Chapter 269 : A Bird Doesn’t Foul The Nest It’s About To Leave
The next morning, I woke up when the sun started to rise.
Usually, Ester would come around this time to pick me and Nicola up. However, she won’t come because we no longer have to go to her house to help her parents.
After the farewell party with Eclain last night, Celine and I went to Ester’s house to tell Ester’s parents about the departure. After that, we hurriedly packed our belongings, preparing to leave this village the next day.
I got up from my bed, changed my clothes, and walked to the entrance slowly so as not to wake Nicola up, and then I went to the bathhouse I made in the woods nearby.
My first plan this morning is to get rid of the bathhouse. I used earth magic to turn the floor, the dressing room, the bathtub, and the walls back to the soil.
Tori-san or the other villagers may use this area to build new houses or make farmland in the future, so I can’t just leave the bathhouse as it is.
After that, I returned to my house and turned the walls surrounding my house to the soil one by one.
I’m grateful to these walls because they have been protecting my house from the beasts and monsters in the forest, but it’s time for them to rest.
The next thing I should dispose of is the bouldering wall. I made it for Ester at first, but then I used it too to train myself.
I can’t climb as fast as Ester does, but I think my physical strength has improved thanks to this bouldering wall.
I want to turn it back to soil but this wall is over ten meters high, so I may get buried in the soil if I do it by touching it.
Therefore, I decided to use another method. I took some distance and sent my earth-attributed mana to the bouldering wall through the air. You need to be good at controlling your mana to do it, but now that I’ve gotten stronger, I was able to do it relatively easily.
The bouldering wall collapsed and turned into a large pile of soil as soon as my mana made contact with it.
I remember that I hardened it with plenty of mana as a safety measure when I built it, so this soil contains a lot of mana. I think it can be used as a fertilizer, so I decided to put it into my Item Bag.
When I put the huge pile of soil into my Item Bag, the door of my house opened and Nicola showed up from inside.
I always wake her up, so it’s pretty rare for her to wake up by herself.
「Good morning, Onii-chan.」(Nicola)
「Good morning. It’s great to see you wake up by yourself.」(Mark)
I complimented her, but she stared at me with a scornful look for some reason.
「It’s your fault! I woke up because I heard the loud sound of soil collapsing! Can’t you do it more quietly?」(Nicola)
「Ahaha… I’m sorry.」(Mark)
「Well… Waking up early is not bad at all, so I’ll forgive you.」(Nicola)
「Thank you, I guess? …Since you’re awake, let’s clean up the house.」(Mark)
「Alright. Uuugh~… It’s so cold~…」(Nicola)
Nicola went back into the house while warming her hands with her breath. She really is weak against the cold. Well… She’s also weak against heat too, though…
After that, we gathered our clothes, food, and other necessary items from all over the house, and then I put them in my Item Box.
The only things left are the chairs, the table, the beds, and the carpets.
「Onii-chan, why don’t you put them into your Item Box too? ーOh, wait. You want to put the entire house into your Item Box?」(Nicola)
「Correct! Let’s get outside and try it.」(Mark)
「Alright.」(Nicola)
After we got outside, I put my hand on my house and imagined the entire house, including the furniture inside, being transferred into my Item Box.
「Uwaah!」(Mark)
I was the one who did it, but I couldn’t help but be surprised when the house disappeared in an instant.
I checked my Item Box and confirmed that my huge house was really inside my Item Box. This is probably the largest item that I’ve ever put into my Item Box.
Now I can just put it out whenever we need to camp outside on our way home. It will save a lot of my time and effort for sure.
「Whoaa… Normally, Item Boxes can’t hold something this big. I think the room of your Item Box has expanded greatly while you’re in this village.」(Nicola)
「I see. I had never felt that I could store a house, so I never tried it, but now I feel like I can do it for some reason. Does it has something to do with my mana bowl?」(Mark)
「Of course. I told you that the room of your Item Box will expand whenever your mana bowl gets bigger. While you’re in this village, you always use a lot of mana to call our parents with the Resonance Stone and to help Celine refine her Portal Stone every day. Plus, you defeated an Evil Fungus a while ago.」(Nicola)
「I see… I’m glad I came to this village.」(Mark)
Calling our parents and helping Celine was quite tiring at first, but it gradually felt like a regular magic practice when I started getting used to it.
It always feels good to be able to feel my own growth.
「Well then… It’s time to go. Are you ready?」(Mark)
「Un. Let’s go.」(Nicola)
We left the open space in the forest where we had been living and went to Celine’s house.
◇◇◇
*Knock knock*
As soon as I knocked on the door, Celine came out.
She was holding a large leather bag that seemed to be filled with her travel necessities. She seemed to have been waiting for us.
「G’ Morning, Celine onee-chan~!」(Nicola)
「Good morning.」(Mark)
「Good morning, Mark, Nicola-chan. Ah, Mark, can you put this in your Item Box? I don’t want Deel to see me holding a travel bag. He will stop us from leaving this village for sure.」(Celine)
「Alright. By the way, is Eclain-san still sleeping? I want to say goodbye to her.」(Mark)
When I asked Celine that, she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.
「Nah, forget it. She was completely drunk last night. She’s not going to wake up in the next six hours. Besides, you already said goodbye to her last night, right? I think it’s enough.」(Celine)
「I see… If you say so.」(Mark)
Since I can’t meet her, I bowed my head toward her room to express my gratitude.
Eclain-san, thank you for everything.
While I was bowing, Nicola got inside the house and put a letter and a jar of something that looked like cookies on the table.
『What is that?』(Mark)
『As you can see, cookies. I made them the other day with Ester-chan as my token of gratitude to Eclain mama.』(Nicola)
『Eh? I never thought you could be so considerate…』(Mark)
『Hey, what kind of person do you think I am!? Eclain mama has been like my mama here. I might not have been able to live here for three months without her.』(Nicola)
Nicola turned toward Eclain’s room and smiled.
「Eclain mama, thank you for everything!」(Nicola)
Now that we are ready to go, we left Eclain’s house and headed to Ester’s house to pick Ester up.
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