Oh...
Hecathe was about to ask for the agreement but he suddenly realized that he was no longer the rich tyrant that he used to be.
Since he was running low on cash, wouldn't it be better to discuss the price of the apartment first before jumping into a contract?
"H-How much are you taking for a month?" Hecathe asked a bit hesitantly.
The woman chuckled as she held up two fingers.
Hecathe's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he exclaimed with surprise, "Just two hundred Lenix?!"
Two hundred Lenix was cheaper than the cost of the food that he had eaten at the restaurant so of course Hecathe was shocked.
The landlady looked to be surprised as she heard his naive guess.
She immediately shook her head and informed him that his guess was wrong.
"Then two thousand?" Hecathe frowned a little as he questioned.
This price sounded a bit more realistic and he could afford it as well.
The landlady chuckled as if she had just heard the biggest joke, "Young man, don't play around. Even if we rent out for cheap, we still don't go around selling rooms for free."
Hecathe pursed his lips into a thin line and gulped as he heard this.
"Then... Twenty thousand Lenix...?" He asked reluctantly, wishing in his mind for the woman to say that he was once again wrong.
The landlady chuckled as she shook her head, "That's not it either."
Hecathe sighed in relief but his sigh eventually got stuck in his throat as he heard the woman continue.
"It's two hundred thousand Lenix."
Hecathe coughed as he choked on empty air after hearing the rent.
Damn it... He would have to sell one of his kidneys in order to afford that.
The woman chuckled as she tilted her head and asked, "You seem a bit worried, is the price not good with you?"
Hecathe shook his head as he immediately responded, "I don't have that much at this moment. Can I pay in installments or pay it later?"
The landlady pouted as she heard this and responded, "We can't do installments. I'm sorry."
"..." Hecathe frowned as he started to wonder if it was better to just go and look for some other apartment with cheaper rent.
"You can't find any other place cheaper than this," The woman spoke up, seeming to have read his mind, "This is the cheapest price for a month. It comes with all your necessities fulfilled, including your three meals per day. It's a really great offer, young man."
"But I still can't afford it," Hecathe sighed.
"How about this? You can rent out a room for a week and it would only cost you about forty-five thousand and two hundred lenix."
Hecathe gulped as he shook his head, "It's still too expensive for me. I don't have that much either."
The landlady frowned as she heard him, "Then what do you want to do, young man?"
Hecathe clicked his tongue as he questioned, "Why is the rent here so expensive?"
"It's not expensive at all. You just do not have the funds to afford it." The landlady sharply commented as she heard him.
"..."
"Young man, why would you even come to Ocasia if you don't have the money? You should have been aware of this city. It's one of the oldest cities that has still refused to undergo the development methods suggested by the three willows of spring. Everything in this city is expensive and for foreigners like you, it's double the rate."
The woman sighed and Hecathe's eyes suddenly lit up as questioned, "Do you mean to say that this price was doubled because I'm an outsider?"
"It would naturally be so," The woman responded as she nodded.
"Then the price for residents is half the price that you've told me?"
The woman nodded her head once again as she confirmed, "It is."
"Then how about you do me a favor and give me the normal price?" Hecathe hopefully asked.
The woman blinked as she tilted her head and looked at Hecathe as if he had just said something ridiculous.
In the very next second, she broke out laughing as she spoke, "Young man, don't be absurd. I can't do that. This place has a law and every person that does not abide by this law gets punished. If I make an exception for you, it would get me in some serious trouble."
"Then who much do you charge for a day?"
"Seven thousand Lenix per day," The woman smiled as she responded happily.
"Then I can only afford two days of rent," Hecathe sighed as he responded.
The woman suddenly stepped closer to Hecathe as she spoke, "Or we have another way for you, young man."
"Eh?" Hecathe frowned as he cautiously took a step back.
The woman chuckled as she snapped her fingers and they were suddenly transported to another room that was dark with only a single light source hanging above a table that had papers placed on it with two chairs facing each other kept on either side of the table.
"It's called an illegal contract," The woman's voice was too close to Hecathe's ear and it made the man flinch.
"W-What the hell are you trying to do?" Hecathe looked around but he couldn't see the woman.
"Why don't you sit down and we'll discuss in detail," The woman suggested and this time, Hecathe snapped his head towards the direction of the chair just to find the woman seated on one of them, gesturing for Hecathe to sit on the other chair.
Hecathe gulped as he first tried to feel if there were any mutants around to help him but weirdly enough, something inside this room was blocking his contact with the mutants.
"Hecathe, I'm sure you have never heard of an illegal contract before, have you?"
Hecathe gulped as he took a seat in the opposite chair and shook his head, "I haven't."
It was clearly a lie since Hecathe had heard about such things in his real world and he had even signed a few. Illegal contracts were not always bad, they were just things that the law didn't recognize as something right.
They were not uncommon either. In the business world, there were a lot of great famous people that signed illegal contracts in the dark and never got investigated for it.