Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Don’t forget about the cat’s croquettes, please!

“Ryu! you’re back!”

“We were so worried for you!”

Both Helena and Bob exclaim as sooon as we open the door.

“Helena! can you at least pretend that you were worried about me too? we had a hard time on our way back. Anyway, quick Ryu get near the fire, you’re freezing”

“Hmm, thanks”

Anne shakes some of the snow on top of me and starts rubbing my back rapidly to help me get warm. I actually thought that as soon as we got back she would turn back to her old emotionless self, which is why I tried to make the most of this trip, attempting to get on her good side.

“Oh! Ryu! you’re finally back!” says Hiraku as he opens his eyes heavily.

.....

“Yes, and I’m afraid we have important news for everyone. Luke, are you up too?”

Luke, who’s lying on top of a jackal pelt with his eyes closed, responds in a muffled voice

“yeah, what’s this fuzzy all about?”

“Everyone, we found a town!”

Different reactions to my words came out at the same time, some were joyous while others were worried. It was so fast I couldn’t really tell who said what.

“Come on Ryu! hurry up and tell us!”

“Please calm down, we’re just back from a long trip and I’m still freezing”

After hearing me stuttering from the cold Ayumi finally calms down, but glares at Anne instead.

“Anne, it’s your duty as our scout to inform us everything that happened in your trip. Helena, prepare some tea for them in the meanwhile”

Helena nods as she gets up. At least now they’ll let me get some rest, I feel bad for Anne though, she must be tired too. It’s also weird to see Ayumi taking charge like that.

“Ok, I’ll do my best. After we got to the river we had very little time to hunt, so instead we decided to gather medicine and whatnot. We also found a cave near the river, It’s well protected from the weather outside, last time we could’ve stayed over there instead of camping out in the open. we... we s-spent the n-ni-night at the cave”

“Why are you stuttering suddenly? are you doubting yourself? could it be you’re hiding something from us?”

“Calm down Luke, she’s just cold, aren’t you Anne?” Ayumi says winking at her.

“Yeah, anyways, next day we managed to hunt a snow deer and then we found it, a town. At first Ryu thought it was a city, but I think its more likely a miner town. That’s because the town is on the mountain’s slope, there’s a noticeable road that goes up to a mine, and besides there are not many crops around it. If it was a city, there should be at least enough crops to sustain itself.”

“As expected from our scout a clear and concise report. Did you manage to get any more information?”

“yes, but... I think Ryu should be the one to tell you guys”

Now everyone’s looking at me with curious eyes, i got no way to avoid this. My first instinct is to always avoid responsibilities and they keep adding up more weight on my shoulders. After sighing inwardly I grab the tea mug Helena offers me and start reporting.

“Ok, I’ll continue from where Anne left it. So, we stood watch for a while on top of a tree, that’s why we came back so late, and there’s a few things i need to inform you. First, we couldn’t actually see any people around the city, so we’re not even sure if they’re human. Anne told me you had reasons to believe that there might be more sentient races other than human, sadly we couldn’t confirm this. Second, their houses have a pointed roof and this indicates that snows falls heavily, at least over there. And last, judging by the state of the forest I’d say it’s bigger than a village, I cant really assume their wood consumption by just looking at the tree stumps we saw, but at least it gives me an idea”

“is that all? like, you didn’t even talk to someone, yet you woke me up for this. We can just go see for ourselves tomorrow”

“didn’t you hear a word I just say Luke? I think you’re underestimating the issue. We can’t go at all. The fact that we didn’t see people around and the shape of their houses indicate they’re expecting a heavy snowstorm, that means we should prepare too. We need to finish both buildings, but before that we need to modify their roof so it can withstand heavy snow. Also, we won’t be able to go to the river again, at least until winter season’s over. We’ll have plenty of time to get stronger and plan ahead our approach to the town, but I strongly suggest we stay close to our settlement”

“I agree with young Ryu, we need to be careful. The fact that there might be people there doesn’t mean they’re good people at all”

“Ok! Ryu and I need to rest now so we’ll go to sleep. We can worry about everything tomorrow”

Anne says as she pulls my hand so I don’t have a choice but lie down next to her in front of the fire. Helena sees this and immediately puffs her cheeks out.

“Anne! what are you...”

But before she can even finish her sentence Anne replies harshly

“Do you expect us to sleep away from the fire just so you can keep Ryu to yourself? how selfish can you be? we just came back, it’s only natural we sleep next to the fire”

“oh, I’m sorry I wasn’t thinking”

Helena lies down next to me, so now I’m surrounded by two beauties. Still, there’s no way to actually enjoy this. My clothes are wet, I’m cold and I couldn’t even finish my tea. As if that wasn’t enough, I feel like this whole situation can become troublesome in the future. Just as I was thinking about this a sudden message shifts my attention completely.

cold resistance 1%

Finally! It’s been so long that I wasn’t actually expecting this. I notice firsthand how useful it is, I still feel cold yet it doesn’t feel as bad as before.

Next morning I awake in the most awkward position with the two girls tightly embracing each of my arms, this kind of deadly trap is more dangerous to me than walking straight into the unknown town. I hurry myself to get up doing my best to avoid waking up the others, but Luke is already up and getting ready to go outside. As soon as he opens the door an icy wind cleaves through the door suddenly waking up everyone. Several complains can be heard and Luke reacts by quickly apologizing.

“oh, sorry! i didn’t mean to...”

A white mantle covers everything outside but at least it’s not snowing right now. It’s cold, but thanks to my newly acquired skill... no, actually I still feel too cold to be outside. But I can’t afford to stay inside. We really need to get some warmer clothes for everyone, it’s so cold that we would be in deep trouble if they weren’t so strong.

Today I need to check up on the building progress, cook all the meat I can to better preserve it and find a way to get running water inside. But first I need to fetch some water and boil it, I head to the river with the cooking pot but I stop midway.

I don’t actually need to go there!

The sudden realization makes me smile. Up until this moment we needed to get the cooking pot and a fiber mesh to grab filtered water from the lake, which by the way is not far but also not that close either. It’s tiresome and takes a lot of time that could be spent in other more meaningful ways.

Right now there’s snow everywhere, its shallow but deep enough to be clean. I hurry back to the cabin and get some firewood into the chimney, with both my hands pointing ahead of me a small thread of dust emerges and then a flame appears.

“Ryu! you can use magic!?”

“Yes! I’m sorry i forgot to tell you Ayumi, back at the cave I did it by chance”

“by chance you say? what else happened in that cave that you’re not telling us Ryu?”

Ayumi squints her eyes and then giggles mockingly.

“Anyways Ryu, this is great! now you can help me build the pipes for the drainage system and I also need some help in building the chimneys for the new places”

“Hey! hold your horses! I only have 1 mana point! what do you expect me to do with that?”

“Oh! that’s a bummer! but your mana pool will rise eventually. Every hundred mana points spent you’ll get one maximum mana point, oh wait... that may be our case because we’re considered heroes but I’m not certain it’ll be the same for you”

“That would be nice, but even if I regain my mana points during the day and I immediately spend them... I should only be able to do so about five times a day, this means that if, and this is a big if, I get my mana pool increased every 100 points spent...”

Then I stop speaking to break the numbers, but and as soon as Ayumi sees me struggling with my fingers she intervenes.

“If you spend 5 points a day, it’ll take you twenty days to increase your mana pool. After that you’ll have 2 points, which means it’ll take you half that time, only ten days. Then, with 3 points seven days, and with 4...”

“ok, ok! i got it, stop bragging... By the way Ayumi, I think i have an idea that could help us get running water, but if it’s too much work i can think of something else”

“Well now, this is interesting, tell me”

“We can set a stone tank on top of the roof so that it collects clean snow and even rain water. Heat generated from the fireplace will melt the snow and on the output we can place a fine mesh so that it filters any impurities like leaves or dust that falls onto it”

“It’s a good idea, I’ve already been thinking on something of the sorts, but it’s kind of difficult... I wanted to build a water tower so that we could get running water for every building. Your idea is a lot more simple and since it will use the excess warmth of the chimney it should get enough water even with snow! What do we do when it doesn’t snow or rain?”

“We simply set up a staircase so that we can easily access the tank and refill it manually”

“uhmm... ok, I’ll get on it as soon as i finish my other tasks... it may be a while but we still have time, right?”

“That depends solely on the weather, we just need to get things ready before the snowstorm”

“Tell me Ryu, why are you so certain there’ll be a snowstorm?”

“Is there a reason to think there wont be? I mean, so far things have been going well... but we can’t be certain everything’s gonna be the same all the time. It’s not that I’m certain a snowstorm will happen, but I’m certain if it does and we’re not prepared, we’ll perish”

Ayumi puts up a grim face, she scares really easy, it wasn’t my intention but she must acknowledge the fact that we can’t close our eyes and hope for the best. Helena comes inside the cabin completely unaware of our previous conversation with her usual smile drawn on her lips.

“Good morning Ryu! you woke up early today as always. What are you going to cook for us today? I took a peek at the meat you guys brought and it looks delicious!”

“I was just thinking the same thing!”

Exclaims Bob who was behind Helena in a cheerful manner as always.

“yeah, we’ll eat meat, But I’m gonna need someone to help me cook”

“Ryu! that reminds me that Hiraku asked me to come and tell you the first cottage is ready! we even finished the pointed roof you wanted”

After hearing this we all rushed out to see the new finished cottage. But not only it is finished, it even has a functional kitchen!

“Hiraku! how? when did you finish it?”

“Actually, we finished it yesterday, we just needed to put the roof in place, problem was the snow, today I just had to clean the floor and ask Ayumi to finish the kitchen”

Ayumi puffs her chest out proudly.

“Oh! I was just about to come check the progress you made, guys you’re amazing!”

“Well, young Ryu, if it wasn’t for Luke it would’ve taken us longer. He’s quite handy... when he’s not distracted”

“What are you saying old man? be grateful I even showed up!”

Why does Luke always sound so grumpy? they always say how Luke was so excited to come into this world and have his own adventures... oh, that must be it, he probably never thought he’d have to man up and work hard.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask you Hiraku, but what’s even the difference between a cabin and a cottage?”

“Cabins are smaller and only made of wood, if you look closely you’ll see that we used various materials, including stone for the fireplace and even some clay for insulation. This made the cottage almost air tight, also we have a shared bedroom and a bathroom. Cabins usually only have a single room”

.....

“I see... can I cook in here today?”

“by all means!”

Anne was the last to come inside, she must have been washing up, that’s her daily routine anyways.

“do you need help Ryu?”

“Don’t worry Anne, I’m going to help him! you can keep on with whatever you were doing”

Is it my idea or they are becoming increasingly hostile? Anne and Helena got along very well until we came back from the river, they even seemed to be close friends. Now they glare at each other and avoid getting close at all costs. A small chill goes all over my body.

“Oh, that would be nice, thanks Helena, I’ll keep on gathering firewood then”

*phew*

It seems that it was only my imagination after all.

The kitchen is actually pretty well stocked. It has an oven and a stove, both with their own fire sources. I’m actually grateful for this, and the best part is that they have a joined chimney to pull the smoke outside. It doesn’t just look beautiful, it also seems to be both safe and practical. there’s a large table that divides the kitchen with the rest of the cottage, making the illusion that it’s a separate ambient. It’s made out of polished stone, it looks heavy but it’s actually thin and hollow so it’s probably not as heavy as it looks. There’s a space that looks to be ready for drawers to be put in place, but of course we need to craft them first.

It’s not exactly furnished and I’m lacking a lot of tools, but it’s actually functional and ten times better than our current one since now at least I can cook standing up.

“what’s this?”

“I made it myself! thanks to being able to manipulate stone I was able to create a lot of new things. that’s a water barrel”

“doesn’t look like a barrel”

“Call it whatever you like, but it’s a place to store clean water”

“That’s gonna be helpful, thanks Ayumi. Helena, you said you didn’t mind helping right? could you please bring in the ingredients? bring everything you can because I’ll try and cook all the meat today.”

“what? why?”

“That’s because it’ll last longer if cooked. Anything that we cant cook, we’ll dry or freeze.”

“understood!”

Helena runs outside and comes back soon with a lot of herbs and plants, even some tubers and nuts. After placing the basket in the table she makes another trip.

“Wow! we have a lot more food than I thought!”

“Yes! and with all the meat you brought I think we’ll be fine this winter!”

“let’s not get ahead of ourselves, even if we had a ton of food it’d be worthless if it spoils before we can eat it”

“so, what’s your plan?”

“There’s something on my mind that I’d like to try. Helena, please grind as much fruit as you can to make flour”

I set both the stove and the oven on fire while Helena was going to get the grindstone. Then I started my endeavor.

First, I make a meat pie using some herbs and ground tubers. That was pretty easy to make, even more so while having Helena to keep me company.

While that cooks and since water is not boiling yet, I sliced some mushrooms, peeled some tubers and then put a citrus leaf in the pot. As soon as it’s aroma started leaking it meant it was ready, so i cut up meat in medium sized chunks and put it in the cooking pot. after a while i put inside the rest of the ingredients.

Every time I cut up the meat I save some of the fat for later, It has many different uses, we may even be able to tan some leather.

While everything cooks Helena managed to finish a considerable amount of flour, so I chop some meat into very small pieces with my knife and mix it up with flour. It’s a good thing Mochi was left outside because now I’m mixing its two favorite ingredients into a single dish.

After mixing them, the flour starts to absorb the meat’s water content and it dries really fast.

“What’s the matter Ryu? why are you smiling?”

“Is it so rare to see me happy?”

“that’s not it, but you seem excited!”

“yes! it worked! not only this fruit doesn’t spoil but it also absorbs water! just as i figured, now we may be able to preserve meat for a long period”

“That’s great! It looks like meatballs”

“These are meat balls, so looking like meatballs means they’re not that great”

“No I mean... nevermind. why are they in different sizes?”

“Since this flour tends to absorb so much water, it may be difficult to eat, maybe even harmful. So bigger ones are made to be put into a soup or stew, and the smaller ones for eating. Also, Mochi will need food too and it’s growing bigger, what happens if we run out of meat during winter?”

“Oh right, we can’t forget about its croquettes hehe”