"Well, I'm going to need quite a bit of help from you two," Scrooge began, "because I doubt the villagers are going to enjoy having me around for much longer.
"Speaking of them..."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, counting out a thick stack of bills before holding them out to the duo.
"The total fee came out to five thousand euros. For the supplies, here's fifty percent: twenty-five hundred. As much as I hated using the oil on the poor girl, it was far more effective than most people I've gotten that sort of thing from."
Out of five shots, his last two bullets had passed through nothing but air. He'd expected to need to reload or at least dodge.
"As for what I need moving forward, I need supplies and space to take steps to determine what exactly is brewing around here. Potentially a place to sleep since I doubt I'll be welcome at that hotel much longer." He glanced about at the house. "As tactless as this sounds, I need to know if you have electricity. I know you magic folk don't typically need to worry about that sort of thing, but I need to stay in touch with my people for further support. I can bring in further equipment to handle the power and connection needs, but I don't want to damage your home more than absolutely necessary.
"Would you be willing to open your home up to me for three thousand euros a night? I'm not sure how long this will take, so that should cover space for working and sleeping along with any and all repair work for any basic damage I might cause over the course of this. If need be, we can negotiate for the magical supplies and further damage repair on a case-by-case basis."
As he'd been walking up the mountain, the damage to the building had occurred to him as a potential problem. Some of what he planned to do was spiritual magic, specifically calling on wandering spirits for information even his incredibly-gifted research team lacked access to. He didn't do seances very often because of how much attention it brought him, but the wandering dead could be helpful in seeing things even scrying spells missed. Things just sometimes got very, very messy when a spirit that showed up was in a foul mood to begin with.
He'd called Italian HQ and had gotten a ballpark quote for how much it would cost to fully renovate the manor based on his best estimates of what would need to be done. Once the matter was settled, the De Spells would need their home fixed to settle back into their ancient role should they be willing to let bygones be bygones. If they decided to leave (not that he'd blame them if they decided to walk away with all four middle fingers to the villagers at this point), he'd buy the manor from them and try to find someone else to step up as guardian moving forward. This was not going to happen again if he had anything to say about it.
Being a monster hunter in full control of a global, multibillion-dollar business had its perks even if it did leave him little in the way of free time. Still, a man his age needed to keep busy to stay sharp.
no subject
"Speaking of them..."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, counting out a thick stack of bills before holding them out to the duo.
"The total fee came out to five thousand euros. For the supplies, here's fifty percent: twenty-five hundred. As much as I hated using the oil on the poor girl, it was far more effective than most people I've gotten that sort of thing from."
Out of five shots, his last two bullets had passed through nothing but air. He'd expected to need to reload or at least dodge.
"As for what I need moving forward, I need supplies and space to take steps to determine what exactly is brewing around here. Potentially a place to sleep since I doubt I'll be welcome at that hotel much longer." He glanced about at the house. "As tactless as this sounds, I need to know if you have electricity. I know you magic folk don't typically need to worry about that sort of thing, but I need to stay in touch with my people for further support. I can bring in further equipment to handle the power and connection needs, but I don't want to damage your home more than absolutely necessary.
"Would you be willing to open your home up to me for three thousand euros a night? I'm not sure how long this will take, so that should cover space for working and sleeping along with any and all repair work for any basic damage I might cause over the course of this. If need be, we can negotiate for the magical supplies and further damage repair on a case-by-case basis."
As he'd been walking up the mountain, the damage to the building had occurred to him as a potential problem. Some of what he planned to do was spiritual magic, specifically calling on wandering spirits for information even his incredibly-gifted research team lacked access to. He didn't do seances very often because of how much attention it brought him, but the wandering dead could be helpful in seeing things even scrying spells missed. Things just sometimes got very, very messy when a spirit that showed up was in a foul mood to begin with.
He'd called Italian HQ and had gotten a ballpark quote for how much it would cost to fully renovate the manor based on his best estimates of what would need to be done. Once the matter was settled, the De Spells would need their home fixed to settle back into their ancient role should they be willing to let bygones be bygones. If they decided to leave (not that he'd blame them if they decided to walk away with all four middle fingers to the villagers at this point), he'd buy the manor from them and try to find someone else to step up as guardian moving forward. This was not going to happen again if he had anything to say about it.
Being a monster hunter in full control of a global, multibillion-dollar business had its perks even if it did leave him little in the way of free time. Still, a man his age needed to keep busy to stay sharp.