Part 11
There were several roads extending from it, and each of them had several
shops on each side of the road. And in the center of the rotary, there was
something that looked like a mound of earth with a portal right in the middle
of it. Could it be…
「Is that… Quratar's Labyrinth?」
「That's right. Everything has been built around it, and the Knight's
guardhouse is located right next to it so that they could move swiftly and
surely in case that any kind of emergency would happen.」
As if to confirm Roxanne's words, the full scenery of the area of Labyrinth's
entrance has came into our view. Indeed, the portal that was presumably
leading inside was situated right in the middle of that mound-looking
structure, and the Knight's guardhouse was situated in its immediate vicinity.
「Oh, and by the way, that large brick building right across the entrance is the
Quratar's Explorers Guild.」
Roxanne pointed at the large, five or six stories high building made out of
brick that was sandwiched between the two roads coming off from the
rotary's center. Yup, that building was most definitely what I would call
majestic. Compared to that, the quarters of the Adventurers guild looked tiny
and unimpressive, as if they just took whatever vacant building they could
find for themselves. Just by looking at that towering building alone it became
apparent how influential the Explorers must be for this city. The double door
on the ground floor were widely opened, and we could see many people as
they were coming in and out of it like a constantly flowing stream of human
mass, and the similar thing was happening in front of the guardhouse, but
there people were standing in an ever-growing line.
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「What's up with all those people? What are they waiting for?」
「They are queing up to pay for their Labyrinth Entrance Certificates.」
「Entrance… Certificate?」
「Yes, this is one of Quratar's laws: if you want to enter the Labyrinth and
explore it, then you have to pay for it every time you enter. The usual price
for one person is 100 Nars.」
So you actually have to pay money to enter this Labyrinth? Whoever came up
with that idea, I have to hand it to them, they definitely knew what they were
doing, turning such a dangerous place into something akin to a tourist
attraction.
「Well, if it's like that, then I think we will be better off just going to the
weapons and armor shops today instead of a Labyrinth.」 If we have to pay
for the entrance, then it would be best to come back here when we will have
more money on us, and most importantly, more time on our hands. Looking
at the sheer size of that queue, I don't think we would wait five or ten
minutes for our turn. Also, in order to maximize our gains from such an
excursion, we would have to come here first thing in the morning to spend as
much time as possible inside before we would have to leave and then come
back and pay the entrance fee again.
Then again, spending a whole day in the Labyrinth, from sunrise to sunset
without taking any breaks in-between? Ugh, that might be difficult to do in
and out of itself. Not to mention that our purpose of coming to Quratar in the
first place was to buy equipment and accessories for my Mage Job, not to go
delving into this city's own Labyrinth. But there are so many roads extending
from the rotary that I have no idea which one we should take to arrive at the
weapons shop, which would be our first stop.
「Master.」
Suddenly I felt Roxanne pulling lightly at my sleeve.
「Hm?」
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「It's just a thought, but… wouldn't we be able to enter that Labyrinth
without having to pay every time if we used that Movement Magic of
yours?」
「!!!!!!」
I looked at the entrance to the Labyrinth, then at Roxanne, and then at the
entrance to the Labyrinth again.
「Roxanne, that's… that's a pretty clever idea! Atta girl!」
「Thank you very much, master!」
She said with a satisfied smile on her face.
I see. Her suggestion was a very sly, but ultimately a practical one from the
standpoint of our financial condition. If we were to come in and out of the
Labyrinth here like any regular Explorers and Adventurers, then we would
have to pay 200 Nars of entrance fee every single time we would want to
enter there. But if we enter there once, then we could be using my Warp to
come and go there as we please without worrying about any stupid payments,
similar to how we can go inside Veil's Labyrinth by warping there from the
alley behind Veil's Adventurers Guild. Oh Roxanne, you little evil impish
devil, you! If you were wearing a kimono right now, the I would have
grabbed your obi and untie it with one single, swift move so that you would
start spinning around until even your eyes went all round, that's how happy I
am right now!
Since Roxanne's with helped us solve the problem of the recurring Labyrinth
entrance fee, now we can focus entirely on our initial objective of browsing
Quratar's stores in search of a wand or a staff for me.
We begun our search in a nearby hardware store. It might not be the weapons
or magic oriented shop, but maybe it will have swords or shields, and it's as
good of a place as any to start our search, especially since we definitely won't
find wands or staffs at a fishmonger's or in a bakery.
Unfortunately, the hardware store was a bust (who would have guessed)
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because the only things we found there were pots, scissors, hoes, shovels and
all kinds of other metal products whose intended usage and purpose I could
not wrap my head around. Oh, and also padlocks. So if we want weapons, we
really have to go to the weapons shop specifically. Everything that is being
sold by the hardware shop can only be classified as a gardening tool or a
daily necessities. Not a single piece of weapons to be found here.
「Welcome!」
The person who greeted us in a cheerful voice was a middle-aged lady.
Identifying her revealed that she was a 37-years-old Lv.44 Merchant. Wow,
for someone her age, her level was certainly quite high, but maybe it was like
that because she was running a successful, profitable business? She didn't
have any distinctive features that would point otherwise, so she must be an
ordinary human as well. Maybe women had a natural predisposition to be
merchants and the like, hence her high level? She was obviously older than
that female elf Adventurer who brought me to Imperial City and then to
Quratar, but she was an elf, so maybe there was no sense in comparing those
two races in the first place? But you know, even that male elf, who was
supposedly in his fourties looked younger than she looks now, so it really has
to be the matter of different races having different points of aging. Humans
who approach the age of fourty are classified as middle-aged people, but for
the elves those who lived for fourty years might still be considered maybe not
children, but most definitely young people, so maybe thanks to that Roxanne
won't age as fast as me, staying as beautiful as she is now for longer?
Ah, that reminds me! Back when I formed a Party with that female elf
Adventurer, she could probably see my level through the Party Job Settings!
And if she saw it, I wonder why she didn't comment on it in any way? Did
she not find it suspicious? Or maybe levels are not as big of a deal as I
thought they are? Well, whatever the case with that may be, it's not like I can
do anything about it now, can I? Yeah, nothing that can be done, so it's best
to just drop that subject entirely and not think about it too much.
「Pardon our intrusion, ma'am.」
Roxanne and I bowed to her lightly.
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「If there is anything you are looking for but don't see on the shelves, I can
help you find it. Or perhaps you're here in order to buy a house?」
「Actually, I was wondering if we could find any weapons here.」
「Weapons? My oh my, no, you won't find those here. If its weapons you
want, then you have to go to the weapons store. Let's see… do you see the
Knight's guardhouse outside? You should find a store that sells weapons
easily if you go down the street that goes past it.」
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Part 12
The woman instructed us on how to get to the weapons shop, and she even
left the store to properly show us where we should be going even though we
were not even her customers. How polite of her.
So according to her words, the nearest weapons shop should be located just
past the Knights guardhouse, so that is where we shall be heading next.
「Thank you for telling us all this. We will be sure to come back here later to
buy something.」
「Certainly. I will be eagerly awaiting your return.」
After thanking the kind shopkeeper lady, we left the hardware store. One
detail I forgot to mention about that lady before: apparently her name was
Honesta, and it really showed, because she was a truly sincere person to some
random passers-by whom she met for the first time in her life like us. (TL
Note: kinda weird that a Japanese person would know what the meaning
of the word honest is in English considering that them being notoriously
bad at english is basically a meme now, but oh well…)
「She mentioned buying a house earlier. You think she is a landlady or a realestate agent (TL Note: or a free real estate?) or something?」
「I think she might have been, actually.」
If it was to be from such an honest and sincere person, then maybe renting a
room somewhere in this city might not have been such a bad idea. While we
walked towards the weapons shop, I talked about it with Roxanne.
「So far we have been staying at the room in an inn, but would it actually be
cheaper to rent a room in a normal house?」
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「Let's see… although I have no idea what the proper market price in Quratar
actually is, renting a room usually costs between 10,000 and 30,000 Nar for a
contract that lasts for a full year. Also, I have heard that 50,000 Nars should
be enough to rent a nice house in the suburbs.」
「Is that how it is?」
I don't know whether that is expensive or cheap, but that is most definitely
cheaper than staying in an inn in the long-term, because the math is pretty
clear about this: a year of renting a room would be between 10,000 and
30,000 Nasr, a year of renting a house costs 50,000 Nars, and if we assume
that the accommodation in an inn costs 300 Nars per day, than a full year of
living in such a way would easily end up costing more then 100,000 Nars, but
if I wanted to increase the number of my Party members even further in the
future, then the cost of accommodation would also go up accordingly.
「Please, should you decide to rent a house, leave the cleaning and all the
different chores up to me, master!」
「Ah, oh, I… I see now. If we decide to go through with this, I guess it will
make things especially tough on you, huh, Roxanne?」
「Please don't mind it, master. It would be my pleasure.」
Living in an inn or a hotel, you don't have to worry about doing household
chores like cleaning, because the cleaning staff does all of that for you. But
since Roxanne is my slave, she probably thought that doing all of that would
fall on to her, but if she were to do all those chores alone then I feel like that
would be too great of a burden even for her.In that case I would be helping
her with those of course, but even so, since this world does not have such
convenient things like gas, electricity, vacuum cleaners and washing
machines and water is not piped directly to the houses, then my guess is that
it would still take a considerable amount of time.
「And what about cooking? Can you do it, Roxanne?」
「Yes! As luck would have it, I happen to know a thing or two about
cooking.」
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「In that case I'm sorry in advance, but I will be troubling you with that.」
So now Roxanne is basically going to be a maid and a cook on top of being
my slave, huh?
「Of course! If its master, then I think renting renting a house might actually
be for the better for you.」
「So, are there any additional conditions to be fulfilled if one wants to rent a
house?」
It will be pretty bad if it turns out that we need a guarantor for this. Also, can
anyone just rent a house anywhere, anytime, without any formalities to be
taken care of first?
「I think there won't be any problems with that since this is quite a large
city.」
「Ah, good to hear it then.」
If we were in a village or some other remote region in the boonies, this might
have been tough because locals are always wary of strangers suddenly
coming into their closed little communities, but since this is a city we should
then we should be fine.
「I have heard that many Explorers live both here in Quratar and in the
Imperial City, but personally I think that thanks to master's magic abilities
we could live pretty much anywhere we wanted to.」
By "magic" she probably meant Warp, and there was some truth to her
words, because as long as I have that Bonus Spell, then it won't really matter
where we will live as long as we could use it to travel wherever we needed to
go. However:
「But we also musn't forget about remaining careful. We have to choose a
place where it would be normal for an Explorer to live without raising too
much suspicions. The last thing we would want is for everyone around us and
their mothers to learn that I can use magic.」
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「In that case, buying a house here should be perfectly fine.」
Yes, Roxanne was absolutely right. If this city really is so densely populated
by Explorers, then one more of them taking residence here would not
probably pick up anyone's attention due to how common of an occurance it
was around these parts.
Having decided on such a course of action, we navigated the roads between
the entrance to the Labyrinth and the Knight's guardhouse, making our way
towards the weapons shop.
When we got to the place described to us by the owner of that hardware shop,
we noticed that it had not just one, but a few weapons shops at the both sides
of the street, each one of them apparently specializing in different kinds of
weapons, as was evident by the articles of war placed at the displays next to
the shop's entrances. I have to admit, at first I was truly taken aback by how
wide the selection was, reminding me of the gun shops of America that are
supposedly in each and every one of its cities around pretty much every
corner.
We entered the nearest weapons store, walking past many customers who
were continuously coming in and going out after either browsing through the
wares it had to offer and buying them or simply window shopping. The store
itself was fairly large, with several people at once filling every one of its
many isles, and they all looked deadly serious about making their selections,
to no one's surprise, since choosing a perfect weapon for yourself to use
could very well be a potentially life-saving decision.
「Now let's see… where wound wands and staffs be?」
Looking for wands and staffs we went towards the back of the shop, where
we noticed the staff-type weapons being kept, and there were not that many
of them. Could it be that they are somewhat unique, even in this world where
the existence of magic is commonly known? Maybe because the number of
Mages and Wizards is significantly smaller when compared to all the other
Jobs?
We looked at all the wands, staffs and canes the store had to offer one by one.
The way they were lined up, it made me think that maybe they were lined up
in order from the cheapest to the most expensive, with the former being
placed in the front and the latter in the back. When I used Identify on them, I
immediately learned why they have been arranged like that: Wands were the
cheapest because they had only one empty Skill Slots, Canes had two empty
Skill Slots and Rods, the most expensive of the bunch, had up to three empty
Skill Slots.
Thinking about it in such categories, it makes sense that the weapon with the
most Skill Slots would be the most costly, but at the same time it should be
the most efficient in battle, while the cheapest ones will have the least amount
of Skill Slots, and therefore you shouldn't be expecting too much from them
battle-wise.
Part 13
Since I am still a beginner when it comes to using magic, I think a simple
wand with a single Skill Slot might be the best for me for now, price-wise, so
let's buy it.
「This one looks good enough.」
I said to Roxanne out loud, indicating that I have made my choice.
「I have no idea what separates a good wand from a bad one, so I will put my
trust entirely in your judgement. But, just as I expected, you have a very keen
eye when it comes to appraising the value of things, master.」
My dear, sweet Roxanne, I have no idea when it comes to discerning those
things as well. All I did was to use Identify on those weapons, so all the
credit should go to that Skill instead of me, really.
The other side of the isle was dedicated entirely to canes, and there were
many different types of them: Wooden Canes, Iron Canes, Steel Canes and so
on and so forth, but as to what was the difference between them and why was
there so much variety, I do not know. Maybe I could ask the shop clerk about
that, but if at all possible then I would like to refrain from doing that, because
it would be strange for an Explorer or an Adventurer to be buying a wand
meant for Mages, so he would probably give me the suspicious look, and
even worse, he might start asking all sorts of uncomfortable questions.
However, when we went to pay for the wand the clerk at the counter didn't
give me as much as a passing glance, perhaps because there were so many
customers in the shop on that particular day. Ultimately I have decided to buy
one of the cheapest wands with a single empty Skill Slot, and the Wooden
Cane with 2 empty Skill Slots as well, but even then the price was lower than
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what I was expecting, maybe because my usual 30% discount worked
because I bought only multiple items instead of just one. Now that our
business there was pretty much concluded, we booked it out of there on the
double so as to not attract any more unnecessary attention, and even after
stepping out the shop's door I decided it would be vest if we go a fair
distance away from the weapons store in the unlikely case that someone saw
what I was buying and decided to follow me. While we were passing the
stores, a certain thought occurred to me: there is not that big of a variety
when it comes to the types of the shops. We have general stores, weapon
stores, armor stores, bakeries, fishmongers, clothing stores, but that's
probably my 21st century-living ass who could have bought everything he
ever needed without even needing to leave the house due to haow many
different stores we had back on earth. Putting that little digression aside, we
probably moved a fair distance away from the weapons shop now, so this
might be a good time to stop and put the items I bought into the Item Box.
Unfortunately for me, the wand and the cane didn't want to fit in the same
item slot in the item box, meaning that I would be forced to keep them in the
separate ones, taking twice as much of my free holding space. That's a
bummer, but not a one I could do anything about, unfortunately. Even if I
won't be able to use one of them now then that's fine, because it can act as a
spare I will be able to bust out once my Stats will be sufficiently improved.
That being said, I know it can't be helped, but that is one of the many little
things that start to seriously irritate me. Technically speaking, wands and
canes should be more or less the same type of item with only small
differences between them, so in my opinion it should be possible to place
them in the same slot in the Item Box, and the same should be possible with
Leather Gloves and Leather Mittens, but no, for some reason beyond my
understanding, they are treated as separate types of items, leading to the
unnecessary wasting of the storage space just so that I could store them in the
Item Box instead of the backpack.
It might sound like nitpicking, but it's a legitimate concern over a possible
flaw in the game's design that should be patched as soon as possible (yeah,
like that will ever happen.).
Now that we were done with our shopping business, we walked to the
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suburbs part of the town to check how the houses which were located there
looked like.
「This is a nice neighberhood, even though it's a little walk away from the
city's center. The houses look neat and quiet, and the shopping district is just
a short distance away. I like it here, if I am to be honest.」
「I think so as well. The atmosphere here is quite serene.」
Yes, with how this residential area was located away from all the hustle and
bustle of the main part of the city, it would definitely be a good place to live a
nice, quiet life, and since the other houses are not crammed together next to
one another like someone wanted to fit as many of them on the limited
amount of land available, we probably wouldn't even have to worry about
getting robbed or being jumped at in the middle of the night. And more
importantly, all of the stores are perpetually opened here, unlike Veil where
we would have to wait with the shopping every five days for the bazaar day
to commence.
You know what? I think it's settled. This might very well be our new home.
With my mind firmly settled, I turned back and walked the way we came
here, heading to the hardware store ran by that sincere lady Merchant,
Honesta, who was so helpful to us even though she didn't have to. Taking a
quick look down the nearby roads, it has an armor store, a tailor, and a
general store all pretty close to one another, and I think I even saw something
that looked like a diary store around one of the corner, so if we're lucky, then
maybe we could buy things like milk, cheese or eggs there. I just wonder if
there is a ranch or a farm somewhere nearby that supplies them with cows,
chickens and the like? But anyway, this is much more than enough for me.
After taking a light turn around the next intersection we have arrived back at
the hardware store Honesta ran.
「Oh, you're those two from earlier. Did you manage to find the weapons
shop without any difficulties?」
「We were, thanks to you providing us with directions. Once again, thank you
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for your help with that.」
「Don't mention it. I'm glad that I could be of help.」
「By the way, do you mind if I asked you something?」
「Yes? What is it?」
「When it comes to renting a house, is anyone allowed to live in this city? Or
are there some additional requirements that have to be fulfilled in order to do
so?」
I asked Honesta the Merchant after we exchanged greetings and some small
talk.
「There are no additional requirements aside from the one where your
Intelligence Card needs to be checked by the authorities, so to answer your
question: yes, pretty much anyone is allowed to buy or rent property here in
Quratar as long as they are a law-abiding citizen.」
Yeah, that's understandable. The authorities would want to check your
Intelligence Card to make sure that you are not a Bandit or a Thief… which I
am, but I should be in the clear because only the First Job gets displayed on
the Intelligence Card as your main one. But aside from your name and the
main Job, there are not that many information that can be aquired from the
Intelligence Cards, so I wonder if there are any other potential pitfall that I
would have to look out for?
「So I won't run into any problems?」
「No, because there are many types of people who come live here, and in this
city trying to obtain information about somebody's background without their
permission is considered to be a strict taboo.」
「I see.」
Roxanne said that most of the Explorers tends to live either in Quratar or the
Imperial City. So if we compare those two places to one another, then
obviously Imperial City should be the one with more restrictions, but that
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would also mean that the folks running the shots there consider themselves to
be better than Quratar simply because their city is the kingdom's capital, and
that reeks of superiority complex to me.
Part 14
I want to believe that this is not the case here, but could it be that every place
that is not the Imperial City is treated like a slum in comparison to it?
「Incidentally, I happen to be the Property Manager assigned to the 6th
District of Quratar. It is a pretty nice and peaceful neighborhood that's
located just upstream of the city. If you are seriously looking to buy a place
for yourselves, then I really recommend that one.」
「6
th District?」
「Yes. As you have probably seen already, this city is divided by six roads
extending radially from the center. The section with the Explorers Guild is
the 1st District, and counting counter-clockwise from there, this is the 6th
District.」
Certainly there were six roads indeed. Well, it would be more accurate to say
that there were three of them at both halves of the rotary, because due to how
the city was structured you couldn't go to each one directly from the other,
and it would seem that the exact definition of a District is anything that is
located between the two main roads, kind of like in wheel of the wagon.
「Six districts, huh?」
A city with the Labyrinth in its center, divided into six districts by the rotary.
That is the kind of city that Quratar is. So according to this distinction, the
part of the town with the Explorers Guild in it is the 1st District, the part that
is home to the Knight's guardhouse is the 4th District. I wonder if this
particular order has been established around the importance of each of the
major facilities Quratar houses? In that case it would make sense for this
hardware store to be at the ebd of the 6th District, because that is just another
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shop among many others. I don't know if she should have told me that much,
but thanks to Honesta being a real talker, we at least managed to obtain some
useful information about this city and the way it operates.
As for whether we can put our trust in her as our property manager, I think
we can do that for a number of reasons: since she owns this store, then it's
probably safe to assume that she makes most if not all of the things she is
selling here herself, and Metalworking must be a really useful Skill in this
world and its civilization, because it allows for the production of various
essential home appliances and tools such as pans, rakes and hoes, and having
someone like hat as a potential "ally" and getting on her good side should
benefit us in the long run.
「Are you an Explorer, by any chance?」
「That's right, I am.」
「Uh-huh. And what kind of property are you looking for, exactly?」
When she asked me that question, I was honestly at a loss of words, because I
have no experience when it comes to real-estate business and buying property
for myself, because so far in my life I never even had to worry about such
things. As shitty as my life was in the past, that was one of the things that
remained consistently unchanged, for which I was grateful, at least to some
extent. But going back to the topic at hand…
「Rather than me telling you what we are looking for, I would like you to tell
me what options are available at the current moment. All I can tell you with
absolute certainty is that we have no other requirements other than the rent
being up to 40,000 Nar a year, and if at all possible, we would like it to be a
place with a relatively low crime rate.」
「Is it for the two of you so that you could live together?」
「For the time being, yes, something that yould be enough for the two of us,
but in the future, well…」
「I see. You certainly are an Explorer all right.」
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The Merchant Lady Honesta grinned in a smug way that made me feel
somewhat uncomfortable. Could it be that she figured out that Roxanne is my
slave just by looking at her? Or maybe from my way of speaking she
managed to put two and two together and realized that my ultimate goal is the
creation of my very own harem? Or maybe she's simply saying what's on her
mind just because she likes to talk?
Anyway, as a general rule, a single Party can be formed from up to six Party
members, and from what I have heard from Roxanne before, it is not strange
at all for the members of the Party to live together as long as they trust one
another. Mu guess is that its also a nice way of cutting the costs and living
expenses.
Honesta gave Roxanne another glance, and smirked again. Yup, she really
seemed to have both of us figured out pretty quickly. Maybe that's what's
actually required to be working in that line of business, having a good eye for
people and their characters, I mean? However, knowing is one thing, but I
would really appreciate it if she stopped making that smug faces, because it's
more than a little unnerving, having someone look at me as if they figured out
my entire existence after as little as a single glance. Man, property managers
are terrifying! And on a side note, I hope she won't think of me as someone
who takes his slave to the Labyrinth with him.
Then she moved in on Roxanne and started eyeing her from every angle
possible with her hand on her chin. Just what us going on here?
「Uhm, ma'am…?」
「Hmm, you seem to have a good girl as your companion. If you two intend to
explore the city's Labyrinth, then would you like a property that's located as
close to it as possible?」
She left Roxanne, who was just about to open her mouth and say something
and turned back to me.
「We'll be fine even if it would be somewhere that would require a little walk
to get there. Distance is not a problem for us.」
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In Quratar's case, being close to the Labyrinth also means being close to the
center of the city, so that might be the reasoning behind the logic that farther
form the Labyrinth = smaller rent, closer to the Labyrinth = higher rent. But
in our case, since I am able to use Warp, then even if we were to live
relatively far from the city's center but had some business to take care of
there, all we had to do was to Warp to the Quratar's Adventurers Guild, and
voila! Suddenly everything is withing a short walk's distance, so no matter
what kind of location we end up choosing for ourselves, it will still be enough
for us to swiftly move around if the need for that ever arises.
「If you want something for 40,000 Nar a year that's close to the Labyrinth,
then I would recommend an apartment. But if you really are fine with a little
distance, then I think I might just have a free house located in the suburbs
available.」
「Yes, a house would be a preferable option for us.」
We have my Warp after all, so we can get pretty much anywhere as long as
we have visited that place at least once. Not to mention that the rent seems to
be higher when the place you're renting is located close to the Labyrinth.
There is no reason for us to live near the Labyrinth. If it gets cheaper the
farther the housing is located from it, then that's all the better for us.
「If you're not an Adventurer, then perhaps I could interest you in a house that
is reinforced with shield Cement?」
「Shield Cement?」
Not understanding what she was talking about, I shot Roxanne a discreet
glance, and she immediately followed up with an explanation.
「Shield Cement is a material that is being used in reinforcing buildings so
that could withstand harsh weather conditions, but Adventurers dislike it
because for some reason it is preventing their Field Walker Skill from
working.」
Thank you for the save Roxanne. It's good to know that you can always be
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my go-to when it come to needing information about the matters that I am
completely oblivious to. That aside, I do intend to use Warp quite a lot to
move around, so not being able to do it sounds quite concerning. So Shield
Cement prevents Movement Magic from working properly. I see. That would
mean that if I wanted to use my Warp I would have to either pick a place that
doesn't use it or live near the Labyrinth because a place reinforced with
Shield Cement that's going to interfere with my Movement Magic is
essentially useless to me, but on the other hand I don't want to pay a high rent
when I can avoid it. What to do, what to do?
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Part 15
「I realize that this might sound like quite the detriment, but as long as you set
up a partitioning screen, you will be able to use Movement Magic indoors
without any problems, even if you decide to become an Adventurer in the
future.」
Oh, a chance!
「Before we make our decision, could you please show us around the property
first?」
This lady thinks that I am only an Explorer and that's why she was giving me
all those information, but she had no way of knowing that I am actually what
you might call a true cheat character who can have any combination of skills
he wishes, as long as they can be obtained from the list of Bonus Skills, so
even though I shouldn't be able to use Movement Magic, all I need to do is to
get myself a Warp and there you have it; a non Job-limited spell allowing us
to go wherever we want, whenever we want. However, it's still to early to be
overly enthusiastic. I first need to see the place for myself and determine if I
really cannot use Warp there, and we will see what we're going to do from
there.
「Most certainly. I can take you there at any moment, even now if you want.
Just give me a moment.」
Saying that, Honesta retreated to the back of the store and returned after a
while with someone else whom we were seeing for the first time.
「I'm sorry for the delay. If you're ready then we can go anytime now. Watch
the store while I'm gone, okay?」
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「Certainly. Have a safe trip, ma'am.」
The person who came back with Honesta from the back of the shop saw her
off like that. Since Honesta is the shop's owner it would be unwise and
unprofessional of her to be leaving the store during business hours just so she
could show the houses for rent to two potential clients, so my guess is that
this person must be the substitute shopkeeper who minds the store every time
the owner is away.
「This way. Follow me.」
She walked out of the hardware store with us and guided us on our way.
Following in her footsteps, we went back towards the Adventurers Guild and
then passed it, going further and further away from the city center until we
reached the suburbs area, which didn't have as many buildings standing so
close to each other. Well, I expected that much. After all, we said that we
don't mind if the house would be situated far from the Labyrinth, so of course
she would show us the property located the furthest away from it first.
「What is the climate around here?」
Roxanne started a small talk with the Lady Shopkeeper.
「It's a nice, peaceful neighborhood. It's cool in the summer and it doesn't
snow much during the winter.」
「And how long is the rainy season?」
I don't know about Roxanne, but personally I began to wonder is it not too
early for us to be renting a house. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's not that I am
against it, it's just that I think that maybe we should wait a bit longer before
making any legally binding decisions, do some more research and think about
this really seriously, and think about the future some more. First of all, I feel
like we should get to know more about the occurences of natural disasters
like fires, earthquakes, cyclones floods and so on in this area.
*Sigh* Then again, I guess it's not like we have much of a choice here, do
we?
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Currently the two choices we have considered are Quratar and the Imperial
City. There may be other places where we could probably live without any
major issues, but for the time being I do not think we will be able to find any
town or city better than this one, since there is always a threat that if we
decided to look for other places first, it might very well take us week, or
perhaps even months to find something suitable, therefore renting a house
now is definitely a cheaper, more preferable option. If this place was
downright terrible and unfit to live then maybe I'd be willing to consider that,
but based on what we have seen so far we have no reason not to pick Quratar
over other cities.
While we continued onward, Roxanne kept talking with Honesta about
various things, and thanks to listening in on their conversation from while
staying a step behind them I managed to hear and confirm a few of the things
I was so worried about.
About the natural disasters I just mentioned, it doesn't look like we would
have to worry about them, because the buildings in Quratar were build so
close to one another inly in the six districts in the city's center where the
Labyrinth was, but the residential areas further away from the Labyrinth and
the main part of the city were no higher that two stories, and there was
always an ample amount of space between them. It was a good
countermeasure against natural disasters such as fires and earthquakes,
because even if they did happen, the potential damages would be contained to
the houses and their immediate surroundings instead od spreading
uncontrollably like wildfire, but on the other hand it made said residential
areas look kinda like the countryside instead of the suburbs of a big city.
Further up ahead on the road there was a man who carried a lot of wood
under his arms. He stopped when he saw Honesta, and the two of them
briefly talked about something. A Quick Identify revealed that he was a 40-
years-old male, and a Lv.53 Villager. Wait, 53?! Wow, talk about it being
high as hell! So you're telling me this lady is aquainted with someone like
that?! Because either he has to be super strong and totally amazing, or I am
just getting confused by his level.
「In case you're wondering, that was my husband just now.」
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She explained to us after they finished talking and the man went his own
way.
「He certainly looked like he is very strong.」
「I don't want to brag, but he is. He has to be, because due to how the city is
structured around the Labyrinth, we have nothing in the way of defending
ourselves from the monster attacks, and even if we had, mere walls would not
be enough to keep monsters from the Labyrinth at bay. I know that those
from the lower levels are relatively weak, but they have strength in numbers,
and would likely overrun the entire city in no time. That is why those who are
afraid of monsters are generally advised to stay clear of this city, and that is
also why my husband and I made it our personal habit to go to the Labyrinth
every three days so that we could both get stronger little by little.」
According to Roxanne, the monsters are present not only in the Labyrinth
itself, but they can also roam its surroundings.
I remembered back to my first day at the Village of Somara, when I was
fighting Slow Rabbits (and that zombie one that refused to die no matter how
many times I whacked it with the Copper Sword, fucking Caerbannog
Rabbit) and the Gummi Slime I encountered when Picker-san took me with
him to Vale on his carriage. It seems that the cities are surrounded by walls
so as to not allow monsters to attack them from the outside, but in Quratar the
Labyrinth is in the center of the town, so it would be meaningless to build
walls since they could only stop monsters from outside, while doing jack shit
to eliminate the threat of the ones that can escape from the Labyrinth into the
city proper.
In that sense I guess you can tell that this city is pretty scary, because having
an entire settlement build around the Labyrinth which is like a nest of
monsters that might or might not escape from it and saw chaos along the ones
that might invade from outside of the town was a pretty crazy idea. This
couple lived in such a city for so long that they ultimately decided to start
going to the Labyrinth themselves to train and get stronger, and that's why
both of them have such abnormally high levels, especially that Villager
Lv.53.
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I have Durandal to defend myself if need arises so I don't care about it, but I
wonder what Roxanne has to say about this?
「Roxanne, do you have any problems with living in the city where monsters
might randomly pop up at any moment?」
「No problems at all!」
It was stupid of me to even ask that question in the first place.
Part 16
So far I never once saw a group of monsters outside of the Labyrinth. Be it
the zombie Slow Rabbit or Gummi Slime, there wwas always only one
opponent, no more, so it probably is the same here.
「About your husband, Miss Honesta… is he an Adventurer?」
「No, he is actually a Blacksmith. See that cabin over there in the distance?
That is the one that we own and it is also where we create the ironware that
I'm selling in my shop. Well, part of it, because the other half is being sold to
the other cities, including the Imperial City.」
「A Blacksmith?」
「Yes.」
「He certainly looks the type. And based on what we saw in your store, I can
tell that all the tools you create are of exceptionally high quality.」
「Well thank you, I will be sure to pass that on to him.」
Thanks to Roxanne chatting Honesta up, I have learned another piece of
information that could come pretty handy further down the road. If he is a
Blacksmith, then it might be a good idea to ask her how did he managed to
obtain that particular Job.
「You said that your husband is a Blacksmith, but how did he got that Job?」
「Interested in Blacksmithing as well as being an Explorer? My oh my, what a
curious customer I managed to obtain. However, I'm afraid I have to
disappoint you on that matter, because only Dwarves can become
Blacksmiths.」
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「Really? I thought that smithing is something that anyone can do as long as
they have the necessary skills for it.」
「What you're talking about is not blacksmithing, but regular smithing, and
those are two entirely different procedures.」
「How so?」
「Smithing is when you have a small workstation and a kiln or a fireplace
where you can then solidify and finish the goods you created. That is what
you had in mind, the job that pretty much anyone can do, regardless of their
race. However, blacksmithing is the art of creating weapons and armor
specifically using the Skills that are unique to the Dwarves, that's why I said
that only they can become proper Blacksmiths.」
「Ohh, I see now. That does sound different than what I had in mind.」
I wasn't expecting this, but apparently smithing is an entirely different beast
from blacksmithing, but when I thought about it carefully, it made a
surprising amount of sense. After all, the Job of Honesta's husband was a
Villager, not a Blacksmith. But I have to say, that bit about Blacksmiths
creating weapons and armor by using the Skills that are unique to their Job
got me all the more interested in them, which is why it is a damn shame that I
won't be able to become a Blacksmith myself, but this is one of the things
that my Bonus Skills cannot circumvent because there is no Bonus Skill that
would allow me to change my race at will.
「And here it is. We have arrived.」
Going a little further, when we walked along a narrow path, Miss Caretaker
pointed to one of the white houses. It was a two-story white house painted
with mortar. It is a house identical to those that you could often see in this
area and in the town of Veil, so it was probably your typical style of making
ordinary houses. It looked pretty plain, but at least the area around it was
pretty spacious, which was a welcomed thing in my book. There was a small
forest in its immediate surroundings, and it was around ten minutes of
walking from the city's center. If I were to compare it to the cramped,
suffocating style of building that was typical to modern-day Japan, then I
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guess you could say that the usage of space was another thing in which this
world had my old one beaten, the other being a fact that there are animaleared cuties like Roxanne in it. There is absolutely no way for me to stop
praising the cuteness of her droopy dog ears and petting them whenever I get
the chance to do so!
「Is this part of the property the garden?」
「That's right. And since this is a part of it, then you can use it however you
like.」
So in addition to the house itself, we will also have an entire garden at our
disposal, huh? It was at the other side of the road across from the building
itself and was pretty wide, having some bushes and low growing trees.
However, that was about it, because the rest of the garden's contents could be
summarized with only one word: weeds. A whole lot of weeds, and all of
them so overgrown as if nobody took care of them for a pretty long time.
「Looks kinda rough if you asked me.」
「There is a lot of wild Rosemary here, but it truly looks like it's not doing all
that well.」
Roxanne informed me as he kneeled down and had a closer look at one of the
bushes and plants that still didn't completely turn into weeds. So apparently
this herb-like looking thing is Rosemary? I have heard about it back when I
wa still on earth, but I also have to admit that I have mainly dealt with the
store-bought kind and rarely saw how it looked in its regular plant form, so I
had no way of confirming whether or not it was the same as Earth's rosemary
or was it different in some way.
「I guess you can say that's what happens when there is no one who would
want to rent the property and take proper care of it.」
Honesta explained with a dejected smile on her face when we inquired about
the poor state of the garden. I see. Since the garden is part of the entire
property, then it being poorly kept would led to the lowering of the property's
value as a whole, and that's why Roxanne purposefully mentioned that the
Rosemary looks like its in an especially bad state. Nice thinking, Roxanne.
Maybe we will be able to actually eat a cake and have ourselves a cake if we
play our cards right here.
「You know, I'm not an expert on the subject, but if the garden is in such a
state, then doesn't that meant that it will be especially hard for it to make a
complete recovery, even if we were to start taking care of it right away?」
「That's true. Even more so since we lack the specialistic knowledge required
for the proper care of the plants and trees. ]
Roxanne and I continued our verbal assault. With every word that was hitting
the jackpot of the issue here, I could almost see our words stabbing
themselves into Honest like in some comedy manga. Who knows, maybe she
will really give in to the pressure if we maintain the offensive for a bit more?
「Y-You know, I know it might look like things are pretty bad, but trust me,
right now this garden is still at the point where everything can still be
recovered back to the state of being perfectly usable, and you should be able
to plant and grow other herbs if you want to.」
Growing and cultivating herbs ourselves, huh? Well, when I took a quick
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look at all the surrounding houses, pretty much all of them had something
planted around the areas that were probably their gardens. There were no
fences around any of the house premises, so my guess was the the borders
between their vicinities were all agreed on between the residents themselves,
or perhaps they were strictly visual according to the rule that 「everything
from here to here is mine, and from there to there it's not mine, but yours」. In
such conditions it would be problematic if we wanted to start growing not
only plants, but vegetables as well (assuming that the soil in here would be
sufficient enough to even accommodate them), and there was also the issue of
monsters and stray animals ruining the crops we would cultivate if they ran
through the garden even by accident, so maybe having a fence around our
house would not be such a bad idea after all?
「Would it be possible for us to get new seeds to plant them around if we
decided to restore the garden after all?」
「If you really decided to do that, then I would be extremely grateful to you.
In that case I could give you new seeds and saplings of various plants as a
way of thanking you for deciding to rent the property. Oh, we could also sell
you hoes, rakes and other gardening tools you would require to maintain the
proper care of it.」
Part 17
「If so, how much would it be?」
「Since this is a kind of a blunder on my part, then I'm sure we could offer
you some favorable prices as a way of apologizing for all the trouble that
you'll have to go through with it.」
「Oh, in that case I guess we could definitely manage…」
Roxanne seems to be really fired up about the idea of cultivating her own
herb garden, huh? And that Honesta, she's willing to go as far as gifting us
tools and seeds just to make sure that we will rent this house without backing
down once we knew that its upkeep would require more time and effort than
we have initially anticipated? As expected of someone with the Job of a
Merchant, she will never miss an opportunity to make the deal go through,
huh? Well, if that's how it's going to be, then I guess all that we need is just
one more small push.
「Oh well, I guess it cannot be helped, right? Worst case scenario, we will
simply have to replant all of the herbs and start the garden up from scratch.」
「Are you sure about this? This is definitely going to take quite a lot of time,
work and effort…」
「Yes, I am sure. After all, it's not like don't have a lot of time on our hands,
so might as well put it to good use, right?」
How about that merciless counterattack, Miss Caretaker? Ready to give in
now?
「Ekhem! Regarding the house itself, in order to prepare it for the arrival of
potential buyers I restored all of the wooden windows to the best of my
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ability and cleaned the inside of it thoroughly, so you can move in right away
when you bring in your own furnishings.」
Realizing that we had her beaten in the matter of the garden, Honesta headed
inside of the house while she explained that restorative work has been already
done and what was still left to do. To tell you the truth, I was counting that
we might squeeze some more concessions out of her, because even if she
provides us with the seeds and the right tools to cultivate them, it will take
some serious time before we will be able to actually harvest the fruits of our
labor, but apparently that was as far as she was willing to budge in that
regard. A shame, but I am still willing to call it our complete victory
nonetheless.
Honesta unlocked the front door and entered the house, and Roxanne and I
followed her inside. Once we were there, no one bothered to actually take off
their shoes, so I guess that custom is something that might be exclusive to
Japan only, and it made me feel like an oddball when I was just about to
reach to the laces of my boots so that I could leave them at the doorstep.
Roxanne, who was normally going barefoot, but started wearing sandals ever
since I told her to do so didn't even stop to consider doing that, so that must
mean that in this world going into somebody's house while still wearing your
outdoor shoes is not considered to be a grave offense.
The inside the house was made entirely from wood on the floor and concrete
on the walls and ceilings.
「Ohhh, inside it is a lot more spacious than it looks from the outside.」
If I were to draw any comparisons, this place wa giving me that distinct
developer's standard feel that some of the residences in Japan had. Not those
cramped crappy apartments that are associated with perpetually tired
salarymen from the middle class, but the mansions and those big suites at the
top floors of the hotels where all of the rich and important people used to
live, or like those really big rooms lined up with tatami mats from the TV
dramas set in the Edo period
「The former resident has made a lot of modifications to the structure already,
so you're free to make even more alterations if you ever feel like it. The
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improvement that you may find the most interesting is the water-flush toilet
that he ordered to be custom made for him.」
Honesta the Caretaker walked through the house and opened one of the doors
at the back of the ground floor.To my surprise, it really was a small rom with
a toilet inside of it. Wait a minute… did she just say…
「Water-flush toilet?」
「I know it might sound unbelievable, but that's actually what it is, and the
way it works is actually quite simple: when you add water to the upper
container, it will drain the contents of the toilet straight to the ditch located
outside of the house. And because the water is being drawn from the river
that's located not far away from here, you don't have to be worried about the
ditch being particularly dirty.」
Having a toilet that resembles the ones I had in Japan by having a flushing
system and being directly connected to the drain was a nice surprise that I
wasn't expecting to have at all. Upon Honesta's approval, I flushed it once to
see how exactly was it working, and it did in the exact way I was expecting it
to: when you pulled the string located next to the water tank, it released the
water collected in the tank, flushing the contents of the bowl down with its
momentum. It made me feel at ease, because originally I thought we would
have to collect our you-know-what into a jar or some other container in order
to dispose of it manually. Knowing that we won't have to resort to such
barbarism makes me happy beyond belief.
「That will certainly be a useful thing to have.」
「It might be a little inconvenient to collect water from the river anytime you
want to flush it, but apparently that was the previous resident's hobby. He
also started another project, but I evicted them in the middle of making it so
they were never able to finish it.」
「What, like, another toilet or something along those lines?」
「As I said, I ended up evicting him when that second project was about
halfway done, so I do not really know what was it supposed to be. All that I
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know is that it only has the drainage pipes connected to it. It's here in the
back.」
When Honesta opened the door she previously pointed to, I saw that it was an
empty room similar to the main one, but bigger than the one where the toilet
was located… but what was its purpose? Another toilet room? No, they
already had one practically next door, so that's probably not it. Could it be
that this guy was just a nutjob with some strange hobbies? But even if that
would be the case… man, toilet making and tinkering with them was too
weird of a fetish, even by my standards. Part of me wandered if this guy also
made a washing room somewhere in the house as well. Heh, that would be
pretty swell.
「Uhm, excuse me, Miss Caretaker?」
Roxanne called Honesta back to the main room in order to ask her some
questions about the kitchen area. She said she's able to cook, so she probably
wants to know as much as she can about the kitchen's user-friendliness.
「I'm going to go take a look upstairs, so make yourself comfortable here,
ok?」
Now that Roxanne was occupying Honesta's full attention, I can go upstairs
where no one will see me and experiment with Warping while I have the
chance.
When I arrived upstairs and looked down, I noticed that I could actually see
Roxanne's silhouette outlined through the floor. Could it be one of the effects
of Party Formation? Then maybe I should briefly disband it as a precaution,
since Movement Magic transports the entire Party? Yeah, let's do that.
First, I opened the door to the room that I would be Warping to in order to
check what was inside, but its shutters were all closed tight so it was pretty
dark in there. Next, I went to the room that was adjacent to the one I just left,
which was the largest room on this floor, ideal to make it our bedroom, since
it also came equipped with its own fireplace. I walked to the wall and created
a portal that should take me straight to the room right next to it when I will
walk through it, assuming that it will work correctly and not get blocked by
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the shield cement.
With pounding heart, I gulped my saliva down and took a step towards the
portal on the wall while closing my eyes.
Please, let it work. Let me go through! I just want to go through, nothing
more!
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the next room, the one that
had its shutters down. I did it. That Warp was a success! This means that
Warp not only ignore all of the restrictions placed on Field Walker and
Dungeon Walker, but it also bypasses everything that would normally
prevent Movement Magic from working, like this Shield Cement!
This is great! I thought that this Bonus Spell was nothing more than an
alternative to Dungeon Walker and Field Walker, but it turns out that this is
spell is superior to them both in every way!
With this we can move in and out of the Labyrinth without any issues, but it
doesn't mean that the problems end here. Quite the opposite, actually. The
number of things I have to look out for only increased.
First of all, I should avoid moving just about anywhere with Warp, because it
would be pretty bad if I ended up Warping somewhere I normally wasn't
supposed to Warp to and got noticed by someone, which means I have to
select destination that can be easily accessed by either Field Walker or
Dungeon Walker. The safest bet would be the walls of the Adventurers Guild
because pretty much everyone is using them as their target for transportation.
Trees in the woods should also be okay, should be the Labyrinth itself, but
that much should have been a given. So unless I am certain that the place I
want to Warp to is out of the people's gaze, I should only travel to the places
which I have 100% certainty that they are normal.
Part 18
Okay, for the time being, here's how we're going to handle this issue: from
now on, I will only use Warp to move to the Adventurer's Guild buildings
and into the Labyrinth's, just to play my cards safe. Before I went back
downstairs to rejoin Roxanne and Honesta I stayed on the first floor for a bit
pretending that I was looking around so that it would not look unnatural that I
went upstairs and then immediately came down.
「How about it?The obvious downside of this house is that the river and the
well are somewhat far away from here so drawing water from them will
always require a little walk and that it is also far from the Labyrinth's
entrance, but since that shouldn't be a problem for you then I think you will
agree that this place is not half bad, right?」
The Landlady welcomed me when I came back down, and then remarked
after glancing at both me and Roxanne. Well guess what, Mrs. Honesta?
Even if a well and a river are far away and drawing water from them would
take time, those downsides do not affect us in any way because of my Warp
distance will not be a problem anymore.
「Most certainly. I think this is a good property.」
I don't know what Roxanne's thoughts on the matter are, but from the looks
of it she does not look like she's dissatisfied with what she saw so far. In that
case she should be overjoyed when I will tell her later that since I have access
to Water Magic we probably won't have to bother ourselves with drawing it
by hand as well if I could fill the water container by shooting at it with
Waterball. Honesta said that doing it shouldn't be a problem for me, but from
her perspective she probably assumed that Roxanne, my slave, would have
been tasked with doing it while I stayed home. And you know what, let her
think that. Whatever's inside her head is her business, not ours.
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「Really? Well I'm glad to hear it.」
Yes, really. The shortcomings of this house do not apply to us because of my
Warp, so I can definitely say that this is a good property.
The problem is whether we should decide on this house or wait and see the
other options Honesta has to offer right now. However, looking over the
other properties and checking if it would be possible to use Warp from them
would definitely take a fair amount of time. Renting such a house will
definitely be cheaper then living in an inn for an entire year, is far away from
the center of the city and has relatively few neighbors in the area, so for now
I guess we can take this one and switch over to the new one if it does not end
up being to our liking in the end. Besides, if Roxanne does not have any
objections and agrees with my assessment that his is a pretty good house,
then I think tha pretty much seals the deal here.
「So, what should we do now? Set the price of the rent?」
「Precisely. You look like your mind's made up, so we can move on to that.
Let's see…」
For a moment Honesta simply stood there with her hand on her chin.
「Since the garden has been left unattended and neglected for so long I can
subtract that from the overall cost od the rent, meaning that instead of the
usual 50,000 Nar the cost of the yearly contract would go down to 45,000
Nar per year. Since the day is slowly drawing to a close, then let's say that
the contract will start tomorrow and will be in full legal force until tomorrow
of the next year, that is to say the 14th day of Spring.」
So it seems that today is the 13th day of spring. Regarding the cost of the
yearly rent, it is great that it is not that far away from the usual market price.
Not bad, not bad at all, if I do say so myself, but I guess that is the bare
minimum required of someone who makes a living as a property manager. If
all she did was tricking the customers into signing shady contracts like some
kinda villain to extort them of their money, I highly doubt she'd be able to
last long in the industry. She has the ability to discern that Roxanne was my
slave simply by looking at her (or at least that is my assumption), and she
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was kind enough to give us a tour of the house before we even decided to if
we want to buy it or not. If that is her strategy for running her business, then
my guess is that she must be one of the better ones from all of Quratar's
landlords, of which there are bound to be multiple ones if the entire city is
divided into so many districts. If she wanted to deceive others, she would
have been better off not working as a property caretaker at all.
I looked at Roxanne over my shoulder, and she nodded back at me.
「Okay, we will be taking this house. What do we do now, sign the contract,
or are there any other things we need to take care of before that?」
I also nodded at the caretaker, and conveyed our intentions of signing a
contract to her.
「There is one matter, actually.」
After we finished the inspection of what would become our new home, we
were the taken to the Knight's guardhouse so that we could have our
Intelligence Cards checked. Even though she is working as a Merchant,
Honesta does not seem to have the Skill that would allow her to check our
Intelligence Cards herself. From all the people I have met so far, the only
ones capable of doing it were the Kinights in the guardhouses and the owner
of the Veil Pavilion.
「Now that that's done, all that is left to do is signing the rent contract. Can
you write?」
Honesta asked me that question when we went back to her hardware store. I
guess asking such a question makes sense, since apparently there are not that
many people in this world who can actually do it, although I have to
regrettably admit that I am a member of that vast majority myself.
「Is it okay for someone else to be my ghostwriter and sign the document on
my behalf?」
「Of course, as long as it will be someone whom you absolutely know you can
trust.」
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「Then, can I ask you to do it for me, Roxanne?」
「Understood!」
Honesta and Roxanne started taking care of all the necessary documents.
Since there was nothing for me to do to help them with that, I decided to have
a quick look around the store in order to kill time. As expected of a hardware
store, it was lined up with all kinds of products and utensils made of metal,
and all of them must have been created by the couple of owners themselves,
just like the landlady said before when we met her husband on the way to the
house. I can't help but to wonder as to exactly how helpful tools like that can
be in your daily life in a world such as this… oh, looks like they even have a
wok here. Huh, who would have guessed? Well, just to be sure…
「Excuse me, but what is this?」
「That thing over there? It is a pot used by professional chefs. It is used
primarily when the dish you're cooking requires a large amount of heat to
properly prepare.」
「You don't say.」
Not gonna lie, looking at this thing made me feel kinda nostalgic, even
though it's not totally the same, but extremely similar. But that should be
expected, I guess, since I suddenly saw one of the things that I thought I was
never going to see again. If both this wok and the one I know from back
home are used for the same purpose, then it should be perfectly fine for them
to have a nearly identical shape.
「My shop is the only one around these parts that produces a tool of this type,
so it's not strange that this might be your first time seeing such a thing. If
you're interested in it, then why not buy it? If your girl-companion over there
is a good cook, then she will definitely appreciate it. So? How about it?」
「Has anyone ever told you that you're quite good at your job? *Sigh* Then I
will be getting this together with the rent. How much would that be in total?」
Part 19
「My oh my, you're quite the flatterer, you know? Well, since you seem to be
liking our special high-flame saucepan so much, then I will gladly offer you a
discount, and offer you a special service deal: yearly rent and the saucepan
for only 31,850 Nar for both of them! How about it? I assure you that you
won't find a better price anywhere else in the city!」
Under any normal circumstances she would probably never offered me such a
sweet deal, but in this case I tried using my 30% Discount Skill on her, and
since I am buying more than one thing, or to be exact, paying for more than
one thing (a yearly rent for our new house plus the wok she was trying to so
adamantly to make me buy just now) , then I am more tha happy to report
that this time its usage has been successful, resulting in quite a drop in price.
Who knows, maybe I will be able to get an even better deal if I try pushing
her business-savvy buttons some more, but then…
「Excuse me.」
After looking at us over her shoulder throughout the entirety of our wokrelated conversation, Roxanne approached Honesta with the contract
documents in hand, however…
「Brahim is a very difficult language to write in, so can I ask you to check my
writing very thoroughly and correct any possible mistakes that might have
found their way in there? Please?」
Uhm, R-Roxanne? What is with that… malicious aura you seem to be
emanating? Because you're scaring me for real here! (TL Note: Oh My
God, has Roxanne finally awakened to her yandere potential? About
damn time I say)
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「E-Eh? Y-Yes, of course, no problem.」
Even if Honesta senses the same thing I did from her, she didn't allow it to
show on her face and simply complied with Roxanne's request. I'm glad she
can behave like a true professional even in such unexpected situations, but
still… I'm glad the situation didn't escalate into something more.
After getting the payment consisting of three gold coins and a bunch of silver
and copper coins out of my Item Box and carefully counting them, I handed
them to the landlady, thus finalizing the payment. She gave me the keys to
the house, and with that, the signing of our renting contract was over.
「Thank you for your patronage. I hope you will make great use of your new
home.」
「We should be thanking you for all that you did for us even though you
didn't have to..」
「No, I should be doing that for your decision to put your trust in me even
though you've just arrived in the city.I will be lookin forward to your next
visit.」
We exchanged some minor pleasantries with each other and then left the
hardware store.
「That should be everything we need for now, right? Is it okay if we buy
anything else we might need for our new home tomorrow?」
「That should be okay for as long as the sundries and other necessities are
concerned. However, since we don't know if the things that we are going to
buy tomorrow are going to be delivered to our home on the same day, so I
think it would be best for us if we looked for some basic furniture today so
we could get our hands on as many things as we can. That way, we will be
able to minimize the amount of time required for shopping tomorrow, and we
will be able to spend that much more time in the Labyrinth if we decide to go
there.」
「That's true. Thankfully the store that sells furniture should be just down the
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street if I remember correctly.」
After consulting with Roxanne on what our next move should be, we both
agreed to pay a visit to the furniture-selling store that we briefly saw
somewhere near the center of the town when we first arrived in Quratar. Oh,
and for those of you who might be wondering about that, I didn't have a free
space for it in my Item Box and it was way to big to fit inside of any of our
backpacks, so I had no choice but to take the wok with us as it was, only
instead of carrying it in both my hands, I asked Roxanne to fix it on my arm
with a piece of rope, causing it to look like some kinda shield. If any
Adventurer was passing by us right now, I'm sure they would have more than
one reason for letting out a good chuckle or two.
When we arrived at the furniture store, the first thing we noticed and then
asked about was the condition of everything they had available for purchase,
and it turned out that everything in this store was actually used goods bought
from the second hand. A part of me didn't like the idea of having used goods
as the furnishings of our new home, but apparently that's just how things
work in here, so I guess there's no point arguing or complaining about that
now. Besides, as long as I will be able to replace the mattress with a brand
new one, then I don't mind having a used bedframe as long as it will be
sturdy enough and won't fall apart under our weight (or the weight of our
nightly activities). Other than beds, the store also had quite a large variety of
tables, chairs, cupboards, closets and other items we might or might not need
in the future.
The Job of a furniture store clerk was a merchant, so my 30% discount should
work on him just fine as long as we will buy multiple items. At this point I
have become so accostumed to using that Skill to make bulk purchases
possible, but I have to look out not to waste too much money buying things
we don't really need because of it, especially since I bought two wands and a
wok already. That is why we have to buy the minimum amount of furniture,
and buy the rest one by one when they will be needed, and why this discount
is like a double-edged sword for me. That is why this time we only bought a
bedframe and a new mattress, as well as some basic furniture necessary for
storing our clothes and items. The bed we have chosen was king sized of
course.
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For the time being we have decided to return home to drop off the things we
bought. The clerk at the furniture store told me that the items we purchased
shall be delivered to us by cart tomorrow at noon, so we have quite a lot of
time on our hands before that happens. We walked to the Adventurer's Guild,
and I used Warp to transport us right to our new house. The contract might be
starting tomorrow, but I don't think Honesta will mind if we move in today.
「Uhm, master?」
Roxanne called out to me when we walked through the portal and I
proceeded to unpack the things from my backpack and undoing the rope that
held the wok on my arm.
「Didn't the caretaker lady said that this house uses Shield Cement? So why
were we…」
「That she did, but when we were here last time I went and checked if my
Movement Magic will work nonetheless. Thankfully it did, and I decided on
buying this house after confirming that. Field walker and Dungeon Walker
might be useless here, by my Warp works just fine.」
「What? That's truly amazing, master!」
「I know, right? But keep it a secret from everyone else.」
With a movement restrictions-ignoring spell like Warp you could do pretty
much anything ranging from creating a locked room murder mystery to
committing a perfect crime. But I'm not interested in using it for such
scummy purposes. I am more than fine with just teleporting wherever I want
with it.
Also, a side note: if Shield Cement prevents Field and Dungeon Walker from
working, was Roxanne planning on walking to the Labyrinth or the Guild like
normal every single time? Now that would be both tiring and incredibly
annoying.
Maybe I simply grew lazy after getting a taste of how convenient Movement
Magic is, I don't want to travel anywhere on foot unless it will be strictly
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necessary. I mean, we rented this house precisely because of that: so that we
wouldn't have to walk to the Adventurer's Guild and the Labyrinth on foot
every single time. If we can warp from our house, it would be foolishes of the
highest calliber not to use that ability whenever we'd have the chance.
From our home, we went to the Adventurer's Guild of Veil, and when we
will be coming back, we will go straight back here from the guild building.
That method of travelling is so convenient for us that I honestly feel bad
about not figuring it out earlier.