Developing End Village (Part 1)

A few days had passed since we found the flower field, and I had spent almost every single day cooped up in the lab, making different kinds of shampoo and soaps.

I don't really know why, but I found it pretty fun to create all those substances with the materials we gathered for ourselves.

I also built a pretty big bathtub outside the house by molding clay using earth magic and a shower that worked with a water enchantment for spraying, and a fire enchantment for heating it up.

For the tub, we just had to fill up and heat up with magic anytime we wanted to use it, so no enchantments were needed.

The first time I took a dip, Yoru joined me instantly. He seemed to really like the bath, even though I thought a wolf would hate it.

A few moments later, Vespera showed up and joined us. At first I didn't notice since I had my eyes closed and my face looking up, but then I got seriously embarrassed when I noticed her.

"Uhhh, Vespera?"

"Yeah? What's up?" she asked.

"Umm, y-you are naked…"

"Right… Is that not how you take a bath?"

"T-that's not what I meant… Nevermind."

"You are wondering if I don't feel embarrassed being naked in front of you…"

"I mean… Yeah, pretty much."

"Ichiro, you are my master. Of course, I don't care if you see me naked. Besides, Legendary Beasts don't feel as embarrassed as the other races just for merely showing our bodies." said Vespera as she dipped her body even lower.

"I… suppose that if you don't care… then it's fine."

And that's how my two familiars started joining me on every single bath that I took.

__________

I ended up bringing all of my new products to Mr. Olliver at End Village. At first, he seemed really excited when inspecting all the shampoos and soaps. But that feeling quickly dissipated when reality hit us.

"Ichiro, these products are great, but…"

Mr. Olliver went on to explain that people in the village didn't have tubs in their homes, most of them didn't even have bathrooms.

Everyone just went to the nearby lake to the west to dip their bodies in water, and used the public bathrooms.

Out of the 60~ villagers, only around 15 used soap, and their soap was nothing compared to the ones I was bringing.

Olliver was one of the few villagers that managed to get soap from the town of Speranza. He showed it to me, and truly, it was nothing special.

It was a white soap bar that smelled a bit like baby powder. It didn't smell terrible, but it wouldn't be my first choice for a soap, that's for sure.

"Hmmm, if they can't take a bath at home… then… maybe they just need a place where they can!" The lightbulb on top of my head lit up.

'Time for another timeless classic, I suppose…'

I went over to Jackson's place with Mr. Olliver.

I told him he didn't have to close his shop, but his curiosity got the best of him, and decided to close for the day.

When I showed the products to Jackson, he let out a pretty loud laugh.

"I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore!" He said while patting my shoulder.

"Although, Mr. Olliver is right. It would be hard for people to find a use for these products here. I'm sure that it would sell a lot in a town like Speranza or the capital."

"Hmm, nah. I want the people here to use them. I actually had this idea in mind…" I went on to explain my idea to both Jackson and Mr. Olliver. Build a hot spring!

Of course, they had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to go into detail on what a hot spring was.

To build this place, I was going to need the help of my familiars, whom I had kept a secret from everyone in town all this time.

I did want to change that, though, considering that Vespera liked talking to people and visiting other places.

I asked both Jackson and Mr. Olliver not to get scared, and then both of my familiars emerged from my shadow in the living room.

"This is Yoru, a moonwolf I found when he was a puppy in the forest. We don't know how he got there, though." I said while petting Yoru in the head.

"And this is Vespera, she is… uhh… A Legendary Beast…" I muttered.

Both Jackson and Olliver's eyes widened with surprise and a bit of fear.

"A Le-Legendary Beast, you say…?" stammered Jackson.

"It's nice to meet you. I am Vespera, the Queen Demon Spider," she said with a little bow and a smirk on her face.

Jackson and Olliver were stiff after the introduction, but I kept explaining my plan, and gradually, they got acquainted with Yoru and Vespera with no problems.

I also told them that we had a pack of shadow dogs looking for the goblin cave. I wanted Jackson to tell the other adventurers that were scouting the forest that; if they found a shadow dog, not to attack them.

The next day, we began the construction of the End Hot Spring.

It was actually quite tricky to build, even using nature and earth magic. This was the biggest building that I tried to make, and after that, we would have to fill up the place with tons of different enchantments.

'I don't even think my house counts as a building… I just carved the inside of a giant tree…This is definitely my biggest building project to date.'

With the help of Vespera, who could also cast nature and earth magic, we built the entire place in just one day.

It wasn't fully ready since it still needed all the appliances inside, but that would only take us half a day at most.

While I added all the finishing touches and enchantments to the hot spring, I had my familiars help upgrade the town's fence.

It was a small, wooden fence that seemed like it would collapse if only one goblin hit it with a club. So, I had Vespera use her earth magic to erect a much nicer wall around the village.

While Vespera taught me about the world and how to read, I taught her science and about the different elements that we could find in magic.

That's how Vespera learned how to use earth magic to create concrete, and with that, she began building a nice concrete wall to protect End Village.

After I was done with the hot spring, I told Jackson to gather all the villagers in front of the building.

They all seemed pretty surprised with the outside of the hot spring. I mean, it was technically the biggest building in the village at the moment, so its presence was pretty powerful.

At first, I tried explaining how everything worked inside, but people looked extremely confused, so I thought it would be better if we just showed them how everything worked.

I asked Vespera to give the women a tour and show them how to use their facilities while I took the men on our side.

"First, you go on to the changing rooms. Always make sure you are entering the men's room, or you are gonna have a bad time! Anyways, you take off your clothes and put them in these drawers, then get some towels."

Thanks to Vespera's "Master Weaver" skill, we were able to make cotton towels.

The way it worked was pretty simple and, frankly, kind of overpowered. Vespera was able to copy and recreate any fabric that she came in contact with.

So, as soon as she got her hands on something that was made of cotton, she was able to simply create cotton inside her body, then the fabric would come out from the little gap between her fingers and nails.

She was my source of new clothing.

'That's a Legendary Beast spider for you!'

"After you are done here, you go to the showers…" I said as I showed the men of the village how to use shampoo and soap and how to take a shower in general. Of course, we used the shampoos and soaps that I made.

"From here, you can move on to the tubs. There are three types: The indoor tub, the outdoor tub, and the herbal bath…"

I went through each of the tubs to show everyone how they worked, even though they technically worked the same way.

The indoor tub was pretty big. It could hold at least 20 people easily.

The outdoor tub was my favorite since I always thought it's more relaxing to bathe under the sky. We also had a little stone waterfall added to them, which just made the experience a bit more enjoyable.

The herbal baths were a last-minute decision that I added. There were five individual tubs on each of the men's and women's sides.

The main reason I added them was because we found all those aromatic flowers and herbs in the flower field, so it just seemed like a good decision, but… I also remembered how those herbal baths were my wife's favorite in my old world, which made me feel quite nostalgic and sad.

After we were done showing the villagers the facilities, I asked them to gather again in front of the building. Everyone seemed pretty impressed and happy about the place, but I was just getting started.

"Everyone!" I yelled, and the villagers slowly quieted down.

"I uhh… wanted to ask you for permission to do something…". The people started murmuring to each other, but I could hear some of their whispers.

"What do you think it is?"

"Do you think he wants payment for that "hot spring" place?"

"No, no, our Ichiro is not like that…"

"Guys, I don't want payment or anything for the hot spring. I wanted your permission to demolish your houses and build new ones!" I yelled, but the people stood there in silence.

Before I started panicking, I organized my thoughts and explained myself to them. I told them I wouldn't just be demolishing the town and building it back up.

Everyday, we would pick one or two houses to take down and completely rebuild them on the same day. That way, nobody would end up homeless, even for a day.

"But Ichiro… What can we give you in return? You have already done so much for us…" said one of the villagers.

"I never wanted anything in return… I'm doing this because I want to. I think the people of this village deserve a better life. That's all there is to it."

The villagers were perplexed. The fact that someone helped their village without asking for anything in return was something they had never seen before.

I actually did care for the villagers, though, and doing building projects like these was pretty fun for me. I could make people happy while also doing fun projects.

'This is just great, honestly.'

After a few more seconds of silence from the villagers, Jackson asked them to raise their hands if they accepted my proposition.

All of the villagers raised their hands with a smile, and my heart warmed up even more to them.

'They trust me enough to destroy and rebuild their homes… I promise I'll give you guys the best I can do!'