episode_0102

I’ll try swallowing an axe whole next time, but for now I’m going to make ice cream for my family who are suffering from the heat.

“What are you doing, oppa?”

Clia, who would come to me like a ghost whenever I made something to eat, probably because she had a history of making prunes, was giggling in my arms.

“To make ice cream as a snack.”

There were many snacks that could be made with ice.

You could make kakigori, a Japanese shaved ice made with fruit juice, or you could freeze milk with salt.

What we’re doing now is the latter.

It is the most annoying and tedious task.

“Clea, are you bored?”

“Yeah! I’m bored.”

“I want to make something else, can you stir this stick for me?”

“Until when?”

“Until the milk freezes.”

“Okay!”

Clia, not wanting to dislike working in the cool icehouse, did as I asked and stirred the stick.

Thanks to my sister-in-law, I had some free time, so I used a sterilized knife to shave ice.

“Brother! Pop some ice.”

“Sorry.”

Once the ice was shaved to some extent, I sprinkled some strawberry juice on top.

“Hmm… Not bad.”

I tried it first and it wasn’t bad.

“You can just sprinkle some honey on top of this.”

“Hehehe… Oppa, how long do I have to do this?”

“I can do a little more.”

“Ugh… Okay. Clia, I’ll do my best.”

Clia, who is serious about making snacks, worked hard to make ice cream until the end even though her arms were tired.

The ice cream was made in this way and shared among the whole family.

Of course, Clia, who had worked hard, ate the most.

“Ugh! My head hurts!”

“Clea?! You shouldn’t eat all that shaved ice all at once!”

Helia was startled by Clia’s antics of eating a large amount of shaved ice from a bowl at once and tried to stop her.

Fortunately, Clia, who was born with the blood of the Ice Flower tribe, only suffered a slight headache.

. . .

The remaining ice cream was distributed to close neighbors.

“When I spend time with you, I experience amazing things.”

“Is that good?”

“Then, do you think you would hate it?”

Tom ate the ice cream happily.

For Tom, who has to work in the blacksmith shop in the sweltering heat, the ice cream I offered him was like a drop of rain in a drought.

Petra, on the other hand, ate the ice cream with a secretly displeased expression on her face.

“You know how to make something like this?”

“The question itself is strange. What’s wrong with me?”

“I thought you couldn’t cook like you look.”

“Huh?! Next to hunting, cooking is what I’m best at.”

“…Don’t lie.”

Petra looked genuinely incredulous.

“Let’s see if you can make that face again after you eat the food I made.”

“Haha, you touched Petra’s man’s pride.”

“Sian, I apologize if I offended you. I thought you wouldn’t be able to cook since there are a lot of women in the house.”

“It’s okay. Just know this. I lived by cooking until I got married.”

“Ian can’t cook?”

“Yes, that was my father’s only flaw.”

You can roughly grill meat over a fire and eat it, but you can’t cook it separately.

So there was almost only low-salt food.

It was a tough diet for my soul, marinated in spicy, sweet, and stimulating Korean food.

“Next time I’ll bring the dish I made.”

“Hehe, I’m looking forward to that.”

“Xian, you have strong pride too.”

“Petra, if you take away a man’s pride, he’s just a corpse.”

After chatting away for some time, I showed Tom one of the blueprints in earnest.

This is a blueprint for using the returning curse, the curse of the molar tribe, to turn it into power.

“You want me to make this?”

“Yes, can’t you?”

“Of course! Do your eyes think this is easy?”

“I didn’t say it was easy… .”

Tom gave his opinion on the blueprints for the engine he had created with the help of senior nymph Fores.

“It’s hard to make such small parts with my metallurgy. But since it’s made of wood, it won’t be durable.”

“How about making it with black wood?”

“Blackwood is good. The problem is that it is difficult to make.”

“That’s too bad.”

If we could just build it according to the blueprint, we could build all sorts of machines as alternative energy sources.

I can’t do this.

“Hmm… I think I can make this.”

“Petra? Really?”

“Yeah, I can do it.”

I was a little skeptical of Petra’s confident speech, unlike Tom, but I decided to trust her for now.

“Then I will ask you to do it. I will pay you the full cost. Just make it according to the design.”

“Okay, but I’ll give you the money, but there’s one other thing I’d like you to give me.”

“What do you want?”

“You’re going to be a count this time, right? Then, I can easily give you a blacksmith shop.”

“It’s possible, but you graduate from Tom’s forge?”

“What about graduation… My grandfather can’t do anything without me.”

“Haha, there’s nothing I can’t say to Petra’s father.”

“Keep quiet, Inspiration. I’m going to change this damn forge.”

“Oh my, this is the forge that holds your mother and memories! I won’t trade it!”

“It’s old, right?”

I quickly intervened because it seemed like a fight between the women was about to start.

“Let’s compromise and repair the blacksmith shop.”

“Okay.”

“Of course, if you make it according to the blueprint.”

“Okay. Just trust me.”

So, leaving the engine blueprints with Petra, I went to the village chief’s house.

. . .

“Excuse me.”

“Mr. Sian. The village chief is still working outside.”

“I see. I’ll wait a moment.”

“Here, have some tea.”

“Thank you, Nabira.”

I waited for the village chief while drinking the tea that Nabira gave me.

The village chief, who returned drenched in sweat, showed his good looks despite his old age. ”

“Please live as long as possible.”

“Why are you suddenly picking a fight like your father?”

“…No, that’s not it. Just try this.”

“What is this?”

“Ice candy.”

The village chief took a bite of a fruit-sweetened ice cube from the cold box I offered him and let out a short comment.

“It’s refreshing.”

“This is made with ice from the icehouse I made with Tom last year.”

“You are the treasure of our village. Thanks to you, I can eat this too.”

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

“Of course. It’s not a compliment.”

“Hehehe… ”

“So you came here to show me this?”

“No, this is just a gift.”

Thanks to the Frostclaws’ weapons obtained during our northern expedition, ice was no longer a luxury in our household.

Because it is now available anytime, anywhere.

“I came here to make a separate suggestion.”

“Suggestion… Why would someone who will become a noble within the year have anything to suggest to the village chief? Just give him an order.”

“I don’t want to force myself to do it because of my personality.”

“I know what you’re thinking. So what do you want to suggest?”

“Are you thinking of expanding the conference room?”

“Conference room? It’s already spacious enough. Is there any reason to make it any bigger?”

“Yes, I think we need to increase the number of people attending the meeting.”

“Increasing the number of people… It’s not like the number of villagers suddenly increased.”

“Yes, I would like to have the women in the family attend the meeting as well.”

“Hmm… ”

The village chief hesitated for a moment at my words, then asked me.

“Do you intend to give women the right to be the head of a household?”

“Yes.”

The village of Lugeron is basically male-dominated.

Of course, it is not strange considering the background of the medieval period, but the village of Lugeron had worse women’s rights, or rather, the concept of human rights itself, than other regions.

That’s a funny story.

In a world where everyone becomes stronger by training their mana, dividing value by gender is pointless.

‘It is advantageous to quickly abolish bad traditions.’

The village chief seemed to think the same way and took my opinion seriously.

He is an awakened man in a sense, because he has been making constant efforts to change the village for a long time.

“Of course, we shouldn’t cling to old ideas in the village where the nymphs of the Holy Kingdom will stay. If they teach us, the villagers will be able to change their perceptions to some extent. Also, the number of men in the village has decreased due to the war that started last year. The timing would be appropriate. However, it won’t be easy. Old ideas can’t be changed in a day.”

“Yes, but it is true that it can be changed.”

At least I was planning to change it until Ciel became an adult.

“Okay, I’ll do as you say. But since it’s your opinion, you’ll have to pay more than half of the cost, because there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“I’ll pay it all.”

“Is that okay?”

“Yes, won’t this give me more say later on?”

“…If you say so, I will do so.”

With the village chief’s permission, I hired several villagers to begin construction on the conference room.

The village chief was shocked by the sight of the conference room growing bigger and bigger, but I didn’t care.

It doesn’t matter, village chief.