"We have no money left."

"Huh???" Raiden stopped in his paths hearing her words. The shop was doing so well, and the money was already there in place. What does it mean? There is no money left??

Sarah ignored his shocked expression and calmly walked towards another room, opening it, leading them to a brand new room that looked like an office, with paintings and two brown sofas in the middle.

"I said we have no money left. Anyways, what will you have?? Tea?? Coffee??"

"Wait, wait, wait!! What do you mean there is no money left?? The shop is doing so well already. Where did all the money go??" Raiden asked in a loud voice.

"Relax, take a seat, drink something. It’s not that easy to explain it all. Take a seat, and I will explain everything." Sarah calmly poured tea for herself before sinking back into the sofa, waiting for Raiden to join her.

"You’d better have a good reason. I came here expecting to collect a paycheck, you know. I am super broke right now." Raiden took a deep breath and sat across her, a frown on his face.

"Hahaha...let me explain it from the beginning." Sarah laughed softly as she poured three cold drinks in front of Raiden, one for each of them.

Seeing this, both Woolie and Neva jumped on the table, eager to taste the new food.

"Woolie/Shaa!!" ( ˶°ㅁ°) .ᐟ.ᐟ

Having never drunk anything like before, their reaction was extremely surprising as the carbonated, fizzy drink hit their taste buds.

"Woolie!!" What is this evil drink?!

"Sha Sha!!" Neva nodded repeatedly after Woolie, making Sarah in front of them laugh.

Raiden ignored their reaction as he looked at the girl in front of him instead.

"Big sister, I am begging you here. Please don’t stall anymore. Just tell me what happened, okay? Where did all the money go??" Raiden asked, folding his hands in front of her.

"Alright, alright, I’ll tell you, okay? Relax." Sarah fell into a languid pose, almost sliding down the sofa, as she continued to drink her tea.

"Where do I start?? Ah, yes, the competition. You see, when you won the competition, we finally got the customers and business we were waiting for after so long. But most of the customers were local ones. After a few days, their hype died, and the customers started dwindling down to a few dozen daily visitors."

"You see, if that was the extent of it, we would still have a lot of money left and could have become a somewhat famous local shop. But!! You went ahead and did something amazing!!" Sarah sat up straight as she said this, staring into Raiden’s eyes with her shining ones.

"You went ahead, participated in the biggest tournament in the state and won the championship!! Do you know how big that is?? How big of a promotion that is for any kind of business or shop??"

"I started getting hundreds, even thousands of phone calls daily asking to order stuff, with even more customers visiting the shop. Even after all the staff I hired, I was completely swamped!! I even tried to call you for help during that time, only for you to say you are too busy doing god knows what to help me!!" Sarah glared at Raiden with resentment, causing his break out in a nervous and sheepish grin.

"Since I wasn’t able to manage it all, I went directly to Maple, the contract you provided, to get some help. I must say, Miss Maple is such a professional and amazing person. She solved every single problem for me." Sarah spoke in an admiring voice as she talked about Maple. It seemed like that miss attendant of ours had left a big and lasting impression on Sarah.

"She quickly contacted the nearby shop owners, found a reliable supplier, and a web developer to create a website for our site, and hired an accountant to oversee all our finances as well as a lawyer to protect our designs and patents."

"She was also the one who did all the renovation of our shops in just two days, as well as the signboard and marketing. She even found a good logistics delivery partner for us that is ready to deliver intercity. Did you know how hard it is to find a delivery partner that does intercity deliveries?? Every one of them refused me when I went to work with them. It was only after the introduction from Miss Maple that I was able to get them to work with us."

"Hiring and managing so much staff, designing clothes and making them. Do you know how hard it was?? How much I had to run around, huh?? How much I had to suffer to get it all done??? Well, do you??? I was here running around, exhausting myself to death, while you stayed at your farm like some kind of off-hand boss." Sarah was practically glaring at him with tears in her eyes when she said it, causing Raiden to pause and feel bad for her. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"I am sorry, I—"

"Forget it. I am not looking for an apology from you. I am sorry for lashing out. I was just letting you know how hard I’ve worked for the past month to build our business and brand together. I just want you to care a little more about this little business of ours, okay?? We are partners, so I expect a little more support from you." Sarah waved her hands as she spoke softly, looking at Raiden with such pure eyes that it even made him feel ashamed for a bit.

Looking at her closely, he noticed the small things that he hadn’t noticed before. Like the heavy fatigue that was hidden in her eyes, or the bags on her face that were hidden behind heavy makeup.

This woman alone had built the entire thing by herself from scratch, with no help from him. It was given that she felt angry at him.

"I am sorry once again. As you said, I was not present there when you needed me. But this won’t happen again, I promise." Raiden spoke in a heartfelt voice.

Hearing this, Sarah finally gave a real smile and sank back down in sofa, almost sinking into them.

" I still have one question though. What really happened to our money?? Where did it all go??" Raiden asked.

"You think hiring so many people, and asking them to do something, is cheap?? Do you think agreements with logistics are cheap?? Or paying so many staff salaries is cheap?? We brought so much stock, and the shops next to us. We have run out of money long ago!!" Sarah waved her hands in the air in a nonchalant manner.

"If anything, we are under a heavy debt right now!! You need to find that money to pay it all back somehow!!" Sarah said, causing Raiden to almost faint.

’What is this?? I came here to get money, but debt?? Even more debt????’

The world around Raiden started to swirl around as he fainted.