Surprisingly, Markus didn't take long to transfer ownership to me, and now I owned my own property within Velgrada. Not bad, if I say so myself. Although, I also realized there would be much to do before it was more than a dark, forgotten hole.
The moment we stepped through the heavy doors of our new property, the scent of dust and stale air filled my nostrils, prompting me to a sequence of loud and also painful sneezes, shaking my chest like thunder. The building had been abandoned for who knew how long, and it showed. Oh, it showed... The main floor, which would soon be our bakery, was coated in a thick layer of grime, one that wouldn't come off with just one round of mopping.
Besides that, the wooden counters in part of the previous shop that operated here were warped, and a few rusted carpentry tools were gathered in a pile, forgotten in a corner, remnants of whatever business had occupied this space before us. Inside, I couldn't even tell if it was noon or not, thanks to the barely visible light streaming through the soot-covered windows, which were blocking most of the sunlight from entering the mostly empty space.
"Damn..." Lira let out a slight cough as she waved a hand in front of her face, her nose wrinkling in distaste. "Well... this will take some work."
"More than some," I muttered, stepping further in. The floor creaked under my boots, but the skeleton of this future bakery was solid. The stone walls and thick ceiling beams held firm, even after I knocked at it. There was potential here, buried beneath layers of neglect. I have seen worse in my old life... Something I had almost mumbled out as I ran a hand along the rough surface of the covered counter, feeling the grooves and cracks beneath my fingers. "It's not much to look at now, but it'll get there," I said, feeling excited. This place filled me with expectations for our future...
"Not bad!" Puck exclaimed as he walked past us, his eyes wide with the same excitement I was feeling. The scrawny boy wasn't really bothered by the dust or the dirt around us. It was as if he was utterly immune to it, and I didn't have the heart to ask what kind of places he used as shelter until now. I just watched as he traced a finger over the dust-covered countertop, leaving a clean streak in its wake. "We get to live here too, right? Not just run the shop?" His voice held an edge of doubt as if he expected to wake up and find this was all a cruel joke. Or if we would throw him back out of here. "This place looks cool... no holes on the walls or nothing..."
"Relax, we are not going to shove you back out to the streets!" I nodded, a small smile hanging from the edge of my lips, followed by another sneeze. "Damn it! My allergies are killing me... ugh, anyway! The second floor is ours. If Markus didn't lie, there should be two bedrooms, a small shared space akin to a living room. Nothing fancy, but it's a start."
"A... whole room?" Puck's grin spread so wide it looked like his face might split in two. "Are you telling me I get... a room?"
"Yeah, you do." I nodded, looking around before continuing. "As long as you work, putting your back into it."
"I will put in everything I have! Which is not much... but hey! I will!" He answered firmly, slapping his chest.
"Is there a basement?" Lira suddenly asked, noticing the trapdoor leading down, buried under the pile of tools in the corner.
"For now, we leave it alone," I said, unsure of what to do with it. Markus did mention there was a basement, but he did not have the key to it. What that really meant, I was unsure of, but... we will open it up anyway. But, for now, there was no need to rush into using every part of the building immediately. The bakery had to be functional first. The rest would come later. "We'll tackle that when we are finished with the ground floor!"
"Yeah..." Lira grunted while her eyes scanned the room with a critical gaze. With another shrug, he began tying up her hair, rolling up her sleeves, "It's going to take more than a few days to make this place livable. We'll need supplies, tools, and a lot of elbow grease. I can provide the elbows, though..."
"Good thing we've got more than one pair," I replied, glancing at Puck, who was already poking around the tools with the curiosity of a child discovering a treasure chest. "Let's start with opening every window we find to let in some air, hm?"
"I was just about to say that." Lira nodded, seeing that I was about to sneeze again, "You are just making the dust swirl in the air with every sneeze you do..."
"Sorry..." I moaned, holding back another one, tickling my nostrils, "Dust and I are enemies..."
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...
Our first task was making the place livable, and to our surprise, Veren & Sons actually came through without asking them for help. Markus had clearly instructed some of his people to assist us, and despite my reservations, they didn't cut corners. Laborers arrived with actual tools and cleaning supplies, scrubbing away the years of neglect and putting everything in place that a bakery would actually need. Broken floorboards were replaced, the soot-stained walls were given a fresh coat of limewash, and they even brought in a proper brick mason to ensure the oven Lira would soon use was in working order and up to the city's regulations.
In the end, we even opened the trap door, discovering an empty space with nothing but four bare stone walls. I did feel something was off, but I couldn't pinpoint what, and even after examining it while cleaning it out, I was still unsure. So, to chase away my thoughts, I decided we would use it as storage for now.
Lira and I, of course, worked alongside Markus's men throughout the days, though Puck was the most eager of us all. Whenever a mop was available, he scrubbed floors until his knuckles were raw and hauled sacks of flour when they arrived, down to the basement, treating the work like some grand adventure. At one point, he emerged from the upstairs rooms, his face smeared with dirt and a rusty old pot in his hands. "Look what I found! Think we can use it?"
"Another souvenir?" Lira took the pot from him, turning it over in her hands. "It's seen better days, but it's salvageable. Good find, Puck."
"Hehe!" The boy beamed, his pride evident. "I'll clean it up!"
"You do know that we got everything..." I whispered after Puck had gone to wash it.
"Yeah, but... he needs some validation." She muttered back, smiling.
I wasn't about to argue with her about that... she was right, after all.
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As the days passed, the transformation of our new home was startling. The ground floor was turned into a proper bakery. It had gone from a forgotten dust cavern to a place with actual warmth from the oven and began resembling a place that had life. The scent of sawdust from where we replaced the floor and the smell of fresh limewash still lingered in the air, but at least it did not make me sneeze all the time.
As a last touch, I was finishing up the wooden shelves that now lined the walls, ready to be stocked, and the oven—now properly restored—was going through its first testing as a fire was burning inside of it.
"It seems we are ready to open soon!" Lira dusted her hands off on her apron, surveying our handiwork. "It's actually starting to feel like a bakery."
"It is one now," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "The only thing missing is the smell of something baking in your oven."
I realized that it was easily misunderstood as she looked down at the worktable in the center of the shop, her face bright red. Shaking her thoughts away, she reached for the small sacks of flour and sugar that Puck had brought over a few minutes ago.
"W-well... let's bake, then!" She said, stuttering only for a little while.
"What are we baking?!" Puck appeared once again, coming down from above, wearing actual clothes he had bought with the money we had paid him for his previous job.
"Honestly," I said, looking at him, shrugging, "Whatever Lira says. Neither I nor you can make anything... so we follow orders, hm?"
"Yes, sir!" He saluted, making both of us chuckle as we put the oven through its first actual test.
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Our first night in our new, finished, and renovated home was quiet. The second floor had been cleaned and furnished with some cheap stuff we bought from Veren & Sons. It consisted of a pair of modest beds and a simple but comfortable table. Puck had a small cot in the corner of his own room, while the common area had a patchy couch, an empty bookshelf, and a writing table.
As I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling beams above, I felt my mind relax and think through everything I have experienced so far. I wondered if that elven artifact really had that kind of magical power... Because for sure, it seemed like. One, it was there when I got myself, somehow, transported into this alternate version of myself. Even if I didn't know that time we were smuggling something like that... Then, it interfered with me when I thought I would be a medieval mafia member or something. Heh. If one thing I learned was that I would have nothing to do with damned elven stuff...! Not again!
"Heh..." With a soft chuckle, I turned my head to see Lira sitting by the window, her silhouette outlined by the incoming moonlight from above. She was quiet, her expression thoughtful, probably remembering her past. She was just a young girl running her dysfunctional family's bakery... At least, that was what I read from her side profile, from what I could see from my position. "What's on your mind?" I asked.
"..." She didn't answer right away, her gaze fixed on the dark sky, before taking a deep breath. "I was just remembering how life was only what... a month ago?" she finally said, her tone soft but somewhat... sad. "A bakery, a home, a life... it's a lot to take on. Again."
"Thinking about your parents?" I propped myself up on one elbow, studying her. "This will be... different. And different doesn't mean bad."
"If it will be different," she turned to look at me, her eyes much calmer than her voice. "It can't be that bad. I assume you wouldn't want to sell me off like my... father?" she shrugged, but before I could say something, she continued, "It's okay. It came out wrong, sorry. I won't bring them up again. They are dead to me. I will do my best to assist you... even if we run into danger––"
"We won't," I interrupted her. "We are going to be careful. We'll keep being careful. Then, we can plan ahead. To prevent bad things, we need to be in the know. This means that we will start collecting knowledge. We start small, buying and selling it, then slowly growing it. The keyword: slowly."
"I understand." She nodded her head a little. "You're right. I just... I don't want to lose what we now have..."
"You won't," I said, my tone softening. "I am not in the mood to start over. Again."
"Me neither." A small smile touched her lips as she sat down on the bed, "Then... Let's plan ahead. Mister Shade~!"