18. Elysian Pastoral Street No. 58 and Cat & Clover Café

Elysian Pastoral Avenue has a roadway wide enough to accommodate sixteen carriages abreast, and on both sides, there are sidewalks over five pemi in width. From any angle, one can see the magnificent Glorious Gate.

At the very center of Elysian Pastoral Avenue stands the Glorious Gate, a miracle bestowed upon Strasbourg by The Lord of Radiance, one of the Nine Great True Gods.

It is a square building, open to all four directions with archways.

The Glorious Gate possesses an extremely famous miracle: anyone who enters will randomly exit through one of the four gates, rather than the one facing the direction they were heading.

It is said that the direction points to where the luck of the pedestrians will be best for the day.

Besides the unavoidable Glorious Gate, the shops lining both sides of Elysian Pastoral Avenue are numerous. The very few shops with decorations made from High Order Alchemy-forged, exorbitantly priced crystal glass showcase their luxurious goods to every passerby.

Aside from this avenue, there is no other place in the empire that matches its hustle and bustle.

Anne Brittany smiled gracefully and said, "To number 58!"

The carriage rumbled down Elysian Pastoral Avenue and soon turned into a small alleyway.

To call it a small alley is not quite accurate, as it is wide enough to allow two carriages to travel side by side.

The alley wasn't deep; the carriage reached the end and there stood a detached three-story house with a small square in front that could park five or six carriages. The front had an entrance door with a few steps leading to it, and on the side, there was a carriage gate that conveyed a very imposing air.

Anne stepped down from the carriage, and Charles could only follow suit.

Watching Anne press her hand against it, the big door of the building automatically opened, causing Charles to raise his eyebrows in surprise.

Charles knew this was a type of low-level Alchemy known as the Lock Picking Technique.

He had truly not expected that someone like Miss Annie Brittany, a noble lady, would be proficient in such spells.

Thinking again about the mechanical beetle that had tracked Mister Yang Miers, Charles gained a whole new understanding of Miss Annie Brittany.

Anne pushed open the front door and walked in, offering Charles a slight smile and introducing the place as he followed her inside, "This residence is a piece of inheritance recently attained by a distant relative of mine. He disliked the strong commercial atmosphere here, as well as the noisy environment; he wanted something more serene and has been looking to sell."

"As you know, the shops on Elysian Pastoral Street are always in high demand, but the residences always seemed to attract less interest, so his asking price is not steep."

"He's asking for two hundred Aegeus publicly, but I am aware he urgently needs money— he would accept one hundred and fifty Aegeus."

Charles thought to himself, "All my worldly wealth amounts to only eighty Aegeus. Is this price really within my means? Is Miss Annie misunderstanding my financial situation, or is she just insensitive to the value of money?"

It seemed as though Annie was aware of Charles's internal struggle. She raised her lovely eyebrows and said, "He is willing to accept payments in installments, with an initial down payment of just fifty Aegeus to move in."

"I might even be able to persuade him to waive the interest on the installment plan."

Charles followed Annie around the first floor and quickly fell in love with the house.

It had a very large banquet hall on the ground floor, which to the eyes of the nobility might seem modest, as it could host a small dance for no more than fifty people. But to Charles, a transmigrator from Earth, the banquet hall seemed absurdly large, unfettered and measuring three to four hundred square meters, a bit smaller than a standard basketball court yet large enough for a half-court game.

That was not all there was to the ground floor; it also had a drawing-room, a dining room, and two studies, with a staircase on the side of the dining room that clearly led to the basement. According to the customs of the Fars Empire, there would inevitably be a kitchen and storage rooms in the basement.

As for the staircase leading upstairs, it was off to the side of the banquet hall, completely separate from the staircase to the basement.

Charles mused, "Such a large house would never be possible to buy for two or three million on Earth, not even in the countryside."

"Moreover, they even allow installment payments without interest. The seller is simply the biggest philanthropist I've encountered since I transmigrated."

"But where am I to find the remaining seventy Aegeus?"

"With my salary as a thirty-seventh rank public servant, six Fu Ers and fifteen Sheng Dings a week, when will I be able to pay it off?"

It took Charles a few seconds to calculate the numbers in his head, after which he was suddenly shocked.

With the salary of a public servant, he could pay off the house's debt in less than three years!

This time frame was more than ten times shorter than the mortgage terms he had briefly thought of on Earth.

Charles couldn't help but silently express his amazement, "Transmigrators are indeed the protagonists!"

"Praise the True God."

"And praise Miss Annie."

Charles, trying to contain his excitement, said, "My weekly salary is only about six Fu Ers, would the other party accept such a long payment period of several years?"

Miss Annie Brittany chuckled and said, "Of course, that's not a problem. Anyone who can pay off their housing debt within ten years is considered a premium buyer."

"However..."

"Mr. Mecklen, you are already a thirty-seventh rank public servant? You don't look like you've been out of school for long?"

Charles smiled slightly and said, "Two years since graduation."

Miss Annie Brittany exclaimed in surprise, her eyes brimming with admiration and her cheeks blushing, as her fondness for him grew.

A young talent who had ascended to be a thirty-seventh rank public servant, just two years after graduation, clearly held more personal charm than the common public servants dutifully waiting for their next promotion every three years from their entry-level clerical positions.

This residence was quite "antique", weathered by time yet still extremely solid. In the Fars Empire, centuries-old buildings were commonplace, and age did not diminish the value of a house; on the contrary, its long history became a talking point that added to its appeal.

Charles did not bother to look at the second or third floor. After finalizing some details with Annie, he took out ten fifty-Fu Er bills from his spoils of selling a multi-headed neck restraint and handed them to the young lady.

Annie called the coachman in and gave him an instruction, after which the coachman drove away.

Though the residence was occasionally cleaned, it was still covered with a layer of thin dust and was not suitable for a prolonged stay.

Charles very gentlemanly invited her to a nearby coffee shop.

Annie readily agreed.

Elysian Pastoral Street would never lack tasteful coffee houses. Although rarely frequented by nobles, the Empire's writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and even orators particularly favored the cafes here, where many of these personalities had left behind renowned works and stories.

Charles took Annie not far from No. 58, to a coffee house called the Cat and Clover Café.

Many things in this world were similar to Earth, such as the existence of feline animals. However, domestic cats in this world did not have as many breeds or the variety of attractive patterns found on Earth.