Chapter 9

After drinking an entire bottle of elven holy wine with Telingewei, Xie Juanhan passed out drunk.

Telingewei took him back.

He lay on the little makeshift bed in his shelter. The sky swayed, the ground swayed, and even the little makeshift bed swayed.

The whole world was like a giant cradle.

Xie Juanhan gazed at the starry sky above him, a strange sense of ease in his heart.

Hugging his pillow, he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Xie Juanhan had put off building a house for many days.

He had gathered a large stockpile of materials long ago and piled them all in the clearing.

He had even leveled the ground where he planned to build.

Before, whenever he thought about building a house, he had felt somewhat unenthusiastic.

Perhaps he had subconsciously felt that once the house was built, he would have to settle down and wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon.

After drinking, the hesitation in his heart suddenly vanished.

Whether he could go back depended on whether there was a rift in spacetime, not on whether he had built a house.

He had made friends and was gradually becoming familiar with this world. It was time to pull himself together and make proper plans for his life instead of always making do.

Once he had made up his mind, Xie Juanhan asked Orfrey that very day to hire a mason to come discuss building the house.

Xie Juanhan often bought milk, butter, and flour from Orfrey.

Orfrey was reliable, and the mason he hired was conscientious and responsible.

That morning, Xie Juanhan, Orfrey, and the mason stood by the river, inspecting the materials Xie Juanhan had gathered.

There was plenty of timber and stone in the magic forest.

The dragon companion beasts had also been helping all along.

The timber and stone Xie Juanhan had gathered were piled into small mountains.

He had also leveled the original building site, leaving a large, dry patch of ground cleared of weeds and debris.

The mason was full of praise when he saw it. He took Xie Juanhan and Orfrey with him to carefully inventory the materials and survey the ground.

It was late spring, and the weather was unusually fine.

The sky was blue, with the transparency of glass.

The trees in the magic forest were such a tender green that they almost seemed to glow.

Even the breeze had grown gentler.

Xie Juanhan followed the mason, imagining what the house would look like when it was built. His gaze softened.

"It'll keep raining for a while. Let's wait until May to build."

The mason, who had a little brown mustache, finally spoke, blinking his gentle brown eyes.

"In May, the weather will be clear and the spring planting will be done. It'll be the perfect time to hire people to build the house."

Xie Juanhan was a little disappointed, but he knew the mason was right and could only nod.

He had been in this world for a while now and knew that the nearby villages had rules requiring everyone in a village to plant, harvest, and graze their animals at the same time.

This was the season for planting and grazing in the nearby villages.

Even if he wanted to build a house, he wouldn't be able to hire any workers.

Seeing that he had no objections, the mason said, "The stones you've gathered can be used for the foundation and stone walls. It's best to buy separate slate tiles for the roof. Using stone as it is would be too heavy."

Xie Juanhan asked, "Should I just buy them at the market?"

"You can buy them at the market, but if you have a connection, it'd be better to buy them from a dwarf craftsman."

The mason turned to look at the timber, which had a soft sheen in the sunlight. "The timber you've gathered is so fine, it'd be a shame to use ordinary stone tiles."

Xie Juanhan was puzzled. "What's different about the slate tiles dwarf craftsmen sell?"

"There's a world of difference." The mason spoke with an admiring look. "The dwarves cut their slate tiles smooth and beautiful. Once they're laid, from a distance they look like a roof covered in silver coins. It's a beautiful sight."

Like a roof laid with silver coins. Xie Juanhan began to long for it too.

Orfrey couldn't help adding, "Dwarf craftsmen's tiles are incredibly durable. They never need repairs, and I've never heard of them leaking. They're much less trouble than ordinary slate tiles."

Xie Juanhan had already noticed that the people of this county were very fond of dwarf-made goods.

The wine in taverns, the knives at blacksmiths' stalls, the flat-topped cast-iron stoves at stove stalls... as long as something had any connection to dwarves, people would invariably attach the dwarves' name to it and sell it at a high price.

Xie Juanhan said, "I'll ask around when the time comes."

Seeing that he had agreed, the mason suggested, "You can also look for some caulking material while you're at it. You ought to start getting that ready too."

Xie Juanhan didn't understand at first. "What?"

Orfrey's booming voice rang out beside him. "It's material for filling gaps. Stone houses have plenty of those. My lord, buy some moss, hay, animal fur, and the like to plug them up when the time comes. Otherwise, drafts and wild beasts will get in."

The mason nodded. "The gaps around the window frames, doorframes, and beams will all need to be plugged with caulking material. You'll understand when you visit a caulking stall."

After asking the mason and Orfrey to come take a look, Xie Juanhan filled a large wooden board with charcoal notes on everything to keep in mind when building a house and everything he needed to buy.

He had thought he had everything ready, but now it seemed he was far from it.

Realizing he still needed to buy a lot of building materials, Xie Juanhan made several trips into town.

There were no dedicated caulking stalls in town.

Xie Juanhan asked around and learned that caulking stalls usually opened only on market days.

People who specialized in gathering caulking material sold it fresh as they gathered it.

The local market was called the Star Market.

The Star Market's dates were determined by the positions of the stars, and it opened roughly once every ten days.

It was said to have originally been a witches' market. Later, more and more ordinary people began going, and it became an ordinary large market.

Xie Juanhan could read the phases of the moon and the paths of the stars, but the positions of the stars left him completely baffled.

Astrology in this world was too difficult.

Instead, he watched for when the residents across the river went to market and followed along around the same time.

Early one morning, after noticing that the people across the river had begun heading to market, Xie Juanhan hurriedly hoisted a magic deer onto his shoulder and went too.

He sold the magic deer at a familiar butcher shop, then followed the crowd toward the market.

The market was even livelier than the streets of the town.

Farmwomen and farmers from nearby had all taken the opportunity to come out and set up stalls.

Some adventurers, herbalists, low-level witches, and low-level mages were there too.

After dropping off the magic beast deer at the butcher's stall, Xie Juanhan came back out to find stalls everywhere selling magical herbs, extracts, rune-carved stone tablets, pelts, vegetables, cheese, butter, beans, and more.

Hawkers' cries came surging from all directions like a tide.

Xie Juanhan walked along the street and searched for quite a while before finally finding the caulking stalls.

Several caulking stalls stood side by side, displaying bundles of moss, hay, and bark.

The air was filled with the scent of plants.

Standing in front of a stall, Xie Juanhan picked up some hay to examine it, but he wasn't very satisfied.

The hay hadn't been stripped very clean. Leaves and fluff still clung to it, and the stalks weren't thick enough. It didn't look as though it had grown for enough years, and its color was a dull grayish white.

He looked at the moss next.

The moss wasn't dry enough, and when he pulled it apart, there was still a lot of debris inside.

Xie Juanhan looked at several caulking stalls.

The hay and moss at all the stalls were much the same quality.

The fat owner standing behind a wooden board greeted him warmly. "Looking to buy caulking material? I can give you a discount."

Xie Juanhan looked up.

The fat owner held up three chubby fingers. "This one, three sona a bundle."

Sona was a local alloy currency stamped with a raised little fish. One silver coin could be exchanged for a hundred sona.

Xie Juanhan wasn't very satisfied with the hay and moss. "Do you have anything better?"

The fat owner good-naturedly shook his head. "You replace it every year anyway. It's good enough, and it's cheap. This one's cheap."

Xie Juanhan thought that if it was all this quality, he might as well go into the forest and gather it himself.

After making a circuit of the market, Xie Juanhan bought only two bundles of spring vegetables for salad and a small jar of salad dressing, then went back.

There was plenty of moss and hay in the forest.

When Xie Juanhan went hunting in the forest, he deliberately looked for moss and hay.

This wasn't the best season to gather hay and moss, but fortunately the forest was big enough, and plenty of hay and moss remained from the previous year.

Xie Juanhan picked and chose as he gathered, and still collected quite a lot, piling it all in the forest.

The hay was a brilliant gold, every stalk stripped of its leaves, the stalks golden, hollow, and fragrant.

The moss came in large clumps, soft, with long fibers and a beautiful pale green color.

Piled up in the forest, they made it look gentle and bright too.

The group of dragon companion beasts soon discovered the piles of hay and moss.

They were very excited.

Whenever they had nothing to do, they ran over and rolled around on the piles of hay and moss.

They already smelled of hay from head to toe, and after picking up the scent of fresh hay and moss, they smelled even stronger.

Smelling the warm hay scent, Xie Juanhan turned to look at them.

The little ones were sleeping close together.

Some had even fallen asleep on top of their companions, playing at stacking themselves up.

Xie Juanhan watched them, then looked away with a smile and continued working on the bark in his hands.

Bark was also an important building material.

When it came time to build, they would first spread a layer of bark over the roof, then lay the slate tiles on top.

That way, the house would stay insulated and warm and be less likely to leak.

The bark sold at the caulking stalls wasn't very good either.

Since Xie Juanhan was already gathering hay and moss, he decided to gather the bark himself as well.

Unlike hay and moss, bark was best stripped between late spring and early summer.

There was plenty of rain in spring and summer, and the sap flowed freely.

The bark also became moist and pliable, so it wouldn't tear at all when stripped.

Xie Juanhan chose trees so large he could only just wrap his arms around them and stripped just one rectangular piece of bark from the middle or lower part of each trunk.

After bringing it back, he scraped the woody layer clean from the inner side while the bark was still fresh, then laid it in the forest to dry in the shade, weighing it flat with stones.

Holding a dagger, Xie Juanhan moved his hand deftly over the bark.