The Ondol Unveiling
It might cost a bit more. It might take a bit more time, too. Still, spending a few extra coins and a few extra days was far better than finishing a two-room house halfway and leaving behind something unusable.
“Let’s do it that way. Don’t worry about the added cost. But you’ll make it properly, right?”
“Of course, my lord!”
The carpenters’ faces lit up. Truthfully, most of them had expected to be turned down the moment they brought it up. Many clients refused to nod along when told something would cost more time and money, even when they knew the alternative was safer and more reliable. The immediate burden simply felt too heavy.
‘Straightforward fellow.’
‘Yeah. I thought all mages were penny-pinchers.’
The carpenters exchanged glances, surprised by Patrick’s easy agreement. Even though he was an exile, he had accepted the extra expense without hesitation. Patrick’s own reasoning, however, was simple.
‘It has to be done right. If the ondol breaks because we didn’t understand the principle, I’ll end up with scorched skin and carbon monoxide poisoning while I sleep. No thanks.’
In a world where he wasn’t even sure a third life existed, that was a gamble he refused to take.
“By the way, is there anything I can help with?”
“Pardon? You, my lord?”
“Digging the ground, mixing soil, fetching water—things like that.”
“······Pardon?”
The carpenters stared at Patrick as if he had told a very strange joke.
“I can use earth magic to dig and water magic to create water. Fire magic too, if needed.”
It sounded odd even to his own ears, but it wasn’t wrong.
“W-well, we do need to dig… Even for a test build, leveling the ground is the first step in construction. It takes time, and—”
“Hey, no matter what, how could we possibly ask the lord to—”
One carpenter had begun to hesitantly make a request when the others cut him off in horror.
“My lord, please pay him no mind. His skills are decent, but he’s a bit slow on the uptake and can’t always tell jokes from serious talk. Haha, ha… ha!”
“I don’t see why you thought it was a joke. If we work together, it’ll be done faster. We should help each other with what we’re good at, right? Dig!”
Thud, thud, thud!
The Dig spell was proving extremely useful. ‘I knew learning it was the right call!’ Patrick thought, once again impressed by his own foresight. His control had improved enough that carving out a small rectangular patch of earth was no trouble at all.
Crack, thud!
In an instant, tree roots, weeds, and stones hidden beneath the surface were pulled up. The once-hard ground had softened nicely for shoveling as a bonus. Patrick felt oddly like a piece of useful construction equipment—and immediately wondered if the kids would have enjoyed watching. Children always went crazy for special vehicles, after all.
‘······Doesn’t seem like it’s only kids who like it.’
He corrected himself at once. The carpenters were staring at him and the freshly leveled ground with eyes that looked ready to pop out of their heads.
“I-I’ve heard that large construction sites or high-ranking nobles sometimes bring in mages, but…”
“This is the first time I’ve seen it with my own eyes! Good heavens! Three grown men would’ve needed an entire day for this, and you did it in moments!”
“My lord! I may be ignorant about magic, but I’ve never heard of anything like this!”
As the stunned carpenters all began talking at once, Patrick’s ego soared sky-high.
“Haha! Well, there probably aren’t many people besides me who can use Dig this effectively. It’s a low-level spell, but it requires surprisingly delicate control. Depth, width—everything has to be calculated in an instant. That’s how this kind of miracle happens…”
“Ooooh!”
“I see!”
“As expected, you’re incredible!”
He had simply developed practical applications from using the spell endlessly on the farm, but the carpenters, unaware of that, grew even more impressed. And another thing Patrick didn’t know: compared to ordinary research mages, the power and duration of his spells were genuinely on another level.
A two-room house wasn’t exactly a single room, but the finished building was still a plain, unremarkable rectangle. It had been completed in record time thanks to three experienced carpenters, one excited mage, villagers who had come to watch “what the teacher was up to this time” and ended up lending a hand, and even Ben’s spirit.
The previous night, they had already run a test.
—Should we put a chicken inside?
The carpenters had grasped the ondol’s structure while making the sample, but they still weren’t entirely confident. What if something went wrong with a person?
—Cluck-cluck?
The chicken perched on its roost and stared blankly at them. At that moment, Patrick had a very clear thought.
—What did that chicken ever do wrong?
······I’ll go in myself. Good grief. This is my fate.
He had stayed awake all night, ready to crawl out the moment he felt lightheaded. Just in case, he had asked Ben to station a spirit outside as an emergency responder. In the end, Patrick had volunteered to be the test subject himself.
—Teacher!
—······Cough! Oh, uh······. You’re here?
—Did you sleep? You said you were staying up all night. That’s why you called the spirit, right?
—······It wasn’t on purpose. And I’m not sure you can call what I did “sleeping.”
—What?
The only difference from the plan was that the ondol’s heating power had been stronger than expected. The room with the fire going was the perfect environment for a frail mage to lose consciousness. Still, he had prepared a table in advance, expecting the hot floor to be uncomfortable. He had climbed onto it to endure the night, only to pass out in that exact position.
“Anyway, we confirmed it’s safe!”
“You fainted. How is that safe?”
“I didn’t faint, I fell asleep. That’s different.”
“No, you clearly lost consciousness. Why did that happen? What even is that room?”
The children and villagers still didn’t know what an ondol room was or why he had built it.
‘A surprise is more fun, right?’
Grinning at the thought of reactions like [Ooh, is this K-ondol?!], Patrick suggested to the children, who were busy touching and knocking on every part of the building.
“I’m going to show it to the adults tomorrow. Want to try it first?”
“Try it? What’s there to try in a storage shed?”
“It’s not a shed. It’s a jjimjilbang.”
“A jjimjilbang?”
“Afterward, I’ll grill some pork belly for you.”
The pork belly he had ordered in advance for Oren’s next visit was about to be used up again. ‘It’s a shame, but it’s about time we finished it off anyway.’ Salted pork could last a while, but he still couldn’t fully shake his modern sensibilities—keeping it for more than a few weeks made him uneasy. It was one of the reasons Patrick constantly worried about fresh meat.
‘A refrigerator would be perfect right about now.’
Having nearly finished furnishing the bedroom, Patrick was starting to feel the urge to remodel the kitchen.
“Pork belly, huh? You’ve had it before, right? It’s delicious.”
Patrick shamelessly tried to tempt the children with food.
“Will you make fried rice too?”
Ben, as always, saw right through him.
“······You little rascal, already figuring out how to eat well. Rice is expensive, you know!”
“If you don’t want it, forget it.”
“That’s right.”
“Tsk. Fine, fine. I’ll make it. Not just fried rice—I’ll throw in a pizza too.”
“Waaah!”
“Then we’ll do the test!”
“Me too! I want to try too!”
After plenty of coaxing, the test group was finally assembled.
“Let us out!”
“We hate it here!”
“Waaah! Mom! Teacher’s bullying us!”
But a few hours later, Patrick’s hopes of demonstrating the excellence of K-ondol were shattered. Contrary to expectations, the children’s reactions were disastrous.
“Hey, you brats! Do you even know how good this is?”
“It’s hot!”
“Yeah! We hate it!”
“Teacher, we hate you!”
“Hey now, these kids don’t know treasure when they see it!”
“It was weird from the moment you told us to take off our shoes! You were trying to bully us from the start!”
“That’s not true!”
“Yes it is!”
“We’ll see if you’re still saying that in winter.”
Veins bulging on his forehead, Patrick genuinely sulked at their response and vowed revenge.
‘Just you wait. When winter comes and it snows, I’m not showing you the paradise of sitting in a warm aratmok, opening the window, and peeling roasted sweet potatoes!’
The scorching summer heat had eased a little, but it was still closer to summer than autumn. On such a hot day, gathering heat-sensitive children to extol the virtues of a heated floor had never been realistic. Patrick, however, was too busy feeling hurt to realize his own mistake.
“Ugh, it’s so hot! Look how sweaty I am!”
“Me too, Amy.”
Pop!
“Sorry, but could you cool us off a bit? It’s really hot.”
—Got it!
The children seemed so exhausted from the ondol room that they didn’t even have the energy to run to the spring, so they summoned the spirit to cool their sweat.
“Teacher! What on earth did you make? Were you trying to torture someone?”
“No, I told you, that’s not it!”
Watching the children flee outside, Patrick remained seated inside the ondol room until the very end, sweat beading on his forehead from wounded pride.
“Come out before you faint again! Oh! So that’s why you were passed out last time!”
“It wasn’t like that!”
Patrick felt so wronged he could have jumped.
“Teacher!”
“Oh dear, Village Chief! You’ve arrived. Haha!”
The children’s reactions had been the worst, but Patrick hadn’t given up hope.
‘Honestly, things like ondol rooms and jjimjilbangs are better appreciated by adults than kids!’
So the completion ceremony would proceed as planned. He woke early, strung up the colorful ribbons he had half-stolen from Josh in front of the ondol room, and began preparing the event.
“Yes, yes. Hold it from the side. Perfect.”
“But what exactly are we doing?”
“A ribbon-cutting ceremony.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s something you do to commemorate a new building. We invite all the local notables.”
“Hoho, I’m no notable, Teacher.”
“Nonsense, Village Chief. You’re the great elder of our village—of course you must come!”
“The real great elder is Halmae, Teacher!”
“Hohoho. The children know better than anyone.”
“Ah, you know what I mean. This way, Elder.”
The Village Chief thought that Patrick hadn’t gone this far even when building the Village Hall. Still, seeing how excited Patrick looked, he simply chuckled warmly.
“Everyone, look this way! Smile, nice and wide!”
Pop!
The flower petals he had prepared in advance scattered on the wind, instantly turning the front yard of Patrick’s house into a festive scene.
“Did he build another storage shed?”
“Hmm. It has more decorations than a shed would.”
Thanks to the children keeping their mouths shut, the villagers still didn’t know the building’s purpose.
“Now, now. The ceremony isn’t over yet!”
One important step remained. Every event had a program, after all. Patrick grinned and pulled the cloth off the small table in front of the door.
“Let’s begin with the ritual offering. Everyone, please step forward one by one······.”
“Kyaaaaah!”
“O Goddess!”
“Waaah! Save us!”
The moment the tablecloth was lifted, the gathered villagers screamed and rolled on the ground in panic.