013 Flint
Joo-hwan planned to roughly lay the wolf skin in the warehouse. But before he could do that, Lizzie had already spread it out beautifully inside the house. It seemed she planned to dry it indoors.
Wondering why, since it would smell, he realized as he watched Lizzie stroke the wolf fur like a treasure.
âAh, this is a significant asset to her.â
To her, this wolf skin was something precious that must not be lost. Even though they lived in a mountain with no one around, she valued it too much to leave it in the warehouse.
He didnât know much about her past, but it seemed she had lived a very difficult life. Watching her repeatedly and gently touch the wolf fur, he could somewhat understand how she had lived until now.
Sometimes, Dorothy would go to Lizzieâs side and look at the wolf skin together.
Curious about the wrinkled, empty wolf face, Dorothy kept poking the wolfâs nose with her finger.
Then Lizzie would also poke the wolf with her finger. He didnât know what was so fun about it, but both seemed to enjoy it.
And sometimes, Lizzie would look at the skin with a thoughtful expression or groan alone. It seemed she was worried about how to treat the skin, as she didnât know much about it.
âIt canât be helped.â
Such things can be learned gradually. Even if they couldnât sell it, they could use it at home. Not treating the skin wouldnât make it unusable.
After laying out the skin, Lizzie started salting the wolf meat.
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While marinating the meat, he occasionally glanced at the fat. For some reason, he was smiling happily at the sight of the fat. He had saved it thinking it might be useful somewhere, and it seemed he had done the right thing.
There wasnât much salt in the bundle. Once the meat was salted, there wouldnât be much left. It might be fine now since itâs a cold season, but it would have been troublesome if it were a hot period.
âThere are so many things to know and do.â
He wanted to quickly get used to what becomes an asset, how to purchase and exchange goods, and such things.
While Lizzy was salting the meat, Dorothy, with her small body, was running around the house, putting the items from the bundle in their places.
Every time she did something, she would go to Lizzy to receive praise. Watching the two of them being so cute, Joo-hwan stood up.
Seeing him get up, Lizzy was startled and ran over.
â## ####.â
With a worried expression, she pointed to his left arm and shook her head. It seemed she meant he should rest because of his injury. But there was a mountain of work to do. There was no time to rest.
âIâm fine. Thanks to the short rest, it doesnât hurt much anymore.â
As he said that and lightly touched her cheek, Lizzy shook her head vigorously, indicating it wasnât okay. Even though they didnât speak the same language, she seemed to understand what Joo-hwan meant.
But he was really fine. Saying it didnât hurt was a lie, but since the magical flames had subsided, the wound had healed enough that it wasnât bleeding anymore. The surface of the ragged wound was already dry and crusted, so there was no worry of it getting worse.
Leaving the worried Lizzy behind, Joo-hwan went outside.
The house was currently cold. Even with layers of clothes, it was cold, and if it stayed like this until night, they would freeze to death inside the house.
Joo-hwan went to the nearby forest and brought back thick, well-dried branches.
There was a large log outside the house. He placed the branches on it and chopped them with an axe. The branches snapped easily.
He thought people might have picked up all the fallen branches in such a mountain, but in reality, there were many scattered around.
Except for the very shallow entrance of the mountain, it seemed that the villagers hadnât touched places this deep inside.
Considering that Koreaâs mountains had once become bare and bald due to people cutting down trees for firewood, it was strange.
But seeing the log that seemed to be for chopping firewood at this house, it was clear that the forest keeper had used the mountainâs trees for firewood.
The fact that the villagers had stolen all the firewood from the storage might be because they couldnât cut down trees themselves.
Maybe only the forest keeper was allowed, and it was taboo for the villagers to cut down trees in this mountain.
âIt feels like thereâs a trap.â
They gave him a house and a woman, provided things to live on, and even prepared a teacher to teach him hunting. Even Joo-hwan, who didnât know much about this world, thought it was too generous.
It wasnât something a rural village, where people struggled to make a living and took everything from othersâ houses, would do.
Giving such things to an outsider, especially someone who came with a slave, to make him a forest keeper, seemed like there was something behind it. No, there definitely was. Thereâs no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
Joo-hwan snorted.
Even if that were the case, it didnât matter. If Lizzy and Dorothy were given to him because he was a forest keeper, it didnât matter if it was a trap. He would just solve and overcome whatever came his way.
ââŠ.â
Of course, if it seemed dangerous, he planned to drop everything and run away with his family.
Juhwan kept looking for branches that could be used as firewood while picking up twigs.
He excluded trees that were too large. He didnât have the confidence to fell a giant tree with an axe from the start, especially since he had never done it before. Until he gained more experience, it was better to choose trees that were moderately thick but not too large.
But it wasnât easy. Finding trees of that size was difficult, and he couldnât tell which ones would produce less smoke and have good firepower.
From what he had heard, oak trees were good for firewood, but honestly, he didnât know what an oak tree looked like.
He vaguely remembered hearing that if it had acorns, it was an oak tree. But what good was that? It was midwinter, and there were no trees with acorns.
The trees on the winter mountain, with their leaves fallen, all looked pretty much the same.
Juhwan wandered around, stepping on the crunching leaves underfoot, and eventually gave up on finding an oak tree and chose a tree of suitable size.
It was a tree that seemed just right if quartered. It was about three times the height of a person, with branches extending from the thick base to the sides and continuing into branches thicker than his forearm.
It was tall, but relatively low compared to other trees. The other trees were truly gigantic, towering into the sky like something from a giantâs land. He had never seen such trees on Earth.
Juhwan untied the axe from his waist and began chopping at the base of the tree. He thought it would be a piece of cake since he was so strong, but it turned out to be unexpectedly challenging.
The tree was hard, but there seemed to be a problem with the way he was using the axe. It wasnât as easy as it looked in the movies, where you chop, pull out, and chop again.
When he chopped, the axe just got stuck in the tree. When he tried to pull it out, he was worried the axe head would come off the handle, making him anxious.
He made several mistakes and went through trial and error. As he gradually changed the way he swung the axe and applied force, he figured out how to chop without the axe getting stuck in the tree.
The tree was marked with countless axe cuts, like missing teeth. When he felt it was enough, he pushed hard, and the tree tilted to the side with a cracking sound.
But it didnât fall properly. It seemed to be because he had only chopped from one direction. After chopping a few more times from the opposite direction, the tree finally fell properly.
Juhwan felled another tree nearby. This time, it was a bit easier since he had done it once before.
He didnât just chop from one direction but went around and chopped all around.
The previous tree had a messy broken base, but this time it was neatly cut.
Juhwan chopped the fallen tree into pieces with the axe and carried them home in several trips.
After moving all the pieces, he placed the wood on a log in front of the house and cut it again into sizes suitable for firewood.
Each time he struck with the axe, the wood pieces flew off in all directions. It was different from cutting branches. It was harder.
He thought this kind of simple labor would be a piece of cake, but it was several times harder than fighting.
His left arm, bitten by a wolf, throbbed with pain. His back, neck, and shoulders were sore, probably from using muscles he didnât usually use. He began to think he might not be able to sleep tonight.
When he went back into the house, Lizzy had finished preparing the wolf meat and was organizing other belongings. There were several items he had never seen before.
â### ##.â
Seeing him, Lizzy hurriedly ran over. She looked at the wound on his left arm, seemed a bit relieved, and then hurriedly ran to soak a cloth in water.
âThank you.â
When he tried to take it, saying thank you in the words he had learned earlier, Lizzy pulled the wet cloth back and gestured for him to lower his body.
When Juhwan sat on the floor, Lizzy wiped his face, neck, and arms with the wet cloth. Then, in a small voice, as if embarrassed, she said,
â#### thank you#, ##.â
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Dorothy, who was organizing things with Lizzy, ran over and smeared some water on Joo-hwanâs face with her hands. It seemed like Dorothy was trying to clean him, but it actually made him dirtier with the muddy water.
Lizzy giggled and wiped Joo-hwanâs face again. Dorothy looked at Joo-hwan as if waiting for something.
âThank you, Dorothy.â
When Joo-hwan spoke, looking at the childâs sparkling eyes, Dorothy smeared the muddy water on his face again.
Lizzy laughed. As Joo-hwan was drawn to her laughter and laughed too, Dorothy burst into giggles.
After laughing for a while, Joo-hwan brought the firewood from the floor to the center of the house.
He wasnât sure if all medieval heating was like this or if it was just this cabin. This house had a hearth in the center instead of a fireplace.
They made a thick floor to create a place to light a fire and surrounded it with bricks to prevent the fire from escaping.
A thick iron rod with hooks for hanging something was installed across the hearth. It seemed like they used it to hang a pot or something similar.
There was no chimney or flue. The high ceiling was just open in the middle. When they lit a fire, the smoke would be sucked up through the opening. But on rainy days, they wouldnât be able to light a fire.
Joo-hwan brought a shovel from the hunterâs workshop, cleaned and organized the ashes in the hearth, and placed several pieces of firewood.
Only then did Joo-hwan realize that he didnât have a fire starter. He had firewood but no way to light it. He hadnât worried about it because he thought it was obvious they would have one.
In this era, there wouldnât be any matches, so he was flustered when Lizzy brought a leather pouch from somewhere.
From the leather pouch, Lizzy took out a âCâ-shaped piece of metal, a stone that looked like marble, and a bundle of finely shredded bark that looked like thread.
Lizzy handed it to Joo-hwan, but he had no idea what it was. Lizzy seemed a bit surprised by his reaction.
She said something to Joo-hwan, but when it didnât work, she decided to do it herself.
Lizzy placed the bark on the floor and lightly struck the metal and stone together. Small sparks flew and fell to the floor.
After sparking for a while, small smoke rose from the bark.
Only then did Joo-hwan realize it was a flint. He had thought flint was just striking two stones together. He hadnât expected metal to be involved.
Lizzy carefully fanned the bark to grow the fire. Then she transferred the fire to the straw left in the house. Finally, the firewood caught fire after a long while.
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