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After visiting several houses after that, we finally found a property we liked.
Except for the fact that it’s a bit far from the main street, it had practically everything we wanted. It didn’t just have the things we asked for, but the beautifully newly furbished white stucco walls that gave the place a relaxing atmosphere was another reason we liked it too.

「Hmmm…… We could pay in one go but it’s going leave us broke.」
「There are a lot of things we’ll need to buy later on as well, so getting broke is definitely a no.」

Even though the place may be far from the main street, it’s still a property in the noble district. Besides, since it was just refurbished as well, it’s super expensive.
Because of that, we couldn’t really decide immediately, so we asked for some time to decide, but……

「Is paying in installments really our only choice?」
「Paying up with all our savings right now will still be meaningless if we won’t have enough money to buy our necessities, you know? Let’s just settle with getting an installment, alright?」
「Nmmm……」

Like so, with the documents needed for the contract right in front of us, we’re still conflicted on whether we should get an installment or not.
Well, yeah, I’m the only one hesitating, sure, but see? Since we could pay it in full right now, it’s a bit hard for me to agree on paying in installments and getting charged some interest……

「I’ve already said it earlier, but even if we decide on staying in the inn until we save enough to pay in full, we’ll still end up wasting money to pay for our stay, you know? Since the total amount we pay wouldn’t change regardless if we pay in full or in installments, there’s really no need to fuss over it, is there?」

「Ugh, if you say it like that, the-…….. Hm? The amount doesn’t change?」
「Eh?」
「Eh?」

「In that case then, please sign here.」

On our next rest day, we headed to the union to sign the contract.
In the end, we decided on paying half of the property now and paying the rest by ten-year installment.

I really thought that getting it by installment would get us some add-on interest, but it looks like it’s just the installment and nothing more. My brain was completely focused on the loans back on earth, so I was absolutely convinced that the installment plan was going to have add-on interest.
So, as for the reason they don’t add interest seems to be simply because if you can’t continue paying, they could just confiscate the property and put it out for sale again. I guess there aren’t any loansharking businesses in this world…… This world’s pretty kind……

No wonder that we couldn’t agree that time. After all, one side didn’t see any much demerit at all, while the other thought otherwise.

So after this and that, the contract is complete. Since we finished the needed procedures in the morning, we decided to go looking for stuff we need for the house after getting lunch.

「We should prepare to move but we don’t really have much stuff in the inn to begin with, and the things that we do have are all in your shadow anyway, so I guess we only need to buy the furniture? 」

While having lunch at a nearby restaurant, we roughly planned out our schedule.

「Let’s see, maybe some additional cooking pots as well? Ah, we also need to buy cleaning supplies. But even if we don’t buy them all now, we could simply get them when they’re needed, don’t you think?」

「Well, you don’t really remember the small stuff until you need them, so let’s just buy them as we go. Now, let’s start with the large furniture.」

「Alright. Still, where is the furniture store anyway? Did you ask the leader about it?」

Ah, crap. I was so focused on the house that I completely forgot to ask about the furniture shop and other things. Umm, I’m a bit conflicted about bothering the leader again, so it’ll be annoying but we should try asking the guy-in-charge back at the union for now.

「Huh? Cain?」

As we reached the union, we saw Cain there. It’s pretty rare to bump into him here.

「Yo. That’s unusual, seeing you two in this place.」
「That’s my line. What brings you here? Aren’t you usually still working at this time?」 「The work I had just ended, you see. I’m just about to go look for the next job.」

Ah, so that’s why. We’re pretty much treated like regular employees at the café job but requests usually have fixed work durations, I think. It’s been a while since I did work for the union, so I forgot about it.

「What about you two then? You’re already busy with the café and the Order of Mages, so you two really don’t have the free time to get more jobs, right?」

「Yeah, we’re not really here to look for work, you know? To be honest, we just bought a house here, so we wanted to buy some furniture for the new place. But we don’t actually know where the furniture store is, so we came back here to try and ask.」

「Ahh, now that you mention it, I remember Firu saying that you two were buying something. I see, so you finally bought it, huh……」

Hm? Cain has a somewhat complicated look on his face. I wonder why?

「Ah, let me guess. Firu likely said, Maybe it’s about time for us too…… or something similar, am I right? But since you still couldn’t make up your mind, you avoided the subject, correct?」
「Gck! How did you know!?」

It looks like Ruti was right on the mark. Cain was super shaken, he’s absolutely panicking.

「Of course I’d know. After all, when we were talking with Firu about the house the other day, she’d occasionally have a look of envy on her face.
With the price being how it is, I’m not saying that you should buy one as well, but since you two are doing relatively well with your jobs, why don’t you ponder on it just a bit more?」
「Well, yeah, I get what you’re saying, but…… You know, I’m also thinking if we should have the ceremony before getting a house, and such……」

Ceremony… the wedding ceremony, huh. We can’t have a wedding so we used most of our savings for the house but…… I see, they need to save for a wedding too.
…… We can’t have children, and we can’t have a wedding too. At this point, it’s like we just can’t do everything, it’s making me angry. Even with this…… no, even more than this, I’ll definitely make Ruti happy.

「Well, even I don’t think we should stay as we are. We’ll figure something out soon, you’ll see. So, a furniture store, right? I know a place, want me to lead you there?」
「Eh? In that case, please do. Still, how did you know the place?」
「I told you that I worked as a cargo loader, right? Because of the job, I actually moved some things from furniture stores and such.」

I see. You really get to know a lot of stuff from working, yeah. These kinds of stuff are surprisingly important.
With that in mind, we decided to ask Cain to guide us to the furniture store.

According to Cain, the general district and the noble district have their own furniture store, one each.
And based on what he saw while he was working, it seems that most of the stuff at the noble district’s store have many ornaments and elaborate designs.
It’s not that I’m not interested in the ornamental furniture but since both Ruti and I aren’t really looking for something that fancy, we decided to go for the store at the general district.

「And so, this is the general district’s furniture store.」
「So this is where it was. It’s the same with the house, but there’s really a lot of places I still don’t know, huh. Thanks a lot, Cain.」
「Don’t mention it. Still, I haven’t actually had the time to appreciate the stuff here, so for future reference, can I look around with you two for a bit?」
「We don’t mind, you know?」

Since it’s not the kind of store that would have an issue with us looking around together, the three of us entered the store.
First off, we go around the store to get a rough look at how much certain things cost. Mnn, tables, chairs, beds…… ah, they have cutlery too. The general store had some cutlery as well but the ones here are somewhat better. They probably stocked some in hopes that these would be bought alongside the furniture.

「There are curtains and carpets too. The house already had curtains at least but there were no carpets around. We definitely need to buy these as well.」

The house didn’t have wooden flooring, it had a stone or tile floor, so for both design and temperature reasons, we really need carpets. At the very least, we should have enough for the living room, bedroom, and guest room.

「It depends on the kind of building, but you really need a lot of things, don’t you?」
「That’s true. All I had in my head was only tables too, so I completely forgot about these things.」

It’s not just the carpet, we should focus on tables, chairs, shelves and cupboards that fit the ambience of the house. Just like Cain said, we really need a lot of things.
It’d be nice if we could get some kind of discount for buying a lot at once but…… could we?

Next is the bed. Not just the bed, but the mattress, the pillows, and the others as well. Ah, geez, there’s too much.
Just when I started feeling exhausted from thinking about how much we need to buy from scratch, I noticed a certain mattress.

「Nn, huh? Ah, it’s a spring mattress. Heeh, so they have these here too, huh. 」
「What’s this? It’s not filled with cotton?」
「Wait, where? Ohh, this mattress feels pretty interesting.」

Wait? Ruti and Cain don’t know about it? The two of them curiously touched the mattress.

「There’s a spring inside it. A feature of this is that it doesn’t get as stuffy as the cotton ones and if you choose the hardness that suits you, it would be more comfortable to sleep on, I guess.」
「This product just recently appeared in the market but it’s good that you know of it. Really, you have a good eye.」

Uwa! That scared me…… Turning to where the voice came from, there was a shop assistant that approached us before I even noticed. That was really bad for my heart…

「Originally, this product was intended only for nobles to use. However, due to its popularity, our store procured it as our featured product. As you would expect, it doesn’t come cheap still, but how about it? We will try to accommodate as much as possible.」

Ughh, even when I was broke in the past, I worked hard to get a mattress bed, so I know how comfortable it is. If possible…… No, I’ll do everything to buy it but first, how much does this cost?

「To start, this would be our regular price for this product.」

Saying so, the store assistant showed its price and it was three times more expensive than a regular mattress. As expected of a new product, just with its price, you can already buy a complete bed set.
Moreover, this is still for a single size bed, right?……. Since it’s for our new home, I was thinking of getting a queen size, or if possible a king size mattress, but honestly, this price already makes me feel lightheaded.

「Umm, if it’s a queen or king size one, how much would it be……?」
「Let’s see…… this would be for the queen, while this is for the king.」

Ouu…… Frankly, those prices hurt my eyes. Well, sure, it wouldn’t affect me that much if things were normal, but since we just bought a house, it’s making me subconsciously keep my purse closed tight.
But not only would it feel comfy this winter, it’ll definitely feel absolutely different when summer comes, so I really want to buy this, you know?
Ruti seems to have a good impression on it too, with her sitting down and even lying down for a bit to test it, so I’d like to decide on the mattress.

「You said that you’d accommodate us, but how much could we get as a discount……?」
「To be blunt, a simple discount would be difficult for our side as well. In exchange, however, we can add in a pillow and a bedsheet as a set for the mattress.」

Gah, as expected from their featured product, it looks like I can’t put my hopes on a pure price discount. That’s right, even if it’s just a problem on paper, having their main product get discounted wouldn’t look good for the store.
Besides, it might be different if it was in the noble district, but since it’s a store in the general district, carelessly putting a discount on these kinds of items would make it difficult to be talked about or might give the impression that this store always gives discounts.

「In that case…… since we’re going to buy a king sized one, could we have two pillows, a bedsheet, as well as a blanket and a comforter that would fit it added to the set?」

Was I a bit too greedy? Still, I won’t lose anything just by asking after all, and if I weirdly held myself back and he ended up agreeing with the modest conditions, I’d probably regret not trying to get more out of it anyway.

「Adding that much would be a bit complicated…… It might be different if you have other purchases, however.」

He’s saying difficult things but considering that he’s practically telling me to buy more stuff, this might actually go pretty well. And so, when I told him that we’re also buying other things for our new home, his somewhat reluctant face immediately turned into a smile. Moreover, he even took this chance to show us some recommended products. Pretty quick to change sides, aren’t you?

We impulsively got a few of the recommended stuff too; well, we’re up against a pro after all, so yeah; and together with other assorted items, we reached a total expense that convinced him.
We were super pleased with the shopping but after seeing the furniture we bought, it definitely didn’t look like everything could fit into Ruti’s shadow. Even if we forced ourselves to bring it, we don’t really have a place to leave them at, so we had no other choice but to request to deliver them at a later date.

「Still, that was a lot. I don’t think we’d need that much if we move out, but we probably need to buy a ton, huh…… I got to work harder.」

Oh, Cain seems to be more optimistic about buying a house now, doesn’t he? I’m a bit curious about what kind of house they’d choose, so I’ll ask them about it once they make their decision.

We still need to set up the furniture and other things but with this, we’re done with our preparations, I guess?