I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 708

Leaving behind Asella’s obsession-that-wasn’t-quite-an-obsession, the construction continued into the next day.

The construction itself proceeded very smoothly, and the last thing remaining was our house.

’Originally, when building a house, once you level the ground, more than half of it is done.’

Even those tall apartments don’t take as long to build as you’d think, as long as the ground is well-leveled.

That’s how important leveling the ground is, and it was even more important in the Forest of the Four Seasons.

Why was it important? Because there was a high possibility that those damn moles would keep moving back and forth underneath.

For reference, I’m not talking about the merchant mole that visits our house. Just ordinary moles.

Because in the past, when I planted crops, the moles kept stealing them. It was quite a headache trying to catch them.

Therefore, to do the basic foundation work, after digging the ground, I completely poured concrete underneath.

This way, even if the moles rummaged underneath, the ground wouldn’t collapse, and it would be much sturdier.

’Still, the merchant mole needs to come to our house.’

I didn’t forget to make a pathway so he could visit.

As time passed, we also erected the guest house—a building that should now be called an inn.

The structure of the inn wasn’t much different from before. A large space with a single fireplace for winter, and that was it.

Instead, the distance to the bathhouse, which was originally far away, became closer, and the efficiency of the fireplace was also greatly increased.

Since I planned to immediately kick out anyone who fought once they entered my territory anyway, there wouldn’t be any problem even if they crowded together.

And the long-awaited final step. It was time to build our house exactly as designed.

"Now. If you look here, this largest space is Grylls-nim’s room."

"Master’s room is the largest, but this space also looks wide. What is this place?"

"The living room."

"Is a living room necessary?"

"Shouldn’t we gather together in the living room to hold meetings and such?"

Since it was the house we would live in from now on, Elia designed it more meticulously.

Of course, because the Forest of the Four Seasons was such a shitty place, we threw away things like design.

It was just a simple boxy shape, and we adopted a simple method to build even this quickly.

They say raising a building is nothing once the ground is leveled, but even so, it generally takes time.

To reduce this time as much as possible, Elia chose a direction that separated the rooms while keeping the design as simplified as possible.

"Even though we excluded design, we still seem to be building it fast?"

"It’s because we excluded design that we can build it faster."

"Is that so?"

Since I knew absolutely nothing about that field, I just accepted it and moved on.

Thus, we joined forces with everyone and began hammering away at the house, but we had no choice but to spend two whole days on it.

You ask why our house took two days when other buildings were completed in a few hours, let alone a day?

It’s because instead of focusing on design, we poured in every bit of efficiency we could. One of those was heat retention.

Previously, we rested together in one place, so we only needed a fireplace, whereas now, each room was separated.

Even if we wanted to install a fireplace in every room, it would inevitably fall short in terms of efficiency.

So, what did we decide to make instead of fireplaces? It was none other than Ondol.

A long-standing heating system handed down since the Joseon dynasty. At first, I didn’t know how to make it, so I made do with a fireplace.

"Ondol? Ah! That was indeed a method often used when building structures in Mountain."

"They use it in Mountain, but Alvenheim didn’t?"

"We rarely have crazily cold weather like Mountain. So I don’t know how to make it, but do you know, Grylls-nim?"

"Hold on."

Naturally, I didn’t know how to make it. If I had, I would have done it long ago.

But I had a very useful repository of knowledge: Alex’s Library.

[A book on the construction and principles of Ondol. Here it is.]

"Oh. Thanks, friend."

[I highly recommend returning it on time. It was overdue once last time.]

"Sorry. I really forgot back then."

I received the book from Alex, the mimic whose baseball cap stood out whenever I saw him.

Soon, I handed the book to Elia, and she pondered, repeatedly looking back and forth between the book and the floor.

The occasional twitching of her uniquely pointed elven ears made me feel an inexplicable urge.

Did she feel my gaze? Elia, who was looking at the book, raised her head and looked at me.This chapter is updated first at novelping dot com.

"Hmm? Do you have something to say?"

"Just that your ears are a bit fascinating? They keep twitching."

"Elves are usually like this when they focus or when their emotions run high. It’s easiest to think of it as similar to a beastfolk wagging their tail."

"Hearing you call it a beastfolk’s tail makes it sound a bit strange."

In any case, Elia grasped the structure and principles of Ondol and set to work once more.

It was annoying because we had to break the concrete ground we had poured, but for the sake of heating, I could gladly endure it.

"Install it here, and also here..."

Under Elia’s command, the Ondol began to take shape step by step.

Soon, we completed the construction of the space to operate the Ondol.

Now all that was left was to build the house on top of it. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, raising the building didn’t take long.

"It’s done!"

"The house is huge, Master."

[Now it finally looks like a house where people actually live.]

"Are you saying it didn’t look like a house where people lived before?"

[Ahem.]

It had been about four days since we started the massive redevelopment. With our house as the final piece, our home was complete.

Buildings neatly erected around the World Tree at the center. Honestly, it looked great.

It was like a scene out of a dream. Just as Elia had confidently declared, it looked much better than before.

"Sniff..."

"What’s wrong? Why are you like that?"

"I’m just... so deeply moved...! It feels like my dream has come true...!"

Elia herself, who had worked the hardest, was so overcome with emotion that she even shed a few tears.

Surprised by this, I was about to pat her shoulder to commend her hard work when she spoke.

"Now... now I will plant trees everywhere to make my dream perfect...!"

"...."

Right. Of course you would.

After a brief hesitation, I patted her shoulder as if telling her to do as she pleased.

Since hard work was hard work, after all. Now all that was left was to move our various belongings.

Even calling them belongings, it was just placing everyone’s respective weapons or bringing over toys the kids would like.

"Wow~ The house is so huge~"

"Bbi-ik!"

"Bbaek!"

The kids also seemed to love the house, which was much wider than before, and began to run around and play excitedly.

I felt warm watching them, but that was only for a moment.

Crack!

Because they were too excited, they had already smashed a wall.

While playing ball inside, they had accidentally slammed their bodies into the wall, leaving a deep dent.

"...."

"...."

"...."

A dead silence fell. Less than an hour after building the house, they had caused a major accident.

The kids glanced at me and then quietly huddled together. They seemed to think that getting scolded together would be better.

Indeed, if they had blamed each other, I would have scolded them harder. But seeing them reflect on it together like that made me less angry.

"Um... Grylls-nim. Something like that can be repaired quickly, so don’t scold the children too much. They look like they know they did wrong, don’t they?"

As I held my forehead in distress, Elia persuaded me in a gentle voice.

Since it seemed the kids were reflecting, I also nodded. It’s not good to get angry on a good day like today.

"Whew... alright. Let’s fix the wall right now. And kids? Play outside rather than inside. Got it?"

"Y-Yes! We will!"

"Bbi-ik!"

Fortunately, once the kids saw I wasn’t going to scold them, their expressions brightened.

Right. What sin did the kids commit? They had only run around excitedly.

Soon, after repairing the dented wall, we all gathered in the living room and ate delicious food.

It wasn’t candied sweet potatoes, but somyeon, one of the Central Plains’ special dishes. For reference, the flour was purchased from the Gallery.Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.

Although it was my first time cooking a noodle dish, it was decent, and I tried my best to make the sauce taste as close to Jajangmyeon as possible.

"By the way, Master. Why are we eating a noodle dish today?"

"Originally, eating Jajangmyeon on moving day was a culture in my country."

[How fascinating that such a culture existed. Will you also distribute fruit to the neighbors later?]

"Huh? Is there such a culture in the Holy Kingdom?"

[Usually, when people move, they give fruit to their neighbors as a gesture of goodwill. In the Central Plains, they say they share rice cakes.]

I don’t know why, but I feel like I might have spread that culture. Specifically, me as the Chief God must have spread it.

Most of my actions before active duty as the Chief God were erased, and even my name wasn’t made known.

But perhaps memories couldn’t be helped, as this kind of culture seemed to have spread without anyone realizing it.

’It’s to the point of being fascinating that the culture has survived until now.’

Just in case, I asked another fixed-handle user, and they said the culture of distributing rice cakes is still valid.

It certainly wouldn’t have even been recorded, so it was fascinating if indeed fascinating.

"Master. Then where are we going now?"

"We have to go to the gorillas’ territory. But we’ll pave roads first."

"Mhm! Finally, the time has come to plant Alvenheim’s saplings!"

I lightly ignored Elia’s words. Although the house was completed, there was still much to do.

I figured we would probably focus solely on redevelopment until this spring and mid-summer.

You might ask when we would explore, but it wasn’t urgent right now. I was also exhausted from the last journey.

’Besides, the Heavenly God Martial Festival is coming up soon.’

A martial arts tournament where countless powerhouses gather in one place, the Heavenly God Martial Festival.

Surely, when it was first announced, they said it would take about 50 days, yet it was already right around the corner.

Perhaps by now, the participants are gathering one after another. Honestly, I was looking forward to it a little—no, a lot.

Because even just the people confirmed to attend right now were mostly ’big shots.’

Starting with Asella of the Holy Kingdom, Sword Master Ash, and furthermore, the Mage King Kadir.

There were even rumors that the Demon Princess, Kaylin, would attend, so I couldn’t help but be interested.

’It’s practically an All-Star game.’

The Demonic Cult has no choice but to be in high spirits.

Especially since other countries were lending a hand one by one amidst the ongoing civil war.

Of course, they weren’t truly lending a hand. Since they might have visited purely to gather information.

But from the perspective of the Central Plains Imperial Court, it couldn’t help but be a nerve-wracking situation.

Yet, trying to sabotage it would be politically highly disadvantageous.

’Did the Heavenly Demon induce this?’

I thought she was just a stubborn person, but she seems to have a pretty good head on her shoulders.

Indeed, if she didn’t have a good head, she wouldn’t have shown such achievements until now.

Looking forward to the upcoming Heavenly God Martial Festival, I set out on the next redevelopment. First was paving the roads.

I paved roads along the paths I frequently traveled, and planted Alvenheim-grown saplings alongside them like roadside trees.

Compared to other trees, they were clearly distinct, making it obvious that it was a road.

"It’s truly perfect! What a beautiful road this is!"

"More than our house?"

"Yes!"

"...."

I don’t know anymore. Let her do as she wants.

As we finished even the basic construction in the gorillas’ territory like that, time flew by and summer approached before we knew it.

Since summer had approached, swarms of insects naturally broke out, and the next day, the Sky Whale couple came to greet us.

And....

"Bbyu-bbyu-bbyu!"

"Uh..."

They very naturally entrusted their baby to me.

’...What? Why was it born so quickly?’

I was so flabbergasted that I lost my words.