Chapter 80 : Spring Means Renovations!
To get to Silver-rank, I gotta complete an escort quest… which is so not happening.
I’ll think about it when I’m taller. Maybe when I’m fifteen or something.
I’ve shot up a lot since last year, but I’m still not as tall as Selina, and I’m definitely shorter than Maggie.
My stash of pelts and magic stones is starting to run low. But on the other hand, I’ve saved up over fifty guldens.
“We’ll need to buy two draft horses,” Selina says, “but I absolutely cannot leave that to you. I’ll ask the old man at the guild stables or the man at The Foal’s Inn for a recommendation.”
Good. Because there is no way I’m letting her come back with two more high-class riding horses.
Now that I know a few more people in Raymond, I’ll rely on them instead.
“Before we even think about selling lumber,” she adds, “we need to do something about this cabin and the cowshed.”
She’s right. I’ve been dying to renovate as soon as spring arrived.
The cabin Selina and I live in is basically a pioneer-era shack.
It’s one big room that serves as the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, all centered around the fireplace. Plus Selina’s potion-making room.
The pantry is falling apart, too… not that we use it much with my Storage.
Our beds are just shoved against a wall, with a cloth hung up to give us the illusion of privacy.
I want my own bedroom. And a proper bathroom.
In the winter, we have to drag a tub in front of the fireplace to wash up, which is kinda embarrassing. In the summer, we just bathe by the well.
Selina acts like she doesn’t need one since she can just use Purification, but I have a strong suspicion she takes proper baths whenever she’s in the capital.
The Foal’s Inn doesn’t have a bath either. You have to ask for a tub of hot water to be brought to your room.
Not that it matters to me, since Selina has forbidden me from staying over.
Apparently, inns with actual baths are super luxurious.
Thanks to my past-life memories, I’m dying for a good soak.
Selina just gave me this exasperated look when I talked about it. “That’s only because you still can’t use Purification properly.”
I get to work sketching out some blueprints for the remodel. Selina glances over my shoulder and scoffs.
“Are you really going to make it that big? Can you even keep it clean?”
What a cheap shot at my still-lacking Purification skills.
Selina is way better at magic, I’ll give her that. But there are things I’m better at. Like cooking, sewing, and alchemy.
And singing. I’m a better singer.
“You were the one who said you wanted your own bedroom, Selina.”
“I have no memory of saying such a thing!”
Oh. Was that me, maybe?
I mean, for a girl her age, Selina is a total night owl and loves to sleep in. I have to get up early for the livestock, but she stays up reading all night, and the light from her magic lamp is so bright it leaks right through our cloth divider.
“Won’t a room without a fireplace be cold in the winter?”
Ugh, does a bedroom need its own fireplace? That seems excessive.
“Why don’t we just rebuild the whole thing?” she suggests. “It’s pretty worn out, you know.”
Am I just being played right now?
Now that she mentions it, I look around the cabin and realize just how run-down everything is.
It’s a bizarre mix of things: a ridiculously fancy sofa—our one extravagant purchase—a cooking stove Selina bought but never uses, a magic lamp from the capital, and the one I made.
My bed is on the nicer side, too, I guess. But the rest of the shack is just falling apart, either because the original lumber was cheap or from sheer wear and tear. Even the cowshed I built looks sturdier.
As I stand there groaning, Selina pulls a book from her Storage.
A Lovely Country Life.
I flip through the pages, my eyes widening at gorgeous mountain chalets, lakeside villas, and hunting lodges.
“I can’t build something like this,” I protest, but she just laughs.
“We don’t need a building this large. I just thought it might give you some ideas, that’s all.”
I hate being manipulated by Selina, but even the hunting lodge looks a million times better than our current place.
I shamelessly copy its floor plan, leaving out unnecessary things like servants’ quarters.
“After visiting my family’s estate, this cabin just seems so… shabby,” Selina muses.
She’s not wrong. It’s worse than the houses in Lang Village.
“Selina, why did you decide to live here in the first place?”
It’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a while. Surely she could have afforded a normal house instead of choosing to live in a rickety shack in the middle of the Great Forest.
“Dealing with people is too much trouble.”
That, I get. There are good people out there, but there are also a lot of idiots. Especially among adventurers.
Since Selina is actually motivated this time, our project quickly becomes a major renovation. Or maybe a complete rebuild.
“I’d like a reading room,” she says.
Denied. She’d just end up sprawled on the sofa reading anyway.
I do, however, agree to build a separate room just for storing her books.
We also decide to put a desk and chair in each of our bedrooms.
“While we’re at it, we should get better beds.”
I’ll leave that to Selina. I’m sure she’ll order them from one of the royal capitals, though I never know which one.
“Zoe, you can make glass with alchemy, can’t you?”
“I can, but my alchemy pot is small, so I can’t make large panes of glass.”
Selina thinks for a moment, then sketches a window on a piece of paper. “If we make it a diamond pattern, it’ll look quite stylish, don’t you think?”
That’s the kind that’s a total pain to clean. But I do want bigger windows. The cabin is so dark right now.
I guess I’ll just have to master Purification.
“And I want the entrance to have double doors. Every time you open the main one, a cold draft blows in.”
You’re the one who just lounges on the sofa by the fireplace!
I’m the one who’s constantly going in and out to take care of the livestock!
But… that’s actually a good idea.
“Let’s use the entrance from the hunting lodge design!”
And so, the two of us launched our grand renovation project.
“Let’s make the furniture from Treant wood. The flooring should be Treant wood, too!”
Because Selina was so demanding, the whole thing took until summer. On top of that, she didn’t even pretend to help me rebuild the cowshed.
Still, using the experience I gained from remodeling the house, I rebuilt the shed with practiced efficiency.
Since we’ll have horses soon, I think I’ll call it the livestock shed from now on.
“Noah, I made you your own stall, so now you can sleep soundly at night!”
Noah was a little skittish about the smell of the new wood at first, but he settled in after a few days.
Alright, time to buy two draft horses and build a wagon!
Now, you might ask: shouldn’t that be the other way around?
Nope! I gotta practice handling a wagon first.
I’ll get a used one to practice with while I build a sturdier one that can handle heavy loads of lumber!