Demon World Boba Shop: A Cozy Fantasy Novel

The party continued all day. Whatever must-do work people had to finish before letting off steam was more or less complete by evening, which meant the plaza was packed until some of the cooks got wise and carried their gear up the cliffside staircase for a bigger space and better view.

Out in the town, people played games. Arthur joined in as best he could, doing acceptably well in a crafters-only game of handball before settling in and watching the combat classes play the adult, full contact version of the same game. If he played with them, Arthur was sure it would go about as well as if he played with full-grown rhinos. They were in a different league, with physical stats even the worker-class folks would have a hard time keeping up with.

Between rounds of brewing tea, Arthur downed his own dance-enhancing brew and took to the floor with Mizu, doing his best to ignore that at least some of his new dance moves were coming from the drink. They danced for almost an hour, to fast songs and slow, before they both turned to each other at the same time to signal for a break.

“That was nice,” Mizu said. “I don’t want to dance that much every time. But it was nice this time.”

“I had fun too.” Arthur winced. “Though I must have looked ridiculous.”

“You mean your dancing? It was fine. And I was glad to see you look happy. It’s been a while.”

“Was I that bad?”

“You were working hard. That’s fine. I’m just glad to see it over.” Mizu led Arthur back to his shop, where she made them both a glass of ice water. Arthur could feel just enough majicka stirring to know she had done something to it and didn’t think it was his imagination when he found it especially refreshing. “What do you want to do now? I’m getting a bit tired of the crowd.”

“Me too,” Arthur said with a smile forming on his face. “And we should go say thanks to our friends who aren’t here right now. Are you up for a walk?”

Mizu was. There were a few stops to make first, but after a quick walk over to the baker’s shop and a fast visit to a very confused Skal, they were on their way. It took them quite a while to make their way over the rubble of the old walls, but soon enough they were walking through the treeline into the forest beyond.

“It should be safe.” Arthur led Mizu by the hands through the trees. Luckily, he had a lot of experience navigating the forest at night thanks to the games they had played before the monster wave. “The warriors have been through here already and there weren’t any stragglers that they could see. And even if there were, I think Rumble and Daisy would have got them.”

“Do you think we’ll see them?” Mizu asked.

“If they want to be found. But if this is just a nice walk through the woods, that’s fine with me too.”

It was a nice switch from the warm loudness of the plaza to the cold quiet of the forest. Any animals that would normally have made noise had either fled or been consumed by the wave, and they were left with a quiet so complete that Arthur could hear every twig snapping underfoot and every breath Mizu took as they weaved through the trees.

Daisy, it turned out, wanted to be found. Rumble trailed behind, massive beyond belief now.

“Hey, you two.” Arthur walked forward and pet Rumble on the neck, stepping back as the huge Prata leaned into the sensation. “We wanted to thank you for what you did. Whether you understand it or not.”

Rumbled huffed and laid down on the ground, angling his head until Arthur was petting him behind the ear. Daisy tilted her head at Arthur, then pressed against his leg for a moment before sitting down herself. It was the first time he could remember that she had given him physical contact without a clear purpose.

“We appreciate your help. And we brought snacks,” Mizu said, reaching into her pack and pulling out a few dozen cookies and cooked fish. Rumble’s nose twitched as he caught the scent but he waited patiently until Mizu brought the cookies to him, taking a few of them out of her hand and chewing them contentedly as he continued to take his pets from Arthur.

By the time they ran out of food, both Daisy and Rumble were stretched out and satisfied on the dirt. Pratas didn’t purr, but Arthur was pretty sure that both of them would be if they could. They had eaten a dozen cooked fish apiece and a few pounds of cookies on top of that.

“You saved the town, Daisy. You and Rumble. Don’t think I forgot that this protection pact goes both ways. If you ever need us, let us know. The whole town will help,” Arthur said as he cleaned up.

The Pratas huffed in response.

With their mission done, Arthur and Mizu took it slow on the walk back to town.

“Do you think Daisy understood what you said?” Mizu said.

“There’s no way to tell. I don’t even know if she knew she was defending us when her and Rumble attacked,” Arthur said. “But it doesn’t matter to me. If they came through on accident, they still came through. They deserve their reward.”

After the two of them got back to town, they decided to check out the party up on the cliff platform. It was a lot like the one below, just with fewer people. They joined a card game of sorts, one that Arthur didn’t know but did his best to keep up at anyway.

After a bit, Mizu started to droop. It made sense. She had spent a good portion of the day working on water after getting up earlier than he had. Arthur walked her home and kissed her goodnight, only to find that he himself was about as far from sleepy as he could be. And he didn’t feel much like being in the crowds again.

Thirty minutes later, when Milo found him, Arthur was working on his garden, having found there was just enough light to do that without ruining things.

“Hey, buddy. You doing okay?” Milo asked. “This is normally your morning work.”

“I’m good. Great, actually. Just not ready for sleep. You?” Arthur said.

“Fantastic. I think between me and Puka we probably set a new record for most achievements gained in a single week.”

“Anything big?”

“Lots of experience and a few minor buffs when I’m building something for town defense. Nothing huge, but every little bit adds up. You know how it goes.”

“Every bit counts, I’m happy for you.”

Milo came over and sat on one of the chairs Lily had dragged out at some point.

“Arthur, do you get the feeling that life doesn’t get better than this? Like we have it all right now and whatever happens next, it’s going to be different?”

“I know what you mean. I must have showered for an hour this morning, just enjoying it. But different doesn’t have to be bad.” Arthur stabbed his shovel into the ground and came to sit by Milo. “Where’s Rhodia? Is she still beating the other crafters at handball?”

“Naw. She tired out and went home. Right now, she’s probably making a special tea cup or something. You can never keep that woman away from clay for very long.”

“How’s that going?” Arthur poured Milo some water, which he accepted. “Marriage, I mean. I know it’s hard at first sometimes and I feel like I haven’t been checking up on you as much with the monster wave and everything. You know.”

“Marriage?” Milo scratched his cheek. “It’s different too. I guess. Not just compared to not being married, but different than I thought it would be.”

“Harder? Anything I can do?” Arthur offered.

Milo laughed. “Not harder, Arthur. It’s great. It’s just… different. Like you said, different doesn’t have to be bad. I had this idea of always being together, or having kids right away, or a bunch of stuff. You know, that kind of thing. I don’t even know where I got the idea from. Mom and Dad were never that way.”

“Would you rather have that?” Arthur asked.

“Not on your life. I do my thing, she does hers, and then when it works out, we do stuff together,” Milo said as a twinkle came into his eyes. “It’s… we aren’t always together, but when either of us needs the other one, we are there.”

“It sounds nice.”

“It is nice. There are ways it’s not that different than what you and Mizu have, honestly. But overall, it’s just… different. More permanent. More good, all around.”

Arthur ran the idea of being married past himself again, trying on the idea for the first time in a while. It still didn’t fit. It wasn’t an unpleasant thought but it still just wasn’t time for it. He didn’t know when it would be, either, but that felt okay. It would happen when the time was right.

“How do you feel about the town?” Arthur asked, steering the conversation in a different direction.

Milo looked at Arthur. “How do you mean?”

“I mean, we’ve beaten a monster wave. We weren’t supposed to do that yet. And we might end up having the only intact town nearby. How does that affect…” Arthur waved at the town. “Things?”

“A lot. Remember when we found Slapstone and people swarmed in? This will be like that. Some of them won’t even mean to move here. They’ll just come to see how we did it and find out its nice here, and stay.”

“The town can hold… what? Eight times as many people as it has right now, before it busts out from between the cliffs?”

“Probably six, if we want parks. And we want parks. But yeah. Not much more than that.”

“Can we build a wall that big? To hold on next time?”

“With six times as many people? You bet. We’ll always have less wall to defend than other towns would because we back up against the sea. From here on out, the town is safe. Trust me. I’ve been listening to Spiky talk about population versus risk ratios all afternoon. We’ll be just fine.”

—

The first day of the post-wave holiday had been a little off-brand. These days were meant for celebration and rest, but they were first and foremost about commerce. And in the excitement for a giant party, Arthur had forgotten about the more technical aspects of the demon world.

But early the next morning, when Arthur saw shopkeepers out hawking wares, everything felt right again.

There were a few problems to solve, such as the lack of materials after the wave or a glut of products that clogged local consumer demand. Lily came to the rescue.

Down in the ocean where the cliffs dropped away to the water were thousands upon thousands of dead monsters, all preserved in near-perfect condition for the moment. If people needed materials or wanted new things, all they had to do was try their luck at fishing up the right monster.

It was like a weird scavenger hunt, especially for people like Milo who could make good use of monster parts. The warriors and fishermen carted the demons around the water, where they’d pull particularly strongly armored monsters out of the water to make armor with, or particularly sharp-looking monsters to convert into weird specialized weapons.

Not everything was worth taking though and Skal said that was a great thing for him, since the monsters would draw in fish for months to come.

After the assembled townsfolk had drawn in hundreds of monsters and found the more intact monsters on the land-side of things, they all approached the pile to take a look at the beginnings of the riches they had found.

And it was a lot.