kscans

Chapter 14 - For Tomorrow

Having taken care of his immediate needs, Yuri began to think about his future plans.

Yuri was, by nature, so cautious as to be cowardly, and he was the type to act only after securing a sufficient safety margin. In his previous life, an accident involving the onset of his illness and hospitalization had prevented him from fully utilizing this principle, but this was another world. A world where he did not know when, where, or what might happen. Preparing for unforeseen circumstances was both natural and necessary. Under this judgment, Yuri began to make a plan with plenty of leeway...

"...There’s no paper..."

It was a line one might say after using the toilet, but in reality, it meant there was no paper to organize and record his thoughts. Some might argue that paper is not a daily necessity, but for Yuri, a fiend for recording and planning, the lack of a recording medium was an extremely inconvenient situation. It was only natural that it was listed at the top of the problems to be dealt with immediately. For the time being, he got by by creating a stone slate with earth magic and carving letters onto its surface, also with earth magic, but...

"...It’s probably durable... but it’s heavy and bulky..."

Securing a recording medium and writing utensils.

That was the first issue raised as a problem to be solved.

It seemed that paper was already being made in this Forea World, and his Rural Life Guide had information on the plants used as raw materials for papermaking. The procedure for making paper was also included, so it seemed that making paper would not be difficult as long as he could find the raw materials. However, he decided to put that off for later...

"Alright... for now, let’s start with the ‘shelter’ part of food, clothing, and shelter."

Only by securing a comfortable and safe dwelling would he have the leeway to think about subsequent issues. Believing that he should first work on improving his living environment, Yuri listed the current problems and issues to be addressed.

Improving the Living Environment
・Constructing defense facilities
・Raising the floor of the house
・Remodeling the Kamado stove
・Adding a chimney
・Making lighting fixtures
・Adding heating equipment
・Adding a bath
・Securing floor coverings
・Securing fuel
・Securing lumber
・Making rain gear

He needed to do something about the village fence, which had already deteriorated and was useless, but he would have to manage that with earth magic. It would take time to enclose the entire village, so for now, it would be better to surround at least the area around his house with a wall. After deciding on his plans for the defensive wall, Yuri thought about renovating his house. As a former Japanese person, living on an earthen floor did not feel right to him. He would have preferred a Japanese-style house, but there was no lumber for renovation in the abandoned village. He could get some lumber by dismantling an empty house, but then he had no carpentry tools to process it. Besides, recklessly dismantling buildings for lumber seemed like a bad idea. Based on that judgment, Yuri implemented the next best plan. He used earth magic to raise the floor of the rooms. Fortunately, the ceiling was high, so he raised only the floor inside without touching the walls or pillars. However, he deliberately left more than half of the kitchen, about twenty-five square meters, just inside the entrance, at its original low level. This was a common structure in old Japanese farmhouses. He raised the floor in the back to create a dining room, which was about twenty square meters in size. It was too big for Yuri alone, but making the dining room too small would have been structurally troublesome. There were no nice things like a dining table left behind, though it’s possible there never was one, so he quickly made one with earth magic. Incidentally, there was a back door in the corner of the room at the end, opposite the main entrance, which he planned to use as a storage room. The area just inside that door was also left low to serve as an entryway for taking off shoes. Unlike a wooden floor, a floor raised with earth magic was like stone and would probably be chilly in winter, but he would have to manage that with floor coverings. He would need to either get some fur pelts or weave some straw mats.