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Daybreak came and went the following morning, and I hurried to give Claus the prototype I’d made the day prior.
“Lord Lycoris, this is the barrier-generating artifact I made yesterday, after our discussion.”
“Oh! You’ve already made it? You’re quite clever with your hands, I see.” Well, that was an odd way of putting it. Please, Claus, you’re making me sound like a real ladies’ man here.
“The artifact you requested doesn’t require any sort of fine-tuning or anything, so I could produce it pretty quickly. Its effective range extends beyond the manor and just barely reaches the walls surrounding your estate. To be more precise, its range is approximately fifty meters. I’ve made it so only people who know a secret password are able to pass through.”
“I’m impressed you’ve given it so much thought! Thank you so much. Will you accept your payment for it now?”
“Oh, no. I was planning to leave town today and get moving on preparations for building a house. Do you mind if I pick up that payment once I come back?”
“Not at all. That’s actually more convenient for me.” Claus paused, thinking. “Now that you mention it, have you decided to build your house immediately?”
I nodded. “Yes. I should strike while the iron’s hot, as they say. Besides, I don’t have anything else that needs doing right now.”
“I see. In that case, you should leave town via the south gate and head west. You’ll find a large lake there—should you choose to establish your residence beside it, I’m sure the sight will be spectacular. You’ll also have a clear view of the surrounding area, so you’ll know immediately if someone is approaching.”
“The western lake, huh? Thank you, Lord Lycoris. See you soon!”
“You as well. Take care.” We waved at each other, then I departed.
That had been pretty good advice. Life at the lakeside, just chilling in my very own home... It did sound like the slow life I’d always wanted! If I could just find some land to set aside for farming, it would all be perfect. It’d be so easy to irrigate it too. Claus must’ve recommended the location to me with that in mind—living by the lake would leave me wanting for nothing.
Positively aglow with happiness, I broke into a sprint and wove my way through the streets, making my way outside of town. Today, the toll at the gate hadn’t stung as much as it usually did—at least, that’s how I was feeling, anyway.
My goal was the lakefront to the west that Claus had so kindly informed me about. He hadn’t told me exactly how far it was, but as I dashed along, it suddenly struck me that it might be too far away from town, which could be a problem. But then, all of a sudden, it came into view.
“Oh... Wow!”
After I spent thirty minutes threading through the trees and trampling grass underfoot, the sight that met my eyes brought me to a stop, despite my legs having been augmented with magic. The gorgeous blue directly in front of me captured my gaze and refused to let go.
I see... So this was the lake Claus mentioned.
There were very few trees directly around the lake; perhaps they’d long since been cut down and hauled off. With nothing to obstruct the sun, its rays shone down on the lake and made it glitter. As I gazed at it from the underbrush, I could tell it was nothing less than a work of art.
“Wooow, what a pretty place! It soothes my very soul!” Standing next to me, Fouré couldn’t help but gush in wonder as she stared at the lake.
The other two goddesses seemed to be similarly speechless as they looked out at the glistening water. Of the three of them, however, Cult’s gaze remained hollow and disinterested. Nothing could shake her, I guess—she was only interested in me.
“The lake’s surprisingly close to town, but it’s far enough that random adventurers probably won’t be stumbling in too often. Once I put up my barrier, it’ll be totally safe.”
I’d run here using magecraft, so I’d been moving about as fast as a car—or maybe even faster. I’d probably been going at about seventy to eighty kilometers an hour. Considering I’d mostly been traveling in a straight line, as long as nothing in particular happened to draw them here, I doubted other adventurers would be showing up anytime soon. Even if someone came looking for the lake itself, intruders weren’t going to be an issue once I activated the barrier.
“So, what’s the plan, Hisui? Are you going to turn on the barrier first?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I think I’d best build a house first. I’ll need a lot of lumber to start.” If I put the barrier up now, then it’d only get in the way of any logging activity I needed to do. Every time I brought in some new wood, I’d be forced to deactivate and reactivate it.
“In that case, shall I prepare construction-ready lumber for you? It’d be a simple matter with spellcraft,” offered Cult.
“No, Cult. That’d take the joy out of building the house. Constructing it log by log, with my own hands, is exactly what I’ve been wanting to do. It’ll give me satisfaction like nothing else,” I explained.
“Is that how this works?” Cult asked doubtfully. She didn’t sympathize with me even remotely, since the joys of convenience and ease were more her speed. I understood her point of view too, but I didn’t want to ruin my first step toward my slow life of dreams. This was going to be an important experience that set the tone for my easygoing life.
“Honestly, why not? I think building a house together will be a good bonding experience,” shrugged Aruna.
“Right, Aruna! So, do you guys think you can help?”
“Just leave it to li’l ol’ me! I’ll keep an eye on our surroundings and take care of the lumber!” volunteered Fouré.
“What exactly are you going to do with the lumber?”
“If you use lumber from a newly cut tree, any building you make with it will creak and warp because the wood is still full of water. So, to stop that from happening, I can draw the water out of the wood with a wave of my hand!”
“Wow, I had no idea you could do something like that, Fouré.” I knew she was really second to none when it came to affecting living beings, but I never would have guessed that she had such thorough control over the environment, as well. I supposed a tree was no different from any other living thing to her—or to godcraft itself. Maybe everything had some kind of life force she could affect.
“Then Hisui and I will take care of cutting the trees down. We’ll carry them as well,” said Aruna.
“As for me, I suppose my job could be to improve the shape of the dried lumber,” Cult decided, thoughtfully.
“Then we all have our jobs, Hisui. Let’s all get that house built up!” Following Aruna’s directions, we each got to work with the roles we were given. To my surprise, Aruna dished out orders one after another, as if she’d been doing this all her life.
Holding her strength back as much as possible, she cut trees down with me, which Fouré would then dry out. Lastly, once Cult had processed the logs, we brought the lumber to the spot I wanted the house to be. We repeated this process all day.
Honestly, we needed to spend all day doing this—as Fouré had mentioned, we would need an incredible amount of wood if we wanted to build a decently sized home. The goddesses really were a lifesaver, though. Since they were helping me, the preparations were completed several times faster than I thought it’d take.
“Is this about enough wood for the house?” asked Aruna, who stood in front of a veritable mountain of lumber, arms crossed.
“Right, hm... I think this is enough for the size of the manor that Fouré wanted to build,” I said, likewise eyeing the stack of boards we’d accumulated.
“Honestly... It’s utterly ridiculous that she arbitrarily decided we were going to build a manor.” Thinking back on Fouré’s demand a short while earlier, Aruna’s face darkened. It was true that our work had increased exponentially because of her, so I couldn’t help but laugh dryly.
“What’s the problem?” Fouré objected. “We’re building Huey’s very first house! Besides, since no one will be coming around here to notice anything, we could live here too if we wanted! We have to make it big!”
“You sound like a mortal. We don’t need to eat or sleep, remember?”
Cult giggled at Aruna’s assertion. “But you’re rather too attached to behaving like a fairy, Aruna—you’re so inflexible. Why can’t we try living as the mortals do? I agree with Fouré. I too would like to give mortal life a try with Hisui in his new house.”
“Wha—!” Now that Cult had taken Fouré’s side, Aruna was really in a predicament. Her cheeks flushed a mild red, then she huffily replied in embarrassment, “I-It’s not like I don’t want to live with Hisui, of course. Fine, do whatever you want!”
“Eeek!” Fouré squealed. “Why are you blushing? Are you thinking about something naughty? You can get as lovey-dovey with Huey as you want, but might I remind you he’s still only ei— Bwargh?!” She never got to finish her teasing. The loud crack of a punch echoed through the area, and she vanished from sight. Aruna too had gone.
“Fouré stepped on one of Aruna’s land mines again, so to speak,” I sighed.
“Indeed, and she did it so cleanly.” Cult, who still remained in the vicinity, hugged me from behind as she responded to my comment.
She really had a habit of sticking close to me whenever the other two weren’t around. Her ability to exploit a lapse in attention from the other two, rather than trying to strong-arm her way past them, was really something. But most of all, it was honestly incredible how she regularly did this without giving any hint or inkling that she was going to. She truly lived following her own tune.
“Let’s head back to town, Cult. Night will fall before those two come back, so we can’t really wait around for them.”
“That sounds like the best plan of action.”
Having agreed on a course, we returned along the way we came. Far in the distance, I could hear the slightest whisper of an explosion. I just barely heard it even with my hearing enhanced with magecraft, so they must’ve been duking it out pretty far away.
But as I rushed back toward town, all that remained on my mind was...that I hoped I could make it before they closed the gate.