「Yuuki-sama? Wh-what is this strangely shaped house…?」
Lilianna finally recovered from her stunned expression and asked.
「This is pretty much the standard house from my world… well, this one’s a bit bigger, but almost everyone has one like it.」
「Almost everyone owns a house like this…? Your world is truly incredible, Yuuki-sama…」
「That said, our country isn’t all that big, so we have a lot of high-rise buildings and apartment complexes.」
「I understand the idea of apartment complexes, but… hai rice? Bilwhat?」
She tilted her head, clearly puzzled.
「Yeah. Each floor is divided into large rooms, and several families live in their own separate units.」
「Several families per floor!? Wouldn’t that building be bigger than a castle!?」
「Ahaha… well, the individual rooms per family aren’t actually that huge, so it’s still way smaller than a castle.」
「I see… so in your world, people either live in these large houses or in smaller units that can house many families at once…」
「Exactly. You catch on fast, I really appreciate that.」
「Ehe, I was already thinking about whether we could somehow introduce something like this to our kingdom.」
「Ah, but… if we go too high, earthquakes might become a problem.」
「You’re right… tremors are an extremely difficult issue. Around our capital, they almost never happen, but the former capital of the Noble-Bloody family in the north-east was completely destroyed by a massive earthquake.」
「I had no idea…」
「Holy Knight-sama! This house is amazing!!」
Lopple-san poked her head out from the doorway, eyes sparkling. She was clearly enchanted by everything inside.
「Anyway, there are a bunch of things, including this, I want to look into properly. How about we head back to the capital tomorrow? I’m counting on you.」
「Yes! I’ll help however I can!」
Lilianna spun around happily in little circles, clearly thrilled at the chance to be useful.
「Ah, right. Yuuki-sama, there’s one more thing I’d like to ask…」
She turned back toward me, looking slightly apologetic.
「What’s up? Something I can actually do?」
「Yes. Due to certain circumstances, the outer wall of Selene-san’s house has been damaged… Would you be able to repair it with earth magic?」
「That’s an easy favor. I’ll fix it while everyone’s taking their bath.」
「Thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.」
With that, Lilianna gave a small, grateful bow and slipped back inside the house.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
The next morning, the area around the house grew noisy, so I stepped outside to find the entire village gathered in a wide circle, staring at the house from a respectful distance.
「Ah… so it really was you, Kaminagi-sama…」
My eyes met the village chief standing at the very front.
「Ah, sorry about this. Things got pretty hectic late last night…」
「I see… So then, is this… a house?」
「Yes, it’s a house from my world.」
「Incredible…」
「Ahaha… sorry for borrowing your land like this…」
「No, no, that’s fine… but are you planning to leave it here permanently?」
「Ah, sorry, actually I’m using this together with my spatial storage (item box) as a sort of tent.」
「I see! In that case, it looks sturdy enough to shrug off most ordinary attacks!」
「Ahaha… well, it’s made of wood, so it would burn if hit by fire.」
「Even so, it seems far safer than any of our houses…」
Does he… want one? But a full detached house is actually pretty expensive back home…
「Hmm…」
「What’s the matter, Yuuki-sama?」
「Ah, Lilianna.」
Lilianna, who usually sleeps in, had gotten up surprisingly early. She stepped out of the house holding a parasol, the soft morning light catching in her hair and making her look even more delicate.
「Well, actually…」
I quickly explained the conversation I’d just had with the village chief. Lilianna folded her arms thoughtfully, tapping one finger against her cheek.
「Indeed… I had already been thinking about doing something for the village itself, if possible.」
「Doing something? Like what?」
「The village’s location has been discovered now, hasn’t it? And because of that, we ended up in such a dangerous situation this time. It must have been very frightening for everyone.」
「Ah, right… I completely forgot about that after a while.」
At my words, the village chief’s face filled with question marks. And no wonder, last night we learned that the roughly one month we spent jumping through time had only amounted to two or three hours here.
「Goodness… You really forgot about something so serious overnight?」
「Ahaha~ I had a really intense dream, you see…」
「I see… Kaminagi-sama must have had quite the exhausting night…」
「W-well, yeah. So, Lilianna, what do you think we should do?」
「About that… Yuuki-sama, does your world have any good pieces of land available?」
She just said something absolutely outrageous, didn’t she…?
「Um… you mean moving the entire village?」
「Yes, exactly♪ In this world, the value of Carbuncles is well known. Considering that, I think it might be better for everyone to relocate to another world.」
「Well… I get the logic, but…」
Still, there’s no spare land left in my world. Especially not fertile, safe land where people could actually live…
「Hmm… Can we put this on hold for now? Either way, it’s meaningless unless we can get back to my original world first.」
「Of course. But knowing Yuuki-sama, you’ll probably figure it out in no time, won’t you?」
「Who knows… Though, somehow, I can vaguely see a path forward already…」
「Is that so? Then we should return to the castle as soon as possible. Village chief, until everything is settled, we will station the soldiers we arranged here, so please rest easy.」
Lilianna gave a graceful bow as she finished speaking.
「Understood, Princess. Kaminagi-sama, are you leaving already?」
「Yes. I need to do some research at the castle… and maybe plot a little mischief too.」
Right on cue, voices began drifting out from inside the house, Amilia and the others must have finally woken up.
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