"h.e.l.lo, how may I help you today?" The a.s.sistant asked with a smile.

"Hi, do you have any land deeds for sale? I wish to construct a property." s.h.i.+ro replied.

"Yes we do, can I know the price range that you're looking for and how big you want it to be?"

"Give me the cheapest land deed you have."

"You… want the cheapest land deed that we have?" The a.s.sistant raised her eyebrows. Normally, only those who were rather rich would buy a land deed and she had a.s.sumed that s.h.i.+ro was one of them due to the quality of clothes that she was wearing.

However, now that she revealed herself to be poor, the a.s.sistant clicked her tongue before browsing through her computer.

"Here are the cheapest land deeds that we have. Do be careful though since they're located near the rather shady areas of this city." She said while a holographic screen appeared in front of s.h.i.+ro and the Chief.

Looking at the list, the chief couldn't help but pale at the condition of the land. Each one was worse than the other as the last page even showed one that had nothing but a single stalk of gra.s.s on it.

But, that was exactly what s.h.i.+ro had been looking for. In her past life, this plot of land was above a naturally formed cave system that extended through the entire city and out of it too.

"This one, I want this one." She smiled and pointed to the final plot of land that was only worth a hundred silvers.

". . . you know that there are no refunds, right?" The a.s.sistant explained.

"Yup, but before I buy, I want to make sure of a few things first. How high and how deep am I allowed to make my house?"

"Hmm… Height wise, it can't be taller than the church. As for how deep, it can be as deep as you want as long as it doesn't cause the city too many problems. Ah also, you're not allowed any defensive weaponry due to the laws and just know that the entire city is scanned daily. If your defensive magic circles and weapons are not registered and given a pa.s.s, then the guards will take it as an act of terror and you will be subdued and taken to prison." The a.s.sistant explained as she needed to make sure that she goes through the procedures.

Going through a few more points that s.h.i.+ro would need to know, the a.s.sistant finally handed over the contract that she needed to sign.

Signing it without hesitation, s.h.i.+ro had the chief pay the a.s.sistant the money.

"Are you sure about this?" The chief asked dubiously since this wasn't his money. It was a collection of everyone's money so they couldn't waste it.

"Yeah it's fine." s.h.i.+ro smiled confidently. Her plan was to use the naturally formed cave as the main hub of their new home. After all, the laws didn't say that she isn't allowed to use naturally formed caved systems as part of her house.

Thankfully, however, there were very few houses that were directly above the cave. So even if they did dig down as much as they wanted, there were only a few points where s.h.i.+ro would need to make some adjustments.

But overall, this was the best place they can have to fit their needs for now.

"If you need anything for your home or other questions, feel free to ask now."

"No there's nothing else. Thank you." s.h.i.+ro smiled and left with the chief.

"Hm… weird person. Who the h.e.l.l would even want to build a house near that area." The a.s.sistant sighed before shaking her head.

What s.h.i.+ro does now was none of her problem since she had already signed the contract.

Meanwhile, after bringing the chief out of the governor's building, they made their way back to the other villagers.

Seeing that they were safe and sound, s.h.i.+ro sighed in relief.

'Seems like public order is rather decent.' She thought to herself.

"Everyone!" She called out.

Once she made sure that she had all of their attention, s.h.i.+ro proceeded to explain to them about their new home that she was going to make,

The building that was above the ground floor would be a resting hub of sorts where all the kids can play while the a.d.u.l.ts socialise.

Everything underground will be things that are necessary such as the kitchen or the bedrooms.

Some were curious about the quality of the place but s.h.i.+ro a.s.sured that it would be fine.

"Follow me and you'll understand." s.h.i.+ro smiled and had them follow her.

Moving through the city, their caravan had attracted quite a few eyes, especially on s.h.i.+ro, but none dared to make a move.

As they were approaching the plot of land, s.h.i.+ro noticed quite a few shady gazes on her from the windows.

'Hmm… do I need to deal with them to secure the safety of the house? I can't make any defensive equipment since it'll be discovered after all.' s.h.i.+ro mused to herself while entertaining the idea of cleaning up the area.

In the end, she decided against that for now. Until they made the first move, she wasn't going to attack them.

After walking for a bit longer, they arrived at the empty plot of land.

"Stand back." s.h.i.+ro said while stretching her body.

Marking out the area where her land stretched out to, which was a 7 by 7 meter area, she placed her hand in the centre and closed her eyes.

The first thing that she needed to make was the house above the ground. For appearance's sake, she needed to make this look like it could hold at least a third of the people here.

'The church is around 12 floors tall and the surrounding buildings average out to around 5 floors give or take. To keep things safe, I'll have mine to be around 5 floors as well so that it doesn't stand out. First floor can be a reception area of sorts so that the villagers can sign in and out to make things easier.

'The second to fifth floor can be whatever they want since it's for appearance sake only. The important part is what I should be doing for the floors underground. To reach the natural cave system, it's about 15 to 20 floors down so an elevator shaft would be handy for this area….'

Planning out the overall structure of the building, mana surged around her hands as she used her metal element rather than nan.o.bots to construct the house.

While metal was less versatile than nan.o.bots, it used less mana at the cost of lacking in diversity. However, for something like a house, metal was the way to go.

"Can someone make me some gla.s.s panels for the windows?" s.h.i.+ro asked since she rather not waste nan.o.bots for something like gla.s.s.

"I can do it!" A villager called out eagerly since they were all wanting to help out s.h.i.+ro for saving their lives.

"Thank you," s.h.i.+ro smiled.

a.s.signing a few more items for them to build so that she didn't need to use her nan.o.bots, s.h.i.+ro sped up the speed of production with the help of the villagers.

By the time night had arrived, she had already finished the building above ground.

'Hmm… by the looks of things, I can probably fit around 100 people in the building above ground right now if I'm pus.h.i.+ng it. To fit everyone else, I would probably need to clear out 10 or 15 floors worth of area underground.' She thought to herself since her main task right now was to give them a place to sleep.

Once that was done, she could get to making the proper house in the cave system tomorrow.

Continuing her excavation, she made sure that she used her nan.o.bots to create an elevator for ease of access.

*BANG!

Cras.h.i.+ng through the ground, she finally arrived at the naturally formed cave system.

"Heh, just as I remembered it to be." She smiled. Now that this entire place was open to them, they had to start making beds for people to sleep in so that they could get to work first thing in the morning tomorrow.

Gesturing for all the carpenters and any available wood mages to help out, s.h.i.+ro had them create simple beds for all the floors.

While they were doing that, she moved all the horses and carriages to the empty cave system and lit it up using her nan.o.bots.

"Right then, everyone rest up. We'll be refurbis.h.i.+ng the place a little tomorrow." s.h.i.+ro called out with a smile.

There were plenty of things that she needed them to do tomorrow. The main point being that she wanted to convert a portion of this cave into her headquarters of sorts.

There was also the problem of hiding the location but she had something in mind for that.

For now, this will be her main hub.