Now that Severin belatedly realized just how sensitive of an issue this whole portal business was, he knew that stubbornly going through with his plan without first consulting the respective authorities was not a realistic option.

The pros simply wouldn’t be able to make up for the cons. And that was assuming there even were pros.

In reality, even if the safety of the portal facilities themselves could be guaranteed, it would barely do him any good. Not if the ruling party of a country was set on preventing anyone from actually setting foot on said property and arrested anyone emerging from it.

And these measures, which effectively would render his portals useless, would most certainly be the least of his worries. Even outright banning its citizens from frequenting his store, even by regular means, and purchasing his wares, would still be one of the more reasonable responses.

Severin didn’t even want to think about the more extreme measures he could face in such a scenario. But still.

He hated being put in this spot.

It had taken him much self-control to put his previous plans, that of establishing an inn, on ice.

And for what?

The more he thought about it, the more stubborn and reluctant he became to change his plans once more. He refused to believe that he’d have to settle for another compromise. There had to be another way. A way that showed everyone he wasn’t to be trifled with. That he wouldn’t budge.

Biding his time and leveling up his [Shopkeeper] main-class until he unlocked some other useful subclass or functionality, or simply throwing large enough sums of gold at the System-Severin reckoned one way or the other there had to be a way.

“Ha, now cheer up. All things considered, there is no reason to look so grim.” Samuel’s voice tore Severin from his silly, defiant thoughts.

“Don’t get your hopes too high, but the fact that you have quite some influential people vouching for you really shouldn’t be dismissed. At the very least, people will be willing to listen. Don’t waste that opportunity. So, take your time. Make a plan first. Things like this can’t be rushed.”

Samuel paused for a moment, during which he gave Severin an appraising look.

“Most importantly, I think you should relax for a bit. Take some time off.

You’ve never been to Hanvia, right? Or Malcos in general.

Now this is the perfect opportunity for you to explore the city and get a feel for it, no?

And you should join us for the Games. Then, afterwards, I’ll see what I can do for you.

How does that sound?

Might be better for you to wait until the Games are over and done with, anyway. Everyone should be pretty busy right now and if I had to guess, I’d say this is probably not something old Ringald can decide on his own.

Well, who knows how exactly these things work? Haha.”

Hearing Samuel’s words, Severin’s first inclination was to decline the well-meaning offer.

Not even because of his terrible mood or because he was reluctant to explore the city once he arrived-he wasn’t.

After all, this would be his first opportunity to experience a foreign civilization belonging to a magical world, first hand. There wasn’t a single person who would let such an opportunity pass.

But he didn’t make this trip simply for fun, or to satisfy his curiosity, either.

Right now, a little girl and a dwarf he barely knew were left in charge of everything he possessed in this world. He hadn’t realized it until now, but the floating mountain had become a true home to him.

So while he certainly was looking forward to actually experiencing part of this world, its people and some of their customs, a prolonged holiday was not something he was especially keen on right now.

Until he realized. Maybe Samuel was right. Maybe he really needed to take some time off. Some time to relax.

It wasn’t that he felt exhausted; the last couple of days, he spent complaining about boredom, so how could he?

But clearly, he wasn’t in a right-some would even say, sane-state of mind. Just a few minutes prior, he had considered, if only briefly, to basically go to war with an entire kingdom simply because he might not get his will.

So, just maybe, taking off more than just a single day or two before negotiating a deal with far-reaching consequences that might determine the future of him and his business wasn’t all that bad of an idea.

“Fine.” After a short internal debate, Severin finally conceded.

“Great!”

With that, a tense atmosphere he hadn’t even been aware of until now was dispelled; apparently Severin hadn’t been able to hide his displeasure as well as he had thought.

Samuel’s almost elated exclamation only reinforced this suspicion.

At the same time, as if mirroring Severin’s state of mind, the dense wall of clouds that had surrounded the ship ever since he got up and began to clear, revealing the breathtaking sight of seemingly endless expanses of untouched nature.

Without realizing it, Severin soon got lost in the sight and cleared his head.

Few hours later, according to the position of the sun, the scenery began to change, as the first signs of civilization appeared.

Such as the rectangular shaped agricultural fields, the collections of tiny dark dots representing remote settlements, and the hint of rough pathways connecting them.

Yet another hour later, and these sightings became not only more frequent, but they also increased in size.

But the focus of his attention had already shifted to another matter.

Severin noticed they weren’t the only ones up in the sky any longer.

At some points, a variety of different flying artefacts had appeared.

In terms of shapes, most of them looked like mastless ships and boats, similar to the one Severin was riding right now.

But not all of them.

He found that the second most common design of flying artefacts, which mostly were on the smaller side, looked just like the one Xander was flaunting about whenever he had the opportunity; it looked like the basket of a hot-air-balloon with a magic gem attached to each of its corners.

After passing several of those balloons at a relatively close distance, Severin realized that the crystals attached to the smaller specimens tended to be fully translucent, whereas the ones stuck to the slightly larger ones-the ones that could hold more than just a single person-had some faint bluish color to them.

Apart from the flying ships and those balloons, some of the more popular designs were that of a plain disk, which somehow reminded Severin of flying carpets, and something that looked like an oversized torpedo or an undersized submarine.

While the former completely exposed its passengers riding on top, the latter did the exact opposite, encasing them and giving off an unpleasantly claustrophobic feeling to Severin, making him very grateful for his current arrangements; and certainly not just because of all the means of transportation the one provided by Samuel’s was by far the most impressive looking .

That was apart from maybe one exception.

Maybe, because the distance sadly made it impossible for him to be one hundred percent sure whether the giant bird he, at one point, had spied on the horizon had really been someone’s mount. Just the possibility, however, was still enough to make him giddy with excitement.

So much so, that even after the beast was already out of sight, it still took Severin several more minutes to calm down and realize that basically all the traffic, including said beast, was either coming from or headed in the same general direction as him.