Chapter 100
We were in the middle of clearing the earth and debris blocking the highway. A huge rock fifteen meters tall was buried in it.
Since even heavy machinery couldn't move it, and blasting would take too long, we decided to make a giant golem to remove it.
To make a giant golem, we needed an equally giant core.
I made one using a log and power tools from my Item Box.
Using that core, Anemone successfully activated the golem—but the excessive strain caused her to collapse.
It was entirely my fault. Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with her body, so I was greatly relieved.
The next morning, everyone got up and had breakfast.
Anemone baked bread for us, and she seemed to be feeling fine.
Since worrying too much might make her rebel again, I decided to leave it up to her to judge how she was feeling.
Anemone seemed to dislike being treated like a child.
Well, in this world, people began working at around twelve and were treated as adults once they did.
The common sense of my original world kept holding me back, but perhaps I should not treat her like a child either.
Breakfast consisted of Anemone's bread and Primula's soup.
I brought out some butter I had bought from Shangri-La, and everyone began spreading it on their bread.
Anemone warmed the food with her magic, but Melissa was using magic of her own.
"Kenichi! This is different from cheese, isn't it?"
"This is called butter. Like cheese, it is also made from milk."
"How is it made?"
"Um—it’s a trade secret..."
"I see! Then I just have to pay, right?"
"Even so, that might be a little difficult..."
"Grrr..."
Apparently it was actually made from heavy cream, but I had never made it myself.
I had heard that shaking heavy cream while keeping it cold caused it to solidify, or something like that...
"Anemone."
"...What?"
She answered, but she would not turn toward me.
"I was thinking while I was lying in bed—if all we need to do is move the rock and drop it into the ravine, I don't think the golem needs to be shaped like a person."
"Yeah."
"Do you know what a slime is?"
"The slimy, squishy thing?"
"Then maybe a slime-like golem would work, as long as it can push the rock."
"...Okay. I'll try."
"I see. If all it needs to do is push things, there is no reason to go to the trouble of making it humanoid."
"Exactly."
The giant rock had been toppled by the golem Anemone made, and was now lying on the road.
If we placed it on the flowing earth controlled by the core, we could probably move it—probably.
Just like when I made the core, there was no way to know unless we tried.
After finishing breakfast, we immediately returned to removing the giant rock.
I brought out the core and placed it near the earth. Near the rock was a mound made from the remains of the golem Anemone had made and then collapsed.
We would use that as it was.
"Anemone, I'll leave it to you."
"Okay."
When she began chanting, the earth started enveloping the core and formed a mound. It was a mound of earth that writhed and twisted.
When the mound approached the giant rock, it enveloped it and slowly began pushing.
"Oh! It looks like this might work!"
"Yes."
"I-I see... I had never used a golem in this form before..."
"Because you learned about golems as an academic discipline, you couldn't break free of the fixed idea that a golem had to be humanoid, right?"
"I can't deny that."
"Our magic is self-taught, and we're amateurs when it comes to golems. We don't have any fixed notions, so we're free to think outside the box."
"That sounds good, but basically it just means you're making things up as you go."
"As long as we get results, that's all that matters. In a war, winning is what counts."
I suggested that the princess use a landslide-style golem to swallow enemy soldiers.
"Oh! Certainly! That would be much more effective than making a humanoid golem throw rocks or crush them underfoot!"
"H-how can you think of something so terrifying...?"
Put that way, she had a point. When I combined all the books I'd read with the knowledge I'd gained from the internet in my original world, it amounted to an enormous quantity.
It was probably an amount of knowledge the people of this world could not even imagine.
But—damn it. If I made suggestions like that, I would get dragged into warfare.
It was sad that the Japanese tendency to put their all into everything was part of my nature.
The rock was slowly moving little by little, but Anemone, concentrating with both hands held out in front of her, showed no signs of strain and remained stable.
When the rock reached the edge of the cliff, it began to fall slowly—then accelerated in an instant and crashed into the bottom of the ravine with an earth-shaking boom.
"Ohhh!"
The merchants and beastfolk who had been peering into the ravine cheered, hugging one another and hopping around.
I went over to Anemone and lifted her into my arms.
"That was amazing, Anemone!"
"Then kiss me."
"A kiss on the forehead, and a kiss on the cheek."
"Geez!"
"Hahaha."
When I returned to the tent with Anemone, the merchants surrounded us.
"Such a little girl made that enormous golem and moved that giant rock?" "Surely she serves some famous mage...?"
"My master is Kenichi."
Anemone gave them a short answer.
"Pardon me, but how could such an incredible mage have remained unknown until now...?"
"We're mages from the frontier, so rumors probably don't reach the royal capital. We rarely appear in public, either."
"Good heavens..."
"Apparently Anemone's mother was 'Platinum Armelia.'"
The princess, who had arrived late, revealed the truth to the merchants.
"Good heavens, Platinum Armelia?" "Wasn't she missing for more than a decade?" "I heard that too."
"Her mother passed away, so I took Anemone in."
There was no way I could tell them that the grand mage's child had been sold into slavery to reduce the number of mouths to feed, only to be captured by bandits.
However, if Anemone's fame spread, I was worried about what her foster parents might do.
Of course, I would respect Anemone's wishes... But I had never heard her speak about her foster parents or the younger siblings she had grown up with.
It must have been a past she did not want to touch.
The remains of the slime golem were piled into a tall mound, so we could remove them with the wheel loader.
Also, if we gathered earth around the core and made a mound, we would not need to bring out K○tsu-san every time we wanted to break up a pile of earth.
In other words, we could use the golem core to gather earth. I explained that to Anemone.
"I understand."
This would speed up the removal work even further. Since we would not need to operate K○tsu-san, it would also save fuel.
However, Primula was making a sour face as she watched the excited merchants.
"What's wrong, Primula?"
"When I see them trying to use Kenichi and Anemone's power, I wonder if I looked like that too..."
"Is that all? Well, I suppose my summoned beasts did make you look like that when you first saw them..."
"Yes—I thought I had found this man's weakness... I regret it."
"Huh? I thought it was suitably merchantlike."
"Please don't tease me."
Primula seemed to be genuinely bothered by it.
If I had been her business partner, she probably would not have cared, but I had become family.
"Don't worry about it. We're family, so it's fine to take advantage of one another."
"But the Marrow Trading Company's secret to making money says—Never go easy on family..."
"That's true. Family-run businesses tend to go easy on their own relatives."
"Exactly..."
In family businesses, employee dissatisfaction also tended to build up. I had experienced that myself.
Even if the employees worked hard and made the company profitable, it was unbearable if all that happened was the president's house and car got bigger.
Just as Anemone and I had discussed over breakfast, we gathered earth around the core to form a mound, then used the wheel loader to dump it over the cliff.
Hmm, this really speeds things up. Normally, if you wanted to move earth with heavy machinery, you'd have to carry it with a wheel loader or load it into a dump truck and transport it...
But if you turn it into a slime golem and move the earth as a mound, the work advances all at once.
During a break, I asked one of the beastfolk who was confident in their agility to cross over the debris and contact the town at the top of the pass.
Of course, the message was that the highway would be open again soon.
Then evening came. We had cleared a considerable amount of debris that day, and less than half of the earth covering the highway remained.
The highway would probably reopen in another five or six days.
While we were preparing dinner, a white horse came up from below the pass.
"Princess!"
It was a woman's voice calling for the princess—a familiar voice. When I looked, I saw a female knight with beautiful brown, curly hair.
It was the knight named Millet who had been guarding the princess.
The arriving knight swung herself down from the horse with a flourish and knelt before the princess.
"Your Highness! This is Millet. I could not sit still, so I disobeyed your orders and came here. Please forgive me!"
"Oh, Millet! You've come at just the right time. Stay here for the night, then return to the royal capital tomorrow and tell the nobles to cancel the dispatch of the work crews! The highway will be open in less than a week!"
"Pardon?"
The female knight raised her bowed head and gave a foolish reply.
"I said the debris removal will be complete! More than half of it has already been cleared! You can ask the merchants over there, too."
"My lady knight, if I may be so bold, Her Highness is telling the truth. Using enormous golems the likes of which we have never seen and an iron summoned beast that carries earth, they cleared the obstruction blocking the highway in no time at all."
"Do you understand, Millet?"
"Uh..."
The female knight did not seem to understand what was happening. It was only natural that she might not be able to comprehend something so sudden.
Anyone who had not watched the entire process would surely call it nonsense.
"But Lilith-sama, the supplies gathered by the nobles will go to waste."
"It cannot be helped. A public works project that would normally become a national undertaking will be finished in a little over ten days. The nobles' losses are trivial."
It was not as though I was worried about the nobles. To be perfectly honest, I did not care.
With the royal warrant I had received from the king, I would no longer have to associate with them or worry about them chasing after me.
We had gained one more person, but there was no problem with the amount of food. We had made plenty because we had the princess, who ate so much.
Today's menu was lesser dragon hamburgers. Since the meat was dry and completely lacked fat, I had mixed in a little lard.
The lard had worked quite well in the dumplings, so I tried doing the same thing with the hamburgers.
A large number of hamburgers were sizzling appetizingly on a griddle set atop several cassette stoves.
I chose french fries as the side dish. They only needed to be heated. Once Anemone warmed them with her magic, they were ready to eat.
"The meat is tender and full of juice, but what is this side dish?"
"They are potatoes that have been cut up and fried in oil."
"This is delicious! Give me more of this side dish!"
The princess seemed to like the french fries more than the hamburgers.
Still, how did she manage to eat so much without gaining weight?
"Yum! I've had this before, but I didn't know you could make the same dish with dragon meat!" "Is this a potato, nya? It's crispy, sweet, and delicious!"
"Oh! Yum!" "Are you people always eating food this delicious?!" "It's delicious!"
The beastfolk from the merchant caravan kept shouting, "Feed us!" so I let them eat with us. Of course, I charged them; they could not live on free food forever.
The french fries were popular with the beastfolk too.
"Haa... It's delicious, even though it's just meat that's been pounded flat and grilled. And when you wash it down with wine—haaah, it's infuriating!"
Melissa was eating her hamburger with a frustrated expression. People like her were rare.
"This is... a dish I have never eaten before. You take meat, break it apart, put it back together, and then grill it..."
The knight Millet was also eating while groaning. Since hamburgers were just meat in a slightly altered shape, she did not seem suspicious of them.
"Indeed. I must have the palace chefs make this. And, Kenichi!"
"Yes, what is it?"
"Is there enough water to fill a bath? I would like to let Millet, who rode here at full speed, take a bath."
"Certainly."
That said, the river water I had stored in my Item Box had already run out.
There was no water here. Water flowed along the bottom of the ravine, but climbing down that dangerous cliff just to fetch some was a little too much...
So, as planned, I bought water from Shangri-La. According to my calculations, one bathtub's worth would cost 12,000 yen.
Two bathtubs would cost 24,000 yen, and even if that continued for another five days, it would only be 120,000 yen—a slightly expensive bath, but well within my means.
I had made plenty of money from the antique furniture. Besides, the lesser dragon I had killed was worth money too.
After all, each scale was worth 5,000 yen. The scales alone would make me a fortune.
Still, taking a bath with bottled water was quite a luxury. It was probably comparable to a milk bath or a wine bath.
After finishing our meal, I immediately began preparing the baths.
I filled the bathtubs in the shed with water bought from Shangri-La. There was no time to remove the plastic caps and pour the water in little by little, so I cut the bottles in half with a blade and poured the water in all at once.
Since each bathtub held 250 liters, that meant 125 two-liter bottles. But if everyone helped, it was not all that difficult.
"Oh! What is this transparent container? It is wonderfully light! It would make an excellent canteen."
"I made it with my magic, so I cannot give it away."
"Even if I offer you a great deal of money?"
Well, perhaps giving her a plastic bottle would be fine. They were consumables, after all.
However, the bottles we had cut up were useless, so they went into the trash.
"Besides, even if you paid a high price, it is something that will eventually break and develop a hole."
"Hmm... Put that way, I suppose so. Is it made from a material similar to that transparent shield you used?"
"As expected of you, Lilith-sama. That is exactly right."
Anemone heated the bath with her magic. I also brought out extra water in plastic containers. Everything was ready.
The place then became a scene of naked young women giggling and splashing around.
An old man like me should withdraw. It was too dazzling—but Anemone came out with me too.
"Aren't you going to take a bath, Anemone?"
"I'm going to take one with Kenichi, so I don't need to."
"If you're an adult now, I think you should take baths by yourself..."
"...I want to!"
"Isn't that cheating?"
"It's okay to cheat! Adults are unfair!"
That was true. Adults were unfair. They switched back and forth between their true feelings and the face they showed others.
The merchants' caravan was lined up a short distance from the tent.
There were now about thirty wagons, and every batch of soup Primula made sold out.
They also bought wine from me and drank it together.
They had sunk to the depths of a hopeless situation, and now the highway would reopen in five days. It was only natural for them to celebrate.
When we returned to the tent, we decided to take our baths there.
The plastic bathtubs were being used by the women, so I brought out the drum bath we had used before.
We bought bottled water from Shangri-La, cut the containers in half, and filled the bath together.
Then Anemone heated the water with her magic. At first, we had struggled just to get into the drum bath, but now bathing in it was easy.
Since setting up the platform for the drum bath was a hassle, we used a stepladder instead.
When I was bathing alone, naked Anemone stepped over the rim of the drum and climbed in.
"Miss Ane, if you're an adult, shouldn't you bathe alone?" "Yeah, nya."
"I said it's okay!"
Anemone was in a bad mood because everyone kept pointing that out.
After we all washed ourselves, we splashed hot water over the beastfolk and finished up.
We dried the wet interior of the tent with Anemone's magic.
We opened up the side of the tent—
"Dry!"
The wet floor turned into white steam and dried instantly. It was incredibly convenient.
However, it was not actually being heated until the water turned into steam. It seemed to be the sort of magic that skipped over the laws of physics.
But the jet heater was being used for the giggling and splashing happening over there.
Ah, what should I do...? Should I buy another one? I bought an additional jet heater from Shangri-La, then set it up on a table.
I filled it with fuel and lit it, and roaring blue flames burst out.
I put the drum bath into my Item Box and dumped the water into the trash bin, leaving it perfectly clean.
Once I got dressed, the other bath seemed to be over, so Anemone and I cleaned up our bath.
Then we dried the wet floor with magic again.
"Dry!"
"Thanks, Anemone."
"Yeah."
All that remained was to go to sleep. Anemone said that using the giant slime golem had been less strenuous than making a two-legged robot.
She probably had not needed to concentrate or control it as precisely.
We all went to bed like that.
I lay in a sleeping bag with Anemone and read a book on my tablet again.
Then I heard footsteps outside the tent. Since the tent was thin, footsteps on the ground carried clearly inside.
When the tent entrance opened, Primula appeared in the moonlight, dressed in pale pink sleepwear.
"Primula, what's wrong?"
"Oh? Is it forbidden to come if I don't have a reason?"
"N-no, that's not what I meant..."
Even a two-person sleeping bag could not fit three people. I bought another two-person sleeping bag from Shangri-La and got in with Primula.
"This is very warm..."
As she said that, Primula hugged me.
"Wait, Primula. Are you planning to do it here?"
"Oh? Is that a problem?"
"It's not that it's a problem, but... Nyamena and Myaree have probably noticed too, haven't they?"
"I don't mind. I put up with it when you do it with them, so are you saying the reverse is not allowed?"
"I'm not saying that, but..."
Of course, it was not impossible in this sleeping bag...
But in the end, we did it.
------◇◇◇------
The next morning.
Anemone woke up angry.
"Why were you sleeping with Primula when you were sleeping with me?!"
"Oh, Anemone—you are an adult, so shouldn't you sleep by yourself?"
Primula said that as she hugged me while still naked. If the two of us had slept in the same bag like that, it was only natural that Anemone would be angry.
"Then I'm an adult too, so I'll do it naked!"
"You'll have to wait until you're a little older."
"That's not fair!"
"But adults are unfair, right?"
"Grrrr!"
I apologized to Anemone, just in case. It would be a problem if I teased her too much and she became rebellious.
"Haaah... Seriously, sleeping beside you two while you were doing that was rough." "Seriously, nya."
The beastfolk, with their sharp ears, had noticed after all.
"Meow."
Bell entered through the tent entrance and rubbed herself against me.
"Yes, yes, you're hungry. I understand."
I had not prepared anything for breakfast, so cereal and Shangri-La bread would do.
As for soup, there was some left over from Primula's sales. After all, we had enough lesser dragon meat to rot.
I wanted to remove the organs from this corpse and cool it somewhere, though.
Well, if I kept it in my Item Box, time was almost stopped, so it would not spoil...
We all prepared breakfast and began eating.
The knight Millet apparently planned to turn right around and return.
"Millet, I know it will be difficult, but I'm counting on you. If the message is delayed, the nobles may set out."
"Understood."
"Also, if the highway opens, tell His Majesty that I will go directly to Sobana with Kenichi and the others."
"What?! Your Highness, what are you saying?"
"I am not asking for your opinion."
"U-understood..."
Millet would probably be scolded when she returned. Truly, there was nothing more arduous than serving at court—it sounded difficult.
The maid brought paper, a pen, and a seal from the princess's luggage.
The princess was going to write a letter to His Majesty. It would be problematic if she did not explain in detail why she was going to Sobana.
When she finished writing, the letter was rolled up and sealed with red wax.
We saw Millet off as she departed with the princess's letter, and the debris removal continued smoothly throughout the morning. There were no problems.
Could the highway really reopen without a hitch?
We ate lunch and began the afternoon's work.
When I pushed the debris that had collected at the right-angle corner of the pass over the cliff with the wheel loader's enormous bucket, the road ahead came into view.
A small post town appeared near what seemed to be the top of the pass, and beyond the debris, about ten carriages were lined up just as they were on our side.
They were probably carriages waiting for the highway to reopen.
We had already sent word to the town, so they should know that the highway would open soon.
Then came the three o'clock break.
We chatted, ate snacks, and drank refreshments together. Since it looked as though the highway would open without incident, everyone's expressions were bright.
I was thinking about how I planned to go to the border town of Sobana once the work was finished.
But when I looked up, something was flying overhead.
"Hey, there's something black flying in the sky. Could it be the Deathbird we saw earlier?"
"Huh?—Boss, that's not a Deathbird. Its long tail and overall shape are different."
"Isn't it awfully big, nya?"
"Now that you mention it..."
I had no idea what it was, but Nyamena suddenly shouted.
"T-that’s a wyvern!"
As soon as she shouted, the enormous something began diving straight toward us.