The Dwarves Did It in a Week.

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/33/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

One week after I made my proposal to the Demon King.
Days of turning through patients in a bustle, slipping past Nasti’s spiteful teasing.
…I felt as if skinship from Gerda and Kira had increased lately, but I would not misunderstand; I know about this.
After days with little things like that.

“You’re kidding…”

I stood dazed at the sight spread before me.
What stood there was the sight I had proposed.
No—a sight upgraded further from that.

“How can something like this be done in only a week…?”
“Ahaha. I advertised like mad among our people and the help increased like crazy.”

Beside me as I stood rooted, Nora laughed, looking like she was enjoying herself.
Yes. That hair, too, was now fluffy, and… light enough you wanted to mofu mofu it.
Needless to say, not only Kira and Gerda; I had washed Nora’s hair as well.
She had taken to it terribly.
Showing it off—how’s this, how’s this—Nora was very cute.
After that she had started washing it herself every day, and that seemed to have spread it naturally as well.

Even so, this was too much.

“No, I understand the help increased, and I understand that would make completion faster…
But why is it done in only a week!?”

Raising my voice, I pointed at the building towering in front of us.
It was not as large as the Demon King’s castle, of course, but it was quite large.
Indeed, I had proposed that I wanted this made.

But who said to make it in a week.
Or rather, no one should have thought it possible.

“We’re on good terms with cyclopes and the giant races, you see.
Ask them a little and this much we can do.”
“That’s wrong. That reasoning is wrong!”

Cyclopes. One-eyed giants.
A race that boasts a giant frame several times a human’s, and monstrous strength to match that body, or more.
With them at the head, races called giant-kin, with bodies far larger than humans and monstrous strength, live on this island.
And they are subordinate to the Demon King, and very obedient to her commands.

For this construction they had cooperated as well, with an imperial order from the Demon King.
…The work efficiency of those with power on par with heavy machinery and a dexterity close to a human’s was indeed tremendous.
Even so, why this fast!?

“To begin with, you’d have to run water pipes of quite a large bore, wouldn’t you!?”

For this facility, that was a major premise.
And yet why was that done in no time!?

“Ah, you didn’t know, Asha?
The water and such around here is all dug by giant worms and their kin.”
“Yes? Giant worms??”

No, I had heard of them. I could imagine.
Or rather, I remembered them coming up in one of the stories a cousin who liked a game called TRPG used to tell me all sorts of things about.
And the features Nora described matched, more or less.

They are monsters that live underground, and can dig through the earth at a tremendous speed of about four kilometers an hour, apparently.
As for how tremendous: a human walking speed is said to be about four kilometers an hour.
Digging mori mori at that speed, they can cut through the center of this town in an hour; so it is not a matter of merely fast.

The Demon King had taken note of that, and most of the water and sewer networks now running through the town were dug by those giant worms.
On top of that, they can not only dig but exude a bodily fluid like cement, and harden and fix the holes they dig.
In the sewers lives a relative, a monster called an abyss worm, and they eat the waste liquid and purify it, apparently.

That’s a cheat! This is a cheat! Of course the water and sewerage is this well laid!!
I thought that, but no one was made unhappy by that cheat, so there was no room for complaint.
And well, I also thought the Demon King was impressive, to take note of that and use it that way.

Well, at any rate.
The problem of laying water, which I had thought the hardest, had been solved readily.

Once that was so, the rest was a dwarf rampage, a giant-kin rampage.
The building was assembled at a joke of a speed, and today, it reached completion.

“Oh. I had heard today was the scheduled completion. On schedule, as expected of dwarves.”
“Well, well. I never thought Your Majesty would come in person.”

At the voice that rang out, Nora smoothly took a vassal’s bow.
Wait, my retort cannot keep up. How can you suddenly do such a noble gesture, Nora!

I could not say that, of course, and hurriedly went to my knees as well.

“Ah, it is fine, it is fine. On a good day like this, such stiffness would be inelegant.
And more than anything, it would not suit this place.”

As she said it, the Demon King looked back at the building.
The building with a sign that read Public Bathing Facility.

 

This was the proposal I had asked for, the one I had thought would be hard to realize.
After all, it would need a considerable amount of water, and fuel as well.
Considering the trouble and time of laying new water pipes, I had thought even the Demon King would balk.

“What, if it is that, I can manage it somehow.”

And she had accepted it readily.

“You can!? Saying it that readily!?
But look, the water consumption will jump.”
“Then I shall do something about that.
It is my work originally to make rain fall on the water sources.”
“Is that so!?”

I would like to be forgiven for being so surprised I forgot appearances.
Or rather, I was forgiven, which is why I am here now with my neck intact…

To begin with, the Demon King, Her Majesty Shutraum, is a Demon King who possesses the magic of wind.
She governs the wind that crosses ten thousand ri, and can command it as she wills.
So gathering clouds by commanding the wind and making rain fall in quantity on the water sources is child’s play.
Or rather, this town’s abundant water was supported by that.

Also, boiling hot water can apparently be done relatively easily by using flame stones well.
This part, too, was with the cooperation of demonfolk skilled in magic, Lady Dominas first among them.

 

At any rate, my proposal was accepted, and this building had been done in a rush.

Public Bathing Facility.

In short: a municipally run public bath.

In this world, too, there was the concept of a bath, or rather of soaking in hot water.
But that was only recreation for nobles and the rich.
In a world where water was never abundant and fuel was reasonably tight, soaking in hot water was the height of luxury.
For commoners like us, a splash of water was the basic; wiping the body with hot water was about the most we could do.

But needless to say, that is not good for the body.

So this time, I proposed it.
A facility for public hygiene: making the body clean by bathing.
Of course, officially, it was a place for commoners’ pleasure, where they could get their bodies clean.

Even as that official story, it could function as a place to have people understand how to use soap and the like.
If they understood the effect, they would start using soap in daily life.
And as an accompanying effect, I wanted their hearts to grow light as well, by cleansing themselves thoroughly.
You know, going to a super sento is fun, right?
I wanted to provide a place like that.

No—the one who provided it was the Demon King.

“Come, what are you doing, person in charge. Will you not take the lead for the completion?”
“I was the person in charge!? Ah, no, that may well be so!”

I was surprised, even now.
But come to think of it, I was the one who had proposed it, and I had been involved in the design to some extent.
…At the very least I was quite a high-ranking party concerned, yes.

“Your Majesty, please do not tease Asha so much.”
“What, Gerda, are you jealous of Asha and me?”
“…You jest.”

Hafuu~, Gerda sighed.
I understood the feeling. To Gerda the Demon King was her superior.
If your superior teases you like that, you do not know how to react.

“Asha, are you all right?”
“Yes, thank you, Kira.”

Kira seemed to have come with Gerda as well, and comforted me.
Ah, truly a good child…

“Well, jokes aside. With this, this undertaking has a pause as well.”

As she said it, the Demon King looked up at the bathing facility.
By the plan, another should have been finished near the dwarf settlement as well.
That was because the dwarves who had heard the talk had eagerly wanted it.
And a factory to manufacture the soap this facility would consume should have been finished as well.
Probably, Nora being here meant both were going smoothly.
…Huh?

“Nora, are the other sites all right?”
“Ah, I left them to our people, it’s fine, it’s fine.
More than that, come, teach us at once how to use this bath thing, Doctor Asha.”

Huh, why is she this eager?
I thought, and.
No one answered my question, and we went into the bathing facility.