Champs-Élysées Avenue had a roadway wide enough for sixteen rows of carriages to travel abreast, with sidewalks over five Pimi wide on either side. From any angle, one could see the magnificent Gate of Radiance.
The Gate of Radiance stood at the very center of Champs-Élysées Avenue. It was a miracle bestowed upon Strasbourg by the Lord of Radiance, one of the Nine Great Righteous Gods.
It was a square structure, with four arched gates opening in the four cardinal directions.
The Gate of Radiance possessed a particularly famous miracle: anyone who entered it would randomly emerge from one of its four gates, rather than in the direction they had been heading.
It was said that the direction indicated the pedestrian's best fortune for that day.
Aside from the impossible-to-ignore Gate of Radiance, shops lined both sides of Champs-Élysées Avenue. A very small number of them featured crystal glass produced through advanced alchemy—so expensive it was outrageous—displaying their luxurious goods to every passerby.
Nowhere else in the Empire possessed such clamor and bustle as this avenue.
Anne Brittany smiled lightly and said, "Number 58!"
The carriage rumbled along Champs-Élysées Avenue for only a short distance before turning into a side street.
Calling it an alley was not quite accurate, because it was wide enough for two carriages to travel side by side.
The street was not deep. At its end stood an independent three-story building, with a small square in front capable of parking five or six carriages. Its front had an entrance door with several steps leading up to it, while its side had a carriage gate. It looked exceedingly imposing.
Anne got down from the carriage, and Charlotte could only follow.
Watching Anne reach out and press her hand against it, causing the building's front door to open automatically, he could not help raising an eyebrow.
Charlotte knew this was a low-level alchemical technique called Lock-Opening Technique.
He truly had not expected a noble young lady like Anne Brittany to have studied such a spell so extensively.
Then he thought of the Mechanical Beetle that had tracked Mr. Yang Mills, and his perception of Miss Anne Brittany changed completely.
Anne pushed open the door and entered. Smiling faintly at Charlotte, she introduced the place to him as he followed her inside. "This residence is an inheritance recently received by one of my distant relatives. He finds the commercial atmosphere here too heavy, the surroundings too noisy, and not peaceful enough. He has always wanted to sell it."
"You know that storefronts on Champs-Élysées Avenue have always been highly sought after, but residences are consistently ignored, so his asking price is not high."
"My relative listed it publicly for two hundred Écu, but I know he urgently needs money lately. He would accept one hundred and fifty Écu."
My entire fortune is only eighty Écu. Is that supposed to be a price I can afford? Does Miss Anne misunderstand my financial circumstances, or is she simply insensitive to the value of money?
Anne seemed to know what Charlotte was thinking. She lifted her lovely eyebrows and said, "He accepts installment payments. You can move in with a down payment of just fifty Écu."
"I can even persuade him to waive the interest on the installments."
Charlotte followed Anne around the first floor once and immediately fell in love with the house.
Its first floor had an enormous ballroom. Perhaps nobles would consider it shabby, since it could host only a small dance of fewer than fifty people. But to Charlotte, who had transmigrated from Earth, the ballroom was absurdly huge. It was completely open, three or four hundred square meters, a little smaller than a standard basketball court, but large enough for a half-court game.
That was not all the first floor contained. It also had a reception room, a dining room, and two studies. Beside the dining room was a staircase that clearly led down to the basement. According to the customs of the Empire of Fars, the basement would certainly contain a kitchen and storerooms.
As for the stairs leading upstairs, they stood on one side of the ballroom, completely separate from the staircase to the basement.
There is no way a house this large could be bought for two or three million on Earth—not even out in the countryside.
What's more, it allows installment payments with no interest. The seller is practically the greatest philanthropist I've encountered since transmigrating.
But where am I going to get the remaining seventy Écu?
With my weekly salary as a thirty-seventh-rank civil servant—six Flor and fifteen Centime—how long would it take to pay it off?
After spending a few seconds calculating it in his head, Charlotte was suddenly stunned.
On a civil servant's salary, he could pay off the house debt in less than roughly three years!
That was more than ten times shorter than the mortgage terms on Earth that had flashed through his mind moments ago.
Charlotte could not help sighing inwardly. Transmigrators really are protagonists!
Praise the righteous gods.
And praise Miss Anne as well.
Suppressing the surge of excitement in his heart, Charlotte said, "My weekly wage is only around six Flor. Would he accept a payment period stretching over several years?"
Anne Brittany let out a soft laugh. "Of course. Anyone who can repay their home-buying debt within ten years can be considered a quality buyer."
"However..."
"Mr. Mecklen, you are already a thirty-seventh-rank civil servant? You do not look as though you graduated long ago."
Charlotte smiled faintly. "Two years ago."
Anne Brittany cried out in surprise, her eyes glistening and her fair cheeks flushing. Her favorable impression of him deepened further.
A talented young man who had risen to the thirty-seventh rank of civil service only two years after graduation was clearly far more personally appealing than an ordinary civil servant who was still grinding away as a First-Class Clerk, waiting for the promotion opportunity that came once every three years.
This residence was rather "ancient." Though weathered by wind and rain, it remained exceedingly sturdy. In the Empire of Fars, centuries-old buildings were everywhere. A house with history would not lose value because of its age; rather, its long past would become a selling point people loved to discuss.
Charlotte did not even look at the second and third floors. After settling some details with Anne, he took out ten fifty-Flor banknotes from the proceeds of selling the Multi-Headed Flail and handed them to the young woman.
Anne called the coachman inside and gave him an instruction. The coachman then drove away.
Although someone came occasionally to clean the residence, a thin layer of dust had still accumulated, making it unsuitable for them to stay long.
Ever the gentleman, Charlotte invited her to have coffee nearby.
Anne gladly agreed.
Champs-Élysées Avenue would never lack tasteful coffeehouses. Although few nobles frequented them, the Empire's writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, and even orators especially loved visiting the cafes here. Many such cafes had even been the settings for famous works and stories by these celebrated figures.
Charlotte did not take Anne far. Just dozens of meters from Number 58, he found a place called the Cat and Clover Cafe.
Many things in this world resembled those on Earth. For example, it also had feline animals. However, domestic cats here did not have nearly as many breeds as those on Earth, nor had they been bred into all manner of beautiful coat patterns.
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