After Falc left the shop, the locals from the nearby area visited the shop throughout the morning. Alme greeted each of them officially for the grand opening, asked them to spread the word about the shop, and dealt with sales. Before she knew it, the sun was high in the sky. It was now lunchtime, and people began to appear, strolling around the square. A group of women soon peeked into the shop, chatting cheerfully as they approached the counter where the chilled ice cream was displayed. “Wow, so refreshing!” “Doesn’t it look delicious? Want to try some?” “Oh, I want the white one! It matches my lucky color for today!” "Girl, you say that every day!" Listening to the laughing women's conversation, Alme made a mental fist pump. (I knew it! There are people out there who like the color white…! I’m glad I made milk ice cream!) When Alme went out to serve the women, she introduced them to "White Falcon-chan" ice cream, and every single one of them ordered a set of milk ice cream plus another flavor. After Alme finished dealing with the bills and handed over the bowls of ice cream, the women sat down at the tables under the parasols outside. Alme listened in as she heard them laughing. “Look! It’s so cute, it has a face on it!” “It’s a "White Falcon-chan" chick!” “It’s a shame to eat something this cute… Oh, it’s delicious!” “It's so cold~! The berries are yummy too. Do you want to try some? You can have some of my orange as well.” The group of women was having a great time with the ice cream. It seemed like they really liked it. Smiling to herself, Alme noticed a group of sightseers that had gathered around the signboards in the small square glancing at the women. Simply eating the ice cream outside the shop was a form of advertising in and of itself. Alme silently expressed her gratitude to the group of women and rolled up her sleeves again. All right, now it’s time for the real work to begin. Alme psyched herself up to greet the tourists who were approaching the shop. Tourists from Lorio. Elderly couples out for a stroll. Neighborhood children. — It was a decent start for her first day. Even some of her former colleagues from her old job at the library came by. It was a pair of older women who loved to gossip. Alme had sent out postcards announcing the opening of the ice-cream shop to all the people she had worked with at the library... except Julio, of course. The two older women were former coworkers, but they weren’t particularly close to Alme, so she hadn’t expected them to come by on opening day. She was very happy to see them, though. Or at least, that’s what she had thought, until she heard the conversation that was currently taking place in front of her. The two older women had apparently come to eat ice cream and complain about their jobs at the same time. They were sitting at a table near the counter inside the shop, eating ice cream and gossiping with Alme. The main topic of conversation was Alme’s former fiancé, Julio Beatos. “—So you see, Beatos-san finally got a good tongue-lashing from the director,” one of the older women said. “Beatos-san had Cambelina-san working as his assistant, but she never did any work, and they just spent all their time flirting with each other. No wonder the director was angry,” the other woman chimed in. “Ah, well, I see.” Alme gave a bitter laugh and offered a noncommittal reply. She suspected that the two older women were talking to her because they wanted to allow her to let off a bit of steam by griping. Since she was technically at work, Alme participate in the conversation, but tried to not get too involved. “Did Julio really reflect on his actions after being scolded by the director? I hope he’s not still flirting inside the library...” “Oh no, that’s all been taken care of! Beatos-san had his personal room taken away from him!” “I’m sure he was slacking off and doing lewd things in there. That’s what everyone’s saying, anyway.” Listening to the conversation, Alme couldn’t help but grimace and nod deeply. She had actually almost walked in on such a scene herself... This was all Julio’s own fault. The two older women continued to gripe.

“Apparently, he’s working in the same room as the apprentice restorers.” “They say he’s slower than they are.” “Slower? I always thought Julio worked pretty quickly.” “I don’t know about that. We don’t know much about the restoration work, but we heard the apprentices gossiping about it.” Alme listened to the conversation, but her mind was elsewhere, recalling Julio’s work habits. As far as Alme could remember, Julio had always seemed to get his work done in a timely manner. He always completed that day’s quota. (But now that I think about it, he did struggle a bit with administrative tasks while working.) Alme suddenly remembered. When other administrative tasks interrupted his work as a restorer, his pace would slow down. He would lose his focus, and it would take him a long time to get back on track. Alme had supported Julio by handling some of the more mundane administrative tasks on his behalf. He should ask Cambelina for help ―― she though, but then changed course. This wasn’t really any of her business anymore. She gave the two older women a noncommittal response. “Well, I hope Julio does his best with his partner, Cambelina-san,” she said, implying that it had nothing to do with her. The two older women seemed satisfied after their little work-related gripe session and stood up to leave. While looking at the ice cream counter they discussed what flavor to try next time. They seemed likely to come back again. Alme was happy about that, but she hoped they wouldn’t bring up Julio again... It was a bit complicated. As they were leaving, the two older women noticed the yellow ribboned paper bag placed in the back of the counter and asked Alme about it. “Oh my! Alme-chan, is that paper bag with the ribbon from the 'Fairy Bee Honey Shop'?” “Huh? I'm not sure. It's a gift, so... I forgot to ask the name of the shop. The honey is supposed to be delicious, though.” The paper bag was the one Falc had given her that morning. Alme had planned to open it during her break, so she’d left it on the counter. “No way, you don’t know? It’s a famous shop! It’s right on the main street facing the central temple.” “I’m not very familiar with the shops on the main street…” Alme knew her way around the alleyways and the underground street, but she was completely lost when it came to the main street. Most of the shops on the main street catered to the wealthy, so it wasn’t the kind of place a young commoner girl could just wander into on her own. Alme had probably passed by the shop at some point, but there were too many shops on the main street for her to remember the names of all of them. That was more or less just an excuse, though. The truth was that Alme just wasn’t interested in the latest fashions and trends. Just as her mind began to wander, one of the older women said something that shocked Alme. “You know, even a small bottle from that shop costs 50,000 G! I thought about buying some as a wedding gift for my niece, but when my husband and I went to take a look, we were shocked by the price.” “F-f-fifty thousand?!” Alme’s eyes went wide, and she rushed back to the paper bag. When she pulled out the contents, she saw a beautiful box decorated with pictures of flowers. She carefully removed it from the bag and opened it. When she gently removed the bottle from the box, her hands were filled with golden light. The honey was glittering, containing small particles of pure ligth. “Th-the honey…the honey is sparkling…” The intricately cut glass bottle reflected the sparkling light of the honey. It looked more like a jewel than honey. Alme stared at the bottle, dumbfounded, and asked the older women, “Um... is this a small bottle size...?” “It looks more like a medium bottle, I think?” “And it looks like the bottle itself is nicer than usual, too, so they probably added that as an option!” In other words, it was definitely worth more than 50,000 G. At that realization, Alme held the honey tightly with trembling hands and let out a loud groan in her mind. (Is this honey…a valuable treasure…? Should I put it in a safe or something?) I should probably keep it locked up, Alme thought. What a strange idea.