In the end, Ye Chui finally bought this manor from the Skeleton Walker Magic Guild in a friendly manner for fifteen thousand gold coins, making this place the headquarters and main base of the Name’s Whatever Magic Guild from then on.
The manor covered an area of at least ten thousand square metres. Its overall shape was a square, with walls built on all four sides and a tower standing tall at each of the four corners. Inside the castle, there was a prosperous garden with emerald green lawns spread across it, dotted with various precious flowers, plants, and trees.
On one side of the manor gate, there was a large stable built, as well as servants’ quarters. Following the garden pathway forward, one would see a tall castle. Of course, it could not compare to the grandeur of the Red Keep, but it was already a very stately building. It had three floors in total, plus a basement level, with an unknown number of rooms. The outer walls were covered in some green and red vine plants, giving it an air of aged and antique elegance that was both ancient and serenely refined.
Behind the castle was a small woodland, where the ground was littered with old and broken tombstones. There grew “black crow trees” with black-grey surfaces emerging on their exteriors and terrifying appearances. This was a type of tree that black crows loved to perch on, and they were also called undead trees. People often said that wherever black crow trees grew, undead spirits would wander endlessly during the day. In this woodland behind the castle, one could often see undead spirits wandering about continuously, which made the place seem especially terrifying.
This place had also been specially built by Reyes back then, precisely for practising his own necromancy magic. However, although Ye Chui could now cast necromancy magic himself, he still felt some aversion towards this terrifying small woodland behind the castle. He planned to clear it out completely and then, hmm, how about transforming it into a large swimming pool? With the height of summer approaching, the existence of a swimming pool would simply be too delightful…
When the members of the Skeleton Walker Magic Guild moved away from here, they took most of their things with them. Those things were originally something Ye Chui had planned to throw away and redecorate anyway. They had originally prepared thirty thousand gold coins to purchase the guild base, but after arriving in the imperial capital, the thirty thousand gold coins had turned into over three hundred thousand (the four hundred thousand in gambling debts recovered, and eight hundred thousand in principal and interest returned to Prince Gale). So, naturally, they would not skimp on the redecoration of the castle.
Ye Chui hired over a hundred people to participate in the major renovation of the castle. This room was too dim, so tear down that wall for me and replace it with huge floor-to-ceiling windows. What? Glass is very expensive? Do I look like someone short of money? Install the most expensive glass throughout the entire castle, along with the finest carpets, curtains, dining tables and furniture, fireplaces, kitchen utensils, various silver tableware…
The study could not be skimped on either. Get me a dozen of the best rosewood bookshelves, and buy a set of every kind of book, whether useful or not. How could I live up to my title as an all-round archmage without a luxurious study, even if I might not end up using it much.
The toilets were the ones that absolutely could not be skimped on. The toilets and bathtubs had to be the very finest, making even using the toilet feel like sitting on the imperial throne in supreme comfort, and taking a bath had to carry the risk of drowning in sheer luxurious splendour…
What, all these renovations only cost two thousand gold coins? Bloody hell, how can that be enough! Artworks, sculptures, oil paintings, buy as many as there are. Hang them one by one along the corridors, and do not spare the basement either. Even if no one looks at them on a normal day, they must be sufficiently stately…
In short, one sentence: to let you know what true nouveau riche splendour looks like!
By the third day, when Ye Chui and the Name’s Whatever Magic Guild had become almost known to everyone in the imperial capital, the manor had completed its initial redecoration, though a large group of craftsmen were still working. Ye Chui, Green, Debbie, and the others were on site, directing everyone to tidy the garden and repave the stone paths in the garden.
At this moment, Ye Chui heard someone shouting loudly: “Hey, be careful, this sculpture is a priceless work of art. If you bump it even a little, it will lose its value…” This voice was all too familiar; it was none other than Denny’s.
Following the sound, Ye Chui saw a flatbed cart pulled by two horses driving into the manor. On the flatbed cart was a huge object covered in leather, and Denny was standing smugly on top of it, directing the servants to pull the cart carefully.
The cart finally stopped in front of Ye Chui.
“Denny, what have you got there?” Ye Chui asked in surprise, looking up.
“This is a good thing…” Denny slid down from that huge object and pulled away the leather covering it. “This is a timeless treasure from Master Kandinsky. My father specially asked me to bring it to you; it is a gift from our family to yours!”
“Master Kandinsky?” Debbie, Green, Raisa, Guni, and Xilaisi all gathered around curiously. Their expressions were somewhat puzzled, clearly not recognising the name of Kandinsky.
And when they looked at that so-called timeless treasure, they showed even more puzzled expressions: it looked like just a twisted, utterly irregular stone statue, impossible to tell what it actually was, and unable to discern what the statue was meant to express at all. This made Debbie even more puzzled: “What exactly is this statue? Master Kandinsky, I have never heard of this name before.”
“Sister Debbie (following Ye Chui’s suggestion, she no longer called Debbie grandma now…) it is normal that you have not heard of him.” Denny immediately said with a smile. “Master Kandinsky only rose to fame thirty years ago. His works were once incredibly popular in the imperial capital, with every piece causing a sensation and sparking frenzied bidding at auction houses. This stone sculpture named ‘War’ was also auctioned by my grandfather back then for three thousand gold coins. Let me tell you, in the imperial capital, owning a work by Master Kandinsky is something truly worth boasting about.”
Because that Master Kandinsky had been all the rage in the imperial capital, Green, Xilaisi, and the others had not heard of this name, but Raisa showed a puzzled expression: “I seem to have come across this name in some book. This Master Kandinsky seems like…”
“Ah haha, he is famous anyway, Miss Raisa, you do not need to think too much about it.” But Denny hurriedly changed the subject, and then she directed those few servants. “You lot, quickly and carefully lower the statue and place it right here at the main gate, so that everyone entering the guild can admire this great stone sculpture work…”
Ye Chui frowned and turned his head to look at Raisa.
Raisa shook her head in confusion: “I just vaguely remember that name; it was in a book on art history. But since the name is recorded in an art history book, he must indeed be a master.”
“Well then…”
Although Ye Chui could not appreciate this kind of abstract art at all, art was art, and the more incomprehensible it was, the more profound it seemed. He thought this statue looked reliable enough.
Just as he was standing in front of that War sculpture, preparing to appreciate it properly, a scream suddenly came from inside the villa. Then, several craftsmen came running out in a hurry.
“Ghosts, ghosts have appeared again…”
“This job cannot be done anymore; every few days we run into undead…”
Hearing these craftsmen roaring, Ye Chui quickly asked Raisa and Green to go and calm down the panicked craftsmen, while he and Debbie hurriedly rushed into the castle.
Back then, when Ye Chui had used the Necromantic Prelude, this BGM had awakened who knew how many undead. After the BGM stopped, some undead chose to continue sleeping, but others were not so easy to deal with. They began wandering continuously inside the castle, causing who knew how many delays to Ye Chui’s castle renovations these past few days.
Ye Chui and Debbie arrived at the corridor where those few craftsmen were now working. They were reinstalling the doors and windows of one of the castle’s corridors, and now in this corridor, a white-grey figure of an old woman dressed in a maid’s outfit was holding a broom and sweeping back and forth at the scraps of wood shavings left on the floor by the craftsmen. As she swept the shavings, she muttered to herself: “The castle must always be kept clean… There cannot be a speck of debris on the floor…”
“It’s her again!” Seeing this old woman undead, Debbie immediately said with a headache.
Most undead could be purified by Ye Chui or Raisa, but a few undead were not so easy to deal with. No matter how they were purified, they would reappear in the castle sooner or later. Most undead could not speak either, but this undead obsessed with sweeping, doing housework, and cooking could make sounds. Of course, she could not have any direct communication with Ye Chui and the others; she would just keep muttering to herself and doing the cleaning work.
After the castle’s first-floor kitchen had been remodelled, at mealtime, she would even automatically float into the kitchen and start cooking…
A proper undead head housekeeper indeed! And free too… just a bit creepy.
“I will purify her.” Ye Chui said with a bit of a headache, summoning his spellbook and preparing to play some graveyard disco.
But Debbie hurriedly stopped him: “Wait a moment, you are not going to release that music again, are you? Better not; it gives me a headache.”
These past few days, to deal with the undead wandering in the castle, Ye Chui had played divine music every few days. Extreme Bliss Pure Land sounded very pleasant at first, but hearing it too much… it really became unbearable, a true plague in the world of brainwashing divine tunes. Debbie then took out her summoning key: “Let me handle her instead.”
The summoning gate opened, and what Debbie summoned was the long-unseen Road Paver. Road Paver’s round eyes warily scanned the surroundings, and when it saw Debbie smiling as she picked it up, it let out a comfortable meow: “Meow…” Then Debbie grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and threw it straight out, turning its cry into: “Meow your arse…”
The blue fat cat landed on the corridor, and just as it was about to angrily run back, it looked up and saw the undead head housekeeper lowering her head, angrily scrutinising it: “The castle must always be kept clean… There cannot be a speck of debris…” Then she swung the broom towards Road Paver.
Road Paver let out a sharp “meow” and turned to run.
The undead head housekeeper swung her broom and chased right after it.
In the blink of an eye, the undead head housekeeper had chased Road Paver out of the corridor.
Debbie nodded smugly: that was exactly the effect she wanted.
Ye Chui: “…”
