She looked through the rest of the documents and saw that none of the places stood out like the one she put aside. With the rejected documents in one hand, and the good one in the other, she took them back to the front desk.

“Do you think we could take a look at this one?” Jane put the rejected document down and asked Angeline while pointing to the one still left in her hand.

“Ah the old creek house? Sure, I'll show you around, follow me.” Angeline led Jane out of the building and started walking down the path towards the old creek house.

The way there was in the same direction to her house, but it went past her hill and a little further down the road, all the way to the edge of town. According to the document, the property was right next to the redwood forest as well, something Jane would love to have nearby access to.

“May I ask you a question?” Angeline couldn't stay quiet any longer and wanted to talk to Jane— mostly to appease her boring day.

“Sure, ask away.” Jane tucked her hands into her shorts pockets and walked side by side with Angeline.

Angeline nodded, then said, “Are you trying to buy a place to move into?”

“Yep, not in any sort of rush but thought I might as well start now. I was also thinking of starting my own business— and buying a place helps.”

“Hmm, you look so young but you already know what you want to do.” Angeline bluntly stated, her professionalism began to waver. “Besides that, you're also loaded with coins.”

“You’re quite blunt.” Jane said, not offended but more so stating a fact.

“Ya I get that a lot.” Angeline shrugged, unbuttoned the top bit of her uniform and pulled the sides aside to let part of breasts breathe since they were steaming inside the thick uniform.

“It's a curse and blessing I got from my Ma. Does it bother you?” She asked Jane.

“Not at all, just putting it out there. Also I have to say, you look just as young as me and you're already working a steady job.” Jane replied. .

“Well… I more so took over from my parents, I'm not starting my own thing like you.”

“Do you hate your job?” Jane asked.

“...No. It's quite boring but I got a nice place to live and I make a great salary. I shouldn't be complaining.” Angeline had fully lost her stoic behavior and was talking with Jane casually like they had been friends for a few years.

“Then that's fine right?” Jane smiled at her, “If you start hating your job then maybe you can think of doing something else.”

“Hm.” Angeline nodded, taking Jane’s advice to her own thoughts.

Jane thought Angeline was a little weird— not like she herself wasn't weird— but maybe it was just nice for her to be able to rant to someone her age and break up the boring day she was having. The rest of the walk was silent as they were both in their heads thinking of various things and before they knew it, they had reached the old creek house.

It was a three story building like the Evergreen’s, and was entirely made of a mixture of redwood and a darker toned wood Jane couldn't recognize. A dirt path weaved up a tiny hump of a hill that the house rested on, with a few wooden stairs placed on the steeper parts of the path. A rotted wood fence surrounded the house leaving a ten feet gap between itself where gardens used to be, but now that area was full of overgrown weeds.

Walking through the fence entrance, Jane could see the path wrap around the house, continue past the back exit of the fence, and down towards a little creek. The creek wasn't as small as Jane thought the document stated, it was a good ten to twenty feet wide and had a little rocky beach on either shore.

Similar to the path up to the house, wooden stairs were sporadically placed along the path leading down the hill to prevent anyone from tripping. If you made it to the end of the path there was a rickety old bridge leading across to the other side. If you walked over the bridge and onto the other side of the creek, you'd find yourself at the edge of the redwood forest that Jane had first passed coming back to Redwood.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Most of the property was filled with overgrown weeds and some gnarly looking trees that seemed straight out of a nightmare. The fence, the bridge, and the stairs looked rotted and not the safest but the actual house itself looked to be in decent shape. A few touch ups here and there and it would be fine— at least looking at it from the outside.

And that fact was confirmed by Angeline. “While most things are rotted and unusable around the house, the actual house itself is perfectly fine— if not just a tiny bit old. It would take some effort but renovating the outside should be simple enough. The interior shouldn't be as bad.”

She reached into her suit pocket and pulled out a key for the house which she used to swiftly open the door to, and led Jane inside. Like Angeline had said, the inside looked fine beside the dust and cobwebs covering the place— until they took a closer look.

“We had elementalists swing by the place a few years ago to help sustain the runes in place for the lights, stove, refrigerator and such, but physical properties might have been affected.” Angeline explained.

“Honestly looking at it again, I suggest you replace everything except the lights since they're still fine.” Angeline said and held her nose. “It smells awful in here.”

The furniture was probably the worst off and definitely needed to be replaced simply from the god awful stench they gave off alone, while utilities like the stove and refrigerator weren't horrendous, but they were still cracked and rusted all over.

“What happened to this place? And why does it smell so bad, it can't just be the furniture!” Jane followed suit and pinched her nose.

“My best guess, probably dead animals.” Angeline said with a nasally voice. “This place is a little worse off than I remember… I should probably give you a discount.”

“Really?” Jane's eyes lit up. Even though she was rich, a discount was a discount.

“It would be a scam if I sold this to you for seventeen gold so here's what I'll do, I'll lower the cost to fifteen— no thirteen gold.” Angeline looked around the place and firmly agreed with her discount— it wasn't great here.

“Sweet, I was probably gonna replace everything anyways, but saving some extra money to buy replacements is great.” Jane replied happily.

She decided right now that this was the place.

While it was a shit-hole right now, she would make it into a cozy home no matter how long it took. Thinking about it, this actually worked out better for her since she didn't want to move out so soon since she had just got home. With this project she could spend a few weeks, maybe even months to fix the place up while she lived at home with her family.

This gave her more time to spend with her family and a future project she can busy herself with and look forward to completing.

They spent another few minutes going from room to room and honestly, this entire place needed a deep, deep cleaning. The actual wood supporting the house wasn't bad, but Jane had her own idea of what she wanted to do to help— and that involved another part of her powers she hadn't shown anyone yet.

“I'll take it!” Jane yelled after doing a loop through the house.

“There are other places you can look at, you know? Are you sure you want this place?” Angeline asked, making sure she wasn't making a rushed decision.

“Aren't you the realtor? Don't you want to sell places?” Jane responded with a question of her own.

“I don't make extra money if places are sold or not sold.” Angeline stated with a shrug, “If this is the place you want, then okay let's do this. The property deed is back at my place so let's head back and get it signed for you.”

The walk back felt quicker, maybe it was because Jane was excited and was walking faster, or maybe she was so lost in thoughts she lost track of time. Whatever the case, they made it back after a short and silent walk. Angeline went into a locked door behind the front desk and came back with a stack of papers in hand.

“Sign here, here and here.” Jane followed Angeline instructions using a pen she gave her, then passed the papers back to Angeline who also had to sign a few times. After signing, Angeline asked for the money and Jane promptly handed it over.

Lastly, Angeline took the papers and gold back into the locked room before coming back empty handed.

“Everything's in order— paper signed and money given. The property deed will stay here for safety in accordance with the laws of Trinium.” Angeline handed the key she used to open the old creek house over to Jane. “Congratulations, the property is yours from now on.”

Jane’s face radiated happiness. She had bought her first property! She was now an adult— like a real-real adult that had their own place.

Forgetting to thank Angeline for her help, Jane rushed out of the Evergreen’s and headed towards the town square wanting to meet up with Eric to see if she could come over for the evening. She would leave the property as a surprise for now.

It might've been a little bit of an impulsive purchase, she hadn't even told her parents or Eric that she was thinking of purchasing a place yet. They knew she was planning to move out but that was different than knowing she was in the market already looking— well she wasn't looking any longer.

But it was already done and she wasn't gonna take it back. Tomorrow she would show the place to them all and hopefully convince them to help her renovate whenever they were able to. She didn't exactly know the best way to go about fixing up her new place but hopefully her parents who had experience with this sort of thing could help her out.

Briskly sauntering towards the town square, Jane clutched the bronze key to her new place tightly in her hands, not wanting to lose them as soon as she got them. It was later in the afternoon, almost the evening which meant Eric’s shift should be over soon. He liked to work early in the morning till right before dinner so he could make it home for the evening and spend it with his family or girlfriend.

She hadn't asked yet but hopefully he didn't have any big plans, plus she also hadn’t visited the Frier’s yet and she knew they’d get mad if she delayed any longer. It didn’t long for her to arrive at the Little Goose. She found a seat at the counter and looked into the kitchen spotting Eric at the back.

“Yo Eric!” Jane yelled into the kitchen, drawing everyone in the kitchen attention as well as some of the customers, before they ignored her and either continued cooking or going back to eating.

Eric looked back at her and replied, “Shifts over in ten minutes!” Then he turned back around and zoned her out of his mind to focus on the food in front of him.

‘Not too long of a wait. Let's get something to drink then.’ She asked the waitress at the counter for a beer and sipped on it as she waited for Eric’s shift to end. The sounds of foods being cut, cooked and prepared to be served, played throughout the kitchen while the noise of customers talking and eating sounded everywhere else. The second floor would be much more quiet as it was higher dining and a common etiquette was to be met, but the rowdiness of the bottom floor was much more her style.

After roughly fifteen minutes, Eric walked out of the kitchen already changed out of his chef wear and into his casual clothes— which wasn’t more than a white t-shirt and pair of dark shorts.

“Ready to go?” He asked and got a nod in return from Jane.