Chapter 80 80:



The meal that the man had treated the three to ended much much later than they had expected. While Elric was an extremely small eater who was full with just a slice of bread, and Erika was a normal person, Claude was anything but.

He ate and ate and then ate some more until the barista personally came and apologized for being unable to serve more.

Hyden had to borrow some cash from them, and Elric gladly allowed it at a steep interest rate. When the parties agreed, Elric pulled out the vey pouch that he had stolen from the sleeping Hyden and was scolded by him.

The other two insisted he take it back.

Hyden called him an imp again. And then ran away after being growled at.

"Hm, he was a good guy," Erika muttered, stretching her hands above her head.

"Right? He stole my money though…"

"Money you stole! I thought I told you to keep it back?"

Erika and Elric both looked away at Claude's words.

"Really, just steal when someone is awake next time."

"Sorry…"

"He seemed to have been looking for someone," Claude muttered. "I was worried for nothing, he was a good guy after all."

Claude was certain that the man would be looking around the town a little more before leaving. But that was his thing to deal with now. He may have justified tagging along with them as looking for whoever he was, but in the end that was just justification.

"What should we do now?" Elric asked. "What are we going to do even?"

Erika sighed at his words.

A gentle breeze spread past then, sending the lines of grass and flowers on the inclines road aflutter.

The map had stopped at this spot. There was nowhere else for them to go that could be deemed safe.

All of them turned back at the same time. The incline offered the view above and below in a fashion unique to Silvanus, and Siracuse town was one of the most beautiful of them all in the mountainous lands.

"Should we try living here?" Claude muttered.

Erika reeled back at Claude's words.

She had assumed that she would be living on the run now, the time that she had spent as an archmage wasn't much different.

Even now, hordes of monsters were filling the northern continent, and the land of demons in the west and the north wasn't much better. Demonic Dark Desire ran at large, and she didn't even get the chance to hear what it was about.

The world was in constant danger… but she had stepped away from it all.

Was she ignoring things that were her responsibility? Was it her responsibility in the first place? She was forcefully brought to this world, she didn't remember volunteering for it even once.

But what if… what if she could do something that would save the world?

What if she could do something that change it.

What if that was the reason she was brought here?

"What you thinking?" Elric suddenly called.

"That… Nothing, what were we talking about? A place, right?"

"Do you not wanna?" Elric asked. "We won't if you don't want to. Right, Claude?"

Claude nodded, folding his arms.

"Why would I say that?" Erika chuckled. "I am alright, don't worry."

"Yup!" Elric suddenly threw his arms in the air and screamed. "We don't worry, we just do whatever we want. Right Claude?"

Claude answered with a lopsided grin to Elric's words.

His friend here was slowly growing up.

"You bet," he said. "Do whatever you want, Erika."

In his own way, the boy turned back and started walking off.

Erika stared at the ground before smiling and nodding.

"I want to rent a place then!"

"Hm?"

The two boys tilted their heads.

"No inns! Let's get a fucking house."

***

"A house on rent?"

Asked Gustavo who sold houses. Rubbing his rounded mustache, the stout man smiled and asked the trio into his shop. He was about to step inside when Claude grabbed the back of his collar and turned him outside.

"Houses. Show us."

Gustavo was slightly shook by the man's brazenness, but agreed for now.

"You want to rent one, correct?"

"Yeah," Claude nodded. He did think about buying one right away, but didn't have anywhere near the money required to do that.

Nodding, Gustavo got on the road and the three customers followed. The first place he guided them to was a house in the center of the town, rather near the cafe and the adventurer's guild. The brown logs sent out a fresh scent while the tiled roof built up with clay tiles created a soothing atmosphere.

Gustavo brought them inside the spacious house. With three rooms in two floors, a kitchen connected to the living room and a dining table around, the place seemed lavish and cheerful.

The sounds of bluebirds and thrushes resounded in the air as the small mountain birds hopped around on the sills of the windows.

"Woah! This is like, super inflammable."

Gustavo flinched.

"This will burn if we set it on fire." The super pretty girl spoke. It was already annoying to see that this one crazy man was moving into a house with two ladies, but to think the prettier one was like this, she seemed innocent enough to have been tricked!

"Let's not go with this. It's probably steep on the wallet too."

Erika said.

Gustavo immediately turned back and smiled. "Well, well, it's not like that! Just 32 gold coins a month, it's rather cheap I say!"

"I agree with him here," Claude muttered. "It's easily burnable."

"All houses are burnable, Claude."

"Preach!" Said Gustavo. "Wait, HIM!?"

Gustavo's mouth dropped.

At that moment, Elric clicked his lips and ran a hand through his hair. His charm was enough to send both Gustavo and Erika's heart fluttering as their cheeks reddened.

Seeing them like that, Elric grinned which just doubled the damage he caused.

Claude, on the other hand, was so disgusted by Elric's personality that his looks would never be able to win him over.

"Him. Alright? Let's go to the next one."

Gustavo looked at Elric, and then at Erika. It wasn't the man that was the snake, but this girl all along.

Biting his lips, Gustavo took them to different houses. If three people were going to live in one, then he had to show them spacious places, and if the lady was the boss it also had to be scenic, in his jealousy, the merchant in him also burnt.

"It's just 15 gold!"

"14!"

"I really can't go lower than this."

"Alright fine," Gustavo sighed. That pretty one objecting with everything. "I can show you another place for four gold a month, but its not really that good."

"If it's not fine we'll just take the 20 gold one."

'If you're planning on that then just buy it!' Gustavo screamed, underestimating how used to options a modern man was.

In the end, he took them to the furthest corners of the city. At the edge of the mountains where a final cliff put into perspective how high up the town was.

The stone path to the house had slightly been filled with moss and the ebony wood that had been used to build the place had started to rot.

Spider webs covered the outside of the hut. Gustavo stepped on the planks leading up to the porch, almost miraculously earning a haunted creak from the wood.

"He's too heavy."

"That's not nice, Elric."

"Sorry…"

Gustavo ignored the conversation behind and pushed the door open. As time had passed, he had stopped seeing the lady as vixen and now thought of things as a family moving in, two parents and their bratty kid.

It was quite strange, but he let it pass for now.

The inside was not much better than the rest. While the layout of the place was similar to the first house they had seen, and while it was just as large as that one as well, this place reeked of ghosts and horrors.

"It's a rather scary house, never sold. I've brought the rent down a lot, but I can't recommend it. The people before that tried to get here for cheap all ran away within a week."

Elric ignored the man and dashed up the stairs, just like a child.

The other two decided to ignore him for now and looked around. The dining table was darkened, instead of small sparrow, crows sat on the windows. Spiders rattled around the corners while dust had settled everywhere.

"Oh, my god." Suddenly, a voice only Claude could hear spoke in his ears. "This place reeks of ghosts! Claude, my man, my student, my successor, let's not do this. Please, let's not take this one."

The annoying little Lord of Shadows had spoken up.

"Why?"

"Oh, hoho! Do you think it's because I am scared of ghosts? Not at all, I am only looking out for you—"

"No need, then it should be good."

"I was just messing around. I am like, super duper scared of ghosts. Claude, please."

"CLAUDE!"

At that time, Elric screamed.

Claude's eyes widened in surprise as he dashed up the stairs in a single go and pushed open the door of the room Elric was in.

"There's a ghost here!"

Inside the room, on the ground.

Was a blonde woman with the face of an angel.

And the ears of an elf.