All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 303: It’s Free Real Estate

As soon as I felt my favorite human approach, I abandoned my latest project and soared up high in the sky, locking onto her position. I took off as fast as possible without shattering the windows, leaving a slight roar in my wake.

As soon as I pulled up beside Beatrice, I excitedly started explaining my most recent project. I didn't even bother projecting anything with just the two of us. It was much more efficient for me to just explain in my normal, excited language of beeps. Beatrice understood it better than anyone.

I told her about my newest creations, the skyscrapers that I made, and how they were going to fix all of the city's problems. After the first ones, I had toned down the ostentatiousness a little bit so I could make them more quickly. And because of my efficiency, it was very possible that literally the entire city would be moved into the new buildings soon. Only about 10 percent wanted to move at first, but that changed once I had massively increased the number and variety of housing options. We had to slow down the move until businesses could also move or more shops could open.

A half-completed wall ringed the new clusters of sky-high buildings I'd built. I had started working on constructing the wall such that this new development would also be protected, and then I added very nice high throughput passages between the two burgeoning cities. As we neared the construction site, I immediately guided an amazed Beatrice down toward a group of people below. It was composed of the humans I'd been working with, along with plenty more who had gathered as well.

I quickly noted that Beatrice was back before shooting off, which explained the larger crowd. They seemed just about as excited to see her as I was. Many of the military stood at parade rest in the center of the palace courtyard. On top of that, most of the people central to the city's management were standing around chatting as we approached.

It was clear that they hadn't seen us yet. The second we reached the limits of their detection ranges, they all stopped talking and looked up as Beatrice, and I soared in from the sky. The soldiers snapped to attention as we landed and stood up off her carpet. She gave them a salute of acknowledgment, to which they all responded in kind. But before Beatrice could so much as open her mouth, her aunt came running out of the crowd.

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Bee was a little overwhelmed. She hadn't seen her master so excited in a long time, and trying to understand its flurry of beeps that blurred into one another had been a little bit taxing. Still, she was glad the housing situation was fixed. Even if her master may have also crashed the housing market for decades. Everything she knew about real estate and business suggested that the new buildings would have far more effects than intended. Hopefully, there wouldn't be too many issues with the bank and people not being able or willing to pay their loans on mansions.

When she found out that a lot of the housing Void had made was simple and unique, she relaxed. Hopefully, the mansions would still hold their value, and there wouldn't be too much economic turmoil. It would have been better if her master had been able to build them slower and with warnings so that people could adapt to the sudden change. But she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, as this really would solve a lot more problems than it caused. Probably.

When they touched down, Bee wanted to talk to a lot of her advisors and see what work waited for her. Well, "wanted" might have been the wrong term, but she was certain there was plenty that needed her attention. But before she could move, she was interrupted by her aunt throwing her arms around her neck and squeezing her so tightly that Bee had to push back to breathe.

"Oh, it's so good to see you, Beatrice!" Her aunt exclaimed. "Now I'm finally getting an understanding of how you flipped the mansion so fast. It was incredible. What an amazing ability to understand the market. Your father will be so proud."

Bee looked over for help, but Arthur and Susan just smiled off to the side. Meanwhile, many of the other important dignitaries and people waiting to greet her looked slightly uncomfortable.

Bee gasped for breath. "It's... nice to see you too... air..."

Her lungs cried out in relief as her aunt pulled back. "Sorry, Beatrice. I was just so excited to see you. We really should catch up as soon as you have a moment. We have so much to talk about."

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"Right..." Bee cleared her throat and looked around. As embarrassing as it was, Aunt Beatrix was probably a great person to go to about this skyscraper business. "Just let me handle things here. We can talk in my office."

"When Lord Void built that first tower, I was just so excited." Beatrix began to explain as they walked. "But then Arthur and his other people wanted to do something silly like put all the poor people in it. Who would do that?"

Bee winced. Her aunt's blatant elitism threw her off for a moment. She hadn't really dealt with class differences on this level for a long time and the idea that she could so casually dismiss the "poor people" like that rankled. But the woman continued on nonetheless.

"...It was just so inefficient. Why waste a good opportunity?" Aunt Beatrix shook her head. "Sure, on the lower floors, it makes sense. But up top? All the very important wealthy friends of mine would love to have a summer home up on the top floors so they could see the amazing view. We could charge thousands of gold coins of rent a month, thousands! Then, with that money, we could build so much more! Think of the buildings, the infrastructure, the markets! Why, we'll be able to make a skyscraper for every person if we want! If lord Void agrees, of course."

Bee blinked in surprise, then smiled. Her aunt was certainly strange, but she seemed to at least have her heart in the right place. Even if she went about it in a little bit of an odd manner.

"And then, it turned out we didn't even need to worry about that! Lord Void just made more! It was even faster for him to make more of the shorter buildings. They're still amazingly space-efficient and don't make you walk a mile to get up to the top. But the elevators are a nice touch, I will admit," she said, jumping from one thought to another.

"Well, we still did it."

"Did what?"

"Why, find a bunch of rich renters and squeeze them for all they're worth! What else?" Beatrix shot her a deceptively innocent smile. "You have one of the penthouses, by the way. Right next to mine."

"What's that?" Bee asked, pausing mid-stride.

"Oh, one of the ones on the top floor, sweetie. They're also twice the size of any of the others. They're beautiful. You'll really like it!" Her aunt reassured her. "When you're not staying in the palace, that is. I mean, the view is just incredible! I've never seen anything like it. It's worth the climb."

Bee felt uncomfortable. The mansion was one thing. That had been a necessary expense for their cover story. Even the palace didn't really feel like a home, so much as a place she was using for convenience. But having her own private penthouse in a newly built, highly sought-after skyscraper? That felt far too rich for her.

"I mean, I do have my carpet. I can just fly up if I want to get a nice view," Bee protested.

Her aunt shrugged. "Yeah, but now you don't have to! And you'll have all sorts of other perks. Trust me, you'll love it when you see it. Anyways, like I was saying, we don't really need the funds for more housing, but we can put it towards a lot of food and agricultural development. We've managed to get people to start farming near the capital. We'll be food-independent by the next harvest or the harvest after if we're a little unlucky."

Bee nodded. It was good news, but she expected that her aunt was underestimating Void once again. If her master decided to help out on that front next, they'd have more food than they could manage well before that. At least if the castle's orchards were any indicators.

They finally got into her office with her aunt trailing her, along with a dozen other people who were listening in on their conversation. Bee shot a pleading look back over at Arthur, but he just shrugged, indicating that her aunt was something that she'd have to deal with on her own.

Bee decided to distract her, deciding that it was the only way to ever deal with her. "I didn't know you'd become so involved in kingdom matters."

"Oh, yes. I'm your treasurer now," Beatrix said. "None of these people understand money nearly enough to make any kind of policy. Not like a real merchant does. And Lord Void asked me to help."

"Really?" Bee looked at her master with surprise. "Why?"

"Evidently, I've impressed him." Beatrix grinned proudly. "I'm pretty good at math for a human, among other things."

Bee looked over at her master, who beeped in agreement and approval of Aunt Beatrix. Bee sighed and rubbed her forehead. She was still coming to accept that there may have been some misunderstandings with her family from when she was younger, but her aunt was a lot. A lot more than she remembered. Like a lot, a lot. The idea of working with her on a daily basis...

"Okay," she said, thinking. "Alright. Then, we need to talk a lot more in detail. I need to figure out what you're actually doing and--"

"Oh, yes. Don't worry. We'll have tea tomorrow morning. Now, there are other things I want to talk to you about," Beatrix continued on.

Bee once again looked over at Arthur with pleading eyes. His haggard gaze and exhausted smile told her that she was really on her own this time.