We change our course and turn back to the market square. The town hall is opposite the Adventurer's Guild, so it isn't too far away. Shinobu starts talking about all the different things she could do with the house along with Sakura.
[This is going to be one crazy house with the two of them living there.]
We enter the town hall full of expectations.
"We'd like to buy a house." I start.
"Sure, just pick one." The woman at the reception desk doesn't even raise her head while talking to us.
"Do you have a list of available homes or anything?" She drops her shoulders and sighs as she looks up at me. I can see the annoyance in her eyes.
[What's her problem? I'm being completely reasonable. How am I supposed to know which houses are available?]
The receptionist reaches for a tomb and slams it on the table in front of me.
"Good luck." And with that, she gets back to work. I flip open the book and see that each page has an address at the top with a non-permanent mark designating whether the house is owned or not. While skimming through the pages, I notice that a large percentage of houses are not owned.
[So, this is what she meant. Where do I even start?]
It quickly becomes apparent that flipping through the pages will get us nowhere. This would be nice to have on hand once we find a house we all like, but there's no way we can choose one from only a rough description.
"This isn't going to work. Any ideas?"
"I know an empty house by the North Gate. Josh always used to hide there," Sakura adds. Josh doesn't react, so it's probably true.
[It's so hard to get a read on him sometimes; is he not paying attention?]
"Let's start there." I take the book with us while the receptionist isn't looking so we can verify the building's status immediately. If she says anything, I'll just act like I didn't know I wasn't allowed to take it with us. If things get bad, I always have Sakura and Shinobu to help bail us out. While walking, I open the book again and read some of the descriptions. "There sure are a lot of abandoned houses."
"This town has been steadily losing people over the last hundred years." My off-handed comment gets a response from Shinobu. I don't know much about the topic, so I dig to find out what she knows.
"Why's that? Did this used to be a larger town?"
"It was supposed to be," Shinobu begins. "Originally, this was supposed to be the jumping-off point for the kingdom to take over the forest. King Durum the fourth designed this town to have all the facilities of a major city. He was hoping it would draw adventurers in to seek their fortune in the woods, which would open a path for the kingdom to set up operations as well. That was the plan until we were attacked by Surkland. Tensions had been rising for a while, and when the war broke out, all the funding to Alkine town dried up. I think one of the reasons the Duke is so interested in this town now has something to do with that."
I'd heard that this town was supposed to be larger, but this is my first time hearing why. I've never looked at a map of the surrounding countries, so I'm not sure where they are geographically. Maps are hard to come by at this time, so I don't know if anyone here actually has one.
"It's to the Northeast," Shinobu answers as if reading my mind.
"So, most towns don't have central plumbing?" I ask. Being able to poop inside is one of the things I'm most excited about doing after I move back to town.
"No, the only other city in the country that does is the capital of Durum. It would be nice if every city had plumbing, but my mom says it would be too expensive."
"That makes sense."
"This is it!" Sakura excitedly runs up to the dilapidated hovel she calls a house. Moss is growing around the walls, and the roof is falling apart. It's hard to imagine anything living there.
"I think I'd rather live in the cave," I mumble to myself. Shinobu giggles and pulls my arm.
"Come on, let's look inside." I really don't like that she's touching me, but I bear with it as I don't want to ruin the mood. Things have been stressful recently, so seeing her smile like this is a weight off my shoulders. The door almost falls off its hinges as Sakura pushes it open. The interior is about what you'd expect. Ice and snow have built up on the rotting furniture as sunlight pours in from the holes in the roof. Small animals scurry in and out of sight to avoid us.
"This place is a dump." I don't hold back and express my initial thoughts. Sakura puffs up her cheeks and glares at me.
"Not here, the basement." She moves some rubble aside and opens the door to the stairwell. We follow her down the stairs to a wide-open room even bigger than the house above. A couple of chairs and a desk lie around the several columns holding up the ceiling, but otherwise, the space is empty.
"Wow. Why is the basement bigger than the upstairs?"
"I don't know." Seemingly oblivious to the potential implications of this, Sakura runs around the room as if we have already bought it.
"I bet this was a secret research lab or a spooky dungeon where the owner kept all their prisoners!" Shinobu begins talking excitedly. I don't know or care what this basement could have been used for, but it looks good to me.
"Does everyone like it?" I ask. A consensus is quickly reached, and we agree to purchase the property. We return to the town hall and purchase the house for almost nothing. The receptionist berates me for taking the book of addresses, but it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission, so I just take my lumps. I apologize a few times, and she eventually drops the subject. A few signatures are all it takes to put the house in Shinobu's name. We figured she should have it since she'll be living there the most.