After Tommy's top 3 finish in the Rising Stars Tournament, he came up to me last night and told me that he had more than enough credits to afford a nicer house closer to the inner city. I was shocked at first that he even brought it up, I mean we've been doing fine so far in this apartment. 

Granted it's the cheapest housing available at only 25 credits a month and was at the very outer edge of the city, but it suited our needs at least for now. He took a while to convince me, I was adamant at first that we didn't need to be spending the money on what amounted to convenience and luxury. 

What really broke me down is that he was working so hard and doing all of this for me, even though I had only been able to provide bare necessities for him despite all of my hard work. I even to this day felt ashamed that I couldn't provide more for him, luckily he seemed perfectly fine with what we had, but he had always been like that even as a child. I suspected he was mature even before living at the orphanage forced us to become so. 

So eventually after some convincing and show of proof as to how much he had saved up, I eventually gave in and said that we could go to a realtor and find a new home deeper within the city. He made some very convincing arguments about us being much closer to our work, which usually took us about an hour to walk there. 

The real clincher was that he could easily afford whatever housing we chose within reason with his ever-increasing income. I never realized just how much summoner's made and didn't even know if his income was the average, but I guess with great danger comes great wealth, not to mention their expenses were much greater as well.

The look on his face as we went to the realtor soothed any misgivings that I had about this change, if it really makes him that happy then I suppose there's nothing to do but let it happen. Eventually, we made it to the door of the South sector realtor and went inside the modest building. 

A bell rang as we opened the door and soon after a nice young-looking woman in a pencil skirt showed up and asked us what she could do for us. I explained that we were looking for new housing now that we could afford more, and she seemed more than happy to help us with this. If I remember correctly even in the old era, realtors made money off of commission.

She asked us, "So, what is your budget range for your new home? I will warn you, the budget goes from the cheapest at 25 credits a month all the way up to 10,000 credits for the houses and buildings nearest to the center of the city. Of course, the houses and places nearest the center are for summoners or well-off businessmen dealing with summoners." 

I was frankly stunned at just how much living near the center would cost, and was almost ready to walk out the door before Thomas spoke up. He told her before I could interrupt, "What type of accommodations could we get for around a 1,000 credits a month? It would be even better if it could be paid in weekly installments."

She seemed to think on where we could live with this type of budget and began leafing through pages in a large bound booklet on top of her desk before informing us, "Well with that type of budget you could begin to live in the middle sector of the city and you could afford one of the larger high rise apartments within that area, usually, this area is what mid-level summoners can afford." 

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I was ready to turn around at the thought of having to pay such a price, I mean think of all the clothes and food you could afford with all of that money. I was brought out of my reverie by a tug on my shirt by Thomas which seemed to be preventing me from running out of here as if he knew what I was thinking. 

Before I could interject and tell her this had all been a mistake, Thomas chimed in with a shit-eating grin towards me and told her in a smug voice as if he had just won something, "We'll take it, and I can even put the downpayment on it now if we can go ahead and move in today." The realtor seemed to have been expecting this and told us that it would be no problem to move in if we put a 300 credit downpayment on it, and she even had the information about our new house in a folder that she handed over to us.

Looking at the pictures of the new space, it was certainly bigger than our old apartment and seemed to take up half a floor rather than a small section like our current one. The area it was in was much closer to my work as well, and it looked far nicer than our cracked stone apartment, it even had pretty flowers out front by the entrance of the building. 

After seeing these pictures and knowing that Tommy would easily be able to afford it with his current income, I finally conceded to his wishes and let him finalize the deal with the realtor while I continued to look through all of the information on our new place. I was practically glowing with excitement at the thought of being able to live there, it was a far cry from the orphanage or our now previous bottom of the barrel apartment.

A few hours later and a few wrong turns and we had finally made it to our new apartment, it was about 30 minutes closer to both of our work and looked much nicer and safer too. Ours was on the 20th floor out of 30 floors in this apartment building and had far fewer shady characters. 

Unfortunately, there was no elevator due to most technology being forbidden during the creation of the new era, and any non-technological versions were only afforded by the extremely wealthy as it required a strong person or summon to be hired to hoist them by a steel cable through a pulley system. 

Luckily we had few personal belongings and any that we did have were stored away in our watch before we even went to the realtor so that we could immediately relocate, which was a smart decision on my little brother's part.

After having unpacked what little we owned into our respective rooms we began to tour our new digs. There were two sofas and a loveseat in the living area with a coffee table between all of the furniture. The kitchen had a nicer stove, along with a clean steel sink, and a dining table with six chairs, as if we would need more than two seats *haha*. 

By the time we get acquainted with the new house, dinner has rolled around and we go out for a quick dinner in celebration of the new change in our lives. To be honest, I never would have imagined that I would ever leave that dingy apartment, but I'm sure glad I did now. 

The only thing eating at me is that Thomas was the one to provide for us when usually that was my role, it's hard to imagine your younger siblings will ever grow up. I guess I need to learn to accept that he's an adult now, but at least through all of this we are still together, he is the most precious thing in my life and I couldn't stand to lose him. 

I worry every time he goes through that gate, but I know nothing could stop him from going, I just have to trust that he knows his limits and is strong enough to survive in this harsh world.