The Flying Emporium

Just a couple hours of sleep and Severin was already woken by the telepathic shouts of an excited girl who was less concerned about his sudden overnight appearance than with all the other changes that had taken place:

The construction-site near the mountaintop’s rim which was already swallowing up the newly activated portal.

The people who looked so different from the adventurers she was usually serving and who-judging by the small text floating next to Jasmine’s name on the System’s map- included another royal descendant.

And, most notably, the appearance of a black hole covering parts of said map.

The land upon which the small Society outpost had been built upon was still technically Severin’s-as he was simply renting it out-,but the same was not true for the area Malcos was now claiming; the land was no longer his, and the System would therefore have no sovereignty over it. The only exception was, of course, the small circle within this black hole representing the teleportation installation itself and barely enough to tell the name and class of any person using its services; more than sufficient, however, for the System to log all arrivals and departures.

Severin was currently not in a state to form any cohesive thoughts, and much less able to convey them. An unintelligible grunt was the only response he managed to muster, and it was a small miracle in itself that the [Shopkeeper] didn’t just turn around and went back to sleep.

<> said Bandur who was apparently also tuned in into this conservation and though he was just as curious as Emily, he had a pretty good idea as to Severin’s current state of mind and knew that assaulting him with questions at this point in time could only ever result in having to deal with a grumpy, bad-tempered boss for the remainder of the day.

Severin sat up and on the edge of the bed, resting his head on his two hands. He stayed like that, in a state somewhere between sleep and wake, for the next few minutes.

Until one of the dots in the corner of his vision that had been moving around searchingly returned back to its owner’s domain.

Uugh, he groaned as he heaved himself up.

Half a minute later he was sneaking towards the kitchen, careful not to draw the attention of anyone who might feel the urge to continue the previous night’s questioning, but quickly enough that he would already be gone if Magda, for whatever reason, suddenly decided to leave her own counter behind.

He only stopped for a second to take a good look at the progress that had been in the way too few hours he had been asleep.

It was considerable, but not as much as he had feared.

Severin headed inside and was gratified to see that an already busy Bandur had put away for him some still warm slices of bread.

He made sure to stay out of the dwarf’s way, but didn’t hurry with his breakfast and instead watched him work while eating, and trying his damnedest not to show even the slightest hint of a smile whenever the small man had to use a stool to reach up the countertop.

Only when, without choking, he swallowed down his last bite, feeling revitalized and less muddleheaded than just a few minutes ago, did he move to make himself useful.

At this time of day, the kitchen was by far the busier of his two businesses.

On the one hand, everyone who was not his [Employee] and therefore not on the System's life-support, actually had to eat, and since breakfast, as everyone in this world knew, was the most important of all meals, the demand was correspondingly great; if one hadn’t brought their own food or wanted to go hunting, there just was no readily available alternative these people could rely on instead.

But his actual workload of making food was only one aspect of Bandur’s responsibilities. The other was to ensure that his food reached the customer;

if someone ordered a loaf of bread from Emily and one was readily available in the store’s inventory, then that was one thing, but in every other case, Bandur would have to leave his station and make the delivery himself. It was stressful, bothersome, and an utter waste of time and efficiency.

On the other hand, the main store’s last order of business on any given day was to craft one last batch of consumables and to restock the empty shelves.

This meant in the early hours the girl’s sole job was that of cashier–the stressful part would only begin once she had to start her balancing act of simultaneously crafting consumable to keep up with demand, as well.

So for now, Severin decided to stay at Bandur’s side and started kneading some dough for the next order that had been relayed by the [Employee] next door. And while doing so began his recount of all he had experienced since leaving the mountain on Samuel’s flying ship.

He started with the second half of his trip, namely with the negotiations and some of its details he deemed especially important for them to be aware of; though there were some contingencies for his personal safety in place, the misuse of the System’s features by any of his [Employees], for example, using the blacklisting functionality on Jasmine or her guards, could entail some very serious repercussions.

Bandur showed some genuine interest that went beyond the surface level and asked all kinds of following up questions, not just about the contract and its contents but also regarding the people Severin had dealt with-and then shared some of his own insights from his own time he spent with those people at the malconian court.

Emily’s disinterest, on the other hand, was evident even without her needing to be in the same room as them.

That only changed when Severin began talking about the city of Hanvia with its skyscrapers and the spectacle that was the Games; her sudden enthusiasm was enough for Severin to feel an irrational pang of guilt leaving her behind and silently promised to take her to visit Malcos’ capital as soon as possible.

But that would first require him to reduce her working hour.

Which led Severin to a different topic he had wanted to discuss with the two: his idea to hire classless cashiers and servers - both jobs that didn’t require a direct connection to the System but which, he figured, would relieve the overall burden enormously.

As expected, the proposal was received very favorably by both of them - even Emily, who previously had claimed things weren’t actually that bad- but the dwarf also drew his attention to a detail Severin hadn’t considered carefully enough.

Or rather, which he had considered but too one-sidedly. That was the pay.

Originally, he had happily concluded that even the lowest amount he would be comfortable paying was still enough for a lot of classless people to kill for, meaning that finding willing applicants should not prove to be a problem.

That was until he learned that the killing part might not just be proverbial in nature.

Paying on a regular basis-not even necessarily daily-whole gold coins, for work that many considered comparatively simple, would attract unwanted attention.

At the very least, Bandur convinced him, being able to offer optional, local accommodations on the mountaintop itself was a must.

During all his time in Hanvia, Severin had not been aware of any form of crime and therefore, maybe willingly, never thought of it as much of an issue. But once pointed out he was not oblivious enough to deny it. To deny Emily’s past experiences. Or the rumors that suggested that maybe the fire that had forced Milly to spend all of her saved money for renovations might not have been an accident after all.

Severin had a lot of things to consider before the floodgate that was his portal would officially break open and was once again very grateful for the fact that he should have at least one more day to deal with these things.

Which also meant that all planning had to be finished today.

He made that much known and while he asked for their suggestions, from then on he mostly kept his thoughts to himself; that was as much as Emily allowed him to.

For the rest of the workday Severin crafted consumables in the main store while leaving the girl to deal with the customers, and once again was grateful to the dwarf when after work when he was going to catch up with the acquainted [Princess], allowed Em, who had previously threatened Severin to ask more details regarding the gladiatorial fights off him, to tag along.

For the remainder of the evening, he hid from Magda withdrew into his room where he could experiment undisturbed with the System’s editor.