Chapter 93
“Gasp!? Junior, what on earth is this!?”
Chloe jumped at the sound.
Her light green hair swayed slightly.
Her hands, which had been working, had stopped too.
“Th-that many gold coins?”
“…It was this much?”
Aris and Linia also seemed quite shocked.
I'd gone all in with the roughly twenty gold coins I had left on Aris, Robert, and Linia.
Since the stakes had been fairly high too, I earned over eighty gold coins.
So I had enough money.
“This should be enough. Though we may have to compromise a little…”
Then, I suddenly thought of something and asked.
“By the way, do you live in a room by yourself, upperclassman?”
“Yes! I pay about three gold a month and have it all to myself?”
“How do you make money?”
I asked directly.
As far as I knew, I'd never seen a student earn money in gold denominations.
Which meant she had some trick for making money.
I was quite curious about it.
“I earn it myself! In my second year, I chose magical engineering and took every class available through third year!”
“…Huh?”
“After I did that, magic-tool shops started coming to me. Oh, you said you wanted to major in magical engineering too, Yumia? Then it shouldn't be too bad?”
Chloe said, her eyes gleaming between strands of her long hair.
As if to say that I could do it too if I tried.
But I saw it a little differently.
‘They said the Combat Department was weak, but didn't this woman just suck up all the talent?’
“Then aren't you busy? And you come to inspect our room every time…”
“Pardon? If anything, I'm bored to death because I don't have enough work…”
“…Pardon?”
So she really had sucked it all up. No wonder she was the top student.
Anyway, if she had nothing to do, I could put her to work even more.
Workers were common, but unpaid workers were not.
Well, I did intend to make up for it somewhat with modern goods.
“But even I have never seen this much money all at once… Are you really going to rent a place here?”
“Yep.”
I could always earn more money.
More important than that was how much more comfortable things would be now.
* * *
In the end, we headed to the Administration Office to look at lodging.
“But why are the rooms at Reinhart so expensive?”
“I wonder about that too… I never imagined rent could be that high…”
“Allow me to explain.”
Robert appeared in a strange pose.
He seemed to rather like the gentleman's hat he'd bought on Earth.
“What?”
I gave him an unimpressed look, but Robert paid it no mind.
“What do you think determines land prices in the Empire? Linia, Aris. Don't answer.”
“Um… Location?”
“Obviously, location. I mean what exists at that location.”
Hmm.
This was a slightly novel question.
But I eventually found the answer.
“A subway?”
“There aren't any here!”
“I was joking. You mean transportation.”
He must have meant places like carriage stations.
Like the one at the School Market,
“That's important too, but there's something more important. It's what the people of this world—no, the nobles—want most.”
“Umm…”
What nobles wanted most.
“Mana.”
Mana.
Neither the people from this world nor I could imagine a life without mana.
Even setting attack magic aside, there were devices directly related to daily life, such as magic tools.
And if you lived somewhere rich in natural mana,
your mana basically increased.
“So that's why Reinhart has so much mana?”
I'd arrived at the answer.
To knights and mages, mana was power.
The longer you were exposed to mana and the more mana you held, the slower you aged.
In other words, mana itself was an incredibly valuable resource.
Even the reason that cantankerous Karnarof had aged so little… Let's stop thinking about that.
Anyway, Robert seemed satisfied with his explanation and snapped his fingers.
“Exactly. You catch on quickly, as expected.”
“Mm-hmm. I'm pretty smart.”
“It was simply because my explanation was good.”
He shrugged.
“Our tutor taught me that when I was six.”
“Yumia, you really need to study society a little more…”
Let's ignore the voice coming from behind us.
I'm not a liberal arts student, so it's fine.
“The grounds of Reinhart and Lunaris are in areas exceptionally rich in mana.”
Robert continued his explanation.
“Land that was already expensive, the special nature of being a school, and extremely abundant mana. The Empire's decision not to charge dormitory fees is a consideration for its students.”
I see.
It was land where you grew stronger just by standing around.
It was only natural that the housing prices were high.
“The Empire's Treasury sets the going rate here. And it hardly ever gets revised.”
“You came to find lodging?”
When we arrived at the Administration Office, a short-haired staff member greeted us.
“Yep.”
“Hmm… As students, you may find it difficult to secure lodging anywhere other than the dormitories.”
“I'll prove that we can manage.”
Aris stepped forward.
Then she held out her family's plaque.
“Ah, you're Miss Aris of the Script family. My apologies. Please come this way.”
“…Her attitude suddenly changed.”
“What did you think the daughter of a Grand Duke was?”
Honestly, Aris was mostly a nag, so every time her noble side emerged, it caused some serious cognitive dissonance.
“There aren't many vacant places left within Reinhart, but there are still a few.”
“Oh. She says there are some.”
“However, please be aware that they may be quite expensive, even considering the going rates.”
The staff member said that and gestured for us to follow her.
* * *
The first place looked like a detached house near the faculty building.
“Twenty gold. It's quite spacious, and it has a room that can also serve as a workshop.”
Oh.
It was pretty nice.
The dormitory really wasn't all that spacious.
It was about one-fifth the size of the lodging Sera had provided.
But this place had two floors, and the interior was clean and spacious.
“The water runs well, too. Not bad.”
“There are lots of rooms. If we live here, I'll chip in too.”
Aris seemed to like it as well.
“Shall we take this place?”
“However, noise may be a problem.”
“Eh, that's fine. We don't really mind it.”
“No. The students will have to keep the noise down. Much more than you might expect.”
“What?”
That much?
What could it possibly be…
“The house next door is Professor Karnarof's residence.”
When I looked next door,
there was a mansion with an extremely old-fashioned design.
“……”
Aris and Linia fell silent.
“Still, aside from that, it's a pretty good property…”
“We're not taking it.”
Absolutely not.
I'd sooner die than look at Karnarof's face every morning.
“The next house is a mansion near the entrance to the eastern forest. I hear it's quite pleasant to live in, and it's close to the library as well.”
Ohhh.
This was a pretty decent place.
It had three floors, a workshop, and lots of rooms.
“How much is this…”
“Fifty gold a month.”
“This is insane.”
***
We looked at a few more lodgings,
and realized something.
That those were the going rates.
“Lodging sure is expensive.”
Robert, who had been tagging along for fun, muttered.
“Professor Silariel apparently built a cabin in the eastern forest and lives there.”
“Ah, that doesn't count. She's practically living rough.”
“Pardon? Then I'll just build a house on school grounds and live there.”
“Professor Silariel was granted special permission as an exceptional case, and I don't believe that would be possible for a student.”
The western forest wouldn't be a problem.
The western forest was Adrian's territory, so even professors couldn't easily enter it.
But if it got out that I was on such terms with Adrian, it would become a nuisance.
That much was practically guaranteed.
“The final property is here.”
Beside the western forest.
There was a single building on a fairly spacious plot of land.
A plain two-story building.
But the first floor was incredibly bare.
“This place is really spacious, isn't it?”
Though it was rather empty.
“Ten gold a month.”
“Oh.”
That was a fairly cheap price.
…No, it wasn't cheap.
It was merely the cheapest among a bunch of insanely expensive properties.
I was beginning to see just how wealthy the faculty here were.
“The advantage of this place is that you can renovate it freely.”
“Oh? Really?”
That sounds good.
“It's maintained, but it's a partially abandoned house, you see.”
“Are you allowed to say that?”
“We're not the ones selling them, after all. We only show you around.”
The staff member spoke refreshingly frankly.
She seemed to only care about getting her paycheck.
“On the other hand, complaints from nobles are much scarier.”
…She was so blatantly materialistic that I found her oddly trustworthy.
“Hmm… The yard is so huge that it's kind of creepy instead…”
Aris didn't seem to like it much.
But it was closer to the classrooms than the dormitory, and more importantly, the fact that we could renovate it was appealing.
I had even been considering settling down here.
“However, there is something you should be careful about.”
“Yes?”
“Monsters can't intrude this far, but the wild animals in the western forest are famous for being ferocious. If you happen to run into one, you could be seriously injured.”
—Graaah!
As if on cue, a wolf-like animal sprang out of the grass.
It was about as tall as Robert.
“A wild beast!!”
“Be careful, Yumia!”
“Casting…”
But the moment it saw me, it stopped moving.
Then it rolled over and exposed its belly.
“Whiiine! Yip!”
“The wild beast… is submitting?”
“This isn't a problem.”
It was my Nature-Friendly trait.
“Indeed, at this level, it shouldn't be a problem.”
In the first place, these creatures exposed their bellies the moment they sensed my dragon mana.
We went up to the second floor.
The second floor was quite a livable house.
It was as clean and nice as the dormitory, but above all, it was spacious and got plenty of sunlight.
“Hmm… This should be fine.”
“Not bad.”
“Then shall we take this place?”
“Yep.”
I handed over ten gold coins on the spot.
“Ten gold, received in advance.”
She took out a wand and parchment, drew up a magical contract, and then returned one copy to me.
“You don't need to write it neatly; just return it to me. It's not my responsibility, after all.”
“But there isn't any furniture.”
“Well, it's an empty room. You'll have to buy the furniture yourself.”
“Hmm… Since we'll be paying for it, could you look into it for us?”
Aris said that, but
I had another idea.
“The premium furniture from Reinhart's partner brands…”
“No.”
I cut her off decisively.
“Because I know somewhere better.”
Modern home decorating.
I'll start with Earth.