House Troubles

I leave the market poorer, fuller, and with an interesting new necklace. Still nothing else planned for the day, so I simply pick a direction and start to walk. I watch as the buildings slowly transition from uniform structures with a sign, to more individual structures, their designs similar, but different enough to notice. Houses.

I look down a side-street, seeing a tall man and a little girl standing in front of a two story house, seeming to be arguing about something. The house is nice looking, and made of stone, which seems to be more unusual than it is with shops. Most of the other houses I've passed by have been wood. Deciding to act like a video game protagonist, I approach to involve myself in whatever they're talking about.

Seeing me approach the little girl stops talking and motions my way with a tilt of her head. Turning, the annoyed expression quickly turns to admiration and a whisper escapes his lips.

"Cute~." The little girl next to him punches his knee, causing him to yelp in pain and hop on one leg. She turns to me, an apologetic expression on her face.

"Sorry about that. This idiot doesn't really have a filter on his mouth, no matter how many times I beat some sense into him."

I nod in understanding. "Yeah, having an idiot dad must be hard."

The man stops hopping and turns to me. "Oh, I'm not her dad. I'm her boyfriend."

I nod in understanding before turning away. "I think there was a guard station back this way…"

"Wait!" The little girl shouts as she runs up and grabs onto my leg. "I promise, he's not a lolicon!" She pauses and looks down at herself before looking back up at me, an awkward expression on her face. "Well, he is, but I'm a dwarf! So I'm much older than I look!"

I pause and take in her appearance. She has straight black hair that reaches down between her shoulders, and is wearing a yellow dress with frills on the edges. Leaning over her head to see her back, I see a stylized butterfly. Not the kind of thing an adult would wear, I don't think. Seeing my dubious look, the girl pouts.

"It's true, I'm twenty-two!"

"Pretty sure you added a ten to that," I retort. Really, she barely comes up to my chest. Not to mention that her face is still childlike, not like the dwarfs back on Earth. But maybe things are different here…?

She scowls up at me. "My youthful face is because I'm a half-dwarf! I'm still twenty-two!"

I look between the girl and the guy, who's frantically nodding his head. I sigh. "Fine, I'll believe you. For now." They breath out sighs of relief before I continue. "But what were the two of you arguing about?"

"Oh, that?" The girl waves her hand. "We're house shopping, but the person showing us what's available ran into the house he was about to show us with a pale face. That was an hour ago. So we were wondering if we should get the guards or move along and pretend nothing happened."

The man pipes up. "We can't just leave if he's in trouble."

She glares at him. "And what do you expect us to do if he is in trouble? You're a mason and I'm a gardener! Sure, I have a bit of plant magic, but that's to help with gardening! The most we'd be able to do is get into the same trouble he's in."

"We could at least tell the guards." He protests.

"Then they'd want us to bring them back here, and if he isn't out by then, there's no way I'll want to be anywhere near this place!"

I look at the house. There's really nothing noteworthy about it, other than it being made of stone while the surrounding houses are made of wood. It certainly doesn't give off a creepy spooky haunted vibe.

I speak before I can think better of it. "I can take a quick look if you want."

They both look at me in surprise. "Really? But we have no idea what happened to him. For all we know there could be some horrible monster waiting in there."

I shrug at her. I'm an E-Rank at the guild, so I should at least be able to run away if there's anything dangerous."

The man smiles at me. "That's great! Which guild?" His girlfriend punches him in the knee again. We ignore his bouncing and whining as I continue to plead my case.

"I'll run the moment I think I'm in danger. I'll find him and be back in thirty minutes, tops." I look back at the building. "And that's only if I somehow do run into trouble."

She nods. "Ok."

"Plus if there's a ch-wait. Did you just say ok?"

Another nod. "Sure. It's no skin off my back if something happens to you in there. Plus, if you actually manage to get the realtor out of there we can go back to house hunting."

"Oh." Really though, I guess I should have expected that given how she wanted to just ditch the guy in there to whatever his fate is. And I was all prepared to appeal to her morals and stuff too…

Oh well. It's time to explore the possibly dangerous house!

I put a hundred mana into wind armor with the hopes that it will protect me from any surprise attack.

I open the door cautiously, keeping an eye out for anything that seems off. The door opens smoothly, which makes sense since the guy was trying to see the house. A creaky door could be the difference between a sale or not.

Looking through the now open door, I see a comfy looking foyer with polished wooden floors. A pillar in the center supports the floor above, and around the corner I think I can see a kitchen. It's really nice, but I don't see the realtor anywhere down here.

So I slowly make my way upstairs, testing each of the stairs before trusting my weight to them. But these stairs look new, did the realtor replace the old ones? Wow, he really went the extra mile for this.

At the top of the stairs lies a hallway, two doors wait to my left, and another pair to my right. As I debate which door to open first, I hear a sound. A kind of…low muttering, or grumbling, I think. It's coming from the second room on the right.

I tiptoe over silently, careful to step lightly.I reach the door and grasp the rounded doorknob.

With a quick turn I jump to the side as the door swings open. Seeing nothing come out, I re-approach the door. Seeing that nothing has come out to eat me yet, I peek around the corner and into the room."

There, I find the realtor. As well as what's prevented him from leaving. The realtor sits in the center of a glowing circle, cradling a small form in his arms. Seeing me appear, the realtor opens his mouth.

"It took them long enough to send someone. I've been stuck here for over an hour! I've got sales to do! Not to mention that my daughter needs rest!"