While we were all chatting over breakfast, Clarice fearfully asked me and Mitra.
“No, we didn’t.’l”
“Clarice, why are you bringing this up?”
When Mitra and I responded, Clarice scurried around as if she were troubled.
“It just that. The way you both were behaving was totally different from yesterday.”
“Is that so?”
I said that, but I felt that, too.
It was Mitra who changed.
It had been hard for me to read her emotions and I had the feeling that she was somewhat at a certain distance from me, but…
Now I feel like that has diminished a lot.
The reason…in all likelihood, it was last night’s incident.
“But…this mansion belongs to Albus now, doesn’t it? No, it’s not that I don’t trust Albus…”
I understand what Clarice is trying to say.
For Mitra and Clarice, in the end, someone other than themselves owns the house, and in a sense, nothing has changed.
The situation is as precarious as it was when they were renting the Warren family’s mansion. I guess that’s what they are trying to say.
“As for the mansion, Albus-sama and I were promised yesterday that it would be jointly owned by us.”
“What?”
Clarice freezes.
“It’s not like we’re married or anything, just jointly owned. I’m sorry, I just went ahead with it without consulting everyone.”
I looked at Clarice, Burgess, and Leroy in turn.
“However. It’s the same as the original purpose of buying the mansion for Clarice and Mitra, so there’s no objection, right?
When I said that, everyone nodded broadly.
“But. Are you sure about this, Albus? How hard did you have to work to save your mana…”
“What are you talking about? I’ve earned mana thanks to everyone.”
That’s right.
Either way, I couldn’t have pulled off the treasure hunt by myself. I don’t know if the kodris herb roast or the theater would have worked.
And to begin with, we had agreed that the sale of the relics we acquired would be split three ways between me, Clarice, and Loloi.
It would be totally wrong for me to claim here that ‘everything’ I bought belongs to me.
Or rather, if I had seriously refused to talk about Burgess.
Burgess would have claimed 1/4 of the Treasure Hunt, and Loloi would have agreed with Clarice, and I might not have gotten anything in the end.
And I wouldn’t have been able to sell Mitra’s wooden dolls at zero purchase price.
In effect, the estimate was that if I divided all the relic sale proceeds into four equal parts and only sold relics at the auction, I would have about 4.5 million mana on hand at the end of the auction.
As a result, I would have a mansion worth 14 million mana, and it would be a profitable property that could generate 12 million mana per year.
That would be like a bonus as a result of taking Burgess’ offer, even though I was prepared to take a loss on it.
As a result, I had a base in Kilket and a huge source of income from the Mistria Theater, so I was very satisfied with the outcome of the auction.
“Don’t cry, Clarice. You really do cry a lot.”
“I’m not crying, damn it!”
No matter how you look at it, you’re crying.
→→→→→
And we are.
Then we all went to the House of Nobles’ sub-branch office to complete the formalities regarding the ownership of the mansion.
Since it was absolutely necessary for us to go there, everyone had to move around while protecting Mitra, who was blindfolded.
“My sister… is totally out of the mansion.”
Again, Clarice’s eyes were moist with emotion.
And the mansion was jointly owned by me and Mitra. As for its garden and theater facilities, they remained my property.
→→→→→
Over the next month, I tracked down four minstrels and gradually reopened the theater as I welcomed them back.
All profits related to the theater were mine, though. I decided to pay Mitra neatly for the purchase of the wooden dolls, which had been free of charge.
I had a fifth bard, whom Mitra herself had found, take on the role of her caretaker. Mitra was paid for her services from the proceeds of the doll sales she had made.
And Mitra’s life began to stabilize considerably.
→→→→→
Another month passed.
I was about to start dancing because I was already making so much money.
The theater had a schedule that would have four minstrels performing eight shows a day.
Currently, there are five bards belonging to the Mistria Theater, including those hired by Mitra, so the theater has a rest day every four days.
The earnings per performance had been declining, including the fact that they are not as skilled as Amaranthia, but by increasing the number of performances to eight, we were about to achieve earnings of ‘one million mana per month’ in the second month after the reopening of the theater.
Furthermore, I laid the groundwork for the dispersion of customers and continuous business by creating and publishing a schedule of performances in advance.
Usually, bards are out and about as they please. Therefore, it is rare that the audience gets to hear the performance of their choice.
Sometimes they are forced to listen to the same popular poems over and over again. On the other hand, no matter how many times they came, they may not be able to hear the “moving poem that my friend heard before.”
However, at the Mistoria Theater, if you go to a certain place at a certain time, you will always be able to hear it.
And with a fixed time, friends can make plans such as inviting each other in advance.
Furthermore, I took a cue from Amaranthia’s method of scheduling performances by thoroughly researching poems that I thought the clientele would like.
Occasionally, I would ask the audience directly what poems they would like to hear over and over again, and I continued to increase the accuracy of my research.
Then, we would arrange the performance for children and adults according to the time of day, and set up the performers accordingly. Further fine-tuning was also added.
Sometimes, he would devise a variety of measures, such as placing popular programs more than once a day, and try them out over and over again.
Such detailed adjustments became the overwhelming advantage of the Mistria Theater that lasted until the end of time.
If it were just a spacious mansion, even 6 million would have been a hard value property…
But this mansion, which was reborn as the “Mistria Theater” by my hands and became an income-generating property that continuously generates mana by acquiring high publicity, was certainly worth more than 14 million mana.
Even Gilbert Warren admitted as much. It was an undeniable fact that was actually taking shape.
As Gilbert Warren said, the value of things fluctuates. The value of this mansion and land had risen to a level unmatched before.
Looking back, even 14 million was a small price to pay.
However, in order to further enhance the superiority of the Mistoria Theater, it cannot remain an open-air theater forever.
In operating as a full-fledged theater…
And in case other merchants followed suit…
…
Also, for the rainy season that will be coming…
We still need to build a more decent facility with a roof in the near future.
We need to save up the funds to renovate the Mistria Theater into a proper theater as well as for peddling.
However…
At any rate, all was well.
Thus, the sisters Mitra and Clarice’s great sorrow was gone.
I had a huge source of income, the theater, and everything was running smoothly.
Then, another month passed.
I was called by Mitra again in the middle of the night.