8-3 Safe House

For now, I went to Logos and moved forward with the house deal.

Since he was also going to tell me about the food court, it became one combined negotiation.

He said there was a property that was just right, so I went to see it with him.

So this was a former workshop building.

Since it had been a workshop, it looked like a solid build.

It was pretty run-down, but it had lots of large rooms and plenty of medium-sized rooms.

It even came with a decent, spacious dining hall, so it was not bad.

This would do.

The building was already old, so it was cheap.

The foundation was a little questionable, but in this world it was probably like this most of the time.

The building alone cost five gold coins.

I immediately stored the house I bought inside my item box.

Lately, I had been using a bracelet-type item box specifically for purchases like this.

My personal one had things I brought from Japan and things I could not show other people.

I brought the house back right away and restored it inside the bracelet-type item box.

Then I copied it again.

Recently, I had gotten better at these derivative tricks that went beyond what this magic PC was supposed to do.

First, I started work at the construction site by leveling the ground.

Since this area was on the outskirts of town, it had not been leveled very carefully.

It was a bit bumpy, and there were even some larger rocks.

I had also gotten a lot better at using earth magic lately.

When fighting monsters, I mostly used it in supportive ways, but since it could be used for civil engineering work, earth-magic users were in high demand.

It was magic you could earn safely with, right alongside healing magic.

The place I was building was around that workshop site, where the kids were staying now.

I had asked the local magistrate, and he let me use the land freely.

To be honest, it was the kind of place where you could not really tell whether it was still the town or already outside it.

It seemed land registration was not as clearly defined as it was in Japan.

If you were inside walls like the Royal Capital, that was one thing, but in a place like Adros, it felt like the town was simply wherever there were buildings.

I pushed mana deep into the ground and, as if kneading it underground, I smoothed the soil into an even, uniform texture and hardened it.

After matching the land to the shape of the house’s foundation and reinforcing it, I set the house down with a heavy thud.

I even processed the foundation itself and built it rock-solid.

It helped that there did not seem to be earthquakes around here.

I also hardened the surrounding ground.

Just in case, I also paid attention to drainage.

The kids, who I had let watch the work, stared in blank amazement.

They probably had never seen magic before.

Especially beastfolk—apparently, they automatically routed whatever mana they had into Physical Enhancement and brute strength and the like, so they could not use magic themselves, which made it even more impressive.

Then I raised earthen walls all around.

Since I was generating material from mana with earth magic, it did not leave holes in the surrounding land.

When you made things with earth magic, what you could produce was limited to soil, rock, and mineral matter.

With wind magic it would be air, with water magic it would be water—what you could make was predetermined.

For this kind of material work, earth magic was the way to go.

Soil and rock contained an absurd number of compounds and elements in their composition.

On the other hand, if you wanted to make a moat or something, you could just use the surrounding soil as your material.

Earth magic that involved material generation consumed far too much mana, so it was not normally used.

Even so, powerful earth-magic users were rare, so it was a popular line of work.

Even at the Empire’s A-rank exam, it looked like they had repaired the destroyed venue behind the scenes.

When you noticed, it had already been fixed before you knew it.

They did solid work.

Then I checked whether the building had been set in place sturdily.

Well, if it did not move when I shook it, there was no problem.

I also applied plenty of reinforcement to the building.

And to the surrounding ground.

After the building inspection work was done, I said to the kids.

“This is what you call a safe house, made for you. This is a place where you are allowed to be. You do not have to stay here. Come whenever you want, or stay here all the time. It is a place that exists just for you. I will at least feed you.”

At first the kids stared blankly, but the older ones seemed to understand what was happening, and they immediately ran.

Then, a little later, the smaller kids followed after them.

A one-year-old little one did not really understand and got left behind alone, so when I tried to pick the kid up and carry them along, they slipped right past my outstretched arm and ran after their friends.

Good grief.

Well, fine.

The kids got used to the safe house in no time.

And they explored everywhere.

I laid out various things I had acquired from different places.

When I spread blankets as substitutes for rugs, the kids wrapped themselves up in them and played.

Ears and tails danced everywhere.

By the way, they also had normal ears properly attached.

It was like a cat-eared maid café big-sister, maybe.

They held conversations with their normal ears while using their upper ears for scouting and the like.

Beastfolk who used ultrasonic sound apparently had incredible abilities.

I uploaded that scene to the unlimited-capacity photo storage that came with a paid membership on a certain shopping website.

Once you started using unlimited storage, you could not cancel, could you?

I also uploaded videos to a video site, and the forum guys loved it too.

As a joke, I changed the blog title to “Elegy of the Beast-Ears: The Director’s Struggle Chronicle.”

Logos arranged ten people for me, so I politely thanked Mirinda and Betty and sent them home.

I also wrapped a little extra for them as a token of appreciation.

It was sudden, and I had put them through a lot.

I wanted some adventurers for security, so I reached out to Team Ed, and they said they would do it, which was a relief.

They were really dependable.

Erin also handled dealing with the kids well.

She really was someone I could rely on.

She was pretty cute too—if only she did not have that absurd appetite.