As I leaned down to inspect a low-lying shrub, Roxanne identified it for me. Apparently, it was called rosemary. I recognized the name—was it the same as the rosemary on Earth, or just a similar species?
"Without anyone to tend it, it’s bound to end up like this," the caretaker offered as an excuse.
I see. A neglected garden lowered the property value. That must have been why Roxanne had gone out of her way to mention that the rosemary looked weak. She was certainly sharp.
"It must be quite a chore when they’ve withered this much," I remarked.
"That’s true," Roxanne agreed.
We were successfully pressing our advantage.
"It’s nothing we can’t handle," the caretaker countered. "You could start growing other herbs and such almost immediately."
Growing herbs, huh? Looking at the surrounding houses, most of them seemed to have something planted in their yards. There were no fences or railings, so even if they called them gardens, they probably didn't grow many vegetables. There was no way to prevent thieves from snatching something like a watermelon. Even setting aside monsters, there were likely pests like tanuki roaming around.
"Would it be possible to get some seeds from you?" Roxanne asked.
"If you're willing to maintain the garden, it would be a blessing for us as well. I’ll let you have some of the varieties we use ourselves. As for a hoe, we carry those in our shop."
"If we have the tools, we should be able to manage," Roxanne said.
She seemed genuinely interested in starting a herb garden. On the other hand, the caretaker was already trying to upsell us a hoe. She certainly didn't miss an opportunity to make a sale.
"We’ll probably have to dig the whole thing up once," I noted.
"That sounds like a considerable amount of work," Roxanne added.
We didn't let up, refusing to give her an opening for a counterattack.
"...As for the house itself, we recently repaired the wooden windows and cleaned the interior. Once you move your furniture in, it will be ready to live in immediately."
Sensing she was on the defensive, the lady headed toward the house. It was a complete victory for us.
The caretaker unlocked the door and stepped inside. Roxanne and I followed. Everyone kept their shoes on; apparently, there was no custom of removing footwear before entering a home. I had Roxanne wearing her equipped sandals, but it seemed like slaves and the poor generally went barefoot.
The interior consisted of austere rooms with exposed concrete.
"Oh."
It was definitely large. By Japanese standards, it could easily be called a mansion—more like an old family estate or a CEO's residence.
"The previous tenant made various modifications, so you're free to renovate the interior however you like. One of the major additions was the flush toilet."
The lady strode through the house and opened a door at the back. The small room beyond was the lavatory.
"A flush toilet?"
"If you pour water into the upper reservoir, it drains out into the ditch outside. Since we draw water from the nearby river, the ditch never gets particularly foul."
Calling it a "toilet" was a bit generous; it was essentially a seat connected directly to a drainpipe. It seemed that by pouring water into a tank above, the force would flush it out. "Flush" might have been an overstatement, but it was infinitely better than collecting waste in a jar and having to dump it manually later.
"I see."
"Fetching the water is a bit of a hassle in this location, though. It was a hobby of the previous tenant. They actually tried to build a second one elsewhere, but I put a stop to that."
"A second toilet?"
"I made them stop halfway through, so only the drainage pipe is connected. It’s in the room beyond that one."
I opened the door she pointed out and found an ordinary room. It wasn't a tiny cubicle like the other toilet. Why would anyone want to build a toilet in a place like this? Was the previous tenant just eccentric? Or maybe they had some strange fetish... No, probably not.
The room next to that one was clearly the kitchen, judging by the sink and the counters. Roxanne called the lady over and started asking questions. Since she’d mentioned she could cook, she was likely concerned about the kitchen’s functionality.
"I'm going to take a quick look at the second floor."
Taking advantage of the fact that the caretaker was occupied with Roxanne, I headed upstairs alone. I needed to conduct my Warp experiment.
Once I reached the top of the stairs, I could sense exactly where Roxanne was. This must have been the effect of being in a party. To be safe, I removed Roxanne from the party. I visualized the room next to me, aimed at the wall, and mentally commanded: Warp. Since movement was normally party-based, I wasn't sure how it would behave when she wasn't included.
A black wall manifested in front of me. I stepped through.
I emerged normally in the adjacent room. Success.
So it wasn't an issue. Apparently, Shielding Cement blocked Field Walk, but Warp could bypass it. Since it worked inside the Labyrinth as well, Warp was proving to be incredibly versatile.
However, I now had one more thing to worry about. I had to be careful about where I warped. If I accidentally moved into a location that was supposedly inaccessible via Field Walk or Dungeon Walk, it would raise a lot of questions. I needed to confirm a location was accessible by standard movement magic before I used Warp to go there.
The walls of the Adventurer Guild were a safe bet since everyone used them. I’d also seen people warping to trees in the forest, so natural wood seemed fine. I had to be cautious with building walls, though, since I never knew what materials they were made of. So far, I’d mostly limited myself to the guild’s interior walls and the small rooms in the Labyrinth, so I hadn't made any blunders yet.
After looking around the second floor for a bit to avoid looking suspicious, I went back downstairs.
"What do you think? The main drawback of this house is that the well is quite far, so you have to walk a distance to fetch water. But that shouldn't be an issue, right?" the lady greeted me as I reached the bottom, casting a meaningful glance at Roxanne.
In other words, it wasn't an issue because I could just make my slave do the heavy lifting.
"It will be no problem for me. I think it is a wonderful property," Roxanne said.
I wasn't sure how much of that was her being polite. I wondered if she realized I could just create water with magic.
"Is that so?"
Since I had Warp and Water Wall, the house’s primary flaw wasn't a flaw at all. That made it a great deal. The only question was whether I should commit to the very first house I saw. However, shopping around would take time. Since it was cheaper than staying at an inn, I decided to take it for now; if it didn't work out, we could always move later. Roxanne seemed to like it, so it couldn't be that bad.
"Well?" the caretaker asked.
"It seems like a good fit."
"Since the garden is such a mess, I’ll set the price at 45,000 Nahl for a one-year contract. Since you won't be able to move in today anyway, we'll start the contract tomorrow. It will run until this same day next year—the 14th of Spring."
So today was the 14th of Spring.
The price seemed reasonable and didn't feel like a rip-off. The caretaker didn't strike me as a bad person, either. She had the sharp eyes to identify Roxanne’s status immediately, but she was kind enough to start the contract from the following day. Caretakers were likely chosen for their character, and with multiple districts, there was probably enough competition to keep them honest.
I looked at Roxanne, and she gave me a small nod.
"Alright. I'll take the house."
I gave the lady a firm nod of my own to confirm my intent.
After that, she led us to the Knight Order Station to check my Intelligence Card. Apparently, despite being a caretaker, she couldn't use the identification skills herself since her job was Merchant. My own Merchant job didn't have that skill yet, either.
"I’ll prepare the paperwork. Can you write?" the lady asked once we returned to the hardware shop.
It seemed illiteracy was common here.
"Is it alright if she writes for me?"
"Of course."
"Roxanne, if you would."
"Certainly, Master."
As the two of them prepared the documents, I browsed the shop. It seemed to carry a bit of everything as far as metal goods went. It was likely a fairly prestigious business in this world. Among the various items, I spotted a wok.
"What's this?"
"That’s a pot used by professional chefs. It’s designed for cooking over high flames."
"I see."
It wasn't exactly a wok, but the resemblance was striking. Since the purpose was the same, the form had naturally followed. Feeling a pang of nostalgia, I stared at it for a long moment.
"We’re the only shop in this area that carries them, so you won't see them often. Would you like to take it?"
"I'll take it along with the rent. What's the total?"
"I’m glad to see someone appreciate our specialty cookware. I’ll give you a special discount. Let’s call it 31,850 Nahl for everything."
Jackpot.
I’d tried it on a whim, but the 30% Merchant discount really did work when buying from another Merchant. The price had dropped significantly. I handed over three gold coins along with the necessary silver and copper. Once the payment was settled, the lady handed me the key to the house. The contract was official.
"Thank you. You’ve been a big help."
"The pleasure is mine. I look forward to seeing you around."
After exchanging farewells with the caretaker, we stepped outside.
"Should we wait until tomorrow to buy the rest of our supplies?" I asked.
"I think we should look at furniture today," Roxanne suggested. "We don't know if they'll be able to deliver on the same day we buy them."
"Good point. The furniture shop was on the next street over, wasn't it?"
We consulted briefly and headed toward the furniture shop I’d noticed during our walk earlier. I was still carrying the wok. It almost looked like I was carrying a shield—well, maybe not quite.
Every piece of furniture in the shop was secondhand. Apparently, that was the norm here. They offered to replace the mattress on the bed with a new one, so the "used" aspect didn't bother me. We picked out the essentials: a bed, a table and chairs, a cupboard, and a closet.
The clerk there also had the Merchant job. Since I was buying several items at once, the 30% discount kicked in. This meant my usual strategy of buying only the bare minimum and adding more later was actually less efficient. If I wanted to save money, I had to buy in bulk.
I opted for a six-person dining set and a fairly large closet. I chose a large bed as well. This 30% discount was a dangerous skill; it practically begged you to overspend to make it "worth it." Between the two canes and this wok, I really had to be careful.
The shop staff offered to deliver everything by cart, so I arranged for them to bring it to the house around noon tomorrow.
We walked back to the Adventurer Guild, and from there, I warped us straight to the new house. The contract didn't technically start until tomorrow, but I figured no one would mind.
"Um... Master? Wasn't this house supposed to be built with Shielding Cement?" Roxanne asked as I set the wok down on the floor.
"Well, yeah. But I tested it out earlier. It looks like Field Walk won't work, but my Warp can get through just fine."
Honestly, I wasn't sure if I would have rented the place if Warp hadn't worked.
"Wait... isn't that incredible?"
"Maybe."
If I could warp like this back in modern Japan, I could have committed the perfect crime or pulled off a locked-room mystery with ease. In this world, the existence of Field Walk was a standard variable people planned for. Warp, however, was a different beast entirely. I wondered if there were high-security vaults or safety deposit boxes I could potentially bypass. Not that I was going to try, of course.
Come to think of it, if Warp had been blocked, had Roxanne been planning to walk from the house to the Labyrinth or the guild every single time? I suppose she probably was. Or maybe we could have just set up a proper privacy screen. That sounded like a hassle, though.
Maybe I was just getting lazy. Once you'd gotten a taste of travel magic, moving on foot felt like a massive chore. A big part of the reason I’d wanted to rent a house in the first place was to avoid the daily walk from the Vale Inn to the guild. In my own home, I could warp whenever I wanted without anyone seeing. It was pure luxury.
I warped from the house to the Adventurer Guild in Vale. It really was effortless. From tomorrow on, I could just warp directly home at the end of the day. This was going to be an easy habit to get used to.