Ch 65: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World

Harold went out for a bit and came back dressed in a white robe, his deep blue eyes shining, and he looked even more youthful.

Si Jin found it odd. “Weren’t you always into black? Why the sudden change in style?”

He had known Harold for decades, and this guy had always worn black, never once considering changing his style.

Harold raised his chin, looking smug. “I look good in anything I wear.”

Si Jin: “…”

He’s definitely getting cocky—his tail might as well be wagging in the air.

At this point, asking him anything further would just give him more chances to show off.

Lu Yao, upon entering the shop, immediately checked whether the fairies were still there since they had returned late.

Edward and Mumu were leaning over the armrest of the sofa, their heads close together, whispering something.

“What are you two doing?” Lu Yao asked curiously.

“Shh.” Edward put a long finger to his lips and lowered his voice. “Keep it down.”

Lu Yao moved closer and saw two thumb-sized fairies cuddled together, asleep on top of a comic book, their eyes closed. A small white handkerchief covered their round bellies, and a circle of white paper flowers surrounded them.

Mumu’s little paws rested on the edge of the glass table as he softly hummed a lullaby.

Lu Yao was startled. “What happened to them?”

Edward rested his elbow on the sofa, a comic book spread open across his lap. On the page, there was a coffin surrounded by white flowers, with Mumu dressed in a black tailcoat, lying on the table exactly like the mourning guests in the comic.

Edward’s green eyes curved slightly with a gentle smile. “Nothing, just teaching Mumu a bit of the aesthetics of sleep.”

Aesthetics… Well, vampires do have a thing for sleeping in coffins…

Lu Yao suppressed her urge to complain, feeling like she’d lose if she did. Pointing at the motionless fairies on the book, she asked, “So, they’re fine?”

“Yeah, just asleep,” Edward confirmed.

“…”

Lu Yao was speechless. She had nearly died of fright, thinking something serious had happened in the shop.

After finishing his show-off session with Si Jin, Harold came over, staring at the two little creatures on the table. “How long have they been here? Why haven’t they left?”

Tina, Clarissa, Eugenia, and Ambrose, hearing Lu Yao had returned, all gathered around the glass table.

Puxiu, feeling a terrifyingly intense gaze upon him, woke up groggily, nearly having a heart attack when he opened his eyes.

The shopkeeper and the black dragon had finally returned.

But for some reason, the demon, necromancer, vampire, slime, dragon, and human were all standing in a circle, glaring at him and Merulu with predatory eyes.

For the tiny fairies, everyone around the table seemed like giants.

In Puxiu’s eyes, their gazes all exuded a terrifying, fierce light.

Had they been found out?

Puxiu nudged Merulu awake. “Wake up, the shopkeeper’s back!”

Merulu rubbed her eyes and, unlike Puxiu, remained calm in the face of the staff’s scrutiny.

Her gaze swept around the room, quickly landing on Lu Yao. She fluttered her wings and flew over to her. “You’re the shopkeeper?”

Merulu’s hair and eyes were a warm orange, like honey tangerines, with two fluffy buns on top of her head. Two small purple flowers were tucked into her hair, and she wore an adorable, frilly dress—so cute that it left Lu Yao speechless.

Lu Yao extended her hand, letting the fairy land on her palm, and smiled. “Yes, I’m Lu Yao, the owner of this nail salon.”

Merulu lifted her chin and said seriously, “My name is Merulu, and that silly one over there is Puxiu. We’re both Light Mages, here to apply for the staff position.”

Lu Yao had just added a section about hiring Light Mages to the job notice, and to her surprise, a pair of fairy twins had come to apply so quickly.

Ambrose had previously mentioned that Emerald Town didn’t have many mages, with most of the town’s visitors being ordinary merchants and residents, making it hard to find suitable candidates.

Lu Yao asked, “Even though we’re hiring Light Mages, the main job is still related to nail art. Have you ever worked with nail polish before?”

Merulu’s round eyes darted around, and she nodded. “Yes, we’ve used mistwood sap for nail coloring.”

The twin fairies, having been distracted by comics and snacks since they arrived, hadn’t really noticed how the staff were doing nails for the customers. They still assumed the salon used traditional methods.

Puxiu fluttered over and landed next to Merulu, eagerly adding, “We can learn how to extract mistwood sap and help customers with nail coloring. Both of us can do it.”

Lu Yao pretended to hesitate, rubbing her chin as she suggested, “It seems like you don’t know yet, but in our shop, we don’t use mistwood sap for nails. It’s hard to explain in just a few words. How about you both experience it first and then decide if you want to work here?”

These two fairies seemed a bit peculiar, arriving so suddenly and with such a clear purpose of staying.

Lu Yao didn’t think they had bad intentions, but since they were already here, she figured they should at least get their nails done before leaving—saving her the trouble of searching for fairies again.

Puxiu was taken aback, extending his chubby little hands. “You’re going to do our nails?”

Despite being confined to the sanctuary for over a decade, the twins had never been deprived of good food. Perhaps even Carlos had found them cute, feeding them dewdrops and flower nectar with great care. With limited space for movement, both of them had become quite plump, with little dimples forming on the backs of their hands.

From a human perspective, though, they were simply adorable.

Lu Yao’s gaze kept drifting to Puxiu’s round little belly, tempted to poke it, but she restrained herself and nodded seriously. “Yes.”

Merulu flew up to Lu Yao’s face and extended her tiny hand, her honey-orange eyes blinking curiously. “No one’s ever been able to do fairy nails before because our hands are too small. Even the tiniest tools don’t work.”

Lu Yao gently took Merulu’s hand, leading her toward the workstation. “So, today will be your first time getting your nails done? Don’t worry, I have a way to make sure you’ll have beautiful nails.”

The other staff members had never seen fairies get their nails done before, so they eagerly gathered around to watch and learn.

As usual, Lu Yao brought out a tablet and handed it to them. “Take a look and see if there’s a style you like.”

Having learned how to use the tablet’s photo function, Merulu and Puxiu sat at the edge of the screen, completely absorbed.

Like elves, fairies had a natural affinity for all things nature-related. When they saw the vibrant, floral nail designs, little stars of excitement appeared in their eyes. They had never seen nails so beautiful before.

Suddenly, they came across a page featuring a moving nail art design, and Puxiu blurted out, “Lord Carlos!”

Merulu pinched Puxiu, then looked up at Lu Yao.

Leaning her elbow on the table and lightly tapping the tablet with her finger, Lu Yao smiled. “Puxiu, you’re very sharp to recognize the Great Priest from just a glance. His nail design wasn’t easy to make—I spent an entire night creating the magic array for it. I was nearly exhausted.”

Even the demon, necromancer, and vampire founder were seeing this moving nail art for the first time and couldn’t help but gather around.

Clarissa asked, “It moves? How did you manage that, shopkeeper?”

The necromancer stroked his bare chin. “Could I get something like this but with leopard print?”

Edward commented, “The layering of dark and light magic is quite an interesting concept.”

Everyone was so focused on the nail art that no one seemed to notice Puxiu’s earlier slip of the tongue, much to Merulu’s relief. She pointed at Carlos’s nail art and said, “I want something like this too, but with mountains, flowers, and trees. And more colorful.”

Lu Yao hadn’t expected the fairy to catch her off guard like this—it looked like she’d be pulling another all-nighter.

She only wanted to unlock the encyclopedia entry, but why did it have to be this difficult?

Tina quietly pulled out three recovery potions and placed them on the table corner, kindly offering, “These are high-grade potions I made. Shopkeeper, you can use them to keep going.”

The others were equally intrigued, all curious about how the shopkeeper would do the fairies’ nails and how she would make the nail art move.

Lu Yao sighed. Fairy hands were much smaller than those of humans, so creating moving nail art was far more challenging.

She let out a breath, selecting the necessary nail polish, glue, and tools from the drawer.

Fairies couldn’t change size, unlike dragons or orcs, who could switch between their beast and human forms at will.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Yao took out a set of plastic nail tips and constructed a simple magnifying lens using a magic array. She had Merulu place her hand under the array.

Through the magic array, Merulu’s tiny hand appeared as large as a regular human’s hand.

Lu Yao then removed the nail tips and shrank them to the correct size. She shaped them to perfectly match Merulu’s nail beds using the magnifying array, then enlarged them back to their original size.

This process was repeated ten times until she had ten perfectly fitting tips for Merulu’s nails. Lu Yao used a duplication spell to create three backup sets and began her trial.

Her initial focus was on coloring.

To maintain the texture of the nail art, the polish needed to be applied with precision. If too much was applied, it would clump when shrunk.

After a few tries, she prepared to add the designs.

This time, instead of creating regular press-on nails, Lu Yao was inspired by Dominic’s magic book and her previous nail art magic arrays.

Before applying the protective coat, she sketched a dark magic array onto the plastic nail tip. Then, following the regular process, she layered the design and colors, interweaving both light and dark magic arrays onto the surface.

Merulu, watching Lu Yao skillfully use both light and dark magic, was secretly astonished.

But seeing that everyone else acted as if it was normal, she restrained her surprise.

Puxiu, filled with curiosity, sat next to Lu Yao, observing up close, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “You’re a light and dark attribute mage? That’s amazing!”

The little fairy’s lemon-yellow eyes sparkled with admiration.

Lu Yao couldn’t resist, setting down her brush and lightly poking Puxiu’s soft form with her finger. “Fairy sir, you’re quite adorable too.”

She called me “Fairy sir”! I’m so happy!

Puxiu hugged Lu Yao’s finger and rubbed against it, only to feel several intense gazes directed at him.

The dragon boy, with his raised brows, and the slime, with his furrowed expression, both glared at him.

Merulu covered her eyes, feeling exasperated by Puxiu’s foolishness.

Lu Yao resumed working on the nail art, carefully painting the designs and frequently stopping to draw magic arrays, a process that took considerable time.

The staff watched attentively. Ambrose and Edward occasionally whispered to each other, as if they weren’t in a nail salon but attending a high-level magic theory seminar.

As time passed, Lu Yao finally completed the first nail.

Ambrose stared at the nearly translucent nail tip, somewhat doubtful. “Isn’t the color a bit too light?”

Lu Yao shook her head. “No, once it’s on Merulu’s finger, the color will be just right.”

With a slight movement of her hand, she drew a large light magic array above the nail tip, instantly activating the dark magic array she had first drawn on the surface. The polish on the nail tip fractured and broke down, then, under her guidance, transferred to Merulu’s nails, slowly restoring itself.

This technique, inspired by Dominic’s book, allowed Lu Yao to peel the polish off the nail tip, shrink it proportionally, and apply it directly onto the fairy’s nails.

Merulu looked down at her nails. The polish had shrunk perfectly to fit her nail bed, and as Lu Yao had promised, the colors were perfectly balanced.

The design was a springtime mountain scene, where melting snow blended with the encroaching greenery. The snow had originally reached halfway down the mountain, but as spring advanced, the light green pushed upward, gradually replacing the snow with a fresh, vibrant hue.

Merulu cupped her face, squinting her eyes in delight. “I love this! It’s so beautiful, absolutely stunning!”

Fairy hands were so tiny that no one else could see the design clearly, so she extended her hand under the magnifying magic array, allowing everyone to admire her nails.

Ambrose stroked his chin, the red light flickering in his empty eye sockets. “I see, the concept of magical nail art is very interesting. The basic structure is already quite mature. Have you considered researching this further?”

Lu Yao: “?”

Edward chimed in, “For example, adding attack magic effects to the nails or incorporating armor and weapons.”

Lu Yao nodded. “I’ve thought about that, but it’s difficult to manage alone. Constructing new magic arrays and testing the endurance limits of the nails take time.”

Ambrose stepped forward. “As a staff member, I fully support this research, shopkeeper.”

Lu Yao smiled wryly. “Let’s put that research on hold for now. If you all learn the basics of magic nail art construction, I’ll have more time to focus on those things.”

Ambrose replied confidently, “That’s no problem. I’ve already learned it and can assist you right now.”

Puxiu stood up, jumping into Lu Yao’s hand. “I’ve learned it too! I can help as well!”

Harold furrowed his brow tightly, thinking he was seeing another Mumu in the making.

Mumu, too, frowned, letting out a pitiful “chirp.”

Merulu: “…”

Let’s just pretend I don’t have this brother.

The surprise came too quickly. Ambrose was impressive enough, but now Puxiu was also proving to be quite capable, learning just by watching a few times.

Lu Yao gave them a small test, and both of them executed the magic flawlessly.

Feeling reassured, Lu Yao handed over the task of constructing the magic arrays while she focused on the design.

With the three of them working together, the dynamic nail art progressed much faster, and they finished by midnight.

Merulu raised her hands, her nails displaying falling spring blossoms, flowing streams, and melting snow. Her honey-orange eyes sparkled like they were dipped in honey, glowing with joy.

This was the first time Merulu had ever gotten her nails done, and it far exceeded her expectations. She was so delighted she didn’t know how to express it.

Puxiu leaned over, staring at Merulu’s nails with envy.

The shopkeeper had told him it was too late for today, and he’d have to wait until after work tomorrow to get his turn.

However, the twins’ magical prowess was unanimously recognized, and they were officially hired.

Lu Yao opened her encyclopedia, and the fairy symbol lit up. Now, only two species remained.

Her gaze shifted to Mumu, and she asked kindly, “Mumu hasn’t had his nails done yet. Want to try it out?”

Before Mumu could respond, Edward stood up excitedly. “Do Mumu’s nails? Shopkeeper, I have an idea—I’ll design this set!”

Lu Yao: “… More of the vampires’ luxurious aesthetics?”

Edward was too excited to hear her, grabbing paper and a pen from the table and starting to sketch.

Lu Yao glanced at his design, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

This vampire ancestor really had some talent.

An idea suddenly struck her, and she leaned in to share it with Edward.

Edward thought for a moment, his green eyes lighting up. “How did I not think of that? This idea is fantastic! Give me three days.”

…

With Mumu’s special nail design being handled by his devoted father Edward, and with the newly hired staff proving quite capable, Lu Yao no longer had to tend to regular customers. She now had time to focus on her magic research.

The next day at noon, Lu Yao picked up a lunch box and delivered it to the nail salon before heading back to the snack shop.

That day, she had arranged to trade the black ring with a customer.

While she was having lunch with her staff, they found out she was heading into the amusement park for the trade and were very curious, expressing a desire to observe the deal.

Lu Yao was uncertain. “Will the chief allow it?”

Chi stood up. “It should be fine. We all have disguises in the game, so we won’t stand out.”

Xia excitedly raised her hand. “Last time, the shopkeeper almost got hurt during a trade. There might still be people trying to make trouble. If we go with you, we’ll make sure they don’t get any funny ideas.”

Lu Yao imagined the scene based on Qing’s in-game disguise—if she went to make the trade with a group of powerful NPCs behind her…

The customer would probably be scared out of their mind!

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