CH 353.1

The city wall that stood tall for more than 20 meters encircles the royal capital. At the top of the wall is a passageway that, like the wall, circles the city.

「This vineyard is planted with three varieties of grapes.」

Standing next to me while explaining the property is a petite middle-aged woman with a thick book in her hand. She is in charge of real estate at the merchant guild and is showing me around the 『potential places for me to move』.

(What a nice view.)

Dozens of trees were planted in rows, and a rope was stretched along each row, slightly higher than my head.

And then the vines stretched out along the ropes as if the trees were holding hands with each other. The clusters of grapes dangling in front of me were fat and their color varied from black to purple to green, depending on which row they were in.

「And at the bottom of the slope is where the brewery and warehouse are located」

the real estate auntie points her finger at a small building with a pointy roof made of stone and wood. Rising along the hill is a distinctive brewing smell.

And then beyond the brewery and warehouses is a plain, with the royal capital visible further in the distance.

(It will take about 10 minutes with a golem carriage, huh.)

I think while rubbing my chin with one hand.

It is a five-minute walk from where I live now to the red-light district. If we’re only talking about the time, it wouldn’t be that much different, but there’s an inspection at the gate and the hassle of parking the carriage.

(Hm—mm)

I don’t think it’s a good condition for me, who uses up all my energy in the brothel and goes home with slightly wobbly legs every night.

「Well then, let me take you to the next property.」

She must have guessed that I have seen this place enough. After she said that, the real estate auntie walked away and headed for the golem carriage parked outside the field.

After I climbed into the back seat, she closed the door, climbed up onto the driver seat, and shook the reins.

「This is the next one.」

After about half an hour, the real estate auntie opened the door and I get off.

It takes about 10 minutes by golem carriage to go directly west from the royal capital. In front of me is a three-meter-high stone wall that stretches to the left and right, and a heavy wooden door is set in the wall.

Weeds protrude from under the door like pubic hairs sticking out of pants. As the lady struggled to open the door, I raised my eyebrows at the sight behind it.

「It looks quite a mess, isn’t it?」

It’s one thing if it’s only in one area, but the entire property is full of wild grass. According to the flyer, it should be as big as the vineyard, but the line of sight is almost invisible.

Barely visible is a one-story building integrated with the wall in the foreground and a brick-paved pathway that disappears further back.

「The person who manages the place has been gone for several years, so…」

The middle-aged woman answered without changing her expression as she looked at the wild grass and bushes that were far taller than we were.

She says that this used to be the garden of a baron family, but since the house was demolished after the 『second prince’s coup attempt 』, it has been abandoned since then.

And this is the only building that is cleaned regularly.

(Everything is going to be ruined once there’s no one to live in the house after all.)

Houses deteriorate rapidly when they are no longer occupied. And once damaged, it takes a lot of work to restore it to its original condition.

(It’s just that in order to maintain its value as real estate, it has to be cleaned up.)

Convinced, I turn my gaze to the black space at the far end of the property lying beyond the wild grass.

(So that’s the pond mentioned in the flyer.)

It must have been dug as part of the garden and it’s so big you could call it a swamp. I and Dangorou made one in the garden forest, but it’s certainly incomparable to this size.

(I guess that’s the only best point of this place for now.)

I nodded and dug the ground with my heel, dropped the bean in the back of my hand, and buried it.

「I’ve grasped the condition of this place. Please show me the next place.」

With that statement, the tour here is over. The rest of the tour was in the royal capital, so we headed east in a golem carriage.

And that’s how we spent the rest of the evening looking around various properties.

***

It is an early afternoon in autumn, with the sun shining gently.

In a corner of the Middletown district, southeast of the central square of the royal capital, there is a three-story high-class apartment complex. In a corner room on the third floor, a window was opened following the curtains.

(What a nice weather. The wind also feels nice.)

A beautiful woman in pajamas is stretching as she gazes up at the clouds high in the blue sky. Her pajamas are a thin white garment similar to a shirt, but with underwear underneath it.

She is what Tauro calls 『Explosive Onee-san』. Yesterday was a working day at the brothel, which has been reduced to once a week, and she woke up just now after working until the sun went down.

(Why is it not growing….)

She exhaled the air she had inhaled into her ample, shapely chest and looked down at the flower pot on the window sill.

There grows a tree only as thick as a straw with seven or eight glossy leaves. And the height of the tree is about the same as the palm of one’s hand.

『Ambrossia.』

It is a young tree that will bear the legendary fruit and the main ingredient of the elixir. It grew just fine until it sprouted from a seed she planted, but since then it has only grown slowly.

In fact, at one point all the leaves fell off and the tree almost died.

(!?)

The next moment, Explosive Onee-san crouches down holding her abdomen like a woman at the start of a period drama.

The organ that nurtures the life of the next generation, which only women are equipped with, gave off an alarm in the form of a sweet tremor.

(Why is he here…?)

What she’s looking at is a field of flowers below her. There, a dull 30-year-old man, who could be called her natural enemy, was standing with a familiar middle-aged woman.

(If I remember correctly, she was in charge of real estate at the merchant guild.)

When she rented this place for herself, that middle-aged woman was the one who handled the process. And the flower garden is a vacant lot managed by the merchant guild.

The flowers are planted in consideration of the fact that it is an exclusive residential area.

(…..It’s possible.)

Explosive Onee-san, who had something on her mind, spared no time to dress up and just put on a hooded coat on top of her “just waking up” appearance.

She slipped into her sandals and hurried to the flower garden.

(Good, I can somehow hear them from here.)

The merchant guild’s golem carriage rides into a vacant lot and stops. The hooded Explosive Onee-san crouched in its shade, pretending to be in the middle of admiring the flowers and listening carefully.

「This is only land, but there is room to live just around the corner. How about moving there and making this empty lot your vegetable garden?」

The middle-aged woman is trying to make a sale. It seems Dr. Slime is planning to buy or rent this place, just as she guessed.

(It’s just as I thought.)

He is going to plant and grow something.

He is someone who brings in the highest quality fruits and vegetables I’ve ever seen, in addition to ambrosia. If he wants to rent or buy land, that’s the only thing I think he would do with it.

The 30-year-old man thinks for a moment, then looks around at the surrounding buildings and opens his mouth.

「Is it okay to transplant trees here? It is a large one, about as tall as the roof of a one-story house, so it might affect the sunlight.」

To which the real estate representative from the merchant guild replied, 『As long as it’s not on the north side of the property, it should be fine』. Perhaps intrigued, the middle-aged woman asked what kind of tree it was.

「There are several kinds, but the most common are fruit trees.」