Chapter 33 – With Determination
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Chapter 33 – With Determination
“I can’t become a groom anymore…”
“Fufu, don’t worry, I’ll take you anyway.”
The next morning, Sylphy smiled and comforted me as I wept, remembering my decisive defeat last night. Yeah, well, I’m just faking it, though. I knew that Sylphy is a sadist by nature. But, I’m normal, okay? It’s true; I’m not lying.
Today, the two of us cleansed our bodies together and had a little “kyaa kyaa ufufu” in the morning. Sylphy is in an excellent mood today. Not sure if it’s because of the Pale Moon effect or because she kept the initiative in last night’s night battle. If possible, I want it to be the Pale Moon effect…!
Today’s breakfast is prepared by me, the Master’s faithful slave. But my repertoire is already running out. Should I try something new here?
“Aren’t you supposed to be making breakfast?”
“Of course, that’s the plan.”
I took out of my inventory and set up the simple furnace that I used the other day for roasting pork chops. I’ll also prepare the blacksmithing facility.
・Simple Furnace Upgrade――Material: Wood x 10, Stone x 30, Iron x 10, Cutting Board x 1, Knife x 1, Cooking Utensils x 4.
That’s it. The cutting board is easy to make from wood, so I’ll reserve it on the crafting menu. I wonder if I can use any knife? There’s a kitchen knife in the crafting list at the blacksmithing facility, so I’ll go with that. As for cooking utensils, I have the pots and pans Melty gave me the other day. Then, I need two more of them… is it okay to use a metal bowl and grater? These are also made in an instant at the blacksmithing facility. And then upgrade it!
“It’s as bright as ever.”
“…Can you tell me first before it shines? I can’t see anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
The simple furnace has become a kitchen table! And so I took some ingredients from Sylphy’s kitchen. I’ve used grain flour, gabage, onil, peppar, garike, dikon, and honey before, but there are a few other ingredients and seasonings I’m not familiar with. There is also a bunch more of Gizma’s meat.
・Bread――Ingredients: Grain Flour x 1, Drinking Water x 1, Salt x 1
・Dried Pasta――Ingredients: Grain Flour x 2, Drinking Water x 2, Salt x 1
・Stew――Ingredients: Grain Flour x 2, Drinking Water x 2, Vegetables x 2, Meat x 2, Salt x 2
・Steak――Ingredients: Meat x 2, Black Pepper x 1, Salt x 1
・Salad――Ingredients: Vegetables x 3
・Curry――Ingredients: Grain Flour x 2, Drinking Water x 2, Vegetables x 2, Meat x 2, Salt x 2, Fruit x 2, Spices x 4
This was the only thing I could make quickly with the ingredients I had on hand. Rather, only a few recipes are displayed in the crafting menu, and they seem to be very basic. This is the time when I should be using item creation, right? Or rather, all of them are requiring salt.
“What do you think?”
“I think I can make it anyway. Should we start the morning with something special?”
“Yeah, we’re going on a road trip today.”
“Okay.”
I make two loaves of bread, one stew, two steaks, and two salads. If there are any leftovers, I can put them in my inventory. I’ll make more curry and bread for lunch as well.
“Here we go. Shall we eat here?”
“Fumu, sometimes it’s not so bad to have breakfast outside.”
I set up chairs and a table in the backyard and put the crafted meal on the table. The stew is in a pot… Hey, where did the pot come from? No, let’s not poke into that; it’s a little late for that.
The steak and salad also came with wooden plates. I’m not going to think about it. Just don’t think about it. The bread was left out, though.
“Wow, these are pretty impressive for breakfast. So, what kind of meat is this?”
“Beef, maybe?”
“And what meat did you use to make it?”
“Hahaha. Gizma meat, of course.”
“…There’s no point in thinking about it now.”
Sylphy seems to have come to the same conclusion as me. That’s my Master for ya! She’s getting used to my abilities! My abilities are unpredictable and unreasonable, so we completely abandoned thinking and decided to eat the stew first. The spoons, forks, and knives for eating are all made by me. I made a certain number of them on the workbench a while ago.
“It’s delicious. This meat tastes like chicken meat. The vegetables, such as these red carols, are sweet and delicious.”
“I obviously don’t care about that since the meat and vegetables I put in are different.”
By the way, the carol that Sylphy refers to is a yellow carrot-like vegetable. It’s as long as a burdock, though. There are also potatoes in it that I supposedly didn’t put in, and there’s also white sauce in it even though I didn’t put in any milk, but I don’t care. If I care about it, I’ll just lose. The Gizma meat is apparently becoming like chicken, but I don’t care!
“The bread is amazingly fluffy. It’s so soft.”
“It tastes good dipped in the stew. Although it’s a bit unmannerly.”
The freshly baked bread was indeed soft. It looks like French bread, but it’s round. It’s not as long as a baguette. I don’t know what it’s called. Anyway, it’s definitely bread!
The steak was totally beefsteak (cooked medium). Just plain delicious. I can’t believe this was originally Gizma meat! Well, I guess Gizma’s garike steak is just as good as this. It’s like a huge lobster steak. The salad was just a regular salad. What I put in it and what came out were two different things, though! HAHAHAHA!
☆★☆
So after a delightful and graceful breakfast, we headed to the wall as usual and then to my usual spot. It was a workspace right next to the gate. There, Isla was waiting for me, her eyes shining with anticipation. Her big eyes were sparkling brightly.
“I’m sorry, your staff isn’t ready yet.”
“Gaaah!”
She looked astonished and then slumped her shoulders. I’m sorry, I couldn’t beat Sylphy…
“It was a pity, but I’m in no hurry… It’s still a pity, though.”
“Yeah, I’ll do it as soon as I can.”
When I was told with a terribly disappointed look on her face, I felt uncomfortable. Moreover, since the reason for this is because of my “Kyaa kyaa ufufu” with Sylphy, it makes me feel guilty. While I was looking through Isla’s design drawings, Sylphy brought Danan over. She had called him over before I knew it.
“I heard you were going to reinforce the walls.”
“Yes, Kosuke told me that. With the current height of the wall, aside from Gizma, it’s not good enough for humans and other monsters, right?”
“That’s true. For those who are physically strong and have the ability to use magic enhancement, they can jump that height.”
“So what height should we use?”
“I would like it to be three to four times higher than it is now.”
The current height is about 2.5 meters, including the walkway with the upper narrow chest wall, so 8 to 10 meters would be good. It’s going to be hard to procure the materials, though.
“If we want to match the height of the village wall, it should be about three times higher.”
“That’s right.”
The village’s wall is made of wood, but it is a strange wall with almost no seams. Everything seems to be a wall made by reinforcing the living tree with elven magic, and it is resistant to fire, magic, and physical attacks. I think it’s about eight meters in height.
“So, do you need clay again?”
“Umu. I guess so?”
“Yeah, we need clay.”
I also think I should build another blacksmithing facility. Since I have the materials, I can make it. It would be better if I could operate the iron forge and the brick forge simultaneously. When I don’t need to make iron, I can use both of them to burn bricks. I should also build a simple furnace for charcoal production.
From then on, I spent my days’ mining, making iron, and burning bricks. I woke up in the morning, cleaned myself up, had breakfast, and headed for the wall. When I returned, I threw the clay that the kingdom’s citizens had collected into the blacksmithing facility and started to bake the bricks.
“I want a mithril sword too.”
“I wish I had a mithril spear so I could be of more use to everyone.”
“I demand a new crossbow, a new crossbow!”
The old man, the lizard woman, and the cat woman, who are loyal to their desires, beg for new weapons.
“Fufu… fufufu.”
While rubbing her cheeks against her completed mithril staff, Isla smiled suspiciously.
“People can’t live solely on meat. Now, we need some flour too!”
Melty kidnapped me and made me grind the millstone.
“Are there any new weapons that can be used by harpies yet?”
Pirna and the other harpies begged me for a new weapon. There were many others, but they were generally similar.
“Recently, I feel that everyone is becoming more aware of my abilities and less reserved.”
“It is a good thing that people are relying on you, isn’t it?”
“Sylphy, you should look me in the face when you say things like that.”
Could you not say it while averting your gaze?
Then again, on another day.
“Have our grandchildren been born yet?”
“Did you call us here to talk about such useless things? I mean, you’re not my parents, are you?”
“Hohoho, don’t be so cold. Sylphy-chan is like a grandchild to us.”
“Then it wouldn’t be a grandchild, but a great-grandchild, would it? What a bunch of geezers.”
“It’s just a figure of speech. And what do you see in me that makes me such a geezer? I’m in perfect shape, you know.”
“We are still young.”
“Your cliffs haven’t changed in five hundred years, though. What a pity.”
“All right, I’ll buy that fight. Let’s go outside.”
When I thought the elders summoned us, they demanded a great-grandchild, and we ended up watching a deathmatch-like fight that used a lot of spirit magic. Elders’ spirit magic is just, really dangerous… it’s like a natural disaster.
And seven days after the last attack, the fourteenth night after I arrived in the other world.
“Kosuke, is the moon red?”
“…It looks fine today.”
I looked up at the moon from the top of the newly renovated walls. Today’s moon looks bigger than ever, but it’s yellow, or rather golden.
“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes, the moon is beautiful tonight. I’d like to see a blue and white moon like the Pale Moon one, but I prefer the gentle light of this moon nonetheless.”
Sylphy looked up at the moon with satisfaction. Well, there’s no way I could tell. But that’s okay. Even if the message isn’t conveyed, it doesn’t change the way I feel inside.
“What are you going to do from now on?”
“From now on, huh?”
During the past week, Danan and Sylphy had sent out scouts to the Black Forest and the Omit Wilderness beyond. As a result of their investigations, they found that the Gizma that had entered the Black Forest was no longer there, and in fact, their numbers seemed to be decreasing in the Omit Wilderness.
“Are you going to reclaim the Merinard Kingdom?”
“…Well, yes. I would like to do that.”
Sylphy is the royal bloodline of the Merinard Kingdom. It would be natural for Sylphy to want to liberate and reclaim the Merinard Kingdom, which is under the Holy Kingdom’s control.
“If you want to do it, I’ll help you. I’m Sylphy’s slave, and it’s my job to help my Master.”
“Kosuke, you…”
“Hahaha, don’t make me repeat it. It’s so embarrassing.”
It means that I don’t want to leave Sylphy now. Geez, men are so simple, aren’t they?
“But there is a practical problem. Even if all the people of Merinard in the elven villages agreed with my will, we would still be a small group of about three hundred people at most. There is no way we can defeat the Holy Kingdom’s army stationed in the Merinard Kingdom.”
“What do you mean by that? There are no limits to what you can do.”
In group combat, numbers are power. It is very difficult for a group that is overwhelmingly inferior in numbers to defeat an overwhelmingly superior group in numbers. But that’s only if the group’s quality and tactics are exactly the same.
“If we are outnumbered, we just need to build a fort and fight. It’s even better if we use traps. Besides, we have crossbows.”
Dirty? Cowardly? Hahaha, that sounds like a compliment to me.
In case of emergency, we could just bring out our tiger cub. Over the past week, I’ve spent some time collecting dirt from the toilets in the refugee camp. I’m secretly starting to mass produce that thing.
“When you say it like that, it seems like it’s a piece of cake.”
“I’m an optimist, you know.”
Now that I have all the materials and crafting supplies, I think there are plenty of ways for Sylphy and me to survive. I’m sure Sylphy would be furious with me for saying this.
“…Yes. I will take back the Merinard Kingdom. I’ve decided.”
Sylphy declared so after looking up at the moon and pondering for a while. If she decides to do so, I will only follow her and help her. I’m her slave, after all.
“I see. Then we should talk to Danan and the others first.”
“Right. All right, let’s go, Kosuke.”
“Aye aye, ma’am.”
With a look of determination on her face, Sylphy started walking. I followed behind her—a large planet with a golden moon, blue sea, and white clouds peeking through. The two stars that people call Runicule and Omicule were looking down on us.