Not, ‘Finally another quest reward,’ but, ‘Finally we can leave this place,’ was Severin’s first thought after hearing Magda’s news, simply because he despised how the System had forced his hand, how it had overridden the controls of the light module he had installed himself. His initial excitement was short-lived. Not only did he realize that acting only out of spite, leaving behind the Mountains, a stronghold for thousands of adventurers, his most loyal customers, would, at least until he could establish another portal station in these parts, do him more harm than good.
But also because of the second part that Magda had told him.
“Meet them first?” Severin made sure he hadn’t misheard. To his understanding, that was not how things usually went when making a request with the Society.
“Yeah. Now, the Society doesn’t look all too kindly upon such practices, but we don’t actively discourage them either. Not our business. And not nearly as uncommon as you might think,” she assured him after hearing the clear suspicion in his voice.
But that didn’t yet quite explain it either.
“Such practices?”
“Right, you haven’t dealt much with the Society yet, huh? Such face-to-face meetings become more usual when it involves either some especially dangerous monsters or some valuable or rare items. Generally, those are requested whenever a contractor thinks they don’t have much, or any, competition. Gives them some leeway to renegotiate their compensation.”
“Ah! So that’s how it is,” Severin exclaimed in relief. No matter how he felt about the specifics of this task, he still wanted to get it over with. And if this was just a matter of money, then, renegotiations or not, with his recent windfall, there was nothing much for him to worry about. The timing was truly auspicious.
“So, when can I meet them?”
“You can head over pretty much whenever, is my understanding. Just give me a heads up as to when and where you want to meet, and I will inform Dan to take care of things on his side.”
“Dan? That’s the guy? And what do you mean, where? Here, of course.”
“No, Dan is the manager of the branch where you first issued your request.
And that’s the thing. They requested to meet somewhere else. Anywhere else, really. Any of the local branches would do. Just not here.”
“What?!” If it was one specific branch they wanted to meet at, Severin might have understood. But to only exclude one branch specifically? That didn’t sound right to him.
“And that is also not uncommon?” Severin asked suspiciously.
“For one of the parties to insist on one specific meeting point? Yes.
Excluding only one specifically? Around these parts, where everything is so close and one branch is as good as the other in basically any aspect? No. No, that is not common. Not at all,” Magda confirmed, his own thoughts on the matter.
“Initially, I thought it was Dan and the other local managers teaming up. To make a stand, you understand?”
He didn’t, and his blank stare said as much.
“Me infringing on their territory. I thought it was a ploy of some sorts to drive me out of here. But it wasn’t, Dan assured me. On his own accord. Because he too found it suspicious,” she revealed with a strained smile.
All kinds of thoughts went through his mind.
One of which being, ‘Then why not open with that first?!’
But in the end, he settled on a more diplomatic approach; the woman was here to help and there was no need to antagonize her.
“Do you think this is…”, he halted and searched for the right words.
“Some nefarious scheme? Well, I certainly don’t think anyone would be foolish enough to attack and rob you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Again, not around these parts. Not with so much Society and adventurer presence all around. Unless they are tired of living.”
“Hmm.”
“So, you’re going? Want me to set something up with Dan?”
“No, not yet. Thanks.” Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t go, anyway. Once again, he lamented the fact that he had ignored Emily’s suggestion to become a [Shipwright] and was instead stuck with that annoying, unprofitable, and most importantly, time consuming [Artificer] subclass. If he wanted to leave the mountaintop any other way than through the Hanvia portal, he would once again have to rely on other people.
With Samuel currently accompanying Markus on his dungeon conquering tour, that left very few alternatives.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Maybe Andreas. But Severin didn’t even have to search his minimap for his name to know that he couldn’t be anywhere nearby. Otherwise, Severin was confident, the [Warrior] would have already come knocking at his door, the moment his V.I.P. card had informed him of a new service and a product.
“Alright. Better be safe than sorry,” Mylana misunderstood his hesitance. “Let me know when you made up your mind,” she pointed at the crystal in her ear.
Severin promised he would.
He said his thanks and the two parted ways.
On his way back to the store, Severin did his best to evade the increasing number of people who recognized him as the owner of the Emporium. With moderate success.
When he was finally back, his mood was accordingly somber.
And what he saw when he opened the door to the backroom, didn’t exactly cheer him up either.
“-awesome! It’s like I‘m standing right next to them. Did you see that explosion, Lana? Soo huge!” Oblivious to his presence, Emily, from behind her desk, was glued to the screen, showing a group of classbearers throwing their everything towards one of the training dummies outside. Next to the girl, the old woman rolled her eyes; whether because of the girl’s impertinence to address her so casually or because the meager ball of fire, in her eyes, could hardly be considered being a full-fledged explosion, much less a huge one, was unclear.
Unlike the girl, however, the woman hadn’t missed Severin’s arrival and with a single glance she determined her boss’s poor mood and what he was about to do.
With a quick gesture, she urged him to stop.
Though unconvinced and secretly already regretting his choice to install the screen inside their work area, he abided Mylana’s request and observed a little longer without making his presence known to the girl just yet.
What he saw and mostly heard, that was her excited giggling whenever something flashy occurred on the screen, drastically improved his mood. But having her be this distracted during work wouldn’t do. He decided he had seen enough and was about to call out her name, after all, just when the hot liquid in the glass apparatus in front of her started to form bubbles.
Without a moment’s notice, all her attention shifted away from the novel distraction and back to her work. Which she carried out conscientiously and without hesitation. No signs of distraction whatsoever.
Only when her job was done and it was again time to wait for the flames to do their part, did Emily allow herself to be distracted again.
Severin was impressed.
He swallowed the reprimands he had almost and unjustly unleashed onto the girl, and only then entered deeper into the room towards Mylana, who seemed equally as taken with the girl as he was.
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Realizing he was getting involved in an argument he could not win and one which the old woman seemed to enjoy way too much for his liking, he decided he was better served changing the subject and telling her exactly what his conversation with Magda had been about.
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