Chapter 121: Just Here for the Trade (2)
Claude tilted his head at the unsatisfactory response.
“Don’t you have to get close to nobles to sell cosmetics?”
“How many people would want to get friendly with a poor baron? And just because you’re friendly, do you think the nobles would trust and use it? They’ll probably toss it all away. You didn’t want to use it at first either.”
“Still, shouldn’t we at least let them know that we have this to sell?”
Ghislaine shook his head.
“That’s true, but it won’t help if we announce it ourselves. We need the nobles to come to us. First, let’s find a place to stay. We can promote later; it’s not too late for that.”
Claude nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“It’ll cost some money, but how about buying a building near the royal castle… in the central area?”
“Central area?”
“Yeah, a mansion would be nice too. No, actually, a more luxurious mansion is better for selling high-end items to nobles.”
Nobles never visit ordinary shops frequented by commoners. If they need something from such places, they send a servant to buy it. Expensive and nice items are traded face-to-face at social gatherings.
“You’re right. Whether it’s a mansion or a shop, if we’re only dealing with nobles, it’s better to decorate it as lavishly as possible.”
Belinda chimed in from the side.
That was sound reasoning. However, Ghislaine still seemed uninterested.
“If we want a nice mansion in the center of this town, we’re going to have to spend about a year’s budget from our territory, you know? Don’t you know how high the prices are here?”
Claude responded with a pout of disappointment.
“That’s true, but we have to find a place in the capital anyway.”
“Of course, we need a large mansion with a garden. We have personnel to accommodate and wagons to store. The cheaper, the better. We’ll look for a place on the outskirts.”
“Then where do you plan to sell the items?”
“I’m buying a mansion, of course. We can sell the items there for now.”
“That seems too shabby for selling high-end goods. Why would nobles buy from us?”
Ghislaine smiled slyly.
“That doesn’t matter. They’ll come flocking with bundles of money soon enough, so don’t worry.”
“Oh, it’s funny how you’re a big spender, yet you’re so stingy during these times. Let’s check if there are any items for sale first. If the customers don’t show up later, it’s not my responsibility.”
Starting the next day, Claude began searching the entire capital for a decent mansion.
Claude began searching the entire capital for a decent mansion.
The prices in the city center near the royal castle were outrageous, and there simply weren’t any properties available.
Nonetheless, Claude, unable to let go of his hopes, gradually expanded his search area around the royal castle and finally discovered a large mansion on the outskirts.
“It’s a big, beautiful mansion with a garden that’s cheap, just as you wanted!”
The realtor grinned as he described the house in front of them.
However, the people around couldn’t hide their uncomfortable feelings as they surveyed the surroundings.
Yes, it was spacious. There was a garden. The mansion was tall and large. And crucially, the price was low.
The problem was… the whole mansion had a gloomy aura, as if a vampire lived there.
The flowers in the garden looked as if they had drained all their life force, withered and gray. Even in broad daylight, a bothersome energy seemed to seep from the dense shadows of the trees around.
Belinda looked at the realtor with an expressionless face.
“This is the best we can do?”
“It’s the only place in the capital that’s big, cheap, and spacious!”
“But why is the state of this mansion like this?”
“Haha, it probably hasn’t been touched by human hands. This place has a bit of a bad reputation, you see. But it’s just a rumor. Nothing to worry about.”
There were rumors that the souls of people who had died unjustly lingered there.
No wonder there were no signs of people around such a big mansion.
Belinda shouted as if there was no point in looking any further.
“Young Master, let’s just find somewhere else! How can we live in a creepy place like this? All it’ll do is pile on the fatigue!”
As if reacting to Belinda’s words, a flock of crows flapped their wings from the mansion.
Caw! Caw!
“See, even they agree with me!”
Ghislaine, regardless of Belinda’s objections, carefully surveyed the surroundings and nodded to the realtor.
“Alright, let’s take this house. How much? You said it was cheap?”
“Young Master! If we sleep in this house, we might suck all the mana out and die!”
“That can’t be right. What, are undead going to pop out or something? We can just smash them if they do. What’s there to be scared of?”
Ghislaine poked the realtor lightly.
“Why aren’t you answering? How much is it?”
“Oh my, what an excellent choice! This house… combined with the land, it easily exceeds a thousand gold. But considering it hasn’t been maintained well, I can let it go for exactly 500 gold.”
The realtor beamed, feeling relieved at the thought of finally selling this troublesome property.
Given the ruckus from the shouting beside him, he boldly lowered the price, thinking they wouldn’t pass it up.
At this price, it was practically a giveaway, but hey… as long as it sold.
However, the realtor had no idea just how unreasonable Ghislaine was.
“200 gold.”
“What?”
“200 gold or I won’t buy it.”
Ghislaine added with a sly grin.
The realtor was taken aback, waving his hands in disbelief.
“No way! You can’t be serious! You want to buy such a mansion for 200 gold? 500 gold is already a massive discount!”
“So what if the mansion is big? It’s not selling anyway. Then you can sell it somewhere else.”
“Well, that… honestly, we’ve just been too busy with other affairs to list it. We could sell if we wanted to. If we set our minds to it, we could push it out the door. You think we can’t do that?”
“If you want to sell it, you can. If you really set your mind to it, you could just push it over too. Think I can’t do it?”
The seasoned broker tried to act tough, confident in his industry experience.
Of course, it didn’t work on Ghislaine.
Ghislaine laughed derisively and said, “Who says I can’t? If I wanted to, I could. But there’s a reason I haven’t done it until now.”
“That’s…!”
“There are already bad rumors going around. If you want to demolish the mansion, you’ll have to pay the laborers more too. Even if you push it all down, it’s said to be haunted land. Do you really think someone would buy it?”
“That’s…!”
“No matter how you look at it, it just doesn’t add up, right? That’s why you’ve left it alone until now.”
“Then…!”
The broker, having his schemes laid bare, rolled his eyes and broke into a cold sweat.
Ghislaine patted his shoulder and whispered, “Oh, this guy isn’t getting it. After this much talk, you should really start moving quickly.”
“No, but 200 gold is…”
“Hmm, your desperation isn’t quite there. Okay, let’s go look somewhere else.”
As Ghislaine turned, the group followed without hesitation. No one tried to stop them.
“Wait! I’ll lower the price a bit more!” the broker shouted desperately.
After shouting, he regretted it, but the damage was done.
Ghislaine turned back slowly, warning him. “Think carefully about what you say. You only get one chance. If I don’t like it, I’ll really leave this time.”
“……”
The broker, who had planned to ask for 300 gold, was crying tears of blood inside.
Just when he thought he could have an easy mark, he found himself caught.
He had tried everything to sell this mansion. He even considered giving it away for free, trying to appeal to nobles, but he was politely yet firmly rejected.
He hadn’t been sleeping well lately, thinking about how to deal with this headache of a property.
His forehead, recently getting markedly larger, couldn’t be just due to stress.
‘Just sell it. Then at least I can sleep well at night!’
After a moment of contemplation, the broker finally nodded weakly.
“I’ll sell it for 200 gold.”
“Good thinking.”
Caw! Caw!
As if welcoming their new master, crows circled the mansion, cawing loudly.
*
The contract was concluded swiftly.
It was the perfect match between Ghislaine, who wanted to buy a large mansion cheaply, and the broker, who wanted to sell quickly.
Belinda and Claude sighed and grumbled behind Ghislaine while signing the contract.
“Why on earth are you buying this house? You’d be better off with a smaller, more comfortable place.”
“Who would come to buy anything from a place like this?”
Ghislaine smiled brightly, ignoring the people’s complaints.
“It’s fine. All that is just superstition and nonsense. Do you think you could buy such a big, spacious mansion for this price? You have to save.”
“Sigh, who can stop the young master’s stubbornness?”
“Okay, let’s go inside first.”
Ghislaine energetically swung the door open.
Creeeak!
The scream-like sound made Claude flinch. Even the sound of the door opening is spine-chilling in this house.
Ghislaine looked around and nodded.
“Wow, it’s really spacious, isn’t it? Just needs a bit of cleaning and repairs, and if we decorate it a bit, it’ll really be nice…”
“Right? All we need to do is some cleaning and repairs. If we decorate a bit, it’ll look really nice…”
“Ahhh! What the heck is that! It’s a monster!”
“Ahhh! Attack! Attack!”
Suddenly, Belinda and Claude screamed and stumbled back.
“Geez! That scared me! What is it?”
Ghislaine grumbled, and Claude pointed out a commotion in one corner of the lobby.
Something with long hair was standing in the darkness.
Ghislaine instinctively placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, examined it closely, and then let out a sigh of relief.
“What? It’s just armor.”
A dusty feather duster was hanging on the old armor. Being in the dark corner, it perfectly looked like a person.
Once the others figured out the monster’s true identity, they relaxed and gave an awkward smile.
“Okay, now that we’ve got a place to stay, let’s start with cleaning and repairs. Let’s find some laborers too. We need to chase out all the baby crows in the house.”
Caw?
At Ghislaine’s command, the people sighed and started moving.
A while later, a few mercenaries who had gone out to find laborers returned with troubled expressions.
“It’s not easy to find laborers.”
Rumors of ghosts were so widespread that even if we offered extra pay, no one wanted to come.
Unless someone was really desperate for money, everyone shook their heads.
Reluctantly, they had to buy materials themselves and had the mercenaries and servants do the repairs.
Thankfully, because there were many people following Ghislaine, the mansion repairs were completed in three days.
Of course, it wasn’t decorated as splendidly and magnificently as other noble mansions.
They just filled the place with daily necessities so they could stay there immediately and cleaned it up nicely.
Still, the gloomy atmosphere had lessened significantly compared to before.
Once they ripped out the garden that had turned gray, the image of a haunted mansion would completely disappear, but garden maintenance was a problem that couldn’t be solved in such a short time.
“Let’s handle the garden later. We can work on it together then. For now, we have to live with those guys.”
Caw! Caw!
Unfortunately, they couldn’t drive out all the crows.
After chasing out the ones that lived inside and putting up new spears, no more came inside the mansion.
However, the ousted ones had settled in the garden and showed no signs of leaving.
“Still, it has enough of a setup for people to live in, so let’s start promoting the cosmetics. We need to sell them quickly.”
“What are you planning to do? You said you weren’t going to the feast.”
“Let’s just circulate gifts throughout every noble mansion in the capital.”
“…Cosmetics, really?”
“Yep.”
“Huh…”
Claude almost shouted but barely held back and let out a long sigh.
“So, you’re saying that just by giving them as gifts, it’ll serve as promotion?”
“Exactly.”
Claude could no longer hold himself and finally shouted.
“No! Even if we beg them to use it, will they really use it if we give it as a gift? They’ll probably just toss it aside!”
“Nobles would of course react that way.”
“You know that!”
Ghislaine stroked his chin and grinned.
“I’m not sending it to the nobles, but to the servants who work under them.”
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