Ning arrived at Heeran's love, the shop he was supposed to take over today. The front of the shop looked worse in the day than it did in the night.
The gray, colorless wall, the broken bits of wood at the front, and the steps that seemed hazardous to even climb up to the shop. Everything told people just one thing.
Don't Come!
He sighed. He would have to do renovation very soon and a lot of it.
"You came!" the woman shouted from the dark inside of the room. The store faced west, so it would remain in the darkness for the majority of the day.
Ning walked in and looked around. It truly was worse in a day than it was at night. He sighed internally and showed none of his thoughts outside.
"Greetings, boss," he said as he walked up to her next to the bed. The woman lifted the wide of the sheets and brought out some paper. "Here, I had Juna prepare the legal papers," the woman said. "Sit and read."
Ning nodded and sat on the bed, the wood creaking as he did so. How many years had this thing been in here?
He looked through the pages and was surprised to see just how legitimate the paper was. "Does this Juna fellow work in the government or something?" Ning asked.
"Oh yes, she's a legal… I forget the word. She works in the court to bring justice to the men who have been wronged. She's the daughter of the couple next door."
"The general store?" Ning asked. He had seen it coming in. The store was in a much better state than this store. "I see. I will read this then."
It didn't take him long to get through the pages of text. In fact, he didn't even bother reading it at all and simply asked the System to do it for him and tell him the appropriate actions that needed to be taken if necessary.
From what the system told him, there weren't any sort of underhanded actions being taken through the words. Everything was written clearly.
Ning would own the shop, and unless he was going to make physical changes to the shop that cost over 1000 Fire coins, he would not need to let the woman know about any of what he wanted.
The shop's name would remain Heeran's Love, and every time a sale of the items in the shop that had been made by Heeran, her husband, was made, she would receive 75% of that earnings. Lastly, Ning had to pay 150 Fire Coins each month as rent.
Other than that, he had every freedom to do anything else.
He took a pen that was off to the side and signed it. "Thank you, Miss Layla," he said, handing back the signed contract.
The woman took it and looked through it. Nothing seemed off, but what would she know? "I will let Juna look through it once she comes from her job. Do you want to start today, or will you start tomorrow?"
"I will…" Ning looked around. "I want to start today, but I don't know if I can. I have to go look for a place to stay. Can't stay in the tavern forever."
"You're staying in a tavern?" the woman asked with a surprised look.
"Yes," Ning said. "We just came to the city yesterday, and I decided to settle down here for a while."
"Right, right, your sister is joining the institute," the woman said.
"My daughter," Ning corrected her. "And yes, that's why I'm doing this."
"Daughter, eh? You don't look that old yourself," the woman said.
"Yeah, but I am," Ning said. "Anyway, I'll try to look around for a place to stay today. I'll come tomorrow around this time and open the shop—"
"How many people are you?" the old woman asked. "Just you and your daughter?"
"No, it's me, my daughter, a young boy we saved from bandits, a beast, and her two children," Ning said.
"That's a lot," the woman said. "But I can fix you a place. My place is mostly empty, so if you guys promise to not be much trouble, I will let you stay here."
"Here?" Ning asked.
"My house is above the shop," the woman said. "If you want to live there, I will let you."
"Uhh… will it fit us all?" Ning asked.
"It's large, don't worry," the woman said. "You can come check. I'll have to make up another contract if you decide to stay."
She pushed on the wall at the corner of the room that was clad in shadows. A door opened, leading to another room. Ning arrived there and was surprised to see wooden crates, some filled, some empty, most glowing from the inside in the darkness.
"More artifacts?" he asked.
"My husband liked making them a lot," she said. "He left me quite a few to sell."
She continued walking through the dark room and arrived outside a door to a backyard. To Ning's surprise, the backyard was huge, beyond his imagination.
"What… how is this place so large?" he asked. It had to extend for at least 100 meters on each side.
"This is a collective courtyard," the woman explained. "It's not my background as much as it is everyone else's. We didn't want to live surrounded by our small backyard, so we decided to let it be free. So the children can play when they want in safety, or people could work when they wanted to."
"My husband worked right here all day long, while I watched the shop for him." She pointed at a spot on the ground that was now covered with grass that hadn't been cut in a while. Not a single person was back there.
"Everyone is so busy with their life now," the woman shook her head. She walked up a wooden set of stairs, going to the 2nd floor of the building.
"Here's my place," she said, going in herself. "Come on and check. See if it fits you."
