House (5)
Mortar is once again used for setting the battens.
While the battens are expected to stabilize under the weight of the roof tiles, it’s still better to secure them to some extent.
Mortar is applied, and the battens are placed on top. It’s less about fixing the battens to the bricks directly and more about creating a grip to prevent them from slipping.
As long as the battens are properly held in place, the weight of the tiles will stabilize them. This should be good enough.
"Alright, let's do this~"
Marylia immediately started applying mortar onto the cracked tiles and began using the smaller broken tile pieces like a trowel to spread the mortar!
She placed the battens onto the mortar. The mortar squished and formed around the battens to hold them in place.
Then, she added more mortar, adjusting it to create small ridges on the bricks to prevent the battens from rolling off.
"This should do it… Yep, looks good."
After that, the mortar needed some time to set. While waiting, she continued fixing the other battens, and by late morning, all the battens were set in place, spanning the brick wall.
After lunch, she was eager to start laying the tiles, but she decided to wait until the mortar had fully hardened.
She reasoned that while it might be fine to start laying tiles as long as the battens didn’t roll, she didn’t want to risk breaking any tiles at this point. If they cracked now, it would delay completion since it would take time to fire more tiles. Ultimately, she concluded it was better to wait a day.
Though Marylia was restless, she spent the day gathering firewood and lumber with the golems, resumed making salt, and smoked some of the wicker items she had woven.
On the 46th day of exile, the long-awaited moment to tile the roof had finally come.
After a quick breakfast, Marylia headed straight to the brick house.
"Tiles!"
And thus, the tile-laying began. The long-awaited tiling. Marylia’s spirits were high for this much-anticipated task!
And so—
"Alright, time for a piggyback ride. Hehehe, let’s do this!"
With the Terracotta Golems helping, Marylia set to work, tiling the roof!
Roof tiling wasn’t all that difficult, especially since the rounded tiles Marylia had made didn’t require intricate hooking or locking.
First, she started at the bottom edge. The tiles were lined up on the battens, with the concave side facing up. These tiles would act like gutters, directing rainwater off the roof smoothly.
Once the first row was done, she moved to the next row up. The upper tiles overlapped the edges of the lower row. In this way, she completed one side of the roof with just the concave tiles.
After finishing one side, she began placing convex tiles on top, spanning the gaps between the concave tiles below. This method not only filled the spaces between the concave tiles but also allowed the convex tiles to efficiently channel rainwater onto the concave ones below.
She continued layering the convex tiles in the same way, overlapping each lower row with the next. When the tiles were snugly fit together, they resembled the scales of a fish or dragon. Marylia quite liked this sight.
"Phew, this is pretty tiring. Especially since I have to tile from the inside…"
Despite her love for this view and her desire to create a safe, comfortable brick home, the work was indeed hard.
Working from high up, delicately balancing on the battens, Marylia was the one doing all the tiling since she was more nimble than the Terracotta Golems. They stayed on the ground, handing her the tiles.
Still, there was a sense of fulfillment.
After all, the roof was gradually taking shape through her efforts. It’s rewarding to see tangible progress, and Marylia, encouraged by the roof coming together, continued to work diligently.
And then—
"Phew… It’s done!"
Finally, by placing the convex tiles over the ridge at the roof's peak, the roof was complete!
Marylia had the golems help her down from the roof, returning to the ground.
And when she looked up again… the simple, handmade terracotta tile roof looked incredibly charming!
“Hahaha, all that hard work paid off, didn’t it?”
Marylia, delighted, smiled brightly as she circled around her newly completed house several times, inspecting the roof.
After circling it repeatedly, she smiled with satisfaction, thoroughly enjoying the home she had finally acquired!
"Let’s just sleep here starting tonight! There’s no bed yet, though!"
Smiling, Marylia laid out two woven vine mats and covered them with the pelt of a peryton before lying down.
… Well, she could use a couple more mats. The brick floor seemed to be drawing away her body heat. Still, Marylia chuckled quietly, pleased and in a good mood!
"I’ll make the bed... tomorrow! Then, let’s see, a chimney, and then the stove... hehe, by the day after tomorrow, I should be able to cook indoors.”
Yes, Marylia had a house now. Having a house meant she could cook indoors! She would no longer have to worry about the weather—rain or wind—while cooking!
"I might need charcoal instead of firewood for indoor use. Well, I’ll think about that after I’ve built the chimney and stove and tried it out."
Marylia immediately began planning her interior. “I’ll put a wooden box to use as a table over here, a shelf over there... the bed will be here, and I could use a few more mats...,” she thought.
Overcome with excitement, she started bringing in anything already usable—like the wooden box she was using as a table, some tableware, and woven baskets.
"Finally, I can use this!"
… Among the items she brought in was a small ceramic bottle, fired along with the bricks. She had intended to use it for liquids, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use it as a vase to display flowers, either.
Luckily, the island was full of beautiful flowers. It was just the beginning of summer, but even in autumn, there would surely be flowers to pick. She could place one in the room every day.
Yes. After all, Marylia had a house! She had a house!
Still brimming with excitement, Marylia started selecting pieces of wood she had gathered the previous day, thinking, “This one for the bed! This one for the shelf!” She even got so carried away that she began assembling the frames!
That said, it became difficult to work as night fell. As the light dimmed, and it became hard to see her hands, she stopped for the day.
Marylia quickly hung a pot over the campfire, tossed in some smoked meat and wild greens, and made a simple stew. Then, in the darkness of the now pitch-black forest, she walked back to her house.
"I'm home~!"
… That’s right! Marylia had a house! She had a house!
"Hehehe, it’s so nice to have a home~”
She lit a small lamp—a clay dish filled with cockatrice fat, with fibers from a vine inserted as a wick—and placed it on the table.
"Ah, having walls and a ceiling to reflect the light makes even this tiny flame surprisingly visible."
This simple oil lamp didn’t emit much light. It couldn’t possibly illuminate the entire room. However... it was enough to see her stew and bowl, and the soft glow was soothing. The light, confined within the room, was vastly different from lighting up the outdoor night.
"Hehe, lighting a lamp just to enjoy this tiny flame isn’t bad at all."
Marylia reminisced about the times she had brought a lamp into the attic of the Odeil family’s house to read books at night.
Back then, she had found comfort in the small flame’s warmth, just as she did now. Ever since that time, Marylia had loved fire in its various forms.
She still enjoyed gazing at the crackling campfire or watching the furnace flames rise while firing bricks or pottery.
… But now, with a house at last, she was reminded of the cozy charm of small flames.
The warm glow of the fire bathed the simple brick walls in even warmer tones.
The flickering flames cast dancing shadows, which added to the room’s comfortable atmosphere.
"... Having a home really is wonderful~"
With a soft sigh, Marylia smiled brightly as she once again savored the cozy feeling of having her own home.
That night, she fell asleep just like that. Lying on two layers of mats and beneath the pelt of the peryton on her brick floor, Marylia slept deeply for the first time in a while, even past sunrise.
… The reason for this was simple enough. The relief of finally having her own house caused all her accumulated fatigue to come rushing out.
But if there was another reason...
"Fwaah... oh my? What time is it now?"
On the morning of her 47th day in banishment, Marylia glanced around the dim interior.
And then... she quietly opened the door and gasped.
"... It’s nearly noon!"
Yes.
Marylia had slept in for the first time in ages! The reason was simple!
"... Until now, I didn’t have any walls. When the sun came up, it was so bright I would naturally wake up... but now, that doesn’t happen!"
Up until now, Marylia had lived by the rhythm of the sun—sleeping when it set, waking when it rose. She had no choice, given that she had been sleeping and waking in what was practically an open space!
And now!
"I need to make windows..."
Her house... still didn’t have windows!
What do you think about this chapter?
