Chapter 7: Opening A Shop II (Athena)

Seth had been weirdly busy these past few days. He must have gone back to chasing skirts again. I can't believe he could only stay put in the house for two weeks before running outside and finding women.

This is what I had believed during the few days he was running out before breakfast and going home during dinner time but tonight I am shocked.

He asked me if I wanted to help him man the register in the shop he was going to open. No wonder he started teaching me calculations the past 3 days, I thought he just got tired of running around and rested at home first.

Does he know how hard it was for me to pretend to learn calculation these past 3 days. I'm also glad that he learned from the army how to do mental computations rather than using abacus because I have no idea how to use one.

I agreed to man the register but I was worried about the twins and the other children but he said that I could bring them and take care of them in the store. I can't believe this man seriously thought I could do all those at once but I honestly want to run the shop with him. After all, I need to earn money for my task.

Also, I don't want to stay at home and take care of kids. I am a career woman. I have honestly never considered marriage before. This is why I am still single at the age of 36.

This can also give me the right chance to change my personality. I could say that my personality changed after gaining experience in the shop.

The days passed and finally I'm done with my confinement. I can finally go outside. Today, Seth brought me and the children to the shop. It was my first time going outside since I came out of the hospital.

The breeze outside feels great. The city is bustling even though this city is a bit far from the capital there are still a lot of people going around. Looking around, it is really starting to sink in that I'm in a different world.

"Put Lisa and Kyle here." I heard Seth say as he pulled out a crib from what I guess was the stock room.

I put the twins down while Seth gave Irene and Justin some toys to play with.

"Wife, this would be a women's clothing shop. I already bought the clothes supply. Can you help me put them on the rack?" Seth asked.

I'm a bit shocked when I saw the clothes in the stockroom. I never expected Seth to be detail oriented. I was expecting him to do a sloppy job but the shop was properly arranged. We only need to arrange the clothes then this shop is ready for business.

Seth carried out a bundle of clothes and I looked at each one of them. They honestly looked quite good. He has a good taste. He told me how he wanted it arranged. I followed his instructions as I wanted to see how far were his plans for the store.

I have to say arranging the clothes while taking care of two infants and two toddlers was a lot of work.

"Let's stop here today. I didn't expect it to be this tiring." He said.

"Umm… Husband… have you thought of a name for your store?" I asked him.

"Our… our store and does it need a name?" He asked curiously while I nodded.

"How about Seth and Athena Store?" He suggested and I frowned in disgust.

I heard him laugh when he saw my reactions. I lowered my head as I pretended to be embarrassed.

"Wife, you shouldn't always keep your head down. Lift your head. You're too pretty for the world not to see." He said.

"Husband, I… I hope you can reconsider the store name." I told him.

"What would be a good name?" He asked as he also thought of it.

What would be a good name?

"7 fairies and brothers." Seth said again and I almost choked on my spit.

"It seems like I'm bad at naming. Wife, help me." He said.

It looked like he saw my reaction to that name.

"Ummm… how about Serena?" I suggested.

"Serena? Why Serena?" He asked curiously.

"It's… um… our names… Seth and Athena… Sethena sounds a bit off… so I changed it to Serena…" I explained shyly and this time I am really shy.

I'm also bad at naming.

"That's a good idea. Let's name the store Serena." Seth decided.

"Do we… umm… need to… go to ummm… somewhere? To umm… formalize the name?" I asked.

I'm not familiar with the rules of this world when it comes to business but in the modern world there are such things as trademarks and patents.

"Hmmm… I also don't know. I'll go check with my grandfather, if there are such things. Thank you for reminding me, wife." He said and smiled sweetly at me.

We went home after that and when we arrived we saw stepmother waiting by our house door.

"Where did you two go?" She asked when we arrived.

"We just came back from the store, mother." Seth answered proudly.

"Store?" She asked.

"Yes. Did grandfather not tell you? He assigned me to handle a store for him. He told me that I should work and not just be a freeloader." Seth complained pitifully.

"Did grandfather give you such a hard task? Do you want your mother to handle it for you?" She asked worriedly.

I want to roll my eyes but I can't so I just stare at the floor and pray that this unreliable husband of mine won't agree.

"I would want to but grandfather threatened me to not ask for the family's help. He said I should do it on my own. He first told me to go work at the factory but I turned him down. Mother has always told me that the work in the factory was not suited for me, that's why grandfather told me to open the shop. If I fail, then I should just go back and work at the factory." He complained to stepmother.

Stepmother looked a little bit pale when Seth said grandfather wanted him back in the factory. She probably schemed a lot to remove Seth from the factory.

I have to say it seems like my husband is not as stupid as I thought. I don't think he was just randomly complaining. Those words are well thought. Stepmother brought him and Justin to the main house for dinner while she told me that the nanny already sent the food to our house.

I went inside and saw my daughters already preparing the table.

"Mother!" Christine greeted me happily when she saw me.

Brittany helped me carry Kelly to the bed while Faith got Irene to wash up so we could eat.

"How was your day?" I asked them.

"It was good. I got a perfect score on our exams." Ashley answered shyly.

"Good job." I complimented her.

"I got good grades too!" Brittany said.

"Wow, my daughters are all great. Good job." I complimented them.

I heard from my former officemates the importance of complimenting your children, especially since my daughters are on the shy side and lack confidence.

I patted their heads and saw Christine looking down.

"What's wrong Christine?" I asked.

"I failed my math test." She said in a small voice.

"Oh my, is that so? Mother is also not good with calculations. How about we study together?" I told her.

I saw her smile and the other children also wanted to join. We ate our dinner which consisted of stir fried vegetables, vegetable soup, and steamed vegetables. I'm starting to wonder if this family is vegetarian. There wasn't any meat in the dishes, not even oil or eggs. I couldn't stand it so I took eggs and fried one egg per person.

The food inside the house was really not good. I wonder if there's a way for me to improve the meals without alerting the main house. It's been a month already and the girls were not as thin as before and already started to fill in some meat in their bodies but if we're going back to this kind of meal then last month's effort would be a waste.

I only have 5 months left to get them in the right BMI, especially those sons of mine. I sighed. I can't even talk to those sons of mine, all the more take care of their diet. Should we move out of the house? I want to. I just wanted to grab all these children and run away.

"Athena, you can't do that. You don't have enough power and standing. You will be caught and forced to divorce your husband. If you are forced to divorce then you would have failed our ultimate mission." the system suddenly said.

"Huh? What is the ultimate mission?" I asked, shocked.

I was not informed of any ultimate mission.

"For you to give the 12 children a happy ending. You would need to stay with your husband in order to do that." The system kindly informed me.

Why am I only being informed of this now? I was still thinking of getting rid of that unreliable husband.