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A new home
🕑 Added 2022-09-07 10:40:31 +0000 UTCThe return journey went without incident and in three and a half months, they had arrived at the capital. He also had to increase the weight of the girls’ clothes twice, but their physical condition was on another level compared to when they left the capital.
Rebecca was the next to break through into the second shell after Leora, with the others still lagging behind. Seth’s progress was at around 59% for his primary energies, and the entire group used energy vials as often as possible.
His parents also got used to the scene of the girls training like slaves from dusk till dawn without stopping and didn’t pester Seth about it anymore.
Caitlin kept pouting for the first two weeks, but seeing it got her nowhere, she listened to Seth’s advice and got closer to the other girls in class.
Looking at the huge city walls ahead, Seth had the girls clean up and get changed out of their heavy garbs into a few new clothes he had prepared for them. He also did the same with his parents.
Once the girls were standing in front of him again, looking quite refreshed and excited, Seth said: “For the next week, you are all free to go visit your families or simply return to the academy, except Pearl, that is. I also shouldn’t have to inform you all that her existence should be kept a secret. One week from now, I expect you all back in class. Understood?”
“Yes, teacher.” Replied the girls in a chorus.
After sending his little army away, he looked at Pearl, who he kept with him: “You’ll be staying with my parents from now on. Once we return to the city, we’ll look to buy a house in the outer circle.”
Seeing her nod, Seth walked to his parents, who were staring at the city walls in wonder.
“Mother, father, are you ready?”
They both turned around hand in hand and nodded with a smile.
Mounting the carriages, Seth headed towards the city while summoning two sacks full of gold from his storage space. After handing the carriages to the guards without bothering to take the pay from the stables, he led his parents and a cloaked Pearl through the bustling city streets while carrying the two coin sacks on his back. Since it was the beginning of summer, everyone was running around minding their own business, crowding the streets.
Hilda and Nash kept looking around, taking in the large city and the huge amount of people with their mouths hanging open. They were not used to seeing this amount of agitation.
Using the system, he quickly found a decently sized house for sale and led everyone there. The house had two floors and even a small courtyard, which was quite something for a house in the outer circle. The price was also quite outrageous, at 400 gold coins, but Seth had Necros to pay for him so he didn’t even bat an eye.
After knocking on the door of the house, a young man opened the door.
“Yes?”
“We heard you are interested in selling the house.”
“Yes, I have it listed for 400 gold coins.”
Seth’s mother froze when she heard the price, but his father opened his mouth to yell something, only for his mouth to be immediately blocked by Pearl’s hand.
Ignoring the mumbling from the back, Seth nodded and threw the two gold sacks on the ground. “Count them. How fast can we move in?”
The boy was stunned for a moment before inviting everyone in. As Seth sent his parents to look around the house with Pearl so they wouldn’t bother him, he watched the young man count every coin.
Once he was done, the boy nodded and stood up before returning with a written house deed.
After taking care of everything, the boy took one good look at his house and turned to leave with his new fortune.
“Aren’t you going to take any of the furniture?” asked Seth.
“No need. I will move into the inner ring. I’ve been knighted recently, so I won’t be needing them.”
Seth nodded and watched the boy walk away. Finding his parents on the second floor, Seth was about to say something when his father jumped and grabbed his shoulders.
“Are you crazy? Do you know how much money that was? We could have bought half of the town…”
Before he could finish his words, Seth threw one more sack on the ground, holding 200 coins inside it. “I have no lack of gold, father. No need for you to worry about it.”
Nash let go of Seth and knelt before moving his fingers through the gold coins while laughing like a maniac and yelling: “We’re rich. We’re rich…” Non-stop.
Seth raised an eyebrow and turned toward his mother. “Didn’t he realize it until now?”
Hilda smiled wryly and said: “I don’t know how much that is, having only lived inside our small village, but I heard your father say once he never even held a gold coin in his hands in his entire life. When we were still young, he once told me that was his dream, to someday hold a gold coin…”
Seth chuckled and turned toward Pearl. “I have some stuff to take care of. On the way, I gave you some books on furniture. I want you to slowly replace everything you can around here. Everything that you replace, you can take out in the courtyard and I’ll take care of them using destruction energy.”
Pearl nodded and immediately got to work. Seth turned towards his mother next and said: “Mom, I’ll hire some guards from the mercenary association. Make sure to not leave the house without someone accompanying you. Life in the capital is a lot more dangerous than in the village, so you also need to be more careful.”
Seeing his mother nod, he wanted to say something to his father as well, but seeing he was still acting like a maniac, he gave up and walked out of the house after saying goodbye to his mother and Pearl.
After entering the middle ring, he headed straight towards the mercenaries association. There, a pretty lady came to greet him as soon as he came in.
“Good day, sir. How may I help you?”
“I want to hire some mercenaries for a long-time protection mission inside the city.”
“No problem, sir. Follow me.”
The lady led him towards a counter where she showed him a book with different names of mercenaries available, as well as their work history.
Seth flipped through the book slowly, but he was actually discussing it with his system.
‘Anyone decent?’
<I found 4 candidates with decent combat capabilities and clean history. They are also of noble origin, which will reduce the chance of them trying anything out of greed.>
After asking the system about their positions inside the book, he showed them to the girl.
Nodding, the girl said: “For all four of them, the pay is eight gold coins per month, with two extra gold coins for our association’s tax. The pay must be delivered at the beginning of the month. Also, they all agreed to only work half a day for long-term contracts inside the city.”
Seth handed her ten gold coins and said: “Have them work in two shifts. The job is to protect my parents, and I want someone at their house at all times.”
“Understood. I’ll let them know.” Replied the lady as she took the coins. “Do you mind giving me the address where the mercenaries should head to?”
Seth nodded and gave her the address of the new house before discussing a few more things and taking his leave. As he was walking out, a notification appeared in his vision.
<There is a 30% chance the shadow corps might investigate your parents. A 10% chance they might resort to violence to extract information or gain an advantage over host. The mercenaries only have a 10 to 35% chance to protect against assassins, depending on the rank of the assassins sent.>
Seth frowned at the sudden notification and changed his direction toward the inn he had Pearl stay at before.
Once there, the old man behind the counter smiled at Seth and waited for him to speak.
Seth places a small bag containing 50 gold coins on the counter before saying: “I want a house protected from the shadow corps.”
The old man frowned and thought for a moment before taking the coins and placing them under the counter: “50 gold is only enough for one month. You want more, you pay more.”
Seth threw 50 more gold coins. “Make it two months for now. Lot H23”, before turning around and leaving.
He thought about going for a quick visit to the academy, but since he was worried for his parents, he wanted the mercenaries and the assassins to get the chance to mobilize. With no other choice, he left seeing Maya for later today and made his way back to his new house.
Seth entered his new home and spent some more time with his parents. During this time, he created a few more clothes for his parents, told them about the city laws, explained some customs they should respect, and also created a map for them to use if they want to walk around. He had to explain to them how to use the mas as well since they have never read one before.
Later in the evening, there was a small knock on the door. Thinking it was the mercenaries, Seth and his parents moved down to open.
When Seth opened the door, before he could even move a single muscle, he was pushed to the floor by a soft body as a pair of warm arms made their way around his neck. A pair of wet lips also got interlocked with his and he could feel a small tongue trying to make its way inside his mouth.
Coming back to his senses, Seth broke the kiss and pushed Maya up, feeling quite embarrassed as well.
“Maya, my parents are here.”, he said quickly, a trace of panic on his face.
Maya looked up and blushed when she saw Nash and Hilda looking at her with faces full of shock. She was so excited when she saw one of Seth’s students at the academy that she quickly tracked him down and came to see him.
Seeing his face after so long, she didn’t even notice the people behind him and just wanted a taste of his lips.
With the deed already done, she jumped to her feet and bowed toward Seth’s parents with perfect noble etiquette. She panicked slightly when she realized she didn’t know their names, but an idea came to her just as quickly.
“Mother, father, I apologize for my earlier embarrassing display.”
Hilda and Nash nodded and turned toward Seth with a questioning look. Seth stood up from the floor as well and smiled wryly.
“Sorry for not telling you about it, but I wanted to introduce you all at a later date. This is my lover, Maya.”
Nash grinned as he looked at Maya’s melons, a trace of pride in his eyes, but Hilda frowned and looked at Maya with a displeased expression. Her tone was quite cold as she said something that made everyone inside the room freeze.
“But Seth is barely 16.”
