Today is the first day I head to the forest on my own two feet.
Instead of the tote bag that held my Slate, I'm carrying a small basket—smaller than everyone else's—along with a wooden spatula that looks more like a digging tool than a real shovel.
Honestly, am I the only one who thinks this wooden spatula is even less reliable than a plastic shovel from a kid's toy set?
As I waved the flimsy spatula around, Father grabbed my shoulder with a firm grip and repeated the same line I'd heard enough to grow calluses on my ears ever since we decided to go to the forest.
"Mine. Today you're going to the forest and coming back. That's it. Everyone will be carrying heavy loads on the way back and will be tired. Your goal in the forest is to rest and return with everyone. Got it?"
"I know."
Perhaps my simple reply wasn't reassuring enough, or perhaps my exasperated expression gave away how many times I'd already heard this, but Father kept a sour look on his face and turned back to Turi.
"Turi, I know it's tough, but I'm counting on you. Make sure Mine gets back before the Gate closes, and work things out with
"Mm. We'll wrap things up early today."
Turi, brimming with a sense of responsibility, burned even brighter with a sense of mission now that Father had placed this duty on her. She looked a little stern today.
When we stepped outside, several children were already gathered with baskets on their backs, just like us. There were eight of us total, ranging from kids about my size to bigger ones like Turi and
Fey, with her pink hair, took the lead, and Turi walked at the very back. I started at the front when we set out, but by the time we arrived, I'd nearly always end up at the back.
"Alright, Mine. Let's go. Don't break your pace."
While I'd gotten used to walking normally as far as the Gate, walking all the way to the forest was a first for me. And my pace-setter was Lutz.
Over the past three months, while walking between home and the Gate, Lutz had somehow learned exactly the right speed that wouldn't push me too hard. The fact that I could walk without overexerting myself lately was all thanks to him.
"Thanks, Lutz."
"Well, your family's helped out my family too, you know."
Recently, Lutz's family had hosted the final disposal of leftover Paru pulp. Paru could only be harvested in the snow, and once the weather warmed up, it spoiled all at once.
So as a thank-you for past favors and a goodwill gesture for continued cooperation, I taught them how to make a Paru burger—essentially an okara hamburger, but bulked up with okara.
It looked like a yellow bell pepper at first glance, but inside, I'd stewed down a tomato-flavored pome until it became a thick sauce, topped it with cheese, and it was done. The gentle sweetness of the Paru added unexpected depth to the flavor, and even I was amazed at how well it turned out.
Incidentally, Lutz and his older brothers had cried real tears. Of course it tasted good, but they were especially moved by the fact that the portion was twice what they usually got.
Aunt
"Hey, why didn't you teach us that Paru burger during the winter?"
"You need fresh meat to mince it, obviously. And mincing is hard work. I didn't know if anyone would help me..."
"Ohh, mincing is tough, but I'd do my best if it's for Mine's cooking."
I didn't have the stamina to pound meat with a knife until it was properly minced, and knowing how much work it was, I couldn't very well ask Mother to make it for me. That's why I'd never eaten anything resembling a hamburger before. I considered myself lucky that I got to have everyone at Lutz's house make it, and got to eat together with them.
Chatting like this, we walked toward the forest. Walking while chatting makes the journey more pleasant and easier to endure, but the fatigue that hits you once you arrive is something else entirely.
While everyone went foraging, I sat down on a slightly oversized stone to recover my energy.
As I sat there, panting heavily, Lutz rubbed my back and spoke up.
"Both Fey and Turi are going to have their
"...Why?"
I knew Turi's Baptism Ceremony was coming up because I'd been helping make clothes and hair ornaments, but I didn't really understand what would concretely change after it.
"Well, once Turi finishes her Baptism Ceremony, she'll start her apprentice work, right? That means half the week, you'll have to come to the forest alone."
When Lutz pointed that out, my eyes went wide.
Turi starting work as an apprentice meant I'd have to take over more of the things Turi usually helped me with.
"Oh no... I hadn't really thought this through."
Because Mine was sickly, and Turi had always been the caring big sister who looked after me in everything, I'd managed to live in peace so far. Without Turi, I probably couldn't function at all.
My face drained of color, and Lutz grinned, scratching his nose.
"Well, even without Turi, I'll protect you, Mine. You're weak, after all."
"Thank you, Lutz. Then please take care of me."
"Sure. I'm going to go collect firewood, so you rest properly, alright? It'd be a problem if you couldn't make it home."
With that, Lutz headed off to gather firewood.
Once Lutz's footsteps faded and no one was around, I immediately started digging a hole with the wooden chip I'd been calling a shovel.
My goal today was to go to the forest and come back. Ideally without a fever. I knew that.
But however!
Could I really come to the forest and leave without even attempting a challenge? No way!
Dig, dig, dig-dig-dig!
I wanted clay soil, but I had no idea how deep I'd need to dig to find it. Assuming the geology was similar to
"Hah!"
I thrust the spatula into the dirt and gave it everything I had.
But the tip of my so-called shovel didn't penetrate even a centimeter.
It's rock-hard!
Wait? Is this actually diggable?
It felt like trying to dig up a well-packed athletic field. I'd always imagined forest soil would be moist and soft, but I was completely let down.
Is the soil bad? Or is the shovel bad?
Yeah, it's the shovel.
There was a world of difference between this and the shovels I was used to. I wanted at least a metal shovel, not a wooden one.
But whether the shovel was wooden or the soil was hard or soft, I had no option to give up. Even if it barely moved, all I could do was keep digging away, bit by bit.
Scritch, scritch, scritch, scritch...
I scraped away at the soil little by little with my wooden shovel.
Digging out clay soil looked like it would take considerable patience and physical effort. There was no way I could finish in a single day.
Making clay tablets also seemed quite difficult. All I could do was pray it would be easier than the Papyrus-like Paper.
Scritch, scritch, scritch, scritch...
After I'd managed to dig about five centimeters, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Mine, what are you doing?"
Lutz, whose hands were full of sticks he'd gathered, looked down at me sitting on the ground with my shovel and his eyes went wide.
"You promised you wouldn't do anything tiring in the forest today!"
True, I'd been made to promise before leaving the house, but knowing that didn't help when it was right in front of me. I'd planned to stop before Lutz got back, but once I started, I couldn't pull myself away.
Oh... oh no...
If it were Father, I could smooth things over with a smile and a hug, but Lutz had been appointed by Turi as my watchdog, and he wouldn't be fooled by anything like that.
I'd already learned from experience that trying to deflect only deepened his suspicion and led to an even more intense interrogation.
"A-ah, well... but you see, Lutz..."
"...But what?"
Lutz furrowed his brow deeply, placed both hands on his hips, and glared down at me.
The interrogation was beginning.
Now then—should I fess up honestly and ask Lutz for help, accepting the scolding of "You thoughtless girl!"? Or should I try to deflect and fail, earning the fury of "Don't think your lies will work on me!"? Which option would leave less damage?
"I told you to rest, so what exactly are you doing?"
"...A-aah, I'm digging a hole!"
Standing tall with rage radiating off him, Lutz's aura overwhelmed me into blurting out the truth.
Because when Lutz got angry, he was genuinely scary.
He might even prevent me from making it home before the Gate closed.
"I can see that. Why are you digging?"
Despite my honest answer, Lutz's anger doubled. The look in his eyes turned ice-cold.
"Well, you see, I want 'clay' soil."
"Huh? You want what?"
Lutz tilted his head, unable to understand. His confused expression had slightly diluted his anger.
"I want soil that's tightly packed together, heavy and sticky, with poor drainage."
"...If that's what you're after, there's more of it over there where there are fewer trees and plants?"
Clay soil had poor drainage and was difficult for plants to grow in, so looking in areas with fewer plants would indeed be more efficient.
"Lutz, thank you!"
"Hey! Mine, wait a minute!"
When I hurried to move, Lutz grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. Our build and strength were incomparable, so escape was out of the question.
"Lutz, let go."
"Today, Mine, your job is to rest. Can't you hear that? Is it something you need to gather right this minute?"
He gave my ear a sharp tug, and I flailed my arms about while screaming.
"Ow! Ow! ...Because it's not something I need for survival—it's something only I want! I can't ask Turi or anyone else for help with this!"
Whimpering and clutching my ear, I glared at Lutz through teary eyes. He flinched ever so slightly.
Maybe he hadn't expected me to push back, or maybe he was intimidated by my obsessive love for books—the one thing the basically-attachment-free Mine actually cared about. I couldn't tell which.
But instinct was telling me not to let this opening slip. Now was the time to press the attack.
"If I sit here and behave, will you dig for me?!"
"...After I finish collecting today's firewood, I'll dig. So just sit still."
I froze at his unexpected answer. All I could do was stare at Lutz with my mouth hanging open. Even if it was an impulsive exchange, had Lutz lost his mind?
Rather than helping with my clay tablet project, which had nothing to do with him, he'd be better off gathering as much as he could.
"Lutz, um, I appreciate the thought, but you should focus on your own work."
"You're so weak you couldn't possibly dig soil on your own, so I'll do it. But in return, tell me exactly what you're going to use the soil for. What do you want to do?"
"...Why?"
"If I know what you want to do, we can cut out the wasted effort. Even now, you knew exactly what soil you wanted, but you were digging in the completely wrong spot, weren't you?"
Ugh, that hit a sore spot.
It was true that in my case, even when my goal was clear, I often got lost because I didn't know the local names for things, or they looked different from what I'd seen in
Thanks to his pointed observation, I realized that Lutz's offer to help hadn't been just a spur-of-the-mouth reaction—but the fact that I couldn't figure out his reason still bothered me.
"Why are you going to help me, Lutz?"
"Hmm? Because when I was starving, you made me a Paru cake, remember? That's when I decided I'd help you."
Huh? That's it?
Just that, and he'd dig clay for me?
The power of delicious food is incredible.
Honestly, I couldn't comprehend the mindset of someone who'd do this heavy labor for a single pancake, but his words were a relief regardless.
Since he was the one offering, I'd take him up on it without hesitation. For anything physical, leaning on him completely was the best strategy.
"...Then I'll leave it to you, Lutz. I'll wait here."
"Mm. I'll finish my part quick."
Lutz really did gather his firewood in no time flat.
Then he led me to the area with poorly drained soil—a low, slightly sloped spot deeper in the forest.
"This should be it."
Saying that, Lutz picked up the spatula I'd brought. With that wooden-spatula shovel, he began to dig.
"Mine. You brought this stuff along with you, which means it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing. You never intended to keep your promise from the start, did you?"
"I-I... well... it's just that, um, I finally made it to the forest and I couldn't help myself... It was premeditated!"
Lutz's face twitched, and he drove the spatula into the ground with all his might as if releasing his pent-up frustration.
"Dammit, this is why you're impossible! You look all quiet and well-behaved, but you can never let your guard down!"
"You could relax a little too... you're even sharper than Father."
"Your dad's way too soft on you!"
Digging furiously with his anger fueling him, Lutz was nothing like me—the soil actually gave way under his wooden spatula. While I'd been scraping away bit by bit, he was gouging out chunks with a crunching, crunching sound, and it was utterly baffling.
Was it a difference in strength? In technique? Was there some kind of trick?
"Huh? The color of the soil changed?"
After Lutz had dug about fifteen centimeters, the soil changed color.
"Is this what you were looking for?"
He scooped up some of the exposed soil and kneaded it in his hand. It was cool, heavy and sticky, and took shape easily in his palm. This was definitely the clay I'd been after.
"This is it! It would've taken me forever if I'd been digging alone! You're amazing, Lutz. You're so strong."
"There's no guy weaker than you."
While saying that, Lutz continued to dig out the clay soil in earnest.
With eyes sparkling at the growing pile of clay, I carried it bit by bit to the large stone nearby. I wondered how many clay tablets this would yield.
Just thinking about it made these clumps of dirt feel almost precious.
"So, what are you going to do with this?"
"Hehehe~ I'm going to make 'clay tablets.'"
"Clay what?"
"Clay tablets."
Kneading Lutz's sweat-drenched clay soil over and over, I shaped thin clay tablets.
On the finished tablets, I used thin sticks I'd found nearby to carve out in Japanese the folktales my mother had told me as bedtime stories.
If I could, I wanted to write in this world's script, but the words
"Mine, is that writing you're doing?"
"Yeah. If you record things like this, you can read them again and remember even if you forget. Writing is amazing, isn't it? And a book filled with endless records like that is even more amazing."
"Whoa..."
"Thanks for digging the clay, Lutz. If you need to gather something, go ahead. I'll be writing here."
"Got it."
The story I was writing right now had a vibe somewhat like "The Cobbler and the Elves: Isekai Edition." Even with text packed densely onto each tablet, it turned into a massive work spanning a full ten clay tablets.
"I did it! It's finished!"
Having written the final word and inscribed the character for "The End," I trembled with the thrill of accomplishment.
These clay tablets were incredible!
They were done!
Long live the great Mesopotamian civilization!
Now, if I fired these clay tablets in a kiln and made sure they didn't crumble, they'd truly be complete. Gripping the stick firmly, I turned around to survey all the tablets I'd written so far.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"
The next instant, I clapped my hands to my cheeks like the Scream and shriek. The unbelievable sight before me turned my mind blank white.
Lutz, who had returned from gathering materials with his basket, rushed over to me in a panic.
"What happened, Mine?!"
"Fey stepped on them! They're all squashed to pieces! ...Waaah!"
The first half of the story I'd worked so hard on had been trampled by Fey and her gang, more than half of it crushed beyond recognition. Footprints covered every inch, the shapes were completely ruined, and naturally, not a single character could be read.
"Th-they were almost done... this is terrible... uwaah! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get here!? How hard I worked to build up stamina with this sickly body!? I finally got Lutz and Turi involved and got them finished! Fey, that pink on your head is brainless-flower-garden pink! Idiot, idiot, idiot! Uwaaaah!"
Maybe it was unseemly for someone who was mentally a grown adult, but I broke down sobbing. The tears and the sobs wouldn't stop. Never mind my mental state—at least my appearance was that of a small child, so it wasn't too embarrassing.
At my scream, Turi came running over, pale with alarm. After hearing from everyone what had happened, she tried to calm me down.
"Mine, you can't cry so much. No one did it on purpose, okay?"
On purpose or not, the crushed clay tablets weren't going to un-crush themselves. My resentment and fury at having my hard-won creation trampled were not soothed by Turi's words at all.
"No! I will absolutely never forgive you!"
Huffing, huffing, tears and snot streaming down my face, I glared at Fey and her crew, who were trembling at my fury. Lutz gave me a gentle pat on the back.
"Can't you just make them again? I'll help, and those guys feel bad about what they did, so they'll help too. Right?"
"Yeah, we'll help! Sorry about that!"
Clutching at Lutz's mediation, Fey and her lackeys nodded vigorously, promising their cooperation.
"...Fine. I'll make them again."
The clay tablets had been completed, after all, so my direction hadn't been wrong.
I'd settle for being satisfied that they'd been easier to make than the Papyrus-like Paper.
But I didn't forget to drive the point home to Fey and her gang.
"Don't expect there to be a second time."
Apparently, for a while, I topped the "People You Absolutely Must Not Make Angry" ranking among the local children by a landslide.
Clay tablets, work in progress.
Fey and the others are being worked to the bone, too. (lol) Next time will be a side story from Father's perspective.
How will Father deal with Mine, who casually ignored the promise she made before heading to the forest?
Oh, and both parents' names will appear for the first time.