After we confirmed with the man from before that we would be doing the quest, we made our way back to the guild building since we still had unfinished business there.

The staff from before was waiting for us with a strangely sympathetic smile and the money from the reward of our last quest, already ready for us to pick up.

I didn’t want to waste too much of her time since we already had her guide us to the meeting, so I just picked the money up and bid farewell to her.

There were some places I wanted to pay a visit before we left the city, more specifically I wanted to consult with a carpenter’s guild to commission the rebuilding of my workshop and house.

On the way here I spent some time thinking up of the plans for the new house, which would probably be more expensive than the one I had before given that I would probably be living with Fiora now.

“Fiora, how about we take a stroll before going down to the harbor? Anything you want…?”

“Ah! Hmmm…” She mumbled to herself for a while before answering. “... If it’s okay with you, I want something to draw with…”

Oh…! I had a suspicion she might like drawing given how much time she spent together with her carving board, so I should have guessed.

“Then let’s drop by some place to buy you some drawing tools after I visit the Carpenter’s Guild.”

“Okay~”

After that we spent some time walking around until we stumbled upon a large building with wooden furniture in display at the front and a sign saying “Woodcraft’s Guild”.

The place was partly made of the brickwork that made up the rest of the buildings around, but it also had intricate wooden decorations made with wood of a light color.

“Oh?! Welcome! What can we do for you, brother?” Someone from inside the guild spotted me and called out, coming to us with a friendly smile.

“I’d like to know how much would it be to buy the materials and labor to make a wooden house, since my old one got destroyed.”

“Well, now that’s a once in a lifetime request… On this island, we usually don’t do that many wooden houses, unless in the countryside. After all, the pits of Dalca haven’t been exhausted of materials for brickworks yet.”

“Ah, we don’t live here. We’ll be building on another island, but we didn’t have any guild from where we are, so I need to commission from here.”

“Ah, I see… if that’s the case… hmmm…” The guildsman started pondering on something for a while before continuing. “If you’d like, we just received a shipment of wood that is still on harbor. Good quality, I promise. As you’ve seen, most houses here are of other materials and only furniture is made out of wood. And given the recent state of affairs, I’d like to get rid of it in a safe manner. So I can make you a deal.”

“Hmmm… tell me more about it.”

The man grinned and gestured for us to enter. “Let’s talk more inside.”

As we got in, we got a better look at some of the furniture inside, which ranged from simple stools and tables to cabinets, bookshelves and even bedding.

We were led to a long table with some stacks of papers and account books, with the guildsman sitting on one side and we on the other.

“So, for starters, let’s hear about what are your plans for the building and we’ll decide on the final quote at the end.”

“Okay, so…” I proceeded to describe to him the basic layout I had in mind and the rough sizes I wanted and he noted everything in a piece of paper before starting doing some calculations.

“Given your requirements, the material needed and the work that’ll go into it, I can roughly estimate the final price in and around two hundred and fifty golden pieces, but I can add furniture on top of it and raise it to three hundred gold pieces.”

“I don’t thi-”

“Do not worry, you won’t need to pay those fees upfront, I understand this is a high amount to come up out of nowhere, so I can prepare an issue of indebtedness so that you can repay it slowly with some interest.”

Hmmm… I’m not exactly in a position where I should be taking debt, but… It’s not like I can keep draining my money on temporary installations when I still need to find myself a house. Especially now that I have someone to care for.

I took a glance at Fiora before making my decision. “Let’s discuss the details.”