Chapter 152: What a Surprise
In the midst of an ordinary forest, a house has appeared out of nowhere.
Now, let me show you inside. After having lunch, it’s time for the grand reveal of our hideout.
Standing with the cliff to my left, I can see the entrance of the house right in front of me. I climbed the three steps leading up to the door and opened it.
“What in the world…”
The spacious dirt floor featured a shoe closet that I had gotten a bit carried away with, but Ivan, who stood there in stunned silence, completely ignored it. After all, he had no habit of taking off his shoes, so it might have been an unnecessary addition. Ah, and I didn’t even have a spare pair of shoes.
“Wow, this is amazing!”
The living room was designed in a rectangular shape, short on the sides but deep. There was a large window on the right side, but a massive tree grew right in the center, obstructing the view. In the back left corner, a staircase led up to the second floor.
Nil immediately plopped down in a corner of the living room, stretching out and yawning widely.
“There’s a kitchen, a toilet, and a bath in the back.”
“What about the second floor?”
Phonia asked eagerly, her eyes sparkling.
“Go check it out.”
“Okay!”
With a curious answer, she dashed off. Though, to be honest, it was just a bedroom up there. There was also a massive water tank that couldn’t be seen from inside the house. Of course, I had already filled it with plenty of water using magic.
“It’s so spacious!”
I could hear Phonia’s cheerful voice from the second floor. Ivan had moved to the back of the living room, surveying the dining kitchen.
“What in the world…”
“There are dishes and cooking utensils, so feel free to use them. They’re old ones I used back in the day, so I won’t complain if you break them.”
“If you twist this, water comes out.”
“There’s a similar twist mechanism in the bathroom, so you can take a bath too.”
“O-Oh… Is this some kind of magic tool?”
His voice trembled with uncertainty, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“No, no, it’s just connected to the water tank on the second floor. When you twist it, the plug opens, and water flows down from above.”
“I-I see… But still, I don’t think a bath is something that extravagant is necessary…”
He mumbled something, but it was too late to change what had already been built. It was common not to have a bath that required boiling a large amount of water unless you stayed at a luxury inn. It was understandable that Ivan considered it a luxury.
Speaking of which, I suddenly remembered…
“Ivan, can you use fire magic?”
“No… I can’t use fire magic. I’m generally bad at magic. Phonia can at least create a spark, but…”
“I see.”
I had completely forgotten. After all, there weren’t any adventurers who could continuously produce flames with magic while cooking. The hot water in the baths at luxury inns was also made using magic tools. Upon reflection, the ingredients we provided probably wouldn’t last long either. We didn’t have a refrigerator…
“Hmm…”
“What’s wrong?”
As I pondered with my hand on my chin, Rio peeked in at me.
“I was just thinking that magic tools are convenient for other people.”
“Huh?”
I had thought about checking on this hideout occasionally, but I might need to increase the frequency. It wasn’t too much trouble, but it was certainly a bit of a hassle. If we wanted to keep our ingredients fresh, we definitely needed that.
“Alright, let’s make a refrigerator.”
“Huh?”
Rio and Ivan’s voices echoed in unison at my determination.
And thus, here is the refrigerator that was completed.
“It’s so cool!”
Phonia pressed her cheek against the refrigerator door, smiling brightly. It was great to see her so happy.
“Is it really that easy to make?”
Using the mechanism of the magic flask, I quickly constructed a large box. Then, I simply placed a sealed container filled with ice on the top shelf as a cooling agent, and voilà, it was complete. While a freezer was out of the question, it had become a refrigerator of a size common in households.
“Make sure to close the door tightly after you open it. If there’s a gap, the cold air will escape.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Got it!”
I had made the ice larger, so it should last for a few days.
“If you add salt to the ice, it might lower the temperature a bit more.”
“Oh, I think I might have made ice that way once. For now, just having a refrigerator is enough, but maybe I’ll experiment later.”
“Right. If it works out, we might be able to sell it to the Rashiyu Trading Company again?”
“That’s true.”
I needed to think of a way to create ice as a cooling agent, but if we had a magic tool that could cool things, that would solve the problem. Speaking of which, while the magic flask boasted about its heat retention, I didn’t think it mentioned anything about cooling. Well, I figured I’d notice soon enough, but if they had already realized it, then that was that.
“…In any case, if we put the meat from the hunted prey in here to cool, it should last longer.”
Ivan, who seemed to have given up on nitpicking, nodded as he confirmed what he needed to do. However—
“Don’t worry about the ingredients; I’ll leave them here. Besides, other adventurers might come to this forest for requests, so it’s better not to wander around too much.”
The stairs leading to the roof, connected to the cliff above, were covered and camouflaged with tree branches.
“What are you saying after going to such lengths to create a hideout?”
“Ugh.”
That was a fair point. I had even gone so far as to make windows, but perhaps I should seal them up to avoid drawing attention.
“Well, maybe it’ll be fine in the area below the cliff… But I don’t know what kind of monsters might appear, so be careful.”
There hadn’t been many requests related to this forest on the second floor of the Adventurer’s Guild, so I thought it would be fine. Most of them were probably D-rank or lower requests. There shouldn’t be any particularly strong monsters around.
“That said, I’ll leave the ingredients and seasonings here, so you don’t have to force yourself to hunt.”
“Got it.”
Please do that. If something happened to Ivan, Phonia wouldn’t be able to survive on her own.
“Well then, I’ll come check in occasionally, but I’ll come to pick you up once the Sea Emperor Turtle is taken care of.”
“Ah… I have nothing to repay you with, but I’m grateful to be able to use this place.”
Having safely sheltered the two of them, we memorized the coordinates of the hideout and returned to Port Town Reburos.