The following day, Minsto and I made our way to dome 2’s city hall. It was crowded as usual, but the place we were going to wasn’t the manned counters. Instead, we climbed the stairs to reach more normal offices, just like the one belonging to Ulum in 82.
Minsto soon stopped in front of a specific door, knocking on it without hesitation.
“Yes, come in!”
We were in the internal affairs department, and this was the office of the person in charge of managing real estate for businesses. As we entered, the woman inside didn’t seem too pleased to see who her visitors were.
“Minsto…”
“Hello, Fayin.”
“Yeah, hi. Who’s this?”
She turned to me, and I gave her my classic trader smile.
“Good morning, and nice to meet you, lady. My name is Tila Urtek. I’m a trader.”
“Okay. What’s your business here?”
It was Minsto who answered.
“We want to buy some land to build a selnic factory. Give us something good.”
This made the woman wince.
“You’ve got some gals to say stuff like that… No, I’m stupid for expecting anything from you.”
I intervened as she started to glare at my employee.
“How do you two know each other?”
The official sighed.
“We were together in school. I suffered a lot because of her. No, that’s not correct. Anyone involved with this disaster of a genius girl ended up feeling the pain.”
I looked at Minsto with wonder.
“You’re a genius, Minsto?”
“Yes.”
“That’s so cool! You’re amazing!”
“I am.”
This made the woman frown.
“Who’s she, Minsto? Your new employer?”
“Yes.”
“You got a weirdo this time. You two fit well together.”
I gave her another shiny smile.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say. I hope you can get us the best land in compensation.”
“Total oddball.”
She sure didn’t mince her words, even toward a stranger like me.
“Even if I’m an oddball, I’m a good oddball.”
“Yeah, whatever. A word of advice, you shouldn’t trust that woman too much.”
“Why not?”
“She’s well known for leaking critical business and private information. She’s even had to deal with the police several times.”
I didn’t know about her problems with the police, but I knew about her habit of being too honest.
“Is that so? I know all of that already.”
“And you still want to work with her? Are you one of those lured by her skills and ignoring everything else?”
“I appreciate her skills, but I believe she isn’t a fundamentally bad person. On the contrary, I feel that Minsto is a good person at the core. Don’t you think so too?”
She closed her mouth, unwilling to answer for a long time.
“Let’s move to your business. Wait a moment.”
Her attention turned toward work as she went through documents on her desk after changing the subject. A minute later, she showed us three different documents.
“We have three pieces of land suitable to build a selnic factory. Two medium-sized ones and a large one. See for yourself.”
The documents each showed detailed information about the lands, such as specific dimensions, location, what buildings surrounded them, and so on. Since food was usually the top priority, these lands were usually unsuitable for farming, or with such a poor enough yield that it was better to use them for something else. That didn’t mean they were bad, though.
The first two were 750 and 900 square meters, respectively, while the last one was 1700 square meters. Their location was nothing special. They were all located in the dome’s industrial district, together with other similar factories.
“What do you think, Minsto?”
“This one.”
She pointed at the one measuring 900 square meters. Its price was 1.1 million lods, something I could barely afford by using all my current savings from selling water and food for a season. I came closer to her and whispered into her ear.
“We can go with that one, but we won’t have enough to build the factory immediately.”
Instead of murmuring back, she spoke at a normal volume.
“That’s fine.”
“Okay, I’ll trust you. We’ll buy this one, ma’am.”
“That was quick. Fine. I’ll need your ID, your company registration documents, and the money. Do you have all of that with you?”
“I do.”
“You’re well prepared. Let’s start the transfer process.”
As expected of the bureaucratic inner world, it took a long time to fill in many documents before we were done. Of course, we also visited the plot of land, but there wasn’t much to see. It was an empty plot, with some weeds growing on it, surrounded by large factories.
Back in the office, we were fortunate enough that the woman knew what she was doing, with everything going smoothly. It wasn’t certain if Minsto's presence helped, but she didn’t make things unnecessarily difficult for us along the way. A bit more than an hour later, we were done handling all the steps. The woman was acting as both an official and a lawyer/witness of the transfer, making the presence of any other person unnecessary. I also took the opportunity to buy a license for owning a selnic factory since it was only a few tens of thousands of lods.
“It’s done now. Congratulations on your purchase.”
“Thanks, though I’m a beggar now, haha.”
She stared at me for some time before focusing on Minsto.
“You got an interesting employer this time, Minsto.”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm. I’ve never seen you so radiant before. Are you that happy right now?”
“I am.”
This made Fayin scowl. I suddenly had an urgent question for her.
“Wait. You can tell stuff like that? She looks the same as usual to me.”
She nodded.
“I’ve spent way too much time with that disastrous woman. I can tell this much, even if it’s not useful for anything.”
“Wow, that’s incredible. Please share your wisdom with me!”
She finally let a slight smile creep on her face.
“No. Get out now, I have other work to do.”
“Stingy.”
“Whatever you say.”
We left her office. However, just before crossing the door, Fayin called out to me.
“You. Keep her happy, okay?”
This made me pause. I turned back one last time, my best smile on my lips.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. My sole existence brings happiness to the world.”
“Pfff. So full of yourself. Get lost now.”
“Hahaha. See you next time!”