The Flying Emporium

Soon after everyone but Bandur left the kitchen, getting ready for work, the other great benefit Severin, Emily, and the dwarf shared over the two regular employees came into play.

That was the telepathic connection the three of them shared with each other and which could, of course, be used for more than just allowing an upset boss to vent his frustrations about the careless words of an unsuspecting employee.

Where, Krill’s and Sabina’s human contact was largely restricted to dealing with customers-the only real exception being Sabina’s short interactions with Bandur when forwarding orders and picking up dishes- the three others could still freely communicate with each other, either in private one-on-one discussions, but also in a larger group chat, making for some welcome distraction during their, at times, rather monotonous work.

And, of course, its scope was not limited to entertainment purposes.

It didn’t take a genius to understand the implications of being the only supplier of products as unique and potent as those the Emporium had to offer.

Severin held the sole monopoly and everyone understood that simply by that merit alone, the business, and therefore their work, would only ever increase.

Business that was unfeasible to take care of with just five people.

And so, with the importance of the issue apparent and the ability to communicate even when spatially separated, even after they had opened for business, the previous discussion, if in smaller number, was continued.

At least for a while

Severin was encouraging his [Employees] to keep brainstorming potential solutions and the business’ direction as a whole with him. Sadly, to no avail.

He had explicitly included Emily in this conversation, in the hope that she might offer a different view on things than the adults. After all, previous discussions, such as the one regarding the choice of a new subclass-even if he had ultimately disregarded her suggestion to go for the [Shipwright] class and instead became an [Artificer], a choice he had repeatedly regretted these last couple of days- she had proven herself more than capable to also consider the business side of things.

Today, however, she could not be counted on to partake in the discussion. She seemed distracted; her eagerness to change the subject and talk about a, in her opinion, more exciting topic, was all too apparent.

Which was, of course, referring to her yesterday’s trip.

Realizing it would be fruitless to try to continue the conversation under these circumstances and how much this meant to Emily, Severin decided to come back to the topic later, and for now, let her have her way. Besides, it wasn’t like he didn’t have his own interested in a more detailed recount of the events, either.

An eager, and just as unwitting in regards to the danger she had faced, Emily, as the day before, didn’t have to be asked twice.

Indeed, this time around the recount of her experiences had been even more detailed, making Severin’s hair stand on end whenever she mentioned the growling of a creature that appeared so close but which she couldn’t actually see, or when she described the sweet foul smells which, in his uneducated opinion, could only have been that of rotting flesh.

Bandur, who heard the story for the first time, and who most of his life, and in a sense even now, was basically a non-classbearer, was similarly shocked. Especially when Severin secretly provided some commentary on the matter regarding the cute cat on a private side channel.

But however nerve-racking her story had at times been, it certainly was captivating. Time passed quickly.

Only when at one point the girl began fawning over one of the adventurers in Markus’ group, about how cool but also elegant the woman had looked whenever she was handling her weapon, how effortlessly she had moved through the dense undergrowth, and, how now Emily too wanted to be an [Archer] when she grew up, Severin decided it was time to cut her off; for a moment he might even have contemplated downright grounding the girl.

“Ahem, Emily,” he interrupted. “I think it is about time to refill the shelves again. Come help me, will you?”

“Suuure!”

Severin had a constant eye on their supplies, and while it wasn’t strictly necessary to stop her as abruptly as he did, the fact that they needed to refill the shelves was not just an excuse.

With the man behind the counter busy with his own work and having no direct access to the store’s inventory anyway, more often than not, it fell to either one or both of the two people in the backroom to take care of that task.

And now, with relatively few customers in the store which they could bother in the process- that was compared to the number during the rest of the day, so far-, was as good an opportunity as any.

His interjection couldn’t downright prevent Emily from continuing her story, and he had no interest in shutting her up completely, but, Severin figured, this might at least steer her thoughts towards something else, away from her aspirations of becoming an adventurer herself.

The two emerged from the backroom behind the counter and stepped inside the store itself; indeed, the inventory in the shelves was running alarmingly low. Quickly Severin stepped forward, and, summoning consumables from the inventory into his hand, he then sorted them into the compartments on the upper half of the shelves. As practiced many times before, Emily did the same, focussing on the lower half.

Like this, the well-coordinated team had already refilled several shelves and was now working near the entrance when the door opened and two peculiar people entered, drawing both their attention.

Vaguely these people reminded Severin of Richard and of the woman he suspected to be an [Enchantress], the one he had observed in Hanvia’s adventurer district.

That was to say, while these two had some of their skin covered by scales, from what Severin could tell, the two newcomers were completely covered by them, making them without a doubt the two single-most non-human, and therefore somewhat disturbing looking inhabitants of this world Severin had met, more so even than the centaur-like people he had seen in Malcos.

Involuntarily, taken aback by the strange, somewhat unsettling appearance, he took a small step backwards.

The two newcomers either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“And you are sure this is the place?” Severin was sure he could hear something in the raspy voice, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it, and too distracted to actually care.

“How many floaters housing stores and a Society office do you know of? What about that fortress? Have you not seen the flags?” A similarly raspy voice answered the first. And then added firmly, “Yes, I’m sure. This is the place.”

“If you say so,” responded the one with the slightly lighter scales, clearly irritated by the barely disguised contempt in the voice of the other.

“Uhm. Excuse me. Welcome. To the Emporium. Is there anything I can help you with?” Severin hadn’t even noticed the girl leaving his side and approaching the newcomers.

It was apparent that just like him, she too was similarly taken aback by their unfamiliar appearances. Still, her training and her position as the former salesperson demanded of her to do her best and to be a courteous host; Severin was more than gratified, when…

Krrrssh

A sudden snarling, hissing sound caused Emily to freeze on the spot. But she wasn’t even given a glance.

“It dares talking to us! Look at it. Doesn’t even have a class! And you still think this is the place?” The hateful words sounded almost smug.

“Hey!” taken aback by the sheer audacity, an enraged Severin roared at the person-the creature.

But even then, Severin too wasn’t spared even a single look. Instead, again, the lighter colored of the two only considered their scaled companion.

“See? How primitive they are. How loud. How rude. Surely if this was to be the- ”

“When will you learn? How often do I have to tell-” Clearly annoyed, the one with the darker scales didn’t wait for the other to finish spewing their insults and started reprimanding them.

Too late.

Severin was already seeing red.

“Rude? I show you rude!”

Surprised by his words, both of the scaled people turned towards him.

The next instant, one of them disappeared.

Plop