Side Story—Diola, Land Speculator

“My time has finally come! The tides of change have arrived!”

A few years had passed since I had started working at the Adventurers’ Guild. I’d been dispatched to this branch because Laffan was my hometown. My life and work as the vice branch master was the same day in and day out, and my salary remained the same as well. However, hope had finally reached out its hand to me after all this time.

“I need to make sure I succeed no matter what!”

If Haruka-san’s party settled down in Laffan, then that would mean that I could eat dindels on a daily basis! Well, that was important too, but most importantly, it would result in future high-rank adventurers living in Laffan. That in itself would directly affect the salary of the people who worked at the Adventurers’ Guild. The pay structure here was divided between the salary that you would get paid depending on the results that you had produced and a bonus that would be given out depending on the results that the guild had produced as a whole.

By results, I mean the number of completed quests at a branch and the total amount of handling charges that were collected on transactions with adventurers when the Guild purchased materials from them. Haruka-san’s party hadn’t taken on any difficult quests yet, but they had brought in an overwhelming amount of materials to the Adventurers’ Guild. As a result, they had contributed quite a lot to the guild already. If they kept this up, then the amount of profit that the guild earned on them would only continue to increase. In addition, if a difficult quest happened to be brought to the guild, then the availability of competent adventurers would make a huge difference. It was up to the adventurers whether or not they would be willing to take on a quest, but I wouldn’t be able to attempt to convince someone if they weren’t in this town.

“This must be my reward for never forgetting to pray at the temple! I’m sure of it!”

At least once a week, I would visit the temple of Advastlis that was located on my way to work to offer a prayer to the god, and I had also donated a small amount of money to the temple. Some time ago, while I was in the middle of praying, I heard some casual words in my mind that went “You might meet some naive rookies soon, and if you do, then help them out for me, okay? Good things will happen to you if you do,” which, at the time, had made me doubt my mental health. However, I was fairly sure now that those words had been a divine message from Advastlis. I’m glad I decided to listen to those words despite how suspicious they were!

“Time to start looking through information on real estate!”

I went and took out the documents that had information on real estate in the vicinity of the guild and started looking through them to see if there were any candidates that fit the conditions Haruka-san’s party had brought up. However, I ran into one problem. There was nothing here that would fit those conditions! I had read through the documents carefully, looking for anything that met even a single condition, but nothing even came close. I’d had a feeling that it would go this way before I had even started, since I knew it would be hard to find a property in this area that Haruka-san’s party would be interested in.

The town of Laffan could be roughly divided into three major areas in terms of the value of the land. One area was the old town district, while another was the new town district, also known as the commercial district. The area with the most valuable land was the nobility district, which housed the municipal administration as well. In most cases, the guild would show adventurers property located in the old town district. This area was where Laffan had grown from a village to a town, so it had existed from the very beginning. Back when Laffan had first become a town, there had been spacious plots of land along with farm property and fields available, but a lot of former farmers had sold their property as land increased in value with the gradual expansion of the town. They had used that money to purchase new property located in the new town district. The land that they had sold had gotten divided into smaller parts, which had led to the construction of rows on rows of tiny houses. That meant there were only a small number of large plots remaining these days.

“I could probably find a property in the nobility district that would fit the conditions that Haruka-san’s party brought up, but...”

The rent for property in the nobility district would be much higher than in other areas of town, but it was probably something that Haruka-san’s party could afford with their earnings. However, they hadn’t yet accomplished something significant enough to qualify for renting a property in the nobility district. They would probably be fine after at least a year at their current rate of progression, but I had no choice but to exclude property located in that district at the moment.

“Well, if stigmatized property is okay, then there are some candidates.”

The first stigmatized property that had crossed my eyes was a plot with a haunted mansion. The plot and mansion themselves would fit the conditions that Haruka-san’s party had described, but that didn’t change the fact that this was a stigmatized property. It seemed like the owner had used his connections to force the guild to include this property every time we showed real estate to adventurers, so I had no choice but to include it as well. The noble who owned this property appeared to be desperate to get rid of it as soon as possible, but that probably wouldn’t be happening anytime soon since it was easy to find out that this was a stigmatized property with just a little bit of research.

The next property that crossed my eyes was another that a noble had jammed in as part of the quota. It belonged to a noble family that had been mired in financial trouble and wasn’t able to continue maintaining it anymore, so it was an empty plot with no mansion. The plot itself seemed to be available for rent at a cheap rate, but that wasn’t due to generosity on the owner’s part by any means. The former noble probably planned to come up with some ridiculous reason to kick out whoever rented the land after they had paid for the construction of a house. It was difficult for a commoner to fight back against a noble, after all. There was some text in these documents that asked the guild to hide the fact that the owner was a noble while convincing someone to rent the property, but there was no way I was going to do that. If I did such a thing, then Haruka-san’s party would surely leave this town forever.

“These two properties stand out really badly from the rest...”

Both of them looked good at first glance, but each would likely cause the occupant trouble in the future. All right, I guess I’ll go check them in person to see the exact problems.

★★★★★★★★★

“Branch master, I’m coming in!”

“Whoa, what?! Oh, it’s you, Diola. What brings you here all of a sudden?”

When I entered his office, the branch master was looking at the ceiling and spacing out with his legs on the table. It looked like he had been doing his job properly, though, so it was hard for me to complain. Oh well. I went over to a corner of the room to pull out a wooden box and started to check the contents.

“Hey now, that’s technically my personal possession.”

“Is that so? Doesn’t this just belong to the guild since it was left right here inside the guild building? If this really is one of your personal possessions, then I can go contact your wife and ask her to come pick it up for you.”

“Ugh! Come on, don’t blackmail me like that!”

He cowered at my words and then sighed as I continued to look through the contents of the wooden box. There were all sorts of equipment and tools inside the box that he had used before he had retired from adventurer work. He probably hid them here because his wife would dispose of them if she found them at home.

“I mean, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to use the contents of this box since you left them here, right?”

“Fine, fine. You can use them as long as you don’t sell them. What do you need?”

“I’m going to go check out a haunted mansion, so I was looking for an amulet that’s effective against the undead. Do you have anything like that?”

“An amulet? My party only had cheap tools for that purpose since we had a mage in our party who was highly skilled in Light Magic. Well, there’s something in that box over there that could be of use to you.”

I looked in the box that he had pointed at and saw something that looked like an amulet. However...

“Um, this amulet doesn’t look like it’ll be very effective...”

“I told you that it was cheap, didn’t I? It’s not completely useless, but don’t count on it being effective.”

“Can I borrow it?”

“Sure, go ahead. Take it with you.”

“Thank you very much.”

★★★★★★★★★

The first property that I headed towards with the cheap amulet in my hands was the haunted mansion.

“This mansion really does look haunted from its exterior appearance alone...”

It felt like evil spirits could leak out of the woodwork at any moment. I knew what this mansion had originally looked like, so I was quite shocked to see how much it had changed.

“I should probably at least check what it looks like on the inside, since I’ll have to describe it to Haruka...”

As soon as I touched the gates with the hand that had the amulet in it, the amulet crumbled to dust and was blown away on a sudden gust of wind.

“Okay, this is a huge no. I need to do my best to discreetly lead Haruka-san’s party away from the idea of renting this place...”

Just how cheap was this amulet, branch master?! I had hoped that it would be possible to purify the mansion, but it appeared to be an impossible task. There were two temples in this town devoted to different gods, and the chief priest of the temple of Belfaug was someone with a trustworthy personality, but his magical abilities weren’t that good. On top of that, he was quite old. On the other hand, the chief priest at the temple of Advastlis was quite talented, but he was still young, and it would probably be difficult for him to handle an exorcism of this difficulty.

“Ugh, I need to find at least one decent property that I can show to Haruka-san’s party. My dignity is on the line here.”

My salary was on the line as well.

★★★★★★★★★

“Coland-san, would you happen to be at home?”

I went to visit an acquaintance in the new town district who used to live in and still owned a property in the old town district. I had decided to visit him after I had looked around the old town district and found a property that looked decent, which happened to be the one that he owned.

“Oh, hello, Diola-san. Is there some reason you were looking for me?”

“In fact, there is. I wanted to ask if you would be willing to rent out the house in the old town district that you own.”

“Oh, that house? Hmm. It’s hard for me to say no if you’re asking me for a favor, but...”

“You see, there’s a promising party of adventurers that I’ve been looking after. Would you be willing to help me out here so that I can try to convince them to stay in Laffan?”

“Oh, is that so? That’s quite rare of you to look after specific adventurers. Are they that talented?”

“At the moment, not quite, but I’m sure they’ll become great adventurers in the future, so—”

The negotiation ended up lasting a few hours. Most of it was just chatting about unrelated topics, but patience with such chatter was necessary to succeed at negotiations. In the end, I managed to get a yes out of him, but that was the end of my success. I went to negotiate with a couple of other landowners afterwards, but none of them agreed to rent out their property. The only one who had said yes was Coland-san. Those other landowners had never sold or rented their property at all, so I’d been aware before I set out that the chances of convincing them were quite low, but it was still disheartening.

“Now that it’s come down to this, what if I just throw together a list of plots—actually, that would take too much time. Hmm, what if I use guild funds to construct a training ground? Would that fulfill the large yard condition that Haruka-san’s party brought up?”

If that was enough to resolve the large yard issue, then it would open up many more options in terms of the number of plots that I could show them. It wouldn’t be that hard to obtain a plot of land near the guild through negotiations. It would also be possible to squeeze some funds out of the guild’s budget through the branch master since training grounds would also be useful for the guild itself.

“It all depends on how Haruka-san’s party reacts to the plots that I show them. I guess I’ll keep this in mind just in case.”

I ventured forward a few days later with very few cards up my sleeve to negotiate with Haruka-san’s party.

★★★★★★★★★

I was quite surprised when Haruka-san locked her eyes on the first plot that I showed them and expressed a desire to buy the plot itself, especially since it seemed like she had seen through me and picked up on the owner’s hidden motives. However, if I could successfully conclude the negotiations with this noble, then it would almost be guaranteed that Haruka-san’s party would settle down here in Laffan. This noble was not an easy person to successfully negotiate with, but the rewards would be great if I succeeded. I need to do my best for that reason—and for the sake of dindels!

“Ms. Diola, what brings you here today?”

“Your Eminence, Baronet of Reed, I am here today on behalf of the Adventurers’ Guild to inform you of a decision made by the guild. From today onward, the Adventurers’ Guild will not act as the middleman for the property that you own in the old town district.”

“Why is that so...?”

The baronet’s eyebrows twitched and trembled after he had heard my words, but I continued with a smile on my face. “The Adventurers’ Guild exists to look after the interests of adventurers. Thus, we cannot act as middlemen for a transaction that will go against the interests of adventurers. I believe I do not need to explain more than that.”

“Ugh—but why inform me now, after all this time?”

“There seems to have been a misunderstanding, Baronet. We at the Adventurers’ Guild had only agreed to act as the middlemen at your request. We have done our best to recommend the property to potential tenants, but none of them were interested in renting it, and I believe that will continue to be the case in the future.”

“Does that mean the Adventurers’ Guild has no intention of cooperating with me?”

“That would be one way to phrase it. Henceforth, please look for a tenant on your own. I believe it will be a difficult task, however.”

“Ugh, do I have no choice but to ask other real estate agents...?”

I smiled at the baronet as he groaned in response and told him my business here was concluded, then left his mansion. All right, that’s my first move.

“The second move is to go have a ‘chat’ with those other real estate agents.”

★★★★★★★★★

The baronet arranged another meeting a few days after my initial talk with him.

“Would it be possible for the Adventurers’ Guild to resume acting as the middleman for my property?”

“Hm? Baronet, if I recall correctly, you were taking this matter up with other real estate agents instead, were you not?”

“Yes, I did. However, all of them told me that they had no potential tenants who were looking to rent a property in the old town district.”

Yeah, that’s because I got to them first. However, it wouldn’t have really mattered even if I hadn’t.

“That’s the truth. We at the Adventurers’ Guild have no prospective tenants either, so the guild’s decision will not change.”

“Do you not see how much I, a noble, am lowering my head to ask for help?”

Huh? Your head’s upright with the sun shining full on it; it hasn’t sunk down at all. You don’t have to lower your head all the way down to prove that you’re sincere, but at least lower it halfway. Also...

“Hm? Do you intend on emphasizing your baronet status here? If that’s the case, then—”

“Oh, no, forget what I just said. Cough! It’s just that it would be somewhat inconvenient for me to not utilize that plot. Is there truly nothing that you can do to help me?”

“Hmm, well, I could help act as the mediator if you have any intentions of selling the plot. Selling the plot wouldn’t cause any issues for the seller or the buyer, correct?”

“Well, not exactly. It would cause an issue for me. It would be inconvenient for a noble like myself to have only one small mansion, if you take my meaning.”

“Of course, baronet. However, would you be able to maintain a large mansion even if you managed to get your hands on one? I have heard rumors about how you’ve taken out loans recently, so...”

“Of course I can maintain a large mansion! I’m a noble! As long as I can get my hands on a mansion, then—”

You have no clear plan for the future and you’re not working either. All you’re doing is getting deeper and deeper in debt to keep up appearances. I don’t think you can afford to cling to that pride in your situation, but oh well.

“Is that so? I wish you the best in your endeavors. Good day, Baronet.”

“Wait, I’m not done!”

I probably only need to make one or two more moves to corner him. I’ve prepared a lot more than that, but perhaps I won’t need them.

★★★★★★★★★

“There are a lot of people who have been wailing about wanting their money back recently. Would you happen to know anything about this, Ms. Diola?”

A few more days had passed before the baronet arranged a meeting with me once again.

“Huh? I have no idea what you might be talking about, Baronet. Couldn’t you just ignore your creditors like you always do?”

“Well, you see, they all told me more or less the same thing: that they would sell the debt to other nobles if I didn’t repay the loans, so...”

“Oh, that does sound like it would be quite troublesome for you, baronet. You wouldn’t be able to ignore your debts if it was other nobles who had the rights to those loans, after all.”

He was a mere baronet. If problems with his conduct became public, then he would fall further into ruin and end up being demoted to the rank of knight, or possibly even stripped of his title completely so that he would end up as a commoner. Those were very realistic outcomes if he defaulted on debt that he owed to other nobles.

“Are there any other nobles in this town who can actually afford to buy debt from merchants?” asked the baronet.

“Well,” I said, “I have no knowledge of that matter, but perhaps there is one who saw a clear merit in purchasing that debt.”

“...Tsk.”

“If needed, I could write a letter to my aunt about this, Baronet.”

“O-Oh, n-no, you don’t have to!”

“No? She might be able to help you out if she knew about your current circumstances.”

I smiled at the baronet, who had panicked and hastily wiped the sweat off of his bald head.

“Damn heartless vixen...” he muttered.

You do realize I heard that? Well, I’m not going to deny it.

“It looks like you won’t require my help, then. Good day, Baronet.”

“W-Wait, hold on! You mentioned before that you could help act as a mediator if I wanted to sell that plot, right?!”

“What plot would you happen to be talking about, Baronet?”

“The one I own in the old town district! What else would it be?!”

The baronet slammed his fist on the table in front of him. He seemed quite agitated. I purposefully nodded as slowly as I could, pretending I had finally realized what he was talking about.

“Oh, that plot? Hmm, well, it shouldn’t be a problem if you wish to sell it. Would you like to leave it in the guild’s hands? We cannot guarantee when a buyer will appear, though.”

“Th-That would be inconvenient for me! Try to get it sold as soon as possible!”

“There is nothing we can do about that if there isn’t a buyer who wants the plot. What is the price that you wish to ask?”

“Four hundred gold coins. You already have a prospective buyer ready and waiting, don’t you?”

“Things would go much smoother if that were actually the case. The guild will be willing to resume this middleman role if you are willing to sell the plot for two hundred gold coins, baronet.”

“That’s ridiculous! Everything that has happened to me recently feels like it’s worked to your advantage! There’s no way that every merchant would just suddenly refuse to lend me money! Three hundred and eighty gold coins!”

“In regards to your plot, I believe it is probably your own fault given that you went around asking other real estate agents. Rumors about your financial troubles probably spread as a direct result. How about 210 gold coins?”

“...Is another noble involved in this turn of events? Three hundred and fifty gold coins.”

“Nobles will seize any chance to get rid of their rivals, so perhaps that is the case. The Adventurers’ Guild branch here in Laffan is quite small, so we do not have much funding. Two hundred and thirty gold coins.”

I continued to haggle with the baronet for a while, and we ended up agreeing on a price of two hundred and eighty gold coins. However, the baronet’s face was completely flushed with anger at the end, so it seemed like I had cornered him a bit too thoroughly. I guess I’ll have to stay on alert to his next moves to make sure he doesn’t harm Haruka-san’s party.

My fear of retaliation ended up being unnecessary, however. A few months later, the Baronet of Reed fell into complete ruin and was removed from the ranks of nobility. I had not expected the baronet to cause his own downfall due to that plot of all things.