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Chapter 113: Mattress Again
「Feeling great? 」
「Yeah. 」
Retze was drinking coffee at my place.
I offered it to everyone as tea, but only Retze liked it. The others would drink this with sugar and milk, but they don’t like the bitter taste. Or should I say the preferences are wine for Dean and Dinosso, black tea for the rest.
Retze had been helping me earlier with the mattress. I managed to twist the steel into springs, but attaching the felt and cotton cover is difficult for a single person.
There had been a lot of thuds and bangs as we tried to push the springs to shrink them. Two people are barely enough, it’s simply too huge and hard to handle.
I’d like to work on the shaping of steels a bit more and adjust the hardness, but the ones I have here turn out pretty good. I’m in a great mood ‘coz I can finally change my mattress if my current one flattens.
「I wanna give you something as thanks for helping me. 」
「What? 」
「Lamp. 」
I finally got the smithy up and running, so I also did some work using brass. Well, smithing didn’t really have anything to do with it, since I just hammered it and stretched it until I made the shape I wanted. The glassblowing was done in the furnace.
The lamps I made were all lined up on the table.
Handheld oil lamps you can carry around, table lamps you leave inside the room — all of them have a winding mechanism like carcel lamps. Light from rapeseed oil is darker than fuel alcohol, so I added a reflector made of polished brass to make it brighter.
「Glass. 」
Wine glass, champagne glass and beer mugs. There are transparent ones, colored ones, and even faceted ones. If I’m gonna blow glass, then might as well do it with great gusto — hence the collection.
「This is more fragile, so I recommend this other one if you’re going to use it every day. No hot liquids. 」
This one is a lead glass, also known as crystal glass. It’s sparkling really well thanks to the high refractive index and transparency. Oh, by the way, I made it in a way that there won’t be enough lead to cause lead leaching problems.
Soda glass — as far as I know, it’s just an ordinary glass, made by mixing silica sand with soda ash and lime. It’s lightweight and sturdy, a better choice for everyday use.
The color of lapis lazuli is cobalt, copper oxide is sky blue, copper is dark red, and gold is bright red. I don’t have any materials for purple and green, yet.
Retze was frozen in a strange posture, his body bending back with his legs lifted from the floor.
「Which one do you want? 」
「Yup, got it. I’ll call Noth. 」
「Why!? 」
How cruel! And they’re probably not home, yet!
「I have never seen glass with colors like this before!! 」
「Nah, they exist. I bought the red glass. Besides, Noth and Dinosso already accepted that the items in my house are not counted as hazards. 」
I faced Retze’s suspicious gaze head on. It’s the truth, you know?
「 — That glass is kinda dull after looking here. 」
Retze said with a deep sigh.
「You, isn’t it better for you to move your living room to the second floor? Even the third floor is fine. 」
Retze’s gaze wandered from my door, firewood, shelves, and finally returned to the things on the table.
I order firewood and have it delivered to my place regularly, but I just ask the delivery guy to stack them outside. I carry them to the space under the stairs myself. But yeah, I really can’t say that I won’t have any unexpected guests, so I guess it might be a good idea to turn the first floor into a workshop and move the living room upstairs.
Ah, but the second floor is a furnished guest room just in case I have guests sleeping over — well, I’m not expecting anyone, though. The third floor is where I’m working on the bed mattress.
「Hm, I’ll think about it. Ah, but won’t it be a pain in the neck having to go upstairs to the second floor? 」
「There are houses with stores on the first floor. Besides, isn’t it just normal? 」
I see. I guess many houses in Japan also had their living rooms upstairs. Hmm, but then, it’s going to be a pain in the neck climbing up and down if you consider the kitchen and the cellar. Alright, I’ll just place a sliding door to hide part of the shelves. Let’s install a partition, too, so that folks won’t see everything inside the room when the door is open.
「Seems like the remaining folks targeting Valmour had already calmed down by this time, so how about going together? If news spreads too far, Amadeo and the others might return here. 」
By ‘remaining folks’, Retze was referring to Roza’s hangers-on, of course.
The remaining people wanted to recruit Dinosso and his family, so they had been sticking around the guild like glue for a while. I even lured Roza’s main team to the north, but I feel like they’ll return here, attracted to Dinosso — Valmour’s name.
「Do Dinosso and the others have plans going into the forest depths? 」
Might be nice to go rabbit-hunting with focus on Tina, En and Vac..
「They’ll have that plan if you said you’ll go, right? 」
「How about you, Retze? 」
「Depends on where we’re going, but there’s no meaning for me to go if I’m just going to pull you guys down. 」
Retze looked unenthusiastic about the whole thing.
「You can go as a role model, my role model. 」
「I might be the only one who’s risking my life, so I’m anxious, oh so anxious. 」
Retze might seem exasperated, but that couple has made some Spartan plans to go to the Labyrinth in two to three years, you know? They even crossed the mountain of perpetual snow to get to Canum, after all.
They didn’t go through the summit, but they trudged on even in the places horses couldn’t pass through because there were no feeds. Apparently, they pushed through by force, relying on 【Storage】 and the warmth from Dinosso’s fire spirit, you know?
I do want to see for myself how a legendary adventurer moves around, but I think I’ll learn a lot from Retze’s behavior, too.
「Never mind strength, those kids are probably tougher than me if I’m not careful. 」
「Actually, I’m shocked that you’re far more childish than I thought, and you’re prone to making more blunders when we’re around. Dinosso that guy will prolly wish for a lot of digestive medicine because of you, won’t he? 」
Ugh, how harsh of you. Retze!!
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T/N Trivia Corner:
cto: https://mokkoudaisuki.naturum.ne.jp/e2229876.html
Carcel lamps – A lamp that used an Argand burner, as well as a clockwork mechanism that controlled a spring-driven pump which forced oil to the top of the burner. In other words, it was wound like a clock to keep the supply of oil steady. Such lamps were fitted with chimneys and ball-shaped shades that were etched or cut.
(https://www.antiquelampsupply.com/types-of-antique-lamps)