Chapter 129
The winter shoes Three-Eyes brought me.
I was amazed by how well they were made.
What even is Three-Eyes?
Thanks to the hard work of Three-Eyes and the giant bug, the clothes were finished ahead of schedule.
Lately, all sorts of carefully crafted clothes have been appearing.
The clothes made with Usa's ribbons are so cute that even I can tell.
If I don't rein them in at a certain point, they'll run wild.
The clothes were perfect, but the problem was the shoes.
The shoes I'm wearing are rubber sneakers.
I understood what rubber was, but I had no idea how it was made.
I'd heard there were rubber trees, but beyond that... I was completely ignorant.
Since looking for rubber would be reckless, I gave up on it right away.
So I decided to think of a different kind of shoe and remembered zori.
I naively thought I could make them by drying the stalks after removing the wheat, and gave it a try.
But in the end, I had no idea how to weave them and gave up.
It's impossible to make them just from having seen and worn them.
Even so, after wearing them for a year, they were so worn out that the fabric was almost about to develop a hole.
After the failed attempt at zori, Three-Eyes and the others worked hard.
Based on the drawing I'd made... I still can't believe they managed to make shoes from that.
The first thing they completed was a setta imitation.
It was a wooden board with a cord threaded through it.
I could wear them, but they were a little impractical in the forest.
The imitation setta kept flopping around.
Next, they modified the setta.
They added straps to make a type that could be secured to my feet.
The finished product felt like a botched pair of sandals.
My feet could be secured by tying the straps, but the board underneath was hard and hurt my feet when I walked.
I thought I'd get used to it, but they immediately made revisions.
They checked the size? Shape? of my feet and worked on the wood forming the soles.
They completed something like setta sandals that fit perfectly.
They worked fine even when I ran through the forest and proved useful in summer.
The fact that deep anti-slip grooves were added to the soles partway through... I want to believe it was a sign of Three-Eyes's affection.
Sandals are cold in winter.
So I was thinking of wearing several pairs of socks when Three-Eyes and the others worked hard yet again.
They used fur for the soles to keep my feet warm, then shaped thin leather into shoes.
They seem to have made good use of the leather's natural shape, but I can't tell how they made them even when I look at them.
When I admired them and looked at Three-Eyes and the others, they gave me thumbs-up signs and puffed out their chests.
...Who taught you that pose?
In any case, thanks, Three-Eyes and the others.
It looks like the children's shoes were finished too. Though they were still frightened, the children thanked Three-Eyes and the others.
They no longer freeze up when a rock golem is nearby. I guess they've gotten used to them.
I checked how comfortable the shoes were on the snow.
...Oh no, they weren't waterproof.
My feet are cold.
Three-Eyes is staring at me... No, the shoes are perfect! There's no problem!
A few days later, several pairs of spare shoes arrived. Thank you.
...
The children have gotten used to the Drunken Gathering in front of them too.
I thought of all sorts of names, but since it was a gathering of drunkards, we settled on the Drunken Gathering.
I must have been pretty drunk myself when I came up with this.
Well, it is the Drunken Gathering.
The children screamed and fainted when they attended the Drunken Gathering for the first time.
Since I'd gotten used to the Drunken Gathering, I'd forgotten to consider the children.
I really am sorry about that.
When the children woke up, they hugged each other and cried.
I'm truly sorry.
You really do get used to it after seeing it a few times.
They even started leaning forward to watch—until spells started being cast indiscriminately.
...Am I drunk?
The flying lizard's wings seem to have gotten incredibly large.
Has its body grown too?
...Is that... a lizard?