Nick stood in front of the door to his new house, key in hand, for several minutes before putting the key in the door with a sigh. The king made it sound modest but it was actually a pretty big house, big enough for four people to comfortably live in it. He imagined he was probably supposed to have servants of some kind considering where the house was, but he knew there was no way he could afford one. At least not for a while with the kind of money he got from quests. However, having an actual place to live when in town did cut down on his living costs.
As he entered his new house his mouth fell open. He could hardly believe how the place looked, it was all painted a pristine white with golden accents and had a polished marble floor. The door opened up into a large living area with a connected kitchen, off to the side was a staircase that lead up to the second floor and he could already see more rooms than he knew of uses for. As he looked around with a dumbfounded expression he didn't even notice as someone exited one of the rooms. "Welcome home."
Nick quickly moved his attention to the person talking, though what he saw just added to his overall confusion. It was a woman with platinum blonde hair, fair skin, one blue eye, and one green eye. She was stunning, but the part that confused him the most was the fact that she was wearing a maid outfit like some outdated cliche. "Uh... hello?"
"You looked confused. I get it, this must be a lot to take in at once."
It took a couple of seconds for the fog in Nick's mind to clear and then he was able to recognize the girl. "Wait... Dahlia? Why are you wearing a maid outfit?"
Dahlia looked down at her clothes before looking back at Nick. "I found it in one of the rooms when I was looking around. I decided to wear it while I cleaned up a bit. I don't really have any clothes of my own, anyway."
"Oh... right." Nick took off his backpack and began to look through it, grabbing five gold coins and walking towards Dahlia. "Use this to buy yourself some new clothes, I don't want people thinking I put the girl I rescued to work as a maid."
Dahlia looked at the money, a slightly concerned look on her face. "You have already done so much for me, I can't take your money."
"If you don't want it then I will just end up spending it on clothes for you. I have horrible taste so it is best that you pick out what you want."
Dahlia let out a slight sigh, grabbing the money from his outstretched hand. "Alright..." She put the coins in her pockets before giving Nick a half bow. "Thank you for all your help, really. You didn't have to do all that you have done."
"I just did what any man in my situation would do." Nick smiled, looking over the mostly healed Dahlia one more time. "You look good, the castle magicians really work wonders."
"They are really nice. They did all they could do for now, I will have to go back a few more times to get some of my scars healed but they took care of all of the scars on my arms and face. I had basically lost all hope of ever feeling normal again but I feel great. At least on the outside..."
"Hey, if you ever need to talk I'm here for you. Though I will be out of the house sometimes on quests. I will be in the house for a couple of days just resting before my next quest so if you need to talk I'll most likely be here." Besides at night, anyway. I can't tell her about that or she will think I'm insane.
"Alright. If you want I can make us some dinner, we have enough food available for a couple of days."
"Alright, I'm going to explore and find a room to call my own while you do that. I would offer to help you cook but I haven't ever really cooked anything."
"It's alright, I don't mind cooking or cleaning. It is the least I could do."
As Nick explored the house he learned one thing: this house was a lot bigger than it looked. It even had a two story basement which was insane to him. He figured he would use the lowest floor for storage and the main basement for exercise. The house was essentially five floors, the two basement levels, the two main floors of the house, and the attic. It was bigger than anything he was used to.
He would have to get used to using torches until he introduced electric lighting to this world, which he did want to do at some point. The windows kept the upper levels of the house lit up but the basements were pitch black without the help of torches. Man, if they will give me a house for giving them a portable clock I wonder what they would give me for introducing electricity to them. I just hope it isn't a bigger house, I have no idea what to even do with all the space I have now. Maybe I will just ask for money, money is nice.
As Nick explored the large house he eventually found the room he would take for his own. It was a nice room with a large and comfortable looking bed, filled bookshelves, a large desk, and a walk in closet that was currently completely empty. I guess this is the master bedroom. I probably won't ever need this much space, but I guess I can make use of most of it in time. Maybe when I actually have some money to spend on stuff other than food.
"Dinner is ready!" Nick heard Dahlia call out, quickly making his way downstairs and towards the wonderful smell. He had no idea how she made what she did with what little they probably had, but it looked amazing. Steak with mashed potato, not exactly something he would have asked for but now that it was in front of him he wasn't going to turn it down.
"It looks good, I had no idea we had what we would need to make this kind of dinner." Nick took a bite, it wasn't the best thing he ever had but it was above average.
"We do, but the meat we have won't last for more than a couple of days." Dahlia said as she took a bite of her own food, a large smile on her face. It was probably the best food she has had in a long time.
"We should probably buy food that doesn't perish easily, preferably cheap stuff considering I don't get a lot from the guild."
"How much do you get from the guild if you don't mind me asking?"
"Considering how long it probably takes on average for a B rank quest... maybe about ten gold every week or two?"
Dahlia tilted her head in confusion. "You don't have to pay for this place at all, right? If that is the case you have plenty of money. You should be able to eat fine for a couple of weeks off of two gold."
"Huh, I guess I just don't understand how the currency here works yet." Nick said, not thinking about how weird it would sound for a native of this world to say something like that.
"I'm not sure that I know what you mean..."
"Ah, don't worry. I'll leave a couple of gold here when I leave on my next quest so you can eat."
"You don't have to, I'll just use the leftover money from my clothes shopping."
"It's fine, I don't want to carry too much money on me at one time anyway. I'll leave it in the desk in my room, just take what you need while I am gone on my next quest."
"Alright..."
After dinner Nick returned to his room to do some exercises before being woken up by his alarm clock. The next couple of days were uneventful, but there was one thing that kept nagging at him no matter which world he was in. This dragon's circle syndicate, if there are people like Billy who work with them then who knows who else works for them? Who knows what kind of evil things the leaders of those people must do? Those were the questions that bothered him the most as time passed.
Every second he spent not looking for one of the leaders of the syndicate was another second that they could spend doing unspeakable thing to people like Dahlia. He knew little about the syndicate, but one thing he did remember was the name of the general in his area. Sabrina, she was stronger than any of the bandits from the gang that attacked the caravan. Going after her could be suicide, but he had to at least try if she was around his level. He decided he would look for a wanted poster for her in the guild.
And that is where he is right now, looking over all of the B-rank bounties for a woman named Sabrina. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be one in the B-rank, the closest to a Sabrina he found was a woman named Scarlet who was the leader of a bandit group, nothing he could deal with alone. My last trainer said when I use my demonic energy I was around A-rank, maybe the A-rank bounties? I don't know if I will be able to handle it alone but I can always ask Azara for help if it is too much. I just hope it isn't too much for the both of us.
Nick didn't have much hope for Sabrina having a bounty, or at least not an A-rank one, that is why he was surprised when he found an A-rank bounty for a woman of the same name. It said she lived in a small manor about a three day travel from the guard, it was surrounded by C-rank armed guards. He figured he could handle it, he would have to try to take out the guards stealthily so he will have all of his mana for the big fight. He could feel his heartbeat quicken as he took the poster off the wall. His heartbeat only got faster and faster as he approached the receptionist's desk.
He put the bounty on the desk with his card, waiting as the receptionist looked over at them. She had to do a double-take when she saw the quest rank and Nick's rank. "Sir, you do realize this quest if for people a rank above you?"
"I'm aware, but I want to take this quest. I'm sure I can handle it." He wasn't sure, but he had to try.
The receptionist just shook her head as she wrote some stuff down. "Alright, fine, but if you die or get captured that is on you. We have the ranking system in place for a reason, but it isn't against the rules to take a quest that is out of your league." She stopped writing and handed the card and bounty back to Nick. "Just try not to die, we can't afford to keep losing promising young adventurers because they bite off more than they can chew."
"If it turns out to be too much for me I will retreat, I don't plan on dying any time soon." Nick looked at the poster once again, he didn't notice before but the payout for this quest was twenty gold. Getting ten extra gold would help him out now that he owned a house, but if he had to retreat from this quest because it turned out to be too much for him to handle then he would be pretty broke.
"I would suggest getting help from another B-rank or an A-rank, but do whatever you want."
Nick had never actually thought of looking for another partner now that Alyssa and him were going solo. On an A-rank quest it was not actually a bad suggestion. He would prepare for the quest today and try to find a partner tomorrow before heading out on the quest.