061-080 · 066-ch59
Chapter 59: Homecoming
Around the time a large-scale expedition by a massive group of surface explorers was being decided upon.
John Doe, who had been traveling far beyond the deep layers, and Selene, whom he had rescued, were finally returning to his base.
Having slowed our pace to match Selene's walking speed, it took about an extra day compared to the way there, but Selene and I finally arrived at my base.
"So this is... your base..."
"Yeah. It's a pretty modest place, so I hope you'll forgive me on that point."
All that remained at the base were the ruins of what had probably been stone buildings, and a few wooden cabins built inside them.
Other than that, there was just a roofed kiln where I usually cooked—after seeing the civilization level of this world in the city Selene ruled, even I had to admit this was a pretty low standard of living.
But rather than being disappointed, Selene seemed to be looking at it with eyes that sparkled somehow.
"Well, I'm glad you like it, at least."
When I spoke to her like that, Selene nodded and began to talk.
"When my father and mother were still alive, they would often take me to hunters' lodges during the summer. Remembering those times made me feel nostalgic."
In Selene's murmuring eyes, I could see the color of nostalgia for things now gone.
But, that was that.
"Isn't that basically implying my base is as shabby as a hunter's lodge?"
"Eh? A-ah, I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way..." "Well, I don't really mind. Though from Her Majesty's perspective, life here is probably all like that, so please don't be too disappointed."
I wasn't particularly angry or anything.
I just thought her natural thought process that led to such statements was a bit dangerous—was all.
Sorry to say, but I wouldn't be able to provide a lifestyle as comfortable as her queenly one, so if she couldn't adjust her values to match ours to some degree, it would be difficult to live together.
"That will be fine. To understand my people's lives, I have lived in the same houses as them before, and life in the castle wasn't particularly luxurious except when receiving guests from other countries."
I doubt wild survival living is quite the same, but well, since Selene had been enjoying the camping these past few days, I figured she would be alright.
"Well, if that's the case, good. Now then, let's see if we can find a place to put the luggage we brought."
Anyway, after returning from a journey, I needed to organize what I'd brought back.
Normally, I needed to sort through various items I'd collected, but this time would be especially troublesome.
Because the things we'd brought from Selene's castle were quite substantial in quantity.
Just the books from the castle library alone would take up considerable space, and besides that, there were Selene's mementos, plus furniture and clothing I'd brought back to investigate this world's civilization level—quite a number of items in total.
Now then, would there be space to unpack all of that in my one sleeping and living cabin, plus my one cabin for storing swords and other items?
"...As expected, it seems there's nowhere to put what we brought."
As I was unloading the saddle and luggage from Robo, Selene—who had properly come to ask my permission before peeking into each cabin—came over and said this.
Exactly, exactly.
Anyone who looked at these two cabins would naturally come to that conclusion.
That's exactly why it hadn't been revealed on stream until now.
"But you know, I have just the thing. Come here for a moment."
Stopping my hands unloading the luggage from Robo for now, I entered the room I used as a storage shed, moved to a corner of the shelf where weapons were placed, and forcefully lifted and moved it.
At first glance, it looked like a normal shelf displaying swords and other weapons, but in reality, all the weapons were presented on the shelf, so even if I lifted the shelf, the weapons wouldn't move or fall.
Incidentally, this shelf was also really heavy—so heavy that probably only I could lift it in its current state, since it actually had things loaded on it.
The floor after moving that shelf.
There, in a square shape about one meter on each side, floorboards were separated from the surrounding floor.
"Is this... perhaps a basement?"
"That's right—there we go."
I moved aside the heavy wooden planks fitted to block the hole, then moved aside several sheets of leather with magic circles drawn on them underneath.
Then, beneath that, a hole leading underground appeared, gaping open.
"I want to keep some things secret from the stream for now, so I store all that stuff down here. I'll go get a light, so wait here a moment."
I went to the adjacent living quarters for a moment and fetched a magical tool like a lantern that emitted light using magic stones.
The convenient thing about this magical tool was that, unlike fire, it didn't consume oxygen or risk setting books on fire.
Well, in short, it was the magic world's version of a lightbulb or flashlight.
"Alright then, shall we go in? I'll go down first, so follow after me."
"Y-yes."
Turning on the light magical tool and tucking it behind my back, I descended using the ladder attached to one corner of the square hole.
By the way, this is just my own assumption, but normally, passages leading underground like this should probably be made narrower so that if someone falls, their body would get caught somewhere.
I'd made the hole big considering the need to move things in and out, but eventually, I wanted to make a separate entrance for loading and make the entrance a bit safer.
As it was now, if things went badly, someone could fall straight down the passage—
Like Selene was doing right now.
No, seriously, I'd been thinking this for a while, but this was some defective architecture.
"Ah—kyaa!"
At the scream I heard from above while descending the ladder, I looked up.
At that moment, Selene—who had been following me down the ladder—was already falling straight down toward me.
The hole where the ladder was installed was wide, so she was falling straight down without her body catching anywhere.
"There we go—yo, and—"
Catching the falling Selene with one hand, I moved to absorb the impact while tucking her under my arm.
"Uuu... I'm sorry..." "You really are a bit of a klutz sometimes, Selene. Well, just stay still there for a moment, please."
"Yes..."
Keeping Selene tucked under my arm like that, I continued down the ladder to the basement.
By the way, since I only had general knowledge about construction and such, I didn't know how deep I could make a basement without it collapsing.
Therefore, I'd dug the basement quite deep.
I'd probably dug more than 10 meters.
I'm the kind of humanities person who finds it mysterious that basements don't collapse even though they're hollow underneath, so I built it while being quite timid.
But thanks to that, even my hands at the time—who didn't know about reinforcement magic circles—were able to build a satisfactory basement.
And now, with the addition of magic circle reinforcement, it was no longer just a basement but a full-blown shelter.
"Alright, we're here."
"Wawah."
Spinning Selene—who I'd been holding under my arm—around, I set her down on the ground with a thud.
Then I flipped the switch on the lantern-like light magical tools installed inside the room.
Then, the magical tools installed on the ceiling of the room began emitting light all at once, and the interior became as bright as if electricity had been turned on.
Well, this was essentially electricity in this world—practically electricity.
Though I basically had a survival and natural living orientation, thinking fire was better than electricity, even I didn't want to bring torches into the basement—a place where I stored various things—so I'd reluctantly installed these electricity-substitute magical tools.
"Wow..."
"What do you think? Pretty amazing, right?"
The interior illuminated by the magical tools' light.
There, bookshelves that could hold a massive number of books—surpassing even the library of Selene's castle—and rows of shelves with large quantities of items arranged on them lined the back, looking just like a commercial warehouse.
Sorry, I don't have a good sense for metaphors.