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That house was on the opposite side of the city from her home. It was in the darkest corner of the city. Only one corner of the house had light rest of it was in constant shadow. That corner of the city was literally cut off by one of the walls from the rest of the city and could be handled as its own part. The house was just two floors and the attic apartment. In bas.e.m.e.nt lived the owner and rented the rest of the house to the tenants.
The soldiers checked the houses in the streets and only the five that had tenants with loan history with the man. It was strange. How is it even possible. The tenants told them that one after another family left after they couldn"t handle the filth and stench coming from the ground. If they didn"t have taken the loan with him they would have left as well.
Kendra looked at them as the officers inquired the information. ""Lately did something strange happened? Something so strange that the previous owner turned like that. Do you have any information.""
One of the women first shook her head but then nodded.""I remember something strange happened one night. I don"t know if that has anything to do with this case. But the last tenants left in the evening like all of them did. They were called in the house by the owner and I didn"t see them coming out. I actually felt hot that day and slept outside. But the next day was a market day so I left to buy food. They maybe slept in that house and left in the early morning. But that house is even worse than stench from earth...so I felt its kind of strange.""
Kendra watched movies and read lots of novels as a pa.s.s time in her last life. A horrible taught went through her head and she started shaking. Xara saw her change of expression and fear on her face and had a bad premonition. "" Kendra, speak."" she knew she should not use too many words as Kendra was already pale and weak.
Kendra looked at the people with a weak smile.""I am the new owner of this place. He is gone, so your loan is now clear and nullified. Do you have a place to go? We will help you move today. This place needs to be cleaned before everything. I will pay you each house as per city price. Twenty silver each household. spoke came forward happily.""Thank you so much. Most of us owned the couple houses more but because f the ma and his actions we lost our tenants and started owning him more and more. We will indeed sell everything here to you.""
The others agreed as well so one off the officers came to buy and wrote contracts fast as she quickly paid off rest of the houses and those people just took basic things with them and left in hurry. It seems they just wanted to leave this place and never come back.
After the last person left she went into the house that was somewhat clean and asked officers to call those two families out. Chial and Niram were at home and heard commotion but in this part of town is better not to go out in that case. However, when the officers came and called them all out they got scared.
But when they went down and saw Kendra they sighed in relief.""Kendra. How comes..."" Just then they saw a few dozen of soldiers wearing grand armor sitting on horses and looking scary. That frightened them and they looked at Kendra questioningly.
""Don"t worry. I bought the house and the Lord here."" she pointed at Xara and the Lord,"" is fearing rats and other creatures infestation. So we need to destroy the house. But don"t worry. I will provide you with a new house today. Please pack your belongings. Few of these soldiers will help you pack and will send you to my house. When you get there you will find officer Luar. Stay there just till I am done here. Hurry.""
She looked at the Lord and sighed. ""Earth, stone and fire abilities should get ready. As soon those people leave premises, destroy house to the ground and start digging under it. Fire should be ready if some rats or similar start crawling out. You should one night when everyone sleeps get out with your powers and clean all the sewage from dirt. Literally. Then burn it with the highest power and do that once every ten days.""
The Lord smiled.""Do you think we don"t clean sewage? I am not crazy that sewage is dirty. The powerhouse is exchanging every day. They can enhance their skills if they use their powers somehow. But that with fire, I indeed didn"t think about it. We will do that as well. Fire users are bored anyway.""
She looked at him and exhaled.""Do not let him burn house just sewage system. The houses can catch fire fast especially now in dry season. Be careful please.""
The carriages were ready and they left with uncertain expressions. They were worried but when Chial and Niram saw her with a smile waving at them with confidence they became joyful. Maybe things will be different now.
She turned to Xara.""Now I can tell you... I had while ago some strange dream. And it was fearsome. I hope it"s not true. In the dream, humans became sick and turned into brainless creatures that ate human meat. I know that kind of dream is weird, but I got such taught after that woman said about missing neighbors. I hope that the dream is just illusion...""
""Is that the reason you look like that?"" she asked.
Kendra shook her head."" He has rotten flesh all over the body and bugs and maggots eating his flesh. The foul smell from his body was the last drop. I just felt it disgusting.""
The Lord quietly listened and turned to the soldiers he chooses.""Destroy it.""
""No wait. I asked them indeed to destroy it by one floor at the time. Wall by wall. Maybe there is something in walls and it will escape or spread if we don"t see it. Be careful all the time. Oh, what am I saying, you all were in the war. Take it like you are in the war and you need to find enemies. ""
She turned around and jumped on one of the empty horses. She didn"t want to be on the ground if there are rats around running.
They took apart stone by stone, floor by floor but all they found is some c.o.c.kroaches they fried immediately and some pigeons. Few rats run out the second floors pantry. They died as well. Now the bas.e.m.e.nt and cellar were about to be open, the stench got stronger.
In the apartment of the previous owner was just mess and dirt. On his ""Bed"" was just nest of some strange quilts. Or it seemed so... The soldiers carefully took it apart and found strange bones inside. When they saw it ... they turned white, The bones were gnawed on.
Kendra looked at bones and was relieved. They were just from some animal, not human. They were too big, maybe deer or beef bone.
They took apart everything to the ground and crushed the stones to dust as Kendra told them. Now the cellar was left. They made a huge opening and looked down. What they saw was the strangest thing they saw so far.
Room wide about ten meters and length of at least 35-40 m. Inside room was some sort of tables and next each table was a cauldron and big jars. On walls stood shelves filled with books. Thousands of books. The Lord looked down and was stunned. Not even he had so many books.
They all jumped inside accept Kendra. She had a feeling she knew what is inside those pots and cauldrons. She doesn"t need to get closer. But she was curious about books. So many of them.
Her eyes shone. Xara looked at her little face that was looking greedily at books. She sighed. When she was younger her father always made her read so many things but this kid is willing to do so.
""I will ask them to bring out the books first and then we will check rest. I will leave some guards here for your protection, just in case something nasty comes up,"" she said and jumped inside. She looked at the Lord and pointed at Kendra. He nodded at soldiers and they used their powers to lift the shelves together with books.
Shelf after shelf started appearing in front Kendra. She went to the first shelf and saw the History of Kingdom. It had at least hundreds of parts. She was stunned. The History of the World. The rest were all books about powers from beginning how to learn the use and how to grow powers. She yelped when she saw it. She runs from shelf to shelf and started cheering.
Everyone came fast up and what they saw is a small child jumping up and down from happiness.
""What is it that makes you so happy?"" asked the Lord.
""This is the perfect tool for the school. Its everything about powers. But first, everyone here has to learn it all so you can teach. Maybe trough books you can learn how to become stronger. I know what I am going to do the whole winter. By the way, do you know why I said you need to get that land from that village close to the secret forest?""
He shook his head as he looked with s.h.i.+ny eyes at thousands of books that came up. Xara went up and pinched his face and then shook him.""Hey, wake up!!! Kendra is talking..."" He woke up with a silly smile on his face.""You said...?""
Kendra looked at him then she just shook her head.""Sigh . How do you plan to become head of school and inst.i.tute of powers if you can"t stay focused? That place is perfect. From back is a secret forest with a barrier that is perfect to go and check the powers. Not only that, it is at the end of your fief. Even if someone tries to attack it will need long way till there. You can make a huge castle there. Oh please have some ideas yourself. I am helped you enough, didn"t I ?""
He nodded as he got in deep thoughts. Xara groaned.""Forgive him. He has only a small brain. He can have only one taught at the time. What do you want us to do here after we clean everything?""
""Clean that dirty stuff for me. Find out what made that man turn like that and then grind all the houses in powder. Made six buildings on the light side with small apartments. They should have five floors and the earth in shade I need fruit trees planted and some healing plants instead of gra.s.s. Around trees I need..."" She explained as she took peace of brick and painted what she planned. ""...so this part will belong to me and will be hotel complex. Later when people start coming to your city they will need a place to sleep, but you have no such thing at the moment. Of course, you can but off the land from me and take care of it yourself. I would be happy if I could get lots of gold for it. I really don"t want to be bothered.""
They looked at her with s.h.i.+ny eyes and nodded. They all will have a win from it. Kendra sighed in relief. She really didn"t want to be bothered. She has enough worries with her own two homes if she needs to take care of this. Then she had a smug smile...These two people will have more things to think about ... hehehehehe