3 bar menu

Chapter 33: Feathers

Translator: Haruchin   Editor: Marky

Feathers. Waterfowls. It’s so cold here!

This is bad, with things looking like this, I should get a down jacket first before that blanket. It’s a nice idea to send a feather quilt as a housewarming gift to Ash, so I went to the lake again. But it’s waaayyy too cold!

Down feathers’ price will surely skyrocket the colder it gets — meh, I’m just trying to fool myself here. Just like dogs and cats that get winter fur, birds are also fluffier the colder it is, right? Probably, huh.

Target spotted — grab the bow — shoot!

The arrow was tied to a string, whizzing as it zipped towards one of the waterfowls floating on the lake. Actually, there’s no sound coz I casted 『 Silence 』.

It was terrible at first, I didn’t even hit a single thing.【 Martial Arts Ability 】 ‘s so amazing, it’s not even half a day yet, and yet I can already shoot them down. The difficulty leveled up, though, because now that the arrow is flying properly, it’s also making that woosh sound.

The bow was tightly drawn so the trajectory won’t be affected by the string on the arrow, but I didn’t feel the slightest discomfort.【 Martial Arts Ability 】boosted the level of my physical abilities.

I was supposed to use magic to shoot them so I practiced earlier, but I forgot to come-up with a way to retrieve the shot birds from the lake. So, I changed to a bow, ‘coz if I didn’t get the carcass soon enough, it would turn into a bone model in the blink of an eye. Dunno if it’s because of the smell of blood that they go berserk, but the other birds would become cannibalistic……..As expected of monsters, huh.

Maybe it would have been easier if I just threw a net over the spot where they are clustered together.
It’s just that they seemed vigilant — they won’t go near the bank, and they gathered considerably far away.

Be it monsters or their ordinary predecessors, those birds would happily flock together. That peaceful scenery was drastically ruined by the blood thirsty cannibalism — I’m the reason for it, though.

I hurriedly hauled the thin string in while thinking back about it. A bird that sprouted horns is still chasing the bird I shot even now, drawn to the smell of blood. Some of them didn’t have horns, but those that are difficult to see with a naked eye are probably hornless, while those with a small bump like mounds must be horned — you can see their small horns when you peel their skin.
It might have been great if the bird continued chasing till it reached the bank, unfortunately, it pulled back when it reached a certain distance. Well, thin ice already covered the part near the bank, so it can’t be helped. How nice it would be if I got a magical string that can pull monsters in, or if there’s a spell so I can fly or walk on water.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic like that in the games I played before. It might be possible for me to do it, but unless I saw it once, or performed the spell after learning the ropes, it will be difficult to reenact the spell.

My ingredient appraiser and 【 Complete Cookery 】 isn’t 【 Complete Magic】, but
I already have【 Magical Ability 】 and the boosting power of the spirits. I could get close enough to【 Complete Magic 】by studying properly, but finding magic related books is already difficult as it is.

Although 【 Complete Magic 】 is different from my ingredient appraisal and 【 Complete Cookery】 , people who had this ability could conjure the spells just by thinking “I want to come up with this”, even if they hadn’t read the magical spells related to their goals recorded in the various books and lithographs of this world.

— Because only a few recipe books with procedures were written, my 【 Complete Cookery 】 actually resembles 「Ability」with regards to this world’s cuisine. No problem, I have plenty of opportunities to look at the dishes available here. Even if I didn’t see how they cooked the dishes, just looking at the final product is enough for me to recreate it, so that’s more convenient than an「 Ability 」 .

Some of the spirits offered to catch the prey for me, but I refused. Setting aside normal animals, monsters are in conflict with spirits, so it’s too dangerous. There are those who proactively eat them, too.

That’s why I repeatedly【 Teleport 】 back to the house and warmed up before the fireplace, then returned to the lake to bring the waterfowls down with my bow and arrow.

The waterfowls were white wild geese called snow geese. Only their beaks and the tips of their wings are black, the rest of their bodies are pure white. Well, they’re monsters, so the area around their eyes are bald with small warts growing on the black skin — it’s not feathers, so whatever.

I dropped the heads on that spot as feed for the monsters, then plunged the bodies into the ice cold river. Birds have high temperatures, so they start to rot relatively fast when they die because of the remaining warmth in their bodies. That’s why it’s important to chill them as soon as possible. I wanted to drain the blood too if possible, so I submerged them in running water. Yeah, maybe it’s better to extract the innards and wash it by hand, but don’t want to, it’s too cold. Ugh, this is a lot more difficult than hunting.

That’s the reason why I chose to hunt in this spot — the river is flowing into the lake. Well, I can chuck them into【 Storage 】 , but I don’t want to do this job back at home, and it’s better if the temperature is low.

Even if I take a break, I can’t think clearly now, so let’s call it a day. Anyway, this is more than enough, I guess. Keep them in the 【 Storage 】 first, then slowly work on them later, shall we?

I prepared the bath when I got home. Took advantage of the infinite supply of firewood, so the house’s fireplace was constantly burning. The room was warm, but I’m frozen to the core, and it’d take too much time to warm this body, so I hastily entered the bath.

The hem of my robe was already frozen solid! It was probably dipped in the water without me noticing. I couldn’t wait anymore so I entered the bathtub even if it wasn’t full yet. The warmth of the hot bath made the tips of my hands and feet a bit painful, and they heated up like getting burned. And they’re itchy.

It’s because the blood circulation suddenly improved, absolutely NOT because I have athlete’s foot.
Ah, but it might have turned into chilblains. Well, I’ve got 【 Heal 】 so it’ll be fine, I guess.

Got all warmed up in the bath, and I wind down beside the fireplace where the vapors wafted up from the iron pot I placed on the hearth. The house is really nice! Riche, who had been so close to the fireplace before, now lay by my feet, all curled up.

I read a book while enjoying a cup of coffee. It’s something I bought when I went to the royal capital to buy some cloth for the down quilt I’m making. The topic is waterwheels.

The water wheel in my house had wooden blades sticking horizontally on it, and was structured to rotate when water pours from above it. There were also waterwheels here that looked like those in Japan, attached beside a building.

Softening the threads, fulling cloths, and even in leather production uses energy from the water wheel. I finally understood my water wheel’s other mechanisms aside from grinding flour.

Fulling was done as the last step to make the woolen materials denser. Producing felt-like cloth is also possible, so I wanted to make a warm coat. Ah, but it’ll probably be spring by the time I’m done, so just save it for later.

By the way, depending on the place, waterwheels and even the ovens for baking bread were considered as property of the feudal lord. Aside from charging a fee to use them, people who make their own bread in their houses are also punished — a warning was written here so I backed off for a bit.

The feathers of the snow geese I hunted earlier were already made into cushions, and the down was turned into a blanket. I also spread one out in Riche’s sleeping basket.

I also wanted a kettle and a lamp, plus chinaware ー er, porcelain tableware. A leather sofa is also nice. It’s actually fun when you tweak something and it turns out to be more comfortable, right.