"Let go of my hand, you filthy rascal!!" Came the voice from the hall.
'Looks like she's still trying to pretend…' Il Ji kept his thoughts to himself. Well, mostly.
Adele quickly spun the butterfly on the top of the wardrobe 180 degrees, and the portal turned off.
Il Ji looked around. Thankfully, the Morose twins had made it back. As he looked to make sure everyone was there, he was immediately tackled by a small figure.
"Illlll Jiiiii!!" Laila came flying.
"I told you I was going to be alright, right?" He chided her gently as she sobbed into his jeans.
"Brother…"
The touching display brought tears to a couple of the shop owners.
In the ensuing silence, Il Ji spoke up. "If ever your new butterflies need bamboo, please visit my shop. I'll be leaving this afternoon for about a week or so, so if you need them now would be the best time."
He turned to face Adele. "Adele, thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. The butterflies I caught along the way looking for everyone will surely net me a larger profit online than my sales will provide me- both this month and the last."
"Adele. Everyone. I'll see you at the next committee meeting."
Putting his hand on Laila's back, he walked her outside. As the rest began to thank Adele for their increased profits, he smiled. They truly weren't a petty bunch.
He made his way over to the Lucky Beast Supply Shop with Laila in tow, calling Sebastian for the requested driver.
Knowing it would be about thirty minutes out, he changed the sign on his door to 'open' to let the shopkeepers through.
Seven of the 20 shopkeepers stopped by; it seemed the rest wanted higher quality feed.
The driver Sebastian sent came along with an addition. Once they came in the store, Il Ji set the sign to closed.
"Il Ji, this is Pneuma. She'll be maintaining your store for you while you're gone."
"Nice to meet you, sir! I will uphold your store to the best of my abilities!"
"Mmm. It should be pretty easy for you. Basically, every morning at 7:15AM ensure that the water pump has filled the bamboo, ant, and chicken cages with water. I have a stack of bamboo cuttings and a pot of bamboo shavings next to the ants."
"Every morning, feed the colonies a cutting each. I haven't done it today yet, so I'll walk you through it this once."
Il Ji picked up one of the sidecaps sitting next to the first colony and placed a bamboo cutting inside. Then, picking up the second sidecap, he used the grooves on it to twist the lid on the ant enclosure.
Making sure there were no ants near the entrance, he immediately switched the side caps.
Then picking up the first sidecap, he showed it to Pneuma. "It seems we missed one. No matter. As long as it ends up in the middle of the chicken coop, I'll be fine."
He tossed the ant aside, and one of the larger hens swooped it up from the air.
"Here, now you try."
He watched as Pneuma deftly worked the colonies.
"Good!" Il Ji clapped his hands. "One last step." He pulled a hose over and attached it to an lid on one of the cages, then dragged it over to the hen cages. Then, he dropped a seed inside the hen cage.
"Brittleberry seeds." He said, looking at the new caretaker. "Hens absolutely hate them. That being said, ants will do nearly anything to get them. Watch."
Soon, a horde of small ants chased after the seed. Just as quickly, the hens began gobbling them up.
"Do you see where I placed the seed?"
"Yes." Pneuma replied.
"The moment they get close, remove the seed and spray this bottle of 'Dabreze.' " He said, handling her the bottle.
She did exactly as he instructed.
The moments the ant felt the spray, they ran around in disarray, trying to not get eaten. The lucky few managed to climb back through the hose, but not all made it out.
Il Ji smiled. "The next step is to use the reverse vaccuum. Watch. After attaching it to the hose, it pushes all the ants back into their enclosure."
"Next, you pull the vaccuum close. to the colony." He moved it over. "After that, set a timer for 1 and a half minutes. Once the timer goes through, re-attach the original lid."
"Each day, move over to the next colony container. If you follow this process, the process is 100% sustainable."
"There's also a small isopod container right there." He said, pointing to a small box and a cylinder full of cubes next to them."Every three days, add one of these cubes to the container."
"While I'm gone, leave the rooster in the cage as he is. Any eggs that are left in the cage can stay, but if you see them grow moldy then quickly remove them and place them in the trash. You can sweep the rooster cage with the broom on your left."
"There is also a small set of dishes by the register. You can fill them up with water from the tap and the cat food underneath the register to feed my sister's cat."
"Any questions?"
"No, sir. You've laid everything out quite perfectly."