Chapter 11

The next morning, I'm woken up by the sound of conversations and the soft clinging of metal. There's no window in this room so, it's still dark, only being illuminated by a single lamp on the wall. Which does provide just enough light for the still-sleepy me to get out of bed and stumble out the door.

Slowly, I make my way to the wells. Swaying side to side, with my eyes still barely open.

Eventually, I do get there. Despite my eyes being closed half the time, I managed to not slide down the stairs. I throw the bucket into the well, and slowly start pulling it back up, taking every opportunity I can to close my eyes.

After what felt like a short, blissful moment, the bucket is up... ... what now?

The water is cold... I don't want to put it on my face...

I sit there, cross legged in front of the bucket with my eyes closed, contemplating my options.

Several simulations run through my head. One where I reach my hands into the cold water and wash my face. One where I can use magic to raise water from the bucket and warm it before using it to wash my face. I like this one. And another where I ride a flying pony in the sky.

Time goes on, they birds continue to chirp from atop the walls and more and more simulations keep running through my head. Until, finally.. I lose.

Consciousness fades, and I fall forward, my face landing directly in the cold water.

Immediately, I just up! Alert as a cat, before slumping back down seconds later. My engine isn't warm enough for this yet. The cold water didn't wake me up fully, but it is helping me keep my eyes open. But man that's cold!

After completing my morning routines, I make my way to the guilds main hall. There at the reception is Glendel, who waves at me when she sees me approach.

"Good morning, you slept in pretty late. Had a tiring day?"

"No, I'm just not used to a room without windows. I usually wake up to the sun, you know. Are Alice and Gravel not here? I didn't see them when I walked in." Or maybe its because I didn't open my eyes?

"They received a personal commission and left this morning. Now that the town's expanding, commissions are flowing in with no end." Oh, so they are gone...

"I see. I'd like to get a commission too, but first, can I take the test to get myself to copper rank?"

"Unfortunately, not yet. You are required to finish at least 5 beginner commissions before you are allowed to take the test to assend to copper rank." She's taking me pretty seriously, despite my eyes still being only half opened.

"I understand... On another note, if I wanted to rent some land or a house to stay in, where should I look?"

"If you are looking to rent some land, the merchants guild also deals in that department, I recommend you go see them about it."

"Thank you, I'll go check it out. I'll come back for a commission later. See you." She does a slight bow as I walk away.

The guild building is actually two conjoined buildings. One side for the adventurers and another for the merchants. They are connected by a huge door way in the middle of the wall separating the two buildings.

The interior of both the guild looks the same, but the atmosphere is quite different.

While the adventurers guild is filled with people eating, drinking and generally having fun in between commissions, the merchants guild has a very professional atmosphere.

People are on their desks sorting through documents and making trades. The sound of clicking abacus is constant and is the most dominant sound in the room. Which sounds pretty relaxing to me right now, not gonna lie. I could fall asleep here.

To the back of the guild hall, there is a row of several reception counters. One of them is particular is being attended to by a female bird person. Golden yellow feathers cover her back and her front feathers, only slightly exposed by her cloths, are light yellow, almost white. They look very fluffy.

The feathers on her head are tied with two particularly long feathers protruding upwards. Her beak is black and white, almost like that of a parrot.

"Majorri..." I wave at her, "Hello."

"Oh, hello again Ether. What brings you here this early in the morning?"

"Actually, I'm looking to rent a house, and I heard the merchants guild deals in this too."

"Indeed we do. One moment please." She walks around to the back and comes back a moment later with a stack of documents in her beak.

She places them on the table and uses her talons to flip through them. "Here are all the information we have on houses for rent."

Apparently, from what Alice told me yesterday. Unlike Gravel who is a human kin beast man, Majorri is an animal kin beast man.

Animal kin beast men express more of their animal features and receives more of the benefits and drawbacks that come with them. She explains that most of the bird people I see will be animal kin, because although they don't have hand, they gain the ability to fly in exchange.

Plus, their talons and beaks are as dexterous as human hands, so not having hands isn't really a big detriment to them.

After the long, boring process of looking through the documents...

Finally... a house in a small patch of land close to the northwest wall catches my attention. Good timing too. My eyes were giving up on me.

It says it's a small two floor house with two bed rooms, but that's about it for the description. The things that catches my attention the most is that the small patch of land behind the house has a well.

Majorri tells me that this part of town doesn't have much crime. It's also relatively close to the guild, so I think it's a good pick, but...

"I'll need to go see the house itself in person first, but what's the price for this place?"

"Certainly, I'll be taking you there myself. Let's see... the price is... 1 and a half gold a month."

"That sounds affordable." Honestly, I have no idea how much that's worth. Can't even think right now. "Can we go see it now?"

Majorri, "Yes, certainly."

Majorri takes me north of the guild building to the northwest residential district, where this house is suppose to be. The streets leading up to it is quiet, except for some kids running around.

All the adults are at work at this time.

The buildings here are all two to four floors high and most are separated by a small gap, others by an ally ways.

Above us, cloths are hung to dry on wires strewn about from building to building, creates ample shade for the children playing on the gravel street.

This shade, these empty streets, the soft laughter of the children, the calm breeze blowing across my face and slight scent of flowers. This peaceful environment makes this stroll very relaxing.

We kept heading north until we reached a diagonal road that cuts from the town center to the edge of the wall. Looking in the direction of the town center, I can see a cobblestone road currently being paved. The street that leads to the house is one behind this one and it goes straight west.

Apart from some small details, the house looks no different from all the other houses I've seen so far. A two floors wattle and daub house with a wooden window in the middle of the second floor.

Majorri unlocks the door and we walk inside, onto a wooden plank floor.

Immediately to my left, I can see a round table with 4 chairs around it and to my right are the stairs leading to the second floor. There's a door that leads to the back yard at the very back of the room and to the left of that door the kitchen.

There's even a small storage room under the stairs, now that I'm a bit further inside.

Decorations and furniture are the bare minimum, but what did I expect. I can fix that later.

As for the second floor. As promised, two bed rooms with simple twin sized beds and bedside drawers. Again, bare minimum. Nothing else in the room.

There is a window in each room, one looking to the front of the house, and the other to the backyard. Speaking of the back yard, the grass is a bit over grown but the well is there, and there's water in it.

The place needs some work put into it, but all things considered, it is a pretty nice place to live.

"Alright, Majorri, I'll take this one."

"You've decided, alright then. Let's get back to the guild, I'll fill out all the parchment and have it ready for you by tomorrow."

"That's great. By the way, do you know where I can find some furniture for this place, and maybe get some people to weed out the backyard."

"If you want some furniture, the merchants guild can probably get you what you want. As for the backyard, you can probably get some of the neighborhood kids help you with that. Or you can hire a maid." She smiles. I'm not sure what she's trying to get at. I'm not even sure how she's smiling with a beak...

"Hehe, do I look like I can afford a maid? I'm just a kid."

"My apologies if I seem presumptuous. It's just that you have enough to rent a house and even want to furnish it, so I just assumed... moreover, adventurers do get paid a lot, so I just assumed..." she puts her head down a bit.

After that exchange we took the stroll back to the guild...

"Majorri, could I trouble you to pick some furniture for me." I slide her a bag of coins. "I've never been very good at interior decoration."

"Certainly." She starts opening the bag with her beak. "What kind of theme would you li..." her jaws drop and her eyes widen.

"Hmm? What's wrong."

"Y-y-y-you want me t-to pick furniture with t-this much money?" She almost looks pale saying that.

I thought for sure that 100gold would have been enough. "Ahh. I'm sorry. Is that not enough? How much more would you need?"

"N-no! This is more than enough! But... are you sure?"

So it is enough. Then I don't really see the problem. "Yeah. Just... make the house look good. Ok? I'm counting on you."

"Y-yes! I'll try my absolute best!" and then she rushes to the back. Frantic.

That was... weird...

Oh well. I'll leave it to her.

I still feel a bit tired after all that. A cup of coffee would be nice right about now...

Sadly... there's no coffee here. Some exercise should do the trick too. Let's go take a commission.