NOVEL NEXT Chapter 60
Chapter 60 – Building a Bungalow
It was afternoon. After lunch, I started building my house.
All of the villagers came to see, I guess because I mentioned I was building the house with magic.
They all stood with expecting eyes.
「Can he build a house with magic?」
「If you think about it, it shouldn’t be hard. I mean, it IS Al doing it.」
「Yeah, Al’s pretty good at magic.」
The villagers were all conversing in soft voices.
It was embarrassing.
It wasn’t that big of a deal, after all, so I guess I didn’t want to let them down with a boring show.
I saw Millet and Collette turn to the crowd, proudly.
「YEAH! Mr. Al is really good!」
「Go do it, old man!」
I wish they’d not make my embarrassment worse.
I decided to tell them all the truth before they got their hopes up.
「Uh, everyone. I don’t want you to all be disappointed, but I’m not going to use magic and BANG, the house is built or anything.」
「Oh, is that so?」
「I’m just going to get the dirt, solidify it, and build the place like stacking bricks.」
「Oh! Wow!」
「You really are strong with magic, Mister Al!」
「Woooow, old man!」
Now the chief and all the villagers were even MORE interested.
Millet and Collette’s eyes shimmered in anticipation.
So I told them again,
「It’s really just boring work.」
「Come on, don’t be humble. Making bricks with magic is pretty cool, right?」
「Yeah, I guess.」「I wish my dead father were around to see this.」
So I just gave up trying to dispel their expectations.
Femm showed me where there was clay, which I would pick up and transport.
Compress the clay into blocks and bake it.
And do it all with magic.
Vi-Vi was in charge of firing the bricks.
While I was getting the clay together and making it into bricks, she created a magic circle to fire the bricks.
「Time to show them all that a magician can also be one of the best brickmakers around!」
Vi-Vi was fired up…literally.
As soon as she completed the magic circle, a red column of flame surged from it.
Then the column raged from a flickering red to a blazing red-white.
You could see by the color that it was quite hot. However, I couldn’t feel any heat from where I was standing.
「That’s so much fire, but no heat?」
「Yeah, amazing.」「I wish my dead grandmother could see this.」
「Great job, sthub-bossth!」
「MOo mooo!」
The villagers were very happy after seeing the magic circle Vi-Vi made.
Collette and Millet were too.
They reacted a lot more after seeing Vi-Vi’s work then my whole process of lifting and forming the bricks.
「Fire does have a beauty all its own.」
「RIGHT?!」
Vi-Vi looked at me proudly.
And in a day, we had finished making enough bricks.
——————
The second day I had to stack all the bricks into a house.
You can’t just stack them on top of each other, either. You have to stick them together with mortar.
Since there wasn’t enough for me in the town, I asked Luka to go and buy it for me.
Before noon, Cruz came up to me with her usual radiant smile.
She pulled the mortar out of her magic bag.
「I bought you some mortar!」
「Thanks, Cruz.」
Cruz was scammed when I asked her to buy me some potatoes to plant.
That’s why I had to check the mortar, just in case.
It was pretty good mortar.
「What do you think, Al?」
「Seems to be good stuff. You bought the right type.」
「Yeah, and in front of the store Luka told me to go to was an old man that talked to me.」
「What?!」
「He told me the store that Luka had recommended was going to rip me off.」
The same pattern again? Now I was worried.
Maybe that full-bodied scent of a rich baron that Cruz put out attracted scammers like flies.
「But this time I told him NO!」
「Okay, well that’s a relief.」
Cruz had grown up a bit.
It was a small change, but a big step for her.
I patted her on the head.
「Heh heh heh」
「Moo」「Ruff」
Now Moofy and Femm wanted to be petted too.
While I was petting Moofy, Vi-Vi came and asked Cruz,
「Cruz, do you have work to do?」
「Well, since I defeated that earth dragon on my day off, I figure I can have the afternoon to myself.」
「I see.」
The villagers had also returned to watch over the construction process.
There were more than yesterday, so I guess the farmers were off as well.
I put the mortar on, then stacked the bricks. Then more mortar, more bricks.
Over and over. It was a simple process, but you had to be precise.
It was quite difficult to do the whole thing exactly while using magic.
It was almost like a stunt for someone like me that could use gravity magic. I guess it’s a skill I can be proud of.
「Whoaaa.」
「He’s so fast.」
I could hear the villagers happily remarking about my magic.
I was quite fast and exact with my magic, so it looked simple yet elegant.
On the other hand, Femm and Moofy were bored, and started walking around.
Cruz walked with them.
Near the house that we would live in, I also make a little place for the wolves.
It was just big enough for a dozen or so wolves to live in.
After building that, Vi-Vi walked up to me.
「Okay, now time for my magic circle.」
「Please.」
「Sure. Leave it to me.」
I didn’t need her to hurry a magic circle for a building.
I just needed something done completely.
Since she was already so good at making them, it was a perfect job for her.
She skipped over and started etching the magic circle.
However, this was a bit more boring than the magic I had done.
Half the villagers disappeared…maybe out of boredom.
I started helping a carpenter that I had asked for help with inside shelves and so on in the house.
「I finished drawing it!」
Vi-Vi proudly proclaimed after a few hours.
「Good work, Vi-Vi. So, what does this one do?」
「Well, the floor, walls, and ceiling are protected against heat and fire. Also impact and shaking.」
「Wow, nice.」
Then Vi-Vi looked down at Femm.
「I also drew a little one so that the puppies of the wolves wouldn’t get sick…in the dog house.」
『Thanks.』
「Hm.」
Femm thanked her directly.
Vi-Vi blushed a little.
「Ruff ruff ruff!!」
The wolves all lined up and barked their thanks.
Then they all swarmed her and licked her.
「S…STOP IT! I’M GOING TO SMELL LIKE DOG!」
Even so, Vi-Vi looked a little happy.
「Great job, sthub bossth!」
「Wow, that’s really something.」「I wish someone would draw one at my house.」
The villagers were quite surprised to hear about the magical effects that she had added.
Just then, Luka and Yureena arrived from the capital.
They were taken aback by how quickly we had pieced the house together.
「Quite a large brick house!」
「Yeah, hurry up and show us the room Cruz and us will stay in.」
「Moo Moo!」
Moffy bit and pulled on my sleeve.
Everyone was ready to live in the house.
「We haven’t done any of the furniture!」
「Oh, I guess not.」
I decided to handle that tomorrow, so we all stayed at Millet’s that night