CH 188

Chapter 188 : My Land

I left the house and headed to the open area in the woods where the ground had been leveled by me the day before yesterday.

I’m planning to live there for the next three months if Mom and Dad allow us to stay in this village, so I need to build a house and prepare some other stuff today.

After walking for about ten minutes from Celine’s house, I arrived at the place. It’s quite large and there’s a river nearby, so I think this is a good place to build a house.

When I looked around the open area, I heard someone call me from the woods.

「Oーii, Markー!」(Ester)

I turned my gaze to the source of the voice and saw Ester run toward me while waving her hand.

Just like the first time I met her at the river, I didn’t notice her presence until I heard her voice. Seems like she was practicing nearby.

「Yo, Ester. Good morning.」(Mark)

「Mornin’~! Yesterday, I came here to practice and found this open area. I wonder who felled all the trees here but it seems like I found the person who did it.」(Ester)

「Hehe, yeah, it was me. Don’t tell me… Is this someone else’s land…?」(Mark)

I didn’t think about it too much when I cleared this area from trees, but if someone has this land, then I really did a bad thing. I need to apologize to them…

「Don’t worry. This forest is outside the village, so this land doesn’t belong to anyone. The person who clears the area from trees and levels the ground can claim it. 」(Ester)

「Really? So I can use this land?」(Mark)

「Yup.」(Ester)

I lived in a rented house in my previous life, so the fact that I can claim this land for free makes me kinda excited.

「By the way, how did you remove all the trees? Did you burn them with fire magic or something?」(Ester)

「I didn’t! I would burn the entire forest if I used fire magic! I just simply dug the ground, pull out the trees, and put them in my Item Box.」(Mark)

「You put all the trees in this area in your Item Box!? That’s more amazing than burning them down with fire magic! Just how large is the space of your Item Box?」(Ester)

「I don’t know. I’ve put so many things in it but it’s still far from full.」(Mark)

「Hee… Oh, right. You’re going to leave this village tomorrow, right? Why did you make this vacant land then?」(Ester)

Aa, I haven’t told anyone about my plan to stay in this village for a while.

I didn’t have the intention of telling anyone before I get permission from my parents but I don’t think there will be a problem if I tell her.

「Actually, Celine will be able to complete her Portal Stone in just three months with my help. Therefore, I’m thinking of building a house here and living in this village for a while to help her.」(Mark)

「Th, Three months!? That’s tenー no, twelve times faster! But if you’re going to stay in this village for a while, wouldn’t it be better if you live in Celine’s house?」(Ester)

「Well, there’s not enough room for us. Nicola, Celine and I sleep in the same room for now, and it’s a bit cramped, so I think I better live in a different house.」(Mark)

「I see. If were you, I would definitely choose to sleep with Celine every day~」(Ester)

She reminds me of Nicola somehow…

「Ester, can you keep it a secret from Celine for now? I need to ask my parents for permission first.」(Mark)

「Alright. I tend to get excited and say a lot of things when Celine is around, so I won’t go to her house today just to be sure.」(Ester)

「Thank you.」(Mark)

So she’s aware of that habit of hers. She acts cool like an onee-san when Celine isn’t around, but she looks just like an energetic little girl when she’s around.

「By the way, Ester, are there monsters in this forest?」(Mark)

「Hmm… I rarely see them but sometimes I spot Green Foxes and Forest Fungi.」(Ester)

Green Foxes are maybe fox-type monsters, but…

「What kind of monster are Forest Fungi?」(Mark)

「They are monsters in the shape of large mushrooms. They release spores to increase their number. If you are wounded, you better run away from them, because if their spores get into your wound, mushroom-like things will grow out of your wound in a week! Those mushrooms will keep growing and eventually cover your entire body! You have to immediately cut off the part of your body where the wound is before that happens.」(Ester)

「That’s scary…」(Mark)

It reminds me of the urban story about a poor man whose knees were overgrown by barnacles after he fell on a rock when he was playing at the beach.

I really don’t want to get near those dangerous monsters…

「Ester, do you think they will be able to climb over a wall this high?」(Mark)

While saying that, I made a wall with a thickness of thirty centimeters, a width of one meter, and a height of two meters.

「I’m going to make walls like this around my house later just in case. What do you think?」(Mark)

「Let’s see…」(Ester)

Ester approached the wall and looked up at it. She then pushed it with both hands, kicked it, and rammed it with her shoulder.

「Un, un! This wall is high and very sturdy. I don’t think they will be able to breach through it.」(Ester)

「That’s great.」(Mark)

「Say, Mark, can I use this wall as target practice?」(Ester)

As she said that, she grabbed the handle of the dagger on her waist and smirked.

I wonder if battle maniacs like her can’t stop testing their strength every time…

She kinda reminds me of my friend in an MMORPG I played in my previous life. His character was a DPS, and he always bragged about his damage output which kept getting higher every time I logged in.

I played a tank character, so I didn’t really understand why he was so boastful about his damage…

「Sure. You can destroy it. I can make as many walls as I want anytime after all.」(Mark)

「Thank you! Alright, here I go…」(Ester)

Ester unsheathed her dagger and gently stroked the blade with her fingers to apply wind-attributed mana to it.

It seems that her wind-attributed mana increases the sharpness of the blade.

「Hya!!!」(Ester)

As she slashed the wall horizontally with her dagger, the sound of iron hitting each other was heard.

She then put her dagger back into the scabbard and sighed.

「Hahh… I intended to cut it in two but I could barely scratch it.」(Ester)

There was a cut about three centimeters deep in the wall.

Actually, this wall is sturdier than the walls I usually make because I’m gonna use this kind of wall to protect me from dangerous monsters.

I honestly was impressed that Ester was able to scratch it.

「I think this wall is harder than the black boulder in Tori-sensei’s front yard.」(Ester)

「Is that so? Hold on… Tori-sensei, you say…?」(Mark)

「Yup. He is a teacher. He teaches the children in this village until they turn twelve. The children usually gather in the village square, and Tori-sensei teaches them a lot of things there. I was one of his students. I graduated three years ago, by the way.」(Ester)

「Hee… I see.」(Mark)

It’s hard to believe that the perverted old man, who tries to make glasses that allows you to see naked bodies, is actually a teacher.

But now that I think about it, there’s no school in this village.

So, the children learn things from Tori-san, huh…?

I wonder if he will let me join his class… I’m curious about what he usually teaches the children.