The Flying Emporium

Severin kept staring and staring. He didn’t know just how long exactly he had been standing there, but he realized it must have been quite some while.

He simply didn’t grow tired of the sight. Wherever he turned to look, something he previously unimaginable, if not straight up impossible, demanded his whole attention.

The bright-blue lake with its floating village and the small island in the middle of it. The shimmering, light-distorting, and raid groups worth of tiny dots swallowing thing, that just stood there, waiting for more and more of said groups to throw themselves at it.

And how at one point a different collection of similar dots, consisting of a much smaller number, suddenly popped up on the other side of said island.

Or double summit. One of the peaks covered in blinding, white snow whereas its twin seemed drowned in lava. It just didn’t make any sense.

But most of all, it was simply the sheer size of it all that captured Severin’s attention, making even a simple pit in the ground appear like it just had to lead straight down to hell.

And then people everywhere.

Severin wouldn’t have been surprised if the amount of people down there far exceeded the whole population of Hanvia.

Difference being that the vast majority of these guys, no doubt, had to be at least classbearers if not actual adventurers.

Only exception to this, Severin imagined, would probably be the people providing food and accommodations, the managers of these commune-like establishments, though undoubtedly they too would still be closely affiliated with the respective guild.

Well, or maybe not; in reality Severin had no clue regarding these finer points that went beyond what he could actually observe from such a great distance away, and it was simply his imagination that started running away with him as he kept staring.

“Impressive, huh?” The deep voice startled him. Trying to find his own voice again, he only managed a nod in reply to the question.

“Yes!” Hearing someone else answer the question in his stead, Severin finally tore himself away from the view. Only to realize the half-giant who at some point had appeared behind him wasn’t actually talking to him, but to the girl to his side.

Severin felt his face slightly heat up but did his best not to let his embarrassment show.

“Wanna go?”

“Yees!” Again, it was Emily who answered Samuel’s question, though this time Severin knew it really was him who was expected to answer. As did the girl.

“Please, can we?!” she immediately started begging.

Severin himself really was looking forward to a trip down there. That was even though he knew he wouldn’t get to see a dungeon from the inside-not that he actually wanted to, not with his pathetically small health pool and with no suitable subclass to guarantee his survival against even the weakest of mobs- and despite fully expecting that once there, the whole experience would probably be rather boring with not much to do or see.

But it was still a temptation too great to resist. It was too outlandish. Too magical.

But somehow, the thought of bringing the girl made him uneasy.

Severin was already racking his brain for an excuse when his eyes met the girl’s, and he was reminded of his resolution to make it up to her.

Nor had he forgotten that he still never had taken her through the portal to visit the capital with him. Or the fact that she had never complained or even mentioned these matters.

Severin still didn’t like it and didn’t immediately answer, but already knew the decision he would make, nonetheless.

If that hadn’t been the case, then Emily’s next plea would have sealed the deal.

“Pleaseeee?”

“Fiiine. But…”

“Yes! Yes, thank you! You’re the best. I swear I’ll work extra hard when we return.”

Somehow, her immediate outburst only made him feel worse. Especially, the last part brought forth another bout of guilt in him and almost made him flinch in response. Still, as calmly as he could, he finished his sentence.

“But! First, I’ll have to take care of some things. Make sure that everything is in order. Check in with Bandur.”

***

“Are you sure you don’t wanna go?”

“Ney,” came the gruff response. “Someone has to take care of business.”

Bandur had made this claim before, but Severin still didn’t buy it.

For the longest time, the dwarf had been holed up in a foreign palace with no real opportunity to ever explore his surroundings or really meet other people; even by the twisted standards of royalty, he had lived a rather isolated and not exactly normal life.

Now he had left that place, but his life since then still couldn’t really be considered free, much less easy-going, working day in and day out.

Surely the dwarf must feel at least some sense of wonder and curiosity; some urge to leave on an excursion to witness firsthand what, in Severin’s mind, had to be the most wondrous thing to exist in either of the two worlds he knew.

And so he offered, “Don’t worry about that. I told you, if you want to go, go. I’ll cover. We’ll be here for a while, I reckon. I’ll just go some other time.”

“Really, boss. I’m fine. I really appreciate the offer, but…” The dwarf paused for a moment. Seeing Severin wasn’t buying it, he stopped mid-sentence and finally gave in. Ready to give a straight answer.

“I know you have seen how it looks down there. All those flags and banners? I guarantee you there will be dwarven ones amongst them. Humans aren’t the only ones who have settled down there, you know?”

“Oh.” He didn’t quite know how to respond. The emphasis with which the dwarf had spoken those last words made Severin pretty certain he exactly understood what he was getting at. Nothing more needed to be said.

Given the man’s background, maybe it was something he should have thought of himself.

Then again, up to this point, there had been no attempt on his life, so it was easy to forget.

For a moment Severin considered explaining that it was Samuel himself who would be escorting them. That it would be safe.

But in the end he refrained from doing so. He didn’t want to further pressure the dwarf.

But more importantly than that, he would be accompanying Emily in his stead, and exposing her to any kind of danger was the last thing he wanted to do; even if it sucked for the dwarf.

“Fine,” he finally acquitted. “But we’ll have to figure something out about this. You can’t go on like this.”

Severin then also considered asking Sabina and Krill.

But ultimately refrained from doing so.

Maybe it spoke badly of him, but while he was willing to fill in for his dwarven employee, he wasn’t quite willing to do the same for his two non-System-employed workers. Not quite yet. And closing down both the café and main store was not something he was willing to do, either.

‘It would be so much easier if I had some more actual [Employees]. If one of us always has to stay behind, then even if we managed to figure something out for Bandur, we still couldn’t go as a group. Not to mention, I could finally give them some days off and still record an overall increase in productivity.

You hear that?

I don’t know what exactly it is you want, but we would still profit. That has to count for something, no?’

Severin felt stupid talking to himself like that. But emboldened by the System’s latest slip, he made sure no one else was within earshot and tried again. Out loud, this time.

“You can quit this charade. You’ve already revealed yourself when you took the navigation ability from me! So let me tell you again, since you keep on raving about the importance of being a proper businessman and store-owner and all that.

I need. More. [Employees]. For your sake as well.”

With crossed arms and for the better half of a minute, Severin stood there sullenly, demanding a reply he secretly knew he would never get.

When without his doing, a familiar bluish general information screen opened itself and by the way of a highlighted line of text seemed intent to remind him of the fact that he still had one open [Employee] slot waiting to be assigned.

“!!!”