Testing The New Disciples’ Skills

“What is Silver Sheep wool used for?”

“Because this wool repels water, it becomes fabric with waterproof properties. Apparently it becomes high-grade rain gear.”

After answering Haoxuen’s question and looking at the two new disciples’ faces, they seemed to have gained a little confidence. It was probably because they had fought yōma for the first time, and that had become confidence for them.

When I took the entrance exam to become an outer disciple, one of the tasks was also to defeat a Fang Rabbit. I heard that in the entrance exam for becoming an inner disciple held the following year, exterminating yōma was also one of the tasks. However, apparently yōma extermination was removed from the exam after that one year alone.

As for why, I heard that complaints came from the parents of the examinees. I also heard that it became an issue because one of the examinees injured an arm. So it seemed there were even new disciples who had never fought a yōma before.

As for today’s spoils, I decided to give the Fang Monkey hides to Haoxuen and the others, and I would take the Silver Sheep wool. I judged that since Haoxuen had to prepare for winter, it would be better for him to make a mat from Fang Monkey hide. Payment for the craftsman would be necessary, but this time we were able to obtain extra hides, so it looked like we could sell the surplus hides to the craftsman and use that to cover the fee.

“Does Gyorei Cave get that cold?”

Haoxuen asked.

“For half of winter, snow piles up, so bedding has to be something that can keep warmth in. Seiran can probably just bring a comforter from home or buy one, but Haoxuen needs to make a new comforter.”

Seiran tilted his head.

“If you say make, that means asking a craftsman, right? How is that different from buying one?”

“It means we obtain the materials for the comforter ourselves and make a new comforter.”

“And the materials for the comforter are?”

“The feathers of a yōma called the Man-Piercing Bird.”

Hearing that, Haoxuen lowered his head.

“I’m sorry, for my sake.”

“No, I was thinking of making new cold-weather clothing too, so it’s just while I’m at it.”

The samue-style down jacket I made last year had become too small. It did not look like I could wear it, so I decided to make a new down jacket.

“Senior Brother Kou, I want a feather comforter too.”

Seiran suddenly said that with a serious face.

“Don’t you have a thick comforter at home?”

“I do, but isn’t a feather comforter an incredibly luxury item?”

“I heard it became the talk of the town, so it’s probably a luxury item.”

“Right? I’ll work together too, so please do mine as well.”

Plucking the feathers from the Man-Piercing Birds is a pain, but I’ll have Seiran and Haoxuen do that work.

After we returned to Gyorei Cave, we rubbed salt into the Fang Monkey hides to process them, then went to the dining hall to eat dinner. I think the meals served in this dining hall are tastier than the meals at Wallside Hall, but they are not luxurious. They only serve mantou and soup. Mantou is something like a meat bun without filling.

The inner disciples who cannot be satisfied with that pay the cook and ask for special dishes to be made. I brought the Fang Rabbit meat I had taken back into the dining hall kitchen. I borrowed only the space, cut the rabbit meat into cube-shaped pieces, and stir-fried it in cookware like a Chinese wok. The seasoning was only salt and ginger.

I quickly arranged the finished food on plates, paid the cook the kitchen rental fee and asked him to handle the cleanup, then returned to where Haoxuen and the others were.

“This is Fang Rabbit meat.”

Seiran was the first to reach out with his chopsticks and put rabbit meat into his mouth.

“Oh, it’s delicious.”

He seemed to like it. Haoxuen also said it was delicious and started eating. I put a piece of the diced steak into my mouth too. As I chewed while feeling the heat, the sweet fat from the rabbit meat spread inside my mouth. Delicious. It was a simple meal of mantou, soup, and diced rabbit steak, but it was satisfying enough.

The next day, I took the Fang Monkey hides into town and asked a leather craftsman to make them into mats. As expected, the extra hides were enough to pay the fee.

The day after that, after instructing Haoxuen and the others, I spun thread through alchemy using Silver Sheep wool and Gōrō fur. The reason I was also using Gōrō fur was because Silver Sheep wool alone was too weak. As a result of my experiments, when thread was spun with eighty percent Silver Sheep wool and twenty percent Gōrō fur, it became thread that was durable and highly water-repellent.

I named that thread “Gōyō Thread.” Its color became gray, making it plainer than “Silver Sheep Thread,” which was made only from Silver Sheep wool. However, in terms of performance, Gōyō Thread was superior.

And what I was making with that Gōyō Thread was camping gear. At first I had thought of making a tent, but I decided to make a “tarp,” a large cloth used for camping. A tarp is not just a simple large cloth; pieces of cloth formed into loops for tying guy lines are sewn onto various parts of it.

By using such a tarp together with poles, guy lines, and pegs, you can pitch the tarp into a shape like a tent. So I thought it would be sufficient as protection against rain.

Around the time when the wind that began to blow felt cold rather than cool, I took the two of them along to help with hunting Man-Piercing Birds. The hunting was done by the outer disciples, while the two of them were made to do nothing but pluck feathers from the Man-Piercing Birds. In other words, instead of teaching them how to hunt, I made them do the hardest work for several days.

Thanks to that, the two of them were able to obtain the feathers for feather comforters.

“Ugh, I can’t put any strength into my fingers. At this rate, I can’t even hold chopsticks.”

Seiran was complaining.

“You can just think of it as finger training.”

Now that we could make feather comforters, we had managed to gather at least the minimum things needed for winter preparations. I took Haoxuen and the others into the demon realm several times and trained them until they could reliably defeat weak yōma.

One day like that, Senior Brother Johnrin, our official instructor, gathered the seven of us new disciples.

“Haoxuen, what’s going on?”

Seiran, who came over beside me, asked.

“I don’t know either.”

Senior Brother Johnrin stood before the new disciples and began explaining why he had gathered us.

“It has now been two months since you all became new disciples of Gyorei Cave. During that time, you have trained, and now I will have you show me the results.”

Standing behind Senior Brother Johnrin were Senior Brother Zurui and Senior Brother Yulong. It seemed those two senior brothers would be helping Senior Brother Johnrin.

“Senior Brother Johnrin, what exactly are we going to do?”

Seiran asked.

“We’re going to the demon realm now, and you will fight yōma. Of course, weak yōma. If strong yōma appear, Zurui and Yulong will deal with them, so do not worry.”

It seemed Senior Brother Johnrin intended to have us hunt yōma and assess our true ability. Senior Brother Yulong came over to where Seiran was.

“Do not do anything that would drag the face of me, your assistant instructor, through the mud.”

Since I had heard from Seiran that Senior Brother Yulong had hardly fulfilled the role of assistant instructor at all, I thought, “What is he talking about?”

“Yes. I’ll do my best.”

When Seiran answered obediently, Senior Brother Yulong nodded in satisfaction and walked away.

“That senior brother somehow seems unreliable.”

When I spoke to Seiran, Seiran shrugged and gave a wry smile.

“Not every assistant instructor is as reliable as Senior Brother Kou.”

“But he has the ability to be chosen as an assistant instructor, doesn’t he?”

“I’ve never gone hunting with him, so I don’t know.”

Hearing Seiran’s reply made me feel uneasy somehow.