Chapter 253: The Completion of Misphilt Sand Castle
Although I’m a bit worried about Tornell, I decide to just believe in him and head to the place where I had to do my job.
If I’m not mistaken, there was a building called a gazebo around the middle of the Misphilt’s castle garden for people to relax.
Though it will just be slightly mini-sized, I think I should also reproduce that.
Sure enough, a garden has to have a gazebo, huh.
I cast Earth magic and raise the sand in the garden.
The gazebo in Misphilt’s castle was octagon in shape. So I make an octagonal base and from there I make pillars that extend upward to the roof.
Hmm, it was roughly like this. What’s left is just to smoothen the roughness from the pillars and roof - which looks a bit lonesome.
Then it’s completed by decorating the pillars while being careful not to make the size of each pillar become different.
「I wonder if the courtyard is mostly completed with this?」
After completing the work of making the gazebo and where I can finally rest, I sigh in relief and take a look around me.
Hmm, it’s a beautiful artificially uniform Western-style garden.
The western-style garden has flowers and green color as its base but its nature is artificially made, expressing a symmetrical beauty based on including geometrically uniform shapes in its structure. Simply put, it looks just like it was designed by human hands.
On the other hand, Japanese garden uses the asymmetry of things of nature such as rocks, trees, moss, and flowers as they are to express the daily change according to the season. The garden is made to look like it doesn’t look as if it was modified by hands as much as possible, it places emphasis on how to show an appearance that is in harmony with nature.
It’s difficult to say which one is better between them, but the Western-style one looks fresh than the familiar Japanese-style garden.
(Western, Schwerin Garden, majestic looking)
(Japanese-style, Hikone castle Genkyuen, you can also check out Himeji castle, it's beautiful)
If I consider it to be a garden, it feels refreshing if I arrange it this way.
While I was making changes to the gazebo, the ground of the garden had been flattened, maybe Tornell had finished flattening them.
I wonder if he’s good at this kind of simple work and he doesn’t raise any particular complaints. There are no strange hollowed places, or even protruding places around.
I guess he’s on to the other side of the castle now, since I can hear the sound of tonbo flattening the ground from the back.
When I hear the somewhat regular sound like that, I know that he’s gotten quite used to the tool.
After checking that there is no problem with Tornell flattening the ground, I cast Earth magic on the ground and compress it to harden the sand.
Un, with this it probably won’t be a problem even if there are people entering the grounds.
After that, I make a ladder using Earth magic and climb on it, then I start making the windows on the castle’s main structure.
The whole castle is almost complete, so all that’s left is just to start working on the details.
Given that Misphilt castle is such a huge building, it naturally had a lot of windows.
So let’s make the windows and the brick patterns.
Though I said that, I don’t remember the exact position of the windows since I couldn’t see the castle until the fine details back then.
「Un, it’d be great if it can look like the real one」
It shouldn’t be about just making everything. If it looks like that, then people will be able to fully understand the reason for such things being built. So that’s why, it’s fine to make it looks like that.
I think like that in my mind as if I was trying to persuade myself while continuing to roughly recreate the windows and the brick pattern of the castle.
「Oーi! Alfried! I flattened the whole area around the castle!」
And when I was doing the work like so, Tornell call out to me in a lively voice while looking up from below.
It looks like he’s done.
「Ah, really? Then, go carve the veins of the flowers in the garden」
「You’re seriously asking me to do that!?」
「Just kidding. You can help with the castle gate or see their work, you’re free to do so」
「Okay! Then, I’ll go see the castle gate and return!」
After I said that, Tornell cheerfully heads for the castle gate’s direction as.
Now then, I’m also worried about the situation outside. I’ll quickly finish my work here and shall I go see them?
◆
「Ohー! I didn’t think to use seashells like that」
As I headed toward the castle gate after finishing my work, there was something much more stylish than I imagined awaiting me there.
The shape itself is the castle gate from the royal capital, but the big difference between them is that seashells and magic core fragments gathered on the beach are embedded on the wall of this castle gate.
It was really beautiful, with pale-colored shells embedded on the sandy-colored wall and the sense of translucence the magic core fragments give off. Those decorations really stands out, maybe it’s due to the whole castle gate being made of sand.
「I knew it, it was a mistake to use seashells and magic core fragments on the wall, right?」
「No, it’s not. I was surprised, like ‘Just as you’d expect from you’」
As I resolutely answer Kuina’s nervous question, Kuina sigh as though she’s relieved.
It will be unthinkable if this thing is not good. Rather thanks to Kuina, it could probably be said that this work gave people more of a ‘sea’ feeling to it.
If it were me then I will only increase the quality of the castle wall like an idiot, I wouldn’t think of decorating the castle wall using this kind of sea-like decorations.
Not only did the details become exquisite, but we also need to foster this kind of design.
「Oi, Alfried. You don’t recognize my great effort in it, huh?」
「Un? Eric’s work?……you mean this place where the angle of the seashell is a bit strange?」
There are many shells that are strangely slanted on the left side after all. Perhaps, they are Eric’s so-called ‘great effort’.
「Uguu! That’s right, but that’s not what I mean! Take a good look at the whole thing! You should understand the regularity!」
Hearing Eric's words and making a sullen look, I closely observe the castle gate once more.
Hm? A regularity that only I understand. Something I understand because I’m a noble, I wonder? Err, I don’t think there is something like that.
Then, something I’ve seen in the royal capital, so I will know about it?
As I stare at it while recalling the castle gate in the royal capital, I noticed a minor thing that has something like a regularity on it.
「……ah, could it be the spiral shell that expresses a hole where a soldier firing an arrow?」
「That’s right! By using the sharp and pointed spiral shell like that, it demonstrated aggression when it was defending」
After I answer him, Eric talks to me with his whole body and a triumphant look as if he was waiting for it.
Really, I don’t really know whether that was an amazing representation or not.
Kuina also has a wry smile on her face, and Tornell who had never seen the real thing appears to have completely no idea what’s happening.
Oh well, it’s fine as long as Eric enjoys making it.
「Oi, can I look inside now?」
「Ah! Me too! I never saw the interior so I want to see them!」
「Sureー. It’s already finished anyway」
After I approve their request, the two of them pass through the castle gate, and so Tornell and I also follow them.
「「………」」
The two of them are stunned as they look up at the mini-sized Misphilt castle.
Oi, I will still feel uncomfortable if you guys say nothing you know. Quickly speak up and praise it nicely, just like we did before.
「……I thought it was already amazing before, but the result is even greater than that」
「As for me, if anything this already seems like the real Misphilt castle」
Err, but still as expected people can’t live here anyway, and it would be a pity if the King were to live in a castle made of sand.
「Amazing. Even the pillars of the building were thoroughly decorated until the last one. Moreover, I can not find any irregular part among the eight pillars」
「Even each of the flowers is recreated here. Is it really possible to make things to this level if you mastered Earth magic like this?」
After Kuina and Eric observe the interior, they raise their voice in admiration.
Sure enough, the person who made it will feel happy if people were to notice the parts which he paid special attention. And it’s also understandable that Eric said something like that since he doesn’t realize it at first.
「You can already make a living using this kind of skill, isn’t it?」
「……yes, Alfried-sama is an amazingly impressive decorator than I am」
I received the seal approval of an expert, real decorator somehow.
Oh well, I like making buildings using Earth magic after all, so it might not be a bad idea to make a living like that.
But still, instead of letting it over as work, for me, I’d rather design it so that people can live in it and I can earn money as the landlord.
「Well, in any case, this means that everyone’s castle is finished, right?」
「Un, that’s right」
Everyone’s castle. Hearing that from Tornell, I feel a strange sense of accomplishment spreading in my heart like never before.
It’s a little different from when I made My Home alone. It’s a mysterious feeling.
I see, I guess this is the so-called enjoyment of making things with everyone, huh?
「Fuuh, it’s been a while since I played with sand seriously」
「Truly, it was fun」
Eric and Kuina’s expressions as they stated that were filled with a sense of accomplishment.
Eric - who said he don’t want to do it at the start - and even Kuina - who was being reserved - eventually looked as though they were really having fun.
「Hey hey, rather than that, did you guys notice it? I’m the one who flattened the ground here, y’know?」
「Aah, now that you mention it I’ve been hearing the sound of something scraping against the dirt」
「You can not make that kind of sound with your hands and feet, and this place will not be this flat, right? How did you do it?」
「Hehee, Alfried gave me a tool called tonbo. You can flatten the ground when you push and pull the ground with this pole, you know. It’s amazing, isn’t it?」
Perhaps it’s all due to the group work that the distant atmosphere between Eric, Kuina, and Tornell had completely disappeared.
Eric was bewildered at Tornell’s close sense of distance at first. And Kuina was uneasy and hesitant due to Eric's social status as a noble. However, it seemed that it was all blown away by the sense of solidarity of working together as a group and by means of understanding each other as another person.
Because of working together as a group with everyone, even I felt the joy of making things together with others again.
So this is the result of group work, huh? It’s not something you should make fun of unexpectedly.
Just as I was thinking about something like that, Tornell asks me in a fidgety manner.
「Hey, this break quickly, right?」
「I’ve hardened it with Earth magic, so it won’t break with a little impact」
「Then, can I brag about this to my friends? I want to show this thing to everyone!」
「Of course it’s fine. But, it’s almost evening and we’re staying in the mansion――」
「Yahoo! Then I will call my friends over」
I was about to tell him that we were going back to the mansion, but Tornell ran off without listening to the last part of my words, I guess he can’t wait to show his friends.
「Ah, wait oniichan! Eric-sama and Alfried-sama are going home, you have to say your farewell!」
Even when Kuina yelled at him, Tornell was already running over there.
He fully showed us his vigor as he was quite fast to run.
「I, I’m sorry! Even though you have taken care of us, oniichan did not even say his farewell!」
「I don’t mind. Don’t worry about us, go follow your older brother. He’s a restless guy after all」
「As for the sand castle, you can break it if you want, you can do anything to it」
「Yes, thank you very much! Well then, please excuse me!」
After we said those to her, Kuina quickly bows and starts to run off as if she was chasing after Tornell.
「I fully understand the feeling of having a hurried brother」
「Well, our sister is also full of spirit, so I can understand that feeling a bit」
It looks like each of our families has its own problem.
As we see Kuina off while keenly understanding the situation, we heard a strange-like yell coming from the direction of the resting place.
「Wawaa! This is terrible! Sylvio-sama! We, we have returned to the royal capital before we know it!」
「U, Ueeee? What do you mean Mina?」
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