CH 171

6-7 minutes

Marlou was kicking up a fuss, and Soleil, Gold and Silver had tons of things to talk about, so we decided to settle the details the next day.

「Inform the construction workers about the change, just this part. Please arrange some support for the waterway construction too. 」

「Waterway? 」

「Yup. 」

「The bell tower will serve as the starting point, however… 」

「Yeah. It’s elevated so the conditions are quite good. Anyway, just follow that for now. Please make sure there are no leaks. Ah, and hand this out, please. 」

I gave the snack pouches to Auro and called it a day.

He looked as if he had a lot of things to say, but he just accepted my instructions without a word. Butler will definitely try to get to the bottom of things if it was him, but Auro and I aren’t that close yet for him to pry and ask me about it. Alright, let’s take advantage of that and do things my way, strike while the iron is hot!

Wells are usually located in the main building of castles, and this place isn’t any different. People had to work hard drawing water from the well, carrying it up several floors to the top of the building, pouring the water into the tank then from there, letting it flow to the rooms where it’s needed.

Ish told me about the magic circle that can summon water when I asked him if there’s a way to make a waterway connected to the well. I researched about it in the library, and decided to install it in the bell tower. It’s just that it’ll probably be pretty hard labor drawing a magic circle that can pump enough water.

Aside from the employees working in the castle, I also plan to recruit doctors and establish a pharmacy on the island. Bakery too — hmm, there’s a lot of places we’ll need water, so maybe I should make a waterwheel. In that case, the place will be…

With the house in the forest as my secret hideout, this island is turning into something akin to the secret base of an evil organization so it’s quite fun. Heh, should I make this place impregnable then?

I mulled over this as I headed to the wharf. A familiar missus was talking to Gramps when I arrived there. Apparently, she’s the woman tasked by Kiel to buy Soleil’s stuff, but there weren’t any boats available.

It’ll probably be the same when she’s going back, so I told her to hop on the boat and we went to Nalluahdid. I’m already done for today, so I let her use the boat to go back to the island, and we parted ways at the boathouse.

I was a bit put off, so the waiter chuckled and neatly sliced the fish and showed me the meat. The outer skin was completely charred, but the steaming flesh was soft and white.

「Squeeze some lemon and enjoy. It’s almost the end of the season for lemons. 」

「Thanks for the meal. 」

I did as the waiter said and squeezed the lemon before taking a bite. It tasted heavenly, completely different from its unappetizing appearance. They only used salt for seasoning?

The saltiness drew out the faint sweetness of fish, and the lemon gave the relatively fat white meat a refreshing twist.

The dish came with ravioli, but the fish was so delicious that I couldn’t remember how the pasta tasted. Must be meh if I forgot all about it.

Feeling chipper, I head towards the port for the large ships. I’m gonna look for foreign spirits that might have gotten mixed in with the ship’s cargo. Although I like traveling to places, I’m not comfortable with the idea of going somewhere impromptu if it’s not plotted on the map.I already got some information on people, so it’s the spirits’ turn.

I watched the spirits as I roamed around. The spirits of the sea breeze are quite sprightly, but the other types don’t seem like it? Let’s see, this seems to be a warehouse of mass-produced carpets and textiles? Eh, do spirits wane if there’s only the same type of goods lined up?

Uh-oh, a spirit is circling a round one that seemed to have been carefully transported, looking totally smitten with it.

Hm, must be a rug weaved by a possessed craftsman.

Come to think of it, I remember there’s a huge difference in the number of spirits loitering around the workshops back in the pottery town where I commissioned my bathtub. The workshops that paid respect to the spirits first before doing any production no matter how busy they are attracted more spirits than those who omitted doing so in favor of efficiency.

Workshops that followed traditions were mostly meticulous with their craft. But then, there are more workshops that omit a lot of stuff in an attempt to make as many items as possible.

Ah, found a spirit in a sack of sugar! Sugar spirits should be knowledgeable about faraway places. I waited for people to leave but it’s always crowded since the super expensive sugar is way cheaper here!

I’ll look like a suspicious guy if I go straight up to the sack and talk to it. Telepathy won’t do since I can’t just stand there and stare at it like an idiot, right? Hmm, maybe they can just sell that sack to me? Okay, let’s try striking a deal.

— The shipowner ended up selling a different sack to me. Ack, no, this isn’t what I wanted!

I sneaked to a covert place and stuffed it in my 【Storage 】before setting off in search of other spirits. I pretended to admire a magnificent ship so I could chat with the ship spirit clinging onto it.

I got some info about the ports the ship had stopped at, so I’m going there first. The map I copied from the library had weird beasts drawn on it so I didn’t really trust it that much, but it seems pretty on point.

Well, if worse comes to worst and I end up in a place teeming with monsters, I can activate the magic barrier I learned and it’ll probably work out somehow.

I went home chuckling, mighty pleased with myself after getting the needed information. Alright, let’s name the spirit then play with Riche and laze around.

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