Chapter 34: The Mansion

I was fascinated looking at the Humongous Mansion in the distance. I looked beside me and even Roxanne looked speechless at the view.

As we neared the house we could see more of it. I asked again just to be sure and the middle aged aunty clarified that this house was available to rent. Looking at the house I am sure that this must have been some Noble's house before.

The field stopped at a point and we were in front of the Mansion. I craned my head to see and I could make out that it was probably 3 floors. The stony structure looked majestic, not as much as the Explorer's guild but still it was imposing in its own right.

The Mansion was made up of the same reddish brown bricks as the Explorer's Guild. As I looked around I came to realize that his wasn't just a house, it was an Estate.

"This is the main building, in the back there is a smaller 2-story house for the workers staying here. There is also a stable and a massive garden in the back" The middle-aged aunty tells us, seeing us look at the mansion.

She goes ahead and opens a padlock on the massive entrance of the Mansion.

"So the fields we went through from the Iron gate to here, are all included in this 'house'?" Roxanne asks while looking back at the path we took.

"That's right, that stone wall surrounds this entire property. On the right side of the main building there is a small pond. On the left side there are trees planted to make that part into a small forest" Aunty speaks while pointing to the right and left.

I look around but I can't see anything from here. It must be quite far.

As aunty opened the door we could see an old naked concrete room spread out. We followed Aunty into the empty room.

"There are many entrances to the main house, this one was the main entrance" Aunty points to the large wooden door we just entered from.

Straight down this large hall I could see a spiral staircase going upstairs to the second floor. On the side inside this hall I could see an empty Fireplace. Aunty explains that there is a Fireplace in almost every room.

"This place looks so empty. There are no decorations, statues or any kind of furniture?" I asked aunty while looking around the empty room.

I used to watch a lot of Youtube videos of Mansions and Castles in my free time so even though I was shocked with the grand scale of this mansion, it always felt a bit tasteless to me compared to the videos I saw.

"This whole property was of a Noble family from the Imperial Capital. They took years constructing the walls and the main house. But a year ago there was a tragedy in their family, so any further work on the property was stopped" Aunty explained to us while walking ahead.

Through the massive Entrance Hall aunty took us to the room on the left side, which was supposed to be the Drawing room. Then further in, just adjacent to it there was a Sitting room.

The rooms were all empty with the only bit of decoration being the candle holders which were spread throughout the walls in this Mansion. There was a fireplace in the Drawing room as well as the Sitting room. There were also Big wooden windows.

"Don't worry, all the basic facilities have been completed, just the house hasn't been properly decorated. I have even restored the wooden windows and have kept the interior of the house clean" Aunty tells us while opening the wooden windows and showing us the outside view.

She must be worried that we might find the house a half finished product.

Through the Sitting room, aunty took us to the right where there was a massive Kitchen, it was just beside the Entrance Hall and the spiral staircase.

Inside the Kitchen there was a big stone oven as well as multiple counters. There were also two sinks in this room. Roxanne started asking all kinds of questions about the Kitchen and its various facilities.

Leaving them alone I took a step back to the previous sitting room and casted Warp. A Black door formed on the wall and I went through it. I came back out inside the Entrance hall.

Good Warp works fine here. Even though I knew that it should work on shielding cement, I still needed to confirm it.

I went back to the ladies and then we went ahead from the kitchen into another massive room with big wooden windows. Aunty told us that this is supposedly the Main Dining room.

"This entire property was up for sale. But nobles generally don't buy property in Quratar. Especially this House as it was considered cursed. It is rumoured that before the tragedy to that Noble family a year ago, they also suffered a series of bad events and it all started around the time they started construction of this house. So now this property has been up for rent for months" Aunty keeps walking while sharing with us the upper class gossip.

She is really an honest merchant, other brokers would have hid this kind of inner stories from their potential buyers. Personally I think that the noble family must have been targeted by someone else, at least that is much more believable than the house being cursed.

She also showed us two smaller rooms beside the kitchen which were supposedly to be used as a Pantry and a Storage room. We came back to the Entrance Hall and now went towards the right side of the Hall.

There was another big empty room which was also to function as a smaller Dining room. Adjacent to this Dining room was a small room with a staircase going downstairs.

"There is a lower floor, which was mainly to be used as an Armory and a Food Storage unit" Aunty tells us while grabbing a lantern which was kept on the side.

We went down in the basement, it was empty and dark. Aunty lit the lantern and showed us the whole basement. It was basically 2 huge empty rooms.

Going back to the ground floor or the first floor, we went further right and there was a toilet.

"All the toilets of this property are water flush toilets" Aunty points towards a compartment above the toilet seat, "When water is added to the upper container, it will drain the toilet to the ditch outside the property. The drain draws water from the nearby river. Here we're upstream so it's pretty clean"

The bathroom has a toilet seat directly connected to the drain opening. If the water is put in the upper tank, it seems the force is enough to wash it away. This would be flushed to the nearby river and that same water will be used by people downstream to take a bath and wash clothes. I can see why the slums were in the downstream area in Vale.

I guess this flushing is still a luxury in this time period so I shouldn't complain.

"Honestly it takes too much work to upkeep only this main building so if you will take this house from my hands then you will be doing me a service. Even Explorers and Adventurers have no interest in this property seeing how far it is from the labyrinth and the cost of not only renting but also keeping such a big place running is too much for them" Aunty tells us with a heavy sigh.

Beside the toilet there is a smaller room, aunty tells me that it was planned to be a Study room. Going further right we arrive at a large room which has a large rectangular pit in the middle of the room.

"This here is a Bath, there is also a drainage connection in it" Aunty points to the pit.

"So it's true that Nobles have big baths inside their houses" Roxanne says looking at the large bath.

I could picture that if the Bath was filled with water it would come up to my groin. Beside this large bath was a sitting room and another smaller bedroom.

"Now then let's go to the second floor" Aunty says while taking us back towards the main hall.

It was crazy that all this time we were just exploring the Ground floor. If I was alone I might even get lost in this Mansion. Going up by the revolving staircase we came to the second floor.

"There are 5 bedrooms on this floor, every room has its own toilet and a Fireplace. There is also a Dressing room and an empty room which was planned to be turned into a storage room" Aunty says while pointing towards all the rooms.

I am not even surprised anymore. I looked beside me and even Roxanne looked a bit numb towards how spacious this all was. We then went inside a very Big empty room.

"This is the main bedroom and also the biggest one" Aunty looks towards me with a grin.

I looked at Aunty speechlessly as there was not even a bed here. I looked at the side and there was no reaction on Roxanne's face.

Hmm, thinking about where we are, this room should be just above the Drawing room. Aunty opens the doors to the wide balcony and I can see the fields and even the main Iron gate in the distance. Just beside the Main bedroom is a toilet which is bigger than the others.

Then we also went through the other 4 Bedrooms which were also empty at this point. They were smaller than the Main bedroom but twice the size of the double room we were staying at in the hotel. Every bedroom was connected to a small balcony, a fireplace and a small toilet.

Even the storage room was bigger than our Hotel room.

"Now the third floor" Aunty says while going towards the stairs beside the Storage room.

Going up we came onto a large empty hall connected to three doors.

"They didn't have a plan for this floor yet so it's just a big room for now" Aunty tells us while opening the doors. Outside there is a Big Terrace which shows us the back of the property.

"That is the Garden area and that is the small house I was telling you about. There on the left to the house is the Stable" Aunty says while pointing towards the massive green field which looked even bigger than a football field.

There was even a 2 story house which looked just a bit smaller than the house aunty wanted us to take before. The stable looked tiny compared to everything else.

"On the right side you can see that there is a small pond, the water in it is clear and there are also some fishes inside but it's better to take the water from the water well, it's just beside the garden in the backyard" Aunty tells us while pointing to the right.

Now that I am at a height I can see a pond filled with water in the distance. It doesn't look that big but maybe it's because I am looking at it from afar.

"On the left you can see many trees planted, they are Pina trees. They have very thin trunks so you don't have to worry about anyone being able to use Field Walk on it. Originally they wanted to release some small animals here to make it like a small forest but for now there are no small animals there" Aunty speaks while pointing towards the left side

I see many trees which were also planted in the fields we just passed at the entrance. I think Pina trees must be what I know as Pine trees.

"This garden in the back, it doesn't look like it's doing well. It will take a lot of work to repair it " Roxanne speaks with Aunty looking at the almost dried up garden.

"Umm it should be salvageable" Aunty speaks a bit hesitantly looking at the backyard.

"Could we get some new seeds?" Roxanne latches onto her weakness.

"If you want I can give you some hoes and the seeds free of cost" Aunty speaks generously.

"In that case we could manage…" Roxanne takes a thinking pose looking at the back garden.

I think Roxanne wants to grow a Garden, that's why she was extorting free stuff from Aunty.

"I could show you the rest of the property too but except the Main house everything else hasn't been maintained for the last year" Aunty looks at me and speaks frankly.

I silently looked around the Huge Estate.

This is just excessive, I looked at Roxanne and I can tell that even she thinks the same. This much space even if I do have ideas about some of it, it will take a lot of time and effort. But I looked at the vast space and the stone wall into the distance and made a decision.

"How much is it?"