Max and Derek arrived at the city administration. Anything that was connected to renting or buying land needed to be confirmed here. The duo entered the administration and were surprised to see that the city lords first floor looked like an office. There were clerks sitting behind tables with lots of different documents. They all wore serios expressions and were talking with the citizens that their turn arrived to be served by them. The hall was very big with a big number of seats for the waiting crowd and around 20 attendants that were working very hard to decrease the amount of people waiting for their turn.
The walls were white and there were some plants and flowers blooming in a different places near the location of the sitting attendants. Also, there were a lot of windows located on the first floor. It made the surroundings very bright, and you would not need to light up the candles and oil lamps that were located in different places in the hall. It made the atmosphere in the hall a lot more cheerful. Max and Derek needed to wait for a long time because the queue was very long. It was understandable because the city was not small. 20 attendants were not enough for this job for sure.
When their turn came the clerk greeted them cheerfully with a mechanical voice: "Welcome! what can I help you with?"
"I need to rent a land in the city. What options do you have? I need a land with a length and width of 10 meters." Max said.
The attendant nodded and handed Max some kind of book with a lot of different options. When he examined them, he saw very high prices for the land. There were only a few normal priced places that were on the outskirts of the city or near places you don't want to be around.
"Why are the prices so high?" Max asked with furrowed brows.
The attendant looked at him, then looked at the sides and when she saw no one paying much attention she answered with a less professional tone: "Don't you know? It's all the noble families. They made the prices high so people will come to them and buy the land in a lower price then here, but it will still be much higher than the price the noble families paid to get those lands for."
Max smiled and said: "Thank you!" He then made a gesture that indicated that he wanted to shake her hand. The attendant hesitated for a moment and shook the starched hand. When she did this her face changed. There was a silver coin in her arms. She got the message and a smile bloomed on her face.
"What do you think is better for us to take from the normal priced lands?" Max asked with a serious face.
When the clerk saw that the guy in front of her became serious, she also changed her face and after a short contemplation answered: "I would pick one of the two. The land near the church that is housing an orphanage or a land near a blacksmith factory."
The answer was pretty simple. Max did not want hammers striking day and night near his gaming club. He preferred the kids more. Maybe he could find some talent from those little brats and could groom a strong subordinate. He had voice isolation in his club but the striking from the outside would irritate him and could cause him to blow this factory up. He was not fond of this turn of events.
"I will go with the land near the church. I don't want hammers striking on my eardrums all day." Max answered.
The attendant did not understand the part with the eardrums, but she still acknowledged the decision he made.
"Alright. The fee is 10 silver coins per month. If you will want to continue renting this land the price won't change for a year from now. Only after a year the price can increase by a maximum amount of 10 percent. The provider of the land is the church so it's available for rent only." The attendant explained.
"So, we are paying for the kids food or something like that right?" Max asked.
"Indeed." The attendant answered with her professional smile.
"Well, it's a deal then. We will start from a month time and then we will see how it goes." Max said.
"Alright. Please fill this form. If you don't know how to write or read, please let me know and I will help you." The attendant said.
"There is no need." Max answered. He filled the form very quickly and handed it to the clerk with the money. Max thought that 10 silver per month was a rip off deal but he did not want to go against the authorities for no reason. The clerk was surprised by this man abilities. she nodded and handed him an official form with all the data of his land. After Max got the agreement, he departed with Derek to the church. Max decided to walk by foot because he wanted to understand his surroundings better. He did not want to live in some kind of bubble that would blow up in his face. He always preferred to see the harsh truth and deal with it in the best way he could. The duo walked away from the center of the town to a poor area. People here looked more hostile and desparate. The streets were a lot dirtier than in the center and the houses were old or damaged. Derek frowned but Max was not surprised. He now saw the reason why the nobles did not try to take this land from the church. Those people on the streets will tear them to shreds. After exiting from those streets, they arrived at a small open alley. There was an old church located there. It was delipidated but sturdy and a big sign were hanged on its top that Max did not recognize. He did not really care either. If God was present, he would not let those people suffer such a way. Everyone would at least live in peace if God could help but that was not the case. When they got close to the entrance of the church, while trying to find their location to settle, the doors opened and a few kids ran out with an old lady walking towards the duo that arrived recently. The kids saw the two strangers and got wary. They distanced themselves from the duo and continued to play, while keeping their attention to Max and Derek. The old lady went to the two strangers and asked: "What is your purpose of coming here? We house only children. Not adults. If you don't have any other business here, please leave. This land is the property of the church."
"Chill lady. We rented a land here and we will be neighbors so don't be so mean to us. Here are the documents. Where is the land that we rented? It is not clear from the map we got from the city administration." Max answered. He saw that those people did not live a good life. The old lady just tried to do things right but doing things right had different consequences. Sometimes you get rewarded for doing the right thing and sometimes you will get punished for doing the same thing. It was just a question of the interests of the higher ups of the nation. In this case it was apparent that taking care of the weak was not supported by the government or the noble families.
The old lady relaxed a little after hearing Max speak and said: "Your land is located 10 meters on the right from the church. Please enjoy your stay here. My name is Ammy and I'm assigned as the leader of this church. This is Elena, she will be my successor in taking care of the children."
Max and Derek looked at the young and attractive young women that was standing in the entrance to the church. She was in her early twenties and was around 1.65m tall. She had a blonde hair with blue eyes. Very pretty face of some model and toned body. Max thought that it was a waste to keep such a beautiful woman taking care of the kids. There were also a few observations that he made with his appraisal skill, but it was too early to interact with the old lady, Elena and the kids. He needed them to drop their guard to make something happen.