「..... How about that?」 「It’s true that Valetta is a bright girl, however...... A favor to this extent... Is that really all right?」 After hearing Kazura’s proposal, Valin’s expression was half-delighted and half-surprised, while Valetta’s, who just finished washing herself, entered the room.Her steamy wet hair that dangled in her neck was strangely erotic.
「Wah... I feel refreshed. This soap really has a nice scent....... Did something happen?」 Valetta was puzzled after seeing Kazura and Valin, who had serious looks in their faces. 「Valetta, a long time ago you had said that you wanted to go to the city and learn various things in there.」 「Un[1], I had said that before. But now I don’t have any intention to leave the village, you know?」 Valin smiled after hearing his daughter words and her wish to stay in the village. 「The truth is, you can study about many things in the village too. It seems that Kazura-san kindly offered to teach you.」 「Eh!?」 Valetta become surprised and then looked at Kazura who started to speak about his proposal. 「Yes, but, as long as Valetta-san fine with it. And also for.......」 「Re-really!? Thank you very much! Certainly, I wish to do it!」 Valetta accepted while interrupted Kazura’s word. Maybe because she was so happy, her eyes were sparkling.[2] Although he was overwhelmed by Valetta’s enthusiasm, at any rate, Kazura continued his interrupted explanation. 「Ah, yes, I understand. Now back to our discussion. I would like for Valetta-san to pretend that it was your idea to build the waterwheel that we assembled the other day.」 「......Eh?」 Valetta’s expression stiffened after hearing Kazura’s proposal, but he continued with his explanation. 「From Valin’s story, Isaac-san, who inspected village’s condition the other day, wasn’t well-informed about the connection between the village and the river. But in the future, if Nelson-sama received Isaac-san’s report and became suspicious, he might see the waterwheel after following the aqueduct. If that happens then, the fact that the origin of that waterwheel was me will be exposed, and that.... well, it would be really inconvenient for me........」 So, Kazura finished his explanation, his speech style with an uncertain tone.[3] 「A, yes..... It’s like that....」 Valetta nodded.Up until now, regarding the country that Kazura came from, the villagers didn’t deeply pry into it.Valetta and Valin were not an exception, instead they are the ones who instructed the villagers to never inquire about it.
They had a legitimate reason for why they did this, but until now Kazura completely unaware of that reason. 「With that, if you accept the proposal as the compensation, not only I will tell you about how to built the waterwheel, beside that, I will also teach you about a lot of things. So do you accept this cooperation?」[4] 「Ye-Yes, I will gladly accept anything...... But, is this all right.....?」 Valetta had an uneasy expression, but after Kazura gave his ‘it’s all right’ answer, she replied yes.Although she had consented with this very unreasonable proposal, up until this point, there were still no devised steps. For the time being they just had to just try and do it.Besides, the existence of waterwheel would be not immediately exposed. There was still time to make up a plan. 「Ano[5], Kazura-san, I just had an idea, but......」 Kazura was mumbling about 「What would happen if they inquire in precision machining[6]......」 and looked greatly troubled of it. Seeing him like this, Valetta suddenly had a light bulb shined in her mind and then started to call out to Kazura. 「What is it?」 「If possible, instead of the waterwheel that had been installed, what if everyone build a new waterwheel and install it, is that all right? After all, there is a waterwheel to become the model, so I think that we can build another more easily.」 「Will it really be an easy thing to do?」 Hearing Valetta’s suggestion, Kazura nodded and pondered it.Even though there was a waterwheel that could become the model, will they really be able to fabricate another waterwheel so suddenly?However, even if considering that they already seen a waterwheel, but the precision machine parts like the axle was made from metal, so that it can handle the entire load in it. In any case, Valetta’s idea was the best solution for now. 「Is that so...... Certainly if that waterwheel been seen then it will become unpleasant in various ways. So, let us somehow built another waterwheel in 1 month time. At least, as long as it can draw even a little bit of water it will be fine.」(Kaz) 「Yes, moreover if we had built another waterwheel, then if Isaac-san or Nelson-sama ask about it, we will be able to answer.」(Val) Hearing their onversation, Valin nodded in agreement and then speak, 「Just like that, Valetta and the villagers will study the waterwheel. One way or another everyone will cooperate and do their best.」 With that said. The current discussion was settled. ✦✧✦✧ The next morning, with the help of Valetta, Kazura transferred the load from the folding Pullcart No2 to Pullcart No1. He then, once again, returned to Japan to fetch the fertilizer. 「Well then, I’ll going to fetch the fertilizer. Does studying at evening sounds good to you?」 「Yes, thank you very much. But, if you are tired after scattering the fertilizer, then it’s fine to do it at another day.」 Although Valetta said that because she worried about Kazura, she was really happy to be able to study and it reflected in her looks that were full with anticipation.Even though yesterday they had talked about building a new waterwheel with the villagers’ hand, there still work left, such as scattering the fertilizer on the fields. If that task had finished then they can proceed to building the waterwheel as scheduled.That because they will be able to sow vegetable seeds, so this task took the highest priority.Because at the evening there will be no field or manufacturing work, Kazura decided to use this chance to teach Valetta. 「I understand. Then, I’m off!」[7]
「Yes. Please, be careful!」 While Valetta waving her hand to send him off, Kazura left the residence behind. ✦✧✦✧ 「Ma-My back hurtsss...... I wonder if I should go to a shiatsu[8] massage next time......」 Among the villagers, who were scattering fertilizer wholeheartedly, was Kazura who stretched his back while grasping at it.After returned to Japan after parting with Valetta, he once again went to Home Center and purchased a large quantity of fertilizer that he then transported to the village. Up until now, Kazura had transported over 1000 kg fertilizer using a pullcart him self. So, the result was as expected.As it took quite a time to transport everything to the village, less than 1 hour after the villager started to scatter the fertilizer, the sky color already turned orange.By the way, Kazura’s lunch today was a gyudon[9] with extra-large egg serving at his favorite shop that he quickly finished. 「Kazura-san, we will be finished after this, so you can go back to the residence first and take a break.」 Seeing Kazura groan while grasping his back, Valetta worriedly said so to him.Similar to the other villagers, Valetta looked a little tired but she still more or less in a good shape. 「No-no, for me to return home first by myself is......」 「But, it’s not good to push yourself too hard. If you are tired then you must rest your body.」 「Valetta, you return to the residence with Kazura-san and give his back a massage.」 Valin, who had seen that both of them was arguing back and forth, spoke up to address Kazura’s hesitation. 「Ah, no need to go to so far. All right, I will return by myself and put my body to rest.」 Kazura was answering while being flustered. 「That’s right. Let’s us return together.」 Valetta took Kazura’s hand and forcefully guided him to the residence.[10] ✦✧✦✧ 「Then I will go and quickly return.」 (Val) 「Yes, but it’s fine to take your time.」(Kaz) Valetta held soap and a bucket of hot water that had been heated in the hearth, and went to the yard.They returned to the residence to take break, but as expected, there is no way they weren’t bothered by the fertilizer smell on their body. So they decided to wash their body first.Kazura went first to wash his body and it was Valetta’s turn after him. 「Even if the yard had wooden wall, for a grown-up woman to take a bath there is still not good...In the winter, the chill could cause Cold[11]. Maybe next time I should make a simple adjoining room in this residence.」
It maybe a common thing in this world, but as expected Kazura was bothered about it.While thinking such things, Kazura opened his travelling bag that contained a large-size notebook and pencil box. He also took out several textbooks that he purchased from the bookstore. 「Okay then, I know I had said that I will teach her, but what should I teach to her? I have brought a few textbook, but I wonder if they will be useful......」 And so, he was flipping the book pages to skim it. 「Huh? What is a 『How to Start a Popular Café』 book doing in here? ........ I wonder if I put it in the basket by mistake.」 Kazura was muttering things like that for a while as he read the book when Valetta, who had finished cleaning her body, arrived. 「Thanks you for waiting.... Ah, is that possibly a book?」 「Yes, I brought several books that I think could be useful for Valetta-san’s study. But this one is a book that I brought by mistake, you see.」 Overwhelmed by curiosity, Valetta sat beside Kazura who opened a book to peek at the book's content from the side.As she took a look at the book together with Kazura, the sweet soap smell that came from Valetta make his heart thump with *doki*doki* sound. Kazura turned his eyes to Valetta, who was fresh from bath and had her eyed glued to the book. 「Ka-Kazura-san..... Is this thing in the book a.... drawing?」 「Drawing? Ah, that’s right, how can I forget!」 What Valetta referred to was a illustrated page plastered with a title:「Room Design to Attract People.」If it was the letter then it would be fine, but it was a big photograph printed on it.Things like photographs didn’t exist in this world, so it was not strange that Valetta was surprised after seeing it.But, it can’t be helped since she already saw, so Kazura decided to give a simple explanation to Valetta. 「Ah... This thing.... This is called ‘Photograph’; it takes the scenery and draws it on the paper without a tiny bit difference from the real condition..... Do you understand?」 「Etto[12]..... So it is possible that the scenery in this house can also be drawn like this, right?」 「Correct. You surely are quick to understand .」 Although Valetta was seriously looking at the picture on the book, suddenly, she noticed something. 「Ano, could I touch the book?」 She asked permission for touching the book to Kazura. 「Amazing..... I never see a parchment that is as thin as this. May I know what kind of skin it came from?」 「Ah, that’s not made from skin. It was made from a tree.」 「....... Eh?」 After listening to what Kazura had said, Valetta, who touch the book page with admiration, once again become speechless. 「Uummm.... well, the tree undergo a lot of process before turn into paper. But I don’t really know what kind of process, that is.」
̀「So this is from a tree......」 Seeing Valetta murmuring while touching the paper, Kazura talked to himself to seek the exact process of paper manufacturing from trees. Finally, he began to talk about the real topic for this evening. 「By the way, as what I had promised before, let’s us start to study. What do you want me to teach you about?」 Listening to Kazura’s question, Valetta answered with a small voice while still looking at the book. 「I heard that the people who live at the Royal Capital studied things like Law, History, Theology, and the likes.」 「......」 Hearing Valetta’s answer, this time it was Kazura who stiffened.He previously intended to teach Valetta using curriculum based on Japan’s Compulsory Education[13], but if you think about it, this world's study subjects and Modern Japan's study subjects were not the same.Even if it just Law or History, for Kazura that just arrived at this other world less than 2 weeks ago, he had nothing to teach Valetta about. 「...... I’m sorry, I can’t teach you anything. The study content of education in my country and education in Arcadia is very different.」 「Eh?」 Valetta became a little silent after hearing Kazura’s answer. Then she quickly opened her mouth. 「If it the things that Kazura-san knows about, then I wish you to teach me everything about it. I didn’t expect to receive the same education as the people in the Royal Capital anyway.」 「However, what should I teach about.....」 Hmm.... Kazura was pondering, so Valetta also joined an began to think about it. Then she came out with a nice idea and raised her face with an expression of “Eureka”. 「Then, I wish to learn about Kazura-san’s country letters. So that I could read that book.」 Hearing Valetta, Kazura replied with 「I see」. 「Ah the letters, right? Well, since we can understand each other's language, it means that the grammar is identical, so I think it will be relatively easy to memorize it..... I understand. That is a fine idea, but there something I want you to do in exchange.......」 「In exchange?」 This was a nice chance to solve one cause for Kazura’s concern, so he told it to the puzzled Valleta. 「I also want to learn about this country's letters. Since, I think that I completely unable to read or write in this country's letters.....」 To Kazura’s words, Valetta looked a little surprised, but she quickly smiled and answered, 「All right.」 「Then, shall we begin?」 「Ah, before that, the back massage. It’s hurt right? Please lie down in here.」 Thus, Kazura to Valleta, and Valetta to Kazura. Each of them learn how to read and write from each other.