Chapter 12

Sora, who was brought back to the room, sat down on the canopy bed.

The room was dark, but the clouds had cleared, and the moonlight was shining into the room. At the window, the leaves of the ice plant in a small pot faintly reflected the moonlight.

Sora was scrutinizing the map of the surrounding area that he had copied in the lord's office. Although he had adjusted it to be illuminated by the moonlight, the fine details were not visible.

However, Sora had memorized most of it from repeatedly studying it, so he was not bothered by this.

"Production itself isn't that difficult. The problem is the storage location..."

Sora pressed his temples to ward off drowsiness while thinking.

What was troubling him was the storage location for the fuel.

With the labor force of the street children secured, production was on track. The lord's mansion garden, where Sora lived, was being used as the production site.

"Building a secret base, huh. I must have come up with a childish reason even to myself."

Sora chuckled, recalling the lie he had told to keep the servants away from the garden. The street children had been given children's clothes made by Lazzette and were allowed to enter the lord's mansion as Sora's friends. Lazzette had also brought a fisherman from her hometown to supervise the street children.

"Should we release it to the market as soon as it's ready? No, it would be unwise for the production rate to be known."

While he had said that they would produce enough fuel for the entire town to survive the winter, in reality, they could only produce just enough to barely get through the winter. Depending on the production rate, even that might be difficult.

They would need to stockpile fuel until just before people started dying from the cold and then release it all at once to the market. Otherwise, the townspeople would not feel reassured, and a fuel scramble would begin. It would be similar to a rice riot.

"A spacious place to store a significant amount of fuel, hidden from the Wooddora Trading Company and the church."

Using the lord's mansion would be ideal, but there was a high risk that Mina would report to the pig father. If that happened, the production method would be taken away.

On the other hand, if they rented a warehouse in town, the firewood that the street children had stockpiled would be "attacked by unknown men" just like before. In that case, the church would sell it at an exorbitant price.

In other words, there was no safe place in town.

"The only option is to find a shed outside the town where it won't be easily noticed. Damn, I'm too busy to study magic. Once this is over, I'll definitely touch the animal ears to my heart's content."

Sora picked out a location outside the town that would not be easily noticed. The night before the operation passed in this way.

In the morning, Sora woke up to the sound of birds chirping, got out of the blanket, and yawned.

Immediately, there was a knock on the door, and Lazzette came in. The hair above her right ear was sticking up, probably from bedhead.

"Good morning, Lazzette."

"Good morning, Sora-sama. I've brought the sawdust."

Lazzette opened the curtains and pointed to the backyard, where five children were standing.

The children, wearing the clothes Lazzette had made and having cleaned themselves a bit, were huddled in a corner of the backyard, looking around nervously.

"What about the older ones?"

"I've had them carry the sawdust. I've assigned the fisherman, Zes, to supervise them, so there's no need to worry."

"Alright, let's get started."

Sora waved to the street children in the backyard. They seemed to be discussing whether to turn around or not. In the end, they bowed their heads in response without turning around.

"So, what are we going to do with the sawdust?"

Lazzette, playing with her bedhead, asked.

Sora handed her a water jug.

"We're going to make ogalite."

Ogalite is an artificial firewood made by burning and solidifying sawdust. Ogalite, which allows for the reuse of sawdust produced during wood processing, has many advantages, such as producing less ash when burned out, and supported Japan's economic growth during the Showa era.

"It will be a bit crude without the proper equipment. Is the incinerator ready?"

"Absolutely. Should I teach the children the procedure, or keep it a secret?"

Lazzette, wetting her fingers with water from the jug, was trying to fix her bedhead.

"Let's teach them. Come on, let's go."

Sora urged Lazzette to follow and started walking. Children, with their large heads relative to their bodies, are prone to losing balance over small things and can be dangerous without someone nearby.

Lazzette carefully fixed her bedhead and walked beside Sora.

"Is the bedhead fixed now?"

"...Give up."

The two confirmed that there was no one else in the backyard besides the children. It seemed that no one was peering from the windows of the mansion.

The backyard, overgrown with untended shrubs, made it difficult to spot the short children even if someone were to peek.

Sora had the older group, who had finished carrying the sawdust, line up. He instructed Lazzette to alert him if anyone approached. Sora clapped his hands to get the children's attention.

"I'll explain the procedure. First, fill this container with finely chopped sawdust."

Sora lifted a metal cylinder, which he had had the town's blacksmith and hardware store modify from several bread pans. The bread pans had been reluctantly provided by the mansion's cooks.

Sora felt bad about inconveniencing the cooks, but there was a shortage of iron in this domain.

Sora filled the metal cylinder with sawdust and handed it to the children.

"Next, heat it and apply pressure. This part is a bit dangerous, so we'll have the older members of the sawdust collection team do it. The work area is the incinerator over there."

The incinerator Sora indicated with his chin was a large structure made of stacked stones.

"Once that's done, let it cool for a while to complete. We'll check to make sure it burns properly. Any questions?"

"Will the sawdust catch fire when heated?"

One of the children said hesitantly. The other children made a gesture with their index fingers to their lips, signaling not to talk back.

"It will catch fire if exposed directly to flame, but it should be fine since we're heating it in the cylinder. Any other questions?"

The children looked at Sora curiously, as he seemed completely unconcerned.

From his "petty" comment last night, his attitude towards the beast people, and this interaction, some of them had concluded that he was more approachable than the nobles they had heard about and smiled, whispering to each other.

Please do not attempt to replicate the procedure for making ogalite.

It can explode if done incorrectly.

Text corrections made on August 8

Revised on December 14