My alarm went off slightly before sunrise, giving me time to wake up and prepare to meet the day. I decided I didn’t feel like cooking, so I pulled out some pizza.

Yes, pizza. I’d introduced it in the last world, and had made a good bit of profit from the merchant’s guild. They had something similar, it’s not hard to put sauce and toppings on bread, but it had nothing on the real thing, especially when you use a well made sauce. Theirs were pathetic.

I’d taken the time to cook and store a few dozen pizzas, including some that I cooked and then cooled so I could enjoy them as if they’d just been pulled out of a refrigerator. These ones I’d made slightly differently to capitalize on them being eaten cold.

Turning invisible for a moment, I exited my hut and stored it away. It was early enough that the pests who’d tried to bother me last night hadn’t come back from their beds to try and find out who had been there. There was some motion in the camp, but only a bit. No one noticed when the mysterious hut disappeared.

Once I was away from there, I found a space and became visible before continued my walk to where the site manager was staying by the entrance to the backyard, eating my food as I did so.

The gate was manned, but not by the guy from last night. It might be better to say it was womanned, since it was a woman about the same age as the guy from last night who was there. She was also watching over a pot suspended over a fire cooking her family’s breakfast. Upon seeing me, she waved.

“Good mornin’ to you.”

“Morning. Husband still asleep?”

“Yep, but not for long. Breakfast’s almost ready, so I’ll be wakin’ him up in a little bit. You’re the one wantin’ to talk to the owner, right? He told me about ya when he came to bed. That’s a fancy little house you have. Said you pulled it out of nowhere.”

“Thank you, I put lots of work into it. I’m a mage, and know some Earth Magic. I have an item box, and it was a right pain to get it big enough to keep anything significant in it, but well worth the trouble. But yeah, I need to talk to the guy who hired you folks.”

I don’t know if it was woman’s intuition or if I’d made some kind of face as I said the last sentence, since the woman narrowed her eyes at me.

“Are you planning on makin’ trouble for them?”

“I’m here to clean things up and get some questions answered. I’m hoping it can be resolved without any trouble, but if there is any it it won’t be because of me.”

She looked at me for a moment, as if assessing me, then shrugged.

“Just don’t do anythin’ stupid. Guards won’t appreciate it, and will be very upset if you give them more work than they already have. May as well take a seat while you’re waiting.”

She waved her hand to some stumps that were around the fire, but I pulled my own chair out. Much more comfortable.

We chatted while waiting for the food to cook and the day to dawn. The family, composed of the couple and their three children, had come from a town to the north. The man was a merchant, barely more than a peddler, but the family had wanted to be here for the festival because of how historic the anniversary was. Five hundred years. It was the oldest human country on the continent.

Because of this, they’d made plans for the festival months in advance, including booking a room at an inn. Unfortunately when they’d arrived the innkeeper told them they had to find somewhere else to stay, even though they’d already prepaid the inn fees, which were refunded along with some extra for the inconvenience, they’d broken a contract after all. Someone had offered a better deal, even including the penalty for breaking the contract.

They’d tried to find another place to stay, but were either turned away or couldn’t afford the fees. Then the guy who’d hired them to manage this site had shown up and their problems were solved, though they would have to camp rather than stay at an inn. At least they had somewhere to stay. Many with no place to stay were being kicked out of the city.

A few of the other people staying in here were in a similar position, having been kicked out when someone else offered the innkeepers more.

Well damn… could I really kick these people out of here now?

Yes, yes I could.

I kind of had to if I wanted to do any renovations safely. Tearing down the build was gonna be messy and I needed the yard empty to take care of things. If the building was stone, I’d have had no problems, but since it was mostly wood, it’d be more annoying to handle.

Once the building was down, people could come back. I didn’t really care if they were there… As long as they didn’t bother me. Then I’d care. A lot.

Actually, that might work… I’d have to try it.

The sun peeked over the city walls and the sounds of the city were getting louder, and most of all the woman finished cooking breakfast, so she went to wake up her children. The husband had gotten up a few minutes before and was in the privy, one of the few parts of the building not destroyed. It was towards the back of the building on the first floor and was mostly stone, so it had fared much better than most of the rest of the place. It was damaged, but still usable.

The husband had invited me to join the family in breakfast, but I declined. Had he checked with his wife, he’d have known I’d already eaten. She actually glared at him. She’d made enough for the family, not enough to share. From the look, I guessed that this was a common occurrence.

While they ate, I read.

After breakfast, the wife cleaned up, aided by the children. The man moved around the yard, checking to see if anyone had sneaked in after he’d gone to bed last night. I remained where I was.

It was a bit after the second bell that the ‘boss’ showed up. He was a big guy and accompanied by another big guy, but their types were very different. Robert, the one who’d ‘hired’ the manager, was big in the portly way, whereas the other guy was his muscle.

The fat merchant walked in like he owned the place, unsurprising given his scam. You have to project yourself confidently or it’s quite difficult to pull off a scam.

The manager saw his arrival and made his way over. I was right behind him.

“Morning Mr. Robert.”

“Good morning. How was business last night?”

“Good. The place was full.”

He pulled out a bag that jingled with coin, but before he could pass it off, I stepped in between them.

“Hello. Are you the one who set up this place up as a camp site? Do you know the landowner? The place belonged to an older couple, are you related to them?”

The merchant scowled at me.

“I’m their son. I own this land now.”

“Interesting, because I was under the impression that the previous owners had moved their family, including their widowed daughter and teenage grandson, to a different city, leaving the property in the hands of the Guild to sell.”

“Well whoever told you that was wrong. My parents left the land in my hands after the place was destroyed. Now step aside.”

He tried to go around me, but I blocked him. His guard tried to move me, but froze when I sent a touch of intimidation his way.

“I need to see the land deed. As the owner, you must have it, right?”

“Yes, I have the deed. At home. Now move, I have a busy day and need to collect last night’s fees so I can leave.”

Again he tried to circumvent me, and again I blocked him.

“I don’t know how you could have the deed to this land when it had been left with the Guild… who sold the property to me. I was very surprised when I arrived yesterday to find someone who wasn’t the owner had been making money off of land they didn’t own. Without permission from the guild. Oh yes, I checked. They’ve allowed some people to arrange sites like this on vacant properties, with most of the fees going to the guild, but this location was not allowed due to the dangerous nature of the ruins.”

The merchant went pale and tried to retreat, but he couldn’t. Not when there was a wall behind him.

“When I came over here last night, I thought people were just squatting on the land, and would have been fine kicking them out, but when I found out about your scheme, I just had to meet you. And to retrieve what you owe.”

“GUARDS!”

The fat man decided to call for help. Dumb move.

A pair of guards were nearby and came to investigate, and finding it was non-violent and involved a property dispute went with my suggestion to take this to the Merchant’s Guild. They were too busy to deal with this shit right then.

Once there I laid out the entire thing, with some help from the manager. The site had been running for most of a week, and a good amount of coin had been collected during that time. At five silver a person a night, with nearly a hundred people staying there, it added up quickly. And it was not money that should have gone to the fat man. Most of it wasn’t mine to collect either. I could claim the fees for last night, but the rest belonged to the Merchant’s Guild.

The Guild officials took care of things, including placing a massive fine on the man, far above the sum he’d have gotten from his little scheme. As no one was injured, that was the end of it, at least as far as the Guild was concerned. After clarifying some things, I left the guild and returned to my new property along with the manager.

When we arrived, most of the place was cleaned up, though there were still plenty of people there. I’d asked the manager’s wife to make sure everyone knew that they had to get out so the building could be taken down, but anything beyond that was in the air until things were checked with the Guild.

Fortunately for them, the news was good.

Once the building was dealt with, I’d be able to continue letting people camp in the yard and collect fees. As I owned the land, and if it was just for the festival, there was no need to get a permit or anything. It wasn’t worth the paperwork for the overworked Guild.

The people left, finding places to stay for the day, and leaving the property empty to allow me to get to work.

As this was going to get messy and loud, I pulled some tools out of my inventory to help me. With how large the property was, I didn’t want to have to micromanage everything that’d be required. A set of ward stones were set up to obscure the sight and sound’s within the property’s perimeter, along with keeping people out. The things were mana guzzlers, designed to be hooked into ley lines, but they’d do the job of taking care of stuff so I could focus on carefully taking down the building without destroying everything. I’d rather not have to dig out the sewer connections.

Site secured, tools engaged, the symphony of destruction began.

Well, the symphony might have been coming from a music box and have been about something else, but I was working to dismantle the building.

The job took all day, and a few things got damaged that won’t supposed to, but it was minor damage and easily repaired once the dangerous bits were completely removed. Unfortunately, I still had to deal with the sewers, since some of the drains were clogged.

By the time the sun was approaching the horizon, the only thing that remained of the building was the first floor, though there was no roof other than over the bathrooms, which now had all the toilets working.

Since there was no longer any danger, I turned off the ward stones, removing the barrier that prevented those outside from seeing what happened within. The crowd that’d gathered got louder now that they could see things in detail again. The ward hadn’t completely blocked sight, but made it sort of blurry, so they could see the building get smaller, but not how.

At the front of the crowd was the manager and his family. I nodded to him and tilted my head, indicating he could come on in. He did, followed by his family, and then the rest of the crowd.

“Whoa, hold up there folks. For those who are renting space here, wait a sec for him to drop his gear off so he can collect the night’s rent, which is still the same as before. Those not staying here, there’s nothing special to see, so ya’ll can move on.”

After saying so, I waited for the manager to get back, then left him in charge. I wanted nothing to do with the crowds. Plus he’d been in charge before, so he should be able to get thing organized. He’s making a percentage of the fees, so the better he does, the more he makes. Oh, his wife went to help him. That’s probably a good thing.

Balls of light flew from my hands to illuminate the area so people would be able to get set up without having to rush to complete it before the last rays of the sun were gone.

Leaving the yard behind, I went into the remains of the building. No one else was allowed in here yet. The upper floors were gone, so nothing would be collapsing on anyone, but there was still all sorts of debris on the floor. The only clean place was the bathrooms, though I doubted that’d last long.

After a day of playing Jenga with the place, I was too tired to continue. Not literally. I could go on, I just didn’t want to. I wanted to sit down, enjoy a delicious meal and a good book. A novel, not some esoteric treatise on magic. Sure those were interesting sometimes, but I wanted to relax.

My destination was the basement. While I could find a place to put down my hut above ground, I’d have to be careful to make sure it was above a support, since the thing was kind of heavy. Downstairs, I didn’t have to worry about that, plus the ceilings were high enough for it to easily fit.

Getting comfortable, I had a pleasant evening, uninterrupted, and had pleasant dreams when I decided to go to sleep.