Chapter 192 – Fooling with Lumber
After floating the lumber along with magic, I put it all on Moofy’s back.
「If it’s heavy, let me know, Moofy!」
「Moo!」
Seems like she is okay. What a magically holy beast.
She looked like a small mountain of meat carrying a mountain of lumber.
They were huge trees that we had pulled, after all.
For a bit, it was hard for her to carry them.
So I floated them with gravity magic, and we made headway without much problem.
It was important to work as a team.
So without much time wasted, we made it back to the temple.
「Waaaahhhh!」
Seeing the monstrous Moofy, the priest jolted and shouted, pointing.
「PiiGGi PigGGi!」
Chel looked happy about the event, bouncing up and down.
Moofy lowered her massive head, and Chel bounced all the way up her nose, up the neck, and to her back.
「Where would you like this wood?」
「Oh, yes! Come over here.」
The shocked priest suddenly came to and showed us where to go with a shaking finger.
The place we finally dumped all the wood became a huge mound.
It was like a mountain of trees, laid on their side.
Cruz smiled at the amount and nodded happily,
「With just this we can build houses. Maybe 20 or so, right?」
「Not enough for that…」
「Really?」
「Yeah.」
Cruz looked a little confused, so Vi-Vi continued,
「You have to dry the wood out first. You can’t just use them now.」
「Really? How long does that take?」
「Well, if done naturally, it takes half a year.」
「That’s no good! People are going to show up wanting a place!」
It seems that there were quite a lot of people wanting to have their own place here.
The village would get bigger and bigger, so they were planning on opening the village around spring.
But still, we needed to have houses for the first inhabitants soon.
「If that’s the case, we can have them stay at the temple, but…」
The temple was quite a large building, after all.
Even so, with that many people, it wasn’t made to house everyone. There was a limit.
「Well, I guess at this point, we can buy some lumber….」
「But there’s a limit to what we can spend, and if possible, we need to use this wood.」
Cruz said with a worried look.
Vallimie could maybe sell wood to us for this, but it would cost…
And as I thought this, Vi-Vi piped up with a smile, saying,
「I’ve already thought this through, so I can make a quick-drying circle!」
「Moo moo!」
「Whoa!」
After taking the wood off of Moofy, Moofy shrunk and looked interested at what was about to happen.
Vi-Vi began drawing a magic circle in the air.
「With this easy circle the wood should be dry in about three days.」
「That’s really something.」
「Usually drying warps the wood, but this process doesn’t.」
Vi-Vi said with a proud face.
「This circle doesn’t allow the wood to be weakened. That’s why you can dry it without negative effects.」
「That’s convenient.」
「RIGHT? RIGHT?! It’s easy just to put on a stack of wood like this.」
After hearing that we’d start the village last night, she must have thought this magic circle necessary.
She really was an expert in magic circles.
After this, I cut the trees into strips of lumber.
I took the bark off, and formed them into square posts.
Then Vi-Vi applied the circle to them.
While this was going on, I noticed,
「Where is Timi and Yureena?」
「Yeah, they’re not here.」
「They should be around somewhere.」
With Timi just walking around, all the magic beasts should stay far away.
She was perfect for keeping them far from the temple.
And after Vi-Vi had finished with the lumber,
「Alra, what are you doing?」
「Hey!」
Timi suddenly returned. I didn’t sense her returning.
It surprised me a bit.
「Where did you go?」
「Well, my legs were falling asleep, so Yureena and I flew around a bit.」
It seemed that Timi’s legs hurt after being human form for too long.
That’s why she flew around as a dragon whenever she could.
And Yureena wanted to talk to Vi-Vi about channeling the river.
They could see a place where the river could be diverted easily from the sky.
It was a great plan.
「So, when I fly, people down here freaked out, right?」
「Well, you are an ancient dragon.」
「So I guessed I should fly when no one can see.」
Timi seemed to want to be reserved about her flying.
And it seems that Timi was able to hide her presence so that no one was able to see and then fall into abject fear after seeing her.
That’s why she was able to fly around without people around seeing her.
「It’s a magic that curves the light around you. It’s pretty hard to do while flying though right?」
「It’s hard to see me unless you’re close. Up in the sky practically no one can see me.」
「I see.」
While I was impressed by her ability, she took out a map to show me.
「So, here’s good, Alra. Look here.」
「Here?」
「A map I drew.」
It was very detailed. I could understand the lay of the land easily.
And it was way more detailed than Cruz’ map.
「Did you draw this yourself?」
「Yeah! While I was flying!」
「Wow!」
So I called Cruz over.
「What is it, Al?」
「Look at this. Timi drew it for us.」
「Whoa! Thanks Timi!」
After this thanks, Timi seemed to be embarrassed.
Her face turned a little red.
「It was quite simple for me.」
「With this, we can totally plan out the town!」
「Right!」
Timi said, after a bit.
「Alra.」
「Hm?」
「I watched from above…you and Moofy did well.」
「Mooo mooo!」
Moofy ran over after hearing her name.
Timi rubbed her head.
Then she said,
「I can do that too, you know.」
「You mean, grow huge and pull the trees?」
「Yeah, because Moofy really wants to plow the fields, right?」
「Moo!」
It seems that Moofy was more interested in creating fields than roads.
And from tomorrow, she might be put back to that use.
「Thanks, but…is that okay?」
「Sure. I want to show Shiggy how cool I am.」
Timi said with her chest out in pride.
But Shiggy was still sleeping in my pouch.