Bab 37: Another Shortcut?
Paul and I set off from our house with me leading the way. It didn't take long before I reached my desired destination. Paul looked at me confused as I reached for the door to the Land Management Office.
"Hmm? What are we doing here?", Paul asked.
"I need to buy a house."
"What!? Can't this wait until we find Laws? You told everyone it would only take us a day or two!"
"Relax, relax. We have plenty of time. Plus, this is the best way to get to Shirone, trust me."
Paul just looked at me with clear doubt in his eyes before simply shrugging his shoulders and following behind me.
The Land Management Office dealt with the buying and selling of vacant houses, as well as granting permits for people to build on empty land. After telling the receptionist that I was looking for a house, she handed me a stack of papers. Each paper had information about an available house including its address, plot size, the number of rooms, the measured size of the house, and finally its cost.
I quickly skimmed through the stack of papers until I found the one I was searching for. On the very bottom was a worn out, discolored page which listed a manor not too far from the University. The price equated to under three Asura Gold coins, even less than the cost of the small house Paul purchased.
"I pulled out the listing for my manor and handed it to the receptionist. I'd like to purchase this one please."
The receptionist looked a bit concerned before leaning forward a little to whisper to me.
"Sir, to be completely honest, that manor is cursed."
"It's of no matter to me."
"Are you sure? The last several owners of the place had all been brutally murdered in the middle of the night."
"I ain't afraid of no ghost."
"Umm, I don't know that it's a ghost."
"Ah- Nevermind. Regardless, I would still like to purchase this house, knowing full well it's history."
"Please write your name here then."
The receptionist handed me a contract to sign. There was also a space for listing a guarantor, but that wouldn't be necessary since I was going to pay up front. I signed the contract and handed it back to her. I also pulled out three Asura Gold coins from my traveling sack.
"This should cover the asking price", I said as I handed her the coins.
The receptionist seemed kind of surprised that I was carrying that much money on me, but counted out my change regardless.
"Please take this deed as proof of ownership. I will also file this document for our records."
Upon taking ownership of the deed, I immediately guided Paul to my new home.
"What's this about the place being cursed?", Paul asked while we walked there.
"It's nothing to worry about. There is a moving doll, or construct if you will, that resides in a hidden room in the manor's basement. The construct is powered by mana which it recharges each night using a magical implement in that hidden room. If we constrain the construct so that it can't recharge its mana, it will eventually stop moving."
"Wouldn't it be easier to just destroy it?"
"No, absolutely not. Whatever you do, do not damage it. While it shouldn't pose too much of a threat to you, especially now that you know it's down there, please let me handle this. I don't want it to get damaged."
"That's fine with me. I still don't understand why we're even doing this though. How is this going to help us find Laws?"
"The magic circle in the forest was quite a walk away, is it not? It would be much more convenient for me to have a place nearby to teleport from."
"Oh, I see! Like what you did outside Milishion?"
"Yes, exactly. I am going to draw out a magic circle in the basement of that manor. It will be the perfect location to do so as It is easy to get to and hidden from the public."
At this point we reached the courtyard outside the manor.
'Ah, this brings back memories', I thought as I looked at the place with nostalgia.
Paul watched me as I stared at the building and immediately realized what this manor was.
"This was your place, right? The place you lived at with Sylphiette and Roxy?"
"Yeah, it is. It will look a lot nicer once I'm done with all the renovations."
The manor had some moss and ivy growing on the walls, but the courtyard was surprisingly well kept and the place still looked rather beautiful all things considered.
We walked down the cracked stone pathway to the main entrance. The wooden doors were cracked and one of the hinges was broken. I used magic to force the door open with a loud cracking noise. I was going to have to repair the door anyway.
I guided Paul through the lobby to the staircase leading down to the basement. The basement had several empty wooden shelves, but mostly just looked like an unused storage area. The basement was surprisingly clean considering nobody lives here, not a cobweb in sight. It must be the work of the construct maintaining the place.
I summoned a light spirit to which illuminated a square dark spot on the wall; the hidden room I had told Paul about earlier.
"Stand back. The construct should be on the other side of the room. Remember, I want to constrain it without damaging it."
"Understood", Paul said. He held his sword at the ready, just in case.
I opened the hidden door using my magic. There was a loud creak and then grinding sound as the door dragged along the floor. Sure enough, on the other side of the door was the construct. It was lying on the casket shaped pedestal in the corner of the hidden room.
As soon as the door opened, the construct raised it's head and seemed to look at me. After a couple seconds it quickly got up from the pedestal and charged towards me. I quickly summoned an earth wall behind it and one in front of it, trapping it in a small space without access to the pedestal.
We could hear eerie clacks and scratches coming from the other side of the earth wall.
"Ok, time to get to work, then." I began forming a large, rectangular stone sheet on the basement floor. I didn't want to damage the floorboards by scratching or carving a magic circle into them.
"Is it really ok to leave it like that?", Paul asked, pointing to the earth wall the construct was trapped behind.
"Yeah. Don't worry, it's not getting through that wall. After a while it'll settle down."
"If you say so", Paul said as he sheathed his sword. His face still looked a little uneasy.
"Why don't you take a look around and explore the place? This is going to take me a little while", I said as I started engraving the magic circle into the stone slab.
Paul took me up on my offer. It took me a little over an hour to finish with the magic circle, but it was still faster than having to travel all the way through the forest the way we came. Also, doing it this way will allow us to easily travel right back to this house once we finished our business in Shirone.
The construct had stopped moving at some point while I worked on the magic circle. I'm not sure how long it took to run out of charge, but it seemed notably longer than when Zanoba held it down. Perhaps it didn't have a full charge last time? Or maybe the distance from its charging station had something to do with it? Hopefully Cliff and Zanoba can help me research the matter further in the future.
Once I finished, I went back upstairs to grab Paul, only to find him propped up against a corner in the main lobby sleeping.
"Hey, wake up!"
"Eh!? I'm awake!"
"I'm finished. We can leave now."
"Oh. That didn't take you too long... I don't think?"
"It's only been about an hour. Maybe a little more. You ready to go?"
Paul got up and followed me into the basement. As soon as I poured my mana into the magic circle, it started glowing with a faint blue.
"See you in Shirone!", I said as I stepped into the magic circle.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone