"Karim."
When I hurriedly called for Karim, I could hear someone running right before the door burst open.
"Nuna!"
Karim smiled and greeted me. He looked excited.
"Are you here to tell me a fun story before I go to sleep?"
I couldn't demand answers at such an excited Karim. I wordlessly stroked his sky blue hair. Karim smiled brightly, as if he liked it.
"Of course, I'm here to do that too."
"Waaah! I'm so excited!"
"Moreover Karim, this is about what I asked of you before I went to school….."
At my fumbling words, Karim turned around from where he was getting his fairy tale book and tilted his head.
"Um, what nuna asked? Are you talking about replacing dad's shirt that Leda burned that you asked me to swap with what you bought?"
"Ah, that was one, but the other one….."
"…..mother's purchases?"
Karim's expression went dark. He quietly placed the book back onto the bookshelf.
"Honestly, I was going to tell you about mother's expenditures soon."
"Is it bad?"
"A little?"
"Be honest."
"A lot..."
Karim started getting teary-eyed when he saw that I was slightly angry. His scarlet eyes began gathering tears and they slowly started going down his cheeks. Surprised, I hurriedly hugged him.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't control my emotions because I'm tired. I'm not angry at you, Karim."
"I know that Shu nuna isn't angry at me. But, just…. You were trying to prevent these expenditures but when you were gone I couldn't stop her….."
Karim sniffed in my arms. Then, he reached out with his small hand and checked the bottom of his bed, then took out a small box. In the box was bundles of paper. Karim organized the bundles of paper and showed them to me.
"These are the receipts that mother purchased with our household money. I collected everything she threw away."
I was proud of Karim for what he did and wanted to shower him with compliments, but there was a considerable amount of paper in front of me so I was in shock. The receipts, organized by date, made my eyes shake.
"….most of it was for dressing up. If I remembered correctly, we didn't have that much cash."
"After nuna headed to the academy, mother said that it was an opportunity and spent a lot….."
"But even using up our emergency funds…."
I should've used magic to hide the emergency funds. I regretted trusting our mother and gripped the receipt in my hand until it crinkled.
"Father didn't say anything? I asked him before I left."
"Father is always lenient with mother's expenditures."
I couldn't tear my eyes off of the receipts. From jewelry, to beauty salons, to dresses…..the receipts were full of '0's. My heart felt like it was going to burst. No wonder she was excessively nice….. It was like she was watching for my reactions, too.
Worried that Karim might be scared, I smiled as much as I could as I responded.
"There's nothing else, right?"
At this point, it was becoming necessary to check father's income once again. I wanted to believe that his income had risen sharply recently. It had to be so.
When I asked, Karim put his hand back under the bed and took something out. It was more paper documents.
"This, it was what you were checking all the time. I thought you were going to look for it so I asked father's secretary to give me the most recent one."
What Karim had handed me was a document that explained the West family's current financial state. With our family's balance sheet, income statement, income, spending, debt, interest, etc., everything that I wanted to see was written on this sheet. In my last life, I needed to record each and every one myself, but it was really nice to have someone do that for me instead.
I wanted to compliment Karim for getting these prepared even without my asking, but my heart was pounding too hard for me to compliment anyone. I couldn't seem to grasp my senses from my anxiety. I pushed Karim's compliments aside for now, and received the documents from him with shaking hands.
"The debt...…increased. No change in income."
Karim hugged me. Nuna! Your eyes are scary! Karim yelled at me with a shaky voice.
"...…there's more expenditures than income. It's a total mess. Nobody's even thinking of savings."
I took out the notebook I always carried around from my pocket. In the book was all of my income and spending information. I compared my life savings to our family's debt.
"Haha, I'm so excited!"
"Nuna! Wake up!"
It looked like I could cover our family's debt with the money that I had slowly saved over time. Our mother, what a person. So incredible. So admirable. I smiled and applauded her. I felt like half of my mind had gone mad.
Karim started to cry saying that he shouldn't have showed me the documents. I came back to my senses. I repeated my thanks and apologies to Karim as I carried and laid him down on his bed.
"Sorry. Because of me, you're experiencing the harsh realities of the world so young."
Karim continued looking at me as he quietly wiped the tears off his face.
"But you're young too, nuna."
Not really...… To be accurate, with my previous life and current life combined, I was around thirty years old. Thinkin about my age, I suddenly remembered something from my past.
With debt upon debt thrust upon me, it kind of felt like I was reliving that in my current life. I might have to take on that burden in this life too. As long as my father was alive, he would take care of it...…but I didn't trust his financial capabilities. Sorry, father.
Anyway, any more expenditures would be dangerous. If this continued, we would be fumbling to pay off even the interest. It was so scary to imagine that I could feel the sweat coming from my pores.
I pushed aside my fear and took out a fairy tale about a unicorn prince for Karim's childlike senses.
But Karim said that the story was too fanciful and unrealistic and asked me to tell him a more realistic story. So I smiled and told him an original story. It was titled "The Months of Unpaid Rent and the Door-Pounding Owner."
Karim fell asleep with a satisfied smile on his face.
After I lulled Karim to sleep, I headed to my secret workroom in the mansion. In it held all of the magic supplies I had purchased and the magic devices I had created. Of course, this was also where I was taking care of the underworld assignments I had received as Shunivalen.
I checked my magic message device. Most of my requests collect in this. Moreover, all of the little letters I receive come here too. I checked for the highest-paying requests, then saw that I received a letter and checked that first.
[Esteemed Shunivalen! When will you be setting up a date with the merchant guild I mentioned earlier? Please set a date with them as fast as possible! The merchant guild's name is the Lunaasha guild.]
I thought of the conversation I had in the black building I went to before heading to the academy. He had told me that there was a large guild that wanted to make a personal request for me. Then I said that I would listen to their request. Anyway, the Lunaasha guild, that was definitely big.
I responded and told them to set up a date as fast as possible.
I hummed to myself as I headed to the master bedroom. The title of the song I was humming was 'Hide and Seek'.
"Motherrrrrrrr."
When I called out for my mother, I heard a rushing sound in the bedroom.
"Mooooooom."
I knocked and opened the door and peered inside. Father was out working, and mother was alone in the room. When I looked around, I could see who I was looking for.
I saw a beautiful woman with sky blue hair and scarlet eyes sitting as if she was pretending nothing was wrong. The woman was my mother, 'Rebecca West'. She was looking relaxed, but I could see that she was panicking. She put down the upside down novel in her hands and turned her face towards me.
"Shushu. What is it? I'm slightly busy?"
"I checked your schedule, mother. You're free right now."
I closed the door and approached my mother. She avoided my gaze. When I said nothing and sat directly in front of her, mother's expression brightened as she clapped, as if she just remembered something.
Oh, right! Shushu. Your mother bought something for you!"
Mother headed somewhere, then took out an orange dress that seemed like it would fit me from the closet. There were even jewels embedded on the orange dress. I started getting nervous, worrying if she bought it to give to me or not.
"Surprise! It just looked like it was made for you, so your mother bought it!"
Mother gave me the shining orange dress to hold onto. There were so many jewels embedded on it that my eyes watered. The dress purchase was also mentioned in the receipt, so I had guessed it somewhat. Of course, in the receipts were clothes for my siblings and my father's. Most of it was mother's, though.
I didn't say a single word after receiving the dress and just continued to stare at mother. As if she felt guilty, mother sipped some tea and avoided my gaze.
"The dress is beautiful. Thank you."
I sighed once, and just thanked her for the gift.
Mother's face grew bright. I showed her all of her receipts in front of her.
Mother's expression dimmed as she looked at the receipts.
"....um, did I spend this much?"
With a surprised expression, mother checked the receipts. It looked like she really didn't know that she spent this much. She must have just seen something she liked and grabbed it. It was an old habit.
"You even used up our emergency funds. I asked you not to touch it."
"Shushu..."
"I remember how sure of yourself you were when you said, "I'm not such a horrible mother that young Shuraina has to worry," last time."
"Shushu, that's!"
Mother tried to refute with something, then paused and opened her mouth again with a shaky voice.
"...your mother's sorry, Shushu. I think I used shopping to take care of my lonely heart after you and Harun went to school. I thought that my spending habits had gotten better, but when I got relaxed I just kept on buying."
Mother really had tried her best before I left for the academy. That was why I couldn't say anything. For mother, shopping was like overeating during a diet.
My heart wavered at how sad mother was.
I walked closer to her and took her hand.