Gacha Harem System Chapter 172: Is That... Shelby?!

The tram slowed and stopped.

Lukas sat up in his chair, glancing at the sign above the platform.

This was their stop. He tapped Akira on the arm, then lody. Both rose without a word and followed him off the tram.

He stepped onto the pavent and looked both ways, orienting himself using the map in his head.

There.

The Golden Emporium sat across the street, taking up most of the block.

It was wider than it was tall, with large windows running along the ground floor and a sign above the entrance in bold lettering.

From the outside it looked exactly like a departnt store back on earth. Like the kind of building that contained other buildings inside it.

Lukas led the way across and through the entrance.

Inside, the ground floor opened up into a wide concourse. Stores lined both sides, each one with its own signage and its own display facing outwards.

There was quite a lot of foot traffic, but not to the point of it being too crowded.

Climbers, but Awakened and Adept, moved from shop to shop, not even stopping to check anything. It was clear that they knew the place well.

Akira and lody drifted slightly behind him, taking in the sight.

"Look at that," lody said under her breath.

"I see it," Akira replied.

Lukas glanced back. They were both looking at a clothing store to the left, its display window showing a row of beautifully arranged dresses.

"Focus," he said.

They glanced at each other, giggling before catching up with him.

He found a directory board mounted near the center of the concourse, a flat panel with the floor layout and a list of stores organized by category. He ran his eyes down the list.

He stopped when he saw a familiar na.

Shelby’s.

He frowned at the na for a mont, then found it on the layout. It was on the ground floor, around the east wing. He stared at it a second longer, then turned and led them in that direction.

They found it without having to look around too much. The store had a large sign above the entrance, the na in the sa style he rembered.

Below it, in smaller lettering were a few words.

"Spatial Storage - Rings, Bags, and Specialty Items."

lody and Akira had gone quiet beside him.

"Is that the sa Shelby?" Akira asked. She hadn’t personally t the man, but she’d heard of him from both of them.

"It can’t be," lody said. "Shelby died in the Brotherhood attack."

Lukas said nothing, even though he was thinking the sa thing. He stood there for a mont longer than necessary, because even though he knew the man was dead, there was a seed of ’what if’ inside him.

Because Rollo had also died in the Brotherhood attack. And Rollo had been very much alive on the platform in Salaria, right up until Lukas had killed him.

He pushed the thought aside and walked to the entrance.

A salesperson stood just inside the door and bowed slightly as they approached. "Welco. What can I help you find today?"

"Spatial rings," Lukas said. "We need the largest storage capacity you carry."

"Right this way."

The salesperson led them deeper into the store, past display cases of smaller rings and bags, to a section near the back where the higher capacity items were arranged behind glass.

He unlocked the case and began presenting options, explaining the capacity of each one.

Lukas picked one up and pushed his mana into it.

The space inside unfolded in his mind. It was vast. Easily large enough to swallow his entire apartnt building three tis over with room to spare.

He set it down and looked at the others. "These will do."

lody and Akira moved along the case, each selecting one. Both went for plain bands without decoration. Even in a big city like this, there was no guarantee that thieves wouldn’t notice a golden ring.

"One more thing," Lukas said to the salesperson. "Pocket watches. Do you carry them?"

"We do. Follow ."

He led them to a smaller section set slightly apart from the rings. A glass case held a neat row of watches, each one face-up.

Standing beside the case, with his arms crossed and his eyes on one particular watch he’d just placed there, was a man.

He had close cut salt and pepper hair, and a well-kept mustache. And when he glanced up at the sound of their approach, his eyes had that sa twinkle that Lukas recognized imdiately.

The salesperson bowed. "Master Shelby."

The man turned fully.

The three of them stared in surprise, recognition blooming in their eyes.

It wasn’t Shelby. The age was slightly different, and this man was just slightly broader in the shoulders, but the resemblance was so close it almost made him freeze.

"Forgive ," Lukas said before he could stop himself. "Did you have a relative in Havenhart? A Mr. Shelby who ran a spatial ring shop?"

The man’s eyebrows rose. "I did." He studied Lukas with open curiosity. "You knew him?"

"We did," lody said. She held up her hand, showing the ring on her finger. "He sold this. Back when we were Awakeners."

The man’s expression shifted imdiately, the curiosity softening into sothing warr. He looked at the ring, then at each of them in turn.

"Friends of my brother’s," he said quietly.

He turned to the salesperson. "Twenty percent off their purchases today. All of it."

The salesperson nodded and stepped back.

Lukas began to thank him, but the man raised a hand.

"No." He shook his head. "Thank you. For rembering him."

He looked at the ring on lody’s finger one more ti. Then he gave them a short nod, uncrossed his arms, and walked away through a door at the back of the store.

The three of them stood there.

After a mont, Akira said, "He’s a good man."

Lukas watched the door the man had gone through, then turned back to the salesperson.

"The pocket watches," he said. "Tell us what you have."

And as the salesperson spoke, he could tell. Their old life had passed away.

This was a new era.

The era of the Second Floor.