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「Hmm, a house would be nice.」
「What’s with that all of the sudden?」

Days after we went back to work, continued training, and getting my slightly weakened body back into shape, Ruti suddenly said that.

「I mean, hasn’t it been a long time since we decided to stay here? At this rate, we probably are still going to be staying here in the future, so I thought; with how things are going, wouldn’t it be better if we just bought a house?」

Now that she mentioned it, more than six months have passed since we came to the capital. The inn we’re currently staying at is relatively reasonable, so it’s not really a bad place but we only have one room after all and it’s not like we haven’t had issues about how cramped the room is. If we’re going to continue staying here, then it might be best to consider buying a house.

「Hmm, since we’re already steady with our work in the café and the order, it’ll still depend on the price but buying a house shouldn’t be a problem.」
「Then let’s look at some properties on our next break. I wonder what we’ll find? I can’t wait.」

A house, huh. Right now, we’re living in an inn and before that, I was renting an apartment, so I don’t know what’s the difference… Will we just not have to pay every month? Yeah, I really don’t know……
It’s hard to describe but having a house to call your own instead of needing to rent a place is a bit nice. More so if you’re not alone and have a partner to move in with.

「But in this world, where can we go buy properties and such? Do you know, Ruti?」
「If I remember right, back at Mois, each fief lord had agencies under their direct control handling properties, but I’m not sure if it’s the same in this country too…… Should we ask the leader or Nera-san about it?」
「We should do that. We can’t just go blindly look for it after all, so it’s probably better if we ask them first.」

I immediately used telepathy to contact Nera-san, but I don’t feel it connecting to her. Since telepathy can reach practically everywhere in the capital, except if you’re near the end of the city, I guess she left for a mission or something.

「I can’t reach her. Since we can’t ask Nera-san, then maybe the leader…… But the leader is probably busy too…」

For now, I tried contacting him through telepathy. I felt it connect but now that I think of it, I don’t actually know if the leader can use telepathy. Nera-san said that she’ll have everybody trained to use it once we come back, but I wonder what happened with that?

『Ooh!? This feeling, Natsuki-kun, is it? Is there a problem?』
『Ah, yes, it’s Natsuki. I know that it’s weird to ask after I just contacted you, but you can use telepathy now too, leader?』
『Ahh, during your break, I actually asked Nera-kun to teach it to me. But it’s not just me, I also had the other veterans trained to use it.
Nonetheless, this is quite useful. We would still need to use magic communicators over extremely long distances but other than that, we can use this instead. And with enough training, it can be used to communicate with multiple people. Thank you for this, Natsuki-kun.』
『Don’t mention it. By the way, there’s something I want to ask about but are you free right now?』
『I’m only doing paperwork, so don’t worry about it. If you’re nearby then how about we discuss here at the office? It’ll be better to discuss over some tea, don’t you agree?』
『Thanks. But it really won’t take too long, so maybe we should save the tea for next time. Anyway, I was wondering where to buy a house, so I wanted to ask about that.』
『A house? The union manages the properties on both the general and the noble district. What, are you planning on buying one?』
『Yeah, we’re probably going to stay here in the future, so it’s probably about time, I guess.』
『I see. If you two have decided on settling down here, then that’s a relief for me as well¹. I hope you find a great property.』

Thanks. After saying so, I stopped the telepathy. Still, the union, huh. I guess they really do everything.

And so, on our next break, following what the leader said, we went to the union. We were led to the reception window and were waiting for the next procedure, when a gentle-looking middle-aged man appeared.

「Thank you for waiting. I hear that you wish to purchase a house but do you two have anything you would like from the property?」
「No, we haven’t decided on anything yet, so we were thinking about just looking at some of them for now if we can.」
「I see. Natsuki-sama, Ruti-sama, it seems that both of you hold the peerage of knights, however, would you prefer properties from the general district or the noble district? As you may expect, it would be difficult to go over everything, so we would be grateful if you could decide on this at the very least. 」

Well that’s true. If someone told you that they haven’t decided on even a place or a budget, then you really can’t recommend anything after all, yeah.

「For me, I’m okay with either as long as it’s a somewhat quiet place but…… Do you have any request, Ruti?」
「Hmmm, I’m not really particular with the district as well. But other than that …… Let’s see, maybe two floors or more and I don’t mind if it’s small but I’d like a courtyard, I suppose. Also, one with a kitchen and a living room that’s larger than the other rooms would be nice. Ah, also we absolutely need a bathroom.」

After saying that before, don’t you actually have a lot of requests. But I agree with the bathroom. Even if we finally have our own home, it’d be meaningless if it’s more inconvenient than staying at the inn.

「If that’s so, then it sounds like it’s going to be the noble district. While it’s not as though we can’t find applicable properties in the general district, many of these houses have some issues with their location and room arrangements.
Just in case, would you like to observe the properties in the general district as well?」
「What do we do?」
「Since it’s not like we’re in a hurry, let’s take a look at those as well.」
「Ok, got it. Then with that said, please show us around the general district too.」
「Understood. In that case, let us start with a nearby property here at general district.」

「Hmm……」
「This is actually quite difficult……」

We were guided to a few houses but none of them really hit the mark.
Or rather, after seeing them in person, we end up thinking of more new things we want to have.
It wasn’t really like this when I was looking for an apartment in the past though.

「That’s only natural. Buying a house is one of the most important events in your life. As one sees the properties, it’s common for them to become more prudent and add more requests.」

It seems like even in this world, buying a house is a big thing. Well, it makes sense, since when we asked the prices of the properties we saw earlier, it’s definitely expensive. After all, they were amounts that we, even with our tons of savings, would hesitate to pay with a plop……

Huh? The both of us work two jobs, and both of them seemingly pay really well, but we still think that way, so then can other people even actually buy these?
Mustering some courage, I guess I should ask the guy in charge as naturally as possible? It looks like they have a loan-like system. He said that they’ll have the property on a mortgage and have it be paid monthly, it’s estimated to take about 30 years to pay it off, so I guess it’s practically the same.

「We have generally gone through the properties we can recommend in this district, so let us head to the noble district next shall we?」

Hmhm, so this means that there weren’t any houses in the general district that could fit our needs, huh. The houses in the noble district are probably a little more expensive, so I really wanted to find one in this district if possible but I guess it can’t be helped……

We passed through the gate that we always used when going to the Order of Mages and entered the street where the noble district’s residential area runs along. We don’t usually go through here, so it has a strange refreshing feel to it.

「This place has wider roads and stuff compared to the general district, don’t you think?」
「I imagine it’s because these roads were made with carriages passing through taken in account.」

Ah, I see. We usually just walk around so I completely forgot about it, but yeah, nobles use carriages after all.

「This area was redeveloped recently as well, so due to that the roads here may be wider. In addition to that, look, as you might observe, there is a botanical area as well.」

Botanical area? Wondering what kind of place that was, I turned my eyes to where he was pointing at and there I saw a place filled with thick, dense rows of trees.
Looking closely, it’s not just trees planted around. There are paths and a spot that looks like a lawn-grown plaza. I see, they didn’t just plant trees to add a green area but they made it into something like a park where people can stroll around and play. I guess what’s different from the parks I know is that there aren’t benches and playground equipment installed.

Even now, I can see little kids lively running around and playing in that botanical area.

…… Kids…… huh…

「…… Aren’t they adorable?」
「…… Yeah.」

I think Ruti thought of the same thing too. Quietly looking at her in the corner of my eye, I feel like she seemed somewhat lonely. As I thought, Ruti wanted to have children too…….
Even though she said that she accepts me regardless, I know it’s still……

「Don’t make that face. I’d be lying if I told you that I don’t want children, but more than that…… more than anything, the fact that I want to be by your side is absolutely not a lie.」

Ruti held my unknowingly clenched fist and brought it close to her, embracing it as she said so.

「Sorry…… No, thank you. Ruti, I’ll definitely make you happy.」
「Fufu. Come on, let’s hurry up to the next property. The man guiding us is waiting, you know?」

With a smile almost saying that this moment is happiness itself, Ruti starts walking, leading me by my hand.
After smiling back at her as well, we headed to the next property.²

1. Lyly: Lol, you really need all the members you can get
2. Lyly: Somber chapter. Good chapter. Happy chapter.
   Fire: Good End