“Then close it!”

As that sentence still rung in his ears Severin’s mood took a turn for the worse. His expression fell.

‘Which one was it?’ Severin was very much tempted to blacklist the perpetrator and scanned the group before him with narrowed eyes. Sadly, he couldn’t place the voice and with the person being lost in the crowd, there wasn’t much he could do.

‘Unless I kick out all of them,’ Severin thought.

“What’s happening here?”

The heads of every single person in the crowd suddenly spun around.

Without anyone noticing, three newcomers had entered the store and now stood behind them.

The clearly youngest one of these people opened his mouth again and demanded, “Michael, explain yourself!” Markus’s voice was filled with authority as he spoke with an indignant look on his face.

Only the sound of a sharp inhale was audible throughout the now otherwise silent room. The group parted around one short man, who started to stammer.

“Your Hi…I mean, sir.” The voice was unmistakably that of the person Severin had been looking for. “It’s just that the new bread is so…” Unable to find the right words, Michael looked around in search of help, but everyone else had already distanced themselves from him as if he was a leper, clearly unwilling to help him out.

In the end, he settled for, “…good.”

At the mention of bread, neither Markus nor his other two companions showed any obvious reaction.

They had been busy during the morning, locking themselves up in a meeting room located in the depths of the enormous flying ship. Only in case of an emergency were they to be disturbed.

After concluding their business, they had already suspected some kind of new product or service simply because of all the changes on the top of the floating mountain; most noticeably the sudden appearance of a completely new building.

The few remaining people outside had then confirmed those suspicions and gave them a brief report regarding their findings.

Either a three percent increase of either their skill and ability-fueling resources or their health pool, or an increase to both of those at half the potency. On their own, those numbers might not sound all that impressive, but Markus, Mylana, and Samuel knew how big of a deal it really was. It was huge.

Maybe not to less experienced and lower leveled adventurers than them, but they considered themselves to be part of the elite.

So while Markus could understand his people’s excitement, he couldn’t tolerate this kind of unbecoming behavior.

“And that justifies you behaving like this?” Everyone knew these words were not solely directed at Michael, even if Markus still only looked at him. If he had known that for most of the time Severin’s shop assistant had been on her own when dealing with these people, his words would have been a lot harsher. What he did witness, however, and what had been the reason for him to single out the short man were the words he had said towards Severin.

“Then what was this about closing the store?” Markus didn’t scream or shout, nor did he activate any of his class-exclusive skills, but his anger was still more than obvious to anyone present as he asked this simple question.

This store might very well be the most fortuitous thing that happened to them in a very long time. And now some idiot asked for it to be closed?

The only one whose mood improved by the minute was Severin, who was very pleased with Markus right now.

“Misunderstanding! It’s a misunderstanding, I swear,” Michael answered.

“It’s just that apart from replenishing some potions and elixirs, we are pretty much fully stocked, anyway.” The man’s eyes suddenly flashed as if he had an idea and quickly added, “So the amount of gold this honorable shopkeeper would earn today would be rather limited. If, however, he chose to make more of this exceptionally well-made bread, I’m sure everyone would agree that his business today would skyrocket!” He almost sounded righteous as he blew smoke up Severin’s arse.

Severin naturally saw through this cheap attempt to placate both himself as well as Markus, but he had to admit that the man wasn’t necessarily wrong. Most importantly, this situation made him realize something he should’ve known earlier:

Being a [Cook] would suck. It was bound to be stressful.

If this was the situation even before unlocking any real recipes, before even having a taste of the food himself, then what did he have to expect once he actually had to cook food to order? Severin felt uneasy at the thought. Especially since he needed Emily present in the main store; whether it was busy or not. She would have to take orders from inside the store and telepathically transmit them over to Severin in the kitchen.

That was the plan for at least until they found one or two new [Employees]; a matter that suddenly seemed very pressing.

Markus glared at his subordinate and warned him. “Don’t overdo it.” But before saying anything else, he intentionally made eye contact with Severin. Seeing the latter giving him a small nod, he continued.

“If you have no actual business in here, go scram.”

Not needed to be asked twice, the awkward-looking group hastily dispersed while mumbling some excuses and apologies under their breath. First of all, Michael who all but fled the store, fearing that Markus might still change his mind.

He didn’t.

He simply stood there, looking displeased as he waited for everyone but his two companions and Emily and Severin to leave. Even the ones who did still have business inside the store, more precisely with the combinator, left without complaint.

Krey, who witnessed the whole situation play out from a little further away, now also blended in with the leaving crowd.

Only then did Markus’ sour expression disappear

“Let me also apologize in their stead.”

Severin graciously waved him off as if he hadn’t been tempted to blacklist the whole bunch. “Don’t worry.”

“Great. Took you guys long enough. So. Let us have some of your miraculous new bread, will you?”

Markus was about to reply and make some small talk to further lighten up the mood when suddenly the voice of a woman prevented him from doing so. Mylana expectantly looked at Severin and the girl next to him.

“…”

Severin momentarily was at a loss for words.

“I’ll…” He thought about how to answer, but his thoughts drifted; towards Michael’s words, towards the fact that he didn’t yet have the chance to taste any of the bread himself, and towards his realization that he didn’t want to deal with customers right now. In the end, he changed the words he had planned to say and instead said,

“…go and make some more.”