Chapter 31: The Occupation of Ophelis Hall (1)

Chapter 31: The Occupation of Ophelis Hall (1)

My original goal was to create a safe living environment for myself before vacation ended.

My crude wooden shelter was now dirty and deteriorating. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had a good’s night sleep.

I thought I would be able to finish my cabin before our school break ended so I could start living in it once the second semester rolled in. But now that the second semester was just a week away, I realized I still had a long way to go.

“Hmm...”

I looked at my cabin. It now had a wooden door and a window. I made sure to buy a big hinge this time. It would be a headache if it fell off again. Although I was worried it would quickly get rusty due to its size, and soon make that loud creaky sound. Well, it was still better than just falling off.

Anyway, I still had more work left to do before I could live in my cabin.

The most important things right now were a fireplace and some furniture.

I was actually worried about the fireplace. Sure, it wasn’t that cold this time of the year, even at night, but once the season changes, indoor heating would become a must.

On top of that, a fireplace would provide my only source of light at night. It was also necessary to cook my food. Fire was needed for many other survival purposes. It was absolutely essential that I be able to start a fire indoors.

But it would be a disaster if I make a fireplace out of wood and it... catches on fire. It would be a disaster. This was the reason I needed to build my fireplace with a stronger material. The first thing that came to mind was bricks.

Elte Company’s General Store downtown sold everything you could think of, but it would still be too much, even for them, to be selling bricks in an educational facility. I ended up going to Nail Hall’s construction site and asked to buy some of their bricks, but they couldn’t sell me any since their bricks were delivered exactly as inventoried.

In the end, I decided to start making my own bricks.

[Newly Crafted Product]

Brick Casting

Construction scraps were nailed together to make a square.

You can mold mud into bricks by filling it with mud.

Production Difficulty Level: ◐○○○○

“Phew...”Rêạd new chapters at novelhall.com

It only took me five minutes to make a mold to cast my bricks in. I threw my hammer on my workbench and wiped off my sweat.

I gathered mud from the river and squeezed it into the casting, making sure to press it in hard. I then took it under the shade and removed the cast. I planned to mass-produce standardized bricks by repeating this process tens, or even hundreds, of times. I would then dry them for a week and then stack them up in my cabin to create a decent fireplace and chimney.

However, I would be using mud to stick my bricks together instead of cement. This worried me since mud wasn’t as strong an adhesive as cement was. I thought I should make and attach a support fixture to keep everything together.

It would also be great if I could make some furniture to use indoors but I didn’t have any specific plan for that just yet.

I could easily make some simple pieces of furniture since my woodworking proficiency was quite high. I had learned quite a few tricks here and there. The design behind each was actually quite easy to come up with.

Items like tables and chairs were relatively simple as long as I had the materials.

It should also be quite easy to create a bed frame. Although for the mattress... it should work if I were to buy something like a large piece of fabric or bag of sorts and fill it up with feathers, cotton, or hay.

I would also like to install a glass window, if possible. But I wondered where I would even be able to purchase such a thing.

I walked through the forest as I gathered my thoughts, my bow in hand as I searched for my meal for the day.

[Combat Skills Details]

Grade: Beginner Combatant

Specialized Fields: Bow

܀ Bow Proficiency Level 6

܀ Vital Points Snipe Level 3

܀ Quick Shot Level 2

܀ Retreat Shot Level 1

܀ Sense of Aim Level 2

܀ Field of View Expansion Level 1

It was at times like this that I realized just how talentless Ed Rothstaylor was in Combat Skills. I always had to force myself to use the bow whenever I went out to hunt. But the vacation was almost over and my bow skills were still this poor.

Looked like I would need some special measures to grow this as well. I would find a way, one way or another.

“I found one.”

I chanced upon a fawn walking through the forest. I hid among the trees and took out my bow.

I had been finding all sorts of people at my camp recently.

Bell Maya used to stop by and share various ingredients with me but she hadn’t been coming over as much these days.

Meanwhile, Ziggs would jog through the forest once every three or four days. Apparently, he hadn’t only been running through the forest, but all over Acken Island instead. Just as I expected, his Vitality stat wasn’t normal. If not for Elka being in the Magic Department, I was sure he would have joined the Combat Department.

There was also that one innocent student who happened to pass by but ran away in horror at seeing me carry a bunch of dead squirrels.

Then Claire, Princess Penia’s Head Escort, also came to check on me to see how I was doing.

Ah, how should I put it? Quite a few people now knew that I lived here in the northern forest. I hoped the news wouldn’t reach the Academic Affairs Office and end up causing me trouble...

Well, not like the whole of Acken Island was managed by the school so there shouldn’t be a reason for them to kick me off of it immediately. I didn’t have to be too scared of that possibility.

But of the guests who would often visit me, there were three students who were particularly special.

Guest A was a one-of-a-kind genius magician whose visits were at complete random.

Sometimes, this guest would come over in broad daylight, when the sun was still high up in the sky. She would then lie down next to my campfire and sleep. Other times, she would come over at midnight where I would find her sleeping on the roof of my unfinished cabin.

There was also that time I came back after hunting by the river to find her laying down on my hammock. She was looking at my cabin with big sparkling eyes. She must have felt like she now had a new secret base or hideout...

She would then keep on asking me things like:

“Hey, you know what? Are you going to make a chimney?”

“Oooooh! You installed a door!”

“How about you build a backdoor too!”

Even when I was cutting firewood by the riverside, she would just randomly appear from the top of a tree and say:

“Can’t you install a glass window instead?”

“It won’t collapse, will it? I shouldn’t use my magic nearby...”

“How about adding a window on the roof too?”

And when I went to check up on the hunting snares I had set up, she would randomly pop out of bushes and ask:

“Can I try using magic inside?”

“How about laying down some marten skin inside, huh?”

And then that time I was sharpening the blade of my dagger using a rock, she was right on top of said tock and kept on kicking her feet high up in the air to tell me:

“While you’re at it, why don’t you try having the door open towards the sunlight?”

“You know, they say you need two windows for the wind to circulate better.”

Anyone would think this punk was bullying me.

I was getting sick of answering her questions and suggestion one by one that I ended up picking her up, and throwing her into the wooden shelter. Every. Damn. Time.

This was Guest A.

Guest B was a second-year top student who was also quite the talented Elementalist. I was rather welcoming of this visitor.

“Ta-da! I brought some eggs. Bell said it would be great if I could bring these to you so I came to visit.”

She put down a basket of eggs by the campfire and did her classic ‘hehe’ laugh.

This was a neighbor who I was grateful for since she would bring me food and other daily necessities that were rather difficult to find in the woods.

Even though this Elementalist kept on coming over every day, she would just sit down by the tree and read her books while she talked with spirits. It was a rather pleasant sight so I allowed it.

One day, she manifested a spirit that brought over a large washbowl and started boiling water out of the blue.

However, it seemed like there were some parts I didn’t know.

For example, what did Totte specifically say to Taylee?

“He looked at Taylee and said, ‘You’re not even as good as Ed Rothstaylor... You’re just a human that’s even lower than an insect.’ Weren’t his words too harsh?”

“Ha....”

“To tell you the truth, Taylee and you were both insulted at the same time... but Ziggs was the one who got twice as angry.”

Ah... this was why I was trying to minimize my involvement with any of the main characters... these situations were starting to become a bit too difficult to deal with.

“Elvira told me that Ziggs would have normally been a little upset, at the very least. But he seemed more angry than usual that day. Well, he did apologize after his anger faded away, but Totte was still a bit too emotional at that time.”

Lortel paused to catch her breath.

“I can’t trust such an emotional person.”

Then she looked me straight in the eyes and said,

“Your task is not that difficult. All you have to do is get the key from Elris, stay in Ophelis Hall for a while, and then open the door to let the lower-ranked students in.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of other people who could do that other than me.”

“There’s actually not as many as you would think. No matter how the situation turns out, this is a job that needed someone to remain level-headed. And above all else, you have enough reason to participate.”

Why was Lortel telling me all this?

“Even if I bribed someone with enough money, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t rat me out to the school’s internal investigators once the incident is over. ‘Oh, the person behind all this was actually the first-year student Lortel.’ If someone went ahead and confessed that, how do you think that would make me feel? There wouldn’t be anyone I could trust.”

I finally understood why Lortel picked me.

I had already been kicked out of Ophelis Hall. I continued attending the academy despite getting ridiculed and looked down on by everyone.

I didn’t really care, if I were being honest. Ed Rothstaylor deserved that kind of treatment in the first place. Sure, it was a little bit unfair to me, but right now, all I could really do was focus on my own survival.

How students view me would fade over time, one way or another. The first-years seemed to have actually started viewing me favorably.

“Don’t you want to hit them back, Ed?“

Lortel smiled softly as she asked me.

It seemed like she thought I was holding a grudge against the academy.

Well, that was just pure speculation on her part.

“Eh, not really.”

“Oh? Really?”

“But sure, I’ll listen to your terms first.”

I didn’t panic and came to a conclusion right away.

If I rejected Lortel’s offer, she would just go and search for someone else to do it. That would just make me even more anxious. I wouldn’t know would replace Totte then.

I’d rather take the role, carefully open the door, then lose to Taylee.

That was all his role was anyway.

The only difference here was that Totte, the first phase boss, was currently unable to do his job. So as long as I was able to solve that issue, then the timeline would be able to go back to its original path.

But that didn’t mean I would just do it for free. Since Lortel was someone who would be able to pay me a lot, I ought to get as much as I could from her.

“20 Coins.”

The pay seemed ridiculously high for such a simple task. But considering the fact that I would need to keep quiet after, the calculation seemed correct.

Since I wanted the timeline to progress as smoothly as possible, there was no reason for me to reveal Lortel’s involvement in the first place. In fact, this would be pretty much free money to me.

As long as I behaved well, then there wouldn’t be a reason for them to investigate me. I’ll just keep quiet and stay out of the spotlight. I’ll send Taylee on his way up and then hide out in Yennekar’s room for a while, maybe even drink a cup of tea, before escaping.

“Deal.”

I began sharpening my dagger once again.

A signal that there was nothing more to talk about here.

I had now become the 1st-phase boss.

* * *

“I feel like something’s wrong.”

It was night in the middle of the forest.

The young merchant and the head maid walked side by side back to Ophelis Hall.

The silent head maid, who had not spoken once, now spoke with a clear voice once she was alone with Lortel.

“He never asked ‘Why?’”

It was only natural for a veteran maid to see through people. At the very least, she could tell that Ed Rothstaylor was not a regular person.

They didn’t have much to talk about, but it was funny how she had deduced that something was different about Ed with that level of conversation.

However, whatever the head maid felt was strange... and Lortel clearly felt it too.

“It seemed that even you felt it too, Elris.”

Lortel smiled.

“Come to think of it, he had always been like that.”

There was no sense of curiosity from him, something that humans normally should have.

With Lortel proposing such a thing, it would’ve been only natural for him to ask ‘why’ countless times.

Why did Lortel intervene in the Ophelis Hall Occupation?

Why was Head Maid Elris with Lortel?

Why aren’t you disgusted by this initiative from lower-ranked students?

There were so many other ‘why’s he could have asked. They should have kept on coming.

This was a backdoor transaction for 20 gold coins. It was only human nature to wonder what their purpose was. Why were they doing such a thing? Lortel had even prepared some believable lies beforehand.

And yet, Ed Rothstaylor only asked ‘why’ once.

Why are you asking me, of all people, to do it?

“With that kind of reaction... it only could be one of two reasons. He was someone not interested in anything else as long as he gets paid...”

Lortel felt her spine burning for the first time in a while.

“... or he was someone who was able to see through all of this.”

Lortel still clearly remembered the warmth of those three gold coins he had placed back in her hand. At the very least, Ed Rothstaylor was not someone who would sell his life for gold.

If so, using the process of elimination, there was only one possibility left.

“How much does he know? I don’t think there should be any clues.”

Lortel closed her eyes gently before smiling her peculiar fox-like smile. It had been a long time since she had felt this feeling.

This ‘fear of the unknown.’

It was getting late into the night. Lortel kept on walking through the darkness of the forest without hesitation.

Back there, all he did as she excitedly kept on talking, was to sit there and sharpen his dagger across the campfire.

She wondered what he was thinking after she left.

She couldn’t figure out what he was feeling, which only made Lortel’s heart run even faster.

Someone who was the same as her.

To the point where it was... terrifying.