Mansion Tour Part 9

After a minute or two, the elevator reached its destination and opened with a dinging that sounded more like a train whistle from a classic cartoon for a moment before dying. The group made their way out, after Yuri opened a panel on the left side of the door and pulled out a small flat box with a series of buttons on it. This device was a bit of a surprise to all the women, mostly because they were used to seeing wires or wands get used to perform different actions and functions. Yuri checked a small panel on the inside of the box and gave a look of confusion for a moment before closing the panel.

As the group stepped out of the elevator, Yuri said, “This is the driveway section closest to the complex,” he then gestured to the garage doors behind them, “As you can see, the garage I showed off earlier has its vehicle door near the wall we just came out of.”

“What is that device in your hand,” inquired Inoshana.

“A specially made remote control,” said Yuri, “just add the question to the list you’ll be asking after the tour.” He tapped a sequence of buttons the women didn’t see due to the angle he was holding it, and the garage door began opening with a mechanical movement sound; he then pressed the same button he finished after the sequence, and the door returned to its closed position with a similar sound. “It can be used to operate all the systems out here; the space I keep it when not in use is its charging port.”

“Charging port,” inquired Althana with piqued interest, “I don’t think any of us have heard that term before.”

“To put it simply,” said Yuri, “it is a place you put a tool or appliance to recharge its power. This remote,” he held up the device, “is an appliance I had custom-made for this place.”

“I think I could come up with something like that for magical tools, weapons, and items,” said Althana.

“Anyway,” said Yuri, “on with the tour,” as he led them through the yard. He led them out to the left side of the building about fifteen feet out from the house, then pressed a new sequence of buttons on his remote; after a few seconds of waiting, a section of the yard in front of the group looked like it was transforming with the light sound mechanical components. The next thirty or so feet in front of them was occupied by an Olympic-size pool, which was actually a bit deeper than the standard, with tiling that gave the impression of something out of a certain series that involved small equines, with a raised platform for lifeguards, another raised platform at the deep end with a diving board, a series of symbols around the pool to indicate where to put pool furniture. There was also a hot tub that looked like it was big enough for two of Alma eight or nine feet past the pool. A moment later, running water could be heard, and both the pool and hot tub started filling up.

“What is all this,” inquired Thelsia.

“My pool grounds,” said Yuri, “I didn’t like the idea of wild animals that made it into my grounds getting stuck in the pool, so I made it so the pool could be interchangeable with a patch of my yard; it even uses a system that makes use of salt to apply the agent to help keep the pool clean, with the added bonus of not being so strong in odor that it makes you think there is a chance you could die via proximity.” He took a look at his remote for a moment, “If I entered the code right, then the pool system should still be up for the next half-hour; after that, the whole system will drain and go back into storage after the cleaning mechanism has taken care of everything.”

“That’s all pretty advanced,” said Althana with surprise as she observed the water getting pumped in, “and expensive.”

“My family was one of those families with so much money they could literally pay to keep out of the public knowledge just how wealthy they were; I had a considerable trust that was stored in several banks around the globe that my family allocated to me after I finished my mandatory education period as was dictated by the nation. I had so much that I really didn’t have any idea of how to use it, so I spent a small fortune that barely made a dent in my personal finances designing and building this place. So, do you ladies want to take a break here or continue with the tour.”

“It’s been ages since I was able to relax in the water,” said Thelsia, “but I’ll leave the decision to a majority vote.”