Robert was walking along the footpath in the bustling area of Cosford. He was in search of a stationery shop or a place where he could find the kingdom's map.
He stopped in front of a shop; it was a modest building and had windows with designed frames. When he opened the door and stepped inside, the bell above the door rang, and then the retailer came out of the warehouse and attended the front desk.
Robest looked around the shop, at stationery products, fountain pens, bundles of parchments, diaries and maps of Cosford and KUC.
The retailer, a man that was overweight and balding, asked Robert, "What do you want?"
Robert asked, "Map of this division..."
The retailer, without looking at Robert, said, "1 penny for small and 2 pennies for large."
Robert searched his pockets and took out a penny coin and put it on the counter, "Here."
The retailer then went towards the nearest shelf and gave a rolled-up map to Robert.
Without interacting much, Robert took the map and said thanked the retailer before going out of the shop
I am slowly running out of money...
Robert opened the map and looked and found that the Topez mansion was on a separate part of the city, the most eastern part where the Topez dock was present.
Robert knew that public carriages didn't go to Topez Dock, so he rented out a private carriage, which cost around 4 pennies.
As he was sitting on the carriage, he saw the intricate patterns on the seat. In the carriage, there were two seats which were opposite to each other and two doors and windows on each side which served as entrance and exit.
As he saw, the height of the buildings reduced, and buildings became sparse, and the pedestrians also became rare. This part of Cosford was not developed much because Topez has stopped the developments in the area to maintain trade secrets and privacy for the docking monopoly.
...
Soon a manor appeared in front of Robert's eyes through the window. The manor was huge, but it was smaller than the city's count's fort.
The carriage stopped in front of an iron door. In the iron doors, there was the Topez Shipbuilding Company crest on the door.
Robert got out of the carriage and walked towards the door as he searched his pocket and handed the parchment to the guard at the door.
The guard looked at the code expressionlessly and nodded. As he looked at the guard who was wearing a red and black uniform and was holding a baton, the other guard looked at them and went inside a small building, and then the door opened with a scraping sound.
As guards allowed Roberts to step inside, a tall man who was wearing butler's clothes came and greeted Robert with a bow as he addressed him, "Welcome to Topez Manor, Mister Smith."
Robert nods and asks, "I believe that there is a meeting between me and Mister Topez?"
Butler nodded and instructed, "I am well aware of that, sir. I must ask you to follow me, and I request that you not leave the train in which I am going. Can I trust you with that, sir?"
Robert gave a nod as he followed the butler. after a while in waking the the beautiful, maintained gardens, they finally reached the manor's opulent, cavernous halls. When they entered, they saw a big stairway in infront of them.
Navigating through the halls, they finally reached the room that had a big door with its intricate design.
The butler quickly stepped forwards and opened the door and instructed Robert to step inside.
Robert stepped inside, and as soon as he went inside, the door closed from behind. he looked around confused.
What?
Soon he looked at the room; there were many shelves on the corners and sides of the room, there were many windows with beautiful frames, and there was a times at the edge of the room where John was sitting, looking at Robert with a smile.
"Ah, welcome, Mister Smith."