Boarding house

Crackers blushed at Kit's words.

"Sorry Kit I didn't mean any offence. Honestly, I knew you would be at a low tier from when we met previously. I just didn't think you would still be a Novice. It just surprised me that's all. I mean you have done this much in such a short time. What will it be like in six months' time?"

Crackers looked at Kit with sincerity when she spoke.

He felt a warm feeling build in his chest at being praised. He went to thank Crackers for the compliment and froze as his gaze collided with her eyes.

Kit looked at Crackers with a complicated gaze. Crackers eyes started to get a familiar look of worship towards himself. Kit felt his whole face burn with embarrassment. He averted his eyes, this wasn't the response he had expected.

Kit's eyes clashed with Charlotte's in haste to avert looking at Crackers. He watched in horror as Charlotte's had the same look of worship directed at him. Kit felt the heat in his face turn into a flame.

He felt like he was blushing from head to toe. Kit continued to glance around the room to see similar looks on his new employees faces. What is going on? Why did it turn into this?

Kit didn't know where to set his eyes to avoid the uncomfortable stares. He didn't do anything out of the ordinary, why are they staring at him like this? He decided to concentrate on Snickers and change the subject instead.

"Snickers I don't know if we can go tomorrow. Crackers and Cupcake only just started with us I don't want to leave them alone for a whole day yet."

"Who said it would take a whole day? It won't take long at all. You will be back before lunch. I'm sure the two of them can handle things for a couple of hours."

"Kit, Cupcake and I will be fine. You go an' get the ingredients ya be needin', we will take care of the restaurant." Crackers gave him a thumbs up.

Kit didn't want Crackers to feel like he didn't trust her and Cupcake to manage the kitchen so he could only reluctantly agree. At least this way he could see if they would be able to run his restaurant when he had to log out.

If not, he would have to close it for six days and he didn't think that would be good for business. With tomorrow's plans decided and no other problems identified by his staff. Kit decided to close up the kitchen and go find Mars.

Ding!

[Boarding house complete]

Congratulations! Player Kit is now the owner of a Boarding house in Spartan Fire.

Upgrades available when blueprints are promoted to next tier.

What timing! Kit felt his mouth split open with a grin. He couldn't wait to see what it would look like. He turned to his employees with sparkling eyes.

"I have a surprise for you all for doing such a great job today. So, follow me."

Kit watched as curiosity entered everyone's eyes. Kit smiled but didn't say anything else. He then stepped outside the restaurant with an entourage of his employees.

As he started walking Kit realised, he had no clue where he was going. He slowed down to a stop. It was dark right now so he wouldn't be able to see the new building by searching his surroundings.

As he was thinking over his dilemma a loud shout greeted his ears.

"KIT!." Mars was heading towards them waving his hand in greeting.

Kit could just make Mars outline out in the darkness. Kit smiled, now he didn't have to worry about locating his new building. Kit waited for Mars to walk over to him.

"Kit, it's all ready. Come on I'll show you the way." Mars had a smile on his face as he spoke.

Kit guessed Mars was very pleased with the outcome of the boarding house from the look of happiness on his face.

"Mars, thankyou for organising the new building for me. But how did you purchase the land and building in my name?"

Mars turned to Kit with a delighted grin. "What do you mean? You gave me permission to do this for you."

Kit blinked at the simple answer. He didn't think it would be that easy to purchase property for someone else. He relayed his thoughts to Mars.

"Kit I'm a founding member I have access to all the paperwork that needs to be submitted for purchasing property. When you asked me to purchase the land and blueprint for you, the system gave me access to your menu temporarily to finalise the purchase. Apparently, it is another perk of being a founding member."

"That is quite a bonus. I wonder why we can do that." Kit couldn't think of a reason why the system would allow this.

"I don't know why either, I guess we will find out why in the future. But right now, it's a great thing that I could. Your boarding house is finished."

Kit noticed they had been walking in the direction of his house as they had been talking. Kit could see lights glittering not far behind his mud hut. As they got closer Kit could make out a building in the twinkling light.

The boarding house was located just behind his residence. It was a large wooden square building of a simple design. A beautiful caved double door stood as the main focal point of the entrance to the structure. Kit glanced up at the twinkling lights that hung on the outside of the house.

He gasped in amazement as he noticed they were not lights at all but a bunch of glowing bugs hovering around a suspended pot filled with a grey plant. "Mars what are those?"

Mars followed Kit's gaze. "Ahh, pretty neat, right. Leonard said if we hung the grey felt grass those bugs would come to make an outside light. I got some for our houses as well. I will hang them up on our way back."

"What are they called?"

"Night light bugs."

Kit laughed at the simple name. He became distracted when he heard the murmuring from behind him. He had forgotten that his staff was following behind him!

He turned to see all his employee's eyes roaming over the building.

"What do you all think?" When he spoke, he grabbed all of their attention. Confusion was plain on their faces.

"What is this place, Kit?" Camomile was the first to ask.

"Your new living quarters. Shall we go inside and have a look?"

Blank looks greeted his question. He waited for the light of recognition to ignite in their eyes. Slowly delight sprang into their eyes. Kit felt a burst of happiness at the sight. He felt he had made the right decision to fund the building himself.

"How did you organise this, you were at the restaurant all day," Crackers squeaked.

"Magic of course." Kit laughed when Crackers slapped his shoulder at his reply.

"Ok, fine, keep the secret to ya self. I'm just glad you be thinkin' about us. I was very worried I would have to sleep outside in the cold tonight. Kit, ya will be a great boss. I'm very glad I came to ya restaurant. It's not often ya find someone with a big heart like ya self to worry about their staff."

Kit blushed at Crackers sincere words. It was nice to have a compliment directed at him. It was a nice change from the words of scorn he had previously been used to. Kit never thought he would be someone people would look up to one day.

This made him even more glad he hadn't left them out in the cold tonight. He would work hard to not let them down in the future. Before his mind wondered off in a tangent Kit thanked Crackers for her kind words.

"By the way do you all like the surprise?"

Kit watched the group all nodded their heads in agreement. He was very pleased with the reaction to his surprise.

"Come on let's head in. I haven't seen what it looks like either."

Kit pushed the heavy wooden doors open. A giant pane of glass was the first thing to attract his eye. Behind the transparent barrier was a giant tree surrounded by greenery. Suspended around the inside of the garden were more of the grey felt grass pots.

The night light bugs not only lit up the garden, the light also shone through to the walkways surrounding the garden. Kit could see through the clear glass to the hallways surrounding the garden. He realised the whole boarding house was built around the magnificent garden.

"Mars, it looks fantastic, this garden alone is making me jealous. I only have a small mud hut, I think we should move here too."

The whole place gave him a sense of comfort and a relaxed feel. He could see himself sitting on the lounge at the end of the day gazing at the beautiful garden to wind down.

"I had the same thought. The bedrooms are quite small, but if we upgrade it later they should get bigger."

"We can upgrade it?"

"Of course. Have a look at the menu for the building after we finish touring the boarding house. The next upgrade can't be done until we raise the village though. There is also the option to promote the boarding house with stars like your restaurant can."

Kit was shocked at this news. He didn't think a simple boarding house would be like his restaurant. Then again it could be bought as a business. It was just that Kit wasn't going to use it that way, so he hadn't thought of this.

He would just save it for his staff and possibly himself and Mars. He really was having the thought to move in.

"Come on I'll show you around the rest of the place. The rest of the boarding house is a simple design so don't get your hopes up it will be like the garden."

Kit followed Mars to the left side of the entrance. Mars took him to a room not far from where they had been standing and opened the door.

"This room is empty. So not much to see, I didn't know what to do with this space. I thought I would wait for you so you could decide."

Kit investigated the bare room. He had no clue what to do with it. He would see what the rest of the boarding house looked like then he could decide what to do with the room.

Mars shut the door then walked around the corner of the hallway. A simple kitchen came into Kit's view. Benches lined the wall with a stove top in the middle, a pantry was on the end. A long bench ran parallel to the wall creating a breakfast bar to sit at. A couple of stools lined the breakfast bench.

How did this boarding house have a stove top! His own restaurant didn't even have one yet. Kit felt a wave of jealousy towards his own boarding house!

"This is the kitchen and next to it is the dining area. Then at the end is a lounge area." Mars motioned further into the open area.

Kit shook away the green eyed monster that had welled up inside him and focused on Mars.

His eyes followed Mars outstretched arm to see a wooden dining table next to the kitchen. It could seat eight people. Further up the space was a large couch lining the wall at the end of the room. It was an L shape sitting against the corner walls.

Mars walked to the end of the room then turned the corner. Kit could hear the other's footsteps behind him. Gentle excited voices accompanied there echoing steps.

As Kit followed Mars around the corner, he noticed the hallway shrunk. Only two people could walk abreast in the long corridor. Kit could see five doors along the hall, indicating there were five separate rooms.

"This corridor contains five bedrooms. They all look the same, so we only have to look inside one."

Mars opened the first door in the line of rooms. Inside was a single bed, small cupboard and a desk. The room wasn't large, but it was enough for one person to comfortably navigate around without bumping into things.

Kit's mud hut wasn't much bigger than the bedrooms. Mars left the door open so the others could see inside then walked Kit to the next corridor.

"These rooms are all bedrooms as well. In total there are 10 bedrooms inside the boarding house. At the end of this corridor next to the front doors and to the right is the bathrooms."

Mars took Kit past the doors lining the walls without stopping. They finally turned the last corner and were back to the front hallway. Mars walked up to one of the two doors that were on right side of the entrance.

"There are two bathrooms. One for males and the other for females."

Kit walked into the bathrooms. It had a row of three stalls either side of the walls. One side held three toilets and the other side had showers. A row of basins and mirrors lined the wall behind the door.

"That's it. What do you think?" Mars stood waiting for Kit's verdict.

"Damn, you and Leonard did a great job. I can't believe how well it turned out. Thank you so much Mars. This is well beyond my expectations."

Kit was not lying. He had expected a run down large shack with shared rooms. The boarding house had blown him away.

"Thankyou Kit I'm glad you liked it." Mars had a slight dusting of pink on his cheeks at Kit's praise.

"By the way were is Leonard?" Kit hadn't seen the large man on the tour around the boarding house. He wanted to thank the man for his hard work as well.

"Ohh, he went home as soon as we finished. He couldn't wait to see Snickers."

Kit chuckled. Snickers had followed them to the boarding house. He wondered if Leonard would regret leaving when he found this out.

As Mars and Kit were talking the others had all caught up.

"Kit are we really staying here from now on?" Mud was practically dancing on the spot as he asked.

"Yes Mud. This was what you all wanted in the contract remember."

"I know, it's just … I wanted to double check."

Kit gave Mud a curious look. He couldn't figure out what the small man was thinking. He didn't have to wait long to find out.

"Snickers I'm not staying with you. I'm staying with Kit." A big grin spread across his face as he spoke to his cousin.

Snicker snorted. "Do you think Kit will live with you."

Mud turned hopeful eyes to Kit. "You are living here too, right?"

Kit looked at the garden through the glass window, then at the others in the room. No one showed any resistance to him living here. In fact they all looked just as hopeful as Mud.

"Well, why not. Mars, do you want to move in too?"

"Mmm." Mars looked pleased.

"Wait I want to move in as well." Twix looked at Kit with a hopeful face.

"No, you can't you're not a restaurant employee." Mud looked at Twix with narrowed eyes.

Twix grin spread wide on his face. "Who said I'm not a restaurant employee."

Mud turned to Kit for confirmation. "Twix is right Mud. He was an employee before you were."

"Oh, then that's ok." Mud nodded at Twix and smiled happily at him.

What was that all about? Did Snickers whole family have something wrong with their brains. Kit shook his head then went and chose a room for himself. Mars and Twix picked the rooms either side of him.

Once everyone had assigned themselves a room Kit left to go and find Snowball. Snickers followed him out the door.

"Kit I will come and get you first thing in the morning. You should bring Snowball along with you. It will be good for him to get to know Little Moo."

Kit felt a shiver go down his spine at the mention of Moo. How was introducing Snowball to Moo a good thing. He would be worried that Moo would look at Snowball like a snack.

"Will that be safe Snickers? I don't want anything to happen to Snowball."

"Pfft they will be fine. Do you even know anything about Hoarders of precious things. I will be the one that has to worry that your Snowball will charm my Little Moo away from me."

Snickers jogged Kit's memory. That was right Snowball had the skill cuteness overload. Hopefully he would be successful activating it against Little Moo.

"Ok, I'll bring Snowball tomorrow. Good night, Snickers."

"Goodnight Kit."

Snickers walked away and Kit went to his mud hut to find his little cute fluff ball. Hopefully he would like his new home.