carl@fire

"This way, if you please," said the middle-aged man who was leading them through the veritable maze of corridors.

Now this is service. Carl was genuinely impressed. The blonde, bearded, suited man had met them at the bottom of the stairs and offered to lead them around to expedite their passage since they seemed to be in a rush. He'd even somehow managed to sense their desire to not meet other people along the way, describing in a quiet voice how he was leading them in a slightly longer route that would guarantee their privacy.

"What did you say your name was, good sir?" Carl enquired. Only fitting that I learn the guy's name. He must work in hospitality. Read us perfectly at a glance. That's the kinda thing you can only get with experience.

"Lawrence," the man said over his shoulder in a quiet tone that was somehow also comforting to listen to. "If you'll look away for a moment, I'll need to activate a hidden passage which shouldn't be shown to guests."

Carl dutifully looked away, meeting Mina's eyes as he turned around. The girl seemed to still be radiating boundless happiness. He grinned, unable to stop himself and unwilling to try.

There was a barely audible click, then the sound of something sliding. "Right in here, if you please," Lawrence called.

Carl turned back around. A sizable hole had opened in the room's stone wall, leading to a hallway that was lit only by the rock that their guide was helpfully holding up.

"Please watch your step," said Lawrence.

"Thanks," said Carl as he entered the passage, stepping past the man who was clearly waiting in order to close the wall behind them. I feel like I should give this guy a tip. "You work on commission or something?"

"Actually, I'm expecting to retire after tonight," said Lawrence in his usual quiet voice.

Mina entered the passage and squeezed past both of the men.

Lawrence tapped something on the wall, and the panel slid quietly back into place.

"Wow, that's great," Carl said in an equally quiet voice. Oops, broke character again. Eh, whatever. He doesn't seem to mind. Nobody else around, anyway. "Any idea what you're gonna do next?"

Lawrence moved to the front of the line, leading the way once more down the passage. "I thought I might travel a bit. I've never been outside this city, and after considering it for a while, I realized there's nothing left for me to do here."

Aha, so there are people who leave.

"Where will you go?" Mina asked.

Lawrence pressed a small, metal cone to the wall and then pressed his ear to the small end for a moment. He moved back, then made the cone vanish with a flourish of his hands before pressing his palm to the wall. Light poured in as the stone moved aside. He stepped through into the room. "I thought I might see the Stadal Empire," he called back, still speaking quietly.

Mina and Carl exited the passage. The room was small, with a single, metal door on the side opposite the passage and a cloth-covered table in the middle.

"I've heard it's completely unlike anything here," Lawrence continued, walking around to stand on one side of the table. "Plenty of new opportunities there. Could be exciting. And I believe this is your item." He reached down and pulled the sheet off.

Carl looked at it. "Yup," he said, nodding. Me from twenty-ish years ago would've thought this thing was insanely hot. Normal and catgirl forms, probably. Hah, I was such a deviant. But back to the now, we should probably get going. "I can pay now, or…" he let the words hang. Not totally sure how this works, and I'm guessing Mina's not gonna be much help. Kinda expected that Neale guy to be the one ringing us out, but whatever. He was a little creepy, and this Lawrence guy is a breath of fresh air.

"If that's convenient," said Lawrence. He pulled a small sack off his belt that had a pair of sapphires attached to its drawstrings. "I—We use these magical bags to store the coin for our more noteworthy items," he said as he pulled it open.

So that's how you get around the inventory thing when you need to get a lot of coins out of your inventory. Makes sense this place would use 'em with how much coin they've gotta be hauling around. Mina must not be that rich or she'd have one of these thingies also. "Sure," said Carl. "Withdraw coins," he murmured, glancing at the still-open inventory window on the left edge of his vision.

"How many coins will you withdraw?" the game's voice asked.

He paused. "How much was it again?" he asked. Don't wanna mess this up.

"One hundred and sixty million," Lawrence said helpfully.

"Right," Carl said, nodding. He held his hand just inside the bag, palm down. "One hundred and sixty one million coins." He winked at the other man. "A little going-away present for you." Really not supposed to be giving out game currency like this to begin with, but an extra million here or there's not gonna make a difference.

Lawrence blinked. "That's…most generous of you, sir," he said, sounding like he meant it.

Coins poured out of Carl's inventory into the bag for the next one-point-five seconds, producing a far-away sounding thunk as the coins landed in whatever magical space the bag was creating.

"Lawrence," Mina said, "if you don't mind my asking, how exactly does that bag function? You don't seem like an incredibly powerful mage—I mean no offense, of course—and bags such as those require an inordinate amount of raw magical energy to function. Or…so I've read."

Carl retracted his hand.

Lawrence grinned at the girl as he reached into the bag and pulled out a coin. He flipped it in his hand, then began walking it back and forth across the backs of his fingers. "Clever, isn't it? These bags use a huge amount of mana, so nobody ever uses them. But if you had some sort of power source…" He flicked the coin back into the bag and held up one of the sapphires that was attached to the drawstrings. "Problem solved, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, that's brilliant!" Mina said, running her hands up her face and into her hair. "How have I never heard of this before?"

While they're talking about game mechanics, I'm just gonna… Carl reached out and grabbed the virtual anime catgirl sex doll he'd apparently just purchased—on its hand—and murmured the word "deposit".

The sex doll vanished into Carl's inventory, and a two-dimensional representation of it appeared on the blank page he'd flipped to for this purpose.

"It's a…tool of the trade," Lawrence said. "I don't imagine there's many in existence." He glanced down at the table, then turned his entire head to look down with widening eyes before he stared at Carl.

Ah, shoot, is he gonna make a big deal out of me breaking character now?

Lawrence seemed like a pretty cool guy, though, and he didn't make a big deal out of it at all. He simply gave Carl a nod. "I'll escort you to an exit so you won't be troubled on your way out. This was my last task, so I'll be leaving soon anyway."

Carl let out a breath. I should've given him a bigger tip. A million's a lot in this game, but this guy is by far the coolest random person I've encountered. He didn't even freak out when I threw my spear back into my inventory earlier! I mean, I guess Mina's pretty cool too, but that's different. "Thanks, Lawrence," he said. "Really appreciate it."

The other man held up one hand as he reattached his storage bag to his belt with the other hand's nimble fingers, clearly not thinking much of the matter. "It'll do me some good, having to focus on keeping you out of sight. I'm a little jittery right now, if I'm honest. This is by far the biggest haul I've ever taken." He started back towards the wall.

Carl stealthily knelt down and deposited the discarded sheet, then the table and its accompanying mattress into his inventory on the same page as the comfy chairs he'd decided to take earlier. They were all probably useful things to have if he ended up being stuck here for a long time.

Nobody planned ahead better than Carl.

He flipped back to the page with his spear so he could have it ready in case he needed to get back into character.

"Don't be nervous," Mina said in a cheerful voice. She followed him back into the passage. "You should begin thinking of all the places you'd like to see. You should be excited to leave!"

Carl brought up the rear, not even trying to squeeze past with his huge frame and instead standing just inside the passage while Lawrence closed it behind him.

"I should, shouldn't I," Lawrence said in a thoughtful voice. "That's not bad advice, My Lady." He began leading them through the dark, confined corridor once again.

"Call me Mina," said Mina.

"Thanks for the advice then, Mina," Lawrence said. He came to a halt. "We'll need to be very quiet until I say we can talk again if we wish to remain undisturbed." He pulled out the small cone again and pressed it to the wall.

"Okay," Mina whispered.

"Got it," Carl whispered.

"No talking from this point on," Lawrence said. He pressed on the wall and opened the passage's exit.

They filed out behind him, and he sealed up the wall. After they'd continued a short distance through the hallway they'd exited into, it became obvious why silence was necessary.

A pair of guards stood in the T of the hallway's intersection.

Lawrence strode casually behind their backs, not making a sound.

Mina cautiously tip-toed by, choosing each step with painstaking carefulness.

Carl, the best equipped of the trio for sneaking, walked normally, keeping close to the wall in order to—

"She can't do this!" screeched a man's voice from the direction that the guards were facing.

Carl hustled, having seen plenty of movie scenes where the guards suddenly grew agitated and turned or looked around at times like these.

"No! She can't possibly have that much coin!" the same voice shouted a moment later.

That sounds like that Reynard Arderne. Get fucked, jackass. And raise your kid better. Gah, I really feel like at least one of them needs to be taught a lesson. Maybe I'll come back at some point…

Lawrence beckoned them towards another doorway. They followed quietly, pursued only by the increasingly-shrill cries of some guy who was supposedly pretty rich and influential throwing a tantrum over losing an auction for a sex doll in a video game. The doorway led to yet another hallway, and they ducked into the first room on the left, which turned out to be a staircase leading downwards.

"This next area may be a bit odd, but just look confident, and we should be fine if we come across any people," said Lawrence when they neared the bottom.

Carl was about to ask what he'd meant, but the unmistakable, passionate cries of people having sex became immediately apparent when the Creature Marketplace employee opened a wooden door after unlocking it.

What now.