House (1)
Tiles. In other words, roofing materials. Without them, a house wouldn't be a proper house.
With that in mind, Marylia immediately began thinking about the shape of the tiles.
"Let's see... Considering the amount of clay needed, it's either simple rounded tiles or flat tiles. Rounded tiles seem difficult to mass-produce... But flat tiles might have fragile parts that could break during firing..."
There are various shapes of tiles.
Some are gently curved rounded tiles, while others are flat tiles with a raised edge, designed to be used as roofing tiles.
Additionally, the shape of the tiles affects how the roof is assembled. Rounded tiles are laid with the concave side facing up first, and then another tile is placed with the convex side facing up, spanning the concave ones.
On the other hand, flat tiles are hooked onto the roof beams. Naturally, the tiles must be laid snugly without gaps to prevent water from seeping in.
… As Marylia thought about it.
"Rounded tiles are less likely to leak."
That was her conclusion.
With rounded tiles, rainwater flowing off the convex upper tiles would all be directed into the concave tiles below. These concave tiles would act like gutters, channeling the rainwater off the roof.
In contrast, she thought flat tiles might allow rainwater to run down the sides, increasing the risk of leaks. And to prevent that, more tiles would be needed, along with beams to support the extra weight... In the end, it would be a hassle.
Roofing materials are not so much to block rain as to efficiently divert rainwater off the roof.
"Alright, let's go with rounded tiles."
With this decision made, Marylia quickly set about making rounded tiles... which meant cutting down some trees!
Making rounded tiles was going to be challenging. Since they're tiles, they need to be uniform, or the process would be inefficient. But achieving uniformity meant not just standardizing the size of the clay sheets, but also ensuring they all had the same curvature!
… This meant she would either have to make a ceramic mold to shape the tiles and dry them to match, or use a large, gently curved log and lay the clay sheets on top to dry.
Obviously, a ceramic mold wouldn't be very efficient. Unlike bricks, you can't make a large number of tiles from a single mold. You'd have to wait for the clay shaped on the mold to dry enough to hold its shape. Naturally, this is quite inefficient.
And duplicating the mold isn't ideal, either. If you keep duplicating molds, eventually, you'd end up with a mold that significantly deviates from the original. That would defeat the purpose of using a mold in the first place.
But to find a log with a curvature suitable for tiles... It needed to be quite thick. Cutting down such a log would be a big job.
After all, Marylia's stone axe was more suited for making scratches and then breaking things off, rather than actually cutting.
But there was no other choice. For now, Marylia had to do what she could...
… And so, leaving two golems to tend the furnace, Marylia set out to cut down a thick tree with the other eight golems.
"Umm... this one should do, I think."
Marylia chose a suitable tree and decided to cut it down.
It was probably thicker than Marylia's waist. It was quite a respectable tree. It was also quite tall, so cutting it down required a bit of courage.
"Okay, let's start shaving it down. Hah, here we go..."
… And with that, Marylia began to shave off the bark around the tree's circumference with a knife.
She moved the knife blade from top to bottom, creating many upward-facing splinters.
Once she had finished one full circle...
"Now let's move on to the axe."
She swung the axe down. Yes, the axe must be swung downward. The angle against the wood should be very shallow, almost straight down, but that's fine.
The axe blade would catch on the splinters created by the knife and stop. Then, it would create new splinters.
By repeating this process, the wood would gradually be shaved down to a certain height. Gradually, she would thin the wood, and finally, she would loop a vine around the top of the tree and pull it down to break it. That's how it would go.
… But, well, it was tough.
No matter how you looked at it, it was a difficult task. But there was no other way!
Given the tools she had, this was the only method. Marylia sighed, "I wish I had a saw..." but alas, she didn't have one!
Marylia eventually switched places with the golems, letting them handle the task of cutting—or rather, shaving—the tree. Such tedious and time-consuming labor was best left to the golems.
Marylia tied several ropes made of woven vines around the upper part of the tree, pulling the ropes in two directions to ensure the tree would fall opposite the golems swinging the axe. She hooked the ropes onto other trees and tied them securely. Some ropes were handed to the golems, instructing them to pull when needed.
"I hope this works..."
Feeling a bit anxious, Marylia watched over the slowly chipping tree trunk and the hard-working golems.
Then the moment came.
With a creak, the tree tilted more than ever before.
"The tree's going to fall~ Everyone, pull!"
At Marylia's command, the golems did their best with all their might. With cracking and splintering sounds, the tree finally fell with a loud crash!
"Is everyone okay? … Looks like no damage. Oh, thank goodness~..."
Marylia immediately checked over the golems.
… She had braced herself for the possibility that some golems might get damaged while cutting down the tree, but fortunately, not a single one was harmed.
Relieved by this outcome, Marylia turned her attention back to the task at hand.
"... Alright, let's trim the branches. It’s better to cut and process them back at the base."
Marylia began clearing the branches with her stone axe. The golems, those equipped with stone axes, followed her lead, cutting branches. The other golems busied themselves by gathering and organizing the trimmed branches...
"Alright, let's lift it... ready, and lift!"
And so, Marylia and the golems began transporting the log!
At times like these, Marylia was grateful she wasn’t alone.
With eight golems, they managed to lift the log!
For now, they left the log as it was once it reached the base.
… Ideally, they would split the log in half, then split those halves again, creating four half-logs to lay out in the brick drying area. But she didn't have the energy for that right now.
"First, I want you all to make stone wedges, alright?"
She set the golems to work on chiseling stones. To split the log lengthwise, they would need to drive multiple wedges in to ensure a clean split.
If only she had a proper steel axe, she could split the wood like firewood... but this is what it meant to lack metal tools.
Now then.
With the golems, including the Mud Golems, sharpening stones by the river, Marylia finally had her late lunch and early dinner.
Today, besides her usual meat and wild vegetable soup, she tried rehydrating some dried apricots and wrapping them with thin slices of smoked meat. It turned out quite tasty, so she thought she might try making it again when she had the time.
After finishing her meal, Marylia removed the bricks from the furnace. This batch was reasonably well-fired... Of course, some bricks cracked from improper firing, but that was to be expected. It's something she had come to accept as part of the process.
To ensure she could continue building and brick-making the following days, she took all the bricks out of the furnace, sifted the accumulated ash, and stored it in a pot, kneading it with water and shaping it into balls to dry...
Well, it's just in Marylia’s nature not to put off until tomorrow what she could do today.
The next day. Day 34 of exile.
Marylia was firing bricks from the morning, while simultaneously driving the wedges the golems had made into the log from yesterday.
With a large stone, she hammered the sharpened stone wedges into the side of the log.
"Oh my, this is going nicely."
The wedges, driven in, began to split the wood. Slowly but surely, the log was starting to split in half.
"Hehe, good~ this part looks doable. Now, let's wedge in the stick..."
Once the wedges had done their job, she jammed a wooden stick into the widening split, securing it. Then, hammering the stick further into the still-connected part of the log...
With cracking sounds, the log split apart. And soon, the log was perfectly split in half!
"Now I can make the tiles... it took a while, but I got there."
Marylia let out a breath of relief and smiled.
Looking at the split log, a sense of accomplishment gradually welled up within her.
… And with this, she was one step closer to completing her brick house!
What do you think about this chapter?
