Fairy Tale Chronicles

Volume 4 Chapter 4.2

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「What else was in there besides the evil god fragment?」

「Other than things here and there to strengthen the seal, there are just a few small tools used for ceremonies once every hundred years, tops. Anything besides sealing tools aren’t much of a problem.」

「Nah, I think that ceremonial tools breakin’ is a pretty huge problem……」

「After using them a few times, they eventually succumb to mine and the feng shui’s combined energy and they get remade anyway. As long as they aren’t historically important artifacts, it doesn’t matter if they break.」

Hiroshi found himself agreeing with what Igreos asserted. They were directly accepting the power of a god, so if the items weren’t something with exceptional affinity or superior finesse, then it only made since for them to break after several uses. Still, wouldn’t the tools still have historical significance if they were only used a few times and every hundred years? Also, Igreos must have done a seriously good job in making sure to continue a tradition that took place every hundred years. But both of these thoughts in Hiroshi’s head were left to slide without comment.

「So do I gotta have the tools order made again?」

「Nay. The next time they are used will be in approximately fifty years, and unlike the treasury, there are plenty of craftsmen here who can easily make them.」

「Understood.」

Even if Igreos were a god, he did not seem so shameless as to force it all on Hiroshi.

「All in all, seems to have been a good idea to leave the barriers over the area yesterday……」

Hiroshi let out a grumble at the work that never seemed to end. I had been late to come yesterday, so by the point in time he was asked to check out the treasury, it was already too late to do any sort of work. The slight miasma leaking out had a dangerous atmosphere to it, so he had at least made sure to erect a cleansing barrier, but by that point it had become dinnertime.

Even with speed like fast-forwarding or rewinding, up till now Hiroshi had still not completed anything other than the repair of the entrance area. Ordinarily, it would be faster and safer to rebuild it from scratch instead of mending it, but with the inside being structured as it was, and with every kind of barrier still active in the treasury, he could not carelessly disassemble the building and rebuild it. Hiroshi could probably finish the outer wall by lunch, but with how dangerous the condition it was in, no one had confirmed what had occurred in the interior, so he really couldn’t say how long it would take to finish.

In exchange for Hiroshi undergoing the repair process, craftsmen deeply familiar with the temple were providing bricks with specific manufacturing methods that Hiroshi asked for. Although they didn’t have as much power as holy coals, Igreos had directly sparked a fire in them, so the finished bricks were the perfect quality for using in magic steel-made smelting furnaces. The correct amount would probably be gathered in half a day. However, Hiroshi’s hands were folded now that he wanted to bring those back with him. The time that Aearis had gone out of her way to secure for him had now been gulped up spectacularly.

「I made tea. How about a break soon?」

As Hiroshi was about to finish repairing the second wall, Nazaria approached him.

「Yup. I’ll be done with this here wall in a jiffy, so after that it’s break time.」

Accepting Nazaria’s offer, Hiroshi neatly, quickly, and thoroughly filled the remaining fissures before wiping off his sweat and washing his hands with water magic. As a precaution, he erected a cleansing barrier and then moved to the rest area in the temple.

「Sorry for pushing all this on you」

「Well, it’s a valid concern, and not mendin’ any o’that after seein’ the state it’s in is kinda messed up……」

Hiroshi responded to a seriously apologetic Nazaria with a sigh as he tipped the tea toward his mouth. It was a fact that leaving the situation like this with the evil god involved would come back to haunt him later on, plus having so many people feel indebted to him was not a bad thing, even if they were not people in power. In fact, not having power dynamics involved made the work proceed in a more cheerful manner, most likely.

「But is it cool if I grumble ’bout how many annoying things piled up in a row?」

「Well yeah, that much is a given.」

Nazaria agreed with Hiroshi’s grievances, the same serious expression on her face. Hiroshi’s reputation would be higher if he just held in his complaints, but he just kept on letting his thoughts out, which was one of the reasons why people saw him as a wimp. Even if he did have an instinctive aversion to power and authority, it wasn’t very cool of Hiroshi to express his discontent through grumbling, especially when it involved the crafting work he loved so much.

「So how much longer do you think?」

「Well, the outer wall’s gonna end by the afternoon, I think. Dunno ’bout the inside.」

「Is that right」

「But that’s just comparin’ it to the outer wall. In actuality, first I gotta clean up the inside before any repairin’ is done, yeah?」

「……Come to think of it, you’re right. How about I bring over some people from the elder/priest side?」

Hearing Hiroshi’s pointer, Nazaria nodded earnestly, announcing she would proceed things along.

「I rebuilt Aranwen-sama’s main temple before, but this procedure’s takin’ a lot longer……」

「Really?」

「Well, there were plenty o’wood supplies I cut down to rebuild the thing, plus the temple didn’t even have the build of a temple. The size wasn’t even that big, and it didn’t take much time to get it completely rebuilt.」

「Could it be that Aranwen’s temple is smaller than the treasure room here?」

「It really is. Well, the only people who usually come are elves or forest giants, plus not even that many show up, so Aranwen-sama himself ain’t mighty concerned.」

「Oh? But I do not care much either.」

Igreos, who had been listening on and off, butted in.

「Well, I do kinda understand when I see that……」

「Ugh, such a irresponsible reaction!!」

「Wait, actually, in general the gods’re all fine with it as long as they gotta priestess ’n holy realm, right? Even Alfemina-sama sometimes don’t even seem to care about religious festivals, ceremonies, rituals, or any o’ that.」

「Aye. Thought I am grateful for all the faith, most rituals/ceremonies are just bluffs, with only a few possessing actual meaning.」

「I wondah if it’s a good thing fer a god to be saying this in their own temple……」

Igreos let out an unexpected statement while holding a double biceps pose as Hiroshi made an exasperated quip.

「Well, I’ll go ahead ’n git back to repairin’. Slack too long ’n the sun’s a’gonna set.」

「Indeed. Then again, if you think also of what’s inside the building, I highly doubt it will end within the day.」

「Igreos-sama, even if that’s true, there’s also the Forre smelting furnace he’s working on. I happen to question confining Hiroshi-dono much further…」

「Aye. Depending on the catastrophe that awaits us within, I do intend to have him instead go over to making the magic steel furnaces.」

Igreos proclaimed with a ringing voice in response to Nazaria.

「Then regardless of how screwed up the inside is, I’ll at least think o’some kinda time-savin’ treatment for now.」