“When… when you say you are here for the games, you don’t mean than you are here to participate yourself. Do you?” The man who had recognized Samuel first couldn’t keep his hope and excitement from creeping into his voice.

“Those days are long past, I’m afraid. But maybe in a few years’ time you will be able to cheer on my disciples,” Samuel, with a faint smile, offered in return.

For the first time, either of the two uniformed men looked at the people standing next to the [Berserker].

“Your disciples!? Of course. I’ll be sure to remember them. With your guidance, they are bound to have bright futures ahead of them, haha!”

At this point, neither one of them showed any more concern for their duties.

“Anyway, we don’t want to keep you any longer. Please enjoy your stay.”

“What about the inspection? Don’t you need to…”

The star struck man called Jim waved his idol off and replied,

“that won’t be necessary, Sir! You are basically a national hero! Our higher ups wouldn’t forgive us if we were to trouble you any longer.”

Sigh

Samuel was too familiar with this kind of situation to convince them otherwise. He realized long ago that these things weren’t actually about himself.

All he could really do was to accept the people's goodwill and later on make sure the two youngsters wouldn’t take this kind of treatment for granted.

Severin observed these interactions from the side. While, unlike Timothy and Miriam, he felt uncomfortable by the probing looks, he still gladly accepted the benefits of being mistaken as one of Samuel’s followers; answering intimate questions was the last thing he wanted to do.

He also realizing he had severely underestimated Samuel’s fame.

From the first time he met him, Severin knew Samuel was not an ordinary old man. This was later on confirmed when his relationship with Malcos’ [Prince] had been revealed. But somehow it still took him by surprise that the bare-chested man was immediately recognized and called awe-inspiring names the moment they arrived.

But this wasn’t the only thing he learned.

He once again realized just how naïve he had been. One couldn’t simply enter the city of Hanvia as one pleased, so how could he ever be allowed to operate a portal station that would circumvent those mandatory inspections? Especially since he had to believe that, under normal circumstances, the three questions regarding name, class, and purpose were likely just preliminary measures. Even inventory searches, if those were actually a thing, weren’t unthinkable to Severin.

Severin would need to take all those matters into account when negotiating and only because he had already decided to take things slow, the pressure was still bearable.

One after the other, people started to disembark the docked flying ship. Severin was the last person to leave and only because of this did no one bumped into him when he suddenly stopped moving .

[Spread the Word

As a [Shopkeeper] and business owner, you never truly have time off; take this opportunity to advertise the Emporium and its wares to a completely new customer base.

Reward: Receive two more V.I.P membership cards and unlock the ability to adjust some V.I.P. privileges.]

The reward was not all that enticing, but the request was reasonable enough that Severin didn’t outright dismiss it. If anything, advertising his store was something he had planned to do anyway and all the notification did, was to remind him of the existence of his remaining two V.I.P. cards he hadn’t yet utilized.

‘Maybe I should consider giving one of them to Samuel,’ Severin thought, but not entirely without ulterior motives as he quickly fell in line behind the others.

The next moment, the large ship disappeared into nothingness and, after Samuel entertained his two excited fans for a few more minutes, the group finally made their way down the magically reinforced wooden tower and down into the city.

“That’s where we will split up. You know what to do?”

“Of course,” Miriam assured. Severin followed up by a question of his own.

“Where are we meeting up later?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find you.”

“Right.”

..

The moment Samuel left the group, Miriam and Timothy could no longer restrain themselves and started their boisterous chattering.

“Master is amazing. See how everyone acknowledges and respects him?!” The pride in Timothy’s voice was all too obvious.

“Of course they do! He might just be the greatest [Berserker] that ever existed. That is, until one day I…”

“Don’t say it! I dare you.” Tim interrupted Miriam before she could finish her sentence. “Don’t insult him by comparing yourself to him. Not in a million years will… ”

“Pah, just you wait. Don’t be too cocky just because you won a few duels! You know as well as I do that our class is way more dependent on levels than most others. Seriously, sometimes I wonder why Sam even bothered to take in some caster like you.”

“Don’t just call him Sam! And stop with those excuses, will you!?”

Severin simply followed the quarreling youths on their aimless search for accommodations, too busy contemplating his surroundings to be bothered by the noise they created.

Most eye-catching were the occasional skyscraper-like buildings like the one they had just emerged from. From down on the ground, they looked even more mindboggling and physics-defying, making Severin involuntarily tense up. Even knowing on an intellectual level that there was nothing to be afraid of and that everything was hold in place by some kind of magic, the feeling that those constructs at any moment could collapse in on themselves didn’t subside and made Severin subconsciously fasten his steps.

In comparison, he looked way more favorably onto the half-timbered houses that took up most of the place on both sides on the cobbled, but strangely smooth, street they were walking on; those didn’t exceed more than three or four floors at most and their rustic charm more closely coincided with Severin’s initial expectations.

Every few meters, a smaller-sized version of the traffic light buoys was floating in place and with a warm yellow light lit the way for the many people that already filled the streets. This light also made it easier to read the many name signs attached to the various buildings; at least those that weren’t already glowing by themselves.

It turned out that even more of those signs than expected, ended up advertising inns or even full-fledged hotels with foyers he expected only to find in his old world. And yet, they soon found that without relying on Samuel’s name, finding lodging would not be an easy task.

Even after lowering their demands, after searching for close to two hours, things didn’t look particularly promising.

For two young, somewhat successful adventurers and a shop owner, the problem was not with the money, and Samuel’s warning in regards to getting scammed, so far, had also been unnecessary; for the most part, the problem had simply been to find an establishment that still offered multiple free rooms.

Because of that, the three people decided to stray from the main street to instead try their luck on some of the narrower, shoddier side and back streets. With largely the same results; those that weren’t completely booked out, simply were so rundown that Miriam and Timothy decided they would rather draw Samuel’s ire than spend a whole night there. Severin found himself agreeing with that sentiment as they fled one of these particular establishments.

“Maybe we should check with the Society. They should be able to point us in the right direction.”

“Don’t even bother. I guarantee you that the hotels officially registered with them were the first ones to be booked out.”

“Otherwise… I heard at times like this, quite a few regular citizens will rent out one of their rooms. Apparently, the money they can earn off adventurers this way easily exceeds what they make with their normal jobs.”

“Of course that’s the case, but what good is a single room?! Might as well split up.”

“Well, at least I try to come up with something!”

“Looking for lodging?” The two youths silently glared at each other when an unfamiliar voice reached out to them.

Severin turned around and found a dwarf even smaller than Bandur, almost completely hidden behind a heavy-looking cart filled to the brim with all kinds of vegetables and other foodstuff.

Without giving the brats a chance to interfere, Severin immediately answered,

”Yes! Please!”