Bath, Cooking, and a Visitor
I dig a hole with a custom portable shovel. It’s just the metal part and handle part of the shovel. It’s a tool where you complete it using local branches or whatever. It’s not at all a clever contraption like something foldable. If you just stick in a stick and hammer in appropriate rivets, it becomes a handy shovel, so I find it useful.
A hole for one person to enter is quite big, and it was hard work digging with a small shovel. The number of scooping motions was more troublesome than the required strength.
But when you work silently and continuously without rest, you can concentrate, and in no time I had dug to a depth sufficient for a bath. Good, good.
…Actually, water is starting to seep in from the walls, so I need to reinforce with wood materials soon or it’ll be bad. The hole I worked so hard to dig will collapse.
“Good, the length is also perfect… well, roughly perfect. This should be okay to some extent.”
I line up wooden sticks vertically to surround the outer walls of the hole. The shape doesn’t matter, but I made them like firewood. This prevents the sand walls from collapsing and mixing into the bath space… to some extent. Only to some extent.
Also, I expect this wood to serve as insulation. The ground continuously absorbs heat infinitely. By lining it with wood like this, well… it should slow down the cooling somewhat.
Naturally, I don’t forget to lay wood on the bottom of the hole too.
What shape is this? I guess it’s like a bathtub.
If the wall and hot water contact area is too large, it cools down quickly, so I thought about making it hemispherical… but considering the work of covering the inside with wood, it naturally became rectangular.
Well, this has more atmosphere and is better. It’s like a cypress bath.
I made it spacious enough to stretch my legs since it’s a special occasion, but heating water of this volume seems like it’ll be quite difficult… Well, I have unlimited fuel so it’ll work out somehow…?
“The ground near the river is amazing, water seeps in like crazy.”
I thought I might need to scoop aggressively with a pot, but if I wait, water gradually starts accumulating in the bathtub. Evidence that the sandy ground near the river contains lots of water.
If I leave it like this, the bathtub will probably fill up completely. That’s easy. …Well, that also means the hot water will cool down faster.
“For making heated stones, it’s definitely time for a campfire rather than the wood stove. Perfect timing, I’ll do it near the bath.”
I decide to make heated stones near the makeshift bath, also serving as heating. These heated stones are the only heat source for warming the bath.
Stone has high heat storage capacity. Heat storage capacity, to put it roughly, means something that’s hard to cool down but also hard to warm up. It takes considerable heat and time to fully warm stone, but conversely, that means it’s hard to cool down once warmed. So stones heated red-hot in fire have been used in various situations since ancient times.
Even with unfired pottery that would crack if put directly on fire, you can make boiling water just by throwing in heated stones. Heated stones are convenient.
“Well, you can’t tell the heat level at all by appearance…”
I pile up big round stones in the campfire and burn them vigorously with lots of firewood at once.
I’ll throw these heated ones into the bath all at once. The portable shovel comes in handy when I want to carry out hot stones like these.
“Whoa!”
One of the stones being heated in the campfire cracked with an incredible sound.
Apparently the moisture or something inside the stone caused it to crack under the heat. It makes quite a loud noise, so it’s startling.
“About time, I guess.”
If it cracked, it’s probably heated to a pretty good level by now.
I scoop up the heated stones from the fire with the shovel and plop them into the nearby bathtub.
Then, steam generates with a sizzling sound centered on the stone. Of course, one heated stone can’t warm a large amount of water completely, so the sound stops immediately, but it makes quite a difference when repeated.
As I throw in the second, third stones one after another, the steam sounds from the stones in the water don’t stop anymore.
Vigorous bubbles rise with bubbling sounds, and white steam becomes visible, cooled by the cold outside air.
Nice, nice. It’s starting to feel like an open-air bath.
“How’s the water temperature— AHHHHH!”
When I stuck my finger in to test it, it was just plain hot water. Damn hot.
…Alright, let’s cool it down. I have to wait a while.
Ancient baths don’t have the function to maintain exactly 42 degrees.
“Should have brought butter…”
Now then. Let’s eat lunch before the hot water reaches the right temperature. I got hungry from the exercise.
Today’s meal will be similar to this morning’s sandwich… but it’s a hot sandwich, not just a sandwich.
“Well, regular oil works the same. Hehe, with just this I can make a delicious hot sandwich.”
Today I brought a hot sandwich maker. This is a tool made by the daughter of Joslan… the blacksmith. Since it has few parts and just adds one extra step to a copper plate structure, it’s not difficult if done by casting. Well, for having a simple mechanism, it uses quite a bit of metal, so it was unnecessarily expensive. I don’t regret it though.
I had this kind of hot sandwich maker in my previous life too, but it became warehouse fodder because it was heavy and I didn’t actually make hot sandwiches that much.
But in this world it serves as a divine item that makes shitty bread fairly delicious.
…It does, but it’s still heavy and bulky, so I haven’t been able to use it satisfactorily even in this life. Today is also a rare outing for it.
“Oil in, put in appropriate bread, add meat, pour oil, sandwich with bread… good, good.”
Now I just place this sandwiched thing on the campfire and it’s complete.
When it’s sandwiched, I don’t worry much about ash or soot either. When oil leaks out from the gaps with a sizzling sound, that’s when it’s good.
“Now then… how’s it cooking…”
And when I casually took out the hot sandwich maker and looked around on a whim, I finally noticed.
“How… is it…?”
A monster was standing near the wood stove at some point.
Maybe because it was upwind, I hadn’t noticed at all.
And it wasn’t just any monster.
“…An ogre.”
An ogre. A humanoid monster, same as goblins and cyclopes.
Height around 2.5 meters. While often shorter than cyclopes, their combat ability surpasses cyclopes.
Dusky skin. Thick body hair. Long, curly hair. A muscular body all over, a scary face with wrinkles that seem to resent everything in this world, and above that, two ominous-looking horns.
The oni that Japanese people imagine when they hear “oni” would probably look like this.
That thing is now staring at me intently near the wood stove.
Super scary. …Actually, damn, that ogre is wearing equipment.
…The remains of old, tattered pants…? And an old longsword with a chipped blade. And on its upper body, it’s wearing old fur like a mantle. This is obviously an intelligent type of ogre.
General ogres are quite smart. But even that only makes you feel they’re more troublesome than cyclopes or goblins, and ultimately they’re just things that charge at you with clubs… but that one is clearly “wearing” equipment all over its body. And if those are well-worn items, it’s not a coincidental product.
No, actually, I’ve heard of this before.
A specific dangerous species that was wanted as a “wanted monster” rather than wanted person on a corner of Legol’s guild bulletin board several years ago.
The sword-wielding ogre “Gnak.”
Long ago, it half-destroyed a Silver Rank party and escaped, and it’s a monster that still hasn’t been found.
…That wanted notice naturally disappeared over time… but it was still alive.
No wait… I first saw this wanted monster several years ago too.
Even the information from that time was old, and it was taken down because “it’s probably dead already.” …It’s definitely been in Baroa Forest longer than me.
Looking closely, the deep wrinkles carved in its face suggest old age. I thought it just had a scary expression, but it was due to age. I’ve never encountered an elderly ogre before, so this is my first time seeing one. Amazing…
…Ogres have strong fighting spirit, but it’s still just staring at me intently. It shows no sign of attacking. Is this also what experience does?
…No, wait, maybe this is it—is it looking at the hot sandwich?
“Er… open.”
“!”
“Whoa, what a reaction.”
It had been observing me with a stern face until then, but the moment I opened the hot sandwich maker, it opened its eyes wide in surprise like “Eh! Something’s inside!”
…What should I do? It’s actually not good to feed monsters… but I’m getting a bit interested in this cunning-looking ogre.
“…Want some?”
“!”
When I held out the hot sandwich, it got really defensive. It’s very cautious. Well, of course.
…How do I look from its perspective? Like prey it could strangle in an instant? At least it doesn’t seem like it’s being modest in front of an overwhelmingly strong opponent.
“This is food… munch… yeah, delicious.”
“…”
“I want to give this to you, but sorry, let me have one more bite… yeah, regular oil works fine too. Good thing I made that screw cap. …I’ll give you the rest.”
I stand up and place the half-eaten hot sandwich on a big stone by the river.
Then the old ogre slowly approaches the hot sandwich while keeping me in sight… crouches down, and smells it.
“Huff, huff…”
“What a posture…”
An ogre glaring while sniffing a hot sandwich on a stone. Surreal.
But perhaps because I had taste-tested it in front of him, he didn’t worry much and took the hot sandwich in his hands and bit into it.
“…!”
It probably doesn’t taste bad. But he’s not smiling. He just opened his eyes wide. Normally scary. But seeing this kind of reaction is fresh and fun.
The ogre devoured the small hot sandwich and swallowed it all at once.
“Phew…”
“Was it delicious?”
“…”
“Ah, you prefer being near the wood stove…”
After filling his stomach, the ogre returned to beside the wood stove from earlier for some reason. That seems to be his regular spot. …Well, it’s warm nearby. I can understand the feeling.
…Looking closely, the ogre was injured.
His right eye is crushed, and his left side is also burned.
The eye seems to be an old wound, but the burn doesn’t seem that old. …He probably got thoroughly beaten in the depths of Baroa Forest. Well, otherwise he wouldn’t have burns.
“…”
Honestly, I felt a bit of sympathy.
Ogres are nothing but super dangerous monsters, and as a guild member I should go all out to subjugate it immediately, and actually even now it might be seeing me as just food it hasn’t eaten yet, which wouldn’t be strange at all, but having such human-like aspects makes me feel, you know, a bit sympathetic.
…Counterattack. Yeah, I won’t make the first move, but if something is done to me, I’ll counterattack. If I’m attacked, I’ll kill. Yeah, that’s good.
Actually, I have the power to do just that. There are no other humans around now either.
Of course, I don’t think I can build friendship with an ogre, even if it’s somewhat intelligent. I’m just interested in ogre behavior.
What kind of actions will this intelligent old ogre that has been hiding and living in Baroa Forest for years take? Observing that would also be meaningful research as a guild member… though that’s just a post-hoc justification.
Fortunately, there’s no one here to scold me.
“Nice to meet you, Gnak.”
“…”
The old ogre continued glaring at me with stern eyes, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
…This observation might not continue very long. I could be attacked at any moment…
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