Homesteading in a fantasy world

Compared to the size of the city, there really weren't that many people on the streets. Perhaps it would be different more towards the evening, but I guess this place is more for getting business done and not for leisure.

After looking around a little bit more, there didn’t seem to be any other portals here as well. Perhaps there were secret ones not publicly available, but I didn’t think so as I believe that the security of this place is quite high. That made me wonder where in this world are the cities and towns for the truly powerful people, where they could trade and entertain themselves.

Since I started working on the organization, a picture has slowly started to form in my head. This place only seems to reinforce this. The streets were constructed meticulously. I would guess that the paved stones were so straight that you could slide a piece of wood from one end to the other, and it would never catch the corner of a stone.

The drainage was not consistent, but I’m pretty sure everything was accounted for, and where there were closer drainage holes, it must have been because naturally, there would be more water at those locations if it rained.

You could see the different architecture in almost every city block. It seems that the only way an organization or nation perhaps could buy land here would be to get an entire city block and then hire the best architects and builders they can to show their importance.

The buildings weren't made of gold or anything like that; they were a mix of function and form. That's not to say that they weren't luxurious. There were certainly elements that showcased the wealth put into these buildings.

There was a notable exception to this. Many of the city blocks had buildings that were basically just meant for function. Some I could see were meant for living in, but there were also buildings intended for bureaucratic work.

I stood in front of one of them. The building itself was a weird mix of stone and wood. Basically, all of the structurally relevant parts that held up the building were made of stone; everything else was made from a grey-looking wood.

Pushing the door open and entering the building, I saw a decent-sized reception area with only one receptionist. There were a few guards here, but they looked quite bored. They did look towards me, but only with their eyes. I could sense that they would be ready to defend this place at a moment's notice.

I walked towards the receptionist and spoke in a pleasant voice, "Good day to you. I’m here for my 5:30 appointment, name Rich Dirt."

She looked up towards me for a moment, then flipped through some of her papers. "Good day to you as well, and yes, I can see you here. You are scheduled for an appointment in office 327. You can use the staircase to your right and go to the third floor. You will find the door towards the right side of the building. You will be invited in," she said with a small smile on her face while pointing towards the staircase I was supposed to use.

I thanked her and then headed towards the staircase and climbed to the third floor. The building itself seemed to give me good vibes, and honestly, I wouldn’t be disappointed if I had to work in this place.

There were chairs against the corridor walls, some of them quite large, which I found quite pleasant. Just a normal-sized one wouldn't be able to accommodate my size or the armor I was currently wearing. It wasn't a long wait before the door with the number 327 opened up, and a guard looked towards me and invited me in.

As I walked inside, I saw four other guards, two near the doorway and two flanking the table with three people sitting behind it. On my side of the table, there were a few chairs, but in the center, there was a big chair that seemed perfect for me.

The people were wearing masks and had large robes, making it hard to tell what body type each person had. They seemed to mimic the really powerful people I had seen at my court hearing, except they used magic to hide themselves, and here they used physical objects.

At least against me, this seemed to be working better as a way of hiding people’s identities. I wondered how bad it would be if they knew that I could see through the shadows and actually see the people who looked over my trial.

In front of each of the people were papers and a few other objects, but also a nameplate. The person in the center was named Blue, the one to the right was named Green, and the one to the left was named Yellow.

"Good afternoon, Rich Dirt. Please take a seat, my name is Mr. Yellow." The person who spoke was the person in the middle, and that made me tilt my head a little bit.

"Good afternoon to you all as well," I said while I sat down. "But I think there must be a mistake. I think you mixed up your nameplates because in front of you, it says Blue," I said to the person who introduced himself as Mr. Yellow.

There was a moment of silence before Mr. Yellow picked up the nameplate and looked at it. "So it is. Thank you for pointing out this mistake," Mr. Yellow said while switching the nameplates.

"We're here because you want to start your own high-rank organization. I will be frank with you. A few people used quite a few of their favours to make sure that we went through all the paperwork with a fine comb and, if possible, delayed the making of this organization as much as possible."

I winced mentally, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t able to fully control my facial expression, but it was hard to tell what the people in front of me were able to see. I had expected something like that but had hoped the queen and whoever supported her would go for some more direct measures. Damn it, I might not get the fight I had hoped for. The most puzzling aspect was that they actually told me the truth. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait for long before I got an answer.

"All of us spent quite a lot of hours going through all the paperwork, and we couldn't find any mistakes. Well, except for one: the fact that there weren’t any mistakes. Now, filling in these papers isn't that hard work, but we only get clean papers like this when organizations who start out have backings that already have a presence in high society.”

“While you do have some connections, it does not explain this perfection unless you might have some hidden connections. So, tell me, how did you achieve such clean paperwork?" Mr. Yellow asked me.

"I honestly don’t have any hidden connection, and the connections I do have, I have through the court of the young and a few former party members. Those connections allowed me access to books, and I even had a few examples of the starting paperwork for high-rank organizations."

After I finished saying that, Mr. Yellow looked towards Mr. Green, who said, "All true, but that brings up a lot of other questions. If I understand correctly, you chose not to rule over a petty kingdom, although you are connected to the government and are even the highest-ranking military officer. Did you perhaps get your expertise from leading and organizing an army?"

Mr. Green's question was a difficult one to answer. "It's more complicated than that, but yes, I gained this expertise from leading and organizing a lot of soldiers." My answer didn’t seem to satisfy Mr. Green.

"That seems to be technically true. Let me ask you a different question: do you plan on conquering this world?" The question brought my mind to a stop. When did we get here? It was obvious that Mr. Green could tell if someone was lying, and he could tell that with scary accuracy and nuance.

"No, I do not plan on conquering this world." My words were met with a slow nod from Mr. Green. "Then I’m afraid we need to be a little bit impertinent," Mr. Yellow said.

"Did you perhaps gain this skill in your former life? It’s hard to imagine someone at the age of 12 learning so much about bureaucracy, but some of the worlds where people have come to us have been very different from ours," said Mr. Blue.

I could feel the other two not being comfortable with the topic. It was the second time anyone had directly asked me something about my former life. It seemed to be quite a big taboo. At least now I know where the misunderstanding came from.

"It seems that you are mistaken about a simple but important fact. Now, I know that people in this world grow up fast, so it might not be easy to tell. I was not 12 when I came to this world. I was over 70 years old, and yes, that's with your timescale. To add to that, while I truly don’t like bureaucracy, I needed to become quite knowledgeable on the topic."

There were quite a few moments of silence, and I finally understood, as I used a few different settings of my vision ability to look at the world. They were able to communicate with each other without having to talk out loud. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to listen in, so all I could do was just wait.

“This changes some things, but don't take this as a bad sign. It will just mean that this whole thing will take a little bit longer. I hope you didn’t have any other plans for the evening?” Mr. Yellow said with a bit of excitement in his voice.