After the first house was completed, the floppy-eared Kobolds, led by the Kobold Smith, attempted to make houses in the square by themselves.

“Wauuwaauh, guruuooonn!” (Brother Ax, please hit it!)

“Waoa, garuuh!” (Alright, here I go!)

As Smith supported the lightly buried wooden stake from the side, Ax easily lifted the large, flat stone with his muscular arms and drove it down!

tonk, tonk, tonk

It seems the floppy-eared Kobolds looked up to Ax after he beat Knuckle, but… When did he become their “brother”?

Looking around, I saw my sister skillfully sorting and adjusting the length of the wood one after another. As the floppy-eared Kobolds received the wood, they tied it together with ivy to create the frame of the house. 

With some minor adjustments by Grimer here and there, the members of the pack succeeded in making a house all by themselves.

(…At this rate, it would be possible to build more houses in the settlement.)

By the way, when I visited the family den first thing in the morning and told my mother to move into the next house that was going to be built, she said…

“Guruau gauru uoaaan, guorua guoan?” (Rather than me, shouldn’t you be thinking about the other pack members first? Didn’t those new kids join a while ago?)

…And lightly admonished me. Certainly, the floppy-eared Kobolds are actively working hard for us because they are newcomers. But just as my mother said, it’s right to let those who don’t have dens occupy the houses first.

Although it was not as refined as the Werecat craftsmen’s houses, the house built by Smith and the others was finished by the end of the day.

“Uooon, guruu guano kuaaoo…” (What’s all the fuss about? It’s calmer inside the den…)

Blazer, who had erased his presence like always, came up beside me, mumbling as he put a hand on his chin. Which reminds me, this guy hasn’t helped out with the work since yesterday at all.

For someone as conservative as Blazer who “wouldn’t even cross a bridge until he knocks on it”*, he might be secretly opposed to this change in our way of living because it carried a certain amount of risk…

And so, with the work completed today, we moved on to making steel the next day.

“I can finally start my job…”

“Now, now, it’s our turn to assist you this time.”

Grimer encouraged Barrack, who already seemed tired even before he started.

“Even if you say that, we can only make a primitive draft furnace, and we have to make charcoal first!”

“So we have to dig a hole first, huh. I think it’s okay to let them handle that.”

“How big and how deep do you need it to be?”

I wrote on the ground with my slate pencil.

“We will be building a rectangular furnace with the furnace opening in the upwind direction and the chimney going downwind. We still have some of the clay we used for the chimneys and the walls, right? It’s gotten pretty dry, but we will be using it after reconstituting it with a bit of water.”

After determining where the furnace would be built, the several Kobolds from the settlement happily dug the hole with their Stone Axes and their wooden stakes. It was quite amusing when they dug too deep and had to fill the excess though…

The furnace opening and the chimney were built on the rectangular hole and a sleeper was placed at the bottom, while the pieces of firewood that Ax made in his spare time were laid inside the hole.

“Pack it as tight as you can, Joseph.”

“I’ve done this before, so I should be fine.”

As Joseph filled more gaps with grass, my packmates’ excitement suddenly rose when he also filled those with dirt.

“Wauh! Gurun!?” (Ehh! He’s burying it!?)

“Kua, garuuh!!” (Then, this too!!)

One of them absently pulls a glittering stone out of the pouch on his waist and tries to fill it in.

…Isn’t that amber? I wonder where he got it from.

“Guruugaruo, garuaou?” (That’s going to burn up during the charcoal making, you know?)

“Kyuuh!?”

Another name for amber is burning stone after all…

I had to stop him before such a sad thing happened to his treasure.

After that, the work proceeded smoothly, and the wood for the charcoal was placed inside the kiln before being heaped up with more dirt.

“Alright, let’s light up the firepit and get some air in it.”

“Kuan, woaan.” (Sister, light it up.)

“Wau, kyuan.” (Okay, Big brother.)

Just like yesterday, my sister produced a small flame between her hands and lit the dried grass that was stuffed into the fire-pit. There, Barrack fanned the fire with a fan made of leaves and branches which increased its intensity.

And then, smoke rose from the ground.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Grimer, can you fill the gaps for me?”

“Sure. I mean, if we don’t fill it properly, then we’ll end up with ash instead of charcoal.”

We also pitched in to help him finish his task.

“Okay, how is it now?”

Two to three hours after the fire was lit, smoke naturally started to come up from the chimney of the earthen kiln even after Barrack stopped fanning.

(It’s burning well inside…)

The charcoal can be used in many ways, so we have to watch closely and remember how it’s made…although, that may be unnecessary, as Smith hungrily watched it like looking at the most delicious food he was going to take a bite out of.

“Next, we’ll just fill it up until only the furnace opening is left! The rest of us will stand guard patiently for half a day or more until the wood is completely charred and there is no more smoke. We’ll take turns with one of us and one of you guys in pairs.”

“Waon.” (Got it.)

I nodded as I answered.

“Wao kuua, wann.” (Lancer, you go first.)

“Guruu? Woaaoan.” (Me? Alright.)

While checking the condition of the kiln, if we found any smoke leaks we repaired them. When the smoke had turned pale blue and was no longer coming out, we sealed the fireplace and the chimney to cut off the air.

After it was sealed completely, we extinguished the fire and cooled the charcoal in the ground for a few hours.

A whole day had passed by the time we took out the coals.

Charcoal burning is such a time-consuming process…

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Translator’s notes:

 *Wouldn’t even cross a bridge until he knocks on it – 石橋を叩いて渡る (ishibashi wo tataite wataru) is a Japanese idiom which means “very cautious”.