CH 54

Chapter 54 – Glasses boy, let me show you my magic

When she heard that the bathtub was completed, Cherry hurriedly finished the Deterioration Prevention Magic Circle.

She was making a uselessly elaborate magic circle for the sake of spending mana, but it seems like it was actually pretty easy to just finish the circle.

However, a problem arose on the next day.

“It’s raining…” I muttered.

When did it even start? Probably in the middle of the night, I suppose.

It wasn’t raining heavily, but it certainly wasn’t a light rain either.

The four members of our dormitory group gathered at the narrow entrance early in the morning. We looked up to the dark sky, which was completely covered by clouds.

The rain is showing no signs of weakening or stopping… I feel like it might even keep going for a few days.

Also, as soon as I opened the dormitory’s door, the cat, who was taking shelter from the rain by staying under a tree, immediately rushed inside our dormitory.

I wish it could go back to its home. It must be someone’s pet cat… Though well, it’s not a cat.

In any case, it hasn’t rained in a while, so I had forgotten about the possibility.

The life I have been living so far didn’t take rain into account.

There’s no kitchen in this dormitory, which was why we made a bonfire outside, creating a simple and functional space where we could sit and cook.

Or rather, we were forced to make it, as there is no kitchen in this dormitory, and there is no space to make one. We can’t even repurpose one of the private rooms for it, because they’re extremely narrow and don’t even have a bed in them.

“I’m hungry…” Florentine lamented.

Right now, the village seemed to be completely abandoned and deserted. I suppose it’s to be expected that people aren’t going outside during the rain.

But for us… We can’t really take a day off. Even if we don’t do anything, we’ll still get hungry. And if we eat all of our reserves, we’ll run out of food.

Also, if we don’t work, we won’t get food.

And in the first place, we can’t even use the fire in the middle of this rain, so we have no choice but to eat things that can be eaten without cooking.

However, I don’t think the four of us, me included, who have been eating a life filled with meat, can now endure something like this.

Or at the very least, I can’t stand it. I want to go to a house in the neighborhood and rent their kitchen.

“The bath is…” Cherry lamented the sudden change in today’s schedule.

Today, we were planning on going to fetch the bathtub that the blacksmith old man made for us.

It was finished yesterday, but we couldn’t use it right away, because the girls wanted a partitioned dressing room where they could safely undress without being seen.

Therefore, even if I didn’t care about it, they were planning on making a bathroom over the next few days, and today would be when the bathroom construction would start.

“The training…” Chace lamented his inability to train.

That said, he had already promised to help with the bathroom construction today, so I don’t think he would have been able to practice even if the rain wasn’t here… Well, maybe if he tried practicing after he finished working on the bathroom.

As for me, I had already finished scouting the remote hunting grounds, so I was thinking of starting to study under the guidance of someone from this village.

I was planning on just doing the negotiations for now though, since I’d be spending the next few days building the bathroom.

But well… It’s impossible to do that today.

In any case, as everyone was going to dedicate some time to making the bathroom today, I would be loaning meat to them again. They didn’t even complain about it, and just accepted the proposition easily.

But right now, none of it is possible. And I can’t simply stay here, looking at the rain doing nothing.

Regardless of us doing something or not, we’ll get hungry. And I want to eat meat.

“Then, I’m going.” I decided and was about to go out into the rain.

“Wait.” Both the thug and the boss’ daughter stopped me when I tried running out into the rain.

Why? I’d like them to let go of my collar and my arms.

“Where are you going?” Chace asked.

“What are you going to do with my meat?” Florentine asked.

There’s a lot of stuff I want to say, especially to Florentine, but it’s fine.

“I’m thinking of visiting the biggest house in the village and rent a kitchen there.” I explained.

“Let’s go.” Chace and Florentine said together.

There’s really a lot I want to say to those two, but it would be useless anyways, so it’s fine.

“Cherry, are you coming too?” I asked her.

“Ah, yes… I wanted to take a bath first, but…” She replied.

I feel the same as her.

“But before that, can you wait for a bit?” Cherry asked.

Mmm?

******

Cherry then explained to us that she could make a Rain Shelter Magic Circle.

“This is it.” Cherry showed us a stone.

She had apparently picked out some stones in the surroundings and put Magic Circles on them.

Well, to me it looked like the circles had been drawn immediately.

Either way, she gave one of the stones to me, then told me to go outside, and I did just that.

“Oh, amazing.” I commented.

It’s certainly repelling the rain.

My feet still got wet though… Apparently, this doesn’t protect against muddy ground, or from water that has already bounced on the ground.

However, the rain falling from above is definitely hitting an invisible wall around me, and is being repelled.

“It’s a raincoat-like protection. It can prevent a small amount of water that falls from above, but it can’t handle large amounts of water, or water flooding from below, so be careful.” Cherry explained.

I see… It seems to have some drawbacks, but it’s still very convenient.

Magic is amazing, right? It’s completely different from those Wind Slashes that gave nothing more than a haircut to the Redbear.

“Wouldn’t it be possible to work with this?” I asked Cherry.

From what I can see, with this Rain Shelter Magic Circle, we should be able to start working on making the bathroom.

“No. Our scaffolding is still bad, and accidents during the construction can lead to serious injuries. I think it’s better for us to prioritize our safety for now.

“Moreover, you might catch a cold if you work on this kind of environment, and that would definitely push back our schedule way more than the rain.” Cherry replied.

Well, that makes sense.

We do have enough of a stockpile of food, so I guess I don’t need to go hunt for a few days. Maybe it’s fine to take it slow for now.

“Also, renting a kitchen seems like more of an emergency measure. I think we should prioritize the food problem during rains over the bathroom.” Chace said something surprisingly decent. That’s rare, “It would be helpful if we could get a small hut of sorts, it could protect us from the rain, and we could try making a kitchen inside it.”

I think he is right. We can’t simply stop our life altogether every time it rains.

“We can talk while we eat meat. I’m hungry.” Florentine stepped into the rain, then grabbed my arm, “Let’s go, Meat Guy.”

Yeah, I really want to tell a lot of things to her, but first things first, don’t refer to me by that nickname.

******

After going through the muddy path, we visited the house of an old man.

In exchange for renting his kitchen, we had to help out with the stables and cowsheds, but we were able to eat breakfast and lunch in that place.

Then, we returned to the dormitory afterwards. Of course, after we grilled the meat for the night that is.

Then, figuring that this was as good of an opportunity as any, the four of us talked about our future plans.

For some reason, the gathering was done in my room though.

And the cat followed us inside as well… This room is already small enough for one person, but we now had four people and a giant cat inside it. It was really cramped.

But in any case, our discussion revolved primarily on the creation of the bathroom and the kitchen.

Specifically, we were talking about what materials to use and how to prepare them for usage at the construction.

In the end, we came to the conclusion that we should ask a magician to prepare the building materials for us.

Magic is quite convenient, so it seems like the best way to go about it, would be to consult a magician.

At the very least, they won’t ask anything out of us from just talking, and that might be all that we need to obtain the necessary knowledge to build our kitchen and bathroom.

We did ask Cherry if she could make the construction materials herself, but she said it was no good. She could use earth magic to create something that resembled construction materials, but the quality would be poor, and it wouldn’t be strong enough to last us for months. So it was impossible to rely on her for that.

On the rest of the time, we basically lazed around so… “Can you teach me about magic?” I asked Cherry.

I was intrigued by the spells that she used. I wasn’t interested in the Wind Slash that could only give a haircut to the Redbear, but Cherry’s magic seemed to be much more amazing than that.

“Sure.” Cherry readily agreed to my request.

She already needed to keep on using magic until she went limp anyways, so she didn’t mind showing the spells to me.

And so, she kept on using it until she was completely exhausted. At this point she rolled herself and laid right next to the sleeping cat… This room really is way too small.

******

On the next day, the rain stopped.

As planned, we consulted with the magician who was instructing Cherry. They told us, ‘If you want to use wood as a construction material, I can help you a little. I’ll dry it and prevent it from decaying by waterproofing it. You’ll have to do the rest.’

As such, we decided to go cut wood.

Normally speaking, felled trees can’t be used immediately, as you’d need to dehydrate them and waterproof them, but since the magician will do that part for us, the process will be much faster.

In exchange, I had to give them some of the remaining Sky Lizard meat though.

But thanks to Florentine’s help, we were able to very quickly obtain all the construction materials, so we asked the blacksmith old man to help us design the kitchen and the bathroom, and we also asked him to supervise our work on site to make sure we didn’t mess up.

He seemed to like rabbit meat quite a bit, so that’s what he got in exchange for the help.

And so, two days passed since everyone started working together, and we were finally able to complete both the bathroom and the kitchen.

However, I didn’t have many opportunities to use those, and it seems like it will take a while before I can use them again.

Because I was told the following, “Eil, you should leave the village.”