Chapter 3: The Delights of Vacation

The next day, we prepared for another journey into the city and loaded our goods onto the cart that Camilo had given us. We brought along the usual weapons, but with a bonus: half of the sickles that I had in inventory. All in all, the goods weren’t too heavy, so we were able to move at our usual walking pace.

The trip was uneventful. Aside from a couple of rather adorable bunnies, we didn’t encounter anything in the forest or on the main road. After arriving at the city, we headed straight for Camilo’s shop and asked the clerks to call him for us.

Camilo stepped out to greet us with his usual, relaxed air. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I replied back. “How’s business going?”

“Slowly, but surely. We have no problems with moving stock along nor with supply shortages.”

“Then slowly but surely it is,” I agreed.

“Right?”

“Mmhmm.”

We shared a chuckle before I moved on to the inventory report for the day.

“We left the cart next to the storehouse,” I said. “We’ve got the usual items today, but we also brought a few sickles. I’ve tried to sell those before, but with no luck, so do you want them? Feel free to say no.”

“The more inventory the better. I’ll take them off your hands and add their price in with the total,” he said. He called out a short “come here!” to a nearby worker and had them take the wares into the shop.

Once he was finished addressing his employee, I continued. “Another thing... We won’t be able to come by next week. Will that be a problem for you?”

“No, no problem, but...did anything happen?” He spoke tentatively, and his expression seemed anxious. He was probably recalling my “special circumstances”—maybe an untimely blunder I’d committed, or something of the sort—that had led me to live in a place like the Black Forest. I’m sure he was worried that something could happen to me at any moment and he wouldn’t know about it, something that might prevent me from coming back here in the future.

“Nothing in particular,” I assured him. “We’re gonna focus on home improvements next week, so we’ll be taking a short break from blacksmithing.”

“Got it. Then, the next time we meet will be two weeks from now?”

“Yup. Oh, if possible, can you procure us two sets of bedding by that time?”

He easily agreed. “Two sets? Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

With the shop talk concluded, we bought some salt, wine, and vegetables; he subtracted the cost from our profits.

As we started back home, I mused over the present and future. This exchange with Camilo was becoming part of my new normal. It wasn’t as if we’d agreed to this script beforehand, but somehow, it’d become a comfortable routine. I hoped it would continue for a long time.

When we left the market and its surrounding fence, I glanced at the guards posted there, but Marius wasn’t on duty. We hadn’t seen him that morning either. I decided that if we didn’t catch him on the next trip, I’d ask around.

It’d been a while since he’d bought the knife and longsword from my Open Market stall. I assumed that, if he was having any problems with the blades, he’d probably bring them into Camilo’s shop. But, if possible, I’d rather ask him face-to-face.

We soon left the city behind us and before I knew it, we had arrived home. After bringing in the supplies and storing them in their respective places, our work for the day was complete.

Over dinner, we discussed our construction plans for the next week.

“Tomorrow, let’s start with the doors,” I suggested. “I’ll handle the hinges. Can you two make the main body?”

“Understood,” Rike said.

Samya agreed as well with a simple “All right.”

So the plan was for us to finish off the doors and then move on to the beds. After we’d built both, the rooms would be ready for use, and all three of us would finally have our own bedrooms! The details were all worked out when I suddenly remembered something crucial.

“Oh no!” I couldn’t help my startled exclamation.

Surprised by my outburst, Samya asked, “Wh-What’s wrong, Eizo?” Next to her, Rike looked equally stunned.

“No, don’t worry, it’s just that...I wanted to build a guest room as well, but I completely forgot about it.” I literally hadn’t remembered until a second ago. The cabin as it was had no extra space for guests.

I was just starting to sink back into my thoughts when Rike offered her own suggestion: “What if we renovate the study? Boss’s bedroom... Well, Samya and I are using it right now, but your bedroom is spacious and roomy. If you swap out the current desk and chair for the ones in the study, and then add a bookshelf, I think your bedroom could double as a workspace. And with that furniture removed, the study would have enough free space to add a bed.”

“I see what you’re saying.” It seemed like that would work. We wouldn’t have enough bedding for a third bed, but it’s not as though we were expecting visitors anytime soon. I could always strip my own bedding and offer it to guests in an emergency.

After a moment of consideration, I was on board. “All right, let’s go with that plan. But we’ll have to add one more bed to the roster of things to make.”

“We can make our beds first as practice and save the guest bed for last. By then, we’ll all be old hands at it,” Rike said.

“Sounds like a plan.”

And so, our itinerary for the next few days was set. We wouldn’t be earning any money for the work, but it was important to set aside time for ourselves as well!

I began the next morning in the workshop with one goal: make the door hinges.

For starters, I heated up some of the plate metal that Rike and I had made. I struck the metal with my hammer to flatten it into a thinner piece with a larger surface area. Next, I cut the sheet metal into small sections. For each piece, I trimmed off a little square from two of the corners, and then another square on the edge in between the two corners. The resulting shape looked like a rectangle with two tabs sticking out of it.

I curled the two tabs into hollow cylinders and waited for the pieces to cool. Then, I slid two of the pieces together, so that their cylindrical tabs interlocked like puzzle pieces. I ran a pin through all of the lined-up cylinders, which created a solid pivot point for each hinge. I’d already heated the pin enough to be slightly malleable, so all I had to do was hammer the ends of the pin to create a flat end cap on each side. This permanently connected the two pieces and made sure that all the metal stayed together.

With that, the hinge was complete.

I stayed busy while waiting for the finished product to cool. I hadn’t run into any hiccups in the process yet, so I decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make hinges in bulk. The extras would come in handy if the originals broke, or when we had to build more rooms. Before long, I had myself a sizable pile of door hinges.

When I left the workshop to check on Rike and Samya, I found them still grappling with the door. However, they’d made good progress and were more than halfway done.

“I finished the hinges and I’ve come to help!” I declared.

“Boss! Welcome,” Rike said.

I told the two of them to continue working on the door they’d already started, and I began working on a new door.

To start, I took four of the planks we’d cut, and laid them out into a rectangle, which formed the outer door frame. For the door itself, I put together horizontal planks that matched the size of the door frame, braced it with diagonal beams, and then affixed a handle at the center. The handle was only meant for pulling the door open since I didn’t include a lock. I did, however, add a simple latch for security.

While I worked, Samya and Rike finished making their door. “You can grab some hinges from the workshop,” I told them. “Go ahead and install the door onto the threshold.”

“Got it,” Samya said with a bright smile. She had really taken to the smithing and woodwork recently. Someday, she might even be able to work alone, and would become a major asset as both a blacksmith and a carpenter.

Samya only needed to take down one large animal during her hunts for us to have enough to eat; we always ended up with plenty of leftovers in storage too. From now on, I could have her help out more often with smithing. It’d be handy if she could aid Rike when I was occupied, or if, for some reason, I couldn’t stick to my normal smithing routine.

That door took me the rest of the day to make. Once I finished, I went over to the newly expanded side of the house so that I could attach it. Rike and Samya were done with their work and were now playing around with the door, opening and closing it repeatedly.

“How’s it feel?” I asked.

“Good! It works perfectly,” Rike responded. “It opens and shuts with barely a touch.”

“Well, the hinges were made by none other than yours truly!” I boasted.

“You say that like it’s a joke, but I seriously think that’s the reason,” Rike commented without a hint of sarcasm.

We chatted away as I attached my door to the opening. Come to think of it, I’d have to make more nails to replenish our supply soon.

By the end of the day, we had both doors attached, and the house’s skeleton was finally complete!

⌗⌗⌗

The next day, we moved on to building the beds, in accordance with our plan. If we’d been making polished goods that were meant to be sold as products, it would’ve been impossible to finish everything in the six days we had left. However, we were only making beds for our own use, so they didn’t need to be anything fancy. I was briefly conflicted about what to do for the guest bed, but in the end, I decided it would be all right if the bed was on the crude side; I didn’t anticipate any long-term visitors anyway.

It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for a noble from the capital to pay us a visit—of course, any aristocrat would look down their noses at the kind of simple bed I was imagining. After all, nobles had to have standards to maintain their honor. But this workshop was just a humble forge, so what could they really expect? Besides, the condition I gave for anyone wanting a custom model was that they had to visit the forge in-person and come alone. Anyone capable of that could probably withstand a little rough treatment. In any case, no one was going to be coming out here right off the bat.

Now then, time to kick-start work for the day.

“All right! Today, we’re making the beds. I’ll leave you two to cut the boards to size. Let me know when you’re done, and I’ll carve out the slots for the joints.”

Rike responded with her traditional “I understand.”

“Mmkay,” Samya replied.

We were going to be working in the same groups as yesterday. Rike and Samya would make one bed; I’d make the other. We all decided to work outside since the skies were clear and the sunlight was pleasantly warm. It helped that there was no shortage of space around the cabin.

There was no way we’d be able to finish everything today. But, I’d be content if we finished cutting all the wood to the right size—we’d then be set up to assemble the beds the following day. Hopefully, by the end of tomorrow, we’d have the beds built and installed in their rightful places in the new bedrooms. The plan after that was to work on the guest bed, and we’d round out the week by remodeling my bedroom and the study. That was our full six-day itinerary!

Back to the present. To begin, we had to cut the boards to size. Luckily, we still had plenty of dried lumber; the carrying platforms that we’d built to haul back Samya’s deer had been made from fresh trees, so we’d harvested and dried that wood into lumber.

Since we didn’t have any rulers, we cut a few pieces of lumber to roughly the length and width of a bed and then used those as our base measurements. That was also how we estimated what the height of the bed should be. After we’d figured out the sizes, the process became much faster, and we were soon churning out wooden boards one after another. The time passed quickly as we entered a kind of woodworking trance.

“Boss, this piece is ready for you to carve.”

“No problem.”

This kind of simple exchange happened sporadically too. I cut out holes for the interlocking joints, so they would be ready to slot into place when we assembled all the parts. By the end of the day, we were able to finish all the individual pieces.

Day two: assembly time.

When I stopped to think about it, I realized something—back in my old world, even building furniture from preassembled parts sold by furniture stores took a lot of time and effort. With that experience in mind, I set my expectations for the day accordingly. It wasn’t so difficult to work with a hammer, but building the bed accurately was harder than I’d anticipated.

We managed to put the pieces together, one by one by one, and at last, we had two beds ready to use!

When we moved them into the two rooms, Rike said, “All we did was add a bed, but the room already feels much more homey, like a place where someone actually lives.”

“Yeaaah,” Samya agreed. “I’d never slept on a bed before coming here, but I’ve gotten used to it. The bed definitely makes it feel like, you know, a room.”

“Dwarves have rooms, but we’re more used to sleeping all together. We actually feel a little restless when we’re in separate rooms,” Rike admitted.

“Wait. Didn’t you say you’ve helped build rooms before, Rike?” I asked.

“I have, but each room typically houses an entire family. We don’t put in any beds, only shelves and common-use furniture. Of course, dwarves of different genders who aren’t family don’t sleep in the same room.”

“I see.”

One person, one bed. That seemed like common sense to me, but I might need to reevaluate my thinking in this world. It looked like I was actually the odd man out here. I wondered how the people in the city—both inside and outside the walls—usually lived. “Well, in any case, our house is really coming together.”

“Yup,” Samya said.

Rike agreed. “Yes.”

Since it was a monumental day for us all, I brought out some wine with dinner.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers! Whoo!”

“Cheers!”

We all toasted with our wooden cups. They collided together in the middle of the table with a satisfying clunk. Serving wine with dinner made it feel a little more like a true celebration. It was small moments like this that were truly precious in life.

“Samya, you and your family never lived together?” I asked.

“Only when I was a kid,” she answered in between taking large swigs from her cup. “I lived with my mom and siblings until I was one year old. There was a lot to learn back then. After that, I became independent and moved out. Even when we lived together, we all shared one room though, so it wasn’t like this cabin where we each had our own space.”

Rike downed her drink heartily. “Dwarves are the same way,” she said after listening to Samya’s story. “The whole family—both men and women—live in the same room, spending our time together and learning blacksmithing techniques. Once we reach a certain age, we leave our home workshop to travel and search for an apprenticeship. We learn what we can and then go back home.”

“Your lifestyles really are similar,” I remarked, “at least up to the point where you return home after the apprenticeship.”

“Right, like I said before, the goal is to bring new techniques back to our family’s workshop,” Rike replied. She’d finished her first cup and was now pouring herself a second but was hardly even flushed. “Sometimes though, apprenticeships don’t lead to any new techniques, only improvements of our existing skills. There are even times when the dwarf chooses to stay with their apprentice workshop instead of going home.”

“They don’t return?” I asked in surprise. Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of traveling in the first place?

Rike nodded and said, “Yes. It’s not unheard of for a male dwarf to...become friendly with the daughter of the workshop, and likewise with a female dwarf and a workshop lad or boss. It’s pretty common when the apprenticeship is with a workshop run by another dwarf, but it happens with human-run workshops too. After all, the genders between both races work the same.”

“Ah, so that’s how it is.” Well, you can’t stop two youngsters in love.

“In my case, there’s clearly a lot for me to learn from you, Boss, so I’ve resolved to bring everything back to my family workshop!”

I took a small sip of my own wine. “I see. That’s good.”

⌗⌗⌗

“Today, we’re making the bed for the guest room, so we’ll be going with a slightly more elaborate design,” I declared the next morning.

“What kind of design?” Rike asked.

“How do I describe it...” I mumbled.

The other two beds were for our personal use, so we’d stuck with a simple frame. For the guest bed, I wanted us to install a headboard with shelving basically. I’d considered adding decorative carvings, but ultimately decided against it—I was afraid it would end up looking gaudy.

I explained everything to Samya and Rike, and they accepted it easily with their usual affirmations.

“Got it.”

“I understand.”

To start, we had to cut the planks for the headboard and shelves today, along with the rest of the frame. Then, we could get started on assembly. We only had to make one bed, so if we worked quickly, we could start putting the bed together today...or so I hoped.

We ended up finishing at an awkward, in-between time because of the extra wood needed for the headboard. There was some time left in the day, but not enough that it made sense to continue working.

“All right, let’s stop here for today. We can finish the rest tomorrow,” I announced to everyone.

“’Kay.”

“All right.”

With the remaining hours in the day, I made nails in the workshop. They ended up being closer to Japanese-style nails with square stalks, rather than the cylindrical Western ones. I amassed a good amount before the day was over.

Japanese nails were very durable. Maybe one day this cabin would become a rare cultural property of sorts...maybe.

Now wouldn’t that be interesting?

⌗⌗⌗

Early the next morning, we began work again. Before putting the guest bed together, we first reorganized the rooms. We took everything out of the master bedroom that Rike and Samya had been using, except for the bed and shelves, and moved the furniture into the living room. We grabbed the desk, chair, and one bookshelf from the study and arranged them in the master bedroom. Finally, we moved the old bedroom furniture into the study’s newly cleared space. The work took up a large chunk of time, and I kind of regretted not doing it yesterday, but there was no use crying about that now.

Because of the lost time, we scrambled to put the bed together. There were a few bumps along the way, but since we’d already assembled two beds, we had the process more or less worked out. Even so, by the time we’d finished, the sun had almost completely set, and so we hurried to move the bed inside.

“Careful over here,” I pointed out sporadically, as Samya and I carried the guest bed into the study. Well, I’d be the one using it for now anyway.

“Mmkay.”

It was completely dark by the time we’d moved the bed into its proper place.

“I can’t believe how long that took,” I commented, reflecting on the day’s work.

“It is what it is. We’re not used to building furniture, after all,” Samya said in a comforting tone.

“From now on, we probably won’t have the chance to do this kind of work very often, so it’s all right to put more time into it.” Rike’s words were also kind.

It’d been a wild ride, but overall, we’d accomplished what we’d set out to do. From out of the uncertainty, confusion, and building mayhem came a full set of beds. The cabin was starting to feel more and more like home. Now, all that was left was to procure bedding from Camilo the next time we went to town, and we’d be able to make up the beds!

As for other furniture, neither Samya nor Rike really used any. Their belongings had been scattered all over the rooms. Though they did store their clothing, it was only in makeshift bundles. Their habits did make sense, considering that Samya used to change her home den all the time and Rike had shared her room with her family. In Rike’s case, apparently only the shared possessions were stored away in cabinets.

Regardless, I still had a strong sense of propriety according to customs of my last world, which was why I had insisted on separate rooms for the two women in the first place. I’ll have to look for more excuses to build furniture. At the very least, a wardrobe is a must-have...

⌗⌗⌗

The next morning marked the sixth day since the start of our house renovation vacation. I’d actually planned for this day to be a buffer, just in case anything went wrong and we ended up needing extra time. However, everything had progressed smoothly according to plan, so there was nothing left for us to build. Tomorrow was a free day too. If this were a normal week, we’d be heading into the city tomorrow, but we were skipping the trip this time.

I’d considered rushing some blacksmithing today, perhaps making some last-minute swords to sell tomorrow, but we’d already told Camilo that we wouldn’t be coming. Besides, I hadn’t been able to take a proper vacation for a looong time. Now that I’d been given the perfect environment to enjoy a slow and quiet life, I should make the most of it and take breaks whenever I can.

I made up my mind: we’d take the next two days off!

Making that decision was good and all, but the forest wasn’t exactly filled with recreational activities. Our options were quite limited. There were plenty of games and entertainment unique to this world—we’d even seen some being sold at Camilo’s shop. However, they were surprisingly expensive, so we hadn’t bought any. On the flip side, I could introduce Samya and Rike to games from my previous world, like Othello or shogi, but I’d save that as a last resort. After all, I had come all the way to a new world, so I wanted to enjoy what was around me.

So...the time had finally come for me to do something I had been itching to do since I’d gotten here. I made my preparations and invited Samya and Rike along with me as well. A little less than an hour later, the three of us arrived at a clear river near the lake.

That’s right. We were here to fish!

This stream was the source of the welling waters I’d seen the first time I’d gone to the lake. It was a considerable distance from our cabin, and the river snaked away from the house, so we never had a reason to come this way.

But today and tomorrow were different. We were on vacation, and a relaxing day at the lake didn’t sound half bad. Not bad at all. If all went well, we might even be able to catch ourselves dinner...but, of course, now that I’d said that, we were sure to get skunked.

Aaanywho, I’d crafted all the fishing tools we were using for the day myself. I repurposed a few of the nails I’d made previously and shaped them into fishing hooks, then strung them up with the thinnest thread we had at the cabin. For the rod, I found some promising-looking branches (or tree deer antlers perhaps) in the forest and used my knife to whittle them down. The bait was long insects that looked like grubs, which I’d found underneath the rocks around the river.

I baited a fish hook and showed the impaled grub to Samya and Rike, but neither of them screamed or made a fuss. In fact, they barely reacted at all.

Samya, I could understand. She’d always lived in the forest, so she must’ve seen bugs and larvae all the time. However, if I’m being honest, Rike’s indifference was a bit of a letdown.

When I asked her about it, she said, “There are plenty of insects up in the mountains too. I used to play with them when I was little.”

Okay, whatever...

We put some space between the three of us and each cast out our lines. The water was almost perfectly clear, so we could see some fish swimming around. On the other hand, that meant that the fish could also see our shadows, so we might not be getting bites anytime soon.

There weren’t any fishing methods that were off-limits here. We could’ve stunned the fish using sound waves by hitting underwater boulders with another rock or hammer, a practice largely forbidden in Japan. It certainly would’ve made catching the fish easier, but the stakes weren’t that high; it wasn’t as if we needed to nab any targets.

The point today was just to have fun—I told myself this so as not to jinx anything. In truth, I didn’t want to go home empty-handed.

Around noon, we chowed down on sandwiches—or tacos, depending on how you looked at them—made from flatbread and cured meat that had been stewed. The closest comparison was probably gua bao, the Taiwanese pork belly buns that were sold in Chinatown. Anyway, setting aside what they looked like, they were more delicious than I could’ve imagined. I found myself rather enjoying the little picnic we had set up for ourselves.

Up until now, we’d had zero bites. Well...that’s what I’d have liked to report, but actually, Samya had already caught one fish, and Rike two. All the fish were the same species, and they looked like the char back on Earth. They were now swimming in a small water basin we’d brought along with us. The only one who hadn’t caught anything yet was me...

“You gotta hide your bloodlust better, Eizo,” Samya told me.

I would make sure to do just that in the afternoon.

For a while past noon, none of us saw any action. It was probably past the feeding window for the fish, so we took a break from casting our lines to go pick some blueberry-like fruits that were growing nearby. We didn’t eat any though until Samya looked over them and gave us the all-clear.

“There are fruits that look nearly identical to these, but are actually poisonous. If you two are ever out by yourselves, don’t pick and eat anything on the spot,” Samya warned us.

Out of curiosity, I asked, “What would happen if we ate it?”

“The poison would take about two hours to circulate through your body. In the worst-case scenario, you’d die. Even if you were lucky and survived, you’d be paralyzed by the poison for a whole day and night. I’m sure you can guess what would happen if you ended up paralyzed for so long in the middle of the forest after wandering around for two hours.”

“All right then. I’ll be careful,” I said.

“Please do.”

The fact that there were people who died in a state of paralysis likely meant that the respiratory organs were paralyzed too. Even my cheats wouldn’t be able to save me from a death like that. Better watch out.

After killing some time, we returned to the river and cast our lines again.

Rike had already caught two fish, and Samya one, so on average, we had caught one fish per person.

On average...

My dignity as the head of the family and the boss of the workshop was on the (literal) line here! At least let me catch one fish—just one!—before we head home.

Just as I was thinking that, Samya suddenly burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you want to catch a fish that badly!”

Oh right...I’d completely forgotten that Samya could read strong emotions.

Breathe. You gotta breathe. Just relax, Eizo. Act natural.

As I tried to suppress my emotions, Rike chuckled lightly and said, “Even I can tell you how much you want it, Boss.”

“S-Surely I wasn’t that transparent.”

“Yup, no doubt about it,” Samya stated, nodding deeply.

And Rike confirmed it, with the same meaningful nod. “Yes, you were.”

Dejected by our exchange, I cast in my line again.

But...there were no more bites for some time following our exchange. Just as we were about ready to start heading home, my rod snapped forward with tension.

“Yes!”

A bite!

Calmly and with composure, I set the hook. The tugging I felt at the other end of the line was strong and persistent, but I think I’d managed to snag it. I stood the rod up vertically and started to reel in the line, all while the fish was still swimming in the opposite direction to get away.

I had to take it slow. If I was careless, it would escape, and I couldn’t afford to let that happen. I hauled the fish toward me, careful to not allow any slack in the line. Once I had pulled it in close, I gave the line one last firm jerk and lifted the fish clear of the water.

Phew! I managed to save face today.

“Finally! I caught one!” Never mind that it was a tad small compared to the fish that Samya and Rike had caught. A fish was a fish.

Samya was looking at me, lightly exasperated, but I paid her no mind as we finally set off back home.

That night we lit a bonfire and grilled our haul of the day over the flames. Of course, the meal turned out absolutely scrumptious. I savored the taste of the first fish I’d had in ages, along with the warm, camp-like atmosphere. One day, I hoped this kind of leisure would become another part of my new normal, but I suspected that day was still a ways off in the distance.

And so, we ended the first day of our vacation in utter satisfaction.

⌗⌗⌗

Yesterday we’d enjoyed fishing to the fullest. Somehow, I’d snagged a fish and had just barely managed to protect my reputation.

Today was the second day of our vacation, and it wouldn’t be fun if we did the same thing two days in a row. That and...well, if I didn’t catch anything today, I wouldn’t have another chance to avenge myself. I wanted to avoid that possibility at all costs.

But working on a precious day off was the modus operandi of a workaholic. There was one thing I could think of that wasn’t work-related, although it didn’t really count as leisure either.

“We’re going to start a vegetable patch today!” I announced to Samya and Rike. I’d already reverted the bastardized hoe into its original form. I brought it with me to the clearing outside the hallway of the new rooms. It was technically a courtyard space, so to speak, if we were to continue expanding our house.

“All right,” Rike responded, sickle in hand.

“Sure, works for me,” Samya agreed. She was also holding a sickle. “But, why?”

“Right now, we have to go and buy all of our vegetables, but I want us to be self-sufficient. Your hunts supply us with meat, and fruit we can harvest around the lake—but there’s no place to find vegetables.”

Actually, there may be wild vegetables growing in the area, but I figured that the vegetables people ate in this world were probably different from wild ones. I’d seen carrot facsimiles in this world, and they didn’t look wild; they looked like the carrots I’d eaten regularly in my previous world. So, we might as well try and grow some for ourselves. If only I could get my hands on some potatoes... I’d like a place to cultivate those as well.

Unlike in my previous world, potatoes had been propagated all over this world. However, rather than relying on just potatoes as their main crop, farmers cultivated wheat and other produce as well. That said, potatoes weren’t often sold in the markets here, whether because they were rare in this area to begin with, or because of overconsumption. Possibly, there was a law restricting cultivation to only the amount needed for one’s personal needs.

I explained all of this to Rike and Samya.

“I’ve thought this before because of our conversations over dinner, but you have an enormous breadth of knowledge, Boss,” Rike said appreciatively.

“Yeah, Eizo’s oddly well-informed,” Samya replied.

And just what exactly do you mean by “oddly?”

Although...I couldn’t really deny it. Between everything I knew from my previous world and the installed knowledge, “oddly” was probably an apt descriptor. I could tell that I was wearing a peculiar expression.

Anyway, time to get started...

The field was going to be for our own personal use, so digging it up didn’t violate the “no working today” rule I’d set for everyone. In my previous world, people used to rent plots and tend to them for fun. What we were doing was no different.

At first, all we did was cut the grass in the courtyard with the sickles. The tools were entry-level models, but they cut well enough. It was noon by the time we’d cleared a big enough patch, so we took a short break from work.

I think this size will do for our purposes.

“After we finish eating, shall we make hoes for both of you as well?” I suggested.

“You sure?” Samya asked.

“They won’t be anything grand, just something to get us through the work today.”

“That sounds like plenty to me,” Rike said.

Whoops, apparently we’re doing blacksmithing today after all. But it’s for the house, so let’s just agree that it doesn’t count, all right?

After we finished lunch, we moved to the workshop. I had Samya and Rike heat up some metal plates and shape them. I’d be in charge of the finishing touches. After the fire was lit in the fire bed, Rike heated up the metal until it was red hot, then removed the plates and placed them on the anvil. Samya took over after that and hammered the metal into a large rectangle. I fixed any places that were slightly misshapen.

Once it was the right size, Rike reheated the sheet metal and then transferred it to a different anvil. Here, I took over and made the final adjustments to the overall shape. I put in the same amount of effort as I would for an elite model.

While I finished the blade of the first hoe, Rike and Samya were already working on heating and shaping the second one. When Samya was hammering, I was in charge of the forge and heating. When I was hammering, Rike was heating instead. We found a good rhythm and work moved along smoothly.

At last, I finished up the second of the two hoe blades, bringing our smithing work for the day to a close. For the handles, I picked out two good pieces of wood from the pile we had left over from construction work. Now, we had three hoes in total.

It took us about three hours to forge the hoes, so we had two to three hours left to work on the field. However, since I was still filled with the satisfaction of having just completed a portion of work, it was obviously hard to drudge up the motivation to continue. But the two ladies wanted to try out the hoes they’d just helped make with their own hands, so I rallied myself to continue.

Together, we returned to the field and plowed the soil. The dirt in this forest was hard, as I’d mentioned before, but it was no match for the strength I’d attained from cheats and the elite model hoes Rike and Samya were wielding. The plowing went by quickly.

The work reminded me of a TV show I’d seen in my old world: Three people in the show had set their sights on reinvigorating a neglected plot of land. They grew vegetables and harvested them to make a variety of dishes. The difference between us and them was speed. Thanks to our tools and other talents, we made short work of the dirt and finished plowing the entire patch of soil in three hours.

It still didn’t feel like a legitimate field, just a plot of tilled earth. However, the sun was starting to set. I felt vaguely nauseous at the idea of leaving the work incomplete, but if I put a positive spin on it, this was something to look forward to on our next vacation.

...But what if weeds started to grow in the meantime? I guess we’d just have to take our next break before that happened. It was a good motivator for us to be more proactive about taking vacations, so we called it a day there.

Just like that, our vacation came to an end. Tomorrow, we’d be going back to work, but I didn’t feel any of the dread that I used to feel before Mondays in my old world.

Life here suited me. I was certain of it.