After spending a whole morning trying to find an ideal location, Abel and Bartoli decided that they couldn’t find a good place to set up their restaurant. To be more specific, all the good spots were already taken. It’s not like Abel couldn’t use his connections with the Blacksmith Union to help himself with that, but to be fair, it was a pretty weird idea if he, a grandmaster blacksmith, decided that he would open up his own restaurant business.
“How about that one, Master?” Bartoli pointed towards a shop.
It was a perfect spot for a restaurant. It had two floors and wasn’t far from Abel’s residence. Most importantly, when they got there saw someone putting up a sign at the door.
The sign read “For Sale”.
Bartoli said happily, “We’ve really found our luck here, Master. Look, since this place was already a restaurant, we can even save the money for a lot of the renovating work!”
Abel nodded in satisfaction, “I like it. The location is good, and there are a lot of people that are walking by.”
Bartoli said, “It’s quite a big establishment, though. Considering the points we have, we might not be able to afford it.”
Abel replied with a smile, “About that, I believe the Blacksmith Union can do a lot to help.”
When the two walked towards the door, they saw two of the original staff talking to each other.
One of them spoke, “I don’t think we can stay here anymore, Garen. Like, most of my points are going towards my basic knight’s training. I do have some spare for, you know, survival purposes, but what then? My whole identity in this city is tied to this house. Now that we’re selling it, if the new owner doesn’t want me to stay, I’ll be homeless, which means I can’t stay in Liante City.”
The person called “Garen” responded with a sigh, “Remember what they said? “Ten years in Liante City, and your life will be turned.” What a joke it has become. Our business was forced to close, and Master Michener is going to sell his estate, ugh! ”
That’s when they finally noticed Abel and Bartoli.
Garen promptly guided the two, “Two wizards? Oh, excuse me there! Please, sit wherever you like. I’m ready to take your order any time.”
Bartoli halted him with her hand, “No, we’re here because we saw the sign for sale outside the door. Was your boss here?”
“Yes, please wait, I’ll call the boss out,” Garen said, then hurried up the stairs.
A moment later, a fat man with a big belly came down from the upper floor.
“Welcome, welcome. I am the owner of this shop, Johnny.”
Johnny continued to speak, “Very savvy of you to take an interest in my establishment. You see, it’s got a very good location. Also, if you’d take a look around you, everything here is pretty much new. I got it from my uncle, and it’s only been three months since I’ve decided to open my business here.”
“Due to um, some family matters,” Johnny said emotionally, “I need to sell this shop to whoever is willing to take it, which is why I’ve put up that sign on the outside.”
Bartoli wasn’t the type to empathize with people, “Is the shop deed still with you?”
“Yes, yes, the deed is still with me.” Johnny nodded again, and again.
“If you’re selling the place, do we get to keep everything here? Do the staff here have to go?”
Johnny replied, “I’ll leave everything here. For the staff, there are two waiters, two chefs, and a manager in the store. If you don’t want them to stay, you can send them out of the city.”
Abel noticed something. There was a middle-aged man standing over at the counter. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he kept his mouth shut this entire time.
Bartoli went straight for the money, “So how many points do we need to pay?”
“No, not points. I prefer gold coins,” Johnny shook his head. In his mind, he was already glad enough that Bartoli bothered to ask.
“That’s weird. Here, look at this menu you have. You use magic stones and points to pay for the food, so why do you want me to pay you in gold coins?”
Johnny replied, “That’s because I’m done with this city, my good friend. Once I’ve sold this place, I’ll have nothing to do with it ever again.”
“Say a price, then,” Bartoli demanded.
Johnny said with a bit of thought, “I suppose… one million gold coins, if you want to be precise. It’s a pretty fair price here.”
Abel was more than happy with this. Right now, he had a lot of gold coins and not enough points. He didn’t want to borrow points, so it was always good pay with what he already had.
After seeing Abel, Bartoli spoke on his behalf, “Very well, we’ll accept the price you offered. If you want, we can pay you right away. If there isn’t anything wrong with your account, it shouldn’t take a minute for the money to go through.”.
Since this wasn’t a normal house that they were buying, a fraction of the payment was sent towards the city hall as a transaction fee. To Johnny’s fortune, since the fee to leave Liante City was about 100 points, Bartoli transferred another 100,000 gold coins to him.
As for Abel, he was just ecstatic that points weren’t involved in this deal. Points were a very precious thing to have. As long as one stayed long enough to gain points, it would mean that the wealth he’s gained was very much secured. It’s the same reason that the two waiters didn’t want to leave Liante City. As long as they could earn enough points, they could save up enough wealth to provide for their future generation’s education. Knights. Wizards. Whatever. Whatever their children and children’s children want to become, they would have many more options than a low-end job for life.
Speaking of which, the education in Liante City was top-notch. In Abel’s eyes, the whole city was just a massive school for cultivating knights and wizards. Something seemed odd to him, though. As abundant as advanced wizards were here, many of them didn’t have their own magic towers.
It’s weird. In most other places, magic towers were a necessity for wizards. A tower was supposed to do many things. Not only was it a sanctuary for one to practice meditation safely, but it also served as a fort that could defend oneself from his enemies.
