Chapter 30 - 30 Land, a cottage and Valis

As we continue walking up to the guild from Ouranos's dingy bas.e.m.e.nt I suddenly stop hearing Alice's footsteps. I stop and turn around to look at her. 'A vision. It's been a while.'

I wait for her and a few minutes later Alice snaps out of it and starts giggling.

"What is it? What did you see?"

"Don't worry, nothing bad. Our family is going to get a little bigger."

"You're pregnant?!"

"What? No! Not like that."

"Oh, then what.. You meant Familia, didn't you?"

Alice just smiles and nods.

"Why would we start a Familia? I was planning to just give you and the wolves a Falna. Remember, we're only here to make you stronger to prepare for the next worlds. So why would we do something like that if we know we're not going to stay here for more than a few years?"

"Well, while you were busy making plans for us, I guess fate was doing the same thing. I couldn't see exact details, but someday not too far in the future, something's going to happen that makes you change your mind and you'd ask me if I'd be okay with us staying here a while longer."

"What is it?"

"Honey, if I tell you that, you will avoid it and then we will leave this world once I'm strong enough. I can't see what happens after that. But if you let it happen we will stay here for at least a few decades from what I could tell. And we will be very happy.

Are you sure you want to know, and face the unknown in the next world? Because I prefer to see the smile on your face I just saw in the vision."

"You say that like I'm miserable and always frown."

"You know what I mean. Just sleep on it, okay? You can still decide tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll think about it."

We walk further up the stairs until we reach the guild hall again. I look around and it seems like everyone has continued going about their day, Zeus is nowhere to be seen and the Beast kin receptionists are gone too.

I walk up to an empty counter with a receptionist who doesn't seem too preoccupied and act like I'm taking something out of my coat pocket.

I take a bag full of clumps of solid gold out of my storage space and put it on the counter.

"How much can I get for this?"

The receptionist opens the bag and puts the contents on a plate. Without batting an eyelash at the gold she reads the numbers and letters displayed beneath the plate, which is apparently a magic scale of some kind.

"Two hundred twenty thousand Valis."

'Hmmm, divided by ten that's about twenty thousand dollars for 15 ounces (425 grams) of gold. Seems fair. Now I know the exchange rate.'

"Does the guild handle the buying and selling of real estate?"

"We do, would you like to see what's available?"

"Yes please."

She goes into a back room and quickly comes back with a book and puts it on the counter.

"Why don' t you pick out something nice. You've got better taste than me when it comes to these things."

While she starts looking through the pages I take out 2 more bags and hand them to the receptionist. She puts the contents of all three bags on the plate and it comes to a total of six hundred twenty-five thousand Valis.

I take the money from her and put it in my storage space. I then look to Alice. "Found anything you like?"

"Yes, but it's not inside Orario. It's just 2 miles outside the wall. It's a beautiful little cottage but it comes with a lot of land. About seven thousand acres. You could do a lot with that land. Do you like it?"

"Land? Why would we need land if we only stay here for a few years at most. There's a lot of things I could do with it, you're right about that, but only if we stay here for a few decades at least. Are you trying to not so subtly influence my decision making?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't catch on to that."

I heave a deep sigh. "Well, in a marriage neither side should make decisions unilaterally, so given the fact that you've seen the future, and it being so obvious that you want to stay, I guess I should trust your judgment.

However, I do hope you realize that this world ain't all sunshine and rainbows."

Alice then smiles and shoves the book over to me with it opened on the page with the land and cottage.

Looking at it, it does look beautiful. The land is big, with a small forest, a lake and a mountainside. The cottage looks great as well. Right next to the lake, it looks like we'll get plenty of peace and quiet. 'I wonder how much it co..' "One hundred and fifty five million?!" 'That's like... 300 Kilo's of gold.'

"It's too much?"

"Well, no. We have it but, it is a lot. Was there maybe something else you liked?"

"No, nothing."

"Really? In this entire book there was nothing else? There must be hundreds of houses in here."

"No, nothing."

"Alright." I turn to the receptionist. "We want to buy this land."

"A down-payment of ten percent is required, we'll take this land off the market immediately and upon receiving the full payment you'll get the deed."

"I'd like to know the exchange rates for diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires and emeralds."

After hashing out the details I pay in diamonds and we leave the guild with a receipt.

"Why didn't you just pay the full amount?"

"Because I can't really explain how I'm just walking around with three hundred kilo's of gold. I'll pay tomorrow after talking to Ganesha, for now we should find a place to stay the night."

"The girl said to turn right immediately after leaving the guild and to just keep walking until we find a sign saying Darum's Tavern."

After a short six minute walk we find the place and get a room for the night, after explaining the circ.u.mstances the owner thankfully allows the wolves to stay in the room as well.

"Now that we've got some privacy let's get you all a Falna."