It goes without saying that building a house isn’t an easy task.
Even on Earth, it takes months to build one, based on detailed plans and employing a lot of data, machines, and tools.
So…
“Ahh… I guess that about does it.”
“…It was surprisingly simple.”
“Was it? I think this is expected, considering we are using magic.”
It’s been a week since I started building a house with Reina, and it ended up being a lot bigger than what we first envisioned.
It’s made entirely of wood, and although the scope isn’t the same, it’s a bit close to Suzaku’s house in the divine beast people’s village.
There’s a sort of nice Japanese style to it, which makes my heart feel relaxed somehow.
“It feels good.”
“Yes. It ended up a little big because we incorporated things like rooms for Tiltue and Luna, but it mostly followed the original plan.”
“You really can do anything, Reina…”
I worked pretty hard too, despite being a complete amateur, but I think it’s fair to say that this really is Reina’s achievement.
After we received paper from the divine beast people’s village, she quickly put together plans, and selected materials. Then she used magic effectively to greatly shorten the amount of time necessary to build a house.
She says this was something her master drilled into her, but the feeling that I get is that she’s even more blessed by god than me.
I look at the duo building a house a little far from here, and see they’re about halfway done.
It’s clear that it’s our pace that’s strange.
“Our house is bigger and more intricate, and we finished faster than them…”
“Everyone has things they’re good and bad at. And it makes perfect sense when you consider that you’re on this side.”
“Did I really do that much?”
All I did was follow Reina’s instructions to gather wood and use magic.
Reina taught me all sorts of magic, because it’d be hard to build a house with the magic I normally use.
Thanks to her, I can use all sorts of magic now, but it’s mostly stuff to help with our daily lives like this.
I get the feeling that despite being one of the strongest mages in the continent, Reina’s magic is mostly related to daily life stuff.
But it’s not like I want to use strong offensive magic that usually appears in fantasy and adventure stories, so I’m just thankful that I get to learn useful spells.
“You’re not very self-aware, are you? How can you even question if you played a big part?”
“I think you did a lot more.”
“…This wall…”
Reina suddenly places her hand on a wall. It’s made of wood shaped into stakes that were then thrust in the ground, and a coating of earth magic on both sides.
We used on the house the same idea we used as a countermeasure to Wil and her propensity to destroy the walls of the bathing area to create romantic comedy situations.
“All the physical labor and magic energy intensive labor was left to you, Arata.”
“Well, my magic energy doesn’t run out no matter how much I use it. And fine control is one thing, but even I can use magic energy to reinforce a wall like that.”
“Of course you can, your magic energy is incredible.”
Thanks to that, the bathing area walls that used to go down in one hit, can now take a few hits from Wil.
It was pretty funny watching her surprised expression, when she saw a simple wall withstand her attacks. But that turned into frustration when she still ended up destroying it by going all out with her attacks.
“This house definitely won’t go down.”
“Because you made it with that spirit in mind, Arata. These walls are sturdier than a fortress in my country that was said to be impenetrable.”
“I’m pretty sure they won’t even go down if Tiltue and the others charge at it.”
It’s incredibly durable. We also asked Tiltue and, Gaius the descendant of Bahamut, to help strengthen it.
They attacked it multiple times, and when I finally made it strong enough that it wouldn’t go down when they charged at it, they looked at it like they were seeing a monster.
Honestly, I kind of feel like I overdid it too, but it has to be that strong, or there’s no doubt that a certain true ancestral vampire will come to play a few pranks.
“And even putting Wil aside, it has to be sturdy enough to stop beasts when they’re rampaging.”
“Well, I guess so. Who knows when an emperor boar might come running. I guess… We need this much at least?”
“Yes.”
I actually promised to do the same to Xellos and Merlin’s outer walls when they finish building their house.
I’m one thing, but if a beast comes suddenly when they’re sleeping, it would turn into a matter of life or death for them.
“And it’s not just the walls, is it? I asked you to do all sorts of things, like carrying those big trees.”
“But you’re the one who thought of everything from scratch. I just did what you told me.”
“Be prouder of the speed and quality of that work you call just doing what I told you to do.”
Says Reina, but I’m sure it’s tougher to come up with the process and what to do exactly than to do the actual labor.
Once the entire composition and step-by-step procedure is finished, it will work out if you just have enough manual labor. But without a specific procedure, no amount of manpower is going to make it work.
From that point of view, Reina is way more incredible for designing the house and working out the whole process. Way more than someone like me who just happens to have a body that can do the work of several people.
“Well… The exterior is done, so let’s fix up the interior.”
Reina goes inside, looking like my eyes filled with respect for her are tickling her.
I follow her as we cross the front door and walk down the hallway, and enter a spacious room.
It feels empty, because there’s no furniture or anything, but we’re going to put stuff like a dining table here so we can all eat together.
After this large room, we have our own separate rooms.
Tiltue said she likes high places, and she can fly, so we made her room in something like a loft.
Luna’s room is under hers, but we were worried about Tiltue moving around up there, so we made it so magic absorbs the vibrations.
And we have two relatively large guest rooms, so we’re prepared even if people drop by unexpectedly.
“This way we will be ready when you fish someone.”
“I don’t think it’s going to happen that frequently… Probably.”
Reina said that jokingly, but I’m not all that confident in my response.
I can’t say I don’t have a prior record.
“And this is my room, and the one next to it is yours, right?”
“Yes. We will be sleeping in the tent today, but we will start preparing things like our furniture tomorrow.”
It doesn’t feel right to stay the night in empty rooms, and more important than that, we’ve grown attached to that tent where we’ve been sleeping all this time.
I was nervous about sleeping there with Reina at first, but I’m used to it by now.
Now I’m worried about the opposite. Am I going to be able to relax and sleep all by myself?
We go back to the tent, and start to slowly put things away.
Thinking back to the time we spent here, there was something relaxing and comfortable in this tent that’s wide, but doesn’t actually have a single partition or anything.
We clean up the tent, one thing at a time, and even though we’ll be living in our new house that’s basically in the same place, it feels a little sad somehow.
“…”
“…”
I don’t know if Reina feels the same way, but her expression looks a little lonely.
It should be weird for a man and a woman that aren’t family or lovers to be sleeping close to each other, but somehow, we’ve come to think of that as something natural.
“It’s not…”
“Hn?”
“It’s not like we can’t sleep in this tent.”
“…Yes. You’re right.”
We could sleep in our new house most of the time, and sleep together in the tent from time to time.
Luna, Tiltue, Elga, etc could come in here, spend the night having fun, and sleep, talk, and laugh freely too. That also sounds like fun.
It’s not like our relationship is going to change just because we’re going away from the tent and into a house.
We’re friends, but sort of like family in a way too.
“Let’s sleep here from time to time.”
I say, and Reina nods, looking a little embarrassed.
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