Read Novel Full Vol 13 Chapter 17
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(22/24)
Chapter 17 – Very Colorful
This time, I felt like I’d built a strange flag against Alessia-san’s little brother, whom I’d never even met, but I was able to buy construction materials and return to the Dark Elf Island without incident. It had been a long time since I had taken a ferry ride, but it was a lot of fun, and it would be good to do it again. Now that I have the treasure, maybe I’ll buy a new ferry.
“Look at this!”
Princess Annemarie excitedly holds out a notebook on the table. I don’t know what it is, but if you want me to look at it, I will.
…Hmm, I see, it is very colorful.
The notebook is from Chris, and the different colors are probably from the highlighters she bought on the ship. Looking at Princess Annemarie’s hand, I see a cute pencil case.
She seems to be making good use of the facilities on the Chris, which is quite an accomplishment.
“It is a beautiful drawing. Did Annemarie draw it?”
Various colorful buildings are lined up in the sea. The buildings are painted with a lot of highlighter pens, but they are delicately drawn, and the placement of the colors is well thought out so that they do not look garish.
The pictures have the atmosphere of an amusement park or perhaps a fairy village from a fairy tale. It is a cute and heartwarming picture. If Princess Annemarie drew this picture, she must have been very talented.
“No, it was Lea who drew it. But I colored it.”
I see, so it was Lea-san who drew it.
I thought that Princess Annemarie was a talented girl and that she had a great talent for drawing, but in fact, it would be difficult for a child to draw such a delicate picture.
But just the fact that she is good enough to make people think that she drew it is a great thing.
“Heh. So Lea-san was very good at drawing. And I think Annemarie’s coloring is wonderful.”
She probably drew it while we were out buying construction materials. The fact that she and Annemarie worked together on this project made me smile as if they were close friends.
“Drawing is my hobby.”
“Even Mother likes Lea’s paintings. But this pen is also amazing. I’ve never seen such beautiful colored ink.”
Lea-san looks a little embarrassed, and Princess Annemarie is delighted as she pulls a highlighter out of her pencil case. The atmosphere is so warm that I wish this scene could be painted.
By the way, mermaids draw pictures too, don’t they? I wonder how they draw pictures when the paper looks like it would be torn to shreds by the seawater, and the ink would dissolve in the seawater.
Sounds kind of interesting, and I wonder if I should ask them what kind of tools they use?
No, we’ve been distracted from the beginning, but now it’s time for the unloading meeting, and private questions are better left for later.
The mermaids who are not in the meeting are also ready to carry the cargo as soon as the preparation policy is decided, so I feel bad about keeping them waiting.
“Lea. Wataru-sama praised us! We must do our best to build the village.”
“Yes, Princess. We can’t disappoint him when he sees the real thing. Let’s do our best.”
“Hmm?”
I felt like I was eavesdropping on a strange conversation. A village-building? The real thing?
Could it be?
“Could it be that this drawing is a finished plan of the underwater village you are going to build?”
No, no, no, it can’t be because it’s so colorful.
“Yes, it is, isn’t it?”
Princess Annemarie tilted her head as if to say, “What about it?”
No, no, no, why are you tilting your head? The finished plan is basically a reproduction of this plan, isn’t it?
“Are you going to reproduce the colors of this house as well?”
“Yes. We had a hard time matching the color of the house and the location with the color everyone wants to live in.”
I don’t think Princess Annemarie understood the meaning of my question at all.
I looked at Lea-san’s face behind Princess Annemarie to see what was going on, but she just stood there smiling normally and didn’t seem to understand my intention either.
Alessia-san, who was looking at the notebook with me, was not very reliable either, saying that it would be wonderful if a village based on this picture were created.
Alessia-san is the type of person who doesn’t care about details, even though she is a leader. No, is it better for a leader to be the type with such a large capacity? Dorothea-san is in charge of the details…
At the very least, I should have asked Felicia and Dorothea-san to attend the meeting. At least they would have understood my confusion.
“Well, how are you going to paint it? I just buy regular building materials, you know? They’re all basically gray.”
There are differences in patterns and shades in each stone, but there is no doubt that the majority of the building materials I buy are gray. How are you going to make them colorful?
Huh? Did I forget to buy some materials?
No, I have a list of materials I need to buy, so I am sure I am not mistaken. Because when I asked them to check the construction materials I loaded at the ferry parking lot yesterday, they didn’t complain about anything.
“Come to think of it, there were no colored stones or paint on the construction materials that Wataru bought, were there? I wonder how they plan to add the color?”
Alessia-san, you are slow to notice.
“Oh, that’s what you meant. I’m sorry. I didn’t explain it well enough.”
Finally, Lea-san seemed to realize what I was trying to say.
“The color change can be done with coral that we planted outside the house.”
Coral? Oh, I bought some coral accessories on the southern continent. Alessia-san and the others wear them sometimes, and I think it was a good purchase.
Come to think of it, the pictures of coral reefs on Earth were also colorful. If there are so many colors, it might be possible to build a colorful village like in this picture.
If that’s the case, it makes sense. If there are coral reefs, the mermaids can get them themselves.
“Huh? I have an image that coral is difficult to manage, but is it worth the effort?”
Corals are animals, right? And I remember hearing about corals turning white in places like Okinawa and the Great Barrier Reef, so I think it would be hard to take care of them.
But I heard that environmental destruction has a big impact on coral reefs, so I wonder if it is safe in this world.
“It’s true that it’s hard to grow corals in the deep sea, but here, the environment is so wonderful that they can take firm root, so it doesn’t take much time and effort.”
The way Lea-san put it, it sounds like she’s aware that it’s just like taking care of houseplants.
If the environment is not destroyed and the mermaids take care of it, a wonderful coral village will be completed. I’m looking forward to it now.
There’ll be a new attraction on Dark Elf Island beside the hot springs. Well, only the residents of this island can go sightseeing.
“By the way, you sound very happy about it. I wonder if coral houses are special to mermaids?”
Indeed, as Alessia-san said, Lea-san seemed excited when she talked about the coral house.
Just like yesterday, when we were checking out the materials, she seemed to be having a lot of fun building the village.
Perhaps embarrassed that people can see through her, a blush appears on Lea-san’s cheeks. This is so beautiful. It’s as beautiful as coral jewelry.
“There is a tradition that in the old days when mermaids were not attacked by humans, they liked to decorate their houses with coral. It’s like a longing for mermaids today. Thanks to Wataru-sama and the others who brought us to this beautiful island and to the dark elves who welcomed us, we have this opportunity. Thank you.”
“Y-you’re welcome?”
Princess Annemarie took over after Lea-san fell silent with flushed cheeks, but I wish a little girl would stop talking about dark topics so easily with a smile on her face.
It makes me feel a little sad.
“W-well, it’s good to have fun, isn’t it? Right, Wataru?”
“T-That’s right. I think Alessia-san is right.”
Alessia-san was also in a hurry because the topic she had brought up led to something darker, and she started talking to me in a strangely high voice. I understand that you want to change the atmosphere, but please don’t drag me into it.
What’s with the “do something” look?
…I can’t help but wonder why me, but, well, it’s not hard to change the subject once we get down to business, and I’ll show Alessia-san that she can rely on me here.
It’s the little things that count, right?
“If we’re going to build such a beautiful village, we have to stick to it. Should we do our best to move the cargo as well?”
“That’s right. In order to build this village, the first thing we had to do was to move the cargo.”
Princess Annemarie must have read the atmosphere because she easily agreed to change the subject. Thank you for your help.
＊＊＊
“Put on your spirit!”
“””Yes!”””
The mermaid men, in groups of four, placed the heavy stones on the rubber boats one by one. Each time they exerted force, their biceps became more muscular, which made me feel very uncomfortable.
If mermaids are soldiers and carry cargo, do they have to be athletic? This is just my own imposition, but I think it would be good to put a little more emphasis on the image of mermaids. I don’t think there’s much demand for a muscular, athletic mermaid, is there?
The meeting to discuss the procedure for carrying the cargo ended easily after a change of subject.
The male mermaid soldiers were in charge of carrying the construction materials. As soon as a certain number of construction materials were placed on a rubber boat, they would be taken outside and dumped into the sea.
The female mermaids waiting in the water used a tool that uses air to float things and roughly adjust their positions.
When all the cargo is transported, they all work together to build a village. It was a very simple operation, and I wondered if there was any need for a meeting.
But it was not completely useless.
First, I suggested that we ask all the dark elves to help us since the number of mermaids was so small, but they refused, saying that they couldn’t make trouble for the dark elves.
Then, with my brain spinning wonderfully, I told them that working together would deepen the friendship between the mermaids and the dark elves, and they agreed to create a place for the two races to interact in the Ancient Turtle Lair.
Despite the hard physical work, everyone is smiling.
Even though moving around the ship is quite hard, the muscle training level suffers, even though it is handled by summoning and returning rubber boats… Well, it was even harder when I was carrying the bones of the Ancient Turtle, so I guess it’s okay.
The ladies are pretty excited about the work, and as Princess Annemarie said, they might be looking forward to decorating the house with coral.
Anyway, it looks like they will be finished today or tomorrow.