Balthazar held a piece of caramelized pecan pie crust in his pincer as he took a stroll around the pond, surveying his domain while chewing along with quiet satisfaction—save for the loud munching produced by his mouth parts.

Life was good, and things were going well in his little slice of the world.

It had been a day since Olivia and Suze had shown up at his doorstep. After spending most of the day unloading the imported goods from Marquessa, the guards and workers that had come with the convoy of carriages went up to Ardville and took residence at an inn as promised.

The two Marquessian girls stayed a few more hours, well into the evening, chatting around the fire pit and catching up with the merchant while also getting to know the rest of the pond's residents.

After it got late, the two travelers went up to town for the night, to sleep in their rooms at the inn with the others. Balthazar offered for them to stay there, but Olivia said she liked to stick close to her crew and spend the night in the same place as them, to ensure they never saw her as a spoiled rich heir, too good to sleep at the same cheap inn as them.

As for Suze, the crab was fairly certain the little girl just preferred to spend the night in a nice and cozy bedroom with a proper bed, over sleeping in a bedroll under the biting cold of the night air outside of town. Given what he knew of her past living on the streets, the merchant took no offense from it.

They came back early in the morning, eager to spend more time with the crab. Or rather, with the crab and his friends.

Balthazar could hear the sound of a child's laughter coming from the back of the bazaar, and once he turned the corner he found Suze playing with Pebbles. The girl would toss her in the air over to Druma, who would catch the little rock and toss her back to the human with great joy. At first the crab felt concerned over what they were doing to the small pebble. But that feeling quickly vanished once he saw the stone's expression of glee as it soared through the air, chirping happily once it landed on Suze's hand, as if saying "do it again!"

Towering over them, half sitting on a boulder, was Bouldy, watching his little friends playing with great glee and the most blissful of smiles on his crude rock face.

Balthazar smiled too and carried on toward the kitchen.

Peeking inside, he could feel the familiar smell of the delicious treats sitting in the oven, and soon after his eyes spotted Madeleine and Olivia chatting over two mugs of tea on the counter, their conversation appearing rather animated.

"Well, remind me to keep my milk amphoras way out of your reach, Liv," the baker said, throwing her blonde braid back over her shoulder and laughing. "I need them for my baking, so don't break them over any heads, please!"

The Marquessa girl laughed even louder, her cheeks rosy from all the laughter the two of them seemed to be sharing.

"I promise I won't. But only if you share with me some of those rolling pin moves! I swear, Maddie, you swing that thing almost as good as I swing my fists, and I don't say that often!"

The crab was glad to see his two friends getting along. As far as he could tell, Madeleine spent way too many of her days working, and did not have much time to spend with friends, even up in Ardville. It was nice to see her bonding with another girl around her age.

Feeling a little puzzled by these strange avuncular feelings he was experiencing, Balthazar decided to move on and leave them laughing over their steaming teas. He would be back later, once the pastries were out of the oven.

And he could hardly wait.

Once Madeleine had gotten her hands on the special mango treats from Marquessa, she got straight to work on experimenting with them.

While the caravan from the distant city did not bring actual fresh mangoes—since they were no longer in season and would have likely been rotten by the time they arrived—they did come with a wealth of mango-based products.

Preserved slices of mango, which were not as juicy or delicious as the fresh stuff, but could still be used for baking.

Mango jam was a sweet surprise too. It went well on so many things, and the crab could hardly wait to taste the cake Madeleine had promised to make, using the jam as glazing.

But what really made his mouth water was the thought of biting into one of the mango tarts the baker talked about, using the jam as a rich, sweet filling.

At first the merchant looked sideways at the crate full of dried mango peels, doubting those could be of any use in the kitchen, and even thinking they were simply waste sent over by mistake. Madeleine, however, showed him how wrong he was when her resourceful culinary mind immediately saw their potential as a tea infusion. It was the very drink the two girls were now having while chatting in the kitchen, and despite his skepticism, even the crab had to admit it tasted pretty good after taking a sip of it the night before.

One other product that had left Balthazar rather puzzled at first were the tiny vials of brown glass containing barely a few drops worth of a sweet-smelling liquid.

It was mango extract, sent over by the owner of Marquessa's top baking boutique, Madame Margo, along with a small message written on a fancy pink card decorated with flowery effects on the corners and a faint sweet scent emanating from it.

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In the missive, the Marquessian baker said she hoped to one day meet the young baker of Ardville after hearing such good things from her crustacean friend, and that as a token of goodwill, she wished to share one of her kitchen's little secrets.

Balthazar did not understand what the big deal was about the small vials, but the girl seemed incredibly excited to receive them, as if she had been gifted a priceless treasure of precious gemstones. According to her, she would be using them in all sorts of things in place of her usual vanilla extract.

It all went a little over the merchant's shell, but if his baker was happy, so was he. He had a whole shipment of new imported goodies to barter with, and she had new imported ingredients to bake with. All was well.

Tossing the last piece of pie into his mouth, the merchant circled around toward the bazaar again.

Glancing up, he could just barely see a tiny azure spot high up in the sky, flying near the peak of the mountain.

As usual, Blue was spending most of the day up there, doing draconic stuff with Beatrix. As a crab, Balthazar had little clue what the two winged reptilians were up to, but the drake seemed eager to spend time with the elder dragon, so he saw no reason to object to it.

At least she wasn't spending all day sleeping on a cushion anymore, and whatever they were doing up there, it seemed to have helped Blue learn that new Firestorm skill, as unexplainable as he still found it. Best to brush it off as "dragon stuff," he figured.

The drake was at least kind enough to come down and greet the two visitors before they left at the end of the previous day. Suze was ecstatic to see Blue again, and insisted that she was slightly bigger now than she was when they had last met. Balthazar couldn't really tell any difference, but he figured that might be because he saw the creature almost every day.

Given how the street rascal made Blue promise to let her fly on her back once it was day outside again, the merchant was actually relieved the drake was staying up there on the mountain. He really did not want to so much as imagine the girl having the same fate as that one wizard who passed by his pond so many moons ago and found that levitation tome.

At least that unfortunate event allowed him to get his pincers on his first monocle.

Which reminded him that during his stay in Marquessa, he no longer had his first silver monocle, nor did he yet have his new and improved golden one.

Curious, the merchant retrieved his Monocle of Exposition and looked at both Suze and Olivia through it.

[Brawler - Level 19]

[Rogue - Level 2]

"Hmm, seems about right," Balthazar muttered to himself.

Putting the monocle safely away in his bag again, the crab continued on his way back to the bazaar.

He glanced at the dungeon entrance on the other side of the pond and sighed. Unfortunately, the two girls were too low level for him to consider recruiting them to delve into the mines. He was certain that if he so much as mentioned it, they would jump at the opportunity and want to embark on the adventure, but he knew it was too dangerous, and he couldn't risk something bad happening to them.

Besides, it would look terrible for business if the two envoys sent to his bazaar with a caravan of goods went missing inside his dungeon. He couldn't have that!

At least the skeletons were still hard at work in the halls, feeding Montgomery so she would grow bigger, and adjusting their traps to be less… deadly. Too many dead adventurers next door would also be bad for business, after all.

Stepping inside the gazebo, Balthazar was happy to see how nice it all looked despite the recent pest attack. John really knew his stuff, and once again did a fine job repairing everything—and without the crab ever managing to catch a single glimpse of the actual work being done, of course.

Further in, the merchant found Henrietta and Tristan were still unpacking and sorting through the goods sent over by the Marquessian traders. They, too, had loved to meet the two Marquessian girls the day before, giving off a strong "loving grandma and grandpa" energy around them that greatly amused the crab the whole afternoon.

"Wow, you guys are still going at it, eh?" the crab said, still lazily chewing on a particularly sticky piece of pecan crust.

"Oh, hey, partner!" Tristan said, lifting his head from inside a crate. "Glad you came to join us!"

"Yes, and to help us," said the toad, staring at the crab with her big, bulging eyes. "Right?"

Balthazar stared back at her for an awkward moment, picking at his mouth parts with the tip of his pincer. "Uhhh…"

The sound of hooves clopping down the path from the main road came from outside the front door, making the merchant's eyestalks jump with a start.

"Oh, look at that, a visitor! Someone should go check on it. Don't worry, I'll go!" he quickly said, while skittering away.

Outside, he found a man getting down from a horse, wearing the yellow and brown uniform the crab recognized as the standard armor of Ardville's guards.

"Hello there, Mr. Balthazar," the guard said with a smile. "It's me, Quentin. I'm sure you remember me."

"Uh, right… Quentin," Balthazar said, unsure if he remembered the man or not.

It wasn't his fault if someone thought it was a good idea to have all the guards wear the exact same outfit. If the merchant couldn't tell humans apart by the gear they had on, how else was he supposed to do it? By their faces? Ridiculous.

"I bring an important message from our Mayor," the friendly fella said, smiling as he unfurled a piece of parchment.

"Oh, really?" the crustacean said, feeling intrigued. "Well, go on, I'm curious to know what—"

"BY DECREE OF MAYOR BERGEN, MAYOR OF ARDVILLE AND FIRST OF HIS NAME," Quentin yelled, so loudly that Balthazar nearly fell backwards on his shell.

With eyestalks nearly twisted into a knot, the crab tried to recompose himself as the guard looked at him with an apologetic wince.

"Yes… Sorry, Mayor Bergen is very insistent that we introduce his missives like that—just as if they were proclaimed by him."

"Right… sure… Keep going, just, maybe… not as loud?" the dazed crustacean said, still wobbling in place.

The guard nodded, cleared his throat, and returned his gaze to the open scroll.

"You are hereby summoned to come before Mayor Bergen for a formal meeting. He wishes to discuss urgent matters with you regarding recent dealings of yours. While he acknowledges your independence from his rule, and that you are not required by law to answer his summons, he strongly advises you to come and meet him, for he is a good friend to have, but a terrible enemy to make."

Having finished his reading, the guard rolled the parchment back up and offered the crab a courteous bow.

For his part, Balthazar felt even more dazed and confused after hearing the message than he did after the initial shock of the shouting.

What the hell did I do to anger the mayor?!

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