Champs-Élysées Avenue No. 58 and the Cat and Clover Cafe

Champs-Élysées Avenue has a roadway wide enough for sixteen rows of carriages side-by-side, with pedestrian paths over five picometers wide on either side. From any angle, one can see the magnificent Gate of Radiance.

The Gate of Radiance is right in the center of Champs-Élysées Avenue; it is a divine miracle bestowed upon Strasbourg by the Lord of Radiance, one of the Nine Great Righteous Gods.

It is a square building with four arched entrances opening in four directions.

The Gate of Radiance has a very famous divine miracle: anyone entering will randomly exit from one of the four gates, rather than the direction they were heading.

It is said that this direction indicates the pedestrian's best fortune for that day.

Besides the unmissable Gate of Radiance, shops line both sides of Champs-Élysées Avenue. A very small number of these shops are decorated with outrageously expensive crystal glass, manufactured using high-level Alchemy, displaying their luxurious goods to every pedestrian.

Other than this avenue, there is no other place in the Empire as bustling and lively.

Anne Brittany smiled lightly and said, "To number 58!"

The carriage rumbled along Champs-Élysées Avenue for a short distance before quickly turning into a small alley.

Calling it a small alley isn't quite accurate, as it's wide enough for two carriages to pass side-by-side.

The alley isn't deep. The carriage reached the end, where there was a detached three-story building. In front of it was a small square that could fit five or six carriages. The front had an entrance door with a few steps leading up to it, and the side had a battlement gate wide enough for carriages to pass through, making it look very imposing.

Anne got out of the carriage, and Charlotte could only follow.

He watched as Anne pressed her hand, and the main door of the building automatically opened. He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Charlotte knew this was a low-level Alchemy technique called Lock-Opening Technique.

He really hadn't expected a noble lady like Anne Brittany to be proficient in such a spell.

Thinking back to the mechanical beetle that tracked Mr. Yang Mills, Charlotte gained a completely new understanding of Miss Anne Brittany.

Anne pushed open the main door and walked in. She smiled slightly at Charlotte and introduced the place to him as he followed her into the room: "This residence is a recent inheritance of a distant relative of mine. He dislikes the strong commercial atmosphere here, finding the environment too noisy and not peaceful enough, so he's always wanted to sell it."

"As you know, shops on Champs-Élysées Avenue are always in high demand, but residences are often ignored, so his asking price isn't high."

"My relative's quoted price is two hundred Ecu, but I know he's in urgent need of money recently, so he'd accept one hundred and fifty Ecu."

Charlotte thought to himself: My entire net worth is only eighty Ecu. Is this also a price I can afford? Does Miss Anne have some misunderstanding about my financial situation, or is she insensitive to monetary figures?

Anne seemed to know what Charlotte was thinking. She raised her beautiful eyebrows and said, "He accepts installment payments. You only need a down payment of fifty Ecu to move in."

"I can even convince the other party to waive the interest on the installments."

Charlotte followed Anne on a tour of the first floor and immediately fell in love with the house.

Its first floor had a very large ballroom. Perhaps in the eyes of nobles, this ballroom would be considered modest, as it could only host a small ball of no more than fifty people at most. But in the eyes of Charlotte, who had transmigrated from Earth, this ballroom was ridiculously large. It was an open space, three to four hundred square meters, slightly smaller than a standard basketball court but big enough for a half-court game.

This wasn't all of the first floor. It also had a reception room, a dining room, and two studies. To the side of the dining room, there was a clearly visible staircase leading to the basement. According to the customs of the Empire of Fars, the basement must contain a kitchen and storage rooms.

As for the staircase leading upstairs, it was on one side of the ballroom, completely separate from the staircase leading to the basement.

Charlotte mused: Such a large house would never cost two or three million on Earth, not even in the countryside.

Moreover, it allows for installment payments with no interest. The seller is practically the biggest philanthropist I've met since transmigrating.

But where am I going to get the remaining seventy Ecu?

With my salary as a Grade 37 civil servant, six Foer and fifteen Centime per week, how long will it take to pay it back?

Charlotte spent a few seconds calculating the numbers and was suddenly stunned.

He could pay off the house debt with his civil servant salary in less than three years!

This time was more than ten times shorter than the mortgage terms he had instantly thought of on Earth.

Charlotte couldn't help but sigh to himself: Transmigrators are indeed protagonists!

Praise the Righteous Gods.

And praise Miss Anne.

Charlotte suppressed his surging emotions and said, "My weekly salary is only about six Foer. Can the other party accept a long payment period of several years?"

Anne Brittany chuckled, saying, "Of course, there's no problem. Anyone who can pay off their housing debt within ten years can be considered a high-quality buyer."

"However..."

"Mr. Mecklen is already a Grade 37 civil servant? You don't seem to have graduated long ago?"

Charlotte smiled slightly and said, "Two years since graduation."

Anne Brittany gasped, her eyes sparkling, and a blush appearing on her cheeks, increasing her favorable impression of him.

A young talent who could rise to Grade 37 civil servant two years after graduation was clearly more charismatic than ordinary civil servants who were stuck at the first-level clerk position, waiting for the promotion opportunity that came only once every three years.

This residence was quite "ancient." Having weathered wind and rain, it still appeared very sturdy. In the Empire of Fars, centuries-old buildings are everywhere. Old houses, far from decreasing in value, become a selling point to be talked about due to their long history.

Charlotte didn't bother looking at the second and third floors. After settling some details with Anne, he took ten fifty-Foer banknotes from the money he'd gotten from selling the Multi-Headed Flail and handed them to the young woman.

Anne called the coachman in and gave him instructions. The coachman drove away.

Although the residence was occasionally cleaned, a thin layer of dust had accumulated, making it unsuitable for a long stay.

Charlotte very绅士地 invited her to have coffee nearby.

Anne readily agreed.

There was certainly no shortage of tasteful cafes on Champs-Élysées Avenue. Although few nobles frequented them, the Empire's writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and even orators particularly loved these cafes. Many cafes even preserved the famous works and stories of these figures.

Charlotte took Anne and didn't go far. He found a cafe called the Cat and Clover Cafe a few dozen meters away from number 58.

Many things in this world were similar to Earth, such as the presence of felines. However, the domestic cats in this world didn't have the diverse breeds found on Earth, nor had they been bred into various attractive colors.