Nymph Oinoi #15 – A Weapon or a House
For awakened ones who ran themselves ragged through rift after rift, a weapon was everything.
A good weapon brought good results. It kept you alive, too. There was no such thing as overstating the value of a good weapon.
Of course, awakener equipment cost a fortune—and weapons cost even more. Take the High-temperature Superconductor Blade, usable only from S-rank and up. How much had the price been again…?
Anyway.
I had been setting money aside for the day I finally reached C-rank, planning to commission a custom-made weapon once I got there. Ten million won. To some people that might earn a scoffing "that's it?—but to me, it was serious money.
Now that I was actually considering spending it on a house, though, all those months of skipping meals and pinching pennies came flooding back, and the thought of parting with the money hurt worse than I could say.
"Muhuhu! Oinoi is moving to a house with a pond in it…! It brings to mind the days when we sisters would migrate from cave to cave with the turning of the seasons, as is the way of things…! Oinoi is looking forward to it…!"
━Click-click-click.
━Woof woof…!
Everyone seemed thrilled about this "new house" business. Well, fair enough—it was a matter of making a living, after all. Don't we all want to live somewhere good and eat good things? And isn't a good weapon just the means to that end? House before weapon, then, when you lined up the priorities.
"Still, I wonder—can you even find a house for ten million won?"
Truthfully, I knew next to nothing about the real estate market. All I had was the common-sense notion that you'd need at least a few hundred million won lying around to buy a place anywhere near the capital. Maybe I should start by visiting a brokerage office?
With that thought, a day passed. I took Oinoi and headed to the highest-rated real estate agency in the neighborhood.
"This Oinoi wonders what kind of place this is…!"
Oinoi seemed genuinely curious about what a licensed real estate office actually did. Before long, a middle-aged woman who looked to be the owner came out with a glass of orange juice and offered it to her.
"So, you're looking for a place around here?"
"Ahh…! This 'orange juice'…! It is enormously delicious…! Truly, this is a nymph-friendly establishment that serves juice to its guests…!"
As far as Oinoi was concerned, the real estate office had apparently become an orange juice vending machine. I gave her a quick explanation.
"This is a place where people buy and sell land."
"Buying and selling land…? Oinoi is curious what that could possibly mean…! To think of land being bought and sold…! Land has only one true owner—the great Mother of the Earth herself…!"
Leaving Oinoi to her cheerful chatter, I turned to the owner with my question.
"Do you think I could find a place with a yard? Ideally with a pond nearby and some open ground to spare. It doesn't have to be downtown—even a bit out on the edge of town would be fine."
"I do know of a few listings like that. How much were you planning to spend?"
At the owner's kind question, I answered with complete earnestness: "Ten million won."
The owner's expression, calm only a moment before, flickered with a trace of bewilderment.
"Ten million won… for a house with a pond and open ground? Hmm."
The mood turned delicate in more ways than one. Then Oinoi rummaged through her pocket and produced a five-hundred-won coin—judging by the look of it, something she'd fished out from under my bed or off my floor.
"This Oinoi has money as well…! She wonders how much land this large, glittering coin might purchase…!"
Was there any land in the world a five-hundred-won coin could buy? As I pondered that, Oinoi let out a satisfied muhuhu.
"If this Oinoi comes to own that land…! She shall summon her nymph sisters in great number and raise a highly nymph-friendly tent there, singing songs as is proper…!"
Anyway.
While Oinoi chattered on, the owner—who had the kindly face of a well-meaning auntie—looked at her and asked,
"Who's this little one? Your younger sister?"
"This is Oinoi. She's a nymph. You know elves, right? She's from a similar race…."
"This Oinoi is a far more ancient and legitimate race than those long-eared fairy-folk called elves…! Elves are merely an invasive species—nothing alike…!"
I quickly ran through the whole story for the owner, from how Oinoi and I had met to why we were hunting for a new house. When I finished, she looked deeply moved.
"Goodness. To think there's still such a hardworking young man in the world. My sons could stand to take a page from your book. Now—young man, was it Ha Ildo? Have you received the Drifter Care Subsidy?"
"The what?"
"It's a government subsidy for households that take in dimensional drifters. For housing, you can receive around ten million won—and you can take out a low-interest loan on top of that. Young man, benefits you don't go looking for are money down the drain."
There was a thing like that?
The laws kept changing so fast these days that I hadn't kept up. The auntie added,
"In that case, if we set your budget at around twenty million won including the loan, that opens up a few more options. Let's assume you'll take the loan and look a little above that range too."
She opened a tablet PC and showed me photos.
"Even so, young man, you'll have to give up a few of your wish-list items even with the loan factored in. These are all listings from the farming villages nearby."
The houses in the photos were mostly old and abandoned.
Rural areas gutted by the low birth rate and the relentless pull of the capital's urbanization. Almost every listing seemed to come from those hollowed-out villages—homes whose owners had grown old and passed away, then sat unsold for years, the price dropping lower and lower. Every last one was dilapidated, none of them looking fit to live in.
"Want to see them in person? I can drive you. Seeing a place with your own eyes beats any photo."
Truly a kind owner, this one. No wonder the office's rating was so high—and no wonder Oinoi didn't regard her with any wariness.
And so I spent the whole morning and afternoon riding around the backwoods countryside in the owner's car. The conclusion I reached was simple and brutal: the ten million won I'd scraped together with such devotion was a laughably small sum.
I'd saved every won of it so carefully—and it couldn't even buy a house!
"This Oinoi…! Truthfully, she can do without a pond…! As long as cold water comes out of the bathroom faucet, she is content…!"
Even Oinoi, whose grasp of money was loose at best, seemed to have faintly sensed how little I had to work with.
"Ahh…! In truth, even a house where the bathroom faucet gives no cold water would be fine…! Even with warm water only, this Oinoi is better off than she was rooting through trash cans in the alleys…!"
Well, sure—compared to life on the street, what wouldn't be an upgrade?
Still, it seemed right to call the house hunt off for today. Better to spend a few more months in my cramped one-room, clear a C-rank rift, earn some money, and try again—wasn't that the sensible path?
But keeping two animals in a space that tight while also caring for a nymph was, I was certain, something that looked flat-out wrong to any outside observer.
━You're keeping a whole new species—a nymph—in a place that cramped and narrow? That's nymph-phobic! Strip that man of his guardian status!
Who was to say people wouldn't rise up in outrage and cart Oinoi off to some sprawling, glamorous mansion like Seo Yerim's? Of course, that arrangement might genuinely suit Oinoi better….
Just as my worries were deepening from every angle—
"Young man, there is one last house left. Want to take a look at it? Though I can't say I'd recommend it… There's no pond, but there is a well in the yard…."
The owner, who had patiently guided us all day, spoke in a voice that was measured yet faintly troubled.
One last house.
For something the auntie had introduced in such a hesitant voice, it was a perfectly respectable two-story house.
The yard was generous, and it wasn't terribly far from downtown. The abandoned well sitting in the yard was undeniably creepy, but Oinoi loved it.
"A well…! This is a nymph-friendly place…! This Oinoi has surveyed many locations, and of all the places she has seen today, she likes this one best…!"
The well looked as though it had run dry long ago, but that didn't stop Oinoi from bouncing up and down in delight.
Leaving her to it, I surveyed the overgrown brush in the yard. The property was clearly maintained, but it had been abandoned long enough that cobwebs clung everywhere and weeds pushed up in wild tangles. Two rooms and an attached bathroom—and the interior needed work from every angle.
And yet, of everything we'd seen today, it was the best by far.
"This place was listed at 120 million won back in the day. It hasn't sold in ten years, so the price just keeps coming down. Even when it does sell, the owners move right back out. They say a ghost appears. Everyone who's lived here has had something bad happen…."
A ghost?
Did such a thing even exist?
Well—this was a world with nymphs and elves in it. It wasn't as if ghosts were somehow prohibited….
But still. Terrifying. A haunted house!
"Young man, honestly, I didn't want to introduce you to this place. Quite a few people have gotten hurt here already. A shaman we brought in to perform a cleansing fainted on the spot…. All things considered, it's better not to buy this house…."
I could feel the sincerity behind the licensed agent's words. This woman was, by any measure, a professional when it came to houses and land. If she said no, then no it was.
The problem was that Oinoi was having the time of her life.
"Oinoi wishes to show this house to Keongkeongi and Angangi at once…! There is so much soil, and so many trees, and the brush grows lush and green—truly, this is a friendly place for the dog-squirrel and the emperor ant alike…!"
So—whose instinct should I trust?
The veteran agent's—or the nymph's?
The deliberation, of course, didn't last long.
"Excuse me, ma'am—would it be alright, if it's no trouble, for me to stay here for just one day?"
I decided to trust my own judgment.
One night in this so-called haunted house. I would see for myself what it had to say for itself!