Chapter 29

House (3)
The wind persisted until the afternoon. After that, the rain simply soaked the forest, and ceased by late night.

… And there was Marylia, under the roof of the brick drying shed, lying beside the fire on the freshly woven mat from that day, spending her time leisurely!

“... The rain has stopped. But the bed is still probably soaking wet...”

Marylia hesitated a little but decided to sleep right where she was. Though the bed was made of a hammock woven from wooden vines, if it's wet, it would still be cold. Sleeping in the cold would surely lead to her catching a cold, and so she made her decision.

“Well then, I'll leave the fire watching to you all. If anything other than the firewood catches fire, wake me up right away. Goodnight.”

After giving her orders to the golems, Marylia went to sleep once again.

… Even though the forest was chilled by the rain, it was warm sleeping near the fire. Thanks to her strong nerves, Marylia slept soundly!

And then came the next morning.

“Good morning. Yawn~... Ah, the post-rain forest is so beautiful.”

The trees' leaves hadn’t fully dried by the morning. Occasionally, droplets fell with a *plop* here and there, so the undergrowth was probably still fairly damp as well.

But that didn’t stop Marylia from heading out with energy.

“Alright! Let’s go see what washed ashore!”

… After all, the beach held exciting prospects!

Stepping on the wet underbrush with her vine-woven sandals, Marylia cheerfully made her way to the coast.

And there...

“Oh my... There’s a lot! Wow, this is amazing!”

Clapping her hands in excitement, Marylia saw a collection of driftwood and other items washed up on the beach!

“Oh, lots of burlap sacks! How wonderful.”

First, burlap sacks. It seems they were washed ashore with their contents still inside! Marylia happily checked what was inside and...

“Wheat!”

She cried out in delight! The contents were wheat! This was cause for celebration! Marylia was practically ready to dance with joy!

But now wasn’t the time for dancing. She needed to quickly check the rest of the drifted items and retrieve them before the waves could carry them away again. With discipline, Marylia ordered two golems to carry three wheat-filled burlap sacks, two empty sacks, and what appeared to be a paddle that had gotten stuck on one of the sacks, back to her base.

Finding the paddle was especially thrilling. A paddle is used for rowing, but more importantly, it’s a stick with a flat board at the end. That’s right, a board!

“Hehe, this will make a perfect cutting board.”

… For Marylia, who was desperate for boards to use for work surfaces, the paddle was an exciting find!

The scavenging continued.

First, a broken wooden box and inside it, a crab. Looks like roasted crab will be on the menu for lunch!

Next, a broken candelabrum-like object. It's basically iron parts, which was very useful. She could dismantle the handle portion, hammer it into a board, and sharpen it for a makeshift knife.

Then, a fishing net. It must have been lost from some fishing boat. She’ll gladly put it to use.

And then...

“A barrel!”

A barrel.

It was a barrel.

In front of Marylia’s eyes stood a barrel!

“W-what could be inside...? Ah, just water.”

Though it was just water inside, which wasn’t too thrilling, the barrel itself was a treasure.

After all, a barrel is a large container. A large, waterproof container. That’s a barrel! Something her current tools couldn’t possibly create—a marvelous testament to human ingenuity!

“... If I had this, I wouldn’t have needed to make those large pots...”

With a slightly distant look in her eyes, Marylia gently stroked the barrel. Well, the large pot she had made could still find some other use...

… Looking over all the flotsam, Marylia had a thought.

“... Could it be that a ship was wrecked?”

There was an assortment of items that looked as though they had fallen off a ship. While it wasn’t enough to suggest an entire ship had sunk, it seemed likely that during a storm, items stored on the deck had been tossed overboard...

"…… Well, let's not worry about it."

Naturally, Marylia wasn't concerned. There was nothing she could do about it anyway. However, she did check the coastline to ensure that no stranded humans had washed ashore. None were found.

Though a poor ship might have met a tragic fate, the harvest was quite bountiful. Marylia cheerfully returned to her base, humming in high spirits, and immediately set to work filling the barrel with tanning liquid.

She boiled the bark in a pot, poured it into the barrel, then repeated the process.

"… This is a lot of work…"

Since the pot wasn’t very big, making enough tanning liquid to fill the barrel was a daunting task. But there was no other way!

Leaving the tanning process to the golems, Marylia returned to stacking bricks. She estimated that only three more layers were needed to complete the brick portion. Once that was finished, she could start placing the roof tiles.

"The tiles… hmm, is it time to fire them yet…?"

She wanted to fire the roof tiles soon.

Though they might not have dried completely, they were thinner than bricks, so she figured they wouldn’t take as long to dry. Without further ado, Marylia began firing the tiles!

She packed the furnace full of tiles and started a fire. At first, it was a low flame. She placed the wood directly on the ground and didn’t blow air into it.

In this state, she left it for a while to thoroughly warm both the furnace and the tiles. When firing pottery, gradual temperature changes reduce the risk of cracking. Plus, the heat would dry any tiles that weren’t fully dry yet.

Inside the furnace, the flames flickered gently, creating a cute little campfire.

When she moved the wood onto the grate, allowing air to flow under the wood and stoking the fire with bellows, the flames intensified rapidly. Flames shot out from the top of the furnace, a sight Marylia always loved.

"I hope it goes well…"

Marylia prayed and left the golems with instructions: "In about an hour, move the firewood to the grate and stoke the bellows." She then moved on to another task.

"Ahhh, this is… this would have been a hassle either way…"

Before her was the skin of a cockatrice, which she had planned to turn into parchment.

Since it was too much trouble to bring it inside during the rain, she had left it outside. Unfortunately, the wind had loosened several of the vines holding the skin taut, leaving it sagging awkwardly.

It couldn’t be helped. The wind had been too strong. The method she used to stretch the skin wasn’t sturdy enough to withstand winds that strong, turning the skin into a sort of sail.

"Oh no, it’s torn… I'll have to punch new holes."

She had stretched the skin by punching holes along the edges, threading vines through them, and pulling it taut in all directions. But now, some of the holes had torn. With a sigh, Marylia punched new holes and threaded the vines through, securing the skin once more.

"… Well, a little more fat has been removed, so let’s call it a win."

The tear wasn’t a big deal, since the outer parts of the skin would be trimmed off when making parchment. As long as the center remained intact, it was fine.

Recalling that she would have to "rub stone powder into it and degrease it again once it dries a bit more," Marylia ordered the golems to gather stone powder: "Please put the stone powder from the millstone into this bowl."

The process was long, but the completion of the cockatrice parchment was in sight—slowly but surely.

By snack time, the tiles were done baking.

She waited until evening when the furnace had cooled, peeked inside, and smiled.

"Ah, there are some failures, but… yes, this is good. A pass, a pass!"

Inside the furnace were the fired tiles. Some had cracked, but even the broken ones still retained a basic shape. They could be used as trays or small work surfaces. There would be no shortage of uses for them.

She sorted the intact tiles from the broken ones and had the golems carry the intact ones to the brick house.

"Now, tomorrow's tasks…"

Using the leftover charcoal from the campfire, Marylia began writing on the broken tiles.

With clay boards and charcoal, she could at least make notes!

"Ehehe. Before pen and ink, this will do."

Smiling, Marylia thought to herself, "If I come up with a good poem, I’ll write it on a broken tile and keep it."

It felt like she had taken a small step forward in civilization!

Before bed, Marylia submerged the skin of a peryton into the tanning barrel.

"I hope it tans well…"

Once the skin had rehydrated, she would need to beat and knead it repeatedly before soaking it again. However, since this particular skin still had feathers attached, she wasn’t sure how it would turn out.

Marylia watched the skin sink into the tanning barrel, praying for success.

That night, she slept in her bed for the first time in a day. The rain had dried, and the bed felt as comfortable as ever.

Soon, though, she would either remodel or dismantle this bed. Once her house was complete, the bed would move there.

"… Maybe I’ll keep this bed as is for now…"

As she lay in bed, gazing up at the starry sky, the thought of dismantling it felt a little sad. With a soft chuckle, she mused, "This is a kind of luxury too," and fell asleep under the starlight.