We had been able to get on friendly terms with the Divine Beastfolk, and as a result we had gotten all sorts of help from them that made things convenient for us. Our lifestyle had undergone a complete change because of this; I felt like we had gotten one step closer to civilized living.
“With that in mind, let’s build a house,” I suggested to Reina when she returned from the river.
“Umm... With what in mind?” she replied, confused.
Okay, sure, that was too sudden.
“Well, I mean, I’m a man and you’re a woman, so always sharing a tent means there are a bunch of things you have to be considerate about. That’s got to be difficult, right?”
“After all this time, what’s there for me to— Oh...”
Reina must have understood, because her cheeks turned slightly red and she broke off mid-sentence.
“The other day, Elga said that he’d get building materials and stuff. We should be able to save a lot of time,” I said.
“Come to think of it, it is strange that we’ve never talked about building somewhere to live until now.”
“Good point. But once we’re done, we’ll have our own private spaces; I think that will be much easier on the both of us.”
“You’re right... I’m sorry. I didn’t realize until now.”
“Yeah?”
Why’s she apologizing to me? If anything, I’m the one who should apologize for not realizing for so long.
“I mean, you’re a boy, after all. There’s all sorts of...well, you know...things.” For some reason, Reina suddenly started acting standoffish. She looked somewhat embarrassed, and her face was red.
What in the world is she imagining in her mind?
“I understand,” Reina went on. “Let’s build a home and make sure we each have our own separate rooms.”
“Uhh... Actually, rather than each of us having our own room, I was thinking that we’d just build two ho—”
“They say that once you’ve decided on a course of action, it’s best to get moving quickly, and we have a lot we need to get ready,” Reina said, interrupting me.“I’ve never built a house before...but I’m sure it’ll turn out all right!” she said, psyching herself up.
Can’t we just build two houses? I wondered, but she got going so briskly that I would have felt bad stopping her; I couldn’t even say anything in protest.
✦ ✦ ✦
After that, we devoted ourselves to building the house. The tent we were using as our base was in the middle of a forest full of tall and thick trees, so we certainly weren’t lacking materials.
“Are you making a house, Mister Arata?” Luna asked me when she came over to play.
“We are. Living in a tent has its issues after a while.”
“I’m excited for it to be done! In fact, I’ll help too!” she said, smiling from ear to ear.
In sharp contrast with Luna was Tailtiu, who looked strangely upset after I explained to her what had led to this decision.
“You know, darling, building a house to live in with Reina means... Well, I shall allow it. But I want a room for myself as well!”
“R-Really?”
“What’s with that attitude?! It’s not fair you get to build a love nest with just Reina. I want to share one with you too!”
“A ‘love nest’?”
Not only was Tailtiu using a rather old-fashioned expression, she had all sorts of wrong ideas about me and Reina, and I wasn’t sure what to say. She saw building a home for cohabitation as a milestone specifically for married couples. And as the one who lovingly called me darling, she couldn’t readily overlook this.
“Listen, Tailtiu. As I’ve said many times already, we aren’t building a ‘love nest’ or anything like that. Us building a house means, in part, that we’re making an effort to respect each other’s personal spa—”
“That’s just what you think, darling! But Reina definitely has other reasons!”
“I don’t really think that’s the case...”
I didn’t know what those “other reasons” were supposed to be, but I was sure that Reina didn’t have any such ulterior motives.
“Hmph...”
“There’s no need for you to pout so mu—”
“I am not pouting! I simply want a room for myself to live with you!”
“Oh? If that’s all, then we can just build one,” Reina said. She had come over with lunch as I was talking with Tailtiu and Luna while working. There was a pizza on the tray she was holding. I had taken the opportunity to build a sort of pizza oven while the house was under construction, and it looked like she was already putting it to good use.
“Are you sure, Reina?!” Tailtiu asked.
“Of course. We already have permission from Suzaku to use this land as we please, so it shouldn’t be an issue if we make a larger house.”
“Then I want a room too!” Luna chimed in.
Reina giggled. “Our home will be quite a bit bigger than we’d planned, then.”
Luna and Tailtiu smiled and immediately began to let their imaginations run wild, each saying what they would do once the house was finished. It was amusing to see them act like children getting their own rooms for the first time.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked Reina.
“Isn’t it all right? They seem happy,” she replied. “Also, it’ll be nice for the place to be more lively.” She took out the blueprint of the house from her Storage spell, then quickly began to redraw various parts of it.
At first, the house had been for only me and her, but at some point a large living room, various individual rooms, and even a guest room for Elga or anyone else to stay in had been drawn in. It had come to resemble a mansion more than a regular house.
“Now, this is going to change a lot, but let’s keep at it,” Reina said.
“Yeah. But so much of this is new to me, and it isn’t easy,” I said, but just seeing Tailtiu’s and Luna’s smiles was enough to fill me with motivation. “All right, let’s get to it!”
I felt like I could understand the feelings of all the fathers in the world, if only a bit.
✦ ✦ ✦
Naturally, building a house was not easy. Even on my Earth, it took many months and involved the intensive use of various machines, tools, and data, and all of it was based on minutely detailed plans. So...
“Phew... Well, I suppose that’s just how it goes,” Reina said.
“Yeah, we finished surprisingly quickly,” I replied.
“Is that so? This is pretty standard with magic.”
It had been a week since I had begun building with Reina, and a house that was larger than our original plans was now complete. The wooden building bore some resemblance to Suzaku’s mansion in the Divine Beastfolk village, though on a different scale. It was a slightly luxurious Japanese-style home, which gave me a strange sense of calm.