The Girl From The Eastern Country

The newly added class made me shout as if I’d been waiting for it.

“Alright! Wood Crafter!”

I already had two wood-related classes: Woodman and Carpenter.

But those two weren’t suited for making small wooden goods.

They could do it, but they still couldn’t match a true specialist.

“With this, I can make furniture! Goodbye to my empty house!”

I switched classes right away.

Using the Gisu Lumber stacked in the yard, I started crafting immediately.

I used a stone knife to shape interlocking joints, then tapped them together with a wooden mallet.

“Having class skills really does make the work speed different.”

And the finished quality was on another level, too.

Thanks to various bonuses, it is highly durable, and dirt wipes off easily with a quick swipe.

“Made a table and chairs in no time. Woodcrafting is fun.”

Building a house was fun too, but the finer work of woodcrafting had its own charm.

When I carved wood and breathed in the scent rising from it, it cleared my mind—and I liked that.

“Alright, at this rate, I’m making all kinds of things!”

After that, I made two more pieces of furniture.

Now the inside of the house felt much livelier.

And as if the house itself were happy, it began to shine.

“Nice—my base leveled up too!”

To be honest, I’d been wondering about that “rundown single-family house” label under Scale.

And it looked like the new base skill would let me expand the base.

My motivation surged—right when my stomach rumbled like it had remembered something.

“Is it about lunchtime? I’ll take a break and go look for food.”

When I stepped out through the gate, I could see the academy’s castle-like school building and the residential district beyond a tunnel of trees.

In the residential district, a huge number of students had gathered like ants.

I was curious what they were doing, so I left the forest and approached…

Weiss had climbed onto a platform and was giving a speech.

“From here on, under my leadership as Base Committee Chair, all of you will work on building a base! If this place is promoted to a base, then even when the effects of Repulsion weaken, we’ll have nothing to fear! Everyone! Do exactly as I, the Sage, say! If you do, this residential district will become a base by nightfall!”

The students responded with a vague “Yeah!” that made it hard to tell whether they had motivation or not.

So when the vice principal said “today is free time for frontier work,” this was what he meant.

Well, Weiss was right—if the residential district became a base, the chance of monster attacks would drop.

I just muttered, “Good luck,” and went back to the forest.

As usual, while gathering nuts and mushrooms in the forest, I met a girl illuminated by dappled sunlight.

She had her bow drawn, aiming at a bird perched on a branch.

She looked like a painting—beautiful enough to stop me in my tracks.

Glossy black hair tied back, pale skin, dark eyes, a modest yet defined nose, and cherry-colored lips.

Her outfit stood out as especially unusual.

A white top as pure as a Saint’s robe, but a vivid red skirt.

“Could that be the traditional outfit from the Eastern country… hakama…?”

Because I spoke out loud, the girl seemed to lose focus, and the arrow she released veered far off the mark.

The bird—her target—took off and circled above her head as if mocking her.

“…I have used up all my arrows… With this, I have no face to show everyone…”

She drooped her slender shoulders, so I spoke to her.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

She lifted her face and shook her head from side to side as if scolding herself.

“No, it is not your fault. I was simply inexperienced.”

“Were you hunting?”

“Yes. I wished to provide even a little nourishment to everyone doing frontier work.

But I have only ever shot at targets that do not move… it seems this was beyond me.”

“I’m not exactly making up for it, but let me help.”

“Thank you. But I will accept only the sentiment. I have no arrows left…”

As she bowed politely, I immediately started shaving down a branch.

“You are a Wood Crafter, then.”

“No, I’m unemployed.”

“Is that so? Then it is only natural you would not know. An arrow cannot be made from wood alone. Without feathers for fletching—”

After shaping about ten wooden shafts, I flicked a Gisu Shuriken up into the sky.

A shriek—“Pigyaa!?”—rang out overhead, and drop items fell down.

“Hm? Did you say something?”

As I caught the drops, the girl’s dark eyes went perfectly round.

“T–the bird I could not bring down no matter what… in a single hit…!? And you brought it down with a thrown weapon…!?”