Let's Prepare to Build a House in the Forest

I'd begun doing business with Marrow Company, one of the city's biggest merchants. My cut from the very first silver-goods deal alone exceeded one million yen――.

Shangri-La's charge balance shot past one million yen in no time.

――A few days later, the old man who had ordered the paper came by.

"Your one hundred sheets of paper are ready."

"Wonderful, thank you. This will help my work along."

The old man gripped the bundle of paper and checked its feel.

"Since you bought one hundred sheets, I included ten extra."

"No, I can't accept that. I'll pay for those ten sheets too."

"But..."

Apparently, the old man disliked freebies.

There sure were some unusual people in the world. Well, anyone who took up such an unusual profession as copyist was bound to be eccentric.

Still, it was a profession no one could continue without being the serious, painstaking sort of person.

He seemed to like the paper from my shop quite a bit, so given the nature of his work as a copyist, he would probably become a regular customer.

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Later, Marrow Company asked me if I had any unusual accessories, so, to meet the request, I brought in some cameo jewelry.

When I checked Shangri-La, I found identical items lined up, so they were probably machine-carved. Even so, they were expensive, costing around 100,000 yen each.

"Oh, my! How wonderful! Father, may I buy this?"

Primula-san cried out joyfully when she saw the cameo brooch.

"Honestly, what a troublesome daughter."

Even a major merchant was indulgent toward his daughter. I suppose that was no different in another world. She was the apple of his eye.

The price she paid was ten gold coins (2,000,000 yen), but this wasn't a wholesale deal; she was buying it directly.

When I asked Primula-san, delighted with the cameo brooch she was wearing, she said that accessories like this didn't exist here.

But the noblewomen who saw the cameo brooch Primula-san was wearing reacted astonishingly, and orders apparently came flooding in from women who wanted one just like it.

Buying them from Shangri-La was easy, but I couldn't wholesale several identical, machine-carved pieces. That would diminish their premium appeal.

If I were just going to sell out and run, that might have been fine――but barring any trouble, I intended to stay in this city for a while, so I couldn't do business that way.

I carefully selected about three pieces that seemed good from a design standpoint and sold them wholesale, but their prices shot up all at once, with each one selling for more than fifty gold coins (10,000,000 yen).

Though they'd acquired quite a premium, my wholesale price for each cameo was ten gold coins (2,000,000 yen).

My pockets suddenly felt much warmer――and once I had money, I could move forward with my slow-life plan.

The base for that plan would be in the forest.

They said the forest was dangerous, but going only about 200 meters in from the forest boundary probably wouldn't suddenly make things much more dangerous.

I planned to cut down the trees at that spot, clear an area, and build a house. When I searched Shangri-La, I found a cabin resembling a log house for around 1,700,000 yen.

It had a triangular roof, three windows, and a wooden deck in front of the entrance. It was fairly stylish, and it had the feel of a secret base, which was nice.

The climate here was mild, and it wasn't especially cold, so something like a log house ought to be sufficient. The cabin had about twelve tatami mats of floor space, which seemed plenty for one person.

Seeing that log house sent my expectations soaring.

Back in my original world, I'd once bought magazines and made plans to build one myself. They even published magazines specializing in log houses.

Now that I had the funds, I reduced my market-stall schedule to every other day and began working toward my otherworldly slow life.

The first thing I had to do was――build a road leading to the forest.

Living in the forest and walking all the way to town every time would be a pain, so I wanted to save time by using a bicycle or something similar.

I'd considered an electric-assist mountain bike, but――there was the problem of electricity for the time being.

It would be a problem if anyone saw me using a bicycle and the like――but fortunately, the area between the town and the forest was covered in grass taller than a person.

I would clear a path through it and make a road for bicycles. That way, I could use a bicycle while staying out of sight.

For clearing the grass, I would use an engine-powered brush cutter.

The problem was fuel, but Shangri-La sold premixed gasoline for two-stroke engines, so that seemed to solve the problem.

Premixed gasoline was gasoline and two-stroke oil mixed together in advance, and it was used in engine-powered brush cutters, chainsaws, and the like.

It might not be familiar in the cities, but it was common in the countryside, where it was used so much that the shrill sound of two-stroke engines rang out from all over the place.

There was soil beneath the grass, so once I cleared it, there shouldn't be any problem making a road.

Clearing grass by hand would be hard work, but I had Shangri-La――it was time to call upon the power of civilization: an engine-powered brush cutter.

Electric brush cutters existed too, but electricity didn't exist in this world, so naturally I couldn't use one.

Besides, I'd used an engine-powered brush cutter around my own house, so I was quite accustomed to the work.

I put my plan into action, clearing a straight path from the riverbank where I'd held my drinking party with the beastmen to the entrance of the forest.

I stood at the edge of the grass and chanted a spell.

"Here goes! Summon the engine-powered brush cutter! Click."

When I pressed the 【Purchase】 button, 30,000 yen was deducted from my charge balance, and an engine-powered brush cutter fell from the air.

I worried every time that the falling item might break, so I bought a mat and arranged for it to land on it.

When I observed where it landed, the spot seemed to be determined to some extent by my position and the size of the object.

After successfully catching the brush cutter on the mat, I bought some premixed gasoline too: four liters for 1,000 yen――250 yen per liter, considerably more expensive than ordinary gasoline.

But it couldn't be helped. Gasoline wasn't sold in this world, so this was my only option.

White gasoline for lamps was sold, but its octane rating was too low to use as engine fuel.

I poured the premixed gasoline into the brush cutter, operated the choke lever, and pulled the recoil starter. The engine started on the first pull.

I'd always cut the grass around my house, so this was familiar work for me.

When I opened the throttle, the engine roared with a shrill, raucous sound. I just had to use it to cut through this green wall.

I slung the brush cutter from my shoulder and mowed down the tall grass with a harsh, ripping sound. I tossed the cut grass into the Item Box to use for compost and the like.

Fortunately, the plants were something like pampas grass or reeds, not hard-stemmed plants like bamboo or sasa grass. The brush cutter easily swept them aside, and a path appeared before my eyes.

Surrounded by tall grass, I couldn't see anything around me, so I checked a compass from time to time to make sure the path stayed straight.

After all, it would be hard to ride along a path that twisted and wound all over the place.

I realized later that although I thought I was secretly proceeding with my plan, the guards stationed atop the castle walls had apparently been able to see everything.

It seemed they had been laughing at the strange man doing strange things.

Well, apparently no one in this city wanted to live in the forest.

On top of that, I was making a road through the grass, so I couldn't blame them for thinking I was some kind of eccentric.

As I cleared the grass and made the road, I spread gravel over it too. Shangri-La sold gravel, so I decided to use some. It was something called Class 2 crushed stone, and at 400 yen for 20 kilograms, it was dirt cheap.

It would be more than adequate for a road. This didn't seem to be a place with long periods of rain like my original world, so it should work well enough.

Once I finished clearing the grass, the next step was to secure a place to build the log house.

I bought an engine-powered chainsaw from Shangri-La and set out to fell some large trees.

My house in my original world had a wood-burning stove, so I was familiar with using chainsaws, but this was my first time felling a tree this large.

I needed space for the log house. I also wanted to try growing a few crops, so I had to set aside room for that too.

The trees were spaced fairly far apart, so cutting down about two of them should be enough to secure the space. If it wasn't, I could fell more later.

As long as I didn't make the blunder of dropping a tree onto the log house, everything should be fine.

The chainsaw I used for felling trees also had a two-stroke engine and used premixed fuel. These days, four-stroke models seemed to be available too, probably because of environmental concerns.

Personally, I thought two-stroke engines had more power and were easier to use.

Felling trees was quite dangerous, though.

When a tree fell, branches could catch on something and cause it to fall in an unexpected direction.

Forestry had once been thriving in the countryside where I'd lived in my original world, but I used to hear about accidents all the time.

My grandfather had worked in forestry too, but all he ever talked about were accidents.

A classmate of mine once had an ear blown off when the wire securing a log snapped. If it had been a few centimeters farther over, it would have struck them in the face and killed them instantly, they said.

That dangerous forestry work is now handled by a single piece of heavy machinery. Work that used to require dozens of people could be handled by one operator.

The machine grabbed the tree, cut it down, stripped off the branches, cut it to suitable lengths, and loaded it onto a truck.

――I had no idea who bought such things, but when I searched Shangri-La, it even sold forestry machinery.

If I bought one, I could probably clear the mountain by myself. Well, there was no way I was going to do that.

I steeled myself and used the chainsaw to cut a triangular notch into the large tree. I made the notch larger on the side I wanted it to fall toward――and smaller on the opposite side.

I gradually widened the notch, proceeded carefully, and then drove in an iron wedge.

As the wedge sank deep into the trunk――the large tree began to fall with a cracking sound. Once I confirmed that, I moved away without rushing――but quickly.

I'd heard from my grandfather that it was actually dangerous to dash away. You could trip over a tree root, fall, and get caught up in the collapse.

When the large tree fell, it bounced several meters into the air and rolled along with a deep, gut-shaking rumble.

If I'd been near it, I could have been caught up in it and seriously injured――or, if things went badly, even killed.

A little while later, I felled another large tree.

"Phew..."

After safely completing the major job, I bought a cola from Shangri-La and drank it. Unfortunately, it wasn't cold.

But if I bought an engine generator, I should be able to connect a refrigerator to it and chill my drinks.

I definitely wanted to buy the log house so I could enjoy that comfortable life.

I'd successfully felled the large trees, but I had to clear them away. They were in the way.

That gave me an idea for an experiment. Just how large an object could fit in the Item Box?

I tried putting the freshly felled tree in――but failed. It seemed to be too large.

The tree was about 30 meters long. Was 30 meters simply too large...? In that case, what about half that? I used the chainsaw to cut through the middle of the tree.

It was easy to say, but terribly difficult. I endured the numbness in my hands from the chainsaw's vibration and slowly cut into the tree, finally severing the last part still holding it together.

But if the tree was bent or the ground where it lay was unstable, it could spring up or roll, so I had to be careful.

At last, I finished the job――and tried the experiment again.

Would 15 meters work?――But it wouldn't go into the Item Box. So even 15 meters was too long.

"Then what about ten meters?"

――It was sucked in! The Item Box display read 【Large Log】×1.

Well, if a ten-meter object would fit, most things should fit. Even large heavy machinery probably wasn't ten meters long.

It wasn't as if there would be a bucket-wheel excavator in there――right? Just in case, I searched for a bucket-wheel excavator, but the message 【The product you are looking for is unavailable】 appeared.

"Phew..."

For some reason, I felt relieved. But if I remembered correctly, a semi-trailer truck was about twelve meters long, so it might not fit.

Well, I had no plans to use anything like that. I only had a medium-sized vehicle driver's license, and I believe that allowed me to drive trucks up to eight tons.

Eight tons was enough to carry most things. A Yu○kku truck would be even better!

Wait, why am I assuming I'll be driving a truck? Forget trucks――I'm thinking about logs right now.

Once I knew the logs could be stored in the Item Box, it was simple. I could put the cut logs into the Item Box, carry them somewhere else, and take them back out.

But I'd gone to the trouble of cutting those logs, and they could be used as firewood, so I decided to leave them nearby.

I'd moved the logs aside, but one thing still remained――the stump. A gigantic stump sat there, literally rooted in the ground.

I thought the stump might fit in the Item Box too, but apparently I had to dig it out of the ground first.

I used the chainsaw to cut it into pieces little by little, then dug up the roots with a shovel. Digging it up――digging――.

"I can't keep this up!"

I threw down the shovel and chanted a spell.

"Come on, giant machine! Summon Yu○bo! Click."

Driven to desperation by the seemingly endless, grueling work, I pressed the purchase button for a used Yu○bo――a backhoe power shovel.