Chapter 35: The Vast Land

Day 53 of Living in Another World

Three days have passed since the last raid–

The rabbit man who had gone to the village to pick them up returned to the village with 10 people in tow, as planned.

Perhaps the explanations given in advance were effective, and there are no problems at all in terms of loyalty. All of them have been able to safely enter the village. After confirming the status of the new villagers, we were in the process of dividing up the work to be done tomorrow and selecting housing.

“Keisuke-san, thank you for your hard work.”

“Ah, Tsubaki helped me out a lot. Did you have any concerns?”

“No, nothing in particular.”

It’s unfortunate, but it’s fair. None of the people who became villagers this time had skills. Still, I think that the rapid increase in the labor force will have a great impact on the development of the village.

“Chief, I’m back now!”

“Hey Touya, how was the village?”

“I didn’t see anyone today either, three days in a row, and the other two are probably dead or gone to town.”

I had them scouting around the village for three days from the day of the attack until today, and there was no sign of …… the other two.

“The roads should be safe now, and we can adopt it as an official transport route.”

“Then tomorrow we can start logging the trade route, right?”

From now on, we will be going back and forth between the village and the city many times. The plan was to secure a trade route to the city, using the village of Rado as a relay point.

If this road were to be opened, they would be able to reach the city in less than a day. Trading would definitely become easier. We have asked Rad and the other trading members to make the second preparation, and we plan to have them leave tomorrow. This time, too, we would like to purchase salt, nails, and spices.

After accepting the rabbits, Tsubaki and I came near the rice field. We were discussing about how much we should expand the site.

“Okay, this is the final confirmation of how to expand the farmland.”

“Yes, please.”

“We will build a wheat field of the same size on the north side of the existing rice paddies. And I’ll triple the size of the vegetable field. Is that correct.”

“Yes, we can’t expand any further. That’s all I ask this time.”

The other day, I asked her to roughly calculate the amount of harvest after expanding the farmland. She said that each harvest would produce enough to feed 30 villagers for a year. That is a ton of harvest for a year.

According to Tsubaki, even if there were 1,500 villagers, there would be no shortage of staple food, so no matter how much they sold, it would have no effect on the village. On the contrary, if they don’t sell it, they won’t be able to store it in the warehouse.

“Keisuke-san, Keisuke-san!

“Oh, sorry. I was thinking.”

“Don’t worry too much.”

“No, it’s all right, it was an extravagant worry. Then let’s begin.”

I imagined a 300-meter square and started to expand the site, and fixed it as soon as I made sure there were no problems in the surrounding area, …….

How can we really describe the size of this area? I think a certain dome stadium could completely fit in there and still have quite a bit of room. With a population of 30 people, we have a huge area of land that we cannot fully use.

“This is also a tremendous amount of space. ……”

“Believe it or not, we can still expand it by almost three times.”

“Yeah, it’s that …… big.”

While the two of us were having a silly conversation, the villagers gathered in large numbers.

“How is everyone doing? This whole huge area is part of the village. What’s more, we can make it three times as big as this!”

“Triple the size?”

The size of the land was so large that everyone and I were in a strange state of excitement. Now that we were all here, we decided to talk about our future expansion plans.

“Tomorrow, we plan to extend the property along the river to the Great Mountains to the north. It’s not dangerous, but it’s quite a distance, so don’t go there carelessly.”

“Why don’t you do a survey right away?”

‘”I’ll go check on things while I’m at it when I extend it.”

“I hope you find some good bargains.”

After everyone had dispersed, we headed toward the river and noticed that the site extended to the east across the river as well.

“It’s spread to the other side of the river, isn’t it?”

“It seems to be about 20m.”

“That’s right. An orchard would also be nice.”

“I’ll leave that to Tsubaki.”

“Then let’s head to rice planting. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s exploration.”

I bid farewell to Tsubaki and finished the day by inspecting the extensive grounds.

◇ ◇◇◇◇

Day 54 of living in another world

Early in the morning of the next day, after seeing off Rad and the rest of the trading party, Tsubaki and I also headed north to the mountain range.

As soon as we arrived at the riverbank, we expanded the site toward the north. The width of the expansion was set at a minimum of 10 meters. The purpose was to gain as much distance as possible.

Suddenly, I noticed that only the barrier on the extended site was flashing. The barrier surrounding the village was the same as usual. There was no particular reason for this, it was just something that caught my attention.

“The barrier is effective even if it’s not fixed, but just in case, be careful of the surroundings.”

“Yes, I’m not worried because Keisuke-san is there. I’ll be on the lookout for you.”

“Oh, ok.”

After walking for about an hour, we took a rest. Up to this point, there is just an endless stretch of forest and river. We didn’t see any monsters, and there were no changes in our surroundings.

“It doesn’t look particularly good. There are no monsters.”

“Well, it seems that the water depth and the river width have not changed.”

“The water is clean and the atmosphere is good.”

Both of us had increased our physical strength due to our improved level, and since we were not tired, we started to go on and on. After walking for another hour or so, we finally reached the mountain range we had set out for, and were met by towering cliffs whose peaks were so hazy that they could not be seen.

(No wonder they couldn’t make it to the top. ……)

There was a break in the cliff from which water was gushing out. This seemed to be the source of the water, and it looked like a small waterfall. Underneath the waterfall was a large spring.

Tsubaki gazed at the fantastic scenery with bated breath. I was also stunned for a while, but then I remembered my purpose and started to move.

“I can’t help but admire the scenery, but for now, I’ll fix the site.”

I’m going to fix the site as if the entire waterfall were wrapped around it. If there is even a small gap, the monsters might be able to slip through, so I extended it to the exact surface of the rock face.

“Oh, I just had an idea.”

“Hmm? What happened?”

“Isn’t it possible to expand the site if the lands are not connected to each other?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried it.”

Thinking back, I had never extended the property so that it became an enclave. There was no need to do so, and it had never occurred to me in the first place. I decided to give it a try, and extended toward the forest as if it were an enclave.

“Oh, looks doable, doesn’t it?”

“It’s completely independent of the site we have now, isn’t it?”

“No, this is ……. I should have realized this earlier.”

“Don’t worry, I just happened to think of it myself.”

“I know, right? The important thing is how to make use of it in the future, isn’t it!”

“Yes, that’s right! From now on!”

For a few moments, an indescribable atmosphere enveloped the two of us.

“Hey, Keisuke-san. For example, if you expand the site in the city… what will happen?”

Tsubaki suddenly said that.

“Could it take over the whole town?”

“Heh.”

I couldn’t help but make a funny sound when Tsubaki said that to me. It was the moment I realized the potential of site expansion.

“It will be useful for future countermeasures. Let’s call the result a yes. ……”

We put this matter on hold for the moment and moved on to observe the surroundings. A beautiful spring had formed around the waterfall basin. The surrounding area is open, and there are flowers and grasses blooming, making it a very beautiful scene.

On the other hand, the towering cliffs seem to be made of hard bedrock. I wondered if it would be possible to unearth mithril ore or magic ore that appears in fantasy stories.

There was nothing else of interest, and I was casually walking around the spring.

I found a small tunnel behind the basin, hidden by the waterfall .

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