“Sev! What do you mean by that? I know I told you to hire someone, but you can’t be serious right now. Once we’ve taken care of that shitty dungeon break, Andreas can surely send over one of our [Alchemists] to help you out. What is some classless person supposed to do? I’m not totally clueless when it comes to crafting professions myself, you know? I know that all but the most basic pots require the ability to manipulate mana to craft. And being somewhat familiar with your potions, I doubt that even that would be remotely enough. Without a dedicated crafting class, I mean.” Xander seemed uncharacteristically involved. Concerned even.

Still, as Severin couldn’t just go around and reveal his ability to grant other people a class and access to some kind of alien technology, he decided to answer in a rather brusque way.

“If you know this, then obviously so do I.

“Then why…?”

“Don’t worry about that. I obviously have my ways.”

“Tzz. Fine. Do what you want, then. I’ll have to get going.” Instead of further trying to stop Severin from ruining his business, he decided to turn towards the girl next to him. “Honestly speaking, with the stick in Andi’s ass, at least in the near future, I probably wouldn’t be able to take you along anyway. This might be your best bet, but make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into, child. I’ll give you a few minutes to decide. Then I’ll leave either way.” With that, Xander turned on his heels. Not without grumbling to himself, though, while taking deliberately loud steps on the wooden floor. “What an idiot. If you wanna take pity, just give her some gold. You’ll just end up with more work instead.”

Severin didn’t bother to answer. He knew it was Xander’s own way of showing concern. For both of them. But even if Severin didn’t have a way to handle the problems Xander mentioned, he still wouldn’t accept the [Duelist’s] offer.

‘No way I’d ever accept someone affiliated with some guild. Not even if it’s these guys. Not if I can somehow help it. Even if I have the System’s insurance. I mean, they seem like good enough people, and Samuel even trusts them enough to send the two brats with them. But if any one of them would work in my shop, there would obviously be a conflict of interests. There is no way that whole thing wouldn’t end in some huge incident. Even if that employee wasn’t supposed to be a mole in the first place, sooner or later that someone would surely be pressured by their old guildmates. I mean, realistically speaking, that will always be a risk, but with a whole guild involved...Worst case, the System has to execute my first employee and I fall out with the whole lot of them. No thanks.’

Thump

After the door was closed with more force than necessary, it was only Severin and Em left inside the store.

“So? Interested?” Severin didn’t actually expect an answer at this point.

He had paid close attention to Em and could somewhat imagine her thoughts based on her rapidly changing facial expressions and body language.

Her first reaction was to instantly look Severin right in the eyes. For the first time. Revealing her dirty face and an obviously excited expression.

Only for a short moment, though, before it turned sour. Also, just for a very short instant, one easily missed, before catching herself and staring back at the ground with a decidedly neutral expression.

Em wasn’t stupid. She couldn’t afford to be.

She had seen all the people that were outside when she arrived. Even before landing, while still inside the shaky flying artifact. People that had traveled to such a remote place to enter this shop. And how those people orderly queued up to do so. Adventurers. The same kind of people who usually didn’t seem to care about anything or anyone, if it didn’t in one way or the other somehow profit them. The same people that looted unimaginable amounts of wealth inside their stupid dungeons and then still wouldn’t spare even a single silver coin to the likes of herself.

Even if she couldn’t tell what the revealed tooltips of those coveted items said, she knew they couldn’t be ordinary. Not even by those people’s standards. Because even if she had never set foot into one of those shops, she knew that normally, these people wouldn’t behave like this.

And not to forget the amounts of gold she had seen change hands. The amounts she had to toss away into that small slit to make the machine work.

Then there were her own earnings. Which she was paid for basically doing nothing. And while she herself would now be considered filthy rich by some of her peers, those ten coins were obviously just the very tip of the iceberg.

No matter if this shop didn’t look very special; Even lacking in comparison, maybe. All those things combined confirmed one thing. This shop most certainly wasn’t ordinary.

To be able to work in such an environment. To work at all, would definitely be a blessing.

But again. She wasn’t stupid.

She knew that this wasn’t how the world usually worked. Great things don’t just fall into someone's lap.

She knew, firsthand, the sick pleasure some people found in morbid jokes like this. Kindling hope in already desperate people, just to extinguish it a moment later. It wasn’t something she wanted to remember. And even less to experience again.

Still, she couldn’t bring herself to just turn around. She already had the money. All she needed to do now was follow that strange, boastful guy and be done with it. She wouldn’t have to worry about anything. There really was no good reason to still be standing here.

Severin’s rhetorical question still hung in the air.

“Here, take a look. What do you say?”

The girl, not able to suppress her curiosity, looked up again. As if touching something invisible, right in front of him, Severin was moving his arms and hands, with a smile on his face.

A confident smile, maybe a bit too smug. Certainly not the mean cruel, kind, though.

[Initializing contract negotiations.]

“Aah!” The girl squealed in surprise at the blueish thing that appeared in front of her. Looking not unlike the tooltips she had seen earlier.

Severin was amused. Not even by the girl’s reaction, but instead at the prospect of the System scamming someone other than himself, for once. Even if that someone was the pitiful person standing in front of him right now. Not that he actually wanted to scam her, but after all, pain shared is pain divided.

‘Ha, what ‘contract negotiations’? Either you accept the terms, or you don’t. Trying to make people think they’re in control, tzz.’

Not quite understanding what was going on, Em regained her composure faster than Severin would have expected of a little child. Then again, he surely wouldn’t expect a little child to have such a life, to begin with.

“I…I can’t rea…” The first time Em opened her mouth for more than just a one-word answer, she lost her voice, as a subtle flash appeared in her eyes. For a moment, she just stood there. Like a little doll. A dirty doll, admittedly. Gaping as if struck by lightning. Not even daring to breathe, much less move any part of her tiny body. With the exception of her frantically moving eyes, which seemed like they might pop out of their sockets at any moment.

Severin could almost hear the gears in Em’s head turning.

After a few moments, instead of the reaction, Severin had expected, a small trembling voice sounded.

“What about…food? Do I…”

“I’m not quite sure,” he had to admit. “But I have reason to suspect that you just wouldn’t feel any hunger or need for food. At least not on the shop’s premises.”

No more hunger? Truly?

With that, all caution was thrown to the wind.

“YES, YES! I accept!”