◇Houghtow City◇
Flio and Rys arrived at an empty building near the Merchants' Guild in
Houghtow. Flio took out the key the guild had given him, unlocked the
door, and stepped inside. Rys followed behind, looking around curiously.
"My lord husband, this is where Mister Holdi's old general store was, is it
not?"
"Yes, although now it's just an empty shop. This is the place I bought."
"You bought this building?"
"Yeah." Flio smiled happily at his wife. "I thought we might open a shop
here."
"A shop?"
"Yeah!" Flio began to walk slowly around the interior. "This place used
to be a general store, so there are still shelves attached to the walls—even
some display cases were left behind too." He pointed to a corner of the shop
where the aforementioned display cases were lined up next to each other.
"The counter's untouched, and there's a storeroom in the basement. And
behind the shop there's an area for handling wagon traffic. I really think we
can use this!"
"I see! It does look promising," said Rys, nodding along as Flio took his
look around the store. "Then, my lord husband, is this why you've been
going to the Merchants' Guild so often lately? To register this place as a
store?"
"Exactly. I even made arrangements to do business with the wholesale
market at Klyrode Castle Town. Although that got us involved in a bit of an
incident."
Rys grimaced. "My husband..." she said, puffing out her cheeks as she
pressed up against Flio, "if you were doing this you should have told me! I
would have helped you..."
Flio pet Rys's head and smiled apologetically. "I'm very sorry about
that. I had meant to tell you, but things happened a lot faster than I
expected. It was ready before I had a chance to even bring it up." He
hugged Rys close and gave another look around the store. "I can make
equipment," he said. "Hiya and Belano can make magic gems. We can sell
Blossom's vegetables, even set up a registration booth for lending out
Byleri's horses...and the Silent Listeners can help acquire and sell items all
over the land! Or, at least, that was my idea."
"Oh! You intend to hire the Silent Listeners?"
"Yeah. They have a background in intelligence, so they might be good at
learning about the prices of goods in different markets, and then selling
them at a profit."
"I'm sure Uliminas will be happy... Oh?"
"What is it, Rys?"
"Oh, it's just...my lord husband, what will I be doing?"
"Oh! You, Balirossa, and Uliminas can handle customers!"
Rys grinned. "Leave it to me! I, Rys, shall be a perfect customerhandler!" She folded her arms and gave the shop a once-over. "But first, we
should clean the shop and set the display cases back up. Oh, and we should
put items on display too! It's going to be quite a bit of work!" She seemed
motivated to do it, if her smile was anything to go by.
Flio faced Rys with a smile of his own. "Yes...and it will be even busier
once our children are born." Rys's face flushed a deep red. She
unconsciously brought her hands up to touch her belly and shyly looked up
at her husband.
"That's quite all right, my love," she said. "I very much desire to be
busy in that manner." She inclined her head upwards and closed her eyes.
Flio leaned down to touch his lips to hers. For a while, they just kissed in
the middle of the empty general store.
Later, a brand new sign went up next to the shop's entrance. It appeared
to have been handmade by Flio, with the words "Fli-o'-Rys General Store"
carved on its surface.
Flio and Rys of the Fli-o'-Rys General Store: one, a human from another
world; the other, a demon who chose to live among humanity. This would
be the start of a great new chapter in their lives.