“What did you say?” Severin didn’t want to trust his ears. He still hoped his assistant had either misspoken or that he had simply misheard her words. Still, he feared what her answer might be.

But there was no answer. The only reply was eating noises.

It was unclear whether Emily was too absorbed to hear him or if she just couldn’t be bothered to answer him. Severin started to become impatient and was about to ask once more. Louder this time. But seeing the girl being busy and not paying any attention to him whatsoever, he shortly changed his mind.

Instead, with a bad premonition, he willed open the transparent-bluish System screen and slowly navigated through the menus. Hesitant he finally glanced at his balance. A corresponding finance log popped up.

“So much red!” Severin complained out loud as his head became dizzy. “This can’t be…”

“You said something?”

‘Oh, now you hear me?’ Severin shot Emily an annoyed glance. “Forget it!”

She answered with a shrug and soon her head had already sunk back into the big bowl.

‘I should’ve known! How didn’t I notice?!’ Severin berated himself. ’I guess it really was too good to be true. After all this time, I still haven’t learned.’ Soon, however, his attention shifted, and he made out the real culprit. ‘This shitty system! No notification, no friendly reminder, no nothing. And according to these numbers, it seems I don’t even have an employee discount! Heck, what employee?! I’m supposed to be the owner, no? I should be able to set the prices any way I like!’

At this point, a more involved System might’ve reminded Severin that he was a [Shopkeeper], not a [Shop Owner]. But instead, his complaints were met with an indifferent silence.

‘Fuck. I guess in one or two days I would’ve learned the hard way.’ As it turned out, based on the last couple of days’ rates of consumption, he soon wouldn’t be able to afford any more dishes.

Reluctantly, he adjusted the slider, which controlled the conversion rate of income.

‘I might as well cut down on my own food consumption, but I owe Emily at least one meal a day. Now that I think about it, when discussing the general terms of employment with Markus, was there any mention of food?’ Severin started to go through the conversation again in his head. ‘Damn. ‘Board and lodging inclusive’, wasn’t it?’ He could only grit his teeth. He remembered that he had brought it up himself. No one else to blame this time. Secretly, he even knew that this additional cost was well worth it and pretty much negligible, considering the grand scheme of things. And even if there was no official agreement between Emily and him regarding food, he would still happily continue to pay for one or two meals a day for her. To him, it was more a matter of principle and the feeling that once again he had been had. That, and the fact that he was the last to learn of this issue; only after he was pretty much broke. Additionally, this also spelt very bad news regarding basically all the plans he had come up with concerning the implementation of potential entertainment offerings.

Originally, this topic was the reason why he had called Emily over during her break. Now he no longer was in the mood to discuss these matters, but it ultimately came all down to one point:

He wanted to make the System pay for it. Literally.

He just couldn’t see himself ever being able to pay for those things out of his own pocket. Be it a library, a Pool Table, or those things that very suspiciously looked like arcade machines; these and many other things were all available in the System’s store and purchasable using the store’s balance of gold. In Severin’s mind, this meant he could, on one hand, charge his customers for access to these things. On the other hand, his [Employees] and even he himself could use them for free. But apparently, this wasn’t how things were supposed to work out. Not if there was a fee attached to it either way.

Sigh

‘I guess the whole discussion can wait, anyway. The inn comes first. And after that… who knows? Maybe until then, the System has taken some pity on us.’ Severin silently laughed a dry laugh.

Severin sat there and poked around apathetically in the food in front of him. He no longer was in the mood to try this salad, which he never really was interested in anyway. The only thing that kept him from venting his frustration and directly throwing it away was the thought of all the red numbers he had just seen.

“If you don’t want it…” Emily offered her assistance.

“Ha! Help yourself.” This time, his laugh was genuine. He was still somewhat annoyed but, seeing the oblivious and innocent-looking girl trying hard not to stare at his food, he couldn’t stay angry.

Severin stood up and began preparing food; it was a good distraction, and he was already late. Customers were waiting.

Again, smacking sounds filled the room.

“Soo good. By the way. What’s that springy white stuff? The red stuff I’ve seen before; that’s what rich people use to make sauce, right!? But this white stuff. It’s savory? And a bit sweet? I never had something like this.”

“It’s Mozzarella. Cheese.” He didn’t know whether Emily was actually interested in an answer to her question. Severin wasn’t particularly educated about the matter either and didn’t want to embarrass himself. He couldn’t even tell her whether it was made from the milk of a cow, a buffalo, or maybe even some otherworldly bovine. He decided to play it safe and keep his answer short.

Indeed, the girl turned out to be much too preoccupied to actually care about any specifics. Out of nowhere, she had materialized a thick piece of bread and was now using it as some sort of sponge to absorb the juices that had accumulated inside the bowl. Then she put the last pieces of tomato and mozzarella on it and greedily tried to shove the whole thing into her mouth.

Severin was tempted to tease the girl, but before he could say or do anything he suddenly froze with his eyes fixated on the snack in her hands. Then onto the dough in front of him. And the contents of the inventory.

“You are a genius!” Severin suddenly exclaimed.

“Hmmf?”