Chương 8: Out with the Old, In with the New 3

Chapter Eight Out with the Old, In with the New (3) In truth, Karath had been thinking about rebuilding the settlement's houses since spring. Ideally, he would have liked to construct homes similar to those he had known in the modern world, but that was impossible without reinforced steel or concrete. Even if those materials had been available, it would still have been impossible. Arnold had never studied architecture. How could he possibly design a modern house from nothing?

An earthen house, however, seemed simple enough to construct using only his basic knowledge. By early autumn, Karath had also begun wondering whether he could include traditional Korean ondol while building it. Until now, he had been dragged from one brawl to another and forced to participate in something that could barely be called hide-and-seek rather than survival training. He had never managed to find enough time to begin construction.

On the other hand, those constant delays had given him plenty of time to refine the idea in his head. By the time construction finally began, the entire plan had already been completed. That was why he had been able to direct the work exactly as he wanted from the very beginning. The villagers knew nothing about that process. Unable to understand what Karath was doing, the surrounding orcs stared at him with puzzled expressions.

"W-What exactly are you doing, Karath?"

"The fire will heat the floor and keep the house warm during winter!" When Grandfather Jark asked with a bewildered expression, Karath answered with a triumphant smile.

"Lighting a fire beneath the floor sounds like roasting your own body."

"The fire only needs to burn until the floor becomes warm. Once it grows too hot, we can extinguish it."

"Ah..." Jark had spoken on behalf of everyone, but the other orcs had clearly been wondering the same thing. Dozens of them voiced their realization at the same time.

"The heat has not reached the floor yet, but it will become warm after a little while." Karath spoke with complete confidence. Some villagers looked impressed, while others remained uncertain. The children who always trusted Karath, along with Jark and Delina, wore expressions of admiration. Chief Grild and most of the adult women still seemed unconvinced.

"Heating it will also make the floor harder, so the fire should remain lit for a little longer." Ignoring their mixed reactions, Karath asked everyone to continue cleaning the construction site. There was no need to argue. They would understand once they experienced the result themselves. By the time the site had been cleared, warmth had begun spreading across the floor.

"Oh. It should be ready now." Karath cautiously placed one foot on the ondol and confirmed that the surface had become sufficiently warm.

"Everyone, come and try it!" At his invitation, the orcs climbed onto the floor one after another, still wearing doubtful expressions.

"Oooooh!"

"Keh heh. This is something else."

"Wow! Karath, it is really warm!"

"Karath really is a genius!" Everyone who experienced the ondol, whether young or old, male or female, exclaimed in amazement.

"Heh heh heh." A strange sense of pride rose within Karath, and a suspicious chuckle escaped his lips. It did not last long.

"Me too! Mother, I want to try!"

"Is it truly that warm, Elder?" Once the first group began praising it, every nearby orc surged toward the floor.

"W-Wait! It has not hardened completely yet! The floor will collapse!" Karath nearly had a fit as he desperately tried to stop them. Construction continued the following day. The day's work focused on the roof and the remaining details. The workers sharpened the upper ends of the wooden pillars used to support the walls. Large beams with prepared holes were fitted onto those points, creating the basic frame of the roof.

Once the triangular structure had been assembled, Karath distributed several wooden molds to the women and children.

"Pack the clay into this and shape it like this, then bake it!" They were roof-tile molds that Karath had carved from wood earlier that morning. After several hours of work, the clay tiles were thoroughly fired and placed across the wooden roof frame. The roof was completed. In only two days, the tribe had successfully constructed an entire house.

"Ttara dara tta, ttarararan..." As Karath admired the finished building, a melody from a television program Arnold had enjoyed during elementary school naturally escaped his lips. The surrounding orcs had no idea what he was humming and merely stared at him in confusion.

"Now then, how has it changed?" Karath ignored their bewilderment and imitated the host of that old program as he opened the door made from branches and leaves. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"A cozy interior! A perfectly windproof structure that allows not even the slightest breeze inside!" From a modern perspective, the interior was empty and crude. Compared with the pitiful hut they had previously inhabited, however, it was practically paradise.

"And warm ondol that will carry us safely through the coming winter!" Karath extended one hand dramatically toward the masterpiece of which he was most proud. The exposed trench from the previous day was no longer visible. While the roof was being built, Karath had also completed the heating system's remaining details. An entrance shaped like a firebox had been constructed, along with a clay chimney that allowed the thick smoke to escape. A fire was already burning inside.

"Everyone, come inside!" Two days had passed since the foundation was filled. Since the ondol had also been heated at intervals since the previous day, the floor had hardened into a firm, level surface.

"Oooooh. It really is warm."

"Ho ho ho. With this, we truly may be able to pass the winter comfortably." The orcs entered Karath's new home in turns, and none of them could hide their amazement. More than mere admiration, their eyes were drawn helplessly toward a new form of shelter completely unlike the huts in which they had lived for decades.

"Karath, build our house next!"

"No, ours is more urgent! The branches in our roof are already rotting, and the whole thing is about to collapse!"

"Keh heh heh. I do not have many years left. I would like to live in a good house as soon as possible, Karath." The adult women began insisting that their homes should be rebuilt next. Even Grandfather Jark gazed at Karath with quiet expectation. Karath slowly examined the eager adults while considering whose house should be chosen next. A grin spread across his face. The answer was obvious.

"Then the next house will be..." The adults who had been loudly arguing for priority immediately fell silent.

"The chief's house!" The moment Karath mentioned the chief, everyone reacted with sudden understanding and turned toward Grild, who had been standing quietly behind them. The chief had turned his head slightly to the side. He was completely unable to hide the enormous smile spreading across his face. Beginning with the home occupied by Karath and his mother, a wave of large-scale construction swept through the Bloodclaw Tribe.

As Karath had promised, the second project was the home of Grild Bloodclaw, chief of the tribe. Grild lived there with his wife and their two young children. As befitted the chief, his hut was the largest in the settlement. Replacing it required far more work than rebuilding Karath's smaller home, but the construction time remained almost unchanged. During the first project, most of the time had been consumed by hardening the clay. Although the chief's foundation was wider, it was not significantly taller.

The number of wall layers remained similar. Furthermore, everyone had gained experience while building Karath's house. The second project was also completed in two days.

"Ttara dara tta, ttarararan..." After finishing the chief's house, Karath once again hummed the famous theme song while showing Grild and his wife their transformed home. The settlement had leaped directly from primitive huts to earthen houses. It was an advancement of at least several centuries. Karath had briefly considered expanding the design into a Joseon-era hanok while he was already building with clay. He thought about adding a sarangchae, an anchae, and a kitchen equipped with an agungi firebox.

He soon abandoned the idea. In such a harsh environment, those additions would have provided little practical benefit. In the end, the chief's new home became a large but simple earthen house, roughly twice the size of Karath's.

"Krahahahaha!" Despite the simplicity of the design, Grild laughed loudly enough to shake the settlement and appeared completely satisfied. Seeing the chief's broad smile caused one to spread across Karath's face as well. The orc laughing before him was the most powerful authority in the tribe. Orcs were descendants of warriors who respected the principle that the strong should rule. A single word from Grild, the tribe's strongest warrior, could set almost any project into motion.

To Karath, the situation felt like that of a newly enlisted private with the battalion commander personally supporting him. From then on, ordering around the corporals and sergeants, or rather the adult villagers, would become much easier. That advantage would matter once the next project began. For now, an enormous amount of construction still remained. Even after completing the chief's house, Karath's days remained relentlessly busy.

The Bloodclaw Tribe had a population of roughly one hundred and possessed twenty-two huts. Only two had been replaced. Twenty more remained.

"We will prepare the wood first."

"Karath, should we fill the foundation only up to this point?" Fortunately, after completing two houses, the women had begun to understand the construction process.

"Mother! I made this part!"

"Over here! I already dug the clay out! You can take it from here!" The children had also learned from their previous work. Although their ages were comparable to elementary and middle school students by human standards, each of them began working independently. Karath watched them and nodded with an expression far too mature for his age. Despite their frightening appearances and primitive lifestyle, orcs were not unintelligent. Their harsh environment had simply deprived them of knowledge.

Knowledge was something Karath could provide.

"Good. This time, we will build two houses simultaneously!" Once he confirmed that everyone had become familiar with the work, Karath began directing two construction sites at once.

"You only need to handle this section like this." Unlike during the first two projects, Karath no longer issued instructions for every individual task. He merely walked between the sites and offered advice whenever he noticed a problem. He behaved like a foreman at a Korean construction site.

"Oh, Brother Kaden, you are strong. Keep pushing a little longer."

"Aunt Gerina really is the best! I will leave this section to you." Karath scattered praise whenever necessary and continued putting the villagers to work.

"Ttara dara ttan, ttararara..." Every few days, whenever another house was completed, the theme song from Love House echoed through the Bloodclaw settlement. There was only one strange detail.

"Now then, how has it changed?" The orcs singing the song were no longer Karath. They were the children his age. Karath had grown tired of the performance after using it only twice.

"Karath! Karath! I want to do it this time!" The other children admired him and began copying the melody and lines whenever their own homes were completed. Before long, it became an unofficial rule that the eldest child of each household had to sing the theme song while opening the door to the new house. In time, that rule would become an ancient tradition performed whenever the Bloodclaw Tribe built a new home. Karath, of course, knew nothing about that distant future.

One month later, winter arrived in the monster-infested forest inhabited by the Bloodclaw Tribe. After approximately a month of construction, every hut in the settlement had already been transformed into an earthen house.

"Hmmmm... hmmm..." Karath lay sprawled across the warm ondol floor, lazily wiggling his feet as he enjoyed the heat. Going outside in such cold weather would have been madness. Avoiding this dreadful cold was the entire reason he had endured so much hardship to rebuild the settlement. Karath fully intended to enjoy the results of his month of labor.

"Karaaath! Come plaaaay!" The village children had no intention of allowing him to rest. They gathered outside his house and repeatedly called his name. Karath intended to ignore them and continue rolling around inside. Bang!

"Karath, what are you doing?" For some reason, it was not one of the children who threw open the door. Grandfather Jark entered instead.

"What? Karath was resting for a while." Karath looked at him in confusion.

"Winter hunting is the most difficult form of hunting. Even experienced adults struggle with it. Does that not mean the children require even more training during this season?"

"Training? Do you mean hide-and-seek?"

"Exactly." Karath almost asked whether Jark truly expected them to play in this weather. A vicious winter wind was already howling through the open doorway. The children would not simply be running around. They would have to hide and wait. They might freeze to death before the seeker ever found them. Karath wanted to voice every one of those complaints. Then he noticed the expectation filling Jark's eyes.

"Keh heh heh. I believe in you, Karath! You will turn every child into an outstanding warrior and hunter!" The elder's gaze conveyed the message even more clearly than his words. Karath wanted nothing more than to ignore those expectations. Unfortunately, he could not forget the grand claims he had made when introducing hide-and-seek. He had trapped himself with his own words.

With the miserable resignation of a pig being dragged toward the slaughterhouse, Karath rose from the warm floor and walked into the freezing wind outside.