kscans

Chapter 133 - The Long Road to Woodworking 3. The Doll Maker

After taking a break, he finished the statue he had started carving yesterday, changing it into a simple human figure and completing it. It had become a practice piece, but the quality itself didn't seem too bad, so he decided to keep it as it was.

"...Come to think of it, the reason the Buddhist Sculptor skill unlocked is because I accidentally carved a statue of a god, right? If that's the case..."

If he had carved something other than a divine statue, wouldn't the regular Woodworking skill have appeared?

Yuri, becoming half-stubborn, resolved to carve something new in order to awaken his Woodworking skill. Well, it was too late today, so it would have to wait until tomorrow.


"Hmm."

Yuri was troubled. If it were just a matter of carving, he could think of any number of subjects, but he didn't have enough spare wood to carve aimlessly. He wanted to carve something useful if possible...

"If I had something like a lathe, I could have turned a bowl, but..."

No such equipment remained in this village. He hadn't seen anything like that at the tool shops in Laurenzen either, and in the first place, he hadn't even thought to look. As he pondered what to make, the thought of lathe turning led him to think of kokeshi dolls...

"Oh, how about I make a doll for Sena as a souvenir?"

Sena, who had drifted to this country with her sister, Saya, was still seven years old. In Japan, that would be the lower grades of elementary school. She was still at an age where she would want to play with dolls. At least, that's what Yuri judged based on his past life's memories. But in this country, only a handful of children could have dolls bought or made for them. It wasn't that girls didn't play with dolls, but those "dolls" were usually scraps of wood or hardened clay, and their "clothes" were normally just rags. However, Yuri, a former modern Japanese and current shut-in, had no way of knowing the circumstances of this world. He was racking his brain over how to make a doll to give to Sena. He wanted to carve it from wood, hoping to unlock the Woodworking skill, but he wasn't confident he could make something that a girl would be happy with. Using Wood Deformation might result in a better product, but it would be visibly impossible for him to explain how he made it. He had found some clay, so he might be able to make something like a porcelain bisque doll, but...

"I don't really know how to fire it, and in the first place, I don't have a kiln for pottery..."

He would have to pass on that for now. The remaining options were stuffed or knitted dolls, but...

"Cloth and yarn are even more scarce than wood..."

There were no scrap cloths here to use for stuffing. He could soften some hay and stuff it in, but he didn't have any cloth suitable for a cute stuffed doll in the first place. The cloth and thread Yuri had bought in Laurenzen were strictly utilitarian. They weren't suited for cute stuffed animals.

In the end, by process of elimination, it was decided that the doll would be made of wood. However, it wouldn't be a complete wood carving. It would be structured so that the arms and legs could move to some extent, just like a bisque doll. It was essentially an Ichimatsu doll, but this time he would make it by carving wood instead of using wood powder. A hollow structure would make it light enough for a child to hold. He decided on the size and design with reference to the dolls from his past life in Japan. He wondered what to do for the doll's hair, but boldly decided to attach the fur of a bear-type monster, after processing the fur to make it soft. It was only a tiny amount, just enough for a doll's head.

"It's a little fine, like a cat's hair, but... a headband or something should keep it together."

Unlike the divine statue, which was a solid wood carving, this required various little tricks, and it took three days to complete the whole thing, including the clothes. But the finished product seemed, even to Yuri's eyes, to be a fine piece of work. There was no self-satisfaction bias involved, probably.

Yuri let out a sigh of relief, but then he realized something.

"...For this... do I not need to make one for Saya?"

Saya was ten, he thought, two years younger than Yuri. In modern Japan, she would also be in elementary school. Even though she was the older sister, she was still a child. It felt somehow wrong to make one only for Sena and not for Saya.

"I guess I'll just have to do my best and make one more..."

Incidentally, when he checked later, the hoped-for Woodworking skill remained unlocked. Instead, seeing the name `Doll Maker` shining brilliantly on his status board, Yuri's shoulders slumped.


As an aside, at a later date, when he needed a hook to hang something on and drove a nail into a pillar, an information pop-up for acquiring the Woodworking skill appeared with surprising ease... and Yuri collapsed to his knees.

"...Come to think of it... I haven't used... a nail until now..."