With the limited staff Magda had at her disposal, the device’s almost instantaneous operation times, and the heavily restricted activation limit of the same, the testing of the Emporium’s latest product itself took only a relatively short amount of time.

But that didn’t mean the investigation had officially come to an end. It couldn’t be. Not for at least another hundred-fifty days; only then could the theories be tested in practice. Until then, some degree of uncertainty was inevitable.

But how to deal with that uncertainty?

Hours upon hours of discussion and speculation were dedicated to this question, with Magda being gracious enough to allow Severin and Mylana both to also attend.

Severin, of course, could have chosen to decline that invitation, and was tempted to do so given all the money he would miss out on, but ultimately made the right decision; prioritizing short-term profits when other people were debating his business would at the very least be negligent; no matter how great those short-term profits actually were.

And so Severin decided, much to the displeasure of his customers, but to the delight of Krill and Emily, to keep his doors closed for the remainder of the day, with the latter seizing the rare opportunity of an early day off to mingle with the customers of the cafe and let herself be treated by many of those.

Severin in the meantime had to bear Magda’s ire on more than one occasion with all of it boiling down to his alleged unwillingness to help them out directly, forcing them to make assumptions when, in their mind, he had all the specifics they were looking for readily available.

The one saving grace that kept things from turning hostile was Magda’s own admission that even if he did help them out, they still couldn’t just take his word for it.

Still, his cooperation would have helped tremendously and as things were, he was probably the one most annoyed by these circumstances, as he now found himself in a situation that made him look more uncooperative and petty than he actually was and thereby risked to jeopardize his relationship with the Society.

Luckily, Magda was professional enough to not let her own annoyance with the overall situation and with Severin’s perceived peculiarities cloud her judgement; while some of her staff were strongly advocating for a straight-up ban of the extraction-services, at the very least until the likes of Murat and Jett were back in possession of their original classes and could provide a final assessment, Severin still managed to convince her of a more moderate approach.

One which included, amongst other measures, a strict adherence to Magda’s previously declared public advertisement ban, as well as the installation of a written warning sign which, in no unambiguous terms, would explain the Society’s findings to date, their working theories, and a rejection of any liability on the part of the Society.

However, the real point of contention was one that was only indirectly related to the device itself.

That was the matters of security and safety.

If it had been up to the Society, they would not only have stationed one of their own people right inside Severin’s store, but would also have that person directly oversee each and every activation of his new device with the expressed purpose to keep close record of his customers.

Who extracted which class?

For which purpose?

And which new class would replace the old one?

Everything about this-from the loss of privacy of his customers, to his own loss of autonomy over his business-was completely unacceptable to Severin.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Noticing his obvious concern and unwillingness to even just entertain the thought, Magda was quick to reassure him of the legitimacy of their plans; it wasn’t an arbitrary demand raised to gain control over his business or his customers, but to protect them.

When regular citizens would usually be identified by their appearances, their name, and maybe their profession, then the same was even more true for classbearers and their classes.

Especially when it came to the Society’s law enforcement side of things, Magda explained, a wanted criminal’s class, and thus his potential abilities, was an important piece of information that determined the approach to tracking down and apprehending them.

Even more so than appearances and name, a class could not readily be changed, not without jumping through many hoops, certainly not without losing their levels and thereby their threat potential. At least, that’s how things had been.

Now, Magda and many of her subordinates argued, without close supervision of the class-removal device and its users, this would drastically change.

The Emporium would become a hotbed for criminals, they predicted, especially in the future, with more and more portals to the far end of the continent becoming readily available to them.

Severin understood where they were coming from. But he wasn’t convinced.

And luckily for him, he didn’t need to be.

Instead, he could remind Magda of their contractual agreement which not only declared his mountain a neutral zone over which the Society had no jurisdiction, but also that every attempt to circumvent this clause via a loophole, would be a violation of the spirit of their agreement; which in turn also would constitute a violation of their agreement.

With this, all they could do was clamor and plead, but they could not force Severin’s hand.

“You… argh” Magda was exasperated and visibly annoyed by this. “At least think about your customers. Thanks to that… thing over there, class-orbs are now tangible objects. Do you understand what that means?

They will be greatly sought after. Especially rare ones like … what’s his name... Timothy’s? Or, gods forbid, unique classes. What do you think will happen? Humans are greedy by nature. As are most other so called intelligent species. It’s just a matter of time until something terrible happens as a result of this invention of yours.”

“With who his mentor is, I don’t think Timothy will have much to w-,” Severin begun defiantly, fully aware of the ridiculousness of his reply. And was harshly interrupted, “You are missing the point entirely! What will you do when, not if, something happens to one of your customers? When someone is forced to give up their class? Will you take responsibility? Because we can’t if you don’t let us.”

“I will think of something.”

“Well, I hope you will. I really do. And fast.” Those were Magda’s final words before she and her people left Severin’s store, her usual smile nowhere to be found.

Sigh

Things were becoming even more troublesome than they already were; so many unresolved issues, and now this.

But before he could even begin to rack his brain about these matters, he was again interrupted.

Ahem

“Shall we then?”

“Ah?”

“You know? Hiring me?” The woman reminded with a raised eyebrow. “Seems to me you are severely understaffed. Now, I’m not an expert on this, but let me tell you, that is no way to run a business.”

Severin wasn’t sure what he had expected.

Perhaps that after all these hours, the woman would have come to the realization that parting ways with her high-leveled class orb, one which had stayed with her for many decades and one many would kill for as Magda had reminded them, wasn’t the wisest decision.

Either way, he had been wrong. Whereas she, on the other hand, had been exactly right with her remark about him being understaffed. And so…

“Right. Of course. Let’s do this then,” he said while making a sweeping gesture towards the device on his counter.