Demon World Boba Shop: A Cozy Fantasy Novel

A few boring, normal days passed. Walls got taller. Houses were built. People arrived. And an ever increasing amount of food was ordered in.

“It’s more of an innovation than I thought it would be.” Spiky was pointing at various visual aids on the giant piece of paper he had brought for the presentation. “It’s not that people aren’t still cooking. They are. And it’s not that they still aren’t coming to the plaza to eat. They still are. In fact, the total amount of money spent over countertops has dropped but not by much. This is a new, third thing. It’s growing the economy. It’s going to attract more cooks. The achievements alone would do that.”

“There are achievements?” Arthur asked. “I know that’s not much of a surprise, but they are good?”

“Oh yes. The system took a few days to figure out how to phrase them, we think, but then they started flowing in.” Spiky flipped the economics page over and landed on a page labeled Leveling implications, which listed a dozen or so documented awards from the system for fulfilling lots of delivery orders, or fulfilling them in odd or unusual ways. It was a lot. “That means there’s an imbalance. Our cooks are growing faster than they normally would, but in what most people consider to be the right way. It’s not a shortcut. It’s an acceleration. Situations like that don’t last.”

“And that’s bad?” Mizu raised her hand, a questioning look on her face. “It seems good for them.”

“It’s not good or bad, necessarily. On net, I’d say it’s good. But imbalances get corrected. Expect to see an influx of cooks joining the town in the next few weeks, very probably too many of them. Which will make food cheaper, for a time, which will attract more physical classes, and so on.” Spiky sat down, apparently spent. “The point is, we need more houses. Karra, if you could, would you tell me the status of fully stamped lots, and…”

Arthur was more convinced than ever that Spiky had been the right choice for the town. When he was the mayor, Arthur could react to things happening quickly. Spiky, on the other hand, could predict them. He could also choose what he called “interventions” that had the minimum impact needed to fix problems, and had a dozen other intellect-driven differences that set him apart from what Arthur could do. Or what anyone could do, really.

The meeting was always supposed to be a quick one, and after Spiky had clarified the status of home-building efforts and the constant expansion of the rail delivery network, he let everyone loose to go back to their days. Everyone except one person, who he jogged up to and grabbed before he could escape.

“Arthur, can I keep you for a minute? I need to ask you for a favor,” Spiky asked.

“Of course. Anything,” Arthur said.

“We have a visitor in town, representing the capital. They came in last night. I’ve already talked to them but they didn’t seem to get what they needed from me. They’ve requested a conversation with you, directly. And privately.”

“Oh. Huh.” The capital wasn’t bad news exactly, but communications with the hub of the demon empire wasn’t something Arthur had a lot of experience with. “Why me?”

“Because you ran the city for so long, I think. You still know details of things I don’t.” Spiky sighed. “And because I’m afraid I didn’t provide them with the answers they wanted.”

“Is this person… scary?” Arthur got the impression Spiky’s sigh was more winding-down-from-slight-stress than it was frustration-at-not-solving-a-problem. “Am I going to get in trouble?”

“Yes and yes.” Spiky nodded with a frightening lack of hesitation. “But it won’t be that bad. Promise. And, sadly, that’s all the prep I can give you. Visitor’s orders.”

Arthur didn’t love that, but Spiky proved immovable on the subject. After figuring out that the visitor was in the yet-unused church talking to one of the town’s new clerics, Arthur sped over there. There was no use delaying things and the sooner he got through this, the sooner he could start working on his tea.

As he entered the shoebox-shaped church, Arthur saw the person standing near the front, facing away from him and leaning on the short, squat platform clerics in this world used as lecterns. The magical lights near the front were casting shadows in such a way that Arthur couldn’t get much information about the person, besides the fact that the person was shorter than average.

Getting closer revealed that it was a woman, and getting closer still revealed that woman to be a dove. That was enough for Arthur to put two and two together. He knew exactly who this terrifying-but-not-actually-that-bad person was.

“Itela!” Arthur yelled, rushing up to give her a hug. “The way Spiky talked about you, I thought you were going to drag me off to the wilds and torture me.”

“That’s actually not that far off.” Itela gave Arthur a big hug in return, and he felt her cleric powers flare as she began to check out his health like a worried mother. “You look healthy enough. You’ve been taking your majicka sensitivity pills?”

“Every day,” Arthur answered.

“And you haven’t been working yourself to death?”

“Not since the monster wave. Which seemed worth it.”

Itela’s face flickered with mild oh-this-kid grumbles before she threw her hands up, abandoning the argument. “I guess it was. Your town stands, Arthur Teamaster. And it’s still growing. How do you feel about all the changes?”

“I think it’s great. Adding a few clerics is going to make a huge difference all by itself, and I don’t think we are ever going to have a problem with monster waves again. That’s… what did Spiky call it? Pure economic gain,” Arthur said.

“Those are all good things. But you know what I’m more impressed with?”

“What?”

“This stupid delivery service Milo made. I ate breakfast someone else cooked in my bed this morning, Arthur. In a strange town, I had a cook-prepared breakfast before I even had my shower.” Itela sighed. “It was wonderful. I need to give that boy a blessing before I go.”

“Sure. Although I understand the system is paying him out just fine for his efforts.” Arthur motioned his head over towards a pew, and both he and the older Cleric moved in that direction to sit down. “So, what can I do for you? I don’t think you came here just to brag about your breakfast.”

“No. I did not. As I mentioned before, I’ve come to kidnap you. I need an Arthur,” Itela stated.

“Just have Karbo do whatever it is,” Arthur replied.

Itela laughed in a way that would have made her spit out her drink, if she had one.

“I’m afraid not. This isn’t Karbo work.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a small pamphlet. “Have you heard of The Expo?”

“I haven’t.”

“That’s no surprise. There hasn’t really been one since you got here.” Itela tossed the pamphlet onto Arthur’s lap. “Once every four years or so, the leaders of the demon world come together and update everyone on what’s happening in their towns. It’s meant to drive progress by means of sharing ideas and innovations. You’ve seen a smaller version of it when I took trips with the city’s invalids.”

“To gather up new treatments for them? I do remember that,” Arthur said.

“Now imagine the same thing, but not just for clerics and medics. The expo covers everything. Wall building innovations. Medicine. City design. Weller work. Hunters talk about hunting, and dungeon crawlers talk about new formations and techniques for raiding. It’s hundreds or thousands of presentations, which are watched in person and then converted into one big book by librarians, for anyone to read from.”

“That’s… wait. Does Karbo give a presentation?”

“Every Expo. He tries and fails to explain how he does what he does. With visual aids.” Itela smirked. “The building he gives his talk in almost never survives.”

“And you want me for this?” Arthur had the pamphlet now. It had drawings of academic-looking demons giving talks to enraptured audiences. “It feels like this is Spiky-work. It’s almost exactly what he does.”

“It is. But he doesn’t want to do it and I don’t blame him. Coldbrook is growing very fast, and this is a trip that will take the better part of a month, if not longer. Any mistakes that happen while he’s gone will be hard to roll back.” Itela shifted in her seat and straightened her robes. “He told me no, flat-out. It was a remarkably brave thing for him. He’s growing up.”

“That still doesn’t mean I’m the person to do it. I don’t know much about what everyone is doing. On a technical level, I mean. I know Karra gives me the dumbed-down version of what she does. I’m not sure I can explain it any better than that.”

“Oh, she’ll fill you in. She and Spiky will write up a whole treatise on how she’s working at her job, which you will read during the ride. The kinds of people who attend talks on building walls aren’t stupid either. They can fill in the gaps and read the treatise themselves. Your job is mostly just to make sure they do. And make sure you cover the big points in the talks,” Itela said.

“Talks, as in multiple talks?” Arthur asked.

“Maybe one, maybe a dozen. You’ll be the representative for the whole town. If someone wants you to carry word of a new innovation, that’s your job.” Itela grinned mischievously. “Well, part of it.”

“Stop smiling like that. You look like Mizu when she sees a new natural spring.”

“I can’t help it. The other part is just… socializing. Part of the reason I want you for this is because it will do you an especially large amount of good. You’ve never seen how life is in the capital. Almost everyone gets there at least once during childhood, you know. You just haven’t had time. You’ll meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands, and have a lot of conversations. It will be educational.”

“Oh, how I’ve longed for the sweet embrace of educational experiences,” Arthur said. “How have I lived without them?”

“Shush, you. It will be fun, too. There’s food in the capital, you know. Things to do. Things to see. You won’t be working most of the time. The rest of the time, you’ll be able to mill around and do Arthur things,” Itela laughed.

“I doubt the capital has much room for Arthur things, even if it wants them.”

“Whether it wants them or not is beside the point, Earthling. You’ve shaken up every single place you’ve gone. Did you know, Arthur, that you kind of glow now? I doubt anyone else can see it, but I can. You are dragging potential.”

“I’ve heard that word. I don’t think it means what I think it means.”

“I’m not sure anyone understands it. It’s something the system says sometimes, in just a few achievements we’ve documented. It’s like she’s saying that you are a spoon and the world is a pot that needs stirring. Or something like that, but smaller-sounding.” Itela shrugged. “I’m not a great philosopher. The point is, it doesn’t matter if the capital wants to be stirred or not. Or if you want to stir it.”

“I don’t, really.”

“Doesn’t matter. There’s a recipe for chaos that ends up helping everyone, and it’s just a card that says ‘Add some Arthur.’ It’s been that way since the first day you got here.”

Arthur didn’t see eye to eye on that, but he was in a whole town that grew out of chaos and into something special. He could argue that things didn’t happen because of him, but he couldn’t argue that they didn’t happen around him at all. The entire settlement was proof of that.

“Are you going?” Arthur asked. If he was going to walk into an unfamiliar place, having support would be good. “You are making it sound that way, but you haven’t actually said.”

“Oh, yes. Ella, Karbo, Eito, Minos and I are more or less the adult observers of this part of the world. We’ll have our own little meetings to attend.” Itela grimaced. “Lots of them. We’ll have to meet with the council, among other groups. It will be terrible.”

“Then why do it?”

“The capital, Arthur, has very good sandwiches. And goods. There’s good in the bad, if you just look for it.”

Arthur sighed. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“Of course you do.” Itela slapped his leg. “Just say no. You aren’t bound to the task, Arthur. But you won’t.”

“You’re sure?”

“Someone asked you for help, and it’s something you can do. Have you ever said no to that before?”