Transition to Another World, Land Mines Included. 052

ACT 2: UNION
052: Let’s Get a House! Part 2

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…The third house.

“The land size for this lot is between the first and second. The building is one-storied, but it’s quite spacious. It is a little old, though, and may need some renovations.”

“Any bad history in this place?”

Haruka had become much more discerning after the incident at the previous house, and was now looking at Diola with a raised eyebrow. Diola just smiled and shook her head.

“This place is fine. It was built when this city was still a small village, and the owners worked on the farm over there. Now that they have grown old, they have moved into a smaller house near the city center.”

So the city of Rafan was founded from a village and its surrounding farmland, and while such houses were common in the past, most had since been divided up and used to build many smaller houses. As such, these large lots had become quite rare.

“This place costs 12 gold coins, but I think it’s the best choice that meets all your conditions.”

“That’s really quite expensive…” Haruka murmured with a frown.

I didn’t know how much rent was supposed to cost in this world, but compared to the price of renting our rooms at the Slumbering Bear, this did feel a little pricey. I didn’t think rent was this expensive back in Japan either.

“Shall we take a look inside first, Haruka?” Yuki asked.

“Agreed, since we’re already here,” Natsuki added.

“Alright. May we go inside, Diola-san?”

“Yes, of course. Let me open the door.”

Diola unlocked the door and we all filed inside, breaking up to inspect the different rooms.

The humidity level of the air in this world was slightly lower than in Japan, so there were not many places with rot, but a part of the house seemed to have been drenched in rain. The laundry room was also narrow, which meant that it would be difficult for us to construct a bathtub here.

Aside from that, there were four rooms that could be converted into bedrooms, one larger room, and a sizable barn. The only thing I didn’t like was the kitchen, which was small and looked to be in bad shape. Maybe it was because we’d been in Aera’s kitchen yesterday, so I knew how nice a good kitchen could look. In fact, I doubt we could cook anything delicious in this place.

We took more time to wander around, then gathered back at the front of the house. Looking at the others, I could tell that none of us were impressed.

“What do you guys think?” Haruka asked.

“…It’s a maybe?” I answered after some hesitation.

Of course, the place was still livable, but if I had a choice, I would definitely say no.

“My answer is no.”

“Me too…”

Unlike me, Tohya and Natsuki were totally honest with their opinions, despite the presence of Diola standing right beside us. Yuki said nothing, but the forced smile on her face told us everything we needed to know.

“I’m not a fan of this place too. And it’s a little expensive… Don’t you agree, Diola-san?” Haruka probed.

“I see. Well, this house holds lots of memories for the owners, so I guess they felt that it deserves high value…”

That was true. If the valuation was done by a real estate company, they would have done it objectively, but since the valuation was done by the owners themselves, they might not see the flaws and thus overestimated the building’s value.

“You don’t have more lots to show us?”

“Not really. We don’t have that many spacious lots in this area. It’s not a place where rich people usually live, so most houses are small. If there were other lots similar to this nearby, I’m sure the owners would have been more realistic in their rent estimate…”

Since this was one of the only large lots in the area, the owners were free to ask whatever price they wanted. Of course they could lower the price if there were no renters, but since they hadn’t done so, it meant that they weren’t in a hurry to rent the place out.

“Hmm. Can we have some time to discuss this, Diola-san?”

“Sure. I know it’s a tough decision. Of course, it’s perfectly fine if you decide not to rent any of the places after all.”

“Thank you. We’ll think about it and let you know.”

We all moved slightly away from Diola and put our heads together.

“What do we do now?”

“Hmm, this is tough. The first lot doesn’t have a house, and this one is in such a bad state,” Natsuki sighed.

However, if we wanted to move in quickly, we didn’t have a choice at all.

“We haven’t seen the second house. Shall we try to work on it?” Yuki suggested.

“What do you mean, work on it?”

“…Like calling in an exorcist?” She asked, holding a finger against her chin and tilting her head innocently.

“…You know any miko-san or nuns?”

“Oh, not at all. None of my family or relatives are the religious type. Anyway, if we’re talking about miko-san, you should ask Natsuki.”

She was right. After transitioning, Haruka’s hair color had changed, leaving Natsuki as the only one with pure black hair. Paired with her features which still looked somewhat Japanese, she definitely resembled a shrine maiden.

“Me? I mean, my ancestors used to run a shrine long ago… And there are some distant relatives who married into religion, but I personally have no connection to any of that.”

“Still better than me. Anyway, we don’t even know if the miko-san from Japan can get rid of ghosts in this world!”

…While Natsuki had true connections to authentic miko, it seemed that Yuki’s ideas all came from watching TV. To her, any girl waving a wooden ceremonial wand around probably qualified as a miko.

“Girls, have you forgotten about Haruka?” Tohya interjected.

“Haruka? A miko-san elf? Hmm… Maybe?” I mused.

I guess she could look nice in a miko’s clothes. I mean, traditional Japanese clothes do look best on women with no boobs, right?

“No, idiot! I meant her Light Magic! Isn’t that what the original purpose of Purification is for!?”

“……O-Ohh!? I see! Yeah, Purification isn’t supposed to be used for showers!” I stammered awkwardly.

“That’s right. It’s been such a convenient spell that I forgot about its original purpose,” Natsuki added.

How embarrassing to be called out by Tohya. I remember now, Purification was originally used to purify ‘unclean’ things.

“Haruka?”

Haruka shook her head.

“Yes, I can cast the spell, but I don’t think it’ll be powerful enough. I mean, if the problem can be solved by a simple spell cast by a beginner like me, then that beautiful royal house won’t be abandoned, right?”

“I guess you’re right. I just got carried away with the thought of being able to rent a royal’s house,” Yuki sighed.

So that was why she suggested exorcism in the first place. I guess I understand her feelings a little.

Haruka then took over the discussion.

“Anyway, let’s review our choices. We can give up on the first lot with the large garden, and find another place to rent. We can search in another area where rent is higher. We can continue living at the inn, or we can build a house on the first lot. That’s all I can think of. What do you guys think?”

“I don’t have any other ideas,” Natsuki replied. The rest of us nodded.

“I’d really like a place with a garden. It’ll be such a chore to leave the city every time I want to train,” Tohya added.

“Yeah. We definitely can’t do our training out on the streets,” I agreed.

“OK. Does everyone agree on this?”

Everyone nodded. It was essential for us to train every day, so we couldn’t afford to get a house without a place to practice freely.

“Did we also talk about having a house where we can do things that we can’t do while living at the inn? Like alchemy,” I shared.

Just like cooking, alchemy required special equipment and tools. We’d also need space if we wanted to buy books to study magic and alchemy. If we continued living at the inn, we’d have to give up on all these.

“Agreed. It’s great having delicious meals provided for at the inn, but it’ll be good if we can work on improving our own cooking Skills too, so I’d like to move out of the inn,” Yuki said.

“In that case, we’re left with the options that require the most money… So, how much money do we have right now?” Natsuki asked.

We were left with two choices: to rent a big house in a high-class residential area, or build a new house from scratch. Both sounded like they would cost a lot of money…

“To be honest, not much after we ordered chain mail for you girls,” Haruka sighed.

“Oops. Sorry.”

“And we don’t have anything to contribute…”

Yuki and Natsuki grimaced in embarrassment. However, I felt that it was a necessary expenditure. I mean, I didn’t want the girls to get hurt because they didn’t have armor.

I was just going to reassure them when Tohya cut in.

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s a necessary item anyway.”

“Yeah. Anyway, it’s much cheaper compared to Tohya’s armor,” I settled for teasing.

Natsuki was about the same build as me, while Yuki was the smallest in stature, so their chain mail hadn’t cost a lot.

As its name suggests, chain mail is made of metal knitted in chains, so the labor and material costs are proportional to the size of the piece. In short, larger pieces will cost more. Since Tohya was so tall and muscular, the price of his chain mail was twice as expensive as any of ours.

“…So I guess we don’t have a choice after all?”

“Not at this point.”

“So we’ll have to focus on earning money for now?”

“That’s our only option. Personally, I’d like for us to rent the first property and build a house there,” Haruka shared.

“I agree that there is a certain charm in designing and building our own house… But won’t that cost too much?” Natsuki asked doubtfully.

“Yeah. I’d rather rent a nice house if we can find one,” Yuki added.

However, the evil god had chosen(?) for us to transition to this city, a rural but peaceful place. As such, most of the residents are ordinary people instead of adventurers like ourselves. As the city grew bigger, many people migrated here to set up business and thus live in simple houses. In other words, there was simply no demand for large properties with a garden attached.

There were of course some large houses for aristocrats and the rich, which were sometimes left vacant for different reasons, but these were not places that we could afford anyway.

“So the only way to get a place we like is to build it ourselves. In order to do that, I’d like to earn money to buy the first lot,” Haruka concluded.

“Buy? But land isn’t a liquidated asset, so won’t it be better to invest in cash? I mean, we’re not planning to live in this city forever, are we?” Natsuki countered.

“That will be true if banking exists in this world. Besides, we’re still currently low-ranking adventurers,” Haruka reminded.

“I see, alright, so owning land in this world is actually better for us.”

“Yes, because land and buildings cannot be taken away. If we buy land, we can sell it if we want to leave the city. On the other hand, if we just rent, all the money we pay will forever be lost.”

“Especially if we sign a contract with the Guild.”

“Also, buying land is a good way to show the Guild that we’re spending the money that we earn.”

“I see, since they’ll know that we have the money to spend,” I added, joining in Haruka and Natsuki’s discussion.

We’d been selling Dindle to the Guild frequently, so anyone who knew the market price of the fruit could easily guess at how much we were earning. Of course, we’d spent most of that money on weapons and armor, but at first glance, the only item that was obviously expensive was my spear.

“Wait, what do you guys mean?” Tohya asked, confused.

“Well, if criminals know that we’re earning lots of money, they may try to attack us, so we need to show everyone that we’re spending that money away,” Haruka summarized. “We’ll need to continue living at the inn for some time, but I’d like to buy that plot of land as soon as we can.”

“But the rent is just 2 gold coins a month. How about renting it first to build our house, then buying the land after?”

“No, if we build the house first, then the owner probably won’t sell it to us. He’ll just chase us out and get the house for free.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Anyway, let’s go talk to Diola-san first.”

With that, Haruka called out to Diola, who had been hanging around a short distance away.

“Diola-san, is it possible for us to buy the first lot?”

“Buy? The owner was thinking of just renting it out…”

“Let’s say he puts it up for sale, how much will it cost?”

“You should be able to get it for just 400 gold coins, but it’s really up to the owner.”

400 gold coins sounded quite affordable to me, but I guess I was just used to exorbitant land prices in Japan. Either way, if we were to build a large house on the land, the construction would definitely end up costing more than the price of the land itself. As such, it would be a blessing to get the land for cheap, as long as we could sell it off again later with house attached.

“Can you help us to negotiate with the owner, Diola-san?”

“Negotiate…?”

Diola looked a little doubtful, so I guess she was probably unwilling to help. It made sense, since buying and selling houses wasn’t part of her job at the Guild.

“…Oh yeah, Nao, we’ve just about finished a large lot of dried Dindle, right?” Haruka suddenly asked.

Diola’s eyebrow twitched.

“Oh… Yes! We’ve got a good amount for our own consumption. Since it’s quite expensive, it’ll make a great gift too,” I smiled, playing along.

“Exactly. It’ll be such a wonderful present for anyone who helps us with any favor.”

We were obviously baiting her, but Diola didn’t seem to have caught on at all. Instead, her frown was quickly replaced with a smile.

“H-Haruka-san? I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try my best to talk to the owner?”

“Oh, you don’t need to force yourself. I’m sure we’ll be able to find another similar lot easily…” Haruka said, a small smirk tugging on her lips.

“Oh, of course, but you may not be able to find a lot as affordable as this one! I think owning land in this area is such a good investment!”

“Really? So, will you help us?”

“Of course, please leave it to me!”

“Great. We’ll need to earn a little more money first, so there’s no rush. We don’t mind buying at market price, but if the owner is willing to sell it for cheaper, we’ll just have to reward the negotiator well, won’t we?”

“I’ll do my best!!”

With that final statement, Haruka managed to get a confident response from Diola.

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Translator Note:
Miko are shrine maidens in Japan.

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