Chapter 34
We escaped Dalia and found a lake about 100 kilometers away.
We had already left the territory of the noble who ruled Dalia and entered a region governed by another house.
With the motorcycle we were using, traveling 100 kilometers was easy, but an ordinary horse-drawn carriage traveled only about 10 kilometers per hour.
Apparently, if you set out from Dalia first thing in the morning and drove without stopping, you'd barely make it to Astrantia before the gates closed.
Normally, travelers spent one night on the road and took a rest. There was a small post town almost exactly halfway along the road, and many people apparently stayed there.
But only the wealthy and merchants owned carriages. Ordinary people traveled on foot and had to walk the entire 100 kilometers.
Of course, they also had to camp along the way. But apparently, monsters never attacked people on the highway.
When I was in high school, I once walked about 25 kilometers for something called the whole-school long walk, and I thought I was going to die.
Well, if there were no public transportation and that was just the normal thing every day, I suppose people would get used to it...
My father said that when he was a kid, he routinely walked more than ten kilometers a day through the mountains, where there was no public transportation either.
I rode the motorcycle along the lakeshore and found a waterfall about ten meters high. The location couldn't have been better.
I still didn't know how dangerous the area was, but the scenery was beautiful, so I was thinking of trying to live here.
The Forest Cat that had come with us wandered around the woods for a while before showing up at my side. Since she didn't seem wary, this place was probably safe.
I decided to trust an animal's instincts.
It was around three in the afternoon. For now, I wanted to bring the house out.
I chose a spot on a gentle slope about twenty meters from the river flowing out of the waterfall's plunge pool and decided to start leveling the ground.
"All right! Summon Yu○bo!"
Anemone shouted along with me. Apparently, she had memorized the line I always said, and she giggled.
When she had first come with us, she had been quiet, but lately she had started laughing more often. There was something good about seeing a child laugh.
A green excavator emerged from my Item Box. I climbed into the heavy machinery, started the engine, and began leveling the ground.
It wasn't particularly difficult. I just had to shave down the slope a little and level it with the blade.
Every so often, I got down from the machine and checked that everything was level with a piece of lumber and a spirit level.
The leveling was finished by the time it began to grow dark.
Was I really okay not holding some kind of groundbreaking ceremony? Well, there probably weren't any Japanese gods in this world.
"Reverently, reverently, I say... Here we go! Summon house!"
The house appeared on the leveled ground. This Item Box really was convenient. If this wasn't a cheat, what was?
But it appeared a little too far to the left. I stored it again, adjusted my position to the right, and summoned the house once more.
"All right!"
It fit perfectly into the spot I'd had in mind. But when I looked closely, I saw that some of the concrete pier blocks were floating above the ground.
I'd have to adjust that tomorrow. I attached the steps leading up to the deck, completing the house's installation.
Well, work was done, so it was time to eat.
I took out the curry I'd made earlier from my Item Box and warmed it over a campfire.
Even if I made too much food and had leftovers, putting them in my Item Box kept them from spoiling, so I could eat them whenever I wanted.
I boiled water at the same time and heated up some packaged rice.
At first, Anemone had found the white rice unsettling, but perhaps because she was interested in seeing me eat it, she tried some and seemed to realize how good it was.
By now, she had become a huge fan of rice.
"I love curry!"
She loved curry so much that whenever I asked her what she wanted to eat, she answered curry.
Kids loving curry was a given, but she liked it a little too much. According to her, she'd never eaten anything so delicious.
Well, curry must have made a powerful impression on a child who had grown up without enough food to eat.
People in the Land of Curry probably ate curry every day, so I suppose eating it every day would be fine.
This was neither here nor there, but when I was eating food made with curry powder almost every day, I once had trouble urinating.
Curry spices were similar to traditional herbal medicine, so perhaps they had caused some kind of side effect, such as an enlarged prostate.
Maybe I was the only one that happened to...
The Forest Cat was eating with us too. She was happily polishing off the two cans of cat food I'd given her.
If she wasn't full, she'd look for something to eat in the forest. I probably shouldn't feed her too much, anyway.
After finishing the curry, we cleaned up.
When I went inside the house, everything was of course exactly as it had been when I put it into the Item Box.
The Forest Cat came inside too. I prepared her blanket in the corner of the room, and she curled up there.
I lit the gasoline lantern in the room and studied with Anemone.
Oh, right. I also had to decide where to install the solar panels. But this place got plenty of sunlight, so they should generate more power than they had in the forest.
I might be fine installing only half of them. Maybe I'd start with just ten.
For now, I needed to watch things for a while. It would be a pain if some trouble arose after I installed everything and we had to make a quick escape.
That's right—I should build a bridge first. I wanted to be able to cross to the opposite bank and make a field there.
"All right, time for bed. We've got all sorts of things to do starting tomorrow."
This was new territory. There was no guarantee monsters or something else wouldn't attack us at night.
Just in case, I took out weapons to prepare for enemies. I bought a cutlass like the ones I'd purchased for the beastfolk during the battle with Shaga.
I cocked the crossbow with the laser sight and put it in my Item Box. That way, I could take it out and fire immediately.
Leaving the crossbow drawn all the time would probably weaken its spring, but storing it in the Item Box meant I didn't have to worry about that.
I also prepared a turbo lighter and some firecrackers. I'd learned that they were surprisingly effective in combat. They would probably work on animals too.
"Anemone, you're a big girl now, so you need to sleep by yourself."
When I said that, she made an incredibly sad face.
"All right, all right, don't make that face. I'll sleep with you."
"...Okay."
I'm too soft! Far too soft! Low-calorie sweetness ten times that of sugar—that's how soft I was!
I knew it myself, but how could I say no when she made a face like that?!
It would be one thing if she were just some ordinary kid, but she'd had such a tragic life... This old man is weak to this sort of thing.
I turned off the gasoline lantern and slipped into bed with Anemone. The Forest Cat came in and settled between us too.
"You're sleeping with us too?!"
I wasn't saying it was a bad thing—but perhaps I should buy a double bed...
------◇◇◇------
――The next morning.
I had been worried that something might happen during the night, but it turned out to be needless anxiety.
If anything dangerous approached, the Forest Cat would notice it first anyway.
While I was preparing breakfast, she sat in front of the door. Apparently, she wanted to go outside.
"All right, all right."
When I opened the door, she slipped outside. She intended to catch her own breakfast.
――I could practically feel her attitude: I don't intend to rely on you lot who can't even catch your own prey!――
Still, if she was going to live with us, she needed a name. Calling her the Forest Cat forever wouldn't do.
"What should I name her..."
I muttered that while preparing granola for breakfast.
"A name?"
"The Forest Cat's name. It's about time we gave her one, since we're living together and all."
"Hmm... Kuro!"
"Too straightforward!"
"Straightforward?"
"No, never mind. Schwarz? No, that's too long... A shorter, simpler name would probably be better."
Incidentally, the white cat we had at home was named Yukinojo.
"Let's get clever and call her Crow! But that's a crow. Calling a cat Crow would be weird. Hmm... Her fur feels like velvet, so how about Bell?"
"Bell?"
"It's short and suits her."
"Yeah! Bell is good!"
Her name was now Bell. It was a little cruel, but she had no right to refuse. Still, I thought it was better than being called Forest Cat forever.
Now that we'd named the Forest Cat, it was time to get to today's work.
First, I corrected the house's foundation. I dug down the high spots and used a hydraulic bottle jack—one that cost 2,500 yen—to lift the house a little, added soil to the low spots, and lowered it again.
Fortunately, the foundation had stayed attached to the house. If the two had been stored separately, putting the house back on its foundation would have been quite difficult.
Next, I installed a bridge. I was going to span the river flowing from the waterfall's plunge pool, which was about 1.5 meters wide.
I took out a chainsaw and cut down two trees about twenty centimeters thick in the forest. I chose ones that were as straight as possible.
I cut them to about four meters each and put them into my Item Box. Then I just had to go to the river and take them back out.
If I selected both of them together on the selection screen, I could take them out side by side.
I tried it once on the ground, but the logs appeared lying crosswise.
There was nothing for it. I took off my shoes, rolled up my trousers, stepped into the cold river, and took the logs out of my Item Box while standing in the middle.
"I did it!"
Just like that, I had built a log bridge across the river.
This trick wouldn't work on a much wider river. I'd drown.
Well, I could probably string up ropes or use the Item Box from a boat, but...
I placed stones around the logs to keep the bridge from shifting, then laid plywood across them.
It wasn't worth bringing out the nail gun and compressor, so I used a hammer to drive in the nails.
"Hey, Anemone! The bridge is finished!"
The binoculars, meant for looking at distant things, had completely become her toy.
Well, she might find something interesting. A child's perspective could be surprisingly valuable.
"Yay!"
"Now we can cross to the other bank too."
The grass had grown tall on the opposite bank, so first I needed to cut it.
I took out the engine-powered grass trimmer and cut the grass. Since it was dangerous, I warned Anemone never to come near me while I was working.
There were an incredible number of accidents involving these engine-powered grass trimmers.
Even in the countryside, there were quite a few accidents. They were dangerous to other people and to the operator too—seriously, they were dangerous enough that people occasionally died.
Since it was all soft grass, I used nylon cord instead of a metal cutting blade for safety.
Unless you were dealing with plants with hard stalks, like bamboo or sasa, nylon cord was more than enough to cut them.
I supposed you could attack monsters with a grass trimmer or chainsaw too—but I really didn't want to.
The thought had flashed through my mind for an instant during the battle with Shaga, but I hadn't ended up using them.
If I'd had them ready, I definitely would have gone wild with them once those leaves kicked in.
Just thinking about it made me picture a splatter movie... Let's stop.
The field was ten by twenty meters, slightly larger than the one in the forest. It got plenty of sunlight here, so the crops should grow well.
I took out the excavator, dug up the soil, and removed all the roots and enormous stones that came up.
Getting rid of the big stones was easy. I just put them into my Item Box and then dropped them into the trash can on the status screen.
Hahaha, the trash can really could do anything.
I continued working, stopping for lunch along the way.
I plowed the field with a tiller, made furrows, planted seeds in starter pots, and called it a day.
Maybe I'll install the solar panels tomorrow.
In the evening, the Forest Cat returned, bringing back a single Horned Rabbit.
I immediately stored it in my Item Box. I thought I should learn how to butcher game, but if I botched it, the meat would become inedible and the pelt and other parts wouldn't be saleable either.
Since putting it in the Item Box kept it from spoiling, it was safer to leave the work to a professional.
Once I'd settled in here, I planned to go to Astrantia and register as an adventurer.
Until then, the prey would just be Item Box fodder.
"Oh, right. Your name is Bell now. Treat us well."
"Meow."
I couldn't tell whether she understood me or not. She replied with a single meow.
――And then it was dinnertime.
Anemone had bread, soup, and grilled meat, while I ate yakisoba. The Forest Cat got her usual two cans of cat food.
Anemone had learned to eat rice, but apparently noodles still made her feel queasy.
"But they look like bugs..."
"Well, I can see that."
I mean, if what was on the plate were earthworms or tube worms, it would be pretty gross.
Ah, thinking about that made me lose my appetite, so I'd better stop.
After cleaning up from dinner, I lit the gasoline lantern.
I stored the bed in my Item Box and searched Shangri-La for a double bed.
I chose the simplest bed, with nothing but a mattress, for 20,000 yen.
When I pressed the 【Purchase】 button, the bed dropped out with a heavy thud. I bought double-bed sheets too—they cost 3,000 yen.
I would need a double-size down comforter as well—and that one cost 20,000 yen too.
While I was making the bed, Anemone jumped onto it.
"It's so spacious!"
"Ha-ha-ha. With the Forest Cat sleeping with us too, bigger is better."
She flailed her arms and legs as though swimming. I wondered whether she could actually swim.
"Can you swim, Anemone?"
"A little."
Well, I could only swim a little too. When was the last time I'd gone swimming?
It might have been at the heated pool in a hotel during a company trip... I think it was in Nikko.
If you lived an ordinary life in my original world, you didn't really have any reason to swim unless you went to swimming lessons or something.
After making the bed, I taught Anemone her lessons.
The gasoline lantern illuminated the desk where she was studying, but—
White gas was for sale, as was premixed fuel, and there was also white kerosene. It was expensive, though.
But there was no diesel fuel. Using diesel-powered heavy machinery was expensive.
By my calculations, it came to around 2,500 to 3,000 yen per liter. Let's say 3,000 yen per liter; if I used the heavy machinery for a day, it would empty the tank, so if the tank held 60 liters...
180,000 yen a day! That's expensive! I'd go bankrupt on fuel costs.
A large piece of heavy machinery could hold 400 liters, so that would be 1.2 million yen a day...
Couldn't I do something about this? Though, really, the obvious answer was not to use heavy machinery in the first place...
But there was no way I was going to do this kind of work by hand!
I had the fruits of civilization at my disposal, so what was wrong with using them?
I searched Shangri-La for 【oil】 again. The first results were the so-called salad oils, such as canola oil.
This cost only 300 yen per liter...
Ping!
It hit me. Come to think of it, people processed used oil, such as tempura oil, and used it in diesel engines, didn't they?
I'd seen it on the news—something called biodiesel fuel, or whatever...
I immediately searched Shangri-La. Oh, I see... There were quite a few books on the subject.
I bought every book I could find about biodiesel fuel in ebook form and decided to read them all.
"What are you doing?"
I suppose my suspicious behavior had piqued her curiosity.
"I'm reading."
"Really?! I want to read too!"
"Huh? It's a foreign book, so it's written in a foreign language."
"If I learn that foreign language, can I read lots of books?"
"Yes, you can."
"I'll learn it!"
Anemone stood up as though she'd just made a momentous decision.
She wasn't bad at learning. In fact, she was probably quite good at it.
Since she had said she would learn, I couldn't let the flame of her desire to study go out.
But was there really any benefit to her learning Japanese? It was true that if she learned it, she could read the books I bought from Shangri-La, and her knowledge would expand, but...
First, I bought some picture books. They were aimed at children in the lower grades of elementary school.
I had intended to buy the standard picture-book stories The Little Mermaid and Cinderella, but I was startled by the illustrations when I was about to press the purchase button.
"They're moe illustrations!"
"Moe?"
"No, never mind. I was just talking to myself..."
I pressed the purchase button.
"Click."
The picture books dropped out with a rustle. They were used books, thirty yen each.
Since children stopped reading books bought for them once they grew up, I suppose people put them up for sale.
"Wow! It's beautiful!"
Anemone's eyes fixed on the picture books that had fallen out. Of course, there were no picture books with such beautiful full-color illustrations in this world.
But were modern picture books really illustrated in a moe style?
But she couldn't read them as they were, so I made her a chart converting the phonetic script of this world into hiragana.
Kanji would probably be difficult, but she might quickly learn to read hiragana and katakana, at least.
"J u s t a s t h e s u n..."
Comparing the chart I'd made with each character in the picture book, she slowly began reading it.
But the Little Mermaid's half-naked appearance seemed a little too stimulating for her. It might be ethically questionable, but we'd keep it our little secret.
Even with her face turning red, she read with incredible concentration.
So as not to disturb her reading, I decided to read my ebook about biodiesel fuel.
The two of us continued reading beneath the gasoline lantern until bedtime.