章 33: Baughan Complex
As for what he did when he saw one of these monsters in the distance, he simply hid.
That way, moving carefully and quietly, the young man went through neighborhood after neighborhood, until the houses were decreasing in quantity but increasing in quality.
And after a couple of hours, his goal was finally in sight.
By this point the houses had disappeared, even those that were considered luxurious and needed plenty of space to themselves.
All to make way for the property that overshadowed even the other houses of wealthy people, as if it was demonstrating what it was really like to have money.
At the end of a road in the middle of a field of grass, stood a small hill and around said hill, a three-meter high wall of bushes could be seen all around.
The interior of these walls concealed a property of over 4,000 square meters, known as the Baughan Complex.
It was a property that had gone through several changes for more than two centuries, with only one characteristic remaining constant, that the initial wealth of its owners only increased over time.
According to history, the first owner of the complex and the person for whom it was named, Tristan Baughan, was none other than one of the founders of the city as well as an extremely successful and enterprising man.
To this day, the Baughan family was going strong, not only retaining ownership, but even having formed a multinational construction company.
In the entire city, Noah doubted he could find a family with more money or prestige like them.
"Your decision is somewhat... extravagant to say the least." The woman said, surprised that the young man would choose such a place as his new base.
She had expected a more spacious place due to the fact that that never comes amiss, but this far surpassed just a spacious place, going on to be a huge, opulent place.
"I've always liked this place, even though I've only seen it in pictures." Replied the young man walking towards the entrance of the complex, "But besides that, I also think we might find something interesting here."
The former had been the reason he had chosen this location as his new base, but the latter was a rather nice bonus that he realized after leaving his neighbor's house.
What the bonus consisted of was that this property had been around for a long time, housing generations of the most influential family in the city.
And with these generations, their possessions.
As with most wealthy and famous people, various bits of information were known about the Baughan family. It was thanks to this that it was known that said family harbored among its ranks several collectors, with Tristan himself being an avid collector of historical war relics.
"I agree with you, this place has seen many things and holds secrets, but I'm afraid I don't know if you'll have enough time to go through everything."
Receiving confirmation from the woman of roses that this place indeed had something special about it, the young man was glad.
Though that didn't stop him from asking her about the last thing the woman had said.
"I'm running out of time?"
Even though he had been in the mirror world for quite a while now, Noah still wasn't quite used to it, still being unable to be able to properly measure time in a world where there was no sun or moon and no working clocks.
"That's right, it's already dawn in the other world, so unless you want your mother to find out her son isn't in bed, you'd better start with the portal."
The young man wanted to ask how she knew that, but assuming it was thanks to her unknown abilities, plus the fact that he was sure she wouldn't answer, he said nothing and sought to enter the property.
The entrance was large, about ten feet wide, with a metal gate on one side and a large smaller wooden gate on the other.
Both looked sturdy and of good quality, so the option of breaking through them did not seem viable, plus he wanted to keep the complex isolated from the outside and these were good barriers.
His remaining option was to climb, something he would not do in his original world because the property not only had security personnel, but also had an electric fence on top of the walls all around, including the bushes.
But in the mirror world, this changed, with no one in sight and the city's electricity supply being anything but functional.
Wrapping his other hand with bandages and placing his weapon in his backpack, the young man then made his way to the side of the entrance and began to scale the wall of bushes.
Although it was a bit difficult due to the thickness of the bush and the lack of footholds, the young man ended up scaling the wall using his firm grip, which remained strong despite having the young man's entire weight.
"...Woah." Already on top of the wall, the young man couldn't help but express his surprise.
In front of him, was nothing but the spacious courtyard of the compound, being sure that it was even larger than the entire grounds of his house.
It had a stone path that started from the entrance to the inside, with the stones slowly transforming into a ceramic floor that covered most of the front part of the house.
The front of the house had a large pool in the middle surrounded by several chairs for sunbathing, two hot tubs on the sides along with small sitting areas, and even a small bar near one entrance to the house.
As for the house in question, it was so large that even from the wall, without seeing the sides and even though it was only two stories, Noah was able to see over 18 windows with all of those on the second floor having small balconies of their own.
The main entrance was in the middle of the house after climbing a small spiral staircase to reach a middle floor where there was another small living space with a water fountain in the middle.
From this alone, the Baughan complex had already impressed Noah, who really hadn't expected to see so much luxury as soon as he walked in.
While he had seen the complex through photos in his spare time, these really didn't do justice to what this structure that looked like a tribute to opulence was really like.
Though of course, he would undoubtedly be much more impressed if it weren't for the small detail that it was hugely noticeable that this was the mirror world.
Starting with the most obvious, was that the pools and hot tubs were not filled with water, but were empty and showing signs of deterioration, having small and large cracks all over their surface.
The latter being something that also applied to the rest of the property, with both the floor and walls of the house having an occasional crack or two that was not known if it was due to the passage of time or some other unknown factor.
While it was not apparent that the house was about to fall down, it was clear that it was not in its optimal state.
Still, it still seemed like a more than perfect property to serve as his new base.
"...Maybe I should study something construction related." Noah said remembering the Baughan family business.
Stepping down from the wall careful not to trip, the young man made his way to one of the empty spaces in the courtyard, next to one of the hot tubs.
He then took the remaining bottle of monster blood and his paintbrush from his backpack and began to draw the symbols of the portal that he now knew by heart.
After several minutes, the portal was finished, and although the effects of the first time he did it also affected him, it was to a lesser extent.
The portal was done, but the young man didn't immediately step through, instead he set about checking his surroundings, seeing if there weren't any mirror world denizens nearby.
After all, the last thing he wanted now was a repeat of the incident with the Crookedteeth.
Moving around the front of the house a bit, Noah couldn't hear or see anything, so that assured him that at least on the outside, there was nothing that wanted to kill him as soon as he saw it.
As for whether there was anything inside the house, that was a different subject Noah would address the next time he came here.
Grabbing a couple of chairs near the pool, Noah dragged them to the portal and placed them around.
After repeating this a few more times, the portal's surroundings were somewhat hidden.
This really wouldn't do much if it was investigated properly, but at least it was unnoticed by the naked eye, which was better than nothing for Noah.
Then, with nothing else to do here, the young man stepped into the portal.
---
"Haa...haa! I don't know why this...it's harder than yesterday!" Said the young man as he did the cardio that the exercise instructor on his laptop was doing.
After returning from the mirror world, the first thing Noah did was eat breakfast and take a shower, after which he slept until the afternoon, from which he woke up unexpectedly refreshed and relaxed.
Upon waking up, still determined to improve his fitness, he set about exercising, but not before working a bit on his notebook.
Only a few minutes had passed since this, but sweat was already all over his body, again demonstrating how unaccustomed he was to exercise.
However, while he was busy with it, his mind was thinking about other things, and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with the mirror world, but something that happened at breakfast.
It had been a while since his mother or grandmother had commented on what he wanted to study, and it didn't look like they were going to do it today either, if not for a certain segment of the news.
After reporting an increase in the number of missing persons in rural areas near the city, a segment appeared about several companies launching an education initiative together.
Study initiatives where they sponsored students as long as they were willing to have them as their first choice for a job when they finished their studies.
Among these companies was even the locally famous Baughan Construction, which was leading this initiative and caught the attention of his mother and grandmother.
Although they didn't say it outright, subtlety was never something anyone in the family excelled at, so their comments of "Architects are doing very well these days" or the like didn't go unnoticed.
This time, Noah gave them a bit of a thumbs up, opining the same although also believing it was an unexpected coincidence considering where he had been recently.
Pam
"Ahh."
Sprawling on the ground, the young man was catching his breath as he remembered something he hadn't thought about in a while.
What was he going to do with his life, and what was he doing right now.
These were questions that had no easy answers for him at the moment, as he still didn't know what he really wanted in the long run.
Fortunately, he did know what he had to do for the time being.
Bringing his gaze down, already with his left eye recovered, he was able to see a dark circle in the middle of his chest.
'If I don't get rid of this, I won't have a future anyway, so for now, I'll leave those worries for later.' Noah thought, letting out a sigh.
With that thought, the young man, who was completely undecided before about what he wanted to do, now had a new short-term goal.
Picking himself up off the floor and with renewed determination, he continued with another set of exercises.
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