Isekai Nonbiri Nouka Chapter 1066: Yame Wants to Surprise Village Chief

My name is Yame.

Lately, life on the island has been really fulfilling.

I’m happy.

-0-

Village Chief hasn’t been coming to the island lately because there is harvesting work to do in the village.

He had been coming every day, so I feel a little lonely.

Well, I’m sure he’ll come again once the harvest is over.

The ones remaining on the island are me, five High Elves, five Angels, and ten Lizardmen.

That’s about as many people as the inn base can accommodate.

I think the birds would somehow manage even if I left them alone, but I am worried about them too.

There are chicks that have only just hatched from their eggs, after all.

Since I’m staying on the island, I wonder if Village Chief told the High Elves, the Angels, and the Lizardmen to stay as well.

Sorry for dragging you into this.

Yuri, who operates the Arti-Horse Aqua, said that she would stay too, but everyone around her objected, so she went back.

She was pretty unhappy about it, though.

No matter what you say, she is the Demon King’s daughter.

I’m sure she has things she needs to do.

Anyway, those of us remaining on the island have been keeping busy with various things.

Village Chief told us that we only needed to do what we could, but we can’t just take advantage of his kindness.

Village Chief and the others are working on the harvest in the village, so we need to work properly too.

The seakins only come for the day, but they come to help us.

The seakins are looking for some kind of benefit for themselves, so there’s no need for us to hesitate about accepting their help.

Today, I had them help clean the bath by the beach.

It’s an outdoor bath, so if we aren’t careful, trash piles up there really quickly.

The bath needs to be kept clean.

Some of the seakins have taken an odd liking to that bath.

As long as they use it cleanly, there’s no problem.

The same goes for the showers.

-0-

A mountain of food has been brought to the island.

Enough to last for years if we left it alone.

Well, saying years is a bit much since food will eventually spoil, but there are magic tools that can keep things cold, so I think it should last at least a year.

The problem is cooking.

I understand that there are differences in experience, but I want to believe it’s some kind of mistake that I’m the best cook among us.

No, I don’t dislike cooking.

It’s just that there are so many ingredients and seasonings I’ve never seen before.

So I end up mostly making simple dishes like grilled meat and fish.

I can make hot pot too.

I learned how to make it from the oni maids when they came, so I can manage simple ones.

Simple ones.

I can’t make anything complicated.

If we want something more difficult, we’ll have to ask Village Chief when he comes next time.

-0-

With Village Chief not coming to the island, I started thinking.

Right now, there’s no way for us to leave the island.

In other words, there’s no way for me to get to Big Tree Village or Village Five on my own.

Isn’t that a problem?

If Ancestor-san or Rana-san, who can use teleportation magic, stop coming here, we’ll be completely isolated.

However, unlike before, I’ve now built friendly relationships with the seakins.

A ship… no, even a raft might be enough. If we had one, couldn’t we have the seakins pull us to the mainland?

When I asked the seakins, they said they could take us there.

Oh!

Then all we need is a raft!

I consulted the High Elves, the Angel, and the Lizardmen staying on the island.

I suggested that we build a raft.

-0-

It was rejected.

The reason was simple.

Village Chief likes making things like that.

Unless not having one would put our lives on the island at risk, there was no need to rush.

I see.

When they put it that way, they’re right.

We shouldn’t take away one of Village Chief’s favorite things to do.

We’ll talk to him when he comes next time.

Oh, right. I should tell the seakins about this too.

Otherwise, they might get ahead of themselves and bring us a sailing ship that had been lying on the sea floor.

Hahaha.

-0-

They had brought one.

A small sailing ship that could carry about ten people.

To the unfinished harbor.

The seakins were scraping off the barnacles that covered various parts of the ship.

Even though the hull was made of wood, it had suffered surprisingly little damage.

The sails, on the other hand, were completely tattered.

I wonder if only the hull had been protected by magic.

I think they should have protected the sails instead.

Apparently, it sank because they failed to take down the sails when they encountered a storm.

Ah, maybe they deactivated the magic protecting the sails at that time.

Anyway, it seems the sailing ship capsized spectacularly and sank.

Um, what about the people inside?

The seakins rescued them.

Thank goodness.

Are we supposed to use this sailing ship?

They said that as long as we replaced the sails, we could operate it ourselves.

Ah, thank you.

-0-

Everyone, gather around.

We need to discuss something.

Yes, the sailing ship.

You saw it, right?

What should we do with it?

Hide it?

Where?

No matter where we take it, we don’t have any sails.

Asking the seakins for help would be… They went out of their way to prepare it for us out of goodwill, so it would be difficult to ask them to help us hide it.

We have to figure something out ourselves.

We’ll figure something out somehow.

Let’s think.

-0-

We thought about it.

We decided to tell Village Chief honestly.

That sailing ship was a gift from the seakins, given to us out of goodwill.

Village Chief wouldn’t get angry.

So there wouldn’t be a problem with telling him honestly.

There’s no problem, but we should avoid disappointing Village Chief as much as possible.

All of us agreed on that.

But how could we do that?

We could turn his disappointment into a surprise.

How?

We thought about it.

We were stumped.

Then we came up with an idea.

Dig into the beach near the harbor and make a cave where we could hide the sailing ship.

Then the sailing ship would emerge from the hidden harbor.

Wouldn’t Village Chief be happy with that?

I’m not really sure why, but apparently a hidden harbor was a good idea.

One of the High Elves nodded deeply.

One of the Angels said that they understood too.

-0-

With that decided, we walked along the coast and chose a place to build the hidden harbor.

Then we started digging.

When it comes to digging, the multipurpose humanoid heavy machine comes to mind.

We considered using the underwater multipurpose humanoid heavy machinery on the island, but there was no one who could operate it.

The multipurpose humanoid heavy machinery cannot be operated by someone with a large amount of magic power for safety reasons.

The safety system activates and prevents it from operating.

Because of this, those with large amounts of magic power have to wear a pilot suit to suppress their magical power while also preventing their own magic from leaking outside.

We didn’t have a pilot suit.

Yuri’s was specially adjusted to fit her, and she had taken it back with her.

Well, there was no reason for her to leave it behind.

She has to wash it and everything.

-0-

There was no point thinking about something we couldn’t use.

We dug the cave using the excavation tools on the island and magic.

It was a good thing the sailing ship was small.

If it had been a large sailing ship, I would have cried.

But we managed to do it.

We dug a cave where the sailing ship could be hidden completely, and we also made a passage so that it could be used as a harbor.

Since it was a hidden harbor, it couldn’t stand out.

We worked hard to conceal it.

It couldn’t be visible from the sea.

We built a rocky hill along the path leading to the cave so that the cave couldn’t be seen from the sea.

It shouldn’t be discovered unless someone approached while knowing there was a cave there.

Building a rocky hill in the sea was difficult, but we managed to finish it.

At one point, when we had the help of the seakins, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe we should have just asked them to move the ship to the other side of the island.

No, we asked the seakins to help us surprise Village Chief, not to help us hide the ship.

So there’s no problem.

Don’t worry about the little details.

Our goal is to avoid disappointing Village Chief.

And to surprise him.

That’s all.

-0-

The hidden harbor was completed, and we stored the small sailing ship inside.

All we need now is a sail, and we should be able to set sail.

…Since the hidden harbor is inside a cave, there won’t be any wind, right?

How is the sailing ship supposed to leave?

Should we have the seakins push or pull it out, like when they brought it into the harbor?

That wouldn’t make for a very impressive departure.

If we’re going to surprise Village Chief, I want the ship to set sail with its sails spread out.

If that’s the case, how about making a hole at the back of the cave so the wind can pass through?

As long as the wind can pass through, magic should take care of the rest.

Yeah, I think that’ll work.

I’m sure Village Chief will be surprised.

-0-

Now then.

Yes, now then.

I calmly looked at the sailing ship docked in the hidden harbor, and I realized something…

Yeah, I only just realized it.

Can I say it?

Don’t cover your ears.

Isn’t this hidden harbor exactly the kind of thing Village Chief would want to make?

I asked the High Elves, the Angels, and the Lizardmen who had worked so hard together with me until now.

For some reason, none of them would look me in the eye.

-0-

High Elf「Let’s just leave the hidden harbor and sailing ship hidden…」

Angel「I’d like to do that, but let’s not. I’m scared of what will happen if he finds out.」

-0-

Village Chief「I’ll be surprised, but I won’t get angry.」