Winter Preparations (1)
The box remained exactly where it was. Just as Patrick had casually tossed it aside. He had even imagined someone might be watching his every move and secretly retrieve it, but no such thing happened. However, when he brought the black metal box home and examined it closely, he noticed something he hadn't seen before.
"What kind of writing is this?"
A few lines were inscribed on the inside of the lid. It was neither the imperial language nor the ancient tongue.
"A foreign language?"
The item had been left behind by chance in the children's hideout. Even now, it clearly wasn't something the island residents would own, but since he couldn't read either the contents or the writing, there were no further clues to pursue.
I'll have to look into it next time.
He had no intention of asking anyone about the letters. The islanders hadn't even properly known the imperial language before his arrival, so they certainly wouldn't understand a foreign tongue. Asking Oren or the soldiers would only make him anxious anyway.
What if this turns out to be a clue to something important, or if there really was treasure in the box?
If that were the case, he should keep it all to himself. Sharing the clues was out of the question. It was purely a greedy decision. But realistically, there was something far more important right now than unraveling the box's secrets.
"I need to draw the diagram first. Whew— I only have a rough idea of the concept······."
Patrick, sitting at his desk after a long while, dipped his quill in ink and began sketching on the paper. Then crumpled it. And crumpled it again. After several repetitions, he finally produced something he considered complete. Still, his expression remained unsatisfied.
"You need to know something before you can feel confident or not. But this is the best I can do. I can't do any better, no way."
With those ambiguous words—whether declaring surrender or completion—Patrick set down his pen.
"Oren! Oren!"
A few days later, Oren arrived on the island. Having heard in advance that he would come around today, Patrick had been pacing the hill all day. The moment he spotted the boat, he ran over at what he considered full speed.
"Haha! Wizard. How have you been?"
"Yes, how have you been? By the way, about what I asked for······?"
"If I'd known you were waiting like this, I would've tried to get it faster. Bring that over here."
"Yes, Chief!"
From the small boat, a grain sack the size of a person's torso was unloaded.
"Is it wheat?"
"It's worth ten times the price of wheat, Village Chief. Haha!"
"Ten times the price of wheat?"
The Village Chief and the adults present widened their eyes at the unexpected sum. Thanks to the rapidly improving circumstances this year, every household could now afford as much flour as they wanted, but last year even owning a single sack of grain that size would have been enviable. And now it was ten times the price of wheat.
Even if our teacher sometimes seems clumsy, when it comes to spending money, you can tell he's from the capital.
Is it because he's a wizard? Our teacher is so generous! Ten times······. I don't think I could buy it with my hands shaking.
The villagers couldn't help but marvel at Patrick's unexpected expenditure.
"It's rice."
"Rice?"
"It comes from the Eastern Continent, and these days there are quite a few places in the south that cultivate it directly."
"Oh."
"Shall I show you?"
With the help of the workers, Patrick checked inside the sack and grabbed a handful of white, hulled rice grains, distributing them little by little to the villagers.
"The hulls are removed? It's pretty and white."
"It looks similar to wheat grains but different. The grains don't have much crease."
People showed interest in the rice, said to be ten times more expensive than wheat, smelling it, rubbing it between their fingers to check its hardness, and the Village Chief even chewed a few grains raw.
"As I eat it, it seems to have a sweet taste. How do you eat this?"
"You can grind it into flour or make noodles like wheat. But usually, you cook it as is."
"You mean the whole grains?"
"Yes. I'll show you next time."
"Haha, this is something to look forward to!"
Wheat grains are crushed with their husks on, then sifted through a sieve to separate the flour from the bran. In other words, it's rare to see wheat grains with their outer husks removed like rice.
Now I can eat rice······!
Behind the people's curiosity, Patrick's expression looked as if he was about to cry. Kimbap, fried rice, bibimbap, white rice······.
Now I can make all of them! Now my real rural life is finally beginning!
Bread and noodles were quite good too. But hadn't he gone nearly half a year without a single spoonful of rice?
"By the way, Oren. Are the cosmetics selling well?"
"Though not as explosive as the initial momentum, there are steady buyers. I think it might become one of our merchant group's flagship products."
"Then, um, about the rice or the spices I asked for, can you get as much as I want?"
"It's not enough to feed the entire village, but if it's just enough for the teacher to eat plentifully, you don't have to worry. Haha!"
Ah— is this the true taste of unearned income? Only now did Patrick realize how much "income that comes in steadily without working" makes a person relaxed, something he hadn't felt in his previous life.
What else is a building owner? If your assets grow just by sleeping, that's a building owner, right? Hehe.
Even if I'm a prisoner trapped on the island, I'm someone who can generously eat high-quality crops brought from across the sea!
Turns out I'm the protagonist of this world?
Patrick's philtrum stretched long as he barely held back a laugh, thinking his life resembled a "hidden powerhouse" character.
"And Wizard. About the people you mentioned in your letter. Ah, they're coming over now."
While Patrick was striking a pose, Oren pointed to several people crossing over on the boat.
"They're the carpenters you requested."
"Ah!"
At those words, Patrick's face lit up.
"I thought they might be a bit late."
"Usually, building new structures is done a lot in the spring. Since it's a season with less work, it was easy to find people to hire. Haha."
"Teacher, are you building a house?"
The Village Chief joined the conversation at the unexpected appearance of the carpenters.
"Not a house. Whew— or maybe it is a house?"
"If it's something like a warehouse, you could have asked the villagers. Of course, it's almost autumn now so everyone will be busy, but for your request, they would have rolled up their sleeves."
"I know. But it's a bit embarrassing. Above all, I wanted to try building something new."
"Something new?"
"Yes. First, I'll build one in front of my house, and if it turns out well, I might build one next to the Village Hall too. That empty lot there, would it be okay if I use it later?"
"What? Haha. I don't know what it is, but anything you do is always welcome. You're not someone who would do anything harmful to the village."
Sometimes Patrick wondered why the Village Chief trusted him so much.
Is it because I'm an exile? Since I can't leave the village anyway?
If the village went wrong, the ones who would suffer most weren't the villagers but himself, bound to this land.
Well, if you think about it that way, I have the most love for the village. Kekeke.
Receiving the endless goodwill from the villagers might be because of this constraint. When the worst situation comes, the mindset of those who can abandon the land and leave differs from those who have become a community of fate with the land.
Therefore, Patrick decided to try living a more comfortable life on this island.
"I'm sorry to say this to those who came all the way here by boat, but could you start working right away?"
"Of course. Some got seasick, but they'll be fine after resting a bit. While settling their stomachs, let's discuss what to build."
The three carpenters answered with eager expressions.
Even if their skill is only half their attitude, they'd be grade A.
Patrick was quite pleased with their demeanor.
"Oh. So you're saying you heat using smoke?"
"Yes. It warms the floor."
There are three things a Korean who falls into another world must make. First is soap. Second is kimchi. Third is ondol!
Soap was useful, but not much fun. Kimchi, now that I've planted cabbage, it'll be ready by winter. So let's do ondol first!
According to the villagers, the island's winter, though not as severe as the imperial capital, was quite cold.
— There are times when the temperature drops quite a bit. So around autumn, you need to buy and stock up on firewood.
— Is winter cold?
— Of course. Winter is cold, isn't it?
He had thought the rainy season would make this place warm, but apparently not.
— It's not to the point of freezing your flesh, but it's nothing to take lightly. It snows quite a bit too.
— It even snows?
— Of course. It's winter.
Thinking back, when he first arrived on the island, the weather had been quite cool. Even though it was early spring, the start of the season, that level of chill meant,
Winter is definitely cold!
Patrick hated the heat, but he hated the cold even more. His scrawny body like dry branches would obviously make wintering harder. If until now he'd struggled stocking food for winter preparations, now it was time to prepare heating.
"Wouldn't it be better to burn firewood to warm the air inside the house rather than having a warm floor?"
"That's right. What use is a warm floor? If you walk around with shoes on, you wouldn't even notice it's warm, my lord."
But the carpenters, unaware of the beauty of ondol, only said things that made Patrick's blood boil. He couldn't explain the sustainability of heat, energy efficiency, or heat loss.
If I go into depth, even I don't know.
Still, it was a heating method developed to survive the terrible winters of the Korean Peninsula, so he had to trust his ancestors. What else could he do? Surviving methods have their reasons.
Even if he didn't know the structure of ondol, he knew how to quell people's doubts.
"Let's just try it once. If it succeeds, I'll give you a success bonus."
Incentives make even whales dance.
"So in summary, if you light a fire on this side, the smoke filled with hot heat passes through the building's floor and warms the stones underneath, right?"
"And the smoke escapes outside through the chimney on this side······."
"We'll need to adjust the height difference under the floor so the smoke doesn't escape too quickly. That way the floor will stay warm longer, won't it?"
Whether their eyes were dazzled by the incentive or not, the carpenters were putting their heads together over Patrick's roughly drawn blueprint, gradually establishing the framework.
"Um, Wizard. Since we're making this for the first time, there might be unexpected mistakes."
"That's true, isn't it?"
"So, would it be alright if we make a small model first?"
This, it seems people who know how to do the job properly have arrived.