The rumors spread.
They spread quickly.
Where there are people, there are no places without rumors.
But even so, this rumor spread more powerfully and swiftly than usual.
It was because the content was so unique.
"Lord Lloyd has finally lost his mind."
"What?"
"They say he's digging with a shovel."
"What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. They say he's shoveling in the tavern's backyard, scooping up dirt and tamping it down."
"Why?"
"I don't know either. I heard he threatened the tavern owner."
"Threatened him?"
"They say he seized the land in the tavern's backyard."
"Heh, that kind of..."
Someone sighed across the table.
Others whispered in the fields.
"Did you hear? Lord Lloyd might be trying to kill himself."
"What, finally?"
"That's what they say. Yesterday he was scooping dirt, and today he's digging it up again."
"Digging it up?"
"They say he's laying flat stones in the dug-out spot and muttering to himself."
"No way, that's..."
"What else could it be but a grave for his own coffin?"
Various versions of speculation and conjecture flew around.
Some said the drunken young master of the baron's family was secretly burying homemade liquor in the ground.
Others said he was digging an underground tunnel to avoid his father's surveillance.
There were even opinions that he had awakened to a new taste(?).
Countless onlookers gathered, drawn by the buzz.
Amid the territory residents' focused gazes like that.
The ondol room gradually took shape.
♣
'People sure love to talk.'
Lloyd wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Mud smeared across his face in the process.
But he didn't care.
He looked around.
A modest ondol room with a 3.6-meter square area.
Over the past few days, not only the foundation but even the walls had been raised.
'It was tough.'
Building the ondol room.
He had expected it wouldn't be easy.
In reality, it was even harder than anticipated.
For one thing, there were no tools like those used on Korean construction sites.
'No power tools at all.'
Everything had to be done by hand.
Drawing on his experience from manual labor part-time jobs and army work details, he tamped down the ground.
That alone took two full days.
Full-body muscle pain was the bonus.
He processed the lumber he had hounded the administrator for.
He used a heavy timber frame as the base.
He even raised the rafters for the gable roof.
He wove reinforcing wood between the pillars.
He slathered on the clay-straw mixture steadily.
Just moments ago, he had completed the clay walls over three days.
"Whew. Haviel?"
"You called?"
"Aren't you tired?"
"I've adapted somewhat."
"Yeah?"
Even in this situation, Haviel's breathing wasn't the least bit disturbed.
No matter how good one's athleticism, manual labor was another beast.
Using unused muscles meant wasting a lot of energy.
Yet he was so composed?
'It means his excess strength is on another level from the start.'
He couldn't help but admire that steel-like stamina.
He really was reliable.
Especially when you could use him for free like this.
Lloyd broached the subject in a subtle tone.
"Then do what I tell you."
"There's more?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Because we haven't finished the ondol room yet."
"But Lord Lloyd, you only asked for a moment of help."
"Did I?"
"Yes."
Haviel cut in with his characteristic icy tone, sharp as a knife.
"Lord Lloyd initially asked me to help with the shoveling. You said just that would be enough. But afterward, you kept changing your requests. After tamping the dirt, you asked for help with the wood. Later, you said mixing mud was hard and asked for my help again."
"Hmm, so you didn't like it?"
"Of course."
"Because you're a knight?"
"..."
Haviel didn't answer.
But Lloyd knew that silence meant yes.
Probably.
Handling a shovel and saw instead of a sword, covered in dirt.
He must think it unbecoming of a knight's honor.
But Lloyd poked at the flaw in that thinking.
"But aren't knights supposed to help the weak?"
"Pardon?"
"You think so too."
"Of course..."
"Right? Then this is knightly duty too. It's practicing excellent chivalry by helping the weak. Makes sense, right? Even now, as we do this, the tavern owner's mother must be shivering with chills."
"..."
"Ah, if we finish this even a day sooner, a happy smile will bloom on her face..."
"What next?"
Haviel let out a deep sigh.
Lloyd grinned wickedly.
"Let's do some axing."
He pointed outside the ondol room.
"You saw the logs in the corner of the tavern's backyard, right?"
"Yes."
"Good boy. Those are red pine. Chop them with the ax and make panels to lay on the roof."
"What's a panel?"
"Like this."
Scribble scribble.
Lloyd roughly drew on the dirt floor.
"One span wide, two spans long, thickness of one finger joint. Think of it as a long iPad tablet... Ah, you don't know tablets? Just think of it as a plank. But cut them to uniform size. Got it?"
"Wouldn't it be better to saw them with a saw than an ax?"
"Nope. Ax is better."
Of course, sawing would be easier.
Easier to make uniform sizes too.
But sawing causes heavy wear.
That damages the wood grain.
Moisture seeps into the damaged grain.
It rots quickly.
"If you don't want to replace the roof in less than a year, use the ax."
"...Understood. But."
"But?"
Now that he thought about it, Haviel was looking at him with a slightly odd gaze.
"Where did you learn all this, Lord Lloyd?"
"This? Building stuff?"
"Yes."
The gaze was still icy.
But faintly visible within that coldness was an emotion.
Intense curiosity.
Lloyd answered honestly without hiding.
"Korea University."
"Pardon?"
"I learned at Korea University."
"..."
"It's true. Not lying."
"But I've never heard of such an academy."
"Ah, of course you've never heard me mention attending any school either?"
"Yes."
"Then keep wondering. Now, move out. Lots to do, so let's get going."
Lloyd waved his hand dismissively.
He sent Haviel outside.
Making roof panels by chopping red pine with an ax.
That was something Haviel could do far better than him.
It was a difference in talent.
Whether the target was a person or wood.
Haviel had the supreme talent for cleaving targets in two with a bladed tool.
'He's already at advanced Sword Expert level.'
It was from the early part of the novel *Iron-Blooded Knight*.
A fact no one in the territory knew.
Not even the lord baron or Haviel himself.
But at this point, Haviel was already at an astonishing level.
Advanced Sword Expert.
One step away from Swordmaster, called the pinnacle of the sword.
In a small country, you'd be lucky to find three or four even scraping the barrel.
In other words, knight captain level in a mid-sized kingdom.
'And he's only just twenty.'
Haviel only realizes his immense skill after leaving this territory.
That was still in the future.
'Anyway, time for me to move too.'
He'd rested enough.
Lloyd started the next phase.
The alpha and omega of the ondol room.
The light and salt, the red bean paste in red bean bread.
Like the graphics card in a high-spec gaming PC.
It was the floor ondol construction.
'This is the real key part.'
No matter how convincingly you build the structure?
If the ondol doesn't function properly, it's all for naught.
Knowing that well, Lloyd concentrated fully.
'Just like the design, from here to here.'
It was during his army days.
The regimental commander suddenly got obsessed with a clay jjimjilbang.
He was drafted as company rep to build a clay room in the regiment HQ.
The result?
The regimental commander's wife's happiness skyrocketed, or so they said.
Thanks to the satisfied commander's grace(?), he even got reward leave.
Lloyd made full use of that experience and memory.
He dug the floor.
It was the passage for heat and smoke from the firebox to enter and pass.
'Make the heat wind around the longest path possible before passing under the room floor.'
He dug the passage in winding loops.
In the process, he meticulously adjusted the passage height differences.
'This way the heat doesn't rush out but lingers as long as possible.'
The initial heat spillover from the firebox.
The gudulgaejari where incoming heat pools.
The gudulgorae where pooled heat spreads effectively.
The goraegaejari that catches the heat one last time before exit.
And the gultukgaejari to block rainwater and cold air from entering the flues.
'Tiring.'
But even more meticulously.
Minimizing errors.
Dig, check.
Check, refine.
Then he finished the passage walls with clay.
Dried the clay finish sufficiently.
Laid flat, even stones carefully over the passage.
'Thicker stones near the firebox at the lower end, thinner at the upper end away from it.'
He laid them with precise distinction.
The upper end was farther from the firebox, so it heated slower.
Varying the stone thickness under the flues allowed even heating across the entire floor.
'Now the saechim.'
He filled gaps between flue stones with saechim stones.
Covered them with clay mixture.
Laid dry mud roughly and tamped it down.
Applied a mid-layer, leveling and drying meticulously.
Then the thinnest finish coat and surface planing to complete.
That took a full three days.
The core of the ondol construction was done.
But testing it would have to wait.
"Um, Lord Lloyd?"
He was admiring the freshly made ondol floor when.
A servant entered.
"The lord is looking for you."
The lord, Baron Arkos Frontera.
His father's summons.
'No way.'
A sudden hunch hit him.
Lloyd left the half-finished ondol room.
The murmurs of the clustered onlookers stopped abruptly.
He passed through the awkward silence toward the baron's mansion.
♣
"I hear strange rumors have been spreading lately."
Clink.
The fork moves.
The iron fork picks up a crude handmade sausage.
But the baron's hand stopped there.
He didn't bring the fork to his mouth.
He cast his gaze across the table to here.
"They say you're doing something in the tavern's backyard?"
That gaze isn't warm.
To put it bluntly, it's cold.
Less a look at his son, more at a headache-inducing problem.
Under that gaze, Lloyd's mouth soured anew.
'This body's flaw.'
The owner of this body he now inhabited.
Lloyd Frontera was the typical wastrel.
Heavy drinking and drunken antics, gambling and property damage.
Countless other nuisances besides.
His flashy(?) history and karma piled up.
So he always faced people's prejudices.
Whatever he did, they viewed it skeptically first.
What mischief is that rascal up to now?
What accident is he plotting?
Has he gone mad?
Or is it his time to die?
Please don't bother others.
...That sort of gazes.
Same now.
"Let me hear it once. What are you up to this time?"
The baron's voice was as cold as his eyes.
He realized instantly.
That wasn't a question.
It was a reprimand.
Lloyd shrugged.
"If you've heard the rumors, you'd know. I'm building an ondol room as ordered by the tavern owner."
"Ondol room?"
"Yes."
"Are you trying to fool your father with the same flimsy excuse you used to deceive the tavern owner?"
"If that's what you think, nothing to be done."
Lloyd brushed it off vaguely.
What could he say at this point that would be believed?
It'd just invite needless suspicion.
Besides, convincing the baron face-to-face felt off.
It was awkward.
'Dragging the talk might give me away.'
Parents always see through their kids somehow.
He wasn't Lloyd Frontera.
He was Kim Suho, who took over this body.
He was uneasy about arousing suspicion.
He chose to avoid deep conversation.
"If you're done, I'll finish eating."
Like the wastrel Lloyd would.
He cut it short and focused on his meal.
Fill up on the food before chit-chat starts and get out quick, he thought.
Then the baron's question flew to his ear.
"Is it because of the family's situation by any chance?"
"..."
"If you have eyes and ears, you know what's been happening lately. Are you doing this on purpose because you're upset about that?"
"..."
Was he referring to the seizure due to the swindler?
As expected.
"But it's fine. Just a passing breeze. Nothing serious. Who am I? Arkos Frontera of the family that's guarded this territory for five generations. I can overcome this hardship easily. So don't go too astray yourself."
"..."
"I'll muster my strength, so you hold steady too."
"..."
I've heard words like that before.
Lloyd suddenly looked up.
He gazed at the baron.
A handsome middle-aged man.
But his expression seemed weary somehow.
It overlapped with his father's face from long ago.
'It's just like back then.'
When he'd taken his last leave from the army.
His father, suffering from an investment scam, had that expression.
He'd gripped his hand tightly.
Don't worry.
It's fine.
Nothing big.
Just focus on your studies.
He'd forced a smile and earnestly implored.
So he'd been clueless.
Truly thought it was okay.
A year later.
He hadn't known his parents, drowning in debt, would make that extreme choice.
Yet now the baron before him wore the exact same expression as his father then.
'Lies.'
It's not okay.
He's pretending for his son's sake.
Clunk.
Lloyd set down his fork.
His plan to just eat and ignore was long gone.
His resolve to keep distance from the baron was set aside for now.
And without realizing, he spoke.
"Don't give up. I'll do my best too."
If he could go back to that time years ago.
It was what he wanted to tell his father.
He quietly rose from his seat.
The baron looked at him with a strange gaze.
A glance with resolve, different from the earlier coldness.
Feeling burdened by that look, he hurried away.
Fortunately, the baron didn't stop him.
♣
Construction continued.
The ondol room in the tavern's backyard quickly took form.
The gazes of the clustered onlookers poured in.
Amid misunderstandings, mutterings, and rampant rumors.
He charred the wood.
To prevent deterioration.
At first, unfamiliar, he ruined a few pieces.
Some charred too much and split, others didn't enough.
But after a few tries, he got the knack.
The key was charring only 3 millimeters deep on the red pine panel surface.
'Perfect.'
The panels became light and sturdy.
Water wouldn't seep easily.
This should last over ten years easily.
He wove the panels into the roof.
Dried the first underlay well and covered the clay floor.
Applied a slightly thicker floor mat with stiff grass paste over the underlay.
Topped it with soybean oil sealant and pine resin for waterproofing, finishing up.
The ondol room was complete.
He lit a test fire.
Touched the floor.
"It's done."
A smile naturally formed.
Now it was time to check the client's reaction.
(End of Chapter 3)
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