SWDnovel Chapter 53 Something's Wrong
Chapter 53 Something's Wrong
Although Zag had a strange feeling that something was off, the house was impeccable except for being a little dilapidated. So he signed the contract with some trepidation, paid 28 shillings for the first four weeks, and then sent "Holy Father" Peter away.
"Snowball, are you sure signing a contract won't make Meretra notice me, right?"
Unable to pinpoint what was wrong, Zag asked Snowball in a low voice, somewhat uneasy, and quickly glanced at Mrs. Marsh, who was humming a song while cleaning, to make sure she hadn't noticed that he was talking to Snowball.
"Of course! You're just a stupid dragon! And such a weak one at that! Where would the Nine Holy Spirits find the time to keep an eye on you every day!"
Snowball meowed and gestured wildly, trying to sound familiar.
"I can't fly, I'm just a dragonborn."
Zag selectively ignored Snowball's complaints, casually retorted, and then started tidying up the house with Mrs. Marsh.
Strictly speaking, this house, excluding the attic, actually has six rooms including the bathroom: four on the first floor and two on the second floor.
Of the four rooms on the first floor, only one is a bedroom. The other three, besides the bathroom, consist of a living room and a kitchen.
This doesn't quite fit the normal room layout habits of the people in the eastern border region. Usually, there are no bedrooms on the first floor, and people like to clearly separate the rest area from the daily activity area.
But the house itself has too many oddities, such as the fact that there is a water tap installed in the garden, and that there are two bathrooms in a house with only two bedrooms... So it is not worth paying too much attention to such trivial things as arranging a bedroom on the first floor.
The living room was small, even cramped, and more like a study than a living room. It contained a massive golden oak bookcase, the only sturdy piece of furniture in the house—it looked excessively refined and out of place.
The carvings on the bookcase are grapevines and ears of wheat, typical of the Merethla faith style, and the golden oak still gleams with a golden-brown sheen after the passage of time.
The carvings are exquisite, and the grapes on the vines are so plump that they look as if they are growing out of the cabinet surface.
And for some reason, after staring at it for a while, Zag felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
Like eggs huddled together.
Zag glanced at it a few times before quickly looking away, trying to observe the bookcase as a whole.
The classic 4:6 split structure features two rows of open bookshelves with a curved, stained-glass double-door cabinet in the middle. Between the two stained-glass doors, there is also a fixed stained-glass panel, giving the entire bookcase a symmetrical structure. Both the design and the craftsmanship suggest that it is not a cheap product.
Below the stained glass doors is a square golden oak cabinet. The cabinet surface is not overly decorated, but the brass handles are cast in the shape of wheat ears, giving it a unique look.
After observing for a while, the discomfort gradually disappeared.
Perhaps it's because I'm in an unfamiliar environment and haven't adapted yet.
Zag consoled himself and shifted his gaze to the bookshelf.
A few scraps of paper and stacks of old newspapers were scattered among them. He went closer and flipped through them, discovering that the earliest of these newspapers was over ten years old, and the latest was from April of last year, which did indeed match Peter's statement about the house being vacant for a period of time, but...
Only now did Zag finally realize what had been bothering him ever since he bought the house.
This house is so dilapidated.
Neither the dust that filled the house nor the dilapidated walls made it look like a house that had only been vacant for a year.
It must have been at least a decade or more to have fallen into such a state of disrepair!
For a moment, Zag couldn't help but think about the occult again—
Surely Brother Peter's cousin isn't a normal person?
Or was her deceased mother not a normal person?
Looks like I'll have to ask Xueqiu later if there's anything wrong with this place. Something's really not right. I hope the rent I just paid isn't a waste.
Suppressing his chaotic thoughts, Zag continued to observe the entire reception room.
However, apart from the bookshelf, there was nothing else worth keeping in the entire living room.
Most of the chair was falling apart, and there were suspicious black stains on the cushions. The fabric of the cushions had been torn by some animal, revealing the yellowish cotton inside, making them clearly unusable.
The table next to the chair was teetering on the brink of collapse, seemingly at its limit just bearing the weight of two contracts.
The curtains were mostly intact, but there was a large burnt hole at the bottom, probably because the original owner was always struggling financially and didn't replace them.
There should have been a desk near the large window, as Zag could clearly see the marks left by the table legs being moved. But now the place was empty, with only half a bottle of ink that had long since dried up and a few quill pens covered in thick dust lying on the ground.
There were six cushioned chairs with backrests. Zag picked one up at random and tried it out. He found that the weight was okay, so he slowly moved them all to the garden. He planned to move all the clutter out of the house first, and then find someone to clean up the trash later.
Not long after cleaning up the clutter and trash in the living room, Zag turned and went to the kitchen.
It's called a kitchen, but it's actually a large room connected to the dining room, about the size of two living rooms.
Among them, the south-facing wall next to the door leading to the backyard is the fireplace and stove that provides warmth for the whole house—in fact, it cannot be called a stove. Like in another world of Europe, before the advent of gas stoves in the modern sense, a fireplace that is large enough is a "stove".
All the pots and pans were hung on the fire; this was the only cooking method besides direct roasting.
Of course, nobles would build an extra oven in their kitchens to enrich their meals, and they wouldn't have to buy bread from outside—hundreds of years ago, private individuals were not allowed to bake bread; if they wanted to eat bread, they either had to buy it ready-made or pay a usage fee to use the communal oven managed by the lord.
Even now, ordinary people don't have enough spare money to build extra ovens; the cost is too high, the utilization rate is too low, and it's not cost-effective.
The house that Zag rented, although the kitchen was not small, only had a fireplace that could hold a grill and cookware.
Further north of the fireplace was a long dining table—the kind with broken legs, looking no different from a pile of scrap wood.
The northernmost spot, right next to the large window facing the street, is furnished with a long sofa, making this area look like a real "reception" room. In addition to the long sofa, there are two single booths that look very similar to modern sofa sets.
However, this long sofa may also be where the homeowner used to lie down and read, because Zag found a newspaper that had been left behind on the floor in front of the sofa, dated April 19th of last year.
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[Snowball's Science Corner]: Meretra is often regarded as the goddess of harvest, so grapes and vines, ears of wheat, goats, and other things associated with harvest are used by Meretra's monks to decorate temples or blessed objects, or even furniture.
"So that disgusting bookcase might actually be a piece of furniture blessed by Meredra. I suggest you go to the flea market and sell it right away; you can get a good amount of money!"