In Search of the Forest’s Blessing

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/42/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

And then.

“Uhyaaaaaaaaa!?”

My scream rang through the sky over the royal capital.

After that I withdrew from the castle and explained the situation to Kira and Gerda.
By evening that same day, Gerda had made an appointment with the woodcutters.

Incidentally, though I say woodcutters, most of them are forest giants. Giant-kin who make the forest their home.
Gentle of temperament, deft, and with arm strength to match their bodies, they are a perfect fit for woodcutting, I would think.
That work needs fairly fine calculation, and it seems you get better timber if you are careful about pruning and clearing the undergrowth as well.

And we were to go the next afternoon, but of course a forest used for processing timber is quite far from town.

“Then I shall carry you.”

That was how it went.
Gerda said it with a thoroughly cheerful smile.

Incidentally, at some point she had apparently had Nora make a harness for two-person flight.
The sensation of Gerda holding me from behind, pressed closer and more securely than even a princess carry, was a little, you know…
No, begone, worldly desires, begone!!

“What is it, Asha, falling silent all of a sudden.”

Yes, a voice at my ear.
A slightly low, cool voice.
Quite bad for the heart.

“N-no, I-I’m fine, I’m fine!”

I was not that fine, but I answered so.
…I couldn’t see well, being behind me, but I had a feeling I had been laughed at a little?

“Is that so. Then it is all right if I put on a little more speed?”
“Eh, ah, w-wait a littleoo!?”

The moment she said it, Gerda squeezed me tight.
Th-this is, surely nottttt!!

The sensation of my body being pressed into Gerda.
We had already been flying at a fair speed, and from there she accelerated further.
My scream, and Gerda’s laugh tickling my ear.
Tossed about by all sorts of things, I was transported through the sky.

Such being the upshot, by the time we reached the forest giants’ settlement I was already limp.
The village chief received me with a face of not knowing whether it was all right to laugh.
I caught my breath and began talking at once, but it seemed the talk had already been passed along to some degree at the time of Gerda’s appointment.

“For our part, if we can expect a regular income, it is exactly what we hoped for.”

So the forest giant chief said.

Apparently, with housing construction in the royal capital having settled to some degree of late, they had been slightly at loose ends.
And with this talk coming then, they were glad to cooperate.

And then they showed me the actual processing of the timber, but…

“U-uwaaa!? Eh, w-what is this!?”

My scream rang out. The second time today… how embarrassing…

Before my eyes, saku, saku, branches were dropped as if cutting butter, and trees were felled with a supan.
That’s strange, right!? Trees are hard to cut even with a chainsaw, right!?
And yet with an ordinary axe, supaan, supaan… what is going on!?

“Ah, they are axes made by Nora and the dwarves! Weight, sharpness, sturdiness—there is nothing better!”

The chief explained with a refreshing smile.
Is that all right!? How much are dwarf axes!?
Certainly when one says dwarf one says axe, but still!

Apparently I was the only one surprised. Gerda was watching as if it were a matter of course.
…Ah, perhaps?

“Gerda, perhaps your sword as well?”
“That is so. Nora made it for me. It is sturdy and well balanced, so it handles extremely well.”

So saying, she showed me a swing.
Or rather, accurately, I could not see it.
It was swung at a speed my eyes could not follow.
The blade was invisible; there was only a pyun pyun of sound.
Is this Gerda being amazing, or Nora’s sword being amazing… or both.
At any rate, I understood well that dwarf-made weapons are amazing.

After that they stripped the bark just as easily, saku saku. The saw used then was dwarf-made as well.
…Perhaps Nora and the others are quite the cheat.

At any rate, before my eyes the timber was processed just as I wanted, saku saku.
At this rate they could probably prepare a considerable quantity.

“Then, once we are ready, I shall tell you the quantity we need again.
Ah, of course Her Majesty has put a budget on it!”

I think it a bit much even for me, but when it is not one’s own purse one becomes generous!
…I won’t be scolded later, will I? It is probably all right??

“Understood. Contact us again then!”

They accepted readily.
A first relief, perhaps. Nora will understand once I explain.

And so.

“Wahyaaaaaaa!?”

My scream rang out a third time.

 

“Ah, a machine like that I can make.”

When we reached the dwarf settlement and I explained to Nora, a reliable answer came back, as expected.
Yes, yes, as expected of the dwarf quality you can trust and rely on!
I was just relaxing, when.

“But I can crush as much as you like; I don’t think it will become something like paper, the way Doctor Asha means.”
“Ah, ordinarily that would be so, yes.
There is a method that can manage that.”
“Ah, as expected of you. You have thought it through properly after all!”

…Dorothea and now this; what is this absolute sense of trust…
I am not that great a person, you know!?

But if I have been trusted that far, I cannot fail to answer it!

“I have an idea, but I will not know without trying.”
“So it is to double as an experiment, then.
Understood. If something that just moves will do for now, I can knock it out quick.”
“Thank you. But please do not overdo it?”

I bowed my head to Nora, then added a word, a little worried.
Hearing that, Nora… made a surprised face. Then she burst out.

“Ha, hahaha! From where I stand, Doctor Asha looks far busier and more overdone!
Gerda, you say something too!”
“That is so… It is not merely that you move busily; there is a place as if you are always restlessly thinking of something.
I think you ought to make time to rest in earnest.”
“Ah, yes, I will be careful…”

Frank words, and eyes that seemed to see through me, jii.
Before Gerda like that I could not lie.
Uu, it is true that before I know it I am thinking of this and that… I think there is a place that cannot be helped.

But I must not become neurotic from it either.
As much as I can, I will rest when it is time to rest. I do not want to worry the two of them.

At any rate. With this, what I wanted to prepare for the moment was in order.
After this, the experiment… ah, and there is the talk with Lady Dominas as well.

…Yes, I really am thinking quite a bit. I thought I would be a little careful.