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As night fell upon the town, I arrived at the mansion, all alone. In times like these, some real estate guy would normally give you a tour of the property, and that"s what I was hoping would happen, but the shop owner of Salamas just said…

"Leave all the miscellaneous matters to me."

And what exactly is there to take care of? —I asked, to which he threw excuses like making the contract, registration at the public office, the lack of furniture, and so on. Naturally, I wasn"t satisfied with that, and when I suggested he could just do that at a later time, he thought for a bit.

"I want to guarantee your comfort as quickly as possible, so I will have to take care of that right now."

Well, it was plain as day that he was just scared of going to this mansion, so I didn"t bother asking anymore. Taking out the house key that I received from him, I pa.s.sed the fence that surrounded the area, and quickly went inside the building. With a lamp in hand, I carefully and thoroughly checked every single room.

I found a living room, parlor, bedroom, and more. There were around 20 rooms, making this quite the formidable mansion. Though it doesn"t feel like anyone has been living here for a while, furniture and necessities were properly lined up.

"I guess they ran away."

At the very least, acquiring furniture and the like doesn"t seem necessary, and with this much gathered here, I couldn"t imagine that the businessman wasn"t aware of this. Laughing to myself, I went up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. Since this mansion had a balcony, I went outside. With this mansion being located on the outskirts of town, I was granted a sweeping view of the town at night. The lamps and torches from inside the city were burning fiercely, creating quite a beautiful sight from up here, and at the same time, I got a feeling that I was a member of the elite, owning such a grand mansion. Since this mansion was originally pretty expensive, this scenery was very likely included in the price.

I was feeling pretty good. After watching the night scenery for a bit longer, I looked for the most comfortable-looking bedroom and lay down on the bed. The bed felt a tad bit too big for my taste, and although it took me a while to fall asleep in this new environment, it didn"t take long before I could feel my consciousness drift away.

The next day, after finishing my daily quota of one mountain bull, I went to stroll around the town. Of course, I could have earned more today, but since I finally got a mansion of my own, I wanted to upgrade it a bit more. Though the furniture wasn"t anything to complain about, I"d love to improve it a bit with my own touch and get things I could actually use in my daily life. For example, since I had trouble falling asleep, exchanging the pillow and futon was a must. But, even before that, there was something more pressing.

"I want to hire a maid."

Coming to Salamas Real Estate, I spoke these words to the store owner, who responded with a worried expression.

"A maid, is it?"

"Yeah, a maid. Keeping that mansion clean all on my own is clearly impossible."

"I see, so that is your intention."

"…Are you that scared? Just because of the rumours?"

"Of course not," said Salamas, flinching a bit before clearing his throat. "Let me offer you one from our company. Thinking about it, it would seem off for someone who lives in that mansion to not have a maid, yes."

"So you"re handling this as well?"

"Naturally," said Salamas, sounding considerably confident.

Seeing that gap in his behavior, I felt like teasing him a bit more.

"So you have maids who would come to a haunted mansion?"

"Don"t worry, we will take care of everything," confirmed Salamas with a straight face.

Not having expected that reaction, I commented with an intrigued "Oh?"

"No matter what house we"re talking about… Even if it was the residence of a homicidal demon, as long as the price is being paid, we will offer you a trustworthy maid."

"Is that so? That should be good then."

"I"m pleased to hear that. Then, what kind of maid were you hoping for?"

"What kind of maid… Let"s see…" I started pondering.

As soon as I get a mansion, I want a maid! That"s what I decided, and that"s why I made my way here to Salamas, but I didn"t give it any thought until now. Talking about maids, there are two types: the one that"s reliable and good at her job, and the clumsy maid.

An impudent, brazen maid wearing a long skirt, properly doing her job.

A clumsy mini-skirt wearing maid who constantly fails at her job, but looks cute while doing it.

Which one should I take?

"…A maid that properly does her job, I guess."

"Understood. With the future in mind, I would suggest hiring a head maid.

"A head maid, huh? Yeah, that sounds nice."

Imagining it happen, I felt my blood pumping in excitement. The head maid, ordering her subordinates around. And I would be the one to use her. Whoa, that sounds crazy good!

"Understood, then I will look into it further. One last thing."

"Yeah?"

"Between a slave maid and a maid with a normal origin, which do you prefer?"

"The slave." I gave an immediate answer, like the shot of a gun.

Of course I would. You think I would let this chance slip by?

"To think there would be slaves here… Then again, I should have expected that."

Strolling through the town during the afternoon, I mused over Salamas"s last question. After that conversation, I stepped out of the building. Salamas told me that preparing someone immediately would be impossible, so he asked me to stop by again tomorrow, and that"s where we ended up. Now that that"s done, I was thinking about what to do with the rest of my time. Eventually, I ended up strolling around the city. Spotting a random store that piqued my interest, I decided to enter.

The place was akin to a restaurant. Located in the corner of the town, it was quite a bustling place.

"Welcome to Pros Pavillon."

Barely having entered, a young woman wearing a kerchief and ap.r.o.n approached me. I see, so the waitresses here are supposed to lure in customers with their looks, huh?

"What would you like?"

"Ah, umm." I gazed deeper inside the store.

They did have a menu, but all I could see was gibberish and random jargon.

"I don"t really know what to get, so do you have any recommendations?"

"Dear customer, are you a traveller per chance?"

"Well, something like that? I just came to this town, so I thought I might stay here for a while."

"Is that so? Then, how about some mountain bull fried rice? Frying the specialty of this town, the mountain bull, as well as some aromatic rice, is a very popular dish on our menu."

"Then, I"ll take that." Yet again, an immediate response.

Oh right, I went hunting mountain bulls like a mad man, but never actually got to enjoy the meat, even though it"s supposed to be mouth-watering.

"Then, mountain bull fried rice it is."

"Ah, a big portion then."

"A big portion it is."

The woman gave me a cheerful smile and disappeared into the back of the store. After waiting for a few minutes, she came back with a plate, the fried rice on top of it.

"Sorry for the wait."

"Whoa, that looks crazy delicious. Oh yeah, what"s the price of this anyway?"

"That would be ten copper coins."

"Umm, what about this?"

Since I didn"t have any copper coins on me, I took out a single silver coin and placed it on the table. When I did, the woman showed a rather troubled expression.

"A silver coin, is it? Umm."

"Is it not enough?"

"No, no, it"s the opposite. It"s more than enough, but I was just contemplating whether we have enough change."

"Have enough change? Ah."

She probably meant it in the sense of small coins. Yeah, that happened a few times in the past when I went to a convenience store.

"Then, just get me something else so that it rounds up to one silver coin."

"Is that fine?"

"As long as it"s tasty."

When I answered like that, the woman gave another bright smile, took the silver coin, and yet again disappeared into the back of the store. In the meantime, I decided to try the fried rice.

"Whoa, this is crazy good!"

I had some high expectations since it was a recommended dish, but it was even better than I expected. It had this nostalgic taste to it, giving this more of a home-cooked feeling, rather than eating in a restaurant. The mountain bull meat was incredibly soft and juicy—the second I bit into it, the meat"s juices spread inside my mouth, the taste tickling my taste buds. Being so overwhelmed, I kept gulping down the rice in front of me. Before I even realized it, I had already eaten half of the portion. It"s more than I would normally eat, but it"s still far from enough to satisfy me.

I took a deep breath, looking forward to what the waitress would bring me next, and contemplated if I should order some more of the mountain bull meat. And it happened when I was thinking that.

"It"s too dangerous to gather any more copper coins in this town."

My strengthened hearing picked up some suspicious words. Since it seemed to be related to the matter of change from before, I unconsciously focussed my ears on their conversation.