Chapter 226: Let's Repair the Temple!

When I went to the sanctuary to offer help to Tracy-san, she was just about to go out somewhere with the Temple Head.

“Umm, Tracy-san.”

“Oh, you girls. Do you need something?”

“Yes, are you two going out?”

“Yes, thanks to you girls, we have a prospect of participating in the pilgrimage, so we’re going out to announce our participation now.”

I see, it’s a ritual where the prestige of each temple is on the line, after all, so announcing participation is important.

“And what was your business?”

“Umm, w-would it be alright if we helped out with the church’s work too?”

“Eh? We couldn’t possibly ask that of you.”

When we said we would help, Tracy-san hurriedly told us there was no need to do such a thing.

“There are still many days until the pilgrimage ritual, and just spacing out would be a waste of time.”

“Is that so? We feel kind of bad.”

In reality, doing nothing would be boring, too.

“Thank you, everyone.”

An apologetic Tracy-san, and the Temple Head who was happy with our goodwill.

“No, no, we’ll be in your care for a while starting now, so please don’t worry about it.”

For that reason, we decided to help out at the temple while looking after the place.

“Alright, then I’ll handle the church’s repairs. It’s gotten quite rundown, so I should fix it up properly.”

“Then I guess we’ll do the cleaning. With a place this huge, they’re clearly short-handed, and even if we clean little by little in order, dust will probably gather again by the time we do a full lap of all the rooms.”

“Nn, the ceiling is full of dust too. I’ll fly with flight magic and clean.”

Mina-san and Meguri-san will handle cleaning the temple, it seems.

“Ah, then I’ll go hunt some monsters we can eat outside. I dunno what the fields are like, but if we become a burden too, there won’t be nearly enough.”

“Right, in that case I’ll join the hunt with Jairo-kun. If we have the Adventurer’s Guild buy the leftover materials and buy spices and seasonings with a portion of the sales to donate to the temple, wouldn’t they accept it without holding back?”

Liliera-san and Jairo-kun are procuring food ingredients, then.

“I will handle treating the people who have come to the church seeking healing.”

Norb-san will treat the believers. We split up nicely.

“Alright, then let’s do our best helping the church!”

” ” ” ” “Yeah!!” ” ” ” ” “

To repair the church, I immediately looked around the inside and outside of the church.

Then, I placed my hand on the church wall and activated a magic.

“ECHO RESEARCH.”

The magic power released from my hand coursed through the building materials of the temple, conveying invisible information to me.

Infiltration Investigation Magic, Echo Research: it’s a convenient magic that grasps the internal situation of a target through waves of magic power, also used to investigate the condition of buildings and the like.

“Hmm, as expected, it’s quite rundown. Not just the outside, but the inside has deteriorated too. Considering the future, it seems better to do a large-scale repair while I’m at it.”

It’s fine for now, but if left alone, it’ll become an irreversible situation.

So I’ll take this opportunity to repair it completely.

“First, let’s prepare materials for the repair. EXTRACT MATERIAL!”

Using magic, I extracted materials used for the church’s building materials from the soil and stones in the ground, and gathered them into a large chunk.

Material Extraction Magic, Extract Material: this is a magic that gathers trace amounts of materials existing in the ground into a single chunk.

It’s a particularly useful magic when a quarry or mine’s veins have dried up, or when there are no mines nearby to begin with.

Well, since it’s a magic to gather trace amounts of materials, it’s not suited for long-term harvesting, though.

“Next is, REPAIR COATING!”

By the magic activated next, the gathered materials wriggled like liquid and spread across the entirety of the church, traveling along its walls.

Repair Magic, Repair Coating.

It’s a magic that liquefies any building material and fills in cracks and chipped parts.

Using this, no matter how rundown the material is, you can make it into a clean chunk.

Well, if the building is too damaged before repair, there’s a risk it might end up completely unlike its original shape, but fortunately this temple isn’t that broken.

If I coat it as if painting the surface, there’s practically no problem.

“Alright, I guess this is good.”

Once the repair was complete, the rundown church had been reborn into an appearance as good as new.

“But this was just fixing the appearance. The real work starts here.”

For now, I’ve just restored the building materials that form the temple.

From here on can be called the real part of building repair.

“The enchantment magic defense that protected this temple had worn off, so first is reapplying that, I guess.”

Yes, when it comes to a building, especially an organization’s building, various defenses through enchantment magic are essential.

“ETERNAL ENCHANT PROTECTION!”

First is the basic defensive magic.

With this, I secured a defensive power that won’t even budge if hit by a battering ram.

If this were wood, fire resistance would also be necessary, but since it’s stone, there’s no need.

“Next is… ETERNAL ENCHANT ANTI-MALICE!”

The next magic I activated makes it so those with malicious intent cannot enter a designated area.

With this, if a human with malicious intent tries to enter the temple grounds, they will be repelled.

Furthermore, if they try to force their way in or rampage, there’s an effect that randomly teleports them to a faraway place.

“And maybe I should cast a state preservation magic too. ETERNAL START SAVE!”

Finally, I cast a preservation magic to prevent the building’s deterioration.

Since I activated it only with the catalysts I had on hand, it can’t be called perfect, but it should easily hold up for about 2 or 3,000 years.

“I suppose this is it. Since it’s a church, there’s a possibility that offensive magical defenses could violate their doctrines.”

Just so I don’t get falsely accused of anything when something happens, I’ll stick to only defensive magic.

“And I should check the state of the fields too, right.”

Having finished repairing the church, I went to check the fields behind the church next.

“Ah, this perfectly hits the mark on Jairo-kun’s prediction.”

The field in the back was something that should be called a vegetable garden using a truly tiny plot of land.

It might be fine for just Tracy-san and the others, but if we become a burden too, it won’t be nearly enough.

Besides, perhaps the soil is poor, but the crops’ growth isn’t great either.

“Ah, right. I think I had some of the fertilizer I used at the World Tree left over the other day.”

I took the fertilizer out of my magic bag and scattered it over the field.

“Also, to utilize the grounds effectively, maybe I’ll make an underground field to allow for massive food replenishment.”

With that decided, I’ll immediately make an additional field underground beneath the field.

“CLAY ROCK!”

First, I hardened the soil directly beneath the field so it wouldn’t collapse even if I made an underground field.

“CLAY CONTROL!”

Then, I moved the soil in the ground with magic, creating an underground space.

“Let’s see, I’ll make it down to about the fifth basement level for now.”

Creating five spaces vertically, I formed earthen stairs connecting them.

“EXTRACT MATERIAL! REPAIR COATING!”

Gathering building materials for the underground field with material extraction magic, I applied the repair magic to thickly coat the hardened earthen walls and stairs.

This is somewhat of a secret trick in construction magic.

If you make a roughly larger prototype out of earth, coat the surface thickly with coating magic, and cast state preservation magic, it can sufficiently withstand use if it’s a simple structure.

The key point is to construct stone pillars with gaps so the soil outside and the soil of the field connect, without completely covering it with stone walls.

Since the earthen walls themselves are stabilized with magic so they won’t collapse.

And then I just install a drainage magic tool in the gutter for when it rains.

“Alright, it feels pretty good for Sunday carpentry. After that, I just need to make a lighting window and a ceiling using crystals underground so light reaches a level comparable to the surface, and that’s okay.”

Next, I gathered quartz with material collection magic, and applied the construction techniques for underground agricultural facilities I made in my previous life so natural light reaches underground.

After that, I just haphazardly scatter vegetable seeds, and apply water and fertilizer.

“Ah, oops. The Temple Head is quite old, so stairs would be tough. I should install an automatic elevator next to the stairs too.”

I immediately created a vertical shaft next to the stairs, and constructed and installed a simple elevator there.

“It’s not like many people will be using this, so one for a small number of people should be fine.”

Alright, complete!

With this, even the Temple Head whose legs and back have weakened can safely go harvest underground crops.

Even so, I’m glad I finished before the sun went down.

While I was working, the vegetables in the surface field also grew nicely, so I’ll get permission later and harvest a portion.

---

” “Wh-What is thiiiiiiis!?” “

When I finished the field expansion and returned inside the temple, I heard the voices of Tracy-san and the others.

“Welcome back, Tracy-san, Temple Head-san.”

“R-Rakushi-san!? Is this really our temple!? Not some other temple by mistake?”

“Yes?”

For a moment I wondered who they were talking about, but right, my name is Rakushi right now.

“Ah, the temple repairs are finished.”

“Repairs? Finished? Eh? This?”

When I announced that the repairs were finished, Tracy-san tilted her head with a puzzled face.

“I-I can’t believe it… The temple that was so rundown is sparkling, no, it’s sparkling on a level beyond ‘sparkling’…”

For some reason, Tracy-san and the others’ vocabulary has been weird for a while now.

Was announcing their participation in the pilgrimage that exhausting?

“Ah, right. The crops in the back field are just ripe, so may I harvest them?”

Since both of them seem tired, I should have them eat something delicious and cheer them up.

“Eh? The field’s? But the harvest season was still a ways off…”

When I took the two of them to the back field, there were many plump, fully-grown crops bearing fruit.

” “Huge!?” “

The two of them raised voices of joy at the largely grown crops.

“Eh? Eh? What’s this? Aren’t they a bit too big?”

“Wh-What happened? Besides, there’s an unfamiliar shed built here?”

“Ah, that’s the stairs and automatic elevator to go down to the field I made underground.”

“Field made underground?”

“Automatic elevator?”

I put the two of them, who tilted their heads even further, into the automatic elevator, and we descended to the underground field.

” “Hah!?” “

“By making a field underground, we can expect five times the harvest yield from now on. I just sowed seeds here, so the harvest is still a while off, though.”

” “Haaa…” “

When we returned to the surface, Jairo-kun and the others had just returned.

“Bro… Big Sis, we’re home! We hunted meat perfectly!”

“I’m glad we luckily encountered a monster swarm we could use for food.”

The two took out a large chunk of meat from the magic bag and hoisted it like a trophy.

“Good work, you two.”

“Tonight is meat dishes!”

“I bought plenty of seasonings and spices too.”

Perhaps Jairo-kun is extremely hungry, as he looks like he might drool any second.

“T-To even have meat that big…”

“W-Who on earth are you people…?”

Tracy-san and the Temple Head asked such things.

Come to think of it, we said we wanted to participate in the pilgrimage ritual, but we didn’t say who we were.

But since we want to hide our identities this time, we can’t say we’re adventurers.

Alright!

“W-We are just normal b… believers you can find anywhere.”

” “Liar!!” “

Huh? Why won’t they believe me?