Chapter 86: Laundry

Translator: Haruchin   Editor: Marky

「We no longer have to worry about macular disease whenever summer comes… 」

We’re still in the process of negotiating the sale of the medicine formula and haven’t signed anything yet. Seems like it’ll be difficult for the guild to buy it with purely cash, so we’re also working out the conditions to see if they can offer anything else besides money.

Is it really that hard to deal with folks who don’t need special privileges, status and prestige? Well, it’s okay with me if they happily pay me cash, but if they’re gonna say that they don’t have that much money to spare, then of course I’ll be put on the spot.

Apparently, they also want to keep some cash on hand so that they can purchase the materials for when the second expedition team returns. Most of the members who joined the expedition were just folks who tagged along because of the Gold-ranks, so once it ends, they’re going to leave this city — and it’ll be difficult to offer anything else aside from money as compensation to them.

They had to pay a lot of money just to buy demon stones during the first subjugation expedition too. Well, I’m fine waiting until they sold all their raw materials off elsewhere, or until after all the finished products were sold.

「 By the way, is the house on 『Ash Fox’s Back 』for sale? 」

The alley leading to my house facing Ash’s house is called 『Ash’s Fox’s Back 』./

It had a different name in the past, apparently, but they started calling it as such since the time of the demon’s stampede led by the ash fox. By the way, the street that took the worst damage along the city wall became known as the 『Ash Fox’s Claw 』.

「Oh, Jean-sama is currently renting a house, right? 」
「 Yes, and I’m curious as to what kind of people will buy it, since we’ll be neighbors. 」
「 Please wait for a moment. 」

It’s just a casual question meant to be a breather, but the staff went off somewhere else. He doesn’t really have to be so serious about it. If my neighbor’s a nuisance then I’ll just move out.

I stared at the documents while sipping the black tea they served. Their reception had gone up a notch since the last time I was here; if it were before, they would have served me with tea decocted from herbs, or beer with low alcohol content. Black tea is expensive.

「 Sorry for the wait. 」
Ms. Staff returned with new documents after a while.

「 Jean-sama, do you want to consider buying a house for good? 」
「 Ah, no, I’ve lived in this city for only less than a year. 」

They have a rule in this city that you can only buy a house along a narrow alley after you have stayed here for five years without any mishaps. Only after ten years can you buy a place along the main street.

Moreover, you need to have an endorsement from the designated people or organization if you want to live in an area where the rich live, or in places that are heavily guarded. Oftentimes, there are also places where the famous guilds gather, so urban residences aren’t something you can just buy as long as you have the money.

「The Commerce Guild and the Apothecary Guild can provide the endorsement. We are currently in the process of confirming whether you can directly purchase the house you are living in, but purchasing a house in a better street should be possible after some time. 」
Ms. Staff happily pushed the offer to me. She’s quite a beauty with honey-colored hair and freckles dotting her face, and she moves briskly.

So, these new documents here are the properties handled by the guild, huh.

「As for the house on 『Ash Fox’s Back 』, it is indeed for sale. It has just been consigned to the Commerce Guild, and since the timing isn’t right, we plan to put it up for short-term lease until the subjugation is over and things have settled down. 」

An expedition team has been formed, so rumors of the possibility of another monster wave are now rampant. That’s probably the reason why they think the timing is bad, same as the folks who moved out. It’s either no one was willing to buy the place, or they wanted to beat the price down. Even if my house is supporting the wall, there shouldn’t be a lot of people who want to buy a house on the side of a wall that had been previously destroyed.

I’ll probably be happy with how cheap I can get it if I did buy it.

「Confidentially speaking, Amadeo-sama, one of the Gold-ranks, is searching for someone, so it’s highly likely that he will settle here even after the Adventurer’s Guild’s official subjugation expedition is over. So it’s a given that those people will do short-term rentals, but we’re also targeting the hangers-on. 」

Uwah, that’s so depressing!

「 If it’s possible to buy the house I’m currently renting then I would like to do so. 」
And remodel it like crazy then rent it all out to the townspeople!!

She also briefed me about the real estate handled by the Commerce Guild just in case it might catch my interest, but I just said that I prefer the house I’m living in now. The Guild is subtly urging me to choose a place that was more expensive and would give them more benefits for the referral, but if I moved to a place with a bigger yard and something happened,, I’ll have more stuff to do again…

It was confirmed that I can buy the house I’m renting during our discussion, so it was decided that I’ll purchase the two houses together. This is just a bonus, but I also got permission to install a door from the kitchen opening to 『Ash Fox’s Claw 』Street.

It’ll be directly under the arch attached to the city walls and the second and third floor, but having just one entrance is actually inconvenient for me. Setting Ash aside, Butler might discover that I’m just faking my entry and exit and it’s bothering me.

And so, the compensation I received included the two houses — the one I’m currently living in and the adjacent one I asked about earlier — along with the permission to build a rear entrance. I’m not sure whether I really need that permission to create a new entrance, but I still asked just in case, given that my house is built to support the city wall, after all.

Moreover, most of the houses share the rear, sides and walls of the building, so making a new entrance seems physically impossible, unless the side of the house is facing the street just like Ash’s.

If I create a hole in my wall, I might end up in somebody else’s house or experience something like that. So don’t even think about it unless it’s a stand-alone (?) house like a nobles’ manor or the houses built outside the city wall.

I requested the Commerce Guild to rent the second house out on my behalf after I’m done with remodelling it. But before that, I wanted to put a commission for sewage-related jobs first, but it seems that they’re already packed so they won’t be able to do it any time soon. Hey, that means the city’s sanitation is improving so no complaints here.

So, what kind of make-over shall we do, huh? It’ll be structurally hard to add a bathroom and a kitchen in each room, and there’s the problem with the well either way. So, all facilities that need water should be on the first floor, then. Let’s look around the other rented houses and think about it first, shall we?

Editor’s Note: excerpt from the next chapter to better explain the above content; The city within the walls is very crowded. Just like in condominiums and flats, they sell the living spaces per floor, like, you can buy the second floor, and they call it rooms. I assume the author actually means rent instead of buy, though I guess it could be “buy” like they do in big cities like New York USA.