Epilogue

◇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 customer-handler!” 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.