Emily caught herself, but it was already too late. The fact that she knew something she shouldn’t, was revealed. Even if Magda had somehow missed Em’s exclamation or wasn’t able to complete the sentence, the girl’s wide eyed, guilty expression made it very obvious that something suspicious was going on. The childish way Severin’s [Employee] clasped her hands over her mouth didn’t do anything to alleviate those suspicions, either.

Severin standing next to her wasn’t nearly as angry as one might have expected him to be-especially given his usual temper. He really wanted to leave the cellar of the Society’s newest branch, and for that, the arrival of new customers was the perfect excuse. Though he was annoyed by the girl’s thoughtlessness-after all, this wasn’t the first time this was happening-making him aware of the moving dots he himself had missed was enough to earn Emily some of his goodwill. And the fact that he didn’t recognize any of the revealed names that followed those dots made him care even less about the girl’s blunder.

Emily’s expression, however, suddenly looked anxious and pale, almost panicky. She obviously didn’t share her boss’ excitement.

When Markus had first set foot on the mountaintop, she hadn’t been able to curb her enthusiasm, either. She had noticed the other’s class and directly blurted it out. Back then, even though she was stopped mid-sentence, very similar to the situation she was in right now, there had still been consequences.

In fact, since not even an entire month had passed since then, she still wasn’t currently receiving any pay for her work, forcing her to live more frugal than she’d like, with pizza being a painfully rare treat. That being said, another month with no pay, while unpleasant, was still acceptable. The reason she was feeling so apprehensive right now was something else. Back then, the System had clearly stated that any subsequent punishments would only grow in severity. So now she was preparing herself for the worst.

Despite Severin’s great interest in the people that were now apparently headed for his main store, he was still sensitive enough to realize what the girl must’ve been thinking about right now.

And he reached the same conclusion as her; if the previous incident was worthy of punishment, then surely so was this one.

He felt bad for her, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything to say that could ease her worries.

Until after a few seconds, he had a realization.

<> he told her with surprising confidence.

<<… sure?>> Even through this medium, he could barely make out her words under her breaking voice.

<> Only after this, after repeated insurance, did the girl start to visibly calm down and relax; she didn’t even have a mind to further question Severin about how he reached that conclusion. Perhaps she was afraid of his answer, so she simply accepted his words and din’t dare questioning them.

His reasoning was really quite simple though: the System was never that not long in coming. If it planned on dishing out any kind of punishment, it would’ve done so by now. At the very least, there should’ve been some kind of notification. But there was nothing and in Severin’s mind this was enough for him to give the all-clear. Thinking about it more and more, he became even more confident. Though on a first glance it seemed that there was no difference between the two situations, there actually was.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

And that difference was himself.

This time, he wasn’t nearly as bothered by Emily’s behavior and even felt bad for her. If he was annoyed by anything, then it was mostly by her repeated lack of self-control.

As the host, he concluded, just that difference should already be enough of a deciding factor.

After all, the rules as to what his [Employees] were allowed to reveal and what had to remain a secret, were all according to his instructions. So while he shouldn’t be able to retrospectively punish an [Employee] for something that at the time was deemed acceptable, there was nothing that spoke against Severin relaxing those rules if he felt like it. At least that was the most reasonable explanation he could come up with during this short period of time.

For a moment Severin debated saying, “don't let this become a habit”, but thought better of it. The timing just wasn’t right. Still, he decided that at a later point, a talk was in order. Besides, right now, he had other priorities.

Even though this whole incident took place in less than half a minute’s time, to an outsider, the whole thing looked more than bizarre:

Out of nowhere, a girl suddenly started shouting excitedly, only to turn deathly pale at the very next moment. She then, apparently in search of help, turned towards her boss and the two shared a look. Soon after that, the girl visibly relaxed again. And during all this, disregarding the initial shout, not even a single word was spoken.

The fact that Magda only stared at them as if they were insane was already more than considerate of her.

But that also didn’t mean that Severin could just ignore the woman; no matter how much he wanted to leave and check up on the people outside-people he was sure he had never met before. He didn’t intend to reveal his secrets to her, but he still needed to say something to her before leaving.

Ahem

Severin cleared his throat in an awkward attempt to buy himself additional time to come up with an excuse he could use to bullshit his way out of this situation.

“Please excuse us. It appears new customers have arrived,” he admitted with a straight face, and, in an attempt to preface any further questions, he added, “Because of the magic fluctuations, I can tell when someone crosses my barrier.”

He didn’t know whether this was even possible, but at least it wouldn’t require any further explanations, as Magda should already be aware of said barrier; if not because she had learned about the incident involving Simon, then because of the accident on the previous day.

With that, he quickly took Emily’s hand and dragged her towards the stairs.

Only halfway across the room did he realize that the reason the woman simply stared at him with a blank expression was probably due to the fact that it was the girl who had first announced the arrival of new guests in the first place, not him.

His made-up story didn’t explain anything. If anything, it made it worse.

He cursed under his breath, and, driven by the sudden shouts behind him, he started to run.