Rebirth Online World

Polymath Redux – To the place that I belong
Chapter XXII

Waking up to the darkened skies, as night fall came Rena opened her eyes for the second time. She wasn’t exactly sure how long she had been sleeping but for some reason she thought that it was probably more than the normal amount. Still, she couldn’t deny that she was feeling a lot better now.

“Feeling better already?”

Next to the crackling of a small campfire sat two individuals. One was a strong-willed, red haired woman, Irina, who sat in silence, polishing her sword. The other was a slender man in a white overcoat, Mordred. He stared back at her with a tender gaze as the light of the fire reflected off his smooth and pale face. Perhaps it was due to the proximity of the campfire but Rena could feel her face heating up rapidly, prompting her to turn her gaze in panic.

“Ah, y- yes… I’m feeling much better now. Thank you… for saving me.”

Mordred returned a gentle smirk and nodded.

“It was the least I could do, for a friend.”

‘Friend’, that word reverberated throughout her mind. She had wished for it many times before but to think that this man really thought of her as such, she couldn’t be happier. Not knowing how to exactly express her happiness, all Mordred could see was her subtly fidgeting and grinning to herself.

A small growl came from Rena’s stomach as she had not eaten for the duration of her sleep. Quietly laughing it off at the cute sound of her stomach’s growl, Mordred took out a piece of bred coated in jam out of his [inventory] and handed it over to her along with a warm cup of tea.

Though Rena was curious as to where he was keeping these things she didn’t really ask and just accepted his hospitality. It may simply have been due to the effects of long sleep but as she dug her teeth into the bread she thought it was the most delicious thing she had eaten. This was evident by the large smile and satisfied expression she was making as she ate.

“This is delicious!”

She exclaimed with an almost exhilarated glee from just a single piece of bread.

“Is that so? Then I’ll leave more here if you need any.”

Mordred replied as he stood up, looking as though he was about to go somewhere which troubled Rena. She wanted to spend a bit more time with him; she wasn’t able to talk to him all that much since he always seemed so busy but at the very least right now she wanted him to stay.

As if to reassure her Mordred placed his hands on her shoulder in a gentle manner and spoke.

“I’ll be back soon so don’t worry. I just want to find a suitable place for us to stay since we can’t be staying in this tent forever.”

Accepting his excuse Rena nodded with a smile.

“Okay, please be back soon.”

Like a weak plea for help, she asked him in a manner that suggested that she would be lonely without him. Mordred let out a small laugh, indeed Irina didn’t really speak all that much so that could certainly be the case.

“Irina, keep her safe for me okay?”

“Yes master, I’ll stake my name on it.”

When the Crimson Dragon Lord stakes her name on it then it was reassuring for Mordred. With her powers there really shouldn’t be anything in the vicinity that could even come close to be called a threat. With his heart reassured with her safety Mordred instantly vanished as though he had been engulfed by the shadows.

…

Real estate in this world was extremely simple; it had to be without any sort of computerized system in place to check all of the lands. Any abandoned or newly discovered land belonged to the nation that the land was based in and to buy that land one just needed to pay in gold, upfront to the nation’s ‘land management bureau’. Of course that place wasn’t anything as fancy as the name implied.

All the procedure entailed was that a person pick from a magically oriented topographical map the piece of land that they wanted to buy and then they would pay gold and that land would be theirs. All abandoned building and whatever was found inside would also rightly be theirs. That being said land inside the city was often many times more expensive than anything outside, which made sense since they had the protection of the city and all of its convenience.

However for Mordred who could fast travel to most places the distance between shops might as well have been non-existent. Defense in the city was meaningess to Mordred since it would be impossible for any average person to invade his future abode. He also preferred a more remote and isolated location for secrecy purposes.

Mordred cast [Alter: Appearance] to shift into Morgana’s form as the official owner of the land would be Morgana Daltress. Of course shifting into this form didn’t dispel the summoning of Morgana that was at the Baliazoural capital, so there was no worry. With that ‘Morgana Daltress’ entered the Land Management Bureau.

Since it would be odd for such an outstanding beauty to be walking out at night by herself, he summoned a life-like doll from his [puppetry] skill subsection. This doll didn’t have any life and moved simply through Mordred’s magic, meaning that it had no self-autonomy and only acted when commanded to. The doll was a slightly large and masculine figure in a butler’s uniform; this was to be his escort.

The current time was around 7PM; evening, meaning that most adventurers were returning from their jobs and people were going out to have dinner. Even though there was no electricity in this world, most of the modern conveniences were handled by the extremely adaptable item known as ‘magic stones’. They could be used for a myriad of different purposes, with one of them being used as street lights; so even this world had cities that were lit up during the night.

Many gazes fell upon Mordred’s womanly figure as he walked into the building, escorted by his doll butler. He could almost feel himself sympathizing with the people as he himself knew the allure of this form very well. Approaching the counter, the receptionist woman stared at her with a mixture of jealousy and admiration.

“Excuse me. I’ve come here with the expressed desire to purchase land.”

Mordred asked in a soothing voice.

“Ah, y- yes, one moment please.”

The receptionist briefly left her desk to call out to her manager. After a few minutes of waiting the receptionist came out with an older man who looked like a real haggler; a neat suit, slightly balding white hair and a mischievous grin. Though whatever price he demanded Mordred didn’t really care.

“Greetings milady, my name is Adren Delfore. It seems you wish to purchase land, then please come this way.”

The man guided Mordred towards a remote room with a large map of the surrounding areas of Solaris all laid out in fairly good detail. Some of the areas were greyed out, most probably meaning that they were not for sale or already bought, but most of those were located within the city which didn’t interest him.

“So, what sort of estate were you looking to purchase?”

The man asked as he rubbed his hands together, a large unpleasant grin on his face.

“I’d like to purchase a remote land on the outskirts of the city, preferably one already with a building in it.”

The man tilted his head, thinking to himself whether he heard himself right. ‘Outside the city’? he thought.

“Are you sure? Outside the city can sometimes be dangerous as monsters roam near them. Not only that, most of the inhabitants on the outskirts are the peasantry and commoners, so for such an… ornate woman like yourself to be living amongst them…”

The man trailed off as he insinuated that it would be unpleasant to live amongst peasants and commoners. Though to be honest the real reason was because most of the lands on the outskirts of the city were fairly cheap, specifically because of those reasons that he had mentioned.

“Yes, I’m quite fine with that, so please recommend me a place with a pre-established building.”

“Right… let’s see then…”

The man played around with the map to look for the area he deemed most suitable(expensive) that was outside the city walls. It looked at the map for a few moments before picking a location. It was near a forested area and on top of a hill making it naturally defensible by the land and secluded. It was located towards the west side of Solaris meaning it was facing the opposite direction to the Baliazoural empire.

There was even a slightly run down mansion there that was abandoned by its former inhabitants and in accordance to Xagontetian law it rightly belonged to the government for sale. These traits made the land a little bit more expensive compared to any of the lands outside the city.

“Would this one be acceptable?”

It really was what Mordred had been looking for.

“Yes, of course. How much will that be?”

The man was indeed a haggler but he wasn’t someone to cheat his customers. After all he was also part of the government so he decided on the fairest price for a place outside the city walls.

“Hmm, for this place, perhaps 300 gold should be acceptable.”

“Is that so? Very well.”

Mordred snapped his fingers and the doll butler withdrew a small bag of gold from his inner pockets and placed in on the table, with a small jangling sound being made as it landed.

“There should be around 300 gold in there. I will wait for you to check.”

“No, no, it’s quite alright. I will take your word for it.”

During his many years of work, Adren met many esoteric individuals such as the lady in front of him. Most of them were hard to understand but overall he knew one thing, it was that they hardly lied. Following his instincts he just accepted the money and gave a small, magically enhanced parchment that was the deed to the land.

“Thank you.”

Mordred responded as he took the deed and left.

…

“I’m back.”

Mordred said as he returned to the campsite and greeted Rena and Irina. He had undone his Morgana transformation and unsummoned his doll butler.

“Ah, welcome back Mr. Mordred. Did you find a suitable place?”

Mordred gave a positive nod.

“Oh, I see…”

Rena looked a little dejected, this was because she was not really part of Mordred’s group and they had no real obligation to take her with them. This would mean that she would have to return to either try fixing her inn or finding a new place, either way it was a gloomy future that was ahead of her now.

“Yes, though it probably needs some improvements. Anyway, I’ve been meaning ask, do you have any interests in being a maid?”

That question surprised her, leaving her unable to answer for a few seconds as it ran through her head. ‘Maid? As in a servant?’ She had seen maids before but she wasn’t quite sure what their jobs really were. Perhaps cleaning and preparing meals? If it was simply that then she was confident that she could do a good job, and if this meant that she could go with Mordred then even better.

“Ah, y- yes, though I’m not too sure what my responsibilities would be, but if it’s cleaning or cooking then I can do it no problem!”

“Excellent, then shall we go to the mansion now?”

Mordred asked.

“Eh? Mansion?”

Rena simply thought that they were going to buy land and would make their houses later but it seems that there was already a pre-established building, a mansion no less. She was actually feeling a little excited about the prospect.

…

When they had arrived they were met with a relatively impressive looking structure; with about 5 floors and perhaps around 20 rooms in the entire mansion. A large back garden that had wild overgrowth due to it not being taken cared for and a front gate that also had rampant overgrowth.

The walls were made of white marbles, though a little aged it was still in good condition. The inside was decorated and furnished, a little dusty but that could be easily solved. All in all, it was a nice place to stay, though Mordred was feeling a little overwhelmed that he was even able to purchase a house this big. Back in his old world one would have to commit some sort of crime to afford something like this but now he had just purchased one without much thought.

“This will be our new home. Though we should do some cleaning before we settle in.”

Mordred suggested, but Rena replied happily that she could live in such an extravagant house. She rushed into the house to start on cleaning the interior immediately.

“Irina, please help out with Rena.”

“Understood.”

Mordred decided to clear out the overgrowth first as he summoned several low level puppets to clear them out. In only a few short minutes it was looking like a normal place, though lacking the touch of a professional gardener. ‘Maybe I should hire a gardener…’ he thought. ‘I should also repair the perimeter gates…’

Much work still needed to be done but for the first time after coming to this world Mordred felt that he could finally have a place to call ‘home’. As he stared up at the stars in the sky he remembered back to his old home, back in his own world. Though this place was comparatively larger in scale, it was actually his old house that felt much larger, because it was empty and he felt so small.

However right now, he had people here with him, so this large house felt rather small and warm. With a wry smile he gave off a small prayer to those back home.

“Uncle, I hope you’re well. I’ll try my best in this world too so don’t worry about me.”