The master bedroom that was assigned to Anton was huge and beautifully decorated with what looked to him like antique furniture. The only thing that he could say about the decorator, Ms. Felicity Orwells, was that she had taste. The bed, the cabinet, the office table, and chair located near the doors, the carpet, and the curtains, and all the other decorations like the paintings and sculptures were lavish but not tacky.
Ms. Orwells managed to capture the understated elegance that he preferred. Anton didn’t know how the designer managed to capture his taste without meeting him.
Anton went to the large window to check the vaunted view that Ronia was boasting about, and he was pleasantly surprised at the large garden that was currently being worked on by a lot of people. He expected that once it was done and full of flowers, it would be a nice sight that one could wake up to.
Near the huge window was another table and a couple of chairs where two people could have their breakfast. It was a nice touch, and Anton appreciated it.
“This room is very well done indeed,” Anton praised, and that statement brought a smile to Ronia.
“At first, I was thinking of making another room your office, but since you mentioned that your father will be the head of the household, the office would be fitting more with him, and you can work at the office table in your room,” Ronia said.
“You’re correct. At least once I’m done with my paperwork, I can go directly to bed.”
Anton noticed that Torbin looked like he wanted to say something.
“What is it?”
“You mentioned that you received a lot of powerful magical items from the dungeons. Are you planning to leave it here in the manor? Torban and I went on exploring the whole manor, and in one of the rooms, we found what looked like a secret door that led to an empty room. It could work as your treasure room. You can inlay the room with magical defenses, and then it would work,” Torbin said.
“I’ll hold on to the items for now, since I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the old house. I don’t want to endanger anyone in here. Once my father arrives, I’ll give everything to him and he’ll decide what to do with them. He’ll probably give or sell them to his group members so they will be better equipped to complete missions.”
After that discussion, Ronia and Torbin left Anton to enjoy his room. He asked Ronia to convey his appreciation to Ms. Orwells about his room’s decoration. Once they were gone, the first thing Anton did was to write two letters. One addressed to his father, even though Anders told him through the last letter that he would be on the road. There’s a chance that his father might have passed a town that had access to the Mage Guild’s network information and could receive the letter. He just wanted to inform Anders of the address of the new Rose Manor, so even if he’s not at the manor, his father and his retinue could head directly home.
Since the manor was located in a section guarded by a gate and Ormunda’s guards, Ronia and Torbin would know what to do once his father arrived.
Anton’s letter to Anna was the same. It informed her of the address of the Rose Manor. He also told her through the letter that he had a large number of high-level mana stones as well as a large number of magic items from the high-level dungeons, and just to ask him if she needed them.
Once he was done writing the letters, he went out of his room to look for Ronia. Since the manor was huge, after a couple of minutes, Anton realized that it was futile for him to search for the maid by looking, so he called on the nearest person that he saw, which was a cleaning mage, and informed her that she needed Mr. Jenkins or Ronia and to meet him in his room.
Anton returned to his room to wait for the arrival of either of the two. After a few minutes, both the new butler and Ronia arrived.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t know how to call any of you,” Anton said to the two.
“What do you require, Anton?” Mr. Jenkins asked.
“Can you have someone go to the Mage Guild and send this letter to my father and my sister?” Anton gave the two letters to the new butler.
After that, the three talked about the total number of people that the butler, Ronia, and Ms. Noria would hire. They finally agreed to a total of 50 people since more than that would be lavish. Anton would not be present in the manor, since he would be busy delving in the dungeon, and his father would not arrive for a few weeks yet. Anton’s sister would only be home during the semester breaks, which were months away. What that meant was, Anton and his family would not be there to be served yet.
Once his father arrived, the relatives that was coming with Anders would stay in the manor permanently, and that was the time they could revisit the idea of hiring more people if needed.
Since that was the case, Mr. Jenkins told Anton that the 20,000 gold coins that he had provided to that man would last for a total of five months.
“Now we need to talk about something important. Right now, the only source of income our family has is my dungeon diving. The amount of wealth that I could gather from there is astonishing, if I do say so, but I think it’s still a good idea for the family to have some sort of business that the whole family could rely on. Do you have any suggestions?”
“You told us that your father formed a mercenary group. Since you’re extremely powerful, I assume that your father is as well. That means that his business is another source of income for the family,” Mr. Jenkins said.
“I understand that, but from the stories that I’ve read, rich nobles had several sources of income they could rely on, like businesses and real estate. Do you think it’s a good idea for me to enter that world?”
“I would not advise you to enter the real estate business for now, even if you have a massive liquid fund. The lands in Ormunda are governed by Ormunda’s mages and nobles. Once you have a noble title, then maybe you can enter that business. Remember, though, that the noble title that you can purchase is only the lowest ones, since the higher tier titles could only be earned by doing a great service to the kingdom. The lowest titles would still have difficulties in entering the real estate business,” The butler said.
“So that meant that we can only establish businesses. You did say that you can create a magic item,” Ronia mentioned.
“I can, but that will defeat the purpose of establishing a business that I don’t have to be involved in. If I’m going to spend my time earning coins, dungeon diving is still the best earner, for me, I think.”
“The best thing that you can do is hire a business manager and let him or her handle the thinking for you, and they will just utilize the funds that you have. It’s a bit of a gamble because the people that you might hire could turn out to be untrustworthy,” Raymond Jenkins said.