Severin was glad to be finally back on his mountain. The day was far from over yet and there was still a lot of work waiting for him, but he didn’t actually mind too much.

At this point, he simply wanted to be left alone and clear his mind of everything that had happened this day.

And so he decided to give Emily the rest of the day off, a gesture she only accepted after Severin assured her that the broken ring had been nothing but a good luck charm of little monetary value with no need for her to work it off.

Even then she only accepted this excuse reluctantly, pointing out the charm’s potency, as it obviously allowed her to have such an exciting day.

Still, the prospect of being allowed to continue her feeding frenzy in the cafe, inevitably adding to Bandur’s and Sabina’s workload, was ultimately enough to sway the girl.

Severin withdrew himself into the backroom behind the counter of the main store, and filled in for the girl.

Not least to prepare for the imminent influx of customers as forewarned by Gillion, the only nominal, Severin suspected, guild leader of the Malcos Eagles.

Already in his absence, a handful of said guild’s members had arrived, stocked up on consumables, and immediately left again for one of the many surrounding dungeons or raids; over the next couple of hours this was bound to repeat many times over, and though the store’s stock would probably still last throughout the day, tomorrow’s business would be all the more impossible to take care of if he didn’t already start craft supplies and instead also took the rest of the day off.

Especially considering what was to come. Not just based on the two men’s -meaning Samuel and Gillion- words, but also going by common sense, all this was merely a precursor of what was inevitably to come.

With a huge mountain suddenly floating above a whole army worth of adventurers, the impossible to miss coming and going of his regulars, the Society’s advertisement of his business as per their original agreement, the soon to be expected newly set dungeon records by the Eagles, and so many other smaller factors all coming together, it was only a matter of time-of days, at most- for the word of his arrival and the miraculous products he brought with him to spread far and wide; even though his current workload didn’t allow him any more breaks and kept him from further working on these troublesome heating and cooling spheres, he knew this was still just the calm before the storm that would soon break over them.

Faintly, he regretted not having used some of the time he had wasted during his earlier trip to the ground looking for an additional worker like the System had suggested him to; who knew when he would next find the time and opportunity to do so?

Still, right now, he was as content as the day and its circumstances permitted him.

The mountain of work waiting for him meant that even if he wanted to meet Markus, he would not actually have the time to do so.

After having considerably calmed down, Severin finally accepted that this whole incident in the dungeon had in large parts been a freak accident, with Markus being the least responsible of all people involved. Still, he was not in the mood to see the young [Prince] just yet.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Nor Samuel’s two disciples who accompanied Markus when he arrived on the mountain just shortly after he had returned himself. Because these two certainly would have been more to blame than the former.

Then again, they are basically still just children themselves and, by all accounts, acted exemplary and without hesitation once they actually realized what was happening. Still, he didn’t want to see their faces.

At least not until they returned from their dungeon conquering undertaking.

But it wasn’t just these people he didn’t want to see, it was no one at all. Because in the end, the one person he blamed the most was actually himself. He secretly knew that it was him letting Emily tag along that consequentially exposed her to danger in the first place.

Either way, even after realizing the severity of the incident that occurred inside the dungeon, the people in question would likely not have the time of day to drop by to see him personally, anyway. Time was of the essence, as their scheme as proposed by Gillion was already in full swing.

Guild interests were at stake.

Maybe even those of Malcos as a whole, considering the ties between the two factions and the fact that the one person Markus actually did confer with during his short time on the mountain, was his royal sister.

That was after stopping at the front of house where old Krill assisted them restocking their consumables, when the group-that was Markus’ entire squad, as well as Samuel and the two youths-made a stop at the cafe to get their food buffs.

As if expecting her brother, Jasmine had already been waiting for them.

For a moment Severin considered instructing Emily to eavesdrop and relay the conversation between the two siblings to him in real-time via their telepathic connection, but ultimately refrained from doing so; he wouldn’t drag the girl into these kinds of matters.

Certainly not today.

Severin forced himself to ignore the System provided map of his property which until now he had a constant eye on and which allowed him to be aware of all of these things happening outside, and instead focused on his own work and productivity.

Like that, Severin kept busy till well after the shop’s closing time, and when he finally left the backroom, it was only because of Bandur’s insistence. With the dwarf who must have had an even more stressful day than himself personally checking in on him, Severin had little choice but to give in and call it a day.

After a busy day, the two of them sat side by side in front of the store, silently observing the mountain top. Even now people were still sitting in the already closed cafe and loud cheerful sounds could be heard coming from Magda's place; things really had become lively recently.

They had come far, and tomorrow would be another busy day.