I gradually surveyed the island and found that the southern coast was a sandy beach.
Every other part of the shore was sheer rock.
The port was currently under construction on the west side.
There weren't any dramatic cliffs like the ones you'd see in a TV drama.
The center of the island was a mountain, and my house was slated to be built halfway up its southern slope.
I'd love to climb to the summit someday.
I sketched it onto the map I was making.
I didn't know the exact size of the island, but walking the entire perimeter took more than three days.
It took me about five days, while the High Elves or Gulf could make the circuit in two.
The Inferno Wolves managed to run the whole perimeter in a single day.
According to Yame-san, it took her about ten days to circle the island, but that was probably because she spent time foraging for food and searching for places to sleep along the way.
Not all of the coastline was easy to walk on, either.
Incidentally, I used Shiso-sama's teleportation magic to return to the village and the base inn countless times.
It felt a little like cheating.
I spread out my handmade island map on the desk, then pulled out the map drawn by the High Elves that I had kept hidden, laying them side by side.
……
You could say my map captured the defining contours of the island quite well.
Yeah.
For an amateur like me, hadn't I done a pretty good job?
I was definitely patting myself on the back here.
However, my map couldn't be used for official purposes.
That would cause serious trouble in an emergency.
So, my map was…… destined to be framed and hung in my room back at the village.
That was fine.
I was satisfied with it.
There was no lighthouse in Shashato City itself, but there was one nearby.
However, it was low.
Far lower than I had expected.
Only about three stories tall.
And it wasn't a tower.
It was shaped like a pyramid.
Could it actually function properly as a lighthouse looking like that?
If it were just the structure alone, it probably wouldn't work well.
However, the ground it stood on was quite elevated.
Therefore, the lighthouse ended up being a respectable height above sea level.
I see.
In the end, all that mattered was securing sufficient elevation for the light.
Besides, a lighthouse was a navigational landmark and didn't strictly have to mark a port.
As long as sailors recognized it, it could be placed anywhere.
In other words, there was no need to build the island's lighthouse right at the port either.
We just had to put it on high ground somewhere on the island.
Plus, there was no need to stick to a traditional tower shape.
As long as it fulfilled the function of a lighthouse, any kind of building would do.
If that was the case, we should easily be able to construct one.
It looked like I could give a favorable reply to the Sea Race.
Ah, but the lighthouse manager posed a real problem.
Beyond simply installing a magic tool that turned on the light automatically at night or during bad weather, we needed someone to check that the magic tool was working properly.
At the lighthouse near Shashato City, the manager lived inside the lighthouse with their family.
If we built a lighthouse on the island, we'd have to station someone as a dedicated manager in the same way.
Leave it to a golem?
That had to be a last resort.
Relying on golems for every little thing wasn't a good habit.
Besides, we couldn't obtain large magic stones on this island.
Maybe I should ask the Sea Race if they could spare someone for the job.
Down on the sandy beach, I put a large amount of seawater into a pot and set it to boil.
What was I doing?
Extracting salt from seawater.
I knew there were more efficient methods, but I decided to start with the simplest one.
Once about half the seawater in the pot evaporated, I poured more in.
What I was doing was essentially the same principle as distilling water.
Since my goal was the residue left behind, I let the steam escape straight into the sky this time.
By creating highly concentrated brine, I would eventually obtain salt.
Simple enough.
However, word was that salt made through this method didn't taste very good.
Still, that was just hearsay.
I had to try it myself and see how it tasted.
……
Yeah, not great.
It was bitter.
Then came the matter of the house to be built in the center of the island.
Following a proposal from the High Elves, who had weathered the island's fierce rain and wind firsthand, its structure underwent a major overhaul.
Initially, the plan was to build a three-story house in a spot with a great view, but that idea was scrapped.
Instead, we decided to carve into the mountainside and embed part of the house directly into the rock.
The idea was to improve the building's durability by supporting it not just from the ground, but with the surrounding stone walls as well.
Not bad.
Or so I thought, until someone pointed out that rocks might fall from higher up the mountain.
Rockfalls were definitely a valid concern.
There was also the issue of security.
Someone could easily drop onto the roof directly from the slope above.
While I was racking my brain over what to do, Yame-san chimed in.
"Wouldn't it be better to just shove the whole house deeper inside?"
Deeper inside?
……Ah!
Instead of embedding just part of the house, bury the entire thing!
I see.
That way, we wouldn't have to worry about falling rocks at all.
"However, Village Head.
If we do that, the Village Head's House will only be visible from a single direction.
If the island ruler's residence isn't easily recognizable, that might be……"
Hmm.
It wasn't that I didn't harbor a bit of a romantic longing for a grand Western-style mansion on an island, but……
Let's save that dream for a gentler island.
We were burying this one.
Even if the house could only be seen from one direction, we could think of it as preserving the island's natural scenery…… Wait a minute.
If it was only visible from one direction, that exposed side would draw all the attention.
Wouldn't it be better to make it completely invisible from every direction instead?
We were going to dig it out anyway.
There was no need to put the house on display.
A cave dwelling would be plenty.
After all, an official residence would already be built near the investigation team's base.
Yeah, wouldn't that work out great?
It would also eliminate the need to fuss over the outer walls.
Though the amount of interior work was going to increase dramatically.
Thanks to my persuasion, that was the plan we settled on.
Construction of the cave house began.
Well, the High Elves handled the design, and I did all the excavation.
Digging with the Universal Farming Tool allowed me to reinforce the walls as I went, keeping everything structurally sound.
It also kept underground water from seeping through.
For the time being, considering what might happen if an entrance got blocked during an emergency, the High Elves proposed adding multiple exits.
I agreed completely and incorporated the idea.
Since it was inside a cave, any area where fire was used required extreme caution.
We also had to plan out proper ventilation pathways.
As for lighting…… we would rely on magic and magic tools.
In addition, so that we could monitor the island's conditions and the weather, observation rooms facing every direction of the mountain were excavated and connected by a network of tunnels like an anthill.
Honestly, I couldn't help feeling it resembled a bunker more than a house.
We hadn't found any hot springs on the island.
Because of that, we constructed baths that made use of river water and seawater.
The bath attached to the inn ran on boiled river water.
The waterway we built proved immensely useful.
The bath that used seawater was set up right on the beach.
It was built alongside a small changing room.
For this one, the tub was filled with seawater, and heated stones were tossed in to warm it up.
It took a bit of extra effort, but that rustic charm was part of the appeal.
……
Well, since the setting was rather exposed, wearing a swimsuit was mandatory for the beach bath.
I was accepting no objections on that rule.
"Excuse me.
If possible, I would really appreciate a shower that uses river water."
That was Yuri's feedback after she tried out the beach bath.
Ah, since it was seawater, your skin would feel sticky after getting out unless you rinsed off with fresh water.
Besides, leaving hair soaked in saltwater would damage it over time.
Taking a dip in the beach bath only to have to bathe again at the inn was entirely redundant.
Point taken.
I routed a waterway from the river and built a shower room nearby.
Led by Yame-san, we headed into the island's forest.
Inferno Wolves and Zabuton's children flanked me as bodyguards.
Five High Elves accompanied us as well.
The purpose of entering the forest was to have Yame-san teach us which plants were edible and which were poisonous.
However, when Yame-san said a plant was "edible," that category included things with non-lethal doses of poison, so we had to exercise caution.
A philosophy of "if it doesn't kill you, it's safe" wasn't exactly sound, was it?
Then again, she might not have survived back in the day without eating whatever was available.
Tonight, let's make a hot pot with delicious, truly edible wild vegetables.
With that thought in mind, I harvested some of the inedible plants.
Not to eat them, of course.
They were souvenirs for Lu and Tia.
Depending on how they were processed, poisons could be turned into medicine.
I dug them up from the roots whenever possible.
Careful now—wearing thick gloves was mandatory while harvesting.
Just brushing against some of them could cause adverse reactions or severe rashes.
I slipped each specimen into an individual paper bag before placing it in the basket.
The paper bags were products from Village Five's papermaking business.
Compared to paper boxes, they were much cheaper to produce, so demand for them was skyrocketing.
That said, they were still fairly expensive.
Thanks to my investment in the papermaking business, I was able to secure a steady supply one way or another.
I asked one of the accompanying High Elves to keep a detailed record of the plants we collected.
That way, it would be easier to find them again whenever the need arose.
They could also serve as reference material if I ever grew them using the Universal Farming Tool.
The records were kept using both illustrations and written descriptions.
Yame-san helped with the documentation as well, and she turned out to be remarkably skilled at drawing.
Her handwriting was elegant too.
I was honestly a little jealous.
Once we finished gathering the inedible specimens, we moved on to harvesting the edible plants.
Make sure to swap your gloves, everyone.
And put them in a completely separate basket.
Even with familiar-looking plants, letting your guard down was forbidden.
There was always the possibility it was a totally different plant that merely looked similar.
Well, I doubted the High Elves or Yame-san actually needed to be reminded of that.
It was just a precaution.
In a way, I was mostly reminding myself.
I brought a kotatsu over to the inn that the investigation team was using as a base.
It was a bit early in the season to bring out a kotatsu, and I wasn't entirely sure it was necessary given the island's warm climate, but having one couldn't hurt.
Just like my house back in the Village of the Great Tree, I built a raised platform in the common room, laid down tatami mats, and set up the kotatsu on top.
The Inferno Wolves rejoiced.
Don't get too excited—I'm not turning the heater on just yet!
Seeing a kotatsu for the first time, Yame-san looked……
A bit bewildered.
Well, you only truly appreciate the magic of a kotatsu once the weather turns cold.
She'd probably appreciate it far more back at the village than on this island.
Or so I thought, until late that night.
Perhaps unable to sleep or simply feeling peckish, Yame-san was sitting snugly inside the kotatsu, happily slurping noodles she had boiled in a small pot.
She made a face like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar, but I just gave her an approving nod and told her it looked tasty.
And since I had only gotten up to use the outhouse, I wished her a good night and headed back to bed.
Village Head: "The size of this island is…… roughly the size of Miyako Island (about 100 kilometers in circumference), I'd say? Though the soil is completely different."
High Elf: "Let's make the corridors of the cave house zigzag so invaders cannot advance in a straight line."
Village Head: "At that point, doesn't it sound more like an air-raid shelter than a home?"
High Elf: "It is strictly for security purposes."
High Ogre Maid: "Managing open flames inside the cave will certainly be a challenge."
High Elf: "We should probably prohibit the use of fire anywhere outside designated areas."
Mountain Elf A: "We need to plan out countermeasures for humidity and various other issues."
Mountain Elf B: "Since there's a river flowing above, the mountain itself retains a substantial amount of moisture."
Village Head: "……I really should have stopped to consider why humanity abandoned cave dwellings in the first place."
High Elf A: "Yame-san's notes are written in a script I can't read at all."
High Elf B: "Huh? The Village Head was reading it without any trouble, though."
Mountain Elf: "The Village Head has ended up staying overnight on the island as if it's the most natural thing in the world, but is everything really all right back at the village?"
High Elf: "I heard there were various negotiations and compromises made. I wasn't briefed on the specific details."