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Chapter 40 – House Cleaning
As the Adventurers raised their voices and cheered, one of the younger ones approached me.
“Mr. Theo. You washed the blankets? I suppose they have not dried yet.”
“Yes, I had to get rid of the fleas. And while I made a drying device, they still won’t be dried by night time.”
“A drying device?”
The other Adventurers were also interested in it.
And so I explained to them how to use it.
“You put whatever you washed between these two stone planks, and they press the water out.”
“They are so light in spite of being big.”
“Because I made them with my crafting skill. They are light and durable.”
“Kyuo!”
“Hippolius will help by stepping on them for you, when there is time.”
“Oh, that would be a great help.”
The Adventurers said as they petted Hippolius.
Hippolius wagged its tail slowly as if it was nothing significant.
In the meantime, the pesticide incense finally stopped burning.
“I’m going to ventilate it first, so you wait outside Hippolius.”
“Kyuo!”
I then entered Hippolius’s house. The stench was still drifting everywhere.
And so I opened all of the windows.
A refreshing breeze blew through the house, and the smell started to fade away.
“
The ease of getting rid of the smell is one of the reasons that this incense is popular.”
As the cool wind came in, I used a wet cloth to wipe the floor.
The wind was so nice that it wasn’t hard to have to wipe the floor.
There were muddy footsteps from Fio and Shiro, which I wiped away until it was clean.
Even Hippolius had left footprints and tail prints.
From now on, it might be good to have them wipe their feet before coming inside.
and I suppose I should prepare something for Fio to wear on her feet.
If I just had the materials I could use my crafting skill to make clothes and shoes.
However, I didn’t have much knowledge of clothes or shoes.
My crafting skill could not compare to the work of an actual professional.
It was the same with houses.
My work was quite inferior to what a veteran carpenter could build with the right time and materials.
The crafting skill was not the best thing to use if you wanted to build something that lasted a thousand years.
The merits of my crafting skill were the speed and the fact that you could build with low quality materials.
Perfect for using during your travels.
So you could say that it was the best skill for an expedition.
“Shoes for Fio
 I suppose I could make straw sandals.”
Real shoes would take delicate work and skill.
Small mistakes could result in excess friction and be painful for the wearer.
“Hmm
 I’ll have to figure it out before winter
”
And so I put shoes for Fio on the list of things to do.
What else should I make?
I wanted there to be lights in each house.
And before winter, the heating and hot water pipes should connect to each house as well.
Also, I wanted to make a dining hall with a functioning kitchen.
“Considering all of that, maybe I should connect the houses, dining hall and bath house together with hallways.”
Not only during the winter, but it would be troublesome to move between buildings during the summer or rainy days.
I would have to think of a way to connect the buildings so that they didn’t get in the way of Hippolius.
“And I should do it quickly.”
It was still summer, but if I didn’t hurry, it would be winter in no time at all.
“Now that I think about it, there is also a Demon Bear close by
”
I should surround our base with a fence or wall. It would be dangerous if we were attacked in the middle of the night.
“And I would like to mine some metal
”
I could talk to the geologists about that over dinner.
As I thought of such things, I finished cleaning the house.
“All right. It looks good now.”
And then I stepped out of Hippolius’s house.
“Kyuo!”
“Hippolius. Go in and see that the smell is gone.”
‘Okay!’
“But first, let’s wipe those feet.”
‘Okay!’
I wiped Hippolius’s feet until they were clean, as well as the tail, which often touched the ground.
As Hippolius was so big, this took a lot of time.
“All right, you’re good to go.”
“Kyuoo!”
Hippolius wagged its tail happily and then went inside of the house.
From what I could see there was no anxiety about the smell.
Hippolius clearly trusted me when I said that it was gone.
“Kyuoo!”
“Does it smell?”
‘It doesn’t stink!’
“I see. That’s good.”
Hippolius started rolling on the floor happily.
“There, there
”
I rubbed Hippolius’s stomach.
Hippolius stopped rolling and lay on its back while wagging its tail.
“Kyo-kyuooo.”
“Hippolius. You worked well today.”
‘So did you, Theodore!’
“You think so? Thank you. I know. I’ll give you some magic energy.”
‘Energy! Hippolius likes your magic energy, Theodore!’
“I see, I see.”
And so I shared some of my magic energy with Hippolius.
When taming Hippolius, our magic energy circuits were connected.
And so I could easily share my magic energy.
After playing with Hippolius for a while, I went outside and saw that one of the Adventurers was standing near the hanging laundry.
He was a sorcerer.
“Mr. Theo. Should I dry this blanket with magic?”
“That would certainly help. Are you sure?”
“Aye. I haven’t used magic in two days. So I have plenty of energy left.”
“If that’s the case, thank you.”
“Leave it to me.”
And so the Adventurer created a hot wind with magic and aimed it at the blankets.
It was a combination of fire and wind magic. This showed that he was quite skilled as a sorcerer.
“Good. It’s dry now.”
The blanket dried in the blink of an eye.