35 - Dessert

My name is Mitsuta, and I've been a resident of Maa, and Great City Linna for 5 years now.

My name means honey, and my wife thinks it suits me perfectly because others seem to flock to me, and stick. Her name means pears, and I've always had a fondness for honeyed pears, so in my mind we were always meant to be.

Since 'defeating the Demon Lord' a lot has happened, so let me catch you up.

Linna's northern district had become quite up and coming with new businesses and renovations, and Silver Bounty became the defacto place to go for requests that the guild wouldn't take on. We even opened two more shops in other towns. We have new employees that help out with requests, and seem to hire a lot of youngsters that, like us, were a little lost in what they wanted to do in life. Sadly our main group split up to run the different branches, but don't worry! Everyone is quite happy where they are.

Maja and Hassel returned south, where Hassel runs our shop in Kauppala. After we returned from our journey, we visited Ilta and explained our dilemma with Hassel's certificate. She commissioned a broadsword, and Hassel forged an astoundingly gorgeous blade. It had the same emblem engraved on it that the crown on Ilta's armour has, and was sharp enough to cut Ilta's finger as she admired it. It was a Level 75 equip weapon, and Ilta happily signed Hassel's certificate upon receiving it. Hassel was delighted that she'd crafted something that would be used to protect people, instead of harming them. Ilta and Hassel offered each other a professional handshake, but when we'd left her office Hassel did a very out of character dance in the hallway.

I asked Hassel if she would make me a sword like that someday, she laughed and called me an idiot.

She said it was the last weapon she would ever make. 

A few weeks later, Hassel got her coveted Master pin. From there she went on to make a great many things, all of them useful in some way to society. I may or may not have also helped in this regard with suggestions of inventions that didn't exist yet in Maa, the first being a squeaky toy for Toast. I thought his eye would pop out of his head when I first squeaked it for him, and he used curse words I didn't know he knew in my head when I teased throwing it. Hassel was very beloved that day in our home.

Hassel was a brilliant craftsman, and once she became a Master it was like her spark ignited, and she quickly turned her little room upstairs into a workshop, and built a small forge shed in the alley. With my 'ideas' and her knowhow, she made oil streetlights, music boxes with mechanical birds, steam engine powered scooters, wearable timepieces, washing machines, and so much more. It was for this reason she left us for Kauppala. They had much more of a variety of goods for her to work with in their markets, and things she couldn't get as easily, or legally, in Linna. Now she has a huge workshop with her own apprentices, and has grown rather famous for her innovations over the last few years. She sells her creations under the Silver Bounty name and has become a Master Mechanician for hire when she's not hyper focused on her own projects.

Maja loved the weather in the south because it reminded her of her home country, but she'd also noticed the southern towns were a great deal more impoverished, and felt a calling to provide assistance. She left Linna just after Hassel. Maja started travelling between the southern towns, offering her healing services and selling her potion drinks, and stopping in Kaupalla to rest and visit Hassel occasionally. She gained a reputation as a wandering saint, easily recognized by her tall ears, long tail, and strange furry companion, but ultimately planted roots in Kaupalla and opened an orphanage. 

Maja had always been fond of children, and it brought her the greatest joy to heal and care for others, so when she shyly confided in us that she wanted to leave Silver Bounty and strike out on her own to run the orphanage, she was shocked to find we were ecstatic for her. She's helped many children find families of their own, and started teaching her unique healing spells to them in the hopes that healing would become commonplace and no one would struggle for health ever again. Zay'tun stayed by her side all the while, and became a bit of a chunky pampered princess, receiving endless attention and snacks from the children. 

Loppu and Alku dropped in on Maja once a week as promised, and she would never tell us what they talked about, but it sounded like she just played referee to sisterly arguments for the first few months. After that it became more of a weekly meetup for tea. Maa seems to be doing just fine so I can only assume their agreement is still working out. 

Both of them also visited us at the shop from time to time, but we knew they only came to see Toast, and Alku named her 'dog' Cake, because "Cake is better than Toast, obviously". After all this time I'm still not a fan of Alku, go figure. 

Speaking of cake, Tamon had done well for himself after a while too. He'd failed to capture Maja's attention time and again, and instead devoted himself to baking elegant and intricate confections. His journey started when a vagrant entered our shop and tried one of his cakes. The beggar blew his top and scolded Tamon for not bringing the cake to 'it's true potential as a sweet'. He turned out to be a long forgotten famous baker from the north, and decided to take Tamon then and there to put him through a harsh training regiment. 

After a year of what Tamon described as 'relentless torture', he chose to stay in a developing northern town as land was cheap. His father had finally accepted Tamon's dreams and given him the funds to start his own shop. He called it Silver Bounty Bakery, and used his assassin's speed to deliver his baked goods across the northern lands. We miss his speed at the main branch, but Hassel's scooters have helped compensate for the deficit. 

His bakery became hot news overnight, and tourism boomed in the north as many inns began to stock his desserts for their guests. The rumours of demons and castles faded away as the rumours of legendary cupcakes spread.

As for Kana, Toast and I? Well...