CHAPTER 258.1 - THE ICE TOWN 2

「A~~~h. I feel alive aga~~~in」

My body sunk into the bathtub as I murmured those words.

At the fairy plaza, where we barely managed to arrive with the last bits of our strength, the first thing we did was make a bathtub. Upon arriving, everyone threw their bags aside and started working in silence without even needing me to remind them.

Kyouko formed the cauldron, I invoked the 『Witch's Cauldron』, and then Hayama-kun used the power of the water spirit to fill the bath.

Thanks to our perfect teamwork, we finished the bathtub in no time.

「Shall we enter the bathtub together, Kotaro?」

「This isn't the time for that, enter quickly!」

Mustering the last bit of my feminism, I let Kyouko go into the bath first, and the rest of us waited our turn for a while.

In the meantime, I took a quick look around the church-like building that housed the fairy plaza.

This was a large building within the town, but it was only two stories high, excluding the tower in the center with a bell, of course.

The first floor was mostly occupied by the spacious fairy plaza. At the back, there was a staircase leading to the second floor, where I found several rooms that appeared to be living quarters.

As expected, this place also retained signs of life, just like the other houses. There were dishes, clothing, and books filling the shelves. Perhaps they should be considered valuable ancient texts. It seemed the effects of the fairy plaza didn’t extend to the second floor, as it was frozen over like the other buildings.

However, the most important part of this church was not the second floor or the tower—it was the first floor.

We rushed straight into the warm, glowing fairy plaza, but the stone-built entrance we passed through before that was what truly mattered.

Yes, this entrance, like the academy tower, was equipped with a teleportation magic circle.

Now then, I wonder where this connects to, but since the bath was free, I'll put that question on hold for now.

「Guys, dry your hair properly if you don’t want to catch a cold.」

Hayama-kun dried our hair with warm air as he said those words.

While producing fire from the lighter in his hand, he skillfully controlled it to emit warm air. It seemed his ability to manipulate spirits was steadily improving.

「Since all of us are really exhausted, let's finish our dinner and get some sleep.」

「Yu~m, nothing beats hot pot in the middle of cold weather.」

「Uhm, this taste… You must be using rare spices, Kotaro.」

「You’ve got to use them at times like this.」

I was running low on spices, but when the weather was this cold, it made me really crave something spicy to warm up.

I used plenty of this chili-like spice that I was fond of, and I also used some good cuts of meat that I had kept frozen for storage. It was a slightly more luxurious dinner than usual.

That day, after filling our stomachs, we just slept right there in the square. I was too exhausted to even make hammocks with spider silk, so we laid out fur sleeping bags and hit the pillow in no time. Since the ground was soft with grass, it was a much better sleeping experience than when we slept while crossing the mountains.

The next morning.

I told everyone about today’s plan while we were having breakfast.

「For the time being, we need to make equipment that can withstand the cold in this area.」

The current fur equipment had reached its limits when it came to cold resistance. I mean, there was only so much we could do by just layering them.

「So this time, I plan to have Hayama-kun fully cooperate with us.」

「Me? But I can't use that magic called alchemy.」

「At first, no one could use it either. You'll start with practicing alchemy too, but the main goal is to see if we can successfully enchant equipment with the power of spirits.」

Currently, the most useful item in this area was the fire spirit in his lighter.

Apparently, when Hayama-kun strongly wished to light a campfire, the fire spirit lent its power. Since then, the spirit had taken up residence in the lighter, effectively turning it into a magic tool.

Hayama-kun didn’t create it intentionally, but if we could learn to make similar items on purpose, the quality and variety of our equipment would increase significantly.

If we could create a portable heating device powered by a fire spirit, we’d be able to move comfortably in this area. Plus, we could further enhance the power of enchanted weapons like the Red Lance. In fact, Hayama-kun had already enhanced his Red Lance using his own fire spirit. If Kyouko and I could also benefit from this kind of spirit-based enhancement, it would significantly boost our combat strength.

「Uhm, is it going to be that simple?」

「We won’t know until we try, but if it’s you, Hayama-kun, I think you’ll be fine.」

He may not be aware of it, but I believe his abilities as a spiritualist had been steadily, albeit gradually, improving throughout our journey. Since he had already managed to enchant a tool with a spirit, there was a good chance of success.

「What's my job then?」

「Kyouko, you'll be refining metal as a preparation step, but we don't have that much material as of now, so you might be able to finish this job quickly.」

What we had on hand was nothing more than a few metal utensils and tools that we took from yesterday’s house search. With Kyouko’s skills, she should be able to separate them into pure metal and impurities all at once.

「So, I'd like you to gather any useful items from the nearby houses.」

「Is it safe for Randou to do that by herself?」

「I think it should be fine to check the houses on either side of this church and that apartment-like building in front.」

We had Rem and Kinako to act as escorts, plus two Grimgores with us.

If we ran into an enemy that could wipe the floor with us immediately even with this lineup, we'd be wiped out even with our full team.

「That much is a piece of cake. Have a little faith in me, will you?」

「Just call for help when it becomes dangerous.」

「I'll send my offshoot to go along with you too so that I can keep an eye on Kyouko from here. Not that you'll even need to shout if you're in trouble.」

Hayama-kun was surprisingly cautious. But that kind of cautiousness was important when tackling dungeons. Those who were blessed with combat-related talents tended to rely on their strength and become careless.

No matter how cautious we were, we probably couldn't have prevented Takanashi's betrayal.

「But still… I don't think we'll find anything valuable just by searching places where ordinary people used to live.」

「Well, just retrieving the supplies makes things easier for us.」

「I got some yesterday too, but is that stuff really edible?」

「It's not that delicious in terms of taste, but it should be edible, right?」

「… Hey, Momokawa, I’ve been wondering since breakfast this morning—it seemed kinda different from usual… could it be that…」

「That's the stuff we retrieved from yesterday’s house. I defrosted it using 『Witch's Kettle』.」

"Urgh–!" Though he barely held it back, Hayama-kun looked like he was about to vomit just now.

「How cruel, are you toying with us!?」

「I did a poison taste test before. It’s safe.」

I’m an offshoot after all.

All the recovered food supplies were completely frozen in ice. This place was akin to a natural freezer. There was no way for bacteria to grow here.

Just like how ice cream didn’t have an expiration date, if something had been frozen the entire time, there was a good chance it was still edible.

「We can procure meat from hunting, but we can hardly get vegetables in this area. If the frozen food here is edible, we won’t have to worry about food supplies.」

As expected, not even I was brave enough to eat the ready-made food that had already been frozen in this place.

I chose to eat things like potato-like tubers, soybean-like legumes, carrot-like leafy vegetables, and something that looked like a fusion of lettuce and cabbage. Everything was carefully selected from those that had been completely sealed in ice.

Obviously, it lacked the freshness of something just harvested, but as you can see, we were eating it for breakfast without any issue, and there was no problem with the taste either.

「Hmm… I’m not that keen on doing that, but there's nothing wrong with having more stock of food ingredients.」

「Thanks, Kyouko.」

And so, preparations for conquering the area began, with the church's Fairy Plaza serving as our base for now.

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My first CN project, why waifu though? Well, coz the main heroine's job is buying soy sauce till the end of act 1

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Harem, Hero, Demon King, Seven Deadly Sin, Seven Virtue, Sacred Beast, Sword and Magic, Dystopian Future, DESTINY PROJECT HAD IT REALIZED!, Dungeon, Dragon, 72 Demons, Reincarnations

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