Axel

Chapter 19: 58 Élysée Gardens Street and The Cat and Four-Leaf Clover Café

Added 2025-01-09 20:02:07 +0000 UTC

Élysée Gardens Street has a carriage lane wide enough to accommodate sixteen rows of carriages side by side, with pedestrian paths over five meters wide on both sides. From any angle, one can see the magnificent Glorious Gate.

The Glorious Gate is located at the center of Élysée Gardens Street, a divine wonder bestowed upon Strasbourg by the Glorious Lord, one of the nine Great Deities.

It is a square-shaped structure, with four archways opening in four directions.

The Glorious Gate is famous for a particular miracle: anyone entering it will randomly exit through one of the four doors, not the one leading directly forward.

It is said that the direction in which one exits indicates the best luck for the day.

In addition to the hard-to-ignore Glorious Gate, there are numerous shops lining both sides of Élysée Gardens Street, with a few that feature high-level alchemical creations. These shops display expensive, eye-popping crystal glass that showcases luxurious goods to every passerby.

Aside from this street, there is no other place in the Empire with such noise and bustle.

Annie Bretagne smiled lightly and said, "To number 58!"

The carriage rumbled along Élysée Gardens Street for a short distance before turning into a small alley.

It would be inaccurate to call it a small alley, as it was wide enough to accommodate two carriages side by side.

The alley wasn’t long, and the carriage soon came to the end, where stood a three-story detached house. In front of it was a small square that could park five or six carriages, with an entrance door and a few steps leading up. On the side was a gate large enough for carriages, giving the building an imposing appearance.

Annie got off the carriage, and Charlot could only follow.

He watched as Annie pressed a button, causing the building’s front door to open automatically. He couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

Charlot knew this was a basic alchemical spell, called Locking Magic.

He didn’t expect someone like Annie Bretagne, a noble lady, to have mastered such a spell.

Thinking back to the mechanical beetle that had been tracking Mr. Yanmills, Charlot gained a new understanding of Annie Bretagne.

Annie pushed open the large door and walked in, giving Charlot a slight smile as she introduced him to the house. "This house was recently inherited by a distant relative of mine. He found the commercial atmosphere here too strong, the noise too much, and wanted to sell it."

"You know, the shops along Élysée Gardens Street are always in high demand, but residential properties are less popular, so the price is not high."

"My relative is asking for two hundred écus, but I know he’s in urgent need of money and would accept one hundred fifty écus."

Charlot thought to himself, "My entire fortune is only eighty écus. Is this the price I can afford? Did Miss Bretagne misunderstand my financial situation, or is she not sensitive to the numbers?"

It seemed Annie knew exactly what Charlot was thinking. She raised an eyebrow and said, "He accepts installment payments. You can move in with a down payment of just fifty écus."

"I can even persuade him to waive the interest on the installments."

Charlot followed Annie around the first floor and found that he liked the house.

The first floor had a very large banquet hall. Perhaps in the eyes of nobility, this banquet hall might be considered modest, as it could only accommodate a small ball of up to fifty people. But to Charlot, who had crossed over from Earth, this hall was absurdly large. It was open and unobstructed, with three to four hundred square meters, slightly smaller than a standard basketball court, but large enough for a half-court game.

This wasn’t even the entire first floor. There was also a reception room, a dining room, and two studies. On the side of the dining room, there was a staircase leading to the basement. According to Fars Empire customs, the basement would inevitably have a kitchen and storage rooms.

As for the staircase leading to the upper floors, it was completely separate from the one leading to the basement, located on the side of the banquet hall.

Charlot thought, "A house this big could never be bought for two or three million back on Earth, not even in the countryside."

"Moreover, it allows installment payments with no interest. The seller is practically the most charitable person I’ve met since crossing over."

"But where will I get the remaining seventy écus?"

"With my thirty-seven rank civil servant salary and six flor plus fifteen centimes weekly, how long will it take to pay this off?"

After a few seconds of mental calculation, Charlot suddenly realized something.

With his salary as a civil servant, he could probably pay off the house in under three years!

This repayment period was less than a tenth of what he had expected on Earth.

Charlot couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "It’s true that transmigrants are always the main characters!"

"Praise the Glorious Lord."

"And praise Miss Bretagne."

He composed himself and said, "My weekly salary is only six flor. Do you think the seller would accept a long payment period?"

Annie Bretagne chuckled and said, "Of course, no problem. Anyone who can pay off the house within ten years would be considered a good buyer."

"However..."

"Mr. Mecklenburg, you’ve already reached the thirty-seven rank as a civil servant? You look like you just graduated not long ago."

Charlot smiled faintly and said, "Two years ago."

Annie Bretagne gasped, her eyes glistening and her cheeks slightly flushed, further enhancing her fondness for him.

A young talent who could rise to the thirty-seven rank in two years was clearly more charismatic than the average civil servant, who would need to wait three years for a promotion.

This house was quite "old," weathered by time yet still sturdy. In the Fars Empire, hundreds of years-old buildings were common. A house with age would not lose its value but would instead become a point of pride, admired for its long history.

Charlot didn’t bother checking the second and third floors. After confirming a few details with Annie, he took out ten fifty-flor bills from the proceeds of selling his multi-headed flail and handed them to the young lady.

Annie called for the coachman and gave him instructions before he drove away.

Although the house was occasionally cleaned, it still had a thin layer of dust and wasn’t suitable for long stays.

Charlot, ever the gentleman, suggested they go for coffee nearby.

Annie readily agreed.

Élysée Gardens Street would never lack tastefully decorated cafés. Although few nobles visited, the cafés were frequented by the Empire's literary figures, artists, sculptors, musicians, and even orators. Many cafés had become famous due to the works and stories of these renowned personalities.

Charlot led Annie to a café not far away, only a few dozen meters from number 58, called the Cat and Four-Leaf Clover Café.

This world had many things similar to Earth, such as felines. However, the domestic cats in this world were not as numerous or varied as Earth’s, nor had they been bred into various attractive breeds.