“It looks good,” I said.
“It does. It ended up a bit larger because we built rooms for Luna and Tailtiu, but it’s mostly according to plan.”
“Seriously, Reina, you can do anything...”
Though I was new to all this, I thought I had done the best I could. But this time, Reina had been completely in her wheelhouse. After getting paper from the Divine Beastfolk, she had rapidly drawn up blueprints and selected the necessary materials. Then, she had efficiently used magic to massively reduce the time needed to manufacture them. According to her, this was another skill her teacher had drilled into her, but it was enough to make me suspect that she’d been given more skills from a god than I had.
“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses,” she said. “Or rather, if I’m being honest, it was only thanks to you that we were able to finish so quickly.”
“Did I really do all that much?”
All I had done was obey Reina’s instructions, like gathering lumber and using spells as she directed. At one point, just as I had been thinking that it would be difficult to build a house with only the magic I used regularly, she had taught me all sorts of spells. Thanks to that, I could now use various new kinds of magic, though they were all for the purpose of bettering one’s livelihood. I got the sense that, in spite of Reina’s status as one of the strongest magicians on the continent, much of her magic was directly linked with daily life. I didn’t have any particular desire to cast powerful attack spells like the ones in fantasy adventure stories, so I appreciated being taught this kind of practical magic.
“You know, Arata, you should be more conscious of all you’ve done. I can’t pretend you didn’t play a big part in building the house.”
“But didn’t you do more than I did?”
Reina suddenly touched the wall. “Look here.”
The wall was made of wooden stakes planted in the ground and coated using earth magic. This shape was one of the measures I had taken against Mina trying to break down the fence around the bathroom and force us into more of her rom-com shenanigans, applied as is to the house.
“Manual labor, magical labor, you name it,” she continued, “I basically relied on you for everything.”
“That’s only because I never run out of mana. I can rely on my mana for strengthening my spells, though precision is a different story.”
“You’re right about your mana being absurd.”
Thanks to that, the fence of the bath—which had been destroyed in a single blast at first—was now able to take many hits from Mina. The surprised look on her face when a mere fence had blocked her attack had been pretty funny, though her using all her power to smash it after that was a frustrating memory.
“I swear I’ll protect this place,” I said.
“You were so motivated when building it that we now have a fence tougher than an impregnable fortress...”
“It won’t collapse even if Tailtiu charges at it, after all.”
It had excellent durability, thanks to me enlisting Tailtiu’s and Gaius’s support. When I had finally made the fence strong enough to withstand countless attacks from them, they had looked at it with something like terror in their eyes. Honestly, even I thought this might have been overdoing it, but if I hadn’t, that True Ancestor Vampire was bound to come and pester us again.
“And besides Mina, it has to be strong enough to stop the magic beasts on this island if they ever run amok,” I added.
“Yes, that’s true. An Emperor Boar might come charging out of nowhere, so this much is necessary...right?”
“Of course.”
If a magic beast suddenly appeared while we slept, it would be a matter of life and death—at least for Reina—so it was only natural that we would put so much into defending our home.
“But I mean, you did more than just the wall,” Reina said. “I asked for your help for all sorts of things, like perfecting the house or moving large trees, didn’t I?”
“I could only do all that because you planned every step. I just did what you told me to do.”
“All your work was fast and high-quality. You should be more proud of that.”
Despite what Reina said, planning out the details of a project was generally more difficult than doing it. As a matter of fact, once the general structure and the procedure was decided upon, it could all eventually get done just by throwing people at it. But without that planning, it didn’t matter how many people you had. In that sense, I thought that Reina was far more incredible than me for coming up with everything. I only just so happened to have a body that could do the work of several people at once.
As I gazed at her with admiration, she seemed somewhat embarrassed.
“Jeez... Anyway, we’re done with the exterior, so let’s work on the inside,” she said, entering the house.
I followed after her, opening the door and heading down a hallway, where first there was a large room. It was still empty, without even any furniture, so it was a bit barren, but the plan was to set up a dining table here and make it a place for everyone to eat together. Past this room were each of our individual rooms. Tailtiu could fly and had said that she liked high places, so we had made her a sort of loft. Luna’s room was going to be below that, and it was set up so magic would absorb the vibrations from Tailtiu moving around above.
“Next, we need to make doghouses for Grr and Garr,” I remarked. Also on the list were two decent-sized guest rooms for any sudden visitors. “And then, this is my room, and the one next to it is yours.”
“All right. Just for tonight, why don’t we sleep in the tent like usual, and start setting up the furniture tomorrow?”
It would be dull sleeping in empty rooms, and above all, I had grown attached to the tent lifestyle after living in one for so long. At first, I had been nervous sleeping next to Reina, but I had gotten used to even that by now. On the contrary, I was actually concerned whether I’d be able to fall asleep alone.
The two of us returned to the tent, then cleaned up all of our tools little by little. Thinking about it now, I realized that while it was large, living in this tent without any partitions had been calm and comfortable. As we silently put everything in the tent in order, I started to feel a touch of loneliness for some reason, even though we were only going to live in a new home a short distance away.
I couldn’t tell if Reina was thinking the same thing, but she also had a slightly lonely look on her face. Our circumstances—a man and a woman who weren’t lovers or family sleeping next to each other—were unusual from any normal perspective, but it seemed that, for some reason, we had come to think of it as natural.
“You know...” Reina began.
“Hmm?”
“There’s nothing that says we can’t sleep here.”
“...Yeah. You’re right.”
Though we would generally be sleeping in our newly built home, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to sleep alongside each other every once in a while, as we had been doing up until now. Luna, Tailtiu, Elga, and others could come too. We would definitely have fun spending the night noisily, sleeping whenever we wanted, talking, and laughing. Nothing about our relationship would change just because the house was done and we were leaving the tent—because we were friends, and, at the same time, something resembling family.
“Yeah, why not? Let’s still sleep together every now and then,” I said.
Reina nodded, somewhat embarrassed.
✦ ✦ ✦
The completion of the house resulted in a total transformation from our tent living into a more proper, human lifestyle.
“Hey, Reina, do you think we should hold a celebration for finishing the house?” I asked.
“Good idea. And since it’s a special occasion, let’s go all out.”
We had largely finished moving everything inside, and we were now using the couches, tables, and other furniture. The books Reina had brought with her were neatly lined up on bookshelves; the interior didn’t at all seem like it had been made from materials here on the island. We had also built a kitchen, and outside there was a bath and an oven. I had hardly any specialized knowledge that would let me make whatever I wanted, but Reina knew how to build most things, so she had taught me all sorts of stuff.
I was thinking about getting some vegetables from the Divine Beastfolk village and planting a field. Suddenly, the bell we were using in place of an intercom rang.
“I’ll get it,” I said.
Outside, all the usual members had shown up in full force.
“Darliiing! I have arrived!”
As always, the descendant of Bahamut embraced me with a tremendous bam.
“Congrats on the house, Mister Arata!” Luna said, then saw Reina. “Oh, Miss Reina!” And she instantly ran over to her.
“Hey, Arata, I’m coming in,” Elga said. “You’re celebrating the new house, right?” He was holding a container of what looked like alcohol in his hands, and he was carrying a large quantity of meat and vegetables on his back.
All of them were clearly very keen on having a party here. This abruptly struck me as funny, and I broke into laughter.
“Pfft, ha ha!”
This is just how things always are, so why am I having so much fun?
Maybe this was what it meant to have a house. It was my one and only home in the world, and it truly belonged to me. If so, then there was only one thing for me to say.
“Welcome, everyone. Take it easy today.”