Yes, But It Needs Work

"Is everybody ready?" I ask the rest of the group. Me, Liz, Asami, Luna, Innu, and Ramia are standing in my apartment. We're all wearing casual clothes and we've all hidden our non-human characteristics. Thinking about it, Liz is the only one who doesn't have to hide anything. They all nod or, in Luna's case shout, that they're ready. We walk out and Asami leads the way. She had marked out the path we'd take to visit as many places as we could. We start walking and I immediately feel people staring at us. I shrug it off and continue walking. We shortly arrive at our first stop.

"This one was a large factory and two warehouses. The buildings themselves probably wouldn't work for us. They're too damaged and just don't have a good layout for what we'd want. But the land is good. It would cost us more, but we could build a better building for our purposes." Asami says. We look around inside and I do have to agree. The buildings are very open and it doesn't have many rooms, the warehouses only have a small office and a large space for storage.

"If you want to build on top of this you'd probably need at least 200 thousand, double if you want it to be large. But it could be cheaper if you want to keep the guild small for now, but we'd need somewhere with less space. Otherwise, it'd be a waste of money. Then there's the money for the bills and furniture you'll want. Since it'll be your headquarters too, you'll probably want to make it look nice with some decorations or plants. Which will just add more, not to mention the protective field you'll need." Liz says after we've finished looking around.

"What protected field? And how do you know this?" I ask her.

"All guildhalls need a protective field or PF, it acts as a shield against magic. Although it's rare, some dark guilds will openly destroy light guild halls. So the government won't consider it one unless it had a PF. And I know this because one of the things I did during my old job was inspecting PFs for any damage. I got curious after seeing so many new buildings and decided to start asking how much it cost." She explains, making me regret not asking her or the guilds for advice on a guildhall sooner. "So how much money do you have for this exactly?" She asks with a small amount of worry in her voice.

"Just over 275 thousand. But I'd like to at least keep 5 thousand for bills and food, just so we don't have to worry about any surprises." I say and Liz sighs.

"Yeah, so I wouldn't go with this one. It is nice land, but we just don't have to money to utilize it properly." She says and I nod. We walk to the next building, a run-down office building. It closed when the company owning it went under. No one's bought it since and it's been left alone. The outside is covered in weeds and trash but aside from that, it seems fine. The inside is empty and covered in dust. "How much was this one?" Liz asks while we look around.

"It was around 145 thousand. But the building needs work. Some of the pipes have rusted over and need to be replaced. Not to mention one corners of the building caved in on itself. But it's big and structurally sound, aside from the corner. So we could remove some walls and set others up where we'd need them." Asami says.

"That's not a bad idea." I think out loud and Liz nods.

"Yeah, you could start repairing the corner while you figure out what else you want to do. It would give you more time to save up for the renovations." Liz adds and I nod.

"S-so are we getting t-this one?" Ramia asks and I think about it.

"It does seem pretty good but I'm worried about the area." I say and Asami smiles.

"You don't need to worry about that. I knew that we'd probably need some privacy so I made sure all the places I've shown you were isolated. The company that owned this place also bought the surrounding land. They planned to use it to make more buildings for various purposes. So there aren't many buildings around." She says and Liz nods.

"For the record, the government gives all guilds a device called the HRD. It stands for Human Repelling Device. It does as the name implies and influences everyone without mana to care less about the building. It's not perfect, but it'll keep people away as long as the building isn't flashy and you don't do anything too suspicious." Liz says and I smile before turning to her confused.

"Wait, what about people with no mana who work with the guild?" I ask her.

"The device will allow you to mark certain people. You mark them with a small tool it comes with. Those marked won't be affected by it." She explains.

"Does anyone have any problems with this place?" I ask the group.

"Nope! As long as it has room for a training area!" Luna says and I sigh and smile.

"I'm fine with it. If we need to, we can buy the nearby land as well. Although it will be expensive." Asami says with a light chuckle.

"It's fine, although I'd like room to stretch my wings. The doorways here are too tight." Innu says, spreading her wings to demonstrate.

"I'd l-like a room for storage. A-and a bigger Alchemy Workshop, if t-that's not a bother." Ramia says and I nod.

"It's fine with me, but the yard needs work too. You're lucky you have a Druid, we are called the caretakers of nature after all." She says smugly and I smile.

"So are we getting this one?" Luna asks and I nod.

"Wait! We should still look at the others. They might be better and it wouldn't hurt to look." Asami says and I nod.

"Then let's move on to the next one." I say and we leave.