Dig a Well

――The next day.

I woke up. When I looked at the ceiling with bleary eyes, the view was different from usual――there was something on the beam...

"...Hm?"

I couldn't make out what it was, so I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus. I could see a black object wrapped in a white band...

When I peered more closely, I realized it was the forest cat wearing an Elizabethan collar around her neck.

Naturally, she wasn't where she usually slept. The dish I'd put her cat food in was completely empty.

"Were you able to eat? If you managed to climb up there, does that mean you've gotten your strength back?"

I didn't think she could understand human speech, but I tried talking to her anyway.

If she had intended to attack me, she would have killed me long ago, so she shouldn't be hostile toward me.

Besides, Myaree had said that forest cats didn't attack humans――

"Ugh!"

The forest cat jumped down onto my bed. Having a large beast weighing around thirty kilograms land on me made quite an impact.

"Meow~"

She rubbed her head against my face. Even though she was that huge, she still meowed like a cat? Still... her pointed ears stood up proudly, and the way they twitched was pretty cute.

When I stroked her throat, she purred just like an ordinary cat.

Then she stared intently at my face. Somehow, I understood what she wanted. She wanted me to take off the Elizabethan collar.

When I removed the white collar from her neck, she jumped off the bed and went to the entrance, where she began scratching at the door with her front paws.

That gesture was very catlike too. She probably wanted to go outside.

I got out of bed, put on only my pants, went to the entrance, unlocked the door, and opened it.

The forest cat checked both sides, rotated her large ears as she kept watch over her surroundings, and slowly began walking forward with caution.

After walking a short distance, she paused to check her surroundings before continuing. Then she leaped over the fence and disappeared into the dark forest.

She still seemed a little unsteady, but she should be fine. I was glad she'd recovered.

I'd done all I could. I hoped she would live a healthy life.

------◇◇◇------

After breakfast――

Today I was supposed to open my stall, but I skipped it. I was going to dig a well instead.

The spot was to the front left of the house. Since I planned to use heavy machinery, I dismantled part of the fence to clear enough space.

First, I used the heavy machinery—the power shovel—to dig a hole about two meters deep. Starting from an open hole should save me some time.

Once I dug the well, all I had to do was fill in around it.

I could dig a wider hole and make a slope so I could drive the power shovel down to the bottom and dig even deeper with the machine, but there was no need to go that far.

According to the book on digging wells, the layers of terrain where water could be found went something like soil――clay――sand――clay, with water collecting in the sand layer.

When I dug with the power shovel, there was about fifty centimeters of forest leaf mold, and clay beneath it.

If there was a layer of sand beneath the clay, there was a good chance I could find water here too.

It was all good experience. Even if I didn't find water here, I might be able to dig a well when I moved somewhere else.

I steeled myself and bought a hole-boring drill――39,000 yen. The drill was one meter long and ten centimeters in diameter.

The well would be too narrow to use a bucket, but I planned to pump the water up, so I only needed to leave enough space for that.

The engine was a two-stroke, so I could use the same mixed fuel as for the brush cutter. I filled it with fuel, used the choke, and pulled the recoil starter. It started on the first try.

I tried digging for the time being――but soon realized that holding it and using it by hand was difficult. So I stacked up blocks, mounted the drill on them, and modified it so I could press it down by hand.

The first meter was easy, but as I added extension rods one after another, it gradually became more difficult.

Digging the hole required repeatedly adding extensions, and raising the drill to clear out the soil meant taking it apart again and again. It was extremely laborious.

Then I ran into a problem. Removing the dirt stuck to the drill after pulling it up was unexpectedly difficult.

I bought a pressure washer from Shangri-La to blow the dirt off――but I couldn't use it inside the hole I'd dug with the power shovel.

There wasn't enough space, and using it would fill the hole with water and turn it into mud.

I had to carry the dirty drill outside every single time before I could use the pressure washer. I somewhat regretted digging the hole with the power shovel.

But since I had already dug it, there was nothing I could do. I bought four spare drills and decided to keep switching them out.

Once I had a pile of dirt-covered drills, I could put them in my Item Box, take them up to the surface, and use the pressure washer on them.

After struggling my way down about four meters, I hit a layer of sand. When I pulled up the drill, the sand was wet.

"At this rate, we might find water."

Digging through the sand layer was easy. The bit kept advancing, and after about a meter, I hit another layer of clay.

This was exactly the kind of water-bearing stratum described in the book on wells.

That didn't mean water would definitely appear, though. Unless I scooped out the sand and created a cavity inside the layer, the hole would simply keep filling up with sand.

A drill couldn't scoop out sand. It would immediately spill back down below.

I would have to devise and make some kind of tool to remove the sand.

――I'd been working without even eating, but it was already starting to get dark. I'd stop here for today and continue tomorrow...

That evening, I made curry.

------◇◇◇------

――The next day.

Since I'd come this far, I would have to close my stall until the well was finished.

To create a mechanism for scooping the sand out of the well, I bought PVC pipe from Shangri-La and modified it by attaching a metal valve to the end.

When I pushed the PVC pipe, cut at an angle at the end, into the hole, sand flowed into it. When I pulled it up, the valve at the end closed, allowing me to carry the sand inside the pipe out of the hole.

Water would enter the pipe at the same time, so I decided to drill plenty of six-millimeter drainage holes in it.

However, the toy-like battery-powered electric screwdriver I'd bought before was completely underpowered. I bought a proper eighteen-volt cordless electric screwdriver.

I used push-fit attachments to connect the PVC pipes, but since they simply fit together as the name implied, they would come apart if left that way.

But if I used adhesive, I wouldn't be able to take them apart.

So I decided to reinforce the joints by drilling holes in the attachment sections with an electric drill and inserting bolts.

Once I began removing the sand, all sorts of problems started appearing.

A five-meter PVC pipe full of wet sand was extremely heavy. Lowering it into the hole and pulling it out again was quite difficult. So I decided to use the power shovel.

I tied a hooked wire to the bucket and used it to pull up the PVC pipe, which had a handle attached to its rear end.

It was also easy to use the power shovel's bucket to push the pipe back into the well.

However, heavy machinery couldn't make delicate adjustments. I'd seen footage on TV of experts operating heavy machinery to pick up eggs, but there was no way an amateur could do that.

I had to handle it carefully, or the pipe could be damaged.

If the pipe broke underground, getting it out would be difficult. It might even become impossible to retrieve.

After all this work, I really wanted to avoid that.

When I pulled up the long PVC pipe with the power shovel, the water collected inside dripped down. I laid the pipe on its side on the ground and used the pressure washer to blow the sand out of it.

The water overflowing from the well quickly flooded the hole. I bought rubber boots that came up below my knees for 4,500 yen to deal with the water.

The inside of the hole was already a muddy mess, and I couldn't work properly like this.

So I bought plywood panels and laid them around the well to create a work platform. This should make things manageable. Once I was finished, I could simply bury everything as it was.

I began working before noon――after pulling up the sand about fifteen times, no more sand entered the PVC pipe.

I left the PVC pipe inserted in the well and used it as a lining to prevent the hole from collapsing. Ordinary wells used stonework for this, but I was substituting PVC pipe instead.

As I extended the PVC pipe protruding from the well, I used the power shovel to backfill the hole. The machine also had a dozer blade, so I could use it to level the soil.

After all that hard work, I somehow managed to complete the well.

There were caterpillar tracks all over the ground, so it was a bit unsightly――I'd clean it up later.

Still, this well looked quite different from ordinary wells in this world. All that protruded from the ground was the end of a PVC pipe.

I would insert a narrower PVC pipe connected to this one and pump up the water with an electric pump, but would it really work?

But by the time all that was done, it was dark. I would connect the remaining pump and handle the other tasks tomorrow.

Once I start something, I can't stand leaving it unfinished, so I tend to work on it all at once.

I couldn't believe I was doing all this without eating. Well, I did get hungry, so I worked while nibbling on things like Snick○rs and S○YJOY.

Now, for dinner――after looking over Shangri-La and thinking about it, I decided to eat gyoza.

【Gyoza from a Specialty Shop, 48 Pieces, 1,200 Yen】 was available. The user reviews in the ratings section seemed quite positive too.

"I think I'll go with this..."

I ate about twenty gyoza cooked on a cassette stove with some Chinese soup――they were quite tasty.

------◇◇◇------

――The next day, it was finally time to connect the pump.

I took the generator out of my Item Box and tried using the cheap electric pump I'd bought before, but it was far too weak to pump water up from a depth of seven meters.

"Looks like I need a proper well pump."

When I searched Shangri-La, several pumps specifically for wells were available. Since I would install it outside, I decided to buy one with a plastic cover.

Under the heading "Frequently Bought Together," there was something called a well sand trap.

Since I was pumping water from a layer of sand, it might contain sand――so I decided to buy one.

I bought them at the same time, for a total of 50,000 yen including the pump.

I stacked up concrete blocks bought from Shangri-La, adjusted their position, and connected the PVC pipe to the sand trap.

Using elbows and other fittings from the pump, I installed a water outlet half a meter above the ground, pointing downward.

I hung a length of blue vinyl hose from it. This would serve as the faucet.

I immediately took a plastic tank out of my Item Box and decided to run the pump and fill it with water as a test.

I connected the pump to the diesel generator's outlet and switched it on!

But although I could hear it humming, no water came up no matter how long I waited... Had I done something wrong? There should be water inside the well.

I read the pump's instructions――it said that priming was necessary.

"I see..."

Since there was no water in the pipe, the impeller was just spinning freely. Apparently, I also had to close the outlet to increase the negative pressure inside the pipe, or the water wouldn't come up.

When I removed the plastic cover on top of the pump, I found an opening for adding water, so I poured in some priming water.

I thought about attaching a faucet to the water outlet, but for now, I tried plugging the blue hose with a wet towel.

"All right, let's try again. Switch on!"

The motor began turning, and water came up almost immediately.

"There it is!"

I hurriedly stuck the blue hose into the plastic tank.

This would make filling the bath easier――wait, hold on. Now that I had the pump connected...

I could branch off the PVC pipe from here and have water flow directly into the drum-barrel bath. Yes, that's what I'd do.

I took the PVC pipe apart, put a valve on the outlet I'd made first, then added a branch farther along and ran a pipe to the bath.

The distance was about five meters. It shouldn't be a problem.

I assembled the PVC pipes so that water would flow into the drum-barrel bath from behind it.

Once it was complete, I turned on the pump, and water poured from the PVC pipe into the drum.

Since there was no pressure like in the water supply of my original world, it didn't come out with much force, but the bath filled even if I left it alone.

Being able to do other work while it filled was a major advantage. I could even install a water-level sensor and have it sound a buzzer.

If I wanted to automate it further, I could use the buzzer's power to drive a relay and have it shut off the pump.

Excellent. I loved Pythagora Switch-style contraptions like that. I could spend an entire day just thinking about circuits and mechanisms.

I really was a bit of a paranoiac.

When I checked Shangri-La, I found a water-level sensor for baths selling for 2,000 yen.

After installing the sensor, I decided to take a bath right away.

I held my hand beneath the water flowing from the PVC pipe into the drum.

"Cold!"

Yes, well water was cold. The sensation reminded me of swimming in the river when I was a kid.

The downstream water was dangerous because of pesticides from rice paddies, household wastewater, and E. coli, so I went upstream. The farther toward the mountains I went, the colder the water became.

Spring water was so cold that you couldn't keep your feet in it. Even when swimming in the river in midsummer, your lips would quickly turn purple and you would be unable to stop shivering.

I had dug a well, but I didn't plan to use it for drinking water. I had delicious ○○ water sold by Shangri-La for that.

That water was definitely safe. They said that using the water stones the townspeople used to purify water would also make it safe to drink, but...

It seemed even the inn where I'd stayed had used them.

Come to think of it, I needed to buy water stones from the old man at the tool shop so I could make a purification tank.

Whew, there was still a lot to do. Was this starting to feel like a slow life?

The generator and pump were exposed, so I cut boards with a circular saw and made a small enclosure like a doghouse around them.

It didn't seem to rain very much, so this should be enough. I'd also put waterproof sheeting on the roof, just in case.

I'd dedicate this diesel generator to the well pump and get a somewhat better gasoline generator for the house.

The PVC pipe running along the ground was conspicuous too. It really ruined the atmosphere, so perhaps I should hide it beneath a wooden cover.

I could bury it underground, but――that would be a little too much trouble.

Besides, if something happened and I had to leave this place, taking everything apart would take extra time.

Even so, it was fun thinking things through and building them. It would be difficult to make a business out of this, though. I wouldn't be able to do whatever I wanted.

I'm a professional painter, albeit an unknown one, and I love painting, but when you're doing it as a business, there are plenty of times when you have to paint pictures you don't like.

After all, the pictures I want to paint aren't necessarily the pictures customers want.

By the time the drum-barrel bath was full, the forest was already beginning to grow dark. Perfect timing. I'd worked up a sweat, so I'd take a bath before dinner.

The water that had been cold enough to make my hands go numb had grown lukewarm with time.

I put firewood into the hearth I'd built beneath the drum and lit it――but then an unexpected voice suddenly called out from behind me, making me jump.

"Kenichi-san?!"

I turned around at the familiar voice and saw a familiar face――Primula-san, the daughter of the Marlowe Trading Company, wearing a white blouse and a long navy skirt.

"Primula-san? What are you doing here?"

"I was worried because you'd been away from your stall for some time, and someone from the beastfolk told me you were in the forest――they guided me as far as the entrance by the river."

The only beastfolk who knew about this place had to be Myaree.

I didn't mind her visiting, but――it was already dark. What was a young lady from a good family doing out here without an escort...?

Besides, at this hour, the gates in the city walls would be closing soon...