Almost immediately, a man in a fancy suit much like those worn on Earth opens the door. "May I help you?" he asks, eying me critically.
"Yes, I am here to see the great sorcerer Alexander Polt, is he here?" I answer, deciding to assume that this man is not he; after all, this butler-looking fellow is hardly wearing the appropriately cartoonish attire of a transcendental-level sorcerer.
"My master doesn't do charity work, this is a reputable business enjoyed by the most grand figures in our illustrious kingdom, not escaped slaves who want their name changed or their mother's curse lifted. There are many other services similar to this one more fit for someone of your stature, go take advantage of one of those."
"Excuse me? Who do you take me for? I am a B-rank adventurer with plentiful funds, thank you very much. How would your master react if he were to observe the way that you have thus far treated a prospective customer based merely on your assumptions?"
He looks at me doubtfully for a moment then, as if trying to uncover those secrets which his initial impression had neglected. Finally, he responds "Really? Can you prove these assertions?"
With a glare, I take my guild identification and a sack of gold coins out of my dimensional storage ring, displaying both to him carefully just in case his vision is failing, before I put them back away.
Before he can say anything further, I say "If your master thinks himself too high and mighty to provide service to an upper-rank adventurer, then why does he advertise at the guild hall? In fact, perhaps if I were to report this to the guild, this unacceptably hostile treatment at the hands of a mere servant, surely they would ban him from continuing to advertise his business there, would they not?"
He takes a moment to process my complaints before, with surprising humility, answering me, saying "My apologies. We get many people here daily, the vast majority of which are far below my master's businesses target demographic, people who possess problems that any local sorcerer could surely deal with at a price they could actually afford, I thought that you were among such a group, again, I apologize. If you must demand retribution, please take out your frustrations on me, my master is not involved in this insult in any way. While I cannot promise that your funds will be sufficient, as they would not be for the vast majority of B-rank adventurers, I can at least arrange a meeting if you so wish. That said, as advice that you are free to take or leave as you please, I would recommend seeking out another sorcerer. There are a half dozen in this city alone that could surely deal with any problem a B-rank adventurer could present, my master's advertisement was more intended for adventurers of rank S or higher."
This dramatic change in tone leaves me somewhat in shock, I laugh awkwardly before replying "Well, I suppose it is no issue, I must admit that I do dress in a manner reminiscent of the common rot that plague and dirty the streets of this great city, that I would be mistaken for one of their number is understandable, though certainly an insult I won't tolerate again. As for why I chose to come here as opposed to those other sorcerers is that I have no choice but to rely on a sorcerer of great power for my need, I would rather not share the details with any other than your master."
"Well, in that case, I will take you to him now. However, I must warn you, there is a ten gold fee even for an appraisal of your situation and a quote on the costs, will this be a problem?"
Gritting my teeth, I reply "No, no problem at all." [How much of a narcissist is this sorcerer, to think so highly of himself as to charge ten gold for a few minute long task that requires literally no effort on his part? I had intended to get the appraisal of this sorcerer and one other, at this cost I will just have to go with this one if I can afford it at all. Seriously, I want a rather basic task performed, the renaming process shouldn't even take more than a handful of minutes with me being a willing participant and all, this business's profit margins must be immense!]
"Well, in that case, follow me." Saying this, he fully opens up the door and leads me into the mansion.
The first room is an entry hall, so lavishly decorated as to be beyond excessive. Hanging from the ceiling is a massive golden chandelier, casting a soft yellow light on the room. The ground is tiled in marble and onyx in a checked pattern, though a thick red rug stretched from the entrance to a large double door across from it. The walls are covered in paintings, maps, hides, animal and monster heads, and all sorts of other decor. What areas aren't covered are gilded in gold leaf, taking mesmerizing patterns against the plain white wall that serves as the background to their canvas.
Scattered along the walls are many items on display, sitting atop pedestals and often atop velvet pillows, each giving the impression of value far beyond the sum of everything within the village I recently saved.
What space along the walls at floor level that is not taken by items on display is more often than not occupied with doors. A deep brown in color, engraved with intricate patterns and gilded with gold of their own, even these wooden doors seem like works of art by the standards of the average man, yet here are merely access points to rooms presumably as grand as this.
Other than the doors along the walls and the magnificent double doors serving as the far side of the long red rug that the entry doors open to, there is one more set, elevated on a pseudo second floor. Looping up over the doors along the opposite walls is a curving staircase that comes in from both sides to form a balcony that has the other doors going to the rooms behind it.
I barely have time to take in these details, each worthy of being called 'art' in its own right, as I am rushed across the room to the ground-level doors directly opposite the entryway, eventually passing under the balcony of sorts to enter them.
The butler leads me down many halls, each no less extravagantly decorated than the entry hallway, to the extent that it becomes easy to forget that every step I take passes my enough material wealth to comfortably support a regular family for a lifetime. And these are only the passages through which I pass, one must remember; there are so many doors that we pass along the way that I would have nbo way to count them all, to the extent that I begin to wonder how this could all fit into what seemed to only be a large mansion upon entry. However, I have noticed the floor gently sloping down for some time, I can only assume that we are in this place's basement. That there are no windows would support this hypothesis, but the idea that underground hallways would be so extravagant is still often mind boggling.