick on the uptick and brought out a handful of glass monster figurines. "They're five silver each."
The woman was quick to hand over the coins, patted Komekko on the head, and the young girl beamed up at her. "Magic school here I come!" She thrust her fist up into the air in triumph, and as the woman left after Wiz brought down the first batch of cookies, Komekko added, "Tell your friends!"
"I will." The woman said…
And so it went.
Customer after customer, the 'not toys' became 'toys' and the menagerie sets of little magic monsters were sold off. Parents streamed in as word began to spread, and Komekko began to work in conversations with customers.
"So you work for the city huh, that must be hard, what with so little rain coming, an you can't use weather magic either, gotta be a real problem, huh?" Komekko asked when a middle aged man with stooped shoulders munched on a cookie while in line to buy a menagerie toy.
"Yes, to be honest, the crops are a constant worry for us these days, we want to use weather magic to create rain, but when we do that we run afoul of environmental laws and disrupt everything else…" He grumbled, and Komekko said…
"So how come you don't buy the water things we sell? They make lots of water, enough for a flood even, you gotta be careful where you use it a'course, cause it makes so much water, but that'd solve your problem. You'd just need a bunch of em, and we got em, so?" She stopped as if the question had an obvious answer, and the middle aged man only scratched his head.
"I've never heard of such an item." He replied.
"Wait here." Komekko said and rushed into the back, a quick word with Wiz and she held the portable bathroom privacy maker in hand, then returned to the older gentleman and held it up to him.
"Take one and try it, then when it works, come back here and promise to buy em all. If you don't like it, keep that one on us. But we're the only ones who got em for a long way away in any direction, we'll give you a good price too, if it's a deal, pat my head." She said and beamed up at him with childlike innocence.
His face reddened, and he patted her head.
Vanir watched the process repeat itself with the choker.
"Oh, I understand, you just can't focus enough to study for a test… here, try this on." She said to a student who wandered in, "You gotta grant your own wish, but if you say 'I wish I could study' while you've got it on, it'll make sure you do by killing you if you don't."
The student stared at the choker with horror. "It'll… kill me?" He gasped.
"Only if you don't do what you say you want to do. Course, what happens if you don't study… you fail, drop out, become homeless, turn to crime, an get killed anyway in somethin real bad, right?" Komekko said with authoritative confidence.
"And all I have to do is do what I say I want to do, and I'm safe, right?" The young man asked, his fingers reluctantly closing around the red circle.
"Would this face lie to you?" Komekko pointed to her face and gave him a sweet little smile.
"And if it doesn't work?" He asked.
"Come back here and we can remove it, if you prove it didn't work." Komekko promised.
An hour later, various high profile students were streaming into the shop, and the chokers were sold.
Item by item, headpat by headpat, cookie by cookie, the shop began to empty.
"Oh that oven mit, it's so you can learn how to cook, you can only touch items when they're overcooked, use that, and you'll start to learn how long things actually take to make." She promised of the useless magic oven mit, and the cooking school owner bought them all.
"Oh that glass that only fills with seawater, that's so you can always feel an escape like you're by the ocean, even if you're stuck in doors, they sell in sets of eight, but they're individual so you can arrange them how you like." And with that, the useless glass that only filled with water people couldn't drink, became a top seller.
"Anyone who buys four items or more can pat my head as they leave! Magic school awaits me!" She shouted each time someone fell into the bargain, and as the sun began to descend outside, Vanir looked around the shop, the official that had earlier taken the portable toilet for adventurers had laborers loading the last crates of them onto a cart and dropped a sack full of silver coins on the counter, and true to the routine, he patted Komekko's head as he left.
The shelves were empty, stripped of goods great and small, the back had long since run out of items.
And when the door finally shut for the day, the coins were spilling out onto the floor and Wiz was clapping her hands, "I told you these items would sell!"
"Amazing, girl, amazing!" Vanir exclaimed, opening his arms and laughing with demonic glee, "You've made more money in one day than my bumbling partner has made in a lifetime!"
"Hey, I picked out the items!" Wiz insisted.
"And she figured out their true worth!" Vanir pointed out.
"So you'll teach me magic, then?" Komekko asked.
"Are you sure you want to learn magic? Why with your skills, little Crimson Demon girl, I could teach you a few things that would quickly make you one of the richest people in the world!" Vanir exclaimed and clapped his hands together for emphasis.
"Thanks, but I really want to know magic, good, strong magic so I can go out with Mr. Kazuma on adventures and do lots of stuff, money's no good, he's already gonna be super rich, so that isn't gonna put me going with him. But strong magic, that'll mean I'm not a burden and can go where I want." She insisted.
"Magic it is, Komekko, magic it is! I will teach you all the magic a demon can master, and if you'll agree to work in this shop once or twice a month as long as you live in Axel, and keep my partner from sinking herself, she'll teach you all the lich magic you could possibly want for yourself. Have we a bargain, my little student?"
"It's a bargain, Mr. Teacher!" Komekko said and looking up at him, she thrust her arm out, he clasped his hand with hers again.
"A bargain it is, we'll begin as soon as we get you back home. Now, would you like to ride on my shoulders?" He asked and crouched down to her level.
She hopped on his back and scrambled up to his shoulders, using his upturned palms as steps to sling her legs upward.
When he was out the door leaving Wiz to store the take for the day, she pointed ahead and shouted, "Home, Mr. Teacher!"
"That's not the way home." Vanir pointed out.
"It doesn't matter, I was pointing dramatically, you don't have to be right when you're being dramatic!" She corrected him, and while he laughed, Vanir thought with glee to himself…
'This… this is going to be fun!'
AN: If you'd like to see more of this author's work either as originals or in fanfiction, join the author discord server, invite code: /FwqrpAx
