Though Small, a Castle Lord

There was a lovely log-cabin-style house, so I tried buying it—and it turned out to be a construction kit.

You probably have no idea what I'm talking about—but no wonder it was so cheap. I thought a cabin this impressive for 1.7 million yen was an incredible bargain.

But what am I supposed to do with this?

I'd once done all kinds of research when I was considering building a log house, but...

How am I supposed to handle raising the frame? There's no way I can do that by myself.

"Phew..."

I let out a sigh and sank down on the spot. But when I thought about it calmly—wait, I have heavy machinery. A beam or two shouldn't be a problem.

I could just hang them from the bucket and lift them.

Anyway, I might as well read the assembly instructions.

"Hmm..."

I read through the instructions.

I see. The structure is the same as an ordinary log house. You build the walls by stacking boards, and they support the roof. That's why there are no thick posts.

The wall boards aren't logs like those in a proper log house, either. They're ordinary boards.

An ordinary house has exterior walls and interior walls, but this one has only a single layer of boards separating the inside from the outside.

In short, since you can't stand up giant boards to make the walls, you line up thin boards to create larger ones.

The beams and the rest of the structure are all made from assembled boards, with no thick lumber used at all. Maybe I really could assemble this by myself.

"I've come this far, so I might as well do it. I've already bought it, anyway..."

I read the instructions once more and got to work.

First, I checked the materials.

"Ah! The window glass is broken!"

The window frames had arrived along with everything else, and of course the glass was already fitted into them. One of the panes was broken.

Fortunately, it was only one of the three window frames. The lower-right pane of the four-pane window was broken.

What the hell? Somebody get whoever's in charge! Of course, no one came out, and there was no way to return just this one piece.

For one thing, I couldn't find anything about returns on the website. They were providing the service of delivering things all the way to another world, so I suppose they expected me to put up with something like that.

I couldn't tell whether their service was good or bad.

I had no choice but to repair it, but I couldn't find thin sheet glass for windows as a standalone item on Shangri-La.

There was sheet glass, but most of it was thick tempered glass meant for shelves and the like.

"Hmm..."

There wasn't any sheet glass, but there was acrylic sheeting. Acrylic would have to do for now. I bought a sheet for 1,000 yen and cut it to fit the window frame with a utility knife.

The glass was held in a rubber gasket. The run-down house I lived in back in the countryside, on the other hand, had the old-fashioned type held in place by a wooden frame.

They used tiny nails about a centimeter long to secure the wooden frame. They don't sell those anymore.

I think they were called glazing nails... Searching for glazing nails on Shangri-La didn't bring up anything, so I suppose there wasn't much demand for them these days.

My parents' house even had a little hammer specifically for driving in glazing nails. Since the glass used to break so often, we had a glass cutter too.

The tip of a glass cutter is made of diamond, you know—the kind of trivia my father used to share. It brought back memories of me listening with shining eyes when I was a kid.

Come to think of it, I don't see houses with cracked windows held together by tape anymore, either.

No, this was no time to indulge in nostalgia.

Once the window was repaired, I lined up concrete pier blocks on the ground, then arranged lumber in a square around the base of the cabin. The walls would rest on top of it.

There were ten pier blocks along each side. I had to adjust their height so there were no gaps between them and the lumber forming the base.

I also bought a spirit level from Shangri-La and made sure everything was properly level.

Then I started stacking the boards. The materials had notches cut into them, and I fitted them together as I stacked them higher and higher.

It was a little difficult getting them up so high—but first I lined up three stepladders. Then I used the power shovel to lift several boards bundled together and set them down temporarily.

After that, I continued building the walls.

Since the wall boards were simply stacked on top of one another, nails weren't necessary. But there were places with gaps, so I would need caulking compound and the like.

The boards had small numbers marked on them, so as long as I followed the assembly instructions, I wouldn't make any mistakes.

――A week passed while I continued this work alongside running my stall at the market.

Next came the floor――.

I put a grid made by standing boards upright and fitting them together into the floor. Around this point, problems gradually began to appear. The materials needed to be fine-tuned.

For example, some pieces were slightly too long to fit. To deal with that, I bought a cutting machine and a circular saw.

Of course, I needed electricity to run the tools, so I left the diesel generator running. I never expected this thing to be so useful.

Once the grid was fitted into the floor, I laid plywood over it. Then I built another grid on top and put insulation between the slats.

After laying floorboards over that, the floor was complete.

The walls were single-layered, but the floor was double-layered like this. Otherwise, I figured quite a lot of cold air would rise from below.

This world didn't seem to get especially cold, so this should be good enough.

While working, I got tired of driving nails, so I bought a nail gun. The nail gun cost around 3,000 yen, and 2,000 nails cost 1,000 yen—cheap.

However, a nail gun needed compressed air. It required a high-pressure compressor made for the job, so I bought one for 100,000 yen.

But now that I'd bought it, I couldn't think of any use for it besides the nail gun.

Well, as long as I kept it in my Item Box, it wouldn't cause any problems.

Normally, buying this many tools would fill up the inside of the cabin, but thanks to the Item Box, I had nothing to worry about.

――After finishing the floor, another week or so passed.

Next came the roof――.

I fixed the ridge beam, made by fitting boards together, horizontally across the center of the roof—the highest point. From there, I hung rafters made by setting boards upright, like a bamboo screen.

Once that was complete, I attached plywood over it. After finishing the plywood, I covered it with black waterproof sheeting and secured it.

For attaching the sheeting, I used a tacker—a giant stapler. When I squeezed the handle by hand, staples like those from a stapler were driven in with a series of thuds.

It cost only around 1,500 yen, but squeezing that thing repeatedly made my hands tired in no time, so I threw it aside.

I couldn't keep doing this, so I searched for tackers and found a wonderful item called a battery-powered tacker. I bought it for 6,000 yen.

"This is so much easier!"

All I had to do was press the trigger, and it drove in staple after staple. This would really speed things up.

But now that I'd bought it, I probably wouldn't have any other use for it after this job was done. It was sure to become another piece of dead weight in my Item Box.

For the final touch on the roof, I attached the roof boards.

I laid them in overlapping rows, like armor, but getting them evenly spaced and straight was quite difficult...

As someone whose profession was drawing, I couldn't stand having something ugly, so I racked my brain a little.

I temporarily fixed roof boards at equal intervals along both sides and the top of the roof, then stretched a string across them horizontally. If I used the string as a guide, I should be able to attach the boards neatly at equal intervals.

I got to work right away. Board after board went up. The nail gun was a huge help here too. If I had to hammer all these in by hand, I had no idea when I'd finish.

A professional carpenter would probably hold nails in his mouth and drive them in rhythmically, but there was no way an amateur like me could pull off something like that.

For one thing, driving nails straight is difficult. If one bent, I had to pull it out with a nail puller.

The nail gun was much more convenient than going through all that.

Once the roof boards were in place, I attached a cover to the very top of the roof, completing it.

I don't know what this cover is called, but according to the assembly instructions, it was simply two boards fitted together in a triangle.

I decided to add a little extra work. I put down waterproof sheeting and then attached another layer of boards over it. This should make it perfect.

It didn't seem like this place got the kind of long, continuous rains they had in Japan, so there shouldn't be any problems.

It took about a month in total, but even an amateur like me had somehow managed to complete the shape of the house.

Though I called myself an amateur, I'd done DIY work in the countryside, so I'd used most kinds of tools before and had experience with woodworking.

Still, this was the first time I'd assembled something this large. What I was doing wasn't all that different from putting together a bookshelf or something, but...

Looking at the completed house made me feel as though I could build something even bigger myself, and I got carried away.

What I'd completed was a fine log-house-style cabin standing on a square plot of land. But it was more of a house than a cabin.

The plot was square, but one corner of the building was cut away. The entrance was set in that section, with a deck in front of it.

The shape was complete, but there was still plenty left to do. I had to put boards on the deck, and I needed to install the window frames too.

Right, the deck needed a railing as well. But before that, I needed to paint the walls and roof.

The deck and entrance were quite high off the ground, so I also needed stairs to get up there.

If I made a makeshift set of stairs, it would be quick and easy. I could just buy concrete blocks from Shangri-La and stack them up.

But they had absolutely no aesthetic appeal. I'd replace them with thick boards when I had the time.

Now, let's decide what to prioritize――the windows should come first.

I fitted the window frames I'd stored inside the room into the walls. There were three locations, and the windows had wooden frames rather than aluminum sashes.

The window frames had old-fashioned screw-in locks, but there was no point putting sturdy locks on windows this flimsy. They'd just be broken through, so simple ones would do.

I attached a door to the entrance. It was a log-house-style cabin, but adding windows and a door suddenly made it look much more like a house.

You see small buildings called cottages around resort areas and tourist destinations, and this looked exactly like one of those. If it cost 1.7 million yen, it was cheap.

Of course, with things like this, the high cost was in the labor. If I'd hired a carpenter to build it, the labor alone would surely have cost around five million yen.

My family had once built a small shed out of corrugated metal, and they said the labor had cost two million yen at the time.

I climbed the stairs made of concrete blocks and entered the room. Inside was a twelve-tatami-mat open space. Naturally, the bare room was empty.

There was no kitchen or toilet, either. It was just a box. Still, I could install a sink and make a kitchen. I could set it up however I wanted.

Starting today, I'd sleep and live in here. But first, I needed to do something about the bleak floor, so I laid down some flooring.

Shangri-La sold simple flooring material for that purpose. At a glance, it looked like a black ebony floor, but it was actually resin in the form of adhesive sheets.

I peeled off the protective backing and stuck the sheets to the floor like stickers. In no time, I had a makeshift wood floor.

I spread a cheap carpet over it and put a bed on top.

I had a hard time choosing a bed, but I decided to buy one called a 【Natural Slatted Bed】 for 16,000 yen.

Then there was the mattress for 5,000 yen, the futon mattress for 6,000 yen, and the down comforter for 10,000 yen.

I immediately jumped onto the freshly made bed.

"Ohhh, it's so soft!"

I lay down and looked at the ceiling. Naturally, there were no ceiling boards, so the beams were exposed.

Of course, I could create a ceiling by attaching ceiling boards, and I could put up interior walls and wallpaper to make the house resemble one from my original world.

But this felt more like the slow life I wanted, so I decided to leave it as it was.

"Right, there's no lighting..."

For now, I attached a gasoline lantern to a beam and lit it. The color of the wood illuminated by the lamplight looked really nice...

But if I wanted to use electricity, I'd need to install wiring. What should I do about electricity?

That diesel generator was noisy, so even if I replaced it with a quieter type, I'd still have to pay for gasoline or kerosene...

Building a waterwheel in the river and installing a generator to charge batteries seemed like a good idea—but it would definitely get stolen.

Could I use solar panels or a wind turbine to charge batteries here?

A fair amount of sunlight came in during the day, but the hours of sunlight were a little short. Would I really be able to generate enough power by lining up several solar panels?

Well, I might as well give it a try.

As I lay on the bed, staring at the wall and worrying about the electrical work, I could see light through the gaps—it really was that full of holes.

I'd have to fill the gaps in the walls with caulking compound and paint them.

When I searched Shangri-La, I found silicone acrylic paint for sale. It was the same kind I'd used to paint the roof of my house.

It was waterproof and repelled water. This was the one.

I'd make the walls and roof dark brown. The window frames would be white. Hmm, white boards along the eaves might look good too... It was a tough decision.

I still had a mountain of work left to do.

------◇◇◇------

――Another month passed.

My house was complete.

It was a dark-brown house with white eaves and white windows.

Beside the house, I made a 10-meter-by-10-meter space for a field, and I also built a fence around the property. Posts were expensive to buy from Shangri-La, so I cut down trees here and there along the river and made my own.

I coated the posts and fence boards with preservative bought from Shangri-La.

Around the fence, I planted yellow and orange marigolds. They could be used to repel insects.

I'd bought an insect-repelling magic stone too, but its range wasn't very large and it didn't seem capable of covering the field, so I planted these yellow flowers.

There was a chance I might contaminate this world's gene pool, but if they had no effect, I'd pull them out.

I moved the bath to adjust its position and enlarged the opening for the firebox. As a result, I had to put the drum higher up—and...

I could no longer lift it by hand, so I bought a book on rigging from Shangri-La and studied it a little.

I used the power shovel to secure it on top of a stack of concrete blocks.

Then I built a platform with stairs around the drum bath, making it easier to get in and out while bathing.

I surrounded it with boards and even put a simple roof over it. Even though no one was watching, having everything completely exposed would be bad for my peace of mind.

But bathing was incredibly comfortable, and my occasional bath days had become much more enjoyable.

As an aid, I also installed pipes to hold on to. I fixed a plastic chair onto the slatted floor inside the drum, so I could use it as a step when getting out of the bath.

Of course, I could also use it as a chair to sit on while bathing.

I installed a sink at the back of the room and made a kitchen, but I didn't build any shelves or other storage. I could store everything in my Item Box.

I also changed my original sewage plan. Half-cut drums were being sold for 10,000 yen, so I bought two and made a settling tank.

Sludge would settle in the upper sections of the half-drums arranged like steps, while the clarified water would flow down into the lower sections.

I was supposed to put water stones in there to purify it, but how clean would it become? There were a lot of things I wouldn't know until I tried.

If sludge accumulated, I would carry it to the composting area I'd made in a corner of the property and process it there.

Turning the compost over from time to time would be hard, but I could use the power shovel for that.

Nearby, I also installed a toilet made from a plastic container and a plastic Western-style toilet. I built a small shed around it to make a roofed, secluded space.

It looked no different from a toilet in my original world. The toilet lid closed, so it could keep flies and other insects out too.

A toilet should be cramped—for some reason, I couldn't relax in a spacious or open place, and nothing would come out.

Perhaps being defenseless while relieving yourself and wanting to hide while doing it was a remnant of the time when humans were animals.

Of course, I recycled the accumulated feces and urine into compost, then used that compost to grow crops.

This was the slow life.

Still, using the toilet at night seemed a little scary.

As for the electricity problem, I cut down three more trees to clear some space in the forest. I lined up twenty solar panels there, each costing 10,000 yen.

Each one apparently generated 50 watts, so twenty panels gave me an output of 1 kilowatt. I also bought batteries.

Rather than car batteries or the like, I bought portable battery packs with built-in charging functions. They cost 45,000 yen each.

That way, I could connect them directly to the solar panels and charge them without using a charge-discharge controller. I bought three and rotated between them.

I used the gasoline generator to make up for whatever the batteries couldn't provide.

When I actually used the system, I found that the only thing I needed electricity for was lighting the room. Using LED bulbs kept power consumption low, and this setup was more than sufficient.

I didn't want a TV or anything, since I could watch videos using Shangri-La.

However, I often wanted something cold to drink, so I bought a small portable refrigerator. I could connect it directly to 12 volts without needing a voltage booster.

If I needed more power, I could cut down more trees and increase the number of solar panels.

My castle was complete, and I had become lord of my own little castle. My slow life in another world had begun.