Chapter 98: Fitting Out the Hut

Early in the morning, Ren was in the forest.

He set foot inside the hunting hut in the woods and started on cleaning the floor.

“Floor Refresh.”

“Floor Refresh.”

A small whirl of wind formed at Ren’s feet and went along drawing up the dust.

The inside of the hut, lit by the light of his “small box,” smelled of dust and mould. Ren went over to the window and opened the wooden shutter. Ivy had wound itself over it from outside, and it was hard to open. He cut the ivy away with his knife and forced it open.

A great flapping of wings.

The moment he got the shutter open, there was a sound of something making off. There seemed to be magical beasts around the hut. Leave the window open and they looked likely to come in. But he did want the air changed.

“…Small Box! …Let the dust and so on out! Don’t let the magical beasts in!”

He brought out a “small box” and covered the wooden window with it. He willed it to let the light in from outside and let the air be changed, but to keep any magical beast from getting in from outside.

A transparent, flat, thin “small box” fitted snugly into the wooden window frame.

He watched for a little while to see whether the magical beasts really couldn’t get in, then moved away from the window, meaning to do the same with the others.

Thud.

“Whoa!”

Just after Ren had moved away from the window and turned his back on it, there was a sound like something striking the “small box” in the window. There was no being careless here, Ren thought with a shiver.

He went back to the “small box” window and looked out. A small magical beast with short horns was lying on the ground. It was on its back with its limbs spread out.

“A flat squirrel?”

Ren murmured, seeing the membrane-like flaps spread out from it — and the small magical beast gave a twitch, sprang up as though bouncing, and fled into the undergrowth.

“…The magical beasts really do try to get in, then…”

Perhaps the reason nothing had got into the hut until now was that it had been covered over with ivy, and the windows and door were shut fast and sturdy besides. It might also be because it had stood empty. If he began sleeping in the hut, the magical beasts might well come round.

After cleaning the inside of the hut a little, he had another look at the Simple Barrier magic tool in front of it.

Comparing the magic stone that had almost no mana left in it with the ones he had on him, the stone in the magic tool was more than a size larger.

“Does it have to match in size…? And the kind has to match as well…. Though I don’t know which is which.”

The note that had been in the hut had mentioned wind magic stones, water magic stones and dark magic stones. But a magic stone that had had the mana drained out of it and gone whitish couldn’t be told apart by the look of it.

Ren gave a small sigh and looked at the hunting hut. An old hut covered thickly over with moss and ivy.

“If the magic tool were mended, I could live here…”

Ren murmured it under his breath.

He looked up at the sky and checked the height of the sun. It was about time to make for the Adventurers’ Guild.

He put the magic stones he had on him back into his cloth pouch, took one last look back at the hunting hut, and left.

He hunted only the magical beasts that came at him in the forest, put them in at the buying counter of the Adventurers’ Guild, and went off to the reference room.

By the third day of organising the reference room, the Young Branch Squad seemed to have got used to it; their laughter could be heard out beyond the door.

“Aah! I lost!”

“Ha. I don’t lose at letter boards.”

“Honestly, Colette. You take the cards so fast.”

“Naturally.”

“But I’m faster at running.”

“Running speed has nothing to do with it just now.”

Loren, Fred and Colette were round the table playing against one another, with Victor reading out. Seeing Ren come in, Victor raised his hand in greeting.

“Oi. Morning, Ren.”

“Morning.”

“Morning,” came the others, all together.

When Victor called out to Ren, Fred and the rest said their good mornings too. Their eyes went straight back to the cards, though.

“Fred and Loren say they’ve learnt the numbers already.”

“Oh? Already?”

“They’re getting on quite well with the letters too.”

Ren looked over at Fred and the others, impressed.

Fred and the rest were watching the number and letter cards laid out on the table. Victor read a card out and Colette whipped it away. Fred and Loren made noises of disappointment.

In fact, once the work began, it seemed they could already read the numbers written on the board that gave the sorting instructions. The work was somehow quicker, too.

“…Words next, perhaps.”

He decided to make cards with words on them as well — “magical beast,” “medicinal herb” and the like, the words used in the sorting.

Coming out of the reference room at midday and heading for the dining hall, he noticed Mikaila over at the reception counter.

(The char quill pen — shall I hand it over now…?)

“Ren, what’s the matter?”

Victor called to Ren, who had stopped and was looking back at the counter.

“Ah, I’m just going to take Mikaila-san the char quill pen. Go on ahead to the dining hall.”

“Right.”

Ren hurried over to the counter where Mikaila was. If he handed over the char quill pen he had made at midday, he thought, he would be able to hear how she had found it to use on his way home.

“Good afternoon, Mikaila-san.”

“Good afternoon, Ren-kun. Is the organising of the reference room going well?”

“Yes, it’s going well. I’ve brought the char quill pen. And I made something a little different as well, so I thought I’d let you see them both.”

“Something different?”

Mikaila tilted her head slightly, and on the counter in front of her Ren set down a char quill pen with a translucent blue feather, and a char-core quill pen with a vivid green feather.

“What…?”

Mikaila’s eyes widened at the things set out on the counter.

“These…, aren’t these feathers from an Azure Wind Swift and an Emerald Pippil?”

“Ah, I couldn’t catch the one with the rainbow-coloured feathers…”

Ren said it apologetically, and Mikaila shook her head.

“By rainbow-coloured feathers, do you mean the feathers of a ‘Rainbow-Tail Feather Bird’? Whatever made you want to put rainbow-coloured feathers on them?”

“Eh? Because they look splendid.”

“I see…. For the moment I only want to try out the quill pen you’ve made for me, so there’s no need to use expensive feathers. These Azure Wind Swift and Emerald Pippil feathers are quite dear enough. …Wait a moment, though. This construction—!”

Mikaila started, and her eyes came back to Ren. She tried the char-core quill pen out, and then suddenly stood up and leaned out over the counter.