Chapter 54 - 53. A Heavy Leash
The dorm wasn’t as tall as the Guild’s building, which actually looked like a tower. But Zein reckoned it was as tall as the Borderland’s watchtower. Even from here, he could see the garden of the large open hall on the fifth floor.
As usual, Abel kindly explained everything to him. "The people residing here are mostly civilians, since it was relatively safer here, and the low-level members, since they didn’t have enough financial leeway to purchase their own residence," of course, the low-level here, which was 2-stars and C-classes, would be considered average in other guilds. "I mean, they could rent some space outside, but I guessed it’s cheaper to just stay here and save their money to buy a better place. Or you know, invest in better equipment."
"Well, I can understand that," Zein shrugged. That was what he did with his money anyway, buying survival tools.
"But there are some high-ranking members here too, for various reasons," Abel laughed. "Oh, Sir Han also keeps a room for himself. He sleeps here sometimes."
"Huh..."
That was unexpected. But then again, Han Shin was kind of a weird one, so Zein didn’t think too much about it. They entered the building without a fuss using Abel’s badge, and Zein was faced with another lobby and what looked like a receptionist desk, although the sign on it spelled ’residential manager’.
The old man manning the desk wore no uniform, though, and Zein could see he was an esper from the flow of magic energy. The flow was chaotic though, probably due to some kind of internal injury.
’A crippled esper," Zein thought as he followed Abel to the desk.
"Uncle, you should receive the notification already, right?"
Abel asked amiably, but the man answered with a grumble. "Yeah, making me work hard so suddenly. Do you know how large the high-floor room is?"
The guide just laughed at that. "But you did it anyway. Do you have the key?"