A smile blooms in Zatu's lips, suspecting Schalt closed the restaurant for him.
"Is his awakened friend named Zatu Rainfall?"
"Let me see..." The receptionist says, pulling and reading a small paper from the side. "That's right sir, are you here for his celebration?"
Zatu feels his smile widen.
Schalt truly didn't need to close down the restaurant, especially since this was a casual last minute celebration.
But seeing he did it anyway, the gesture warmed Zatu's heart.
"Yes, I'm here for the celebration. Is Schalt at the restaurant?"
The receptionist shakes his head.
"I believe he is upstairs, would you like me to guide you there?"
"No need, but thanks." Zatu says before walking upstairs.
***
Knocks rang on the door.
"Yo Schalt! you there?"
"Yeah! Come in! I'm finishing something, just give me a second."
Walking in Zatu sees Schalt writing a letter.
On Schalt's table a few stacks of gold coins stand pristinely, each on top ofan already written letter.
And on the ground a bloodied and dented shield lay quietly.
A guess instantly appeared in Zatu's mind.
"Your caravan just came back I presume."
"Correct, they reached Unbreon not much later after you left." Schalt confirmed, his hand zipping words in the paper. "Don't worry though, just a couple more letters and I'll be done for today."
Seeing this a bit of curiosity arised inside Zatu.
"How was their trip? Did the increase in beasts affect them?"
"Nah, I hired the adventurer's guild to help on this one so our loss rate was pretty good. Well, losing half a dozen still sucks though, doubly so when one of my captains was one of them."
Then Schalt sighs and glances at the bloodied shield.
"Met him a few years ago. Good man, good fighter, and great commander." Schalt stretches. "I'm preparing myself to go pay his family respects tomorrow, normally I'd send someone, but he more than earned my presence there."
Zatu pats his friend's shoulder.
"Sorry for your loss man, mind if I leave a tribute?" He asks, pulling a few platinum coins from his space pouch.
But at that Schalt shakes his head.
It is a norm in the caravan industry for any merchant worth his salt to make sure their deceased employee's families are taken care of.
So he already had a system built with the Kingdom's Bank to help distribute pensions, adding so much more on top of it might be generous, but it was not always a good thing.
"Don't." Schalt pushes the platinum coins away. "Having a ton of money dropped on their head right after such a loss will only overwhelm them."
Zatu doesn't feel that these few coins are a lot of money, but seeing his friend's serious expression, Zatu nods and takes the coins back.
From the side he watches Schalt do his thing,
Minutes go by and the two soon go down to Inn's restaurant.
Different from normal days the restaurant is empty, with only two waiters and a musician standing at the side.
Nodding at them Zatu and Schalt go to a specially decorated table.
As they get seated a flute starts to play, its tone soft and slow.
As her song entered his ears Zatu could feel his mood lift, his heart calm and his mind clear. No doubt a buff given from her class.
Soon the waiters moved too and plate after plate of delicious smelling food was served.
As the two ate, Zatu started a bit of chit chat.
"Earlier I didn't even get to ask, how are your projects in the night markets going?"
Hearing the question, happiness shines in Schalts eyes.
What started as a side project to find a few talented employees was evolving into something completely different.
Given enough time Schalt could see it growing into something that could actually change Unbreon's outer city for the better.
"It's going pretty good, last month we added our 7th partner and by our estimations we now control around five percent of the night markets."
Zatu raised an eyebrow, surprised by the size, since it had been only a few years since Schalt started to explore the markets in the outer city.
"Woah, what's the name of this guild of yours?"
Schalt shakes his head, downing a glass of wine.
"No name yet, we'll probably only register it when next year comes around."
"Honestly me and the others would like to expand even more before registering but with the beast wave so close, we decided to slow down on growth and solidify our position where we can."
Zatu tilted his head confused, a bad feeling forming at the pit of his stomach.
"Are things this bad already? We still have a year plus till the next wave, no? "
Schalt sighs and nods, searching for words on how to explain the speculation that led to his decision.
According to his family's teaching and the kingdom's centuries of knowledge.
The beast waves is an event that happens every ten years.
A year marked by a series of catastrophic beast surges that happen at the end of each month, for nine straight months.
A year where forests become a death ground and each city becomes its own island.
A year where beast corpses pile up so high they need to be burned down so as to not disturb battles.
Schalt was just a kid living at the kingdom's capital when he experienced the beast waves.
He could still remember the absolute and utter violence he and the other kids from his family watched from the capital walls.
A sea of screams, blood and corpses, that had marked in his heart how ephemeral life could be.
Shaking his head away from those memories Schalt starts to lay down his conjecture.
"Normally we should still have time, but ever since a couple months ago both the number of beasts and their strength has grown steadily."
"From my understanding this anomaly also happened ten years ago, but at that time it started only 6 months before the waves."
As Schalt speaks his mood gets somber and his tone gets heavier.
"Nobody knows if this trend will cap out at some point, but I think it won't."
"I think this trend will keep up till the waves."
"If that happens by the start of next year only the strongest and largest caravans will travel the lands."
"And by the half point of the year there will be no more trade between cities and besides the lack of beast surges it will feel just like a beast waves year."
Zatu's loudly gulps his juice down and his eyes go wide hearing his friend's speculation.
If beasts got strong enough to stop trade many people in Unbreon would die.
Looking down at the sword on his lap Zatu felt the weight on his shoulder get a little heavier.
He knew he probably could not save everyone, or even have a great impact in these beast waves.
But that sure as hell won't stop him from trying anyway.
Zatu clenches his fists under the table.
"I hope with the guide's help I can grind to tier three before the waves come."
Schalt nods in agreement,and takes a sip of his wine.
Then the mention of the guide jogs his memory.
"Night Fang has confirmed your meeting and visit to the outer south district by the way, she will be here this Saturday at sunrise."
"Only thing is, I'll still be busy with the caravan and she only discusses large contracts in person, so you will have to do the negotiation."
Zatu looks up from his sword.
"Thanks for the help Schalt and don't worry too much, I'm sure I'll negotiate a very fine deal."
Hearing his friend's smug tone, Schalt couldn't help but worry a bit.
He knew Zatu put very little importance to money and had a habit of absurdly overpaying for no reason.
But then again, Schalt had mentioned her daily price of 20 to 30 silver just a few hours ago right when one of Lyara's letter teleported over, so he should be somewhat grounded this time.
'If he doesn't ignore the numbers anyway.' Schalt thought to himself, deciding to say one last thing about it.
"Just keep her prices in mind so you won't be overcharged, alright?"
Zatu's thoughts froze for a second, he didn't remember Schalt telling him the prices.
But would she overcharge enough for him to bother to know the number?
'Doubt it. Everything is really cheap around here.'
Zatu shook his head before going back to enjoy his food, pushing the suggestion away from his mind.
"Yeah yeah, don't worry about it bro."
Just then a voice echoes from the reception, its tone full of respect.
"I have seen High Councilor Greensword!"
From the door, Arbo soon walks in.
Instead of his casual clothes he is dressed in a golden colored military uniform.
A large two handed sword hanging on his back and a grin adorning his old lips.
"Sorry for the delay kid."