Chapter 134. Grand Opening
They opened the next morning, spreading a Grand Opening banner made of scrap fabric, which one of the mages good with a brush and with decent handwriting had fixed up nicely. SNACK SHOP was blazoned on their shop’s signboard, under an image of delicious fries in an iconic red holder that Rhys definitely hadn’t stolen from a certain clown back home. He’d wanted to make it fully iconic, with a moist soft drink cup sitting behind the fries, but his artist had gotten lost when he’d tried to explain what he wanted, then spent ten minutes explaining to him that making something appear wet required a great deal of mastery with a brush, mastery that they, as someone who painted for fun and didn’t pursue art seriously, did not have, and so he'd settled for piping hot delicious fries instead.
They didn’t hide inside their storefront, either, but stood out front. Rhys had appointed the two cutest, one male, one female, and gotten them good wigs and decent makeup, and they served as the face of the shop, with a brightly-colored umbrella shading their semi-mobile trash-cobbled snack stand and fresh fries boiling in oil. At first, the mages and mortals passed them by, but as the fries finished cooking, and beautiful golden potato slices sat gleaming under the sun, a few came by to check them out. When they stopped by, they were also offered chips and a free soda trial; currently, Rhys still wanted to run that one through taste-testing before he worked on giving it an ephemeral healing effect, and he wasn’t satisfied with his small-scale sample of people who were likely biased toward pleasing him. Rhys had stopped by the farm and picked up fresh potatoes, and he and the other mages were hard at work in the back, cutting, slicing, and preparing the fries and fresh chips, with Rhys mostly working on imbuing them with various magical effects, at whatever low level he could manage without other mages outright realizing what he was up to.
As time ticked on, their sales ticked up. Things went slower than at the tournament, but that was to be expected. The tournament had been a profitable gathering of people without many resources prepared to refresh them, whereas this was a city, where people doubtlessly had their own ways of acquiring foodstuffs, and his snack shack was but another method of finding food. It was the difference between having a captive audience, and an audience he shared with a great deal of other shops. Of course he’d be moving product more slowly.
One student in a bright white uniform swung by. He looked down on the shabby shop and scoffed, then derisively tossed them a coin and took some fries, ignoring the proffered free drink. He didn’t stop or slow, but tossed a few in his mouth as he walked away.
His feet stuttered. He slowed for a step, stunned. For a moment, he shuddered, then glanced over his shoulder and hurried off without another word.
Rhys raised his brows. Hopefully that’s good…
Noon hit, with the sun directly overhead. The shack out front ran low, and Mouse ran the freshly-cut fries out. She scurried back with a traumatized expression on her face, and shot Rhys a terrified look. “They’re coming!”
Rhys stepped forward, concerned, and peered out the window. A line of white-coated students marched toward the stall. He tensed, hiding his aura, but tightly gripping his broken sword. That many students? Had they been discovered? If he had to, he’d fight with everything he got to make sure everyone else got out.
The students approached, the haughty boy at their lead, and mobbed the stand. “One order!” “I’ll take two!” “I just want a bottle of that red sauce!” “Three bags of chips, please!”
The shop’s faces were almost instantly overwhelmed by orders. Rhys pushed out a few more people to go help out front, hurriedly tugging wings on their heads on their way out the door. When they were gone, he turned to the rest of the mages.