Chapter 13
Chapter 13
“I’m heading out for field work.”
Less than an hour after arriving at work, Aileen picked up her worn bag and left the office.
The moment the door closed, the employees began whispering.
“Hasn’t she been doing that for days now? Since Monday, right?”
“Yeah. Who even assigned her field work? It definitely wasn’t the team leader.”
“Of course not. The boss can’t stand the sight of her—why would he give her work?”
“Maybe she feels awkward staying here, so she’s using field work as an excuse to run away.”
At that remark, the employees nodded as if it made perfect sense.
“Even if she feels awkward, it’s still work hours. Can she really just lie and leave like that?”
“As if.”
Anton Brown, the most senior employee after Toma Harens in the Urban Development Department, snorted.
“We just leave her alone because we don’t want to talk to her.”
“Exactly. If we accidentally talk to her and the boss notices, we could get on his bad side.”
“Honestly, the team atmosphere is better when she’s not here anyway.”
As everyone whispered that they wished Aileen would just quit already, the tightly closed door opened and Toma Harens walked in.
With the team leader’s appearance, the employees immediately stopped talking and pretended to focus on their work.
“The installation of triangular roofs has been completed up to District C as of yesterday.”
Anton Brown placed a report on the team leader’s desk.
After reviewing the documents, Toma Harens smiled with satisfaction.
“Things are progressing smoothly.”
But the smile didn’t last long.
“Um, Team Leader. Residents in District 8 have been submitting complaints asking when their installations will be done.”
At the report, Toma Harens clicked his tongue.
“We’ll get to them in order. Honestly, they have about as much patience as they have money.”
“Exactly. That’s why they live day to day.”
Anton Brown quickly agreed with the team leader.
“Still, if complaints keep coming in, higher-ups might say something. We should probably give them a scheduled date.”
“Ha… it can’t be helped. In that case…”
Just as Toma Harens was about to continue, the office door burst open.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
It was Walter Hauf, the master craftsman of the Oak Heart Workshop.
“We had an agreement that the work would be assigned to us. Why are you repairing it on your own?”
“What are you talking about? Who repaired anything?”
“Don’t play dumb.”
Walter Hauf strode over to Toma Harens’s desk and slammed his hands down on it.
“I know that the woman repairing the multi-family housing in District 8 belongs to the Urban Development Department.”
There was only one woman in the department.
The culprit immediately came to mind.
Aileen… that damned woman caused trouble again.
Toma Harens’s face twisted horribly.
“Master Hauf, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. That wasn’t something the team leader ordered.”
Anton Brown hurriedly explained.
Walter Hauf tilted his head.
“What do you mean? She belongs to the Urban Development Department but didn’t receive the team leader’s orders?”
“Well… the situation is rather complicated…”
As Anton Brown tried to explain further, Toma Harens raised his hand to stop him.
Walter Hauf looked between the two of them and crossed his arms.
“I don’t know what the circumstances are, but this is clearly a breach of contract.”
“I’m aware. We’ll settle it quickly, so you don’t need to worry.”
After calming Walter Hauf and sending him away, Toma Harens took out a cigarette.
But his hands trembled too much to light it.
Normally, one of the employees would immediately step forward to light it for him.
But today, his expression was so fierce that no one dared approach.
“Damn it.”
Toma Harens snapped the cigarette in half and threw it on the floor.
Then he glared at Aileen’s empty desk.
“Where did that woman go?”
“S-she said she was going out for field work.”
“Field work?”
Toma Harens’s eyebrow crooked sharply.
“Who gave her permission to go out on field work? You all knew she didn’t have my approval—why didn’t anyone stop her?”
The anger he had been suppressing exploded in the wrong direction.
His shouting filled the office.
The employees lowered their heads like turtles and avoided eye contact.
“Find her right now. No—forget it.”
Toma Harens shoved his chair back and stood.
“I’ll go find her myself.”
As the furious team leader stormed out, the employees hurriedly followed behind him.
The multi-family housing where the boy lived contained twelve households in total.
Just inspecting their homes—the roof, the exterior walls, and other places needing repair—took two full days.
After that, we began repairing the roof of the building step by step.
Even after repairing only the roof, the number of times water dripped from the ceiling noticeably decreased.
At first, people were puzzled by my decision to start with the roof.
Now, however, they trusted whatever I did.
The work that had begun over the weekend had already continued for five days.
Technically, this was the time I should have been in the office.
But even if I stayed there, there was nothing for me to do.
At first I thought about helping with small tasks.
But every time I tried to help, everyone frowned.
“Stop hovering around and go away.”
“It’d be even better if you disappeared completely.”
Since they had said as much, I simply did exactly what they wanted and left.
“So it’s this house’s turn now?”
Tabin asked. He had finished his early-morning hunting and came to help me again.
“That’s right. If you’re tired, you can rest a little. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I’m not pushing myself at all, so don’t worry.”
Tabin grinned while holding a roll of wallpaper as thick as his forearm.
I was grateful.
But thinking that all of this came from a father’s love for his only daughter made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
“Welcome.”
Since I had told them I would come today to repair their house, the homeowner couple had waited instead of going to work.
“What should we start with?”
They were even enthusiastic.
When I first came, they had glared at me suspiciously.
Now their attitude had completely changed.
People really were fickle.
“Let’s start by removing the ceiling.”
With the couple’s help, I removed the soaked ceiling finishing materials.
“Ah… as expected, they stuffed cloth and rags in here too.”
Because they didn’t have proper insulation like in modern times, they had filled the spaces between the walls with fabric and rags.
Not realizing that this actually makes the damage worse.
Suppressing a sigh, I removed the damp cloth and rags.
The first time I saw this, I was shocked.
Now I had gotten used to it.
After wiping away the remaining moisture, we moved the furniture and removed the wallpaper while waiting for things to dry.
Behind the wallpaper, there were also plenty of moisture-soaked finishing materials.
No wonder the walls were still damp even though the rain had stopped long ago.
Black mold had grown everywhere.
“You’ll need to scrape off all the mold first. It’ll be much easier if you clean it with limewater or saltwater.”
“Understood.”
After leaving the mold removal to the homeowners, Tabin and I replaced the rotten wooden flooring.
I inserted the end of a pry bar into the gaps between the floorboards and tapped it with a hammer, lifting it like a lever.
The completely rotten sections were broken apart with the hammer and removed.
The hammer from the system shop was definitely better than the ones in this world.
But since it was still a household-grade tool, it had its limits.
I should save points and buy a better one later.
That would make future work easier.
Wait a minute.
Why was I thinking about working in the future?
I had planned to live a healing life in this world without doing exhausting labor!
Well, most of the quests were related to construction, so I couldn’t completely stop doing this kind of work.
But why does a romance fantasy novel even have a game system?
Come to think of it, I had no idea why I needed to complete construction-related quests in the first place.
At the beginning, the system said it was helping me adapt to this world…
But honestly.
From my perspective, it just felt like it was messing with me.
“We’ve repaired three houses now, right?”
Lost in thought, I turned my head when Tabin spoke.
“Yes. And we’re not even finished yet.”
Once the wet ceilings and walls dried, we still needed to reapply wallpaper and finish the ceilings.
“I’m planning to finish those tomorrow.”
“That sounds like a good plan. But is it really okay for you to come here every day like this?”
“It’s fine. This is also part of my job as an Urban Development Department employee.”
That wasn’t actually the reason I was helping, but I answered shamelessly anyway.
“You’re working hard, Aileen.”
Tabin smiled proudly.
Feeling a pang of guilt at that smile, I quickly changed the subject.
“Let’s go repair the next house!”