Kujonin Chapter 87

Kujonin
Author: Hanabokuro
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Together with Seth, the two of us headed upstream of the water ca.n.a.l.
The water level has already become reduced from before.
According to Seth, he had used large rocks to dam up the ca.n.a.l.
There are lots of trees near the village, but it soon changed into wasteland.
Moving onwards, we met with a hill on the way.
There was a tunnel for people to pa.s.s through the hill, and the water ca.n.a.l used that to pa.s.s through.
The water level has already been reduced, so we leave the tunnel.
"I guess Garcisan made this with magic?"
I said as I pointed a fire magic light at the walls and the ceiling.
My voice echoed slightly. That's how hard the walls and ceiling are.
"It seems like it, doesn't it?"(Seth)
The work should have been quite difficult even if it was just this single tunnel.

When we continued going upstream there were a number of hills, and each time the water ca.n.a.ls pa.s.sed through them with tunnels.
"There are a let of tunnels, ne?" (Seth)
"Isn't it to avoid having the water evaporate as much as possible?" (Naoki)
In truth, I felt like the humidity within the tunnels was quite high.
"I see."
Seth agreed with my words.
There were also places were there was a lot of sand acc.u.mulated after we exited the tunnel.
"Where the hills here first or was the ca.n.a.l here first?"
Garcisan might have made the tunnels and covered them with sand when monsters destroyed the water ca.n.a.ls.
"Why would he do all that?" (Seth)
"It's tough when it gets destroyed, right? I don't know if monsters were making the ca.n.a.l their travel route, or if they were attacking it, or if they were taking a dump in it, but it's better if there's a hill they can go up and down on, right?"
"President, you know everything."
"No, it's prediction. If I was Garcisan, that's what I would do."
I said that kind of suitable thing while we headed upstream.

This time we did encounter monsters, but Seth dealt with them.
Seth seems to be avoiding killing monsters.
He's throwing pebbles, chasing them away.
When I tried asking why,
"I suck at dismantling, and it takes time and I'll get covered in blood. And if we get any more meat or the like to carry, it would just be a hindrance,"
Is how he responded.
"I can use Clean Up on you, you know. And we have bags for the meat, so there's no trouble."
"'Sthat so? Then when I'm with the President, I'll kill as much as possible."
"Nah, it's not necessary to kill if you don't want to, though."
"Whenever I'm with Ayl-san and Merumo, one gets mad at how much time I take to dismantle, and the other's look in her eyes becomes funny when she sees me smeared in blood, so I kind of avoid it."
Seems like Ayl gets mad at his dismantling, and Merumo is the type that gets excited when she sees blood spurting out, after all.
"You've had it tough too, haven't you? Oh! Is that it?"
While listening to the complaints about our company employees, I could see large stones lined up in the ca.n.a.l.
Water was flowing out of the s.p.a.ces between the rocks.
"That's right. I thought I could stop it with large rocks, but it ended up having openings."
I climbed up on the rocks and checked the divergence of the river.
There were a large amount of weeds surrounding where the river was diverged, and trees were growing here and there.
It seems that they made a curve over the span of five years to turn the direction of the water curve.
"The lake is that way, right?"
I pointed at the river going west.
"That's right."
"Then let's dig a bit to have the water flow that way. Let's turn this entire area into a bit of a pond so that it will flow towards the lake, shall we?"
"That seems like a lot of work."
"Probably, huh? Well, it will work out somehow."
While saying so, I started working.

As Seth predicted, it was a lot of work.
I made shovels and pickaxes from the bones of the monsters in the item bag that I hadn't found a use for.
For the shovels I used the beak of the large bird monster, the desert eagle, but it was small in size so the work didn't go as well as I thought.
In order to stop the water from flowing in the direction of the water ca.n.a.l, Seth carried small rocks and stuffed them in the s.p.a.ces to make a dam.
I got my shoes wet on the riverbank many times, and water flowed into the hole in my torn boots.
The boots are something from my time in the previous world, so they're completely destroyed.
"Is it about time to buy some?"
I took a break since it wasn't going well and went to see Seth's progress, and he'd just about had it with the dam, too.
Even though he filled the s.p.a.ces, water just flows from the rocks and stones.
"How is it?"
"It's not going well." (Seth)
As Seth said so, water streams from the crack he should have just filled with stones.
"Can't be helped. Should we destroy the tunnels?"
"Aa! I see, let's do that! Huh? Huh? But if we do that, then there will be a pound in front of the tunnel, right?"
"That's right. Geez, what should we do … should I take the Earth Magic Skill?"
Come to think of it, I haven't used any skill points recently, so I don't know how many I have saved up. In the first place, I'm too scared to see my level.
"Can we use President's magic circles somehow?"
"Ah…!"
I had completely forgotten, but I draw magic circles that produced water currents a lot on ships, right?
What the heck, ain't that good?
If I made the shovel more durable, it would make digging easier, wouldn't it?
"Sorry, I'll do it now!"
For now, when I tried sticking the sticky boards used to catch mice on the cracks, the water stopped.
"Was this always this strong?" (Seth)
"Honestly, I'm just as surprised."
It's stopped for now, but when they lose their stickiness they'll fall off.
The sticky boards will last for 2 or 3 days, so we have quite a bit of time.
It would be fine if we buried it during that time.
"Ah, should I make a staff to crush the rocks?"
Ideas came out one after another after I'd heard that we should just use magic circles.
"After this is how the river flows, I guess. Would I be fine if I went into the river with this?"
I took the wood plank that can produce a squall of wind that I had made when I was riding Red Dragon from the item bag.
I took off my coverall and inner clothes and jumped into the river with my underwear.
It's probably fine since there's only guys around.
It's really cold, but I got used to it as I endured it.
"Seth! Prepare a bonfire for now!"
"OK-ssu!"

When I poured magic power into the squall plank within the river, with a blast, water flowed upwards like a fountain.
The direction is important.
Moving towards the riverbank, I firmly braced myself and raised a squall, steadily shaving away the sh.o.r.e's dirt.
If I submerge myself while making it, it will make a water current.
I gradually widened the curve in the river.
It's cold so I got out onto the sh.o.r.e many times, going to the pond while resting.

Did Seth not have anything to do? He went to hunt monsters in the wasteland, grilling the meat as a snack.
It seems he really is awful at dismantling, so there isn't a lot of meat around the bone. There's a lot of meat left on the skin.
"President, did you bring salt?"
"I did."
So saying, I took rock salt out of the item bag and handed it over.
I have salt in reserve, at least.
While warming myself next to the fire, I bit into the monster meat that had salt sprinkled on it.
It's extremely juicy. It seems to be a frog monster that lives in the wasteland.
Neither Seth nor I know its name.
I think there's no poison. It's delicious. It's not a brilliantly colored frog, it seems. Even if there's poison, it would only be to the degree where you'd see the flower fields of heaven for just a little bit.
While I was thinking like that, in reality, my eyes trembling, and I could see the follower fields and I started feeling real good, so it was scary.
In a hurry, I made an impromptu bath on the sh.o.r.e, drew a heating magic circle, and boiled up some bath water.
I toss Seth, who had collapsed, in, and I also climbed into the bath to sweat it out.
"H,huh? I'm, am I okay?"
Regaining consciousness, Seth washed his face with the hot water and looked around at his surroundings.
"You're okay. I just had to scald you a bit with the magic circle. I'm glad Seth sucks at dismantling. We ended up not eating a lot of it. Be careful of frogs in the wasteland."
"Yessir."

With this and that happening, we made a pond and changed the flow of the river.
Around when the sun set, I rose from the river and dried my underwear with the squall plank, and my underwear tore. My clothes and daily goods are another thing that's. .h.i.t the timing to be replaced.
I took out underwear that had been laundered from the item bag.
If I went without underwear, actually, you can feel the metal furnishing on the coverall, and it would be terrible to get cut by them.
"With preparations there are no regrets, I guess."
"What's that? That saying."
"I mean that you won't regret it if you buy a large amount of daily necessities and underwear."
I said as I tied the cord in the underwear.
This world's underwear doesn't have elastic, so there are a lot of things that are like shorts.
But getting back to the main topic.

Our work is temporarily done for the day, so we headed back to the inn.
Garcisan also might have woken up.
I picked up a branch that looks like it could be used to make a cane from among the branches Seth had gathered for the fire and put it in the item bag. I was thinking that I could make a staff to crush rocks with at the inn.
Running back, we reached Gnomefield quickly.

The villagers seem to have returned to their homes, so lights were glowing in the houses in the village.
When we entered the inn, the women in our group were waiting while covered in mud.
"Our hair's gross. Naoki, use Clean Up."
Ayl said, so I used Clean Up on our female employees.
"And so, did you dig up a well?"
"Nope. Not yet. If we don't dig quite far, it won't happen. Tomorrow, we'll have Garcisan's children help."
Velsa explained.
"The girl Cynthia went to Garcisan's wife. She's the slave girl Naoki was talking about, right?"
Oh yeah, there was all of stuff going on, so I didn't introduce them.
"That's right. I already released her from slavery, though."
""Eh!?""
Ayl and Velsa looked at me.
"Why did you release such an important workforce!"
"Just what is Naoki's interests!"
Velsa and Ayl complained at me.
"No, I mean, it's fine as long as the villagers are cured of ghoul disease…"
"You bought a slave with the company's money, so don't just release her on your own!"
"Do you not have any desire for a s.e.x slave!?"
"No, well, it's not like I don't, but for that, if you go to a brothel for it you won't have any future troubles, so it's fine. Well, it was my bad for releasing the company's slave. I didn't think of her as the company's slave, so. But if you had heard her reason for being a slave, you two would have definitely released her too!"
"Emotions; you should throw away things that can't make you money!"
"That's right, that's right!"
"Hang on! What if Cynthia went to spend time with Garcisan's wife as a slave; you understand what would have happened, right?"
"What the heck! Saying 'what if' is unfair!"
"Anyway, you're just thinking about saying something completely whack again!"
"What do you mean, whack! Anyway, Ayl and Velsa are also the same!"
"What-!"
The three of us continued to fight like for a while after that.
The newbies were quiet as they ate dinner that the inn's dining hall put out, talking about things like the frog in the wasteland.

Around the time when alcohol was involved and we were getting heated up, Cynthia came to the inn, so we finished our quarrel.
She had come to tell us that Garcisan had recovered and returned to the house and that Pastor Romeo's funeral would be held tomorrow morning.
"All of us will attend for the funeral."
"I understand. … What has happened?"
Seeing the grumpy Ayl and Velsa, Cynthia asked.
I can't tell the person herself that, "It looks like they're bothered that I released Cynthia from slavery," so
"Looks like I made a mistake again."
"Is that, so?"
"Ah, Cynthia, would you enter our company?"
"Eh?"
Cynthia stared at me in surprise.
"Well, I'm not going to say to respond immediately, but can I ask you to decide before we leave the village?"
"… I understand … are you asking me to be your lover?"
"You're wrong!"
"Haha, of course. Well then."
So saying, Cynthia left the inn.

"There's no way she'll come like that!"
"He just doesn't get a woman's heart after all!"
" "Good grief! Haa~." "
Ayl and Velsa's voices reverberated with a sigh as they drank fruit wine.
"What the heck! The two of you said you wanted Cynthia, so I tried asking, didn't I!?"
"You just don't get a woman's seduction! What a brute!"
"Can you say that in this inn's dining hall?"
"Are you guys going to get into it again? Is it fine if we go sleep?"
Merumo said towards us.
"Ooh-! Just what is this!? You're going to sleep together with Seth?"
"Goodness, beastkin women have no morals, huh?"
"You're wrong!"

Ayl and Velsa, who've been drinking, changed their attack towards Merumo.
"And anyway, just how did your b.r.e.a.s.t.s get so big, these ones~"
Velsa groped Merumo's b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"St~op it please-!"
"What did you eat to get this! Answer! I'm your superior!"
Ayl and Velsa's fault finding continued late into the night.

Seth and I gave up Merumo as the sacrifice and quickly returned to our room.
Seth immediately dived into bed, and I worked on the staff to crush stones.
"President."
"What is it?"
While staring at the ceiling, Seth talked to me.
"Is that Cynthia girl going to enter the company?
"Well, I don't know. I went with the flow and asked, but the future is for the person in question to decide herself. What is it? Are you concerned? Even though you might get a subordinate."
"No, that's not it. It's just, I was thinking, what would she do if she comes to our company… I'm looking forward to managing the ship, Merumo makes clothes, and while sewing she defeats monsters, and it looks like she's thinking it would be nice if she could raise bug-type monsters."
Now that he says it, that's certainly true.
I wonder what Cynthia would do if she came to our company.
In the first place, I invited her to our company without know anything like what her specialties are, or what she's bad at.
Does she have something she wants to know, or a dream?
Our company can help with that, I suppose. Or perhaps we can help her find it?
It's quite the big problem.
"That's something I should have asked before. I made another mistake. My life is full of mistakes. Geez."
"There aren't any people who don't make mistakes. Uncle says that we can grow because of mistakes."
"It would be nice if that was true."
"She was a girl with a nice ambience, so I was thinking I'd like her to join us."
It depends on the person herself. She won't unless she wants to.
It's just, I'm reflecting that I would like to become just a little bit more of a considerate adult.

"President~! Those two are bullying me~."
Around when Merumo came to the room seeking refuge, I'd finished the staff.
I'd inlaid the left over magic stones into it, so it turned into quite the luxury item.
"Pre~si~dent~!"
"Shut up - go to sleep!"
I quickly drew a magic circle with a sleep effect on some sc.r.a.p paper and stuck it to Merumo's forehead.
Just like that, like a talisman.
I carried Merumo, who went to sleep like she fainted, to the bed of Seth, who was pretending to sleep, and left the room.
In the dining hall, Ayl and Velsa were finding faults with the peddlers who were staying in the village.
I stuck the sleep-effect talisman to the two of them as well, putting them to sleep.
I apologized to the peddlers and took the two to their room, rolling them onto the floor.

I went back to my own room and climbed into bed.
Tomorrow is the funeral. I don't have any mourning clothes.
"President, I don't think I can sleep like this…"
I heard Seth's feeble voice.
"Not my problem. Go to sleep … I'm going to sleep now, so if you're going to do anything, be quiet."
"No… um…"
And the night went on.

I can't wait for the weather to even out. 70F (21C) one day, snow the next… seriously, I am extremely sensitive to barometric pressure, and these swings are always accompanied by huge dips in pressure. I just can't translate when it feels like my sinuses and temples are being squeezed in a vice.
At least early fall gives my lightning to go with my pain. Spring rainy season is just … dreary. And cold/hot/cold/cold/hot/cold/hot/cold d.a.m.n the temperature needs to make up its mind.
I think it is finally evening out, yay, although I'm developing another pressure headache as I type…>