chapter 2
Marquis Kaleo Deiamor hurried to his daughter’s room after hearing the news of Nivellia’s bankruptcy.
“Oh dear, my daughter….”
What greeted him was the back of his daughter, sprawled on the floor without moving.
The shoulders of the four-year-old “CEO,” now left with only debt and unsold stock, looked heavy.
Kaleo carefully sat down beside her.
“So, my daughter, I heard you went bankrupt?”
“I went completely bankrupt….”
Nivellia replied weakly.
“Life isn’t easy….”
“That’s life.”
Nodding, Kaleo made a suggestion.
“Want to have a drink with Dad?”
He said that sadness like this should be washed away with a refreshing glass of milk, and helped Nivellia up.
“Nini is upset, so here—my heart feels hot. I want cold milk.”
“If you drink something cold, your stomach will hurt. Let’s have it lukewarm.”
“Can I have it with a chocolate cookie?”
“Let’s dip the cookie in warm milk.”
“…Can I have two?”
“Just one.”
“Wah…”
Holding her father’s hand and staggering along, Nivellia looked like a drunkard as they headed to the dining room.
When they arrived, the kitchen staff quickly brought a glass of milk and a large chocolate cookie.
They had already heard about the young lady’s bankruptcy.
“Same for Dad.”
At Nivellia’s request, a slightly larger glass of milk was placed in front of Kaleo.
The father and daughter clinked their glasses.
After taking a gulp of the pleasantly cool milk, Nivellia broke the cookie in half and dipped it into the milk.
She soaked it so deeply that even her fingers got wet, and the cookie quickly became soft.
“Dad!”
“Hmm?”
“You know chocolate cookies and milk, right?”
“Yeah, I see them.”
“If you do this, like this, it becomes really delicious! And also, the chocolate cookie is round and pretty, right?”
“That’s true. Pretty, just like Nini?”
“Hehe, that’s why Nini likes it!”
Nivellia took a big bite of the milk-soaked cookie and beamed.
Kaleo wiped the milk dripping from her hand with a handkerchief and asked,
“Feeling better now? Is the sadness gone?”
“I’m still a little sad.”
She mumbled while chewing.
“Nini worked hard, but didn’t make money, so I’m upset.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
“I hate the world. I wish everyone earned less money than me.”
“…That’s a bit too much.”
Kaleo waited until she finished her cookie.
“Nini.”
“Yeah?”
“So, are you going to stop doing business now?”
“I’ll keep doing it!”
Even though she had failed today, her grand ambition still burned inside her.
“I have to make lots of money. Then I can buy tasty things for Wolf!”
At the word “Wolf,” Kaleo thought of her favorite stuffed toy.
It was a handmade doll made of luxurious golden fabric and high-quality rubies. Once pristine, it had now become worn and ragged.
‘Sometimes it looks like the doll is begging to be put out of its misery….’
It hadn’t been washed for half a year because Nivellia would throw a tantrum whenever anyone tried.
Her maid Dether was always waiting for a chance to clean it.
“Wolf would be in big trouble without me. He’d starve.”
“I see.”
“But making money isn’t easy.”
“That’s life.”
“Nini learned about life today. Life is harsh….”
“You worked hard to make those cookies, so it must be upsetting.”
Seeing his daughter resting her chin on the table, looking dejected, Kaleo asked,
“Want some advice from Dad?”
Nivellia’s eyes widened.
“I may not be as good as your mom, but I know a bit about business too. I help her with things.”
“Dad…!”
Moved, Nivellia climbed down from her chair and hugged his leg.
“Dad, you’re more useful than I thought!”
“Thanks for the compliment that makes me not want to help anymore.”
* * *
The father and daughter moved to another place.
“To Nini’s room!”
Once there, Nivellia prepared a notebook and crayons to write down what her father said.
Kaleo began.
“First. The cookie shapes are too sloppy.”
He placed Nivellia’s cookies next to the one they had just eaten.
“If you were a customer, which one would you choose?”
“This one—the big one!”
“What about the one you made?”
“……”
“Don’t avoid my gaze like a guilty cat. Be honest.”
“…It’s kind of… not great.”
After admitting it, she glanced at her own cookies.
“But they taste good….”
“But customers don’t know that.”
Kaleo said that was the key point.
“First-time buyers don’t know the taste, so they choose the prettier one. That’s how people are.”
“I see.”
Nivellia scribbled in her notebook, drawing a rough circle and coloring it brown.
“What’s the second one?”
“How much did it cost to make the cookies?”
“Wait….”
She pulled out a receipt from her desk drawer.
“This—receipt.”
It was from buying ingredients.
“How much are you selling them for?”
“3 cookies for 3,000 Uva!”
“You’re holding up five fingers.”
“Oh, mistake. 5,000 Uva!”
“And how many cookies did you make?”
“A lot!”
“…We should call Dether.”
Dether, who had been waiting outside, came in.
“The young lady made 72 cookies. She secretly ate 3 of them.”
So, 69 cookies total.
Packaged in sets of three, that made 23 packs.
“You sold 4, so 19 packs remain. I did the baking, so my labor cost should be included.”
“Dether is Nini’s friend, so I used her cheaply.”
“If we’re friends, you should pay me more.”
After calculating everything, Kaleo smiled bitterly.
“The price is far too low compared to the cost.”
Considering labor and rent, it was absurdly cheap.
“At minimum, one cookie should cost 25,000 Uva.”
“That’s five times 5,000!”
“Eek!”
Shocked, Nivellia grabbed her round face with both hands.
“C-can Nini even touch that much money…?”
“It’s fine. You already owe more than that.”
Dether offered not-so-comforting reassurance.
Then Kaleo pointed out the final mistake.
“You can’t hide if you want to sell.”
“That’s the biggest problem.”
“The owner has to confidently sell the product so customers can trust it.”
“That’s because Dether didn’t sell well.”
“You little—”
Kaleo lightly flicked her forehead.
“The owner needs to sell directly.”
“But Mom doesn’t sell things at the store.”
“She did at the beginning.”
“Ahh….”
Nivellia sighed again.
She realized once more how hard it was to earn money.
“So what do I do now?”
“First, you have to pay off your debt.”
“‘Pay off’ means to clear or resolve it.”
Nivellia nodded.
“Pay off debt!”
“You owe about 1.28 million Uva….”
Kaleo looked at her seriously.
“If you don’t pay it back, you might end up on a fishing boat.”
“N-no!”
Terrified, she panicked.
“If I go on a fishing boat, I’ll never see Mom and Dad again!”
“Or you can slowly repay it by helping around.”
“Isn’t there a faster way?”
“There isn’t.”
“Life is tough.”
“……”
Kaleo looked at Dether, who quickly said,
“I didn’t teach her that.”
As her head began to ache thinking about the future, Nivellia suddenly remembered something.
She jumped up and pulled something from her drawer.
“Dad, write your name here!”
“Huh?”
“Here!”
“What is this?”
“Grandma and Grandpa gave it to me. They said I can use it to pay debts!”
Her grandparents were currently traveling in the forest.
Kaleo examined the document.
“…Wow.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
“My daughter is asking me to be a guarantor.”
It was a joint guarantee contract.
But Nivellia didn’t understand.
“What’s that?”
“If you can’t pay, the person who signs pays instead.”
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“It’s not amazing at all.”
Kaleo refused to sign.
And so, the 1.28 million Uva debt remained Nivellia’s responsibility.
* * *
There are no shortcuts to making money.
In the end, Nivellia began repaying her debt little by little—running errands for her family and helping the household staff.
