Helping out some carpenters seemed like a good idea, so I teleported to a country with a forest, or should I say countryĀ inĀ a forest. At first, the carpenters were wary of me when I told them Iād be working for free, but they started to teach me properly halfway through. They would even slow down while showing the important points to me, and theyād call me to get lunch with them from the huge cauldron. We got along just fine, I think.
It was also the first time I drank alcohol other than the New Yearās spiced sake, and they teased and laughed at me when I told them so. Honestly, I thought that alcohol was a luxury item, but it seemed that it was treated as preserved food that could provide energy, so they frequently drank it. Distilled liquor, on the other hand, was expensive, while the price of wines were extremely varied.
I also checked the place out while helping the carpenters. I earnestly bought some of the wood here, then put them inside the ćStoragećand also got some cork, too. The sight of the differently colored trees surprised me ā the upper part of the trunk was colored differently from the reddish lower part where the bark had been peeled off.. That bark was used as lids for bottles, so the tree was named cork oak, they said, so I bought some since theyāre interesting.
It was really comfortable being there. The carpenters would greet me with āGood to see you, dudeā and they still treated me well despite the fact that I was obviously a nobody, with no money and political power. Plus, they never stepped out of the line.
That was all nice, but the weather has been changing recently, and itās been raining on and off, getting colder every time thereās a downpour. Riche and I would walk up the autumn mountains, searching for mushrooms. We even found stiff, lumpy mushrooms called penny buns, and theyāre very tasty.
Riche finally opened his eyes and the tear stains also disappeared. He turned into a roly-poly ball of a puppy. Heād trip on his own feet when heās speeding past me, tumbling round and round before picking himself up and returning to my side. Then heād run again, repeating the same thing over again. He still sleeps a lot, but heās getting better, and thatās a relief.
There were other mushrooms too, such as the scarlet umbrella type I saw back at the island.
Itās absolutely poisonous, see, letās check theć Appraisal ćć¼ WHAT!! Itās edibleĀ andĀ SUPER delicious!? Ugh, I donāt even know what to feel now, wish I couldāve known that back then..
I also spend some of my time helping the farming family Iād become acquainted with as they prepare for winter. We butchered a pig, then made some pickled meat, ham, bacon, cheese, and bottled some fruits and veggies, too.
Speaking of winter preps, I was already done with mine. It didnāt have anything to do with the food for the winter, though ć¼ itās for building the house.
I tried experimenting first by remodeling the drab servantsā quarters on the second floor of the shed by designing it the way I wanted. The results were satisfying enough, so
I decided to build an extension-like cabin at the north-east side of the kitchen after that.
Itād be inconvenient if I needed to go out of my way to someplace far just to fetch water when making medicine, and I didnāt want to get drenched if I wanted to go to the lab when itās raining, so thereās no choice but to make it in that spot.
I covered the place with stones first before assembling the pillars in the wide blacksmithās room. Helping out with the carpentry proved its merits, and the memories of a certain TV show I watched in Japan really helped me a lot here, too.
The exterior was finally completed, and it looked like the grapevine trellis was surrounded in both directions. The room was approximately 10 meters* wide, and I chose to divide it into two with a sliding door ć¼ the shaded side for the medicine and ingredient storage, and the bright side for the actual laboratory. Yep, thereās the ć Storage ć , but setting the mood was also important, you know. I also installed a shutter window in the laboratory so I could darken the room anytime. It was something like a louver made with movable planks of wood. Wind could still pass through so that the room wonāt be too stuffy with the smells.
Alright. The laboratoryās done, so itās time to restock the medicinal plants.
Should I rent a house in Canum? Itāll be less troublesome then, since thereās no need to go through the alibi of opening a room in an inn. Thereās a rule that newbies canāt buy a house in that fortress city, so the option is to rent. If my memory serves me right, one must spend 5 years ć¼ or was it 10? ć¼ not making trouble and doing some meritorious deed before he or she can buy one. Somebody explained to me that donations to the city are also considered as deeds.
Living in Canum will mean being able to use other gates aside from the main one ć¼ thatās huge for me. The gatekeeper already knows my face, but maybe itās because Iāve been frequenting the Commerce Guild to bring the bears and potions, so it canāt be helped that I stand out. Thereās that creepy feeling of being watched by that Pink Head from the Adventurerās Guild, too, though she didnāt do anything yet. Sheād stare at me whenever I saw her in the city, even following me around sometimes, though she never said a word. Iām supposed to be staying at the inn, so itās difficult to buy some good plates, saplings or tools that I can use for manufacturing if somebodyās stalking me.
So, I went ahead and consulted the Commerce Guild, and it was decided that theyād introduce me to a middle-man so I could buy or rent a house here.Ā My conditions were simple: no cohabitants, and people wonāt enter as they please.Ā They stared at me dubiously when I gave that last condition, but using that Pink Head as an example was enough to make them understand. Though, I got comments like āItās tough to be handsome, ehā.
And so, the middleman recommended a newly built, isolated house at the end of an alley. The frontage didnāt even reach 4 meters, and it seemed narrower than the other houses. There were two gates, a small one for people and a larger one for bringing things in. In short, the first floorās frontage was mainly gates. Opening the larger gate would lead directly to the workshop, and thereās the kitchen with a kiln. A courtyard with a well was sandwiched between the two. The smaller gate for peopleās use led directly to the staircase at the edge of the workshop, which in turn led to the second floorās living room and bedroom. The third floor was similar to the second one, and thereās a cellar underground.
People here like old houses, the older, the better. Why? Thatās because of the homey feeling they get from it, plus the residents already renovated the house while theyāre still living there. This one did not have any shelves, and there were gaps in the floor and walls, quite unimaginable in Japan.
I also considered renting a room instead of a house at first, but was told that landlords usually lived in the same house because itās big. Some meddlesome landlords would also wake you up in the morning, so I rejected that outright.
Well, this is fine already, itās only a smokescreen house for making some potions. Bonus part is I can renovate the place however I like and the rentās only two potions per month.
Shops run along the city walls that are adjacent to the western main gate and the eastern back gate of the city, and because they are stuck to the wall, the resulting fusion of buildings and barriers created a pathway overhead where the guards patrolled. On the other hand, the northern and southern walls are made of simple stone walls, thick but pretty much useless, although they also have their own gates with towers flanking them. *
The city wall is about to collapse, so it must be repaired. The house was apparently built to support the wall, which continued downtown with a road running alongside it. They blocked one of the paths intersecting that road to build the house. Thatās why the houseās first floor was only the width of the path, and because they had to leave the road alongside the city wall open and accessible, the second and third floors were kinda stuck to the wall. The interior of the first floor was long and narrow, looking like something an eel would sleep in.**
The left and right walls werenāt co-shared unlike the other houses, and the interior beside the right side of the wall was very narrow. Monsters assaulted the city a few years ago, and this wall managed to endure their attacks, but then, thereās the wind and rain ~ ć¼ thatās their vague explanation. Seems like the memory of the attack is still fresh here.
Houses cheaper than this one had security issues, to the point that drunkards and thieves would break in. Well, whether itās habitable or not didnāt really matter as long as nobody came in. Alright, this oneās the final choice, then.
I had nothing to lose, so I tried asking the size ć¼ but they gave me a rough sketch, instead. Roughās an understatement, so maybe I should drop by to see if the discrepancy isnāt thatĀ drastic, and maybe renovate it too, without standing out too much from the neighborhood.
ā¦.The gates are replaceable by fixing the walls and floors somehow. Maybe I can also put some shelves to make it more like a workplace. Yep, making my den should be really fun.
āāāāāā
T/N: Hi folks, I finally have an editor!Ā Ā Thanks Marky for helping me out on thisĀ Ā Also, JackofallTrades also helped me with the first few chaps until 4.2,, thank you so much!
*E/N:Ā The idea behind the talk about the gates, city walls and house is; the North and South walls are what would be considered subpar for a fortified city wall; the East and West walls are narrow and unsturdy from attacks and weather, they need the support from the shops/houses built along them; East/West wall walks are on top of said shops/houses; there is no organization to the layout; the house has thick reinforcing walls unlike a ānormalā house.
**T/N: Original phrase was eel bed, usually used to describe houses that had narrow entrances and long interiors. Examples would be the traditional townhouses found in Kyoto.
10 meters wide ā the approximately length of 6 tatami mats.