Published at 22nd of January 2024 4:52 pm

Chapter 368

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Under the warm spring sunlight, a golem carriage is moving along a cobblestone road laid out on a grassy field early in the afternoon.

It’s a one-horse cart with a hood covering it. Sitting on the driver’s seat and holding the reins is me, a plain guy in his thirties.

(It’s coming.)

Seeing the carpet of grass rippling, I lightly press my chest from the top of my cloth cloak. Right after that, a cold wind inflates the hood of the cart.

This is flat ground with no cover. It’s still different from the inside of the royal capital, which is surrounded by walls that are more than 20 meters high.

「Is it too cold for you?」

When I called out to my chest after the wind blows, a wave of thoughts came to me saying 『I’m okay』. The spirit beast, which resembles a fifth instar larva of a swallowtail butterfly about 20 centimeters long, is now inside my clothes.

『Moving to a new home.』

Currently, we are in the middle of heading there.

The reason is that the garden forest has become too cramped. I asked the merchant guild to help me find a place and they came up with several candidates, which I decided on after seeing the site.

『Simple remodeling and maintenance of a rundown garden.』

I had asked for that and just the other day I got a message that it was finished.

Also, as you can tell from the fact that I’m in a golem carriage, the new house is in the suburbs.

『It’s about ten minutes by golem carriage to the west of the royal capital. It used to be a garden owned by a noble family, but when the owner, a baron, was ruined, the relatives let it go to liquidate their assets.』

The property is like this, so I won’t be able to walk to the red-light district like I have been able to in the past.

(Well, it can’t e helped I guess.)

The priority was space over convenience. There were some candidates in the royal capital, actually.

『A vacant lot in a middle-class midtown area that could easily be made into a farm.』

There were two reasons why I didn’t choose that place.

One is that it is surrounded by a three or four-story apartment complex, so it’s in full view of its surroundings.

The other reason, and this was the deciding factor, was that the spirit beasts, who are my familiars, were opposed to it. They said, Apparently because 『the earth vein is a mess』.

『There used to be a magic workshop here, but an explosion blew up the building, and it has since been cleared.』

This is what the real estate lady who guided me through the properties told me. Perhaps that’s what caused the flow of magic to go wrong.

(Unless it’s a result of an accident, it’s impossible to secure a coherent piece of land in the royal capital.)

I think as I lightly stroke my chest where Imosuke is.

『I’m looking forward to it!』

Imosuke says to me while moving around which feels a bit ticklish. He has gotten some information about the land from the beans I’ve buried around the potential property, but this is the first time he will see it with his own eyes.

Or rather, this is the first time he has been out since I summoned him from the elf brothel.

「It’s a hundred times larger than the garden forest. So you’re more free to do anything you want.」

Creating a second spirit forest and making it a new home seems like a good idea.

Incidentally, the other two of the three spirit beasts, Dangorou the dung beetle and Zaratan the turtle are at our old home in the downtown area royal capital.

『Moving every living thing that lives in the plants and trees in the garden forest using transfer magic.』

Since this is the way we will move the entire garden to the new place, no one needs to go outside except me. Even so, Imosuke is accompanying me because Zaratan said, 『It is easier to do it if one of the spirit beasts is at the destination.』

So I invited Imosuke, my first familiar, to join me.

(If Zaratan is on the receiver side, the accuracy of the transfer position will increase, wasn’t it? But he will return to his original size if he’s outside of the garden forest, so that’s a bit…)

This turtle, also called the guardian of the lake in the Spirit Forest, aside from certainly living for a long time, has an actual size of two hundred meters.

When I fought against the elven Knights, I was piloting Old Lady on top of Zaratan’s back, shooting Light Arrows at them.

(It will be a catastrophe.)

It’ll go 『Booom!』, as Dangorou put it.

(Thankfully Imosuke doesn’t change size.)

He said this is his original said and the same can be said for Dangorou.

The ones that are not good are the Heavy Lancers and the Capricorns. They’re large-type magic beasts with a shoulder height of around 16 meters, so it would be like 『 a monster making their appearance as they destroy the buildings』.

「We’ve arrived. This is the place.」

I turn south on the road heading west from the royal capital and stop the covered golem carriage.

There is a heavy-looking wooden gate in the front and a stone wall about three meters high stretches straight to the left and right.

This square land surrounded by stone walls will be our home from now on.

『……It’s spacious.』

After opening the gate, I climbed up the driver’s seat and lightly shook the reins to bring the golem carriage inside. After getting down on the ground and closing the gate, Imosuke, who had just turned around and poked his head out of my collar, muttered to himself.

「I know, right?」

I measured it with my legs and found it to be 300 paces on each side, so it is about 200 meters long. If I were to use a comparison from my previous life, it would be about the same size as the junior high school I attended.

In the center of the site is a pond several dozen meters in diameter and a brick-paved pathway leading from the gate circles the pond.

「Garden forest transfer destination will be… on the north bank of the pond, I guess? And that’s where I will live.」

I explained while walking along the red path. The gate is in the middle of the north side of the property, and the house where the guard and gardener lived was built just west of the gate, integrated with the stone wall.

(The building has been renovated, cleaned up, and it even has new furniture.)

I peeked inside through the window and nodded.

Since it was originally a garden, there used to be a small villa. However, after the second prince’s coup attempt, it seems that it was ransacked by thieves and set on fire after the owner disappeared.

As a result, the only building that remains is the residence of the guard and gardener.

(I’m the only one living there, so this is big enough. Besides, the main feature is the garden anyway.)

All of the sculptures and odd-shaped rocks in the garden, including the burned-out wood, have been removed. Weeds that had grown taller than the house are now mowed to below the knees, so nothing will get in the way of creating a new garden.

(What should we plant this time?)

I think as I relax my cheeks at the sight of Imosuke watching the surroundings intently from my collar. On the way out, I was tapped on the neck with his warty foot, and when I turned my gaze to it, he told me that it seems Zaratan has completed the preparations.

『They’re coming.』

At the same time as Imosuke spoke, a magic circle unfolds on the surface of the pond. Although it looks small because of the wider surroundings, it is probably large enough to cover the garden forest in the royal capital.

The next moment, a familiar medicinal tree appeared on the north shore of the pond, near the gate and the house.

「Did the garden pond… absorbed into the larger pond?」

The medicinal tree, Pomelo tree, and all the other trees I’m familiar with are there. However, the placement is slightly different.

He must have distorted and attached in a crescent shape along the shore of the large pond.

『It went well.』

After a wave of satisfaction came from the caterpillar, a turtle surfaced in the large pond, and a dung beetle scraped through the grass to reveal himself.

「Good work there, Dangorou, Zaratan. I expected no less of you guys.」

I said my compliments and praise, then explain the location of the gate and the house where I live.

「That’s about it, I guess. You can go rest or go to explore if you want.」

Both animals said they want to look around the new place. Zaratan soundly dived into the water, while Dangorou led a herd of Heavy Lancer, a four-legged beast about the size of a thumb into the weeds.

「Yes, yes, wait a minute.」

Imosuke said he wanted to look at the place from a high place, so I walked up to the medicinal tree and put him on a branch. He started to climb straight up the branch and seemed to want to go up to the treetops.

Certainly, that might be a good place to think about the design of the new garden.

(I should start unpacking my stuff too.)

That said, there’s not much to unpack. The furniture in the new house is new and already placed, and the old house also came with furniture, so it’s just personal items.

Since I finished early, I went out of the building to the garden and shouted out.

「I’m going to go to the royal capital now and I’ll be home late!」

Although I couldn’t see them, it seems they heard me since waves of replies came from them.

『The confirmation of the move-out in the presence of a real estate representative from the merchants guild.』

This is what I head out to do and it seems that it’s usually done once you leave the old home. However, I didn’t want to show the garden forest, so I asked to do it later.

(All that’s left is… the breakfast problem, huh?)

I think as I pull the golem carriage out of the gate.

I can no longer settle for the food stalls that stood in the alley in front of my house. I will have to cook for myself.

(I need to buy some cooking ingredients too then. So, after I finish my business at the merchant guild, I’ll stop by the market, followed by going to the red-light district after that.)

As the golem carriage paced toward the walls of the royal capital in the distance, I decided on my plans.

***

Arriving at the royal capital, I leave the golem carriage outside the gate and enter the royal capital with only my body.

(It’s easier to move around this way.)

If I were to go with the golem carriage, the inspection will take longer time. The walking distance will be longer, but it’s much better than having to queue.

I went to the merchant guild in the central square and headed downtown with the small middle-aged real estate auntie who was carrying a thick book.

(Hee, so Zaratan’s transfer magic is the exchange type, huh?)

I went up to the rooftop floor of the partially three-story building and was surprised to see what used to be the garden forest.

What was growing there were weeds cut knee-high all over the place. The type of weeds that were the same as those in the garden of the new house.

(I thought it was going to be just bare dirt.)

It looks a little rough, but it should be fine.

By the way, there is no trace of the pond. It seems that my guess that the pond would be absorbed into the 『Great Pond』 was correct.

「There are no problems with both indoors and outdoors. Well then, we hope to receive your continued patronage in the future.」

I bowed to the real estate lady and thanked her in return.

Since the new house is also rented from the merchant guild, my relationship with the real estate auntie will continue.

(Now then…)

It is now almost dusk after the real estate business is finished. Let’s get some shopping done before the market gets too crowded.

(Firstly, we need an insulated bag.)

This is a must because I have to carry fresh food ingredients back home. From the central square, I headed east on the main street and told the bag store owner what I’m looking for.

On the shelf he pointed with the palm of his hand was a bag endowed with 『temperature reduction magic』.

「I’ll take this one, please.」

I choose the item on the larger side without asking for the price and bargained to buy it.

It’s okay once in a while. This feeling as if you’re a big shot is nice once in a while.

(Now let’s go back to the market to get some ham, bacon, and bread.)

Imosuke and the others can produce the beans and potatoes. Something came up to my mind when I think about the 『beans』.

(Oh right, coffee! I want to start roasting my own coffee.)

A freshly roasted, freshly ground, freshly brewed cup of coffee. I wanted to try it once.

(Roasting it lightly to have a taste of its sourness is good, or deep roasting it to have that bitterness that will raise your eyebrows sounds good too.)

I already have a coffee mill for grinding and a coffee siphon for brewing. So all we need is a roaster for the roasting.

(This one is good I think.)

I wandered around the shopping street for a while. Then I went into the store where I had bought the coffee siphon before and looked at the products.

『Put the green coffee beans in the cylindrical wire mesh, place it over the fire, and spin it around with the handle.』

This one caught my eye. The image that I had in my head was that of a caveman grilling meat on the bone on a bonfire.

By the way, the reason I chose this one was because it was 『one person usen』. According to the owner of the store, the smallest one can be used for a minimum of four cups.

(I can do roasting once every two or three days, I guess. Since doing it every day would be too much work anyway.)

As long as I don’t grind the beans, they won’t lose their flavor for a few days. According to the owner, depending on the type of beans and how they are roasted, some will have better aromas after being kept the next day or a few days after.

By the way, the reason I haven’t done this before is because of the small size of our garden forest and, above all, the dense residential area.

(The smell isn’t that nice, after all.)

A construction company where I worked in a previous life. The building next to it was a coffee bean roasting plant, albeit a small one.

『The nice smell like when you’re walking by a coffee shop. I can’t wait to smell it every day.』

That’s what I was expecting at the time, but it turned out to be a complete disappointment.

There was not even a hint of what I consider coffee would smell like, and it was hard to explain it with words, but all I could smell was 『the unappetizing smell of burnt coffee beans』.

If anything, it can be categorized as a bad smell.

(Well, even buckwheat flowers smell like chicken droppings and poultry manure, which is totally different from the aroma of ground buckwheat.)

Not everything smell as good as the fruit, like plum blossoms.

After leaving the store, I head back west on the main street, visiting a butcher and a bakery to fill my bag with food ingredients. I didn’t buy a lot because it’s only for a few days of breakfasts.

(For lunch and dinner, I can eat inside the royal capital.)

In addition, if I go out with the Old Lady to do my job as the pilot of the merchant guild knights, I intend to enjoy the delicacies of the destination of my work.

(This should do.)

With a well-stuffed shopping bag in my hand, I walked to my final destination of the day which is the main street on the west side of town where the red-light district is located.

Share