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As the sun began to set across the horizon, Hiyori set foot into the town of the Central Kingdom, where her new life was going to begin. She took a deep breath, her eyes sparkling in awe at the hustle and bustle of the town. A baker with black hair happily offered muffins to people for them to try, while his blonde partner tried to tug him back inside, muttering “Kanata, it’s closing time, come on…” The blonde guy was wearing an apron with the name of a nearby bookstore on it.
Kids were running around, their innocent laughter in the air.
People were getting some last minute shopping out of the way.
A woman about her age with orange hair was closing up a pretty dress shop.
And this was all just the town square! There was a whole town to explore!
“Amazing..! The Central Kingdom is amazing!” Hiyori squealed, her hand gripping the large wooden wagon full of various potted flowers that were covered with a tarp. The reason they were covered, however, was because technically, right now, they were just little sprouts. In order for them to grow into a beautiful flower, Hiyori would need to use her magic, and then use more magic to make clones of the potted flowers.
The truth was, Suzumi Hiyori had a big secret.
In a Kingdom where witchcraft was illegal and considered a serious offense, the Suzumi’s, unable to locate to the closed borders of their neighbor kingdoms, had their own flower shop on the outskirts of town, residing many miles away. However, business was often scarce, with people more often than not only stopping by for a place to rest, and leaving them tips in gratitude.
That didn’t mean they were completely devoid of customers! On the contrary, lots of people knew about the Suzumi Flower Shop! However, people didn’t really stop by very often, and would send a letter requesting flowers be delivered to them.
Usually, Hiyori’s father was the one to make the two day journey to the Central Kingdom to deliver the flowers, and would return with the money.
However, lately, people seemed to be slowly forgetting about their business, and while it was technically possible to make their own food and go into hiding, it was also much more risky to do so. The punishment for witchcraft, after all, was death. More specifically, a public execution- to be tied to a cross and burned at the stake.
That made things such as bills and buying food a bit difficult on such a wavering business. So, shortly after Hiyori turned sixteen, which was the age that people were able to live on their own and have their own business, she volunteered to take a lot of their flowers to the Central Kingdom and run the business there.
It took a lot of convincing for her family to let her go alone- after all, her mother wanted them all to relocate, but Hiyori knew that it was already dangerous for one witch to be in the kingdom, in plain sight of everyday pedestrians. It would be easy for one person to get caught doing witchcraft if people paid attention to her.
But if all seven of them were to relocate, then the chances of getting caught were much higher, and they would all be put to death.
But if it meant that her family could continue living and be able to afford everything, then Hiyori was willing to take that risk. If she was ever caught, then she could easily distance herself from her family and try to “prove” their innocence.
The thing was, though, people misunderstood witchcraft immensely. They thought it was just a practice- and it kind of was, but you were either born with the ability to put that practice to use, or you weren’t. There was no just learning witchcraft. There was a specific neuron in the brain that transmitted specific genetic cells known as the thaumaturgy that allowed the brain to, essentially, use the chi flowing within a person and cause miracles to happen- be it making gold, making potions work, or, in Hiyori and her family’s case, create beautiful flowers for their business.
Unfortunately, back hundreds of years ago, a lot of witches used their witchcraft for terrible crimes, and thus, it led to the belief that every witch is evil and have ulterior motives for even living, and thus, the king and queen of the time forced the town to go on a witch hunt, and they burnt the witches at the stakes.
Of course, no matter what, witches were always going to be born- a lot of people just don’t know that they’re witches unless they accidentally cause magic to happen, or if they look up their family tree.
The Suzumi family had always survived the massacre of witches and moved far away from the kingdom, where they continued their proud practice in peace.
Hiyori was the first Suzumi in many decades to come live in the Central Kingdom.
Needless to say, she was a bit nervous.
“Let’s see…I was told that a townsperson would be waiting by the fountain for me to show me to my new shop…” Hiyori mumbled, glancing around, “but I don’t know who I’m supposed to be looking for..?”
Surely anyone who looked at her knew that she was new to the town- even though her outfit was pretty standard for women’s fashion- being a simple deep forest long sleeve green dress with a collar that partially covered her neck, the dress that went halfway down her calf, black boots, and a white apron with little floral designs on the rims of the bottom. She also wore a pure white lace bandana that barely covered all of her hair, except for her messy bangs. The bandana tied underneath her chin.
Even if you weren’t able to tell right away that she was new, the fact that she was lugging around a giant wagon with tarp on it should have been a clue that she was a traveler.
Thankfully, her worries were soon quelled, as a cute girl about her height walked over to her, wearing a similar dress, but it was brown with a white flappy collar on it. Her pink hair was tied into low twin tails.
“Hi! You must be Suzumi Hiyori-chan, right?” The girl’s violet eyes gleamed, “my name is Setoguchi Hina. I’ll be your guide!”
“Ah! Thank you!” Hiyori’s own eyes shined in awe.
She’s adorable! City girls really are the best!
“So you’ll be running the new flower shop?” Hina asked as she led Hiyori away from the main square.
“Mhm! My family runs the flower shop on the outskirts of town, but we weren’t making enough money to live, so I volunteered to come here!” Hiyori explained.
“Eh? Why don’t they all just come, then?” Hina asked, looking confused.
“U-uh…They can’t! Because of the farm! Yeah, we have a farm. We can’t exactly bring all the farm animals over here, you know?”
“Oh. I see. That makes sense,” Hina nodded, and Hiyori internally sighed in relief, not fully paying attention to Hina as she began pointing out the nearby stores, grocery shops, and so forth.
I’m glad she let that go…
While it was true that her family had a lot of horses and a few chickens, they didn’t actually own a farm. She never did like lying.
She had to be more careful with her story. If someone decided to take the two day trip to her family’s shop, then she’d be caught in the lie immediately. They may even inspect her reasoning for coming to the Central Kingdom altogether and find out that she was actually a witch.
Eek..! Bad thoughts..! I can do this..!
“And here’s your shop! In the letter, you said that you wanted the name of your shop to just be Suzumi’s Flowers, right? Kotaro painted it for you,” Hina pointed at the giant wooden sign above the door. Painted in beautiful red letters was the shop name, followed by a few cutesy flower designs. Seeing Hiyori’s awe, Hina beamed. “I added the flowers. Kotaro was just going to put it up plain, but I figured the flowers would attract more customers.”
“Thank you, Setoguchi-san!” Hiyori dropped the handle to the giant wagon she was carrying, looking at the wooden shop in awe.
The windows were small but took up a nice little display, and Hiyori knew immediately what flowers she wanted to display there, and above the windows were eaves of the building. The door itself was wooden, and the doorknob was a pretty shiny bronze color.
Hina dug through the pocket of her apron. “And here- Kotaro said sorry that he couldn’t be of any more help, but here’s the key to your shop. Well, go on inside!”
Hiyori nodded quickly and unlocked it, opening the door.
Above the door was a little bell that jingled softly when the door opened.
The shop wasn’t that big- having five wooden shelves in the store and some along the walls, and the display at the window was its own little counter.
“It’s…dusty in here,” Hiyori commented.
“Yeah…sorry. The last plant owner moved his location elsewhere, and no one’s really taken care of this place since then…ah, the key you have also can unlock that backroom door,” Hina pointed at the door that was behind the counter that, no doubt, was going to be where Hiyori would be doing the cash exchange with customers.
“What’s the door for?” Hiyori asked.
“It’s just a back room- for spare supplies or whatever else you may need,” Hina tugged on Hiyori’s wrist, showing her to the stairs in the far right corner of the room. She pointed. “And up there is where you’ll live! You have an automatic bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen!”
“Really? I get to live above where I work?!” Hiyori’s eyes sparkled.
Hina beamed at her excitement. “Yeah. When we heard you were coming, a lot of us helped furnish your living space, so you should have a bed and a dresser for your clothes, and kitchen supplies. Lots of shop owners live above their shops, but not everyone. It’s more local and small businesses like your flower shop. The bigger business you have, the more likely you are to be able to afford your own place of living…though, it makes the commute to work a bit of a pain…” She laughed lightly.
“I don’t mind! It makes my work much easier!” Hiyori said enthusiastically.
“Well, again, my name is Setoguchi Hina if you need anything! My boyfriend runs a sports shop selling all sorts of things, it’s just down the street. We live in the apartments further down, if you need us!”
“Thank you!” Hiyori bowed, following Hina out the door and waving. She watched her go, a big smile on her face.
She caught sight of a few townspeople glancing over at her and her shop curiously, and she offered a bright smile, before taking her plants in one by one, making sure that no one saw the state they were in.
After all, she was going to be busy using her magic to make them grow tonight before putting them out. She had her work cut out for her.
Thankfully, she had brought her luggage full of clothes and other materials. She was going to have fun with her magic.
Thankfully, the door to the back room, despite having a small round window, had a little curtain on the inside, so no one would have a chance of seeing her performing magic.
After everything was brought in, she pushed her cart to the side of the store, out of the way of walking pedestrians.
She went inside of her new shop, locking the door behind her and slipping the key in her apron pocket.
“Alright…let’s get to work!” She cheered, before rushing to the back room where everything- save for her luggage full of clothes and other belongings, were.
She shut the door behind her.
She lifted her hands, and white sparkles began to fall from her fingertips, and slowly, the flowers began to rise from their sprouted form in their pots, growing to full sized and gorgeous flowers of all kinds.
Roses, orchids, tulips, dahlias, water lilies, cherry blossoms, gardenias, and many more. All of various different colors. Now finished with her flower growing spell, she waved her hands lightly, before spreading her arms out, smiling as the pots began to multiply bit by bit, until the back room had tons of all of them. There was hardly any room anymore.
Content, she turned her attention to the fabrics she brought from home.
“Now to make this shop look nicer…” She grinned happily and focused her energy, the white and pink fabric slowly cutting itself into pretty lace designs to lay out across the shelves and display. She also used some of the pink fabric to make long, pretty strips to hang up along the wall, to bring more life to the walls. Sure, there would be flowers on the wall shelves, but there should be more.
Now finished, she grabbed a broom and feather duster, and got to work cleaning the shop.
Normally, she would just snap her fingers and let everything clean itself, but she didn’t want to risk anyone seeing her through the display window. Besides, a little bit of labor never hurt anyone.
She swept, dusted, and wiped everything down, before hanging up all of the pink fabric strips, putting the white lace covers over the wall shelves, and the pink lace over the shelves scattered around the floor.
After that came the really fun part.
Putting out all of the flowers in a beautiful way, arranging them and making each and every single one of them stand out.
She also plucked some from their pots in the back and arranged a few bouquets to set on the counter where she would be throughout her days, and put her little mini safe of money down below the counter.
After the fun part was over, she got some paper out and began writing down prices, deciding on keeping them low for now. Only a couple hundred yen for potted plants, and the starting price being a thousand yen for a bouquet, and the price would vary depending on how many flowers there were and what type, and of course, you had to pay a fee if you wanted a ribbon tying them.
I should create some vases too, just in case…I can probably set them on the big shelf behind the counter.
So, after walking to the back room, that was what she did. She made sure she made only the prettiest and most intricately designed glass vases she could, before putting them up and pricing them all differently, ranging from just below a thousand yen and higher.
By the time she was finished, the moon was out, and lights in other shops were off.
Hiyori yawned.
“That took much longer than I thought…” She rubbed her eyes.
I better come up with a good time to open and close…I can probably open at nine in the morning and close at six, and remain closed on the weekends so I can spend my days free or making more plants.
Now with a plan, she made her own Opened/Closed sign and hung up on the display window, before grabbing her luggage and going upstairs. She opened the door and stepped in, her eyes brightening in awe.
“Woah! Amazing!”
The room was plain, but that could always be changed. There was a bed in the corner of the room, a dresser, and an empty closet. One door led to a simple bathroom, and there was a threshold to a kitchen to her left.
She dropped her luggage to the ground and, after taking her dress off and putting a pale pink nightgown on, she threw herself onto her bed with a happy giggle.
This is really nice…I can’t wait for tomorrow.
With that thought, she was fast asleep.
_____
Hiyori was up bright and early the next morning, noting dryly that she didn’t have any food- as she had unwisely eaten everything her mother packed her on her trip to Central Kingdom.
So she left her shop, dressed in her green dress and boots, and rushed to the nearby bakery to pay for some warm honey buns.
The baker happily introduced himself as Kanata, and promised that he’d be seeing her soon.
When she returned to her shop, she made sure everything was set up before turning her Closed sign to Opened, and unlocked the door for customers.
And…for a while, it was dead. No one came.
By noon, she was still alone, and slightly discouraged that she’d been opened for three hours without a single customer.
She sighed.
“I came to the Central Kingdom for a better life for me and my family, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy getting people’s attention…I worked so hard on this place too…” She mumbled to herself. She shook her head, clenching her fists. “No! I can’t give up! I will make it here!” She declared.
The door opened, and a man wearing a beige cape and hood came in. His clothes were hidden, but the cape and hood itself were obviously made of fine material.
Her face brightened. “Hi! Welcome in! I’m Suzumi Hiyori, if you need help finding anything!”
“This shop looks beautiful,” the man commented, looking around. His gaze met Hiyori’s.
His eyes were brown, and he had black, thick eyebrows.
“Thank you! I did everything by myself last night!” Hiyori chirped. “What are you looking for? Flowers for a pretty girl? Your voice is really nice, and your face is pretty, so I bet that you have a wonderful girlfriend who’d love a bouquet of roses!”
“Roses, huh?” The man looked intrigued. “Do you like roses?”
“I like all sorts of flowers! They’re beautiful and have their own language! Like if you give someone a red rose, it means you love them! But a yellow rose means friendship!” She explained.
“I see…what kind of flower means beauty?”
Hiyori brightened. “So it’s definitely for a girl?”
“It is,” the man replied.
“Then I recommend the blue calla lilies!” Hiyori walked over to the shelf with the calla lilies. She picked up one of the potted blue calla lilies. “They mean refined beauty!”
“I see. I’ll take it then,” the man smiled slightly.
“Okay!” Hiyori walked to the counter and set it down. “Did you want a vase or anything to go with it?”
“No, thank you.”
“Okay! Your total is three hundred and fifteen yen!” Hiyori chirped.
The man gave her three one hundred yen pieces, a ten piece, and a five piece, picking up the flower.
“Thank you, sir! Please come again!” Hiyori bowed, smiling brightly as she put the money in her little money drawer under the counter.
The man, however, set the calla lily back down, glancing at her. He smiled.
“Welcome to the Central Kingdom, Suzumi Hiyori,” he said softly, before turning around and walking out the door.
Hiyori blinked, staring at the flower.
Was…I just gifted a flower..?
A small smile and a blush spread across her face.
I think I’m going to like the Central Kingdom.
She grabbed the plant and ran upstairs to put it on her dresser, before coming back downstairs to continue on with her first day of her new life.