17 Magical Girl Cleans

Author: Kumanano
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7313mj/17/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Kumayuru, Kumakyuu, we’re going to clean.”

I look at the dirty room and declare it.

“You don’t have to.”
“I can’t settle down like this.”

For someone who has cleaned and tidied the house since Mom died, this is an unforgivable situation.

“Kumayuru, Kumakyuu. First, gather the things that are the same.”
“Kuuun.”

I give Kumayuru and Kumakyuu instructions.
What there is most of in the cluttered room is books. Then laundry, then daily goods. There are a lot of things in the room I’ve never seen.
It’s hard to believe, but I think it’s certain this is another world.
I pick up a book at my feet.
It’s writing I’m seeing for the first time, but I can read it.
It’s the translation function the Cat God gave me, but I didn’t think it would translate not only English, but even another world’s writing.

“Relations Between Men and Women.”

That’s what was written on the cover.

“Ah, children mustn’t read that.”

Sarche snatches the book from me.

“I wasn’t going to read it.”

Without caring about the book’s title, I gather laundry like clothes and towels.

“Why are there so many baskets?”
“When I go to use one and there isn’t any, I end up buying more.”
“That’s wasteful.”
“Nnh. I look like this, but I do have money.”
“Having money isn’t a reason it’s all right to waste it. If a basket you bought doesn’t get used, that’s sad for it, isn’t it. And more than anything, the person who made this basket—”

When people have money, they think they can just buy a new one.
For someone who has shopped on Dad’s salary, I can’t forgive waste.

“That’s…”
“The reason is that you haven’t been putting things away properly, right?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Still, the room is dirty, but it’s a mercy that ingredients and food aren’t scattered around.”

If food had been left out, it would have rotted and been a disaster.
Bugs, and…
Just imagining it makes me shudder.

“Ah, that turned into a disaster a long time ago, so I made sure to be careful.”

So it did turn into a disaster once.

“The ingredients are in the cold room, so they’re fine.”

She showed me that cold room; it was a cold room about six tatami mats in size, with vegetables and meat stored in it.
I only looked briefly, but there were ingredients I knew too.
I’ll check the ingredients later, and get to tidying the first-floor room.
I gather the clothes and try to do laundry, but of course there’s no washing machine.

“Detergent to wash the laundry? In this world, soap? Do you have that?”
“Soap? Where was it, I wonder.”

Sarche looks around, darting her eyes here and there.

“Here it is.”

Sarche hands me the soap.
For washing machines it was powder, for washing hands it’s liquid or foam, for washing dishes it’s liquid.
I’d seen it on TV and such, but this is the first time I’ve seen real soap.
I take the soap, and have Kumayuru and Kumakyuu carry the laundry outside.
Then I sort the laundry, things that look like they might bleed color and so on.

“This should be all right.”

I create several water spheres with magic and toss the sorted laundry into each of them.
Then I shave off part of the soap and put it in the water spheres.
After that, if I spin the inside of the water spheres, a simple washing machine is done.

“You do amazing things, don’t you.”
“Amazing—how have you been doing laundry until now?”
“Just wash it?”

I want to hold my head.
Is there no such thing as a washing machine?
I feel how grateful I am for civilization.
At the same time I feel how grateful I am for magic.
I leave the laundry until the washing is done, and start the next tidying.
The problem is the books. There are a lot of books.
There’s something like a bookshelf, but it’s full. That’s why they were piled on the floor.

“I like reading books.”

When I look at the books, Sarche makes an excuse.
I look toward the stairs.
There are books set on the edge of the stairs too.
The second floor might be in the same state.

“Can I make a building next to this house?”
“A building? I don’t mind, but—”

I go outside and create a building next to the house with magic.
An archive? A library? A building to put books.
The size of the building is about a size smaller than Sarche’s house.
I can tell Sarche likes books just from looking at the mountains of them.
They might keep increasing, so I made the building to store books a little on the large side.

“W-what did you do?”
“I just made a building with magic.”
“That easily?”
“If you apply earth magic, it’s a simple thing, isn’t it.”

Mana changes. It can become fire, water, or earth.
That’s something I learned from the Cat God.

“I understand the building. But what are the windows?”
“They’re ordinary windows.”
“The glass.”

The windows have glass.
This area seems to be a god’s rule: things that are scarce in the world, or things that have value, take a larger amount of mana.
Earth is everywhere, so you can make it with a small amount of mana.
But things like diamonds are ores that are few in number and have value, so you can’t make them with mana.
To be precise, if you use a huge amount of mana you can apparently make gems too.
I tried making a diamond as a test, but I couldn’t.
Glass uses more mana than earth, but making it is possible.

“Haa.”

Sarche lets out a sigh.
I go into the building without minding it.
Light comes in through the windows, and it feels nice.
But direct sunlight damages books, so I might need curtains.
I make bookshelves along the walls with magic.
If I put a table and chairs in the center, it would be perfect for reading.

“I’ll have Kumayuru and Kumakyuu carry the books to the archive, so Sarche, please line the books up on the shelves.”
“Did you just say archive. And Sarche.”
“It’s a place to put books, so it’s an archive, right? If we don’t hurry, we won’t finish.”

I say it as if to cover the embarrassment of calling Sarche’s name for the first time.

“Yes, all right.”
“But please line them up neatly.”

Sarche starts putting the books away, looking happy.
I take out the laundry I’d been washing in the water spheres, and with magic I draw out the water soaked into the cloth.
The water vanishes from the laundry, and it dries.
I could dry it under the sun, really, but this is to save time.
The bigger reason is that there’s a lot of laundry, so hanging it out is a pain.
The fact that in the original world too, I used magic when laundry wouldn’t dry in the rainy season, is a secret.

I carry the cleaned laundry into the house.
It’s really all clothes I’ve never seen.
I fold the clothes and towels.
I leave the folded laundry on a shelf at the side.
I’ll have Sarche put it away.
It’s not good to open someone else’s dresser.
And if the person who uses it doesn’t put it away themselves, they won’t know where it went and they’ll be in trouble.
That was why Dad always asked me where I’d put things.

The cloth things that were in the first-floor rooms are put away, and the books are still in progress, being carried by Kumayuru and Kumakyuu.
Little by little the floor comes into view.
I carry everything that isn’t cloth or books outside the house.
There are things I know, and things I don’t know how to use.
For now I leave them outside as tools.
And after working for a while, there is nothing on the floor.

“Finally, there’s nothing on the floor.”

I raise a small tornado on the floor that has nothing on it with magic, and have it take in trash and dust. At the end I put it in the trash bin.
Then last I clean the floor with water magic, and it’s done.
The room has become clean.
Well, only the first-floor part, that is.
If I look at the stairs, there’s a second floor.
The books have been carried by Kumayuru and Kumakyuu so they’re out of sight, but there isn’t time, so I decide not to look at the second floor.
When I looked outside earlier, the sun was tilting.
Just because it’s another world doesn’t mean there are two suns, and it didn’t feel strange.
I leave the tidying here, and decide to cook.