The Flying Emporium

<> Severin mentally shouted after the woman who had deserted her workplace at a speed that did not at all betray her age.

<

And if you’re so worried, then maybe you should stop dallying. The sooner we depart, the sooner we can return, the sooner we can go back to helping her.>>

‘Yeah, right. Why did I even bother asking?’ What

Severin felt was annoyance but also doubt.

He looked at the girl, who was still oblivious to his presence even now, and even the disappearance of the woman who had worked next to her until just a moment ago seemed to have gone unnoticed. Yet it was this deep immersion into her work, as she was readying yet another batch of potions, that ultimately convinced Severin she really got a handle on things. Severin shook his head and turned around.

<>

<> Mylana didn’t even bother pretending to care about anything he said other than the fac that he was in.

Secretly cursing at the woman’s nerve while once again trying to avoid any of the sycophants who had been cropping up in recent days, vying for his attention, as well as a couple of especially overeager adventurers whose aim was to get some more details regarding the upcoming event out of him, Severin was crossing the wide open area between Emporium and the local Society office with its characteristic green tinted windows and enormous double doors.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to make it all the way.

While the transmission range between transmitters was not large enough to cover the entire distance, it saved him the last two hundred meters.

{{Hey Magda. Can you set up this meeting for me we talked about?}}

No immediate response.

{{Changed your mind already?}} Came Magda’s answer only some ten seconds later, with a tone of voice which made it all too clear to Severin that he must have taken her by surprise; not in terms of his actual request, but with his voice suddenly and without warning, appearing inside her head. Still, after having found her bearings, Magda made no direct mention of this fact, hence Severin didn’t mention it either.

{{I’ll inform Dan,}} she said. {{You’ll want to meet at his branch then, I assume? In that case… I say that should give you about an hour.}}

{{Wait, what? An hour? That long?}}

{{What do you mean, long? Despite your new toy, not every communication has suddenly become instantaneous, you know?}}

‘Yeah, I really must have offended her somehow,’ Severin said to himself. But her rant wasn’t over just yet.

{{Well, even if it was, I doubt whoever took your request has nothing better to do than sit in place and wait for your answer all day long. They must first be located and informed. And those things take time.

So all things considered, I would in fact argue that one hour would be quite fast even if there was no delay.}}

Severin could only imagine what kind of smile the woman was wearing at this moment.

{{Of course, of course,}} he said with the most placating tone of voice he could muster, before hastily adding, {{and thank you.}}

{{Hm. Your welcome}} Was the last he heard of her.

The exchange left Severin somewhat reeling.

Had this truly been his fault? Surely not!

But was there anything he could have done differently? Maybe.

Maybe he should install her one of those dedicated [Receivers].

Then he wouldn’t have to leave his store to contact her, either.

Which reminded him. If he was leaving the mountain, maybe he should inform at least one of his people staying behind. Preferably an adult and someone with System-privileges.

And so, with more time on his hand than he had initially anticipated, Severin decided to pay his [Cook] a short visit before his departure.

But Mylana had other plans for him.

<>

<>

<> the woman blatantly lied.

<>

***

“Got some time to kill, huh?”

“Well, I thought the trip would be fast!”

“The trip would be fast if you actually knew where to go!”

“I told you, it’s the one near the Eagles’ camp.”

“The one near the Eagles’ camp,” Magda repeated incredulously. “Yeah, that narrows it down.”

“Its manager is called Dan.”

This time, she didn’t even acknowledge his words with anything other than a roll of her eyes.

“I mean, we still got some time. We could just turn around, ask Magda, and still make it in time,” he offered, though on this day, he really would have preferred avoiding any more direct contact with the woman in charge of the neighboring Society branch.

“And waste even more time? Don’t be silly. Now that we’re here, he might as well keep looking. Unless you have also forgotten what the place looks like. In which case, I should probably rethink my employment with you.”

“Hey, hey no need to get nasty!” Severin shot the woman an annoyed look, before turning his attention back to scanning the ground beneath them.

“Seriously though, why the rush?”

The woman took a deep breath before answering seriously, dropping her at times rough tone.

“You said it yourself. As did the girl from the Society. These aren’t exactly normal circumstances. Which means our approach shouldn’t be normal either. Getting there before the other party to scouting the location and maybe ask around a bit. Don’t you think that’s the least we should do in a situation like this?

As a retired adventurer who had to overcome many unknown, and therefore dangerous, situations all her life, let me tell you: You don’t grow old by conceding to fate and hoping to get lucky.

Foresight is better than hindsight. A lesson that also applies to business. And one you very obviously have yet to learn.”

With her last few words, some of her occasional harshness returned, but Severin understood she was well-intentioned.

And so he remained silent as she continued to bear her sermon.

“Things seem to have turned out just fine for you until now. But despite that unique class of yours-. No. Because of that unique class of yours. Things are bound to become troublesome at some point. Right now, things might still seem like walk in the park fo-”

“Park!” he suddenly interrupted.” That’s it. A park.”

“What are you-?”

“The place where Sam took Emily. The dungeon they were headed to when he dropped me off.”

“Park? There is no…? Don’t tell me. The Garden? Not a park. You’re talking about the Garden?!”

“Yes, yes, that’s the-”

Severin couldn’t even finish his sentence. The flying ship accelerated and made a hard left turn, causing him to stumble and lose his breath.

“Hold on tight, haha.”

“Funny…”

No five minutes later, and Severin learned first hand, just exactly where Samuel had learned his landing skills.

Similar to how the [Berserker] had previously done it, the old woman pointedly ignored the docking towers and landed right in the middle of the medium-sized outpost, waving around a badge that looked similar but somehow very different from the bronze, the silver, and the golden ones Severin had seen being flaunted by other adventurers. And it was enough to shut up the angry shouting guardsmen, and for Mylana to exploit their moment of hesitation to slip through their ranks, dragging a helpless Severin behind her.