Chapter 48: Heading East
“...So, what’s our destination?”
“The enemy super-dreadnought!”
“...”
“...”
Crickets...
“We’re going east. Most of the people who have met me in person
probably aren’t alive anymore, but I have a lot of old connections in
the countries around here... If I’m gonna leave the past in the past
and start a new life with you, I want to build a foundation someplace
far away, instead of putting it in countries on this peninsula. That
way, it’ll be completely uncharted territory for both of us, and we
can start over from scratch. I’m sure most people haven’t heard
about me there, or they’ve only heard false rumors that have been
warped over time, so I should be able to lay low.
“Let’s find some decent place to put down roots for a while. If we
don’t like where we end up, we can always move again. We have
plenty of time, after all.”
Exchange of information took a very long time in this world, and its
details tended to change drastically in the process. Rumors would
completely lose their original content very quickly, so no one actually
believed anything that came from a far-away land. They might
discuss those rumors for fun, but they still assumed them to be
untrue. So, considering the magnitude of the events of the past,
those rumors were surely known throughout the continent already.
But it was highly unlikely anyone remembered any accurate
information that was over seventy years old.
“That’s true. Kyoko didn’t seem like she had much longer, either...”
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Huh?
“How is Kyoko...?”
“Oh, the last time I saw her was about two years ago. Neither of us
was in any shape to be going out after that... I was hooked up to IVs
and oxygen tubes. Kyoko didn’t need any, but she still couldn’t be
out and about by herself.”
“Just how old were you two?!”
They probably had a bunch of kids, too. Damn them...
We had a meeting inside the carriage —I mean, the Panzer — about
what our plans were going to be, moving forward.
We made our way out of the peninsula and through the center of the
continent, toward the coast on the other side. I had to be by the sea
as a Japanese person, after all... I mean, you were relatively close to
the sea no matter where you lived in Japan, and you could get fresh
seafood any time you wanted, but only dried seafood was available
inland here. This was pretty rough for a Japanese person. So, I
preferred to live by the seaside.
We could go fishing or dig for clams, or even go out for a swim.
Besides, there was no reason to live far away from the sea when we
could go anywhere we wanted.
And so, we made our way through the Kingdom of Brancott and
toward Drisard. I had caused some trouble immediately after
entering Drisard last time, so we had to quickly change directions
southward to the Kingdom of Jusral, which was close to the border.
We didn’t need to worry about that this time, so we planned on
continuing to the east.
I had only stayed in the region briefly, outside of the kidnapping
incident, so I doubted anyone would recognize me in Drisard, or even
in the entire Kingdom of Brancott. Case in point: after being rescued
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out of the Item Box, I went by completely undetected on my way to
the Kingdom of Balmore. Even though my name and appearance had
been recorded for religious purposes, peoples’ memories and
information greatly degraded over time. Not to mention, there
weren’t any photos or even portraits drawn with me as a model.
Pictures drawn from memory, usually after getting a glimpse of me
from a distance, couldn’t have been very accurate.
So, while we didn’t experience any issues as we kept moving east, we
still decided to sit side-by-side in the coach box, without doing
anything funny, until we got through Balmore and Brancott just in
case.
Once we pass through both, I could put up a notice saying,
“Testing automated driving features,” or “This carriage is currently
propelled by nuclear power.”
Then I realized that travelers who saw a carriage moving forward
without a driver would either assume the horses were walking on
their own, after the driver had a seizure and fell out, or they had
started walking forward while the driver was gone. Either way, they
might try to take it for themselves.
It was no good...
But I didn’t feel like sitting in the coach box the entire time, and two
kids sitting in the front would have been a bad-guy magnet, too...
The two humans and two horses racked our brains to come up with a
plan...
“Yeah, this should work!”
“They’re definitely a normal driver and a guard.”
Yes, we decided to put stuffed dummies in the coach box! One
looked like a driver, and the other looked like a guard. This would
also make it seem as if there were more guards inside.
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The perfect plan!
We made it through the Kingdom of Brancott without issues, and our
driverless carriage problem was resolved by putting our dummies,
Shunsuke and Oscar, in the coach box.
We wouldn’t be by the sea for a while, but I had seafood stocked up
in my Item Box, so that wasn’t an issue. ...It was from seventy-three
years ago, but it wasn’t as if it would age or rot. But it still felt weird
knowing that, so I decided to donate it to an orphanage somewhere
on the way and restock. They would appreciate the seafood less the
closer they were to the shore, so I had to donate it on the way, with
the intention of running out around the time I got to the coastal
area.
And so, after we hurriedly moved through Balmore and Brancott
without stopping or resting, we went at a leisurely pace, camping out
once for every three nights or so that we stayed at an inn. It wasn’t
as if I particularly loved to camp, and I had absolutely nothing to do
when we did. Camping wasn’t completely safe, for one thing, and I
wanted to have access to a proper meal and bath. Camping out
because the next town was too far was fine, but there was no reason
to do so all the time.
Plus, going from point A to point B with no stops along the way felt
too dry. It was pointless if we couldn’t stop somewhere for a few
days along the way to enjoy the trip. Fortunately, we both had plenty
of time, and we couldn’t have Hang and Scary pulling the carriage
every day. We had to let them rest up here and there.
So...
“All right, let’s spend a few days in the next city!”
“Agreed!”
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Reiko was on board, so it was decided. There was no reason to rush,
so I elected to enjoy the rest of the journey at my leisure. I decided
to leave the carriage, Hang, and Scary at the horse stables while we
stayed in cities. The barns at most inns were too small, and while
they did care for horses there, their services were just adequate.
Horses preferred to be under the care of specialists. That’s what Ed
told me, anyway. I mean, all they could do at inns was provide feed
and water.
On the other hand, horse care professionals would wash, dry, brush,
and check the horse’s legs and overall health for anything out of the
ordinary. They even changed out the straw regularly... When leaving
horses at stables over a long time, the stablemaster will often
confirm which day the carriage will be needed and give them some
exercise at pasture during open days. Though, that would obviously
cost extra...
I was only planning on leaving the horses for a few days this time,
and I wouldn’t need the carriage during the stay, so I left the horses’
care until the departure day in the hands of the staff at the stables. I
could have stuffed the horses and carriage in my Item Box, but I
would’ve felt bad for Hang and Scary, so I scrapped that idea. The
two wouldn’t have been able to rest if I did that, anyway.
Sure, I could have put just the carriage in the Item Box, but it would
have been unnatural if Reiko and I rode around bareback, and it
wasn’t too expensive to store carriages, anyway. I was pretty rich,
after all.
I found a secluded area and switched carriages from Panzer to the
Penelope, put the two dummies back in the Item Box, then Reiko and
I sat out in the coach box. We now looked like two daughters of a
wealthy merchant family out on a leisurely jaunt.
I had already gone into cities like this many times. The only thing
different this time was that I would have to stop by the stables to
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leave the horses and carriage instead of going straight to an inn.
Tonight, we were staying at a somewhat fancy inn with a proper
bath. It was just us two girls, so we had to prioritize our safety.
I was ready to enjoy my first restful stay since escaping from the Item
Box!
“I will see you in three days, then. I’ll contact you if I need to extend
the duration...”
“Very well. Please enjoy your stay.”
I finished handing over Hang and Scary, along with the carriage, and
paid an additional fee to upgrade their care and meals. It wasn’t like
horses could take a bath like us, so meals were the only thing they
had to look forward to. I wasn’t gonna skimp out on something like
that.
That reminded me, I had to stop by a store to stock up on their
food... Even I didn’t have several months’ worth of horse feed
stocked up at all times. My reserve was starting to run low. So, I
decided to buy a little more than usual this time.
I would need funds for the inn and other expenses, so our next stop
was...
“What...?”
I went to exchange some of my old coins for the current... the
Kaorun gold coins, but the attendant reacted with surprise.
“So many...”
Banks and money-changers shouldn’t act so surprised at seeing a
little bit of gold! It was a pretty unprofessional reaction...
After exchanging a decent amount of coins, we headed out to secure
our inn. I actually wanted to exchange a lot more, but we would
draw attention if we used too much money at once, and it was all the
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more suspicious coming from a young girl like me. We left quickly,
before anyone started making arrangements to trail us.
There was no need for me to exchange all my money at once. I just
needed enough to hold me over for now, and I could take care of the
rest later. The priority, for now, was to secure our inn for the night.
We were in a decent-sized city, so there were several inns to choose
from, but I wanted to choose one that was relatively high-end.
Regardless of how old we were on the inside, we did look like two
frail little girls, after all. We definitely didn’t need any weirdos
messing with us.
Money is earned to be saved, but also to be used when necessary.
When else would we use it if not to enjoy our journey comfortably?
That’s why I wasn’t stingy when it came to paying for lodging and
food, even though I was strict with budgeting for usual living
expenses.
“Do you have any rooms for two available?”
“Why, yes, we do. How long would you like to stay?”
“Three nights, for now. I’ll let you know beforehand if we need to
extend our stay.”
The receptionist treated us with respect despite us looking like two
kids, as expected of a somewhat high-end inn. We were wearing
pretty nice clothes, so that may have helped. Unfortunately, it
looked like they didn’t have a bath after all. Only very high-end inns
had baths readily available.
I let Reiko handle the talking at the inn. I knew more about how inns
worked in this world, but you know...
In this world, I looked like I was about twelve or thirteen, or even
eleven. But Reiko could pass for a fourteen or fifteen-year-old. That’s
why the staff at the inn looked at Reiko whenever we talked, so she
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just naturally ended up taking care of the proceedings. This was the
case whenever we went shopping, too. We were about the same in
height, so what was up with that...? Was it because I had a young-
looking face?
...No, I know. Don’t say it!
Did the people of this world judge women’s ages by the size of their
breasts? Damn it!
We received our key and made our way to our room upstairs.
“Should I cast some cleaning magic?” Reiko asked.
“Please!”
There was no bath here, but we were fine because we had Reiko’s
magic. Previously, I just used my powers to make a hot potion with
cleaning and anti-bacterial properties inside a metal basin, so I
would’ve been fine, anyway. Still, as a Japanese person, there were
times when I just wanted to have a nice soak in a bathtub. I
remember going on an impulsive journey to find hot springs and
ending up getting involved in some trouble...
Anyway.
“Tomorrow and the day after, we go sightseeing. Then we leave on
the third day. Sound good?” I asked.
“Okay!”
And three days later, we headed east again.
...What? Nothing happened till then! It wasn’t like there were any
interesting buildings, amusement centers, or well-maintained tourist
facilities in this world...
Yeah, I had already expected that. Sure, there were beautiful sights
and lots of nature, but most of this world was filled with nature, and
we weren’t gonna come across anything particularly interesting just
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because we had traveled a short distance away from civilization. If
we went to the mountains or an unexplored region, maybe we’d
have run into some waterfalls, lakes, or some other majestic sights,
but we didn’t intend to go too far out of our way like that. We could
do that sort of thing after things settled down and we had a lot of
excess time on our hands.
And so, we ended up staying for two or three days to let Hang and
Scary rest up, then continued eastward, without having high
expectations for any sights we might come across on the way...
“It’s the sea...”
“It’s the sea all right.”
“S-So, this is...”
“The legendary sea...”
Well, maybe we were being a bit dramatic.
In any case, we arrived at our destination: the coast on the eastern
side of the continent. I ended up skipping over the ride because
nothing really happened along the way, but many days had passed
since we left the Kingdom of Balmore. People had heard about the
incident from seventy years ago way out here, but they were just tall
tales and horribly inaccurate stories from a distant land, so it was
unlikely that anyone even knew about the names or appearances of
anyone involved. Not to mention, it was possible that most ordinary
people hadn’t even heard of something from so many decades ago.
In other words, I didn’t have to worry about being recognized here.
“So, let’s go on as planned and...”
“Yeah, let’s set up our home base at a decent-sized port town!”
Yes, it was time to set up our home base. I wanted to live as a normal
resident of this world, but I didn’t want to go out of my way to
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experience hardship or inconvenience. However, if my living
situation was too far out of the ordinary, it could end up being a
hindrance when other people took notice of me.
That’s why I decided to secure a house instead of living at an inn. I
also wanted to buy it instead of renting, so I could do whatever I
wanted with it. Renting a place left me open to people trying some
funny business, like what happened with Layette’s Atelier. Sure, I
could crush such annoyances easily, but I didn’t want to deal with
that, or possibly have to leave this country, as a consequence...
I guess you could say my priority was in avoiding trouble rather than
worrying about losing money. I wasn’t too concerned with money in
the first place, anyway. I had plenty of gold coins, but I really just
wanted to live a normal life, and I didn’t intend to just lie around
doing nothing all day. Such a life would not only be boring, but it
would negatively impact my efforts in finding a husband. Yup.
I mean, I could kill time lying around if I had the internet, but the
internet, TV, books, and manga didn’t exist in this world... Of course
I’d get bored pretty quickly.
I had exchanged a lot of coins on the way here. Whenever we went
to a city with a money changer, I exchanged my coins right before
departing to the next destination, instead of doing it as soon as I
arrived. It turns out I was pretty wealthy from all the potion sales and
new products I made in collaboration with the Abili Trade Company,
and most of those funds had been stored in my Item Box as gold
coins. The rest of my holdings consisted entirely of the house I had
given to the kids of the Eyes of the Goddess.
After exchanging a bunch of money in each city, we had moved right
on to the next one. Even if someone came after us, we were riding
on the small and lightweight Penelope, drawn by two top-class Silver
horses powered up with potions, so there was no way anyone on
foot or in an ordinary carriage could catch up to us. If someone did
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manage to catch up to us on horseback, we would swap from the
delicate Penelope into the bulky Panzer, and our dummies would be
sitting in the coach box instead of two little girls.
Because of that, there were several times when some rough-looking
gentlemen rode past us on horseback, but we didn’t get dragged into
trouble even once. It goes without saying that we left the dummies
out in the coach box and didn’t stop by any cities until we made sure
the grumpy-looking men passed by us again on their way back to the
city they had come from. We made sure to stay cautious about
things like this.
I exchanged my old money for Kaorun gold coins up until we reached
the Drisard region, but from there on, they were exchanged for the
gold coins used in each respective country. That was understandable,
and I didn’t really mind. I was going to exchange them again once we
chose a place to settle, anyway. If I turned in a pile of ancient coins at
the place I wanted to stay, people might assume I found a fortune in
some cave or something and end up causing a commotion. That was
why I converted them all into modern currency.
It was extra work on my part, and I’d lose a percentage of my
holdings with the exchange fee, but that couldn’t be helped. That
was a small price to pay for safety and avoiding trouble.
“How about we say this is our top candidate for now and see how
things go for a while? We could stay at an inn in the meantime,” I
suggested.
“Yeah. We arrived at this port town going down the main road, so
I’m pretty sure this is a major city in this region. There’s no reason to
pass through here and go out of our way to a different city now.”
It seemed Reiko was on the same page.
And so, the trial period to see if this would be our new home and city
of new beginnings had begun!
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Chapter 49: Port Town Tarvolas
The place we booked was just your run-of-the-mill inn. The reception
area and the dining-room-slash-tavern were on the first floor, with
the owner’s family’s living area in the back. The second and third
floors housed the guest rooms. I felt like the owner’s family space
was pretty small, but come to think of it, they could use the same
kitchen, bathroom, and other facilities as the guests, so maybe they
didn’t need too much family space.
The reason I hadn’t prioritized safety and gone for a higher-end inn
this time was because I wanted to see what the standard of living
was like for the average person in this city. I didn’t want to live in a
place that was dangerous or full of problems. If the city was ruled by
a crime syndicate or full of thugs roaming the street, I’d like to
know... That’s why I went with a completely ordinary place rather
than lodgings for rich people.
...Still, I wasn’t reckless enough to stay at a low-class inn when we
appeared to be just two young girls. Sure, Reiko and I could handle
ourselves with my potions and her magic, but we’d be forced to
leave the country if anyone saw us. I didn’t want any trouble.
So, here we were, in an ordinary room at an ordinary inn. Our room
was on the third floor. The bathroom was on the first floor, so it was
a pain to descend and climb the stairs every time, but considering
that the tavern was also on the first floor, they probably assigned us
to the third floor out of courtesy. It wasn’t as if we needed to use the
bathroom all the time, anyway.
“Let’s walk around for a week or so and check out the city while
looking for our future home,” I suggested.
“Yeah. We should figure out what to do for work, too,” Reiko said.
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Yes, we hadn’t decided what sort of work we would do yet. I had put
that off because I wanted to find work that we could do that was a
good fit for the city and would prove useful for the residents there.
Of course, physical labor and time-consuming jobs were out of the
question. It wasn’t as if I was desperate for money, so I didn’t want
all my time being bound up in a job.
I mean, we had plenty of time with a long life ahead of us, but that
didn’t mean I was okay with living a lifestyle I wasn’t happy with. I
didn’t want to run a shop because of how much time I would need to
spend there. No thanks to anything that required a lot of prep time,
and no way was I gonna deal with anything that could draw attention
from the rich and powerful. I didn’t want anything that would keep
me really busy or require me to maintain annoying relationships with
trading partners, either.
I could just use my cheat powers and make easy money...no, I
want to help others.
Anyway, whether we would stay in this city and the type of lifestyle
we would have depended on the intel we were about to gather. She
who controls information controls the world, as they say.
Six days later...
“I think we checked out just about everywhere...”
“Yeah. We only looked into what a foreign commoner could, but I
think we got enough information to determine the city’s
atmosphere, level of safety, and the residents’ sense of morals and
the general policies here,” Reiko agreed.
And...
“I like it!”
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The lord of this area was a count who not only understood his
privileges as an aristocrat, but was also aware of his duties. That was
why it was safe and peaceful here. ...By this world’s standards, that
is.
The king supposedly took his job seriously too... Maybe that was why
a respectable aristocrat was the lord of this territory? In any case, I
had no complaints about the kingdom, lord, or city. We could
probably find other cities in other countries that were on par with
this place, but it would be hard to find anything that was significantly
better. That meant there was no reason to take a risk and continue
our journey.
“Okay, let’s live here!”
“Agreed. We can always move again if things don’t work out.”
And so, we decided to settle in the port town of Tarvolas.
I bought a house in the suburbs. ...Okay, maybe that was a bit
abrupt.
The center of the city was packed with buildings used as storefronts,
work areas, and residences. There were some vacant buildings too,
but they were either rentals; didn’t fit my criteria in terms of size,
available facilities, location, or price; or the realtor chased me away
as soon as they saw us...
I mean, judging by our appearance, I couldn’t blame them if they
thought we were just kids wasting their time. We had no issues
buying this place when I showed them a bag full of gold coins,
though.
What? I should have done that in the first place? I couldn’t just flash
a bag stuffed with money when I didn’t even know if I was going to
buy the place yet, or whether I was dealing with a legitimate seller...
I’d have been a prime target for con artists and criminals.
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Come to think of it, Roland was around to help with the proceedings
for leasing Layette’s Atelier and Convenience Store Belle. Roland was
pretty useful once in a while after all... Now it was just two
(seemingly) young girls.
Anyway, we planned on going through several realtors to have them
introduce some properties to us, but that didn’t go too well. Next,
we looked for a vacant property we liked ourselves, researched the
market price in the area, then searched for the realtor who was
handling that property. We asked all around the city, but...
First off, any place that was too small was an automatic no. It wasn’t
like we were tight on money, so even though we were close friends, I
couldn’t deal with a lack of privacy. I also had to have a working
kitchen, bathtub, toilet, drainage, and other plumbing-related
amenities. No rooms that could be peered into from the outside.
Nothing that would invite loud noises, foul odors, or deterioration of
public order in the area. I mean, living next to a blacksmith or tavern
would mean dealing with noise early in the morning or late at night.
Lack of sleep and stress was bad for the skin, after all.
And the most important requirement was the ability to maintain
secrecy. I couldn’t live in an area where it was common for the lady
next door to come into my house without knocking to share some
leftovers. It wasn’t that I disliked having such warm-hearted
connections with people, but I planned on having a bunch of
convenient things in my place...
This was the property we ended up finding: a former orphanage.
Currently empty, it was a not-too-run-down one-story house built
atop a cliff about twenty meters or so above sea level. Despite only
having one floor, it was pretty big. There was a lot of open land here,
but it took specific skills to build two-story houses, and there was no
reason to get one considering how dangerous it was to fix the roof of
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such buildings ourselves. I figured we’d be on our own if we had to
fix a leak in the roof...
Plus, since it used to be an orphanage, it made sense to make it a
one-story house to lower the chance of accidents with so many little
rascals running around all the time. There were many rooms in this
building of different sizes, so I figured we would have the option to
put them to different uses. A normal-sized private house wasn’t
gonna be big enough to use as our home base.
Besides, the true value of a base wasn’t about what was above
ground, but below. That the property was in the suburbs with a big
lot was convenient for us. Building a secret base under a 900 square
meter house in the middle of the city wasn’t very realistic, after all...
Not to mention, the price was very affordable. I mean, what normal
buyer would want to live in a former orphanage with such peculiar
architecture?
So, I paid it off in cash and that was that. We just had to have some
professional fix it up, then build a basement to upgrade with magic.
How am I going to make a basement, you ask?
With the Item Box and Reiko’s magic, anything is possible!
I had a contractor come in, not only to do repairs, but for some
additional work, as well. The biggest thing I had them do was make
one-meter-square storage chambers under the floorboards of my
room, Reiko’s room, and several other areas in the house. He did
wonder why we wanted to make such small chambers when we had
so many available rooms, but I explained that we wanted to store
condiments and non-perishables in a cool place, and he seemed to
buy that.
Of course, their real purpose wasn’t to store anything, but to use
them as secret entrances. We would be making basements under the
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building, so we would be using these as hidden passageways to get in
and out of there. An entrance that looked like normal flooring when
closed couldn’t really be made as a potion container, and Reiko’s
earth magic wasn’t much help there, either. That’s why we had some
professional help.
We also had wooden windows, so I wanted to change them for glass,
but I endured that for now. I didn’t want to appear too wealthy right
off the bat, or we might draw some unwanted attention. A glass
window was just inviting thieves to come right in.
...Though, buying such a building (along with the land) with cash was
already pretty telling, but we didn’t have any choice but to pay with
cash as two young outsiders, so there wasn’t much we could do
about that. As such, we would at least act as if we had used all of our
money to buy this place, leaving us broke. That was why we had to
start working right away.
Anyway, I wanted to get all the necessary furniture first. We still had
everything the previous owners of the house had been using. It was
one thing to buy a shop with all of its equipment, interiors, fixtures,
and furnishings included, but we really wished they hadn’t left all of
their personal goods. There was plenty of space, so we decided to
get rid of the old furniture and equipment later and focus on buying
stuff we needed for now.
“...Ready?”
“Yup!”
It was the dead of night. Anyone looking from the outside wouldn’t
have been able to tell what we were doing, but we still made sure no
one was around before getting to work.
“Storing!”
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I stored away the dirt and rocks underground as we worked on
making the basement. We had to make sure we didn’t expand too
far, in order to keep the building above from collapsing. We left
pillars and walls for support rather than completely hollowing it out,
and used Reiko’s earth magic for reinforcement. Apparently, her
magic could harden dirt so that it was like stone.
Then we expanded sideways by adding a few rooms.
...This was step one.
Then we dug diagonally downwards by using the Item Box to store
more dirt, moving at an angle away from directly below the building,
and ran into bedrock. We proceeded to extend the passageway into
the rock and began building our underground area proper there.
Instead of making one giant room, we divided the space into several
rooms to maintain its structural integrity. Of course, Reiko reinforced
each of them, just in case.
Yes, that first basement served as a sort of decoy. Anyone searching
the house would be satisfied if they found it, thinking they’d
discovered the secret room and its few gold coins stored there,
never suspecting that there was another hidden basement. It was
just human nature.
That said, we would still be storing stuff there, and it could still be
used as a hidden room, so it wasn’t as if it was going to waste. It goes
without saying that we had been digging in the direction away from
the sea. If we had gone the opposite way, we would have dug
through the cliff and out the other side.
This time, we changed direction toward the sea. We made our way
diagonally downward, closer to the sea surface. We then continued
our digging below the sea, so we could connect to the sea floor from
underground. This way, we could fish and swim underground
without going outside... No, it was to be used as a secret escape
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path. If we put a submersible boat down there, we could safely flee
even if we were surrounded by enemies.
I highly doubted our enemies would predict this and have boats
waiting for us out on the sea, and even if they did, we could still get
away with a submersible. If Kyoko was around, she’d have chimed in
saying, “Just who are you fighting with here?!” but unfortunately,
Reiko and I were the same type of person when it came to this sort
of thing. We were big proponents of going out of our way to prepare
things “just in case.” It was just in our nature...
We took the ebb and flow of the tide into account and built a
waterway connected to the sea, then withdrew for now.
On the way back, I used the Item Box to make detailed adjustments
on the corridor I dug out, staircasing the pathway as Reiko reinforced
it with earth magic, making it easier to walk on. If we hadn’t done
that, we were just asking to trip and slide all the way down
eventually. I mean, we could also trip on the stairs, but still...
We ended the day after building the rooms and corridors. With the
major construction work out of the way, all that was left was to
make small adjustments as we installed the furniture.
We finished most of the work within a few days. The basement
directly under the floor of the house was used for storing unneeded
goods, like the stuff the previous residents had left behind, non-
perishable food, consumables, and rooms for when unwelcome
visitors happened to come by. I could put all of our resources into
the Item Box, but it was best to be prepared for unexpected
situations. It wasn’t as if we went out to the city to shop every day,
so it would have been strange for us not to have certain things
stocked up.
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We had installed a bunch of things in the main base in the bedrock
and along the escape path into the sea. Yes, all sorts of “potion
containers”...
Reiko was exasperated as she complained, “My magic isn’t much of a
cheat power compared to this!” but never mind that. It was difficult
to make the above-ground areas completely impenetrable, so we
made arrangements to make them not stand out if someone
happened to catch a glimpse of them. Anything that could draw
unwanted attention was moved underground.
Although I wanted to enjoy modern conveniences, I couldn’t just put
air conditioning or a TV right out in the open. I merely wanted to
enhance the lifestyle of this world, not recreate life back on Earth.
We were no longer the Japanese women known as Kaoru Nagase
and Reiko Kuon, but residents of this world, Kaoru and Reiko.
So, we had purchased our beds in the city, and bought all of our
other daily necessities normally. We had to contribute to the
economy, so we couldn’t just hoard gold coins in the Item Box
forever. I wanted to do anything that could be done through normal
means normally.
Still, there were some things I couldn’t compromise on. That’s why
we had been using potion containers for cookware and chairs. No
way was I gonna light logs in a stove every time I wanted to make
something! Who would want to cook with such an unstable heat
source?! Sure, all of the chefs and housewives in this world cooked
with this method, but it was too much for us.
...And chairs are very important! This is a key point, so I’ll say it again.
Chairs are very important! I mean, I could just drink a potion if I hurt
my back, but still...
And then there was laundry. We obviously weren’t using a fully
automatic washing machine or dryer. They would have been way too
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out of place... But I wasn’t about to use a laundry tub and washboard
to scrub my clothes, either. It was too much work, and it damaged
the fabric.
Yes, there was a convenient solution. I could just store my clothes in
the Item Box and order it to remove any dirt particles. But I didn’t
want to do that. It didn’t feel right.
And so, I decided to put my clothes in a laundry tub and step on
them. I was using a potion that would instantly remove dirt, so I just
had to step on them a few times and it’d be done with.
...One could say that my solution wasn’t much better than using the
Item Box to clean my clothes.
I don’t care, as long as it looks fine if people see me!
We had been using the water from a channel that was dug from a
nearby stream. Of course, it wasn’t as if we could get underground
water by digging a bit into the cliff we were on. Below an old manor
atop a rocky mountain is a raging underground river... No, this wasn’t
some swashbuckling novel from the Taisho era... Where would the
water be coming from on top of a rocky mountain, anyway?
As for that channel we had been using, it seemed the previous
residents here had dug it out. It was completely uncovered, so it was
full of leaves and debris. Using it for laundry and bathing was one
thing, but I wasn’t quite brave enough to drink it, so I added a device
to filter and sterilize the water.
Of course, wastewater was sent into the sea through a cleaning unit
(potion container) underground.
Now we’re all set!
The story of the little girls who bought the land and building from the
former orphanage had probably spread to some degree already.
When paying the realtor and the contractor, I had emphasized that
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we had used up all of our savings buying and fixing up this place, so
we needed to work to support ourselves. The gossip lovers of the
city, starved for entertainment, were sure to be curious about the
mysterious girls who had just arrived, so there was no way they
wouldn’t ask the realtor and contractor about us. They in turn would
prioritize their relationships with their neighbors over the privacy of
their clients.
I decided to see how things went for another week or two. From
there, I could take my time figuring out an easy job that wasn’t too
time-consuming, wouldn’t draw attention from weirdos, and earn
me enough that I could make somewhat expensive purchases
without looking suspicious.
There was a time when I believed that, anyway.
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