Chapter 34: House Auction

A breeze infused with forest magic swept through the Magic Forest, and colorful flowers occasionally sprouted from the green grass—some blooming in large patches, others blooming singly, showing a vibrant spring.

William and Bulande, together with John and a few others, finished today's training, then shouldered the harvested herbs and their own weapons and headed for Bigen Village.

"William, what tasty food is your family making today?" Bulande asked.

Half a year had passed since the goblin attack on Bigen Village, and the village had returned to its former tranquility. Although only John and Xiao Lin among the children intended to become adventurers, everyone knew William and Bulande's stay in Bigen Village was short, so they cherished this friendship and kept up the daily training they had promised William.

William thought for a moment and said, "I don't know what Mom will make today, but there should be cake."

"Cake? Right, today's your birthday, William—I'd forgotten." Bulande scratched his head, "I don't have time to prepare a gift, so I can only wish you a happy birthday—happy birthday, William!"

Hearing this, John and the others also chimed in with congratulations: "Oh, today is Big Brother William's birthday—happy birthday, Big Brother William!"

"Happy birthday, Big Brother William!"

William smiled, "No gifts needed—I'm already happy with this."

After returning to the village, they each said goodbye and went home one by one; William's house, being in the southwest corner, was the last to be reached.

As he approached the intersection not far from his home's gate, he suddenly saw many villagers gathered in the direction of his house. Curious, William went forward and saw a wooden sign planted before his door that read "For Sale," with his father David standing on a wooden platform before the crowd, swinging a wooden hammer and shouting:

"Mrs. Merlin bids five hundred copper coins! Is anyone bidding higher?"

"All right, that gentleman bids six hundred copper coins!"

Villagers gathered before his house kept raising their hands to bid, and after each bid Father David would ask from the platform whether anyone had a higher offer.

In this world, human currency consists of copper, silver, and gold coins; since all are precious metals, they circulate universally across nations, though each country stamps different patterns.

One thousand copper coins exchange for one silver coin, and one thousand silver coins exchange for one gold coin.

Finally, the bidding for William's house stopped when the price reached thirteen hundred copper coins—or 1.3 silver coins.

"Thirteen hundred copper coins, once!"

"Thirteen hundred copper coins, twice!"

"Thirteen hundred copper coins, three times!"

"Sold! Congratulations to Mrs. Old Buxi on buying the house—please pay here." David brought down the gavel, pleased with the auction price.

According to market value, their house was worth at most a thousand copper coins, but eight years ago Bigen Village suffered a goblin attack; aside from the southwest houses, the rest were more or less damaged, leading villagers to favor the southwest homes subjectively, which drove the price up to thirteen hundred copper coins.

David slowly received a bag of coins from Mrs. Old Buxi's hand, handed over the house deed, and was happily counting the money when William suddenly came up and shouted loudly, "Dad, what are you doing?"

William's voice startled him; seeing that the shouter was his own son, David felt a bit guilty and said, "Isn't it obvious? I sold our house."

"Exactly, that's what I mean—why sell a perfectly good house? Didn't you say you've lived here since you were little?" William asked, bewildered.

David scratched his head and explained, "Well, the last time I went with Helena to Wangdu Bujiadis to buy a house, Mom took a liking to a slightly larger one, so the money ran out. As Dad, I also need to earn money for your tuition at Bujiadis, so…"

"So you sold the house?"

David nodded.

"Gee, if you didn't have that much money last time, you shouldn't have donated all the goblin bounty rewarded by the Adventurers' Guild!" William thought, exasperated, "No wonder Dad promised Mom, patting his chest, that she could pick any house she liked in Wangdu—turns out he hadn't set aside a single coin."

"Here." David handed over the money bag, but William didn't take it.

"No thanks, Dad—keep it for yourself. I'll figure out how to become a scholarship student at Bujiadis Academy, so you won't have to worry about the fees."

There are two ways to become a scholarship student at Bujiadis Academy: either you excel and come from a poor family, or the academy, for humanitarian reasons, takes in orphans affected by disaster. In his previous life, William entered Bujiadis Academy through the second method.

David grabbed William's hand and shoved the money bag into it, saying, "Dad, I'm really happy to have such an ambitious son, but as a father I always want to give something to my son—I can't let you figure everything out on your own."

William felt warm inside; in his past life, after his parents were killed by goblins, the only people who had been kind to him were Bujiadis Academy's mentor Richard Harris and his wife Alice Lusterra. He also understood his father's feeling of owing those around him, so he accepted the money bag without further protest.

William asked, "Dad, the house is sold—where will we live?"

"Mom Helena already bought a house in Wangdu Bujiadis and moved in, so we don't need to worry about that."

David patted his chest and said, "Don't worry about that—I'm about to set off on an adventure with Geilan and the others. As for you, William, it looks like you still have a few days before registering at Bujiadis Academy, so you can stay at Bulande's place for now; I've already talked with Old Bulande about it."

"As for tuition, if you become a scholarship student, just treat it as pocket money from Dad—you can allocate it yourself!"

Thus, sitting before Bulande, William recounted how his father had sold the family house on his birthday and how he had come specially to complain about it.

Bulande, hearing this, was somewhat astonished and exclaimed, "There are still such unreliable fathers in the world!"

"That's nothing to be proud of, is it?" William complained.

Bulande patted William's shoulder and said, "It's only a few days until we set off to register at Bujiadis Academy—you can share a room with me these days; I'd be happy to have you at my place, and I can also give you some magic pointers."

William nodded; he was still impressed by Bulande's heroic talent and his aptitude for magic, and if nothing unexpected happened, Bulande's future would be limitless.

As they talked, Old Bulande came out of the kitchen carrying a cake and said, "Kids, hurry up and wash your hands—dinner's ready!"

"Huh? Cake?" Bulande pointed at the cake and asked, "Dad, how did you know today is William's birthday?"

Old Bulande laughed, "Ah, David told me—he also bought the cake ahead of time and left it at our place."

Bulande looked at William and said, "William, I suddenly feel your father isn't so unreliable after all."

"That's not exactly a bad thing, huh…" William weakly complained.