novelThe Large-Scale Construction Challenge
| ← Ch.012 | Ch.014 → |
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
"Oh, Mr. Haster, you came to help!"
Said a bear-like giant while waving his hand to us.
I can also see eight other human-shaped figures.
"Hello, you're... Mr. Zeppel wasn't it?"
"What, no greeting for me, chief?"
My Master tactfully gives a return greeting. A bunch of people notice us and come this way.
Some of them are even armed...
"... Uuh"
People are... my eyes are spinning... my legs are trembling...
"Aren't you just watching, Gusta? So then, who's the little one over there?"
"My apprentice; her name's Yuuri. Despite how she looks, she's pretty amazing."
"HAHA! If you have Mr. Haster's seal of approval, then I have high expectations for you!"
Mr. Zeppel walks up to me and sticks his hand out. He's probably expecting a handshake.
"Uu... urp!"
I was finally at the point where I couldn't take any more, so I escaped from his outstretched hand, rushed to the roadside—
"Huuuuueeeeeeeehhhhh!"
And grandly vomited.
"What in blazes..."
Came the dumbfounded, discomfort filled voice from behind me.
"Sorry about that. A lot happened to Yuuri, and she's frightened of people. She's finally become accustomed to me only recently..."
"She's at the point of being able to talk with me, but that took three years after all. Even now, she won't let me touch her."
I could hear my Master's apologetic voice, and Mr. Gusta's followup.
"Give me a minute. I'll go check on her."
I could hear my Master's footsteps coming this way. Oh no, is he angry?
This is coming from me, but I don't think I could do anything about this awful sight...
Without raising my face to the nearby footsteps, I start talking.
"Sorry, Master. I'll be better in a little bit, so..."
"No need to rush. I'm the one who forced you to come along after all."
Is he worried about me? My Master then gently rubs my back.
He brought a canteen up to my mouth and urged me to drink.
"Here, have a drink? I squeezed a little lemon in there, so it should be really refreshing alright?"
I place my own hand on top of my Master's hand, holding the canteen, and timidly drink the water.
Fortunately there seems to be nothing else to let out. I rinsed my mouth out several times, and with one final drink I drained the canteen.
"... Haa. Thank you very much, Master."
I gently take a deep breath, and hug my Master around his waist.
—Everything will be fine, my Master is here with me. Don't worry. There's nothing to be afraid of.
"Alright! I'm fine now, Master. I was just a little startled."
"—You're really not pushing yourself?"
I really am just fine, since there's nothing to be afraid of with my Master here.
*~
"Sorry about that. I am the apprentice, Yuuri. I've shown you something unpleasant."
I give Mr. Zeppel and the other villagers a polite apology. Except I didn't lower my hood.
"Yuuri has a little problem with her appearance you see. Allow her to remain in her current attire.
"I don't really mind, but even if I take look wouldn't I find a child? Or maybe a pygmy?"
"...... There's religious reasons."
Master, that excuse doesn't work for everything.
"It's a kind of curse. If you look at me nothing good will happen, but... do you want to see?"
"Ugh, seriously?!"
The one who spoke up was the armed young man next to Mr. Zeppel.
When I send my eyes in his direction, he hastily introduces himself to me. Does he think I'm gonna curse him?
"Ah, I'm in charge of the village's security, and my name is Kime. I look forward to working with you."
With a timid appearance, Mr. Kime stretches out his hand.
I ignore his hand, and lower my head.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Yuuri. Touching me won't cause any problems, but you should probably refrain from shaking my hand. So both our minds can be at ease?"
"Ha, haha... that helps."
"So, how's the bridge looking?"
"Aah, it's collapsed in a rather flashy way. It was the first huge snowstorm in a long time after all. The bridge's piers probably couldn't handle it."
"In other words, we'll have to remake the whole thing..."
In Mr. Zeppel's sight is my Master as he thinks about the restoration plan. They walk down to the river side to take a closer look.
I grasp the end of my Master's robe, and stick close to him as I follow.
"Hey, look at that..."
"Isn't it pretty obvious what's going on?"
"Does Mr. Haster not notice?"
"Probably not, and it doesn't look Yuuri's aware of it either."
"But doesn't she have a curse?"
"She's not really cursed. Though it's true that she has a variety of circumstances to her. Kime, if you shy away from that girl, you'll regret it you know?"
"Mr. Gusta, have you seen her face?"
"Of course, it gave me a huge shock!"
Behind me I can hear a relaxed conversation going on, but for now I ignore it.
The bridge's girders are rotten at the base, and broken at a 90 degree angle. The left half of the bridge was completely collapsed.
"This is pretty awful. When considering the next one, would building the bridge out of stone be better?"
"Except wouldn't it weaken in an earthquake or the like? When considering its resilience, a wooden bridge would be more sound."
"Earthquake? We shouldn't have those around here."
"I see, so earthquakes don't happen in this region."
I was thinking of Japan, one of the leading countries in the world for earthquakes. Over there a magnitude 4 earthquake would be reported with a laugh and an "oh, it's a big one!"
Whereas international students and the like would cower at even a magnitude 3; how nostalgic those memories are.
"If we don't need to worry about the ground shaking, then a sturdy stone structure would likely last longer. Rather, should we [enchant] it with [toughness]?"
"That would be a supreme waste of effort... though I don't mind if you have an easy way to do it."
"There's something I want to test out, so I would appreciate if you'd let me give it a try."
"... Don't explode?"
"I'm not going to!"
What's with that? You make it sound like people randomly catch fire!
I'm a mild-mannered and famous Japanese person you know? Though I don't look like it right now.
"Chief, when considering what to do for the bridge, we're thinking we want a stone construction, but do we have to materials for that?"
"Stones, huh? As you might expect, we don't have any huge ones here."
"What kinds did you bring?"
"We've got some clay for reinforcement... but not much."
Clay, huh? ... If I bake it then it'll get pretty hard though.
"There really isn't enough material here for the bridge. Is there a place around here to dig up more stones from?"
"I can't say I'm very familiar with this area."
Mr. Zeppel replies to my query with an apologetic face. He can't do anything about not knowing, so I don't mind.
"Which means we might have to get them from far away and... actually, if we're gonna [enchant] it with [toughness], is it really a big deal?"
"Even if we're gonna reinforce it with spells, we still need a base form for it."
"Master, would you be able to use a [clay wall] to immediately make that form?"
"It's possible, but... the water's current is pretty strong you see."
"Hmmm... then, first of all, let's put V shaped walls over there and over there to obstruct the flow of the water. Before the water diverting walls break, we can raise some bridge piers, and bake the clay's surface."
I pick up a fallen tree branch and use it to draw a simple blueprint on the ground.
My Master stands over me and looks at what I drew in the ground and... huh? Was that my heart throbbing?
"I-if we get the piers in place first, then we can use lumber to form the base, and compact dirt onto it. After that we'll [reinforce] it."
"Quite the large scale... can you do it?"
"Easily!"
With a "hmhm!" I stick my chest out, since I can brag about how strong my magic power is.
"Then Yuuri, you'll divert the water, and I'll make the piers. Since you can do any spare construction, you should be able to bring the walls back up if they collapse."
"Ahh, good point. Then I'll handle the water diverting wall. While I do that, Master will make the piers, and when they're ready I'll bake them and give them [toughness]."
Together with my Master we consider the design for the bridge.
All that's left is altering the [toughness] construction process a little bit, and...
*~
When all was said and done, we completed the bridge in just one hour.
There were (surprisingly) no mistakes in the procedure, and in the blink of an eye we raised the form up, baked it, and completed the piers.
All that remained was bringing the lumber together with [telekinesis], adding clay walls to that wooden core then placing it to make the bridge, and [enchanting] the whole bridge with [toughness].
We originally planned to add the [enchantment] magic circle through manual labor, but I used a [fire] spell to burn a huge [toughness] circle across the whole bridge in one go.
Lastly we fill it with magic power, and it's complete.
On this occasion, taking advantage of how huge the size of it is, I poured about 50% of my magic power into it. This bridge will hold for 100 years!
With the reforming done, I show off my smug face.
"Would ya look at that... certainly, just as Mr. Haster was boasting about her, she's unbelievable."
"What did the rest of us come here for again?"
"With [toughness] added on, I think it should be fine as it is. But, to keep the magic circle from disappearing, if you were to cover the outside of the bridge in wood, it'll probably hold a little bit more.
"100 years... nah, with Yuuri nothing is impossible, but that's ridiculous."
While hiding behind my Master, who's giving off a cold sweat, I give an explanation to Mr. Zeppel and the rest.
"Aah, as a cushion substitute, would you lay out some wood? That'll probably be good."
"Us guys can do something like that. Actually, please let us do that; our positions are at stake."
Everyone is standing on top of the bridge, and bouncing up and down to confirm its strength.
Looking from the side, it's quite the pleasant scene.
"We pulled the soil from our surroundings to make it, so the river became a little wider in this area, but... Well, if we get such a sturdy bridge for just that, it should be fine."
"But really, you certainly do meet expectations. Making such a huge bridge so easily and such. It's something any country would want..."
Ah, certainly... rivers can be considered one of a base's defenses. Such a river, and a whole army would easily cross it with two magicians.
Doesn't that mean we're a kind of strategic weapon?
"Well, let's keep the bridge's construction a secret, yeah? Since it'll spell trouble in the future."
"Aah, right. Nobody will say a word. We'll also be in a bind if you disappear on us, Mr. Haster."
As we somehow realized the dangerous truth and let out dry laughs, I suddenly felt I could hear something like a dog barking.
Looking in the direction of the barking, I distort the air with a spell to create a simple telescope.
When I do, I see...
"Master, someone's being attacked by a wolf on the other side!"
Saying that, as quickly as possible I applied [reinforcement], jumped from the bridge and rushed forward.
In the future this bridge would be given the name The Great Haster Bridge, and it really did hold for 100 years.
| ← Ch. 012 | Ch. 014 → |