David was exhausted by the time he reached Elesfield City. He had left Alice with Gregory's family before spending the entire night walking. She would be safe there and he wouldn't have to worry about her. Henry had been disappointed that David wouldn't be there in the morning to teach him swordsmanship, but his father had reassured him that it would be fine.
Making the entire trip to Elesfield City in one day wouldn't normally be a big deal. So long as one set out at dawn and paced themselves appropriately, only stopping for short breaks, they could make it to the city by sunset that day. However, it was much more difficult to make the trip at night after spending the entire day awake. There were both [Monsters] and normal predatory creatures, like wolves, to watch out for. Even if that weren't the case, it wasn't easy to make the trip when you could barely keep your eyes open.
However, David had a contract to uphold and there was no getting out of it. There weren't loopholes that he could exploit. So, he couldn't just say that taking a day or two off from training Violet was fine since he needed to obtain the tribute she requested. He was, instead, expected to both obtain the tribute, and then he still had to show up for training for the day. As such, David could only make time to sort out his affairs by making the long trek overnight like this.
The familiar sight of the business district and homes in the city was a pleasant sight. David smiled warily as he headed to the city officials' offices. He would need to find someone who could be in charge of selling his property before he did anything else. More than likely, he would just end up selling the property outright.
While it was rare for the people in Violet's old world to own property in medieval times, this was not the case in this world. Instead, high-ranking adventurers and richer merchant families often would save up their profits for a few years to purchase their properties. This was much the same for David and his deceased wife who had spent many years adventuring together before getting married and settling down together to have a family of their own.
Still, since plenty of the poorer citizens of the empire rented or leased their properties, all of the property tended to be able to be sold back to the city where it would become the property of the local landlord until it could be sold again. It was far more profitable for the property to be rented out and earn a profit rather than for the property to sit empty for long periods until it could be sold, after all.
As Elesfield City was only a small city with no nearby dungeons, it wasn't as easy to sell properties as it might be in a larger city where the land was more valuable due to the proximity to a dungeon. Small towns were less organized than cities, so it was likely that David would both have an easier and a more difficult time obtaining a new home for Alice and himself.
On the one hand, due to there not being a proper landlord yet, the land and rights to build on the property would be easier to obtain. On the other hand, David would either have to build his house himself or else he would have to hire a construction group to build a home for him. The latter of which would require a higher fee since they would have to be hired from Elesfield since there were no construction shops within Millstone due to it still being a relatively small town.
Still, David finished selling his house deed and then made his way to a construction workshop. He'd need their help moving his old belongings and it would be ideal to hire them to build his home. There weren't any carpentry workshops or anything else useful to get the proper building supplies from in Millstone. If he had to purchase all those building supplies and pay to have them delivered, he'd end up better off just hiring an actual construction team.
Luckily, he was able to sign a contract that allowed him to make a deposit and then pay the rest off in installments. Until David could start his job at the adventurer's guild, he'd have to work extra hard to make money. However, the fact that it was already late fall meant that he'd have plenty of time. None of the construction teams would be able to start work until the start of spring. Which, of course, was part of the reason he'd have to wait so long before he could start his new job as well.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The manager of the construction company agreed to come out to survey the land soon and promised to move David's old belongings at that time. He'd still have to stop by and grab anything of sentimental value or other importance. Alice would be sad if her favorite toys were lost and David had a few things he didn't want to get stolen or go missing as well.
Finally, David stopped by a florist's shop and purchased what he needed before coming to an agreement with a merchant who would be passing through Millstone. He would provide extra security from bandits in exchange for a free ride. So long as bandits or [Monsters] weren't actively attacking the merchant's wagon, David could even get some rest.
Still, by the time David made it back to Millstone, it was nearly time to go to the dungeon for Violet's swordsmanship training. Rubbing his tired eyes, David entered the farmhouse to fetch his daughter before making their way to the dungeon.
Violet wasn't in the wildflower meadow today. It seems he would have to go looking for her. David sat the azalea hedge flower down by the entrance before heading deeper into the dungeon with Alice. It didn't take long before he found her sleeping peacefully among the hay meadow grass. Violet must have felt uncomfortable being looked at as the chameleon slimes began to attack him. After she calmed down, the slimes seemed to calm down a good bit, but most of them had already been killed off by David.
"You don't normally keep sleeping when we enter the dungeon, are you doing okay?"
Violet looked at David who appeared much worse off than she was and replied
"I'm alright, just a bit tired lately. You look like you could use some sleep yourself."
David just nodded, not really feeling like going into detail on the matter. Besides, knowing Theodore, he would end up getting chastised if he said anything to Violet about it. It was supposed to be David's burden to bear and Violet didn't need to hear anything about it.
"I brought you an azalea hedge flower today, like you wanted."
Violet nodded in understanding before happily replying
"Thank you! That'll be useful. I recently finished another challenge room. It's pretty close by, if you want to check it out."
David was, honestly, getting a bit sick of attempting the slime parkour challenge. Every time it seemed like he was getting better, he'd end up doing even worse the very next day. He had gotten used to the distance he had to jump and the slimes constantly jumping out at him, but it was too easy to fail. Just one wrong step or being blindsided by a slime once would all too easily end up with the challenge being failed. It couldn't be repeated until the next day either and he'd be soaked by the rain, even if he didn't fall into the water.
"What sort of challenge is it? Is the reward sweets again?"
David amusedly asked. Violet rolled her eyes as she replied
"It's a riddle-style scavenger hunt using flowers. You just have to find the right flower for the riddle and place it on the corresponding stone altar. Also, yes, I have lavender meringues for the reward. I'll, probably, do a different type of reward on the second floor, but I am trying to stick to a theme on this floor."
David shrugged as he replied
"They're a good reward. Everyone likes to eat sweets and the nobility and richer merchants like to buy them as well. I doubt anyone would complain even if every challenge reward in your dungeon was a different type of sweet."
That was certainly good news for Violet. It was important to have good challenge rewards if she wanted to draw in more adventurers, after all. Although, there were far more interesting things to think about. Now that she had the azalea flowers, she'd soon be able to set up the boss room, which was going to be the highlight of Violet's night.