Chương 7: Out with the Old, In with the New

Chapter Seven Out with the Old, In with the New Jark Bloodclaw had been keeping a close eye on Karath ever since their argument over hide-and-seek. It was not out of suspicion or hostility. Quite the opposite. On the evening of the Harvest Festival, Jark quietly followed the child after noticing him slip away while carrying a burning stick. That was how he discovered the small earthen house Karath had constructed.

"Many children freeze to death every winter." Jark had initially dismissed it as nothing more than a child playing with mud. Once he heard the purpose behind it, however, he could not help being shocked.

"Keh heh heh heh!" It was such a delightful surprise that the elder laughed heartily for quite some time.

"So you are saying that you discovered a way to build houses far better than the ones we have now, all so the village children will no longer freeze to death?"

"Yes! That is exactly what Karath means!" After Jark finally managed to stop laughing, Karath answered with bold confidence.

"Keh heh! Good! Very good!" The elder seemed pleased by the boy's fearless attitude and burst into another hearty laugh. Such confidence was exactly how a young orc male should behave.

"But it is already late. You should return home now. Keeping a fire burning after dark is dangerous."

"The clay has not hardened yet. Could Karath continue for just a little longer, Grandfather? He wants to show you the properly completed version."

"Do not worry about that. I will take care of it." Jark's tone remained gentle but firm, making it clear that he would not compromise on this matter, no matter how fond he was of Karath. A small flame during the early evening was still acceptable, but keeping one lit after complete darkness settled over the forest was dangerous. It would be the same as announcing to every monster nearby that a meal was waiting to be eaten. That was also why the Harvest Festival ritual was held before night fully arrived.

Jark had no intention of ignoring Karath's proposal, however. After making the boy extinguish the fire and return home, the elder immediately headed toward the chief's hut. Beginning the morning after the Harvest Festival, an unprecedented construction project commenced in the orc settlement. Karath had expected that he would need to persuade numerous adults. Contrary to those expectations, everything moved remarkably quickly.

"Hmm..." The following morning, several orcs gathered around the miniature earthen house Karath had built. Almost all the adult males were away hunting or patrolling, but roughly half of the settlement's adult female orcs had gathered there. The others were either searching the nearby forest for wood, fruit, and medicinal plants or caring for infants. One of the only two adult male orcs currently present was Grild Bloodclaw.

As chief of the Bloodclaw Tribe and the one who had summoned everyone, Grild studied the model house with an unreadable expression before turning toward Karath.

"Jark told me what happened. You want to build a better house so that we can survive the winter more easily."

"Yes, Chief!" As the greatest warrior in the settlement, Grild also possessed what was considered the most fearsome face in the village. That distinction only existed by orc standards. From the perspective of someone who had once been human, every adult male orc looked terrifying. They merely possessed different varieties of terrifying faces. After eight years of living among orcs, Karath had grown accustomed to them. Grild's appearance was simply one more distinctively frightening face among many.

Karath therefore stepped forward and answered without the slightest hesitation. Apparently pleased by the boy's confidence, Grild exposed his savage tusks in a satisfied smile.

"Considering what happened with hide-and-seek, as well as Jark's account of this proposal, I believe it is worth attempting." The chief glanced toward Grandfather Jark, the only other adult male orc present.

"However, we cannot recklessly rebuild every house based on an unproven idea. We will begin by constructing a single house according to Karath's method." Grild slowly surveyed the surrounding orcs.

"First, we must decide whose house will be used." Unsurprisingly, the villagers avoided his gaze. None of them wanted to lose their home because of what might still be nothing more than a child's experiment.

"Chief, why not begin with our house?" An unexpected person stepped forward. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

"M-Mother?" It was Delina, the woman who had raised Karath in this world.

"Parents must take responsibility for what their children do, Chief. More importantly, I believe in the child born to my husband and me." Hearing that his mother trusted him filled Karath's chest with emotion. He silently promised that he would build her a proper home. Grild seemed equally pleased by Delina's answer and once again revealed his fierce tusks in a smile.

"Good. Then we will begin with the home of Delina and Karath!" With the chief's declaration, the first construction project began.

"Heh heh heh." Shortly after construction began, Karath wore a smile so broad that it nearly reached his ears. He was finally going to escape the miserable hut. Better still, he had been granted complete authority over the construction.

"Aunt Gerina, please gather large wooden poles from the forest with the others!"

"Mother, please dismantle our old house with the other women!" In one sense, giving Karath control was only natural. He was the one who had created the model house. Even so, he was only eight years old. Karath had fully expected the adults to dismiss his instructions because of his age. Instead, Chief Grild had casually entrusted him with the entire project.

"Over here! Put the stones and soil here!"

"Keep the wood stacked to the side!" To repay Grild's trust, and to ensure that the house he would eventually live in was built properly, Karath devoted himself to directing the work. Arnold had once served as the head of a small game company. Before dying from overwork, he had even hired additional employees for a large project. Managing hundreds of workers might have been difficult, but directing twenty or thirty people was well within his experience.

"Yes, place that there. Wait! Do not put soil or stones in that section!" After the work had continued for some time, Karath stopped the women filling the old hut site. A pit dwelling was constructed by digging into the ground, planting a central wooden pillar, and covering the surrounding area with branches, leaves, and tree trunks to create a roof. It was essentially a partially underground house.

At this early stage of construction, the women were filling the excavated foundation of the old hut with soil and stones. Karath deliberately ordered them to leave one narrow section of the pit unfilled.

"Why are you leaving that part empty?" Chief Grild, who had been observing Karath direct the work, asked with a puzzled expression. Grandfather Jark and the others looked equally confused.

"Karath has something planned. He will show everyone after it is completed." Rather than offer a detailed explanation, Karath merely displayed a confident smile. Revealing such things only after the final result was complete always created a stronger impression.

"Very well. Since we entrusted the work to you, we will continue watching." Perhaps persuaded by Karath's confidence, Grild chuckled and asked no further questions. Construction resumed. Apart from the single trench Karath deliberately preserved, the old hut site was soon completely filled. Karath found directing the project surprisingly satisfying. The physical strength of orcs truly was extraordinary. Every worker currently following his instructions was an adult woman. They were not human women, however.

They were orcs. Despite being female, each of them possessed strength comparable to an ordinary adult human male. In truth, they surpassed human men by a considerable margin.

"Hup." Delina effortlessly lifted a massive stone from the ground. The power in her sturdy thighs and core was remarkable.

"Should I place this here?" Gerina casually asked while carrying a bundle of wood weighing several dozen kilograms across one shoulder.

"Aunt, that will not fit there!" Orcs were not perfect merely because they were physically powerful. Those battle-obsessed fools did not enjoy thinking any more than necessary. The same was true of the female orcs. They were not unintelligent. They simply found thought bothersome whenever the subject was unrelated to combat or survival. Even now, while fitting stones together to form the wall frame, several women brought rocks far too large for the available spaces.

"You need to find a stone that fits this gap."

"Oh, is that so?" Gerina tilted her head at Karath's complaint and dropped the enormous stone onto the ground with a heavy thud. Then she pulled the portable stone knife hanging from her clothing. She placed the blade against the large rock like a chisel and struck it with another stone. Bang!

"A-Aunt?" Bang! Bang! Gerina ignored Karath's astonished call and repeatedly hammered the stone knife. Crack! Split! Unable to endure the repeated blows, the massive rock finally broke into two pieces. Gerina smiled innocently.

"What about this, Karath? It should fit now, right?"

"Ah... yes." Karath answered awkwardly after staring at the absurd scene in a daze. He needed to correct his earlier conclusion. The orcs did not dislike thinking. Their bodies were so capable that thinking was often unnecessary. Perhaps the usual saying had things backward when it came to orcs. When the body was this powerful, the mind had no reason to suffer. Despite such minor incidents, construction continued steadily.

"Karath! Let us play!"

"Mother, what are you doing here?" The young orcs who had been playing throughout the settlement gradually became interested in the construction site. One by one, they approached and transformed themselves into additional workers. By human standards, a construction site would have been far too dangerous for children. Those children, however, were young fighting machines hardened through daily brawls and survival games.

"Mother, should the mud go here?"

"Heh heh. This is fun!" Once the women arranged the larger stones into a frame, the children fitted smaller rocks into the gaps and spread clay across the surface to hold everything together. Before long, the construction site resembled a group of mothers playing with mud alongside their children. The scale of their mud play was simply enormous. Bang! Occasionally, a huge rock shattered violently in the middle of the activity. It was an entirely ordinary orcish scene.

Unlike the miniature model, the actual house needed enough width and height to accommodate several orcs. They could not simply pile up stones and cover them with clay without additional preparation. Fwoosh. Karath held wooden sticks over a fire he had prepared earlier until they caught flame.

"Heat that section and harden it!" Whenever another layer of the wall was completed, the workers applied fire to harden the clay before continuing. This allowed construction to proceed far more quickly. The work continued until early evening. Karath could hardly believe the result. In only a single day, they had nearly completed the walls. If they installed the roof and finished the remaining details the next day, the entire house would be completed in only two days.

At this speed, replacing every hut in the settlement with an earthen house within a month genuinely seemed possible. The village contained twenty-two huts for a population of roughly one hundred orcs. Karath and Delina were unusual in living alone together. Most huts housed five or six people. Progress had been slower that day because it was everyone's first attempt, and because hardening the clay required more time than stacking the walls.

After several more construction projects, the villagers would probably become extraordinarily efficient.

"The sun will set soon, so we will stop here for today!" As early evening approached, Karath ordered everyone to end the day's work. While the workers, or rather the women and children, cleaned the site, he began implementing the final feature he had planned. The narrow trench he had preserved within the old hut foundation had been covered with flat stones. Clay had been spread thickly over them, creating a floor above the hollow space like a roof.

Karath placed dried grass inside the trench, carried over an ember from the still-burning fire, and ignited it. Fwoosh. By leaving an empty channel beneath the house and lighting a fire inside it, heat would spread through the entire floor. Karath had recreated ondol, the traditional underfloor heating system, within the orc settlement.