A small living quarter, a medium-sized store, and a larger than usual kitchen with a tiny little café in its front.

And the building with its distinctive green windows.

That was the sight Severin had expected to find. Instead…

‘A campsite!?’ Had the System made a mistake?

Severin of course already knew the answer, but he still stopped to give his eyes a second to adjust to the new lightning conditions- the stars above him and a handful of small campfires a few hundred meters away in the middle of the spacious mountaintop- in the hope that might clear things up.

It did not. In fact, Severin didn’t actually feel his eyes had any adjustments to do in the first place; somehow, it seemed plenty bright already.

He didn’t dwell on that fact and instead confirmed that his mountain had indeed been overrun by so many people that even his [Employees’] previous warnings had done little to prepare him for the sight.

He tried to tell himself all of these represented a paying customer, but even that did little to improve his mood.

And maybe worst of all, some of them were already headed his way; despite the time of day, not everyone was yet asleep.

‘Foolish’ Severin thought, as he himself at the moment desired nothing more than to crawl into his warm and comfy bed.

Instead, he would have to deal with this.

Severin sighed and turned around.

But contrary to his expectations, he didn’t find himself standing in front of a dark pillar of light similar to the one he had just stepped through.

But in front of one that was glowing brightly instead.

‘No wonder my arrival hasn’t gone unnoticed,’ was his first thought.

His second was, ‘bit blurry, but isn’t that the terminal hall?’

And the third, ”Fuck!”

One of the many indistinct, unmoving figures on the other side started moving and towards him. Jasmine, he realized, as he jumped to the side.

And just in time.

The figure in the pillar of light disappeared and the next moment stood in the exact same spot Severin had just been standing at.

In a split-second, various questions and fears shot through his mind.

Was that a coincidence or is there a fixed point of exit?

Maybe it correlated to one’s point of entry?

More importantly, what would have happened if he hadn’t made that last second jump?

Would she have remained on the other side? Or would she still have been transported to the exact same spot?

On top of him?

Or maybe... inside?

He shuddered and decided someone who was not him would have to figure these things out.

And preferably not someone, some princess and business partner, either.

Severin snapped out of it and roughly jerked the oblivious woman, who was still in awe of having experienced something most reasonable people would have deemed impossible towards him.

Again, not a moment too soon.

Once their charge had disappeared, the private guards didn’t have the luxury to further assess the situation, if they were even inclined to do so in the first place, and, in a single file, followed behind her.

As such, it didn’t take long for the first soldier caught up to them.

Luckily the princess was quick-witted enough that her first instinct was not to flare up at Severin and to demand an explanation for his behavior which under normal circumstances would have led to a whole series of further problems, but recognized the purpose of his actions and immediately took charge.

“Move! Keep moving. Out of the way.” She commanded.

Fortunately, the man’s extensive training kicked in and, once given the command, he obeyed without hesitation. So did the ones who followed, and thirty nerve-racking seconds later, Severin was as wise as before in regard to the potential complications and dangers involved when using long distance portal installations; every one of the woman’s private guard had made it over safely.

He breathed a sigh of relief, grateful this hadn’t ended in a political fiasco, and observed the princess instructing a lean figure of a man to return through the portal and warn the remaining soldiers and workers still on the other side.

In hindsight everyone would’ve agreed that maybe it would have been a smarter, more prudent approach to have a dedicated scout follow behind Severin who would then have to check out the situation and report back within a given timeframe, before having other people-most notably, royalty- make over. But then again, this was uncharted territory for everyone involved. There was not yet an established security protocol to be followed when it came to this kind of transportation.

With that taken care of, Jasmine approached Severin and looked at him with a complicated expression. He half expected her to curse him, and half to thank him, and apparently, she hadn’t yet decided herself. In the end she just stood there saying nothing and after a while Severin simply took this opportunity to hand the second of the two small remotes over to her. Which she accepted without much ado before turning her attention back to the more pressing matters at hand; while Severin had done his part, the others had their work cut out for them.

Magic lights appeared over their heads, building materials appeared out of nowhere, and instructions were being shouted.

He couldn’t wait to get away.

Only problem, by now probably everyone but the mountain’s permanent residents, who were sleeping in the comfort of their own beds, were wide awake and wanted answers. And it seemed more and more that the task of answering them would inevitably fall to Severin.

While the portal itself was still very much his own property, the immediate area surrounding it was not-that had been part of the deal- and that area was now tightly guarded by Malcos’ soldiers and the moment he left that area was the moment he would be swarmed by adventurers.

Only exception to this was a certain old hag who did not wait for permission from anyone, whom no one dared to deny access, and who was now sneaking around the pillar of light.

In this situation, Severin suddenly felt very forlorn. People were either busy with work or gawking and, like that, he stood out like a sore thumb and drawing unwelcome looks.

For a second Severin was tempted to simply blacklist everyone of these onlookers and head straight to his room to get some sleep; surely as long as he removed those blacklist entries later on, everything would turn out fine.

But alas, his tiredness had not yet robbed him of the last bit of reason and so Severin had already resigned himself to his fate when he heard a familiar voice call out his name.

“Andreas!” he recognized. ”I heard you all made it back in one piece.”

“Never mind that! Better tell us what exactly is going on here.”

By now most people had realized what had happened, and even if they didn’t, then at least the colors of the uniforms worn by the guards that had suddenly appeared made it clear it was something big was going on.

But among those spectators, no one could have been more clear about the true nature of the two stone circles than Andreas.

As the proud owner of one of Severin’s matte black membership cards, he was immediately notified of the Emporium’s latest feature.

Still, that didn’t mean it was easy for him or his group to accept. Or to understand just the full scope of thing.

Realizing finally someone with answers had appeared, even before he had the chance to say anything else, Severin was surrounded and pushed and shoved about, and much to his chagrin, the guards didn’t bother to intervene on his behalf either. Not when the objective of these people was so clear and no actual danger to his well-being existed; inconvenience and annoyance apparently did not count, and Severin had to be happy with the fact that the people closest to him were some of his trusty customers and therefore maybe a bit more considerate.

He gave them a quick rundown of his dealings with Malcos and what that meant for them as his customers.

But even that, thanks to all kinds of interjections, questions, requests, and even accusations, took much longer than it should have.

And even then, when he finally managed to escape after a good hour, it was only because of his threats to not open his store the next day if he didn’t get at least a couple of hours of sleep that night - something that now seemed impossible to even think about for anyone else.

With maybe one exception. And that was a certain princess who looked strangely helpless, exhausted, and generally out of place, standing there in the middle of the night next to a construction site in an unfamiliar place, with no suitable accommodations, with no more instructions to give, and none of her usual maids, she most certainly was accustomed to, anywhere in sight to serve and take are of her.

And all this was due, Severin realized, to the sudden–at least from Malcos’ point of view- advance of the portal’s activation.

Severin didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty in that regard as he looked at her, and in fact was still weighing his own resentment at having been treated so rudely earlier this even-or rather this night.

But finally decided to reach out an olive branch to her.

“I currently still have an empty room available,” he offered and pointed to the building next to his store, and then after a long day, without waiting for her to make up her mind, headed off in that direction himself.