After finishing his shopping and returning to the forest that day, Aldis broke the story up at dinner.

The reason for this is the fact that the marquis of Tria was the sole owner of Nere's captivity, as far as I have gathered information in the royal capital for two days. It seems that no information has been passed on to King's Landing, and few people know about it. It seems that the Marquis is trying to cover up his blunder.

Well, then I guess I won't have to hide in plain sight.

　Nere nodded with satisfaction.

''So that's it. So you can walk around the front in King's Landing proudly ....... I'm not too keen on taking up lodgings or buying a house in King's Landing.

And why is that?

I'm sure that no matter how much they try to hide it, they will eventually find out about Filia and Liana, just as they did in Tria. If that's the case, it would be less dangerous to turn this place into a full-fledged residence.

　Of course, compared to living in the city, another danger was increased in the sense that there were wild beasts strutting around, but that wasn't much of a problem as long as Aldis and Nere were around.
　It was much easier to solve than the malice from the inhabitants, which was rather difficult to deal with.

'Besides, these girls would be better off in an environment where they could be outdoors more or less than they would be confined to the house all the time.

　Aldis and Nere's gaze fell on the twins.
　The sight of them holding a large loaf of bread in their hands and poking at it with both hands, the first large piece of bread they had eaten in a long time, unwittingly loosened Aldis' heart.

'If my Lord has decreed it so, I will only obey.

　Nayle states, as a matter of course.

'Good. Then let's make a house in earnest tomorrow.'

You're a fathead?　

I'm gonna tie you up in a knot.

　The twins opened their mouths one after the other with bread in their cheeks, but all that was uttered was words whose meaning could not be read.




　The next morning. After breakfast, Aldis and the others began to build the house.

We have to expand the grounds first. Nele, can you clear that area of land?　Just keep the wood piled up around here, so we can keep it piled up.

Yes, my Lord.

　When instructed, Nere cut away the perimeter of the hut with magic and burned the remaining stumps with hot flames.
　Aldis cut off the tree branches that were piled up one after another and used his magic to apply the drying process. In half a day, they should be dry.

　Next, he used his earth magic to dig up a portion of the land that Nere had carved out and baked it into a moderately sized block while pouring magic power into the soil.

''My Lord, is this good enough for you?''

Enough.

　After an hour or so, they had enough land to build a house on. It was about twice the size of the house Aldis and the others had lived in in Trier.

The next step is to use baked clay blocks as the main building material and later put up dried wood inside. I want to make a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a toilet and ...... a bathroom. The dirt we dug up will be turned into a basement for storage ......, and by the way, we should also make a hidden room for emergency evacuation in case something goes wrong ......, then we can put the dummy storage outdoors! ......

　The twins insisted as they picked up Aldis's clothes and tugged on them a little while she was lost in thought.

'Where's Aldis's room?'

You're not making it?

Hmm?　Yeah, I'll make it. Do you want my room, Nere's room, and ...... separate rooms for Filia and Liana?

I want to be with Aldis!

I'm sharing a room with Liana and her friends.

You've got plenty of space, why don't you get your own room?

　Then the squire interrupted him from the side.

"I'll stay in the same room with you, if that's alright with you.

No, that's just as well: ......

　Quickly, Aldis frowns.

　It's a temporary hut now, so even if it's a rough sleep, it can't be helped, but essentially Nere is also a woman of her age.
　It's not a good idea to have a young man in the same room as an apparently seventeen or eighteen year old maiden, although he speaks like a man.

　In the end, we decided to create a room for Nere and the twins as well, whether they use it or not.

We're not going to build an upstairs so that it won't be noticeable, but we're going to keep the basement of the house wide enough for that ......

My Lord. How about building a kiln to bake bread at the same time?

　It is true that if you go out to buy bread in bulk every time you go to the capital, your luggage will be too much.
　It would be less of a hassle to stock up on ingredients and bake them at home. It was not so difficult to keep the smoke from being noticed.

Can Nere make bread?

That's about as good as it gets.

　She was a woman of great versatility, after all.

'Right, well, I'll just make it next to the kitchen then.

　After deciding on a rough floor plan, Aldis immediately began to build the foundation.
　He shaped the surface of the hole he dug up, baked and hardened it while pouring magic power into it, and divided it into several rooms.
　After laying the blocks that would form the foundation of the floor on top of the basement, he covered it with earth and then covered it with more blocks.

　The main building material for the above-ground portion of the building is also magically baked blocks.
　The blocks were laid out like bricks stacked on top of each other to create the walls and roof.

　When I instructed Nere to secure the soil for the material because we ran out of blocks along the way, she brought in a large amount of soil from a little distance away and then began making the blocks on her own.
　It is Ardis's own method of baking the soil while pouring magic power into it, but without being taught, Nere can easily do the same thing.
　If it's a simple power comparison, Ardis doesn't feel like losing. But in terms of mystery, Nere was even more unfathomable than Ardis.

　That's it for the first day's work.

　On the second day, the wood that had finished drying was processed to cover the floors, ceilings and walls of the room.
　The leftover wood will be used for furniture such as tables and chairs, as well as doors in the entrance and each room.

　The vacant space on the property was taken up for exercise space for working out, space for wood and lumber, and finally a small gardening area was built right next to the house.
　Even though they were now able to go outdoors, the twins were not free to go into the woods or to other cities, so I hoped that gardening would provide some relief from their boredom.

'Well, it's taking shape now. From now on, this will be our home, not the cabin.

So you're moving out?

Do you do it now?

Yeah, we'll get the stuff from the shed. You two, you wanna help me with that?

Yeah, and Filia and her friends will carry your clothes!

Liana and her friends will carry the bread.

　Answering cheerfully, the twins ran to the cabin.

　After seeing them off, Aldis took a quick look at the new house that had just been completed.
　The details still needed to be worked on, and there were many things missing.
　But for now, Aldis felt a small sense of satisfaction at having a place to sit down and relax.

''We also need ......, a bed, a fireplace, wood chopping tools, and I'm still missing some cooking utensils. I'll have to buy more sundries, and I don't have time to go to work for the time being or ....... I still have plenty of money ...... to spend, though.

"My Lord. If you are short, I have about sixty gold pieces in my custody.

No, that's Nele's share.

　Apparently, Nere doesn't intend to use the reward personally.
　He only receives his share of the money when he hunts, saying 'I'll keep it with me', but he doesn't seem to be aware that it's his property.
　Of course, they seemed to spend a minimum amount of money, but that was only to spend a few silver coins.

'I still have enough on hand. I don't need to spend Nere's money.

　Aldis has roughly more than eighty gold coins on hand.
　If we live rent-free, we can live for a few years.

''I'll go out to King's Landing tomorrow to buy some more sundries and bedding.

What do I need to do?

　As long as we leave the twins here, one of Aldis or Nere must stay behind to protect them both from the beast.

　If it came down to either, it would be better to leave Nere behind and let Aldis operate out in the field.
　Even though it hadn't been arranged outwardly, it was still possible that the Marquis of Trier was secretly looking for Nere.

'Sorry, I'm not home.

Yes, my Lord.

　Nere shows no complaint and bows his head reverently (grudgingly).

　He set up a house outside the city and hid the twins' presence from the public eye. The reason why this kind of choice is possible is because of the presence of Nere, who can be trusted with the twins while they are away.
　If Aldis is alone, she will have to take the twins around with her, knowing the risks involved, or rent a house in the city as before.

　Thanks to Nere, Aldis is able to gain freedom of action.
　Though she didn't say it, Aldis was grateful for it.

'I'll leave you in charge of your absence,'

　Instead of words of thanks, what came out of his mouth was words of trust.
　Hearing this, Nayle smiled back with satisfaction.