Welcome to the Demon’s Cabin - Chapter 45

Idris, who had been wearing a deeply troubled expression, let out a faint sigh.

“At any rate, I have fleshed out the matter I mentioned to you earlier.”

“Already?”

I thought it would take a long while, but he is quite fast. He was just sitting in the forest for a moment, lost in thought and preoccupied with something.

If I had known he would finish his thoughts this quickly, perhaps there was no need to bring the basket out in advance. I should have just waited by his side a little longer and come back with him.

“Since the area near the front right of the cabin is empty and the ground is level, I was thinking of making the field there.”

“Not inside the forest?”

“It would be difficult to manage. There is also the risk of mountain animals approaching and eating the crops.”

“I see.”

It was an explanation that somehow felt insincere, but Irene nodded silently. In the first place, she had no interest or inspiration regarding this matter. She was merely giving him a formal response because Idris was showing such enthusiasm.

Ah, of course, she was moved by the sight of Idris reading agricultural books while carving out his time.

Anyway, for that reason, whether he made a field, set traps, or dug up the ground, she had no intention of interfering at all as long as he did not touch the flower garden.

“And I looked around for a space to set the traps. Just a moment. An empty spot….”

Idris passed through a few pieces of white laundry. Irene followed behind him without much thought. After scanning the surroundings, he crouched down, picked up a long tree branch, and began to draw lines on the dirt ground.

‘If he sits like that, dirt will get all over his clothes.’

“If this is the cabin, this side is the forest, and this area is the flower garden you tended, Miss Irene, then I intend to set traps here, here, and here.”

On the drawing he had sketched out, Idris marked the spots to set the traps with an x. Irene’s eyes, which had briefly lost interest after confirming the locations were far from the flower garden in the forest, sparkled again upon seeing the rough drawing of the trees he had made. Meanwhile, as she gave a half-hearted nod to the words Idris spoke to explain and persuade her, he looked much brighter and felt relieved. His smiling face was good to look at.

“Then I will do so. Thank you…!”

“It is nothing. And in the future, you do not need to go out of your way to ask. Just put them wherever you like.”

“I cannot do that. Do you know how dangerous traps are? It would be a disaster if you were to accidentally get caught in something like a snare.”

“That is true.”

Dangerous, my foot. The snare would be the one in trouble.

While mentally nitpicking, Irene smiled, her eyes curving at the pleasant-sounding lie.

“Then just notify me where you will place them. I will keep it well in mind.”

“…I shall do so. Please be careful not to step on or get caught in them.”

“Do not worry. This is my home, is it not? Once I know the locations, there is no way I will ever mistake them.”

“That is a relief, then.”

Idris nodded without any particular change in expression. Irene, whose gaze had been fixed only on his face from a certain moment, spoke with a smile.

“By the way, you draw very well. I thought you were only good at using a carving knife.”

The easy-to-read sketch was one thing, but the tree he drew while saying, ‘I will place a trap right next to this large tree,’ looked as if he had moved a giant tree from the forest directly into the dirt.

“Not particularly. It is merely at that level.”

“Liar. If you saw my drawing skills, you would never be able to say such a thing.”

Idris frowned as if he could not understand.

“You, Miss Irene? I saw you embroidering a running horse the other day. You are saying something that makes no sense.”

“Embroidery and drawing are separate matters. Please do not say that it could not be so. I have always found it strange myself that there is such a large difference in skill.”

“…….”

When she looked at Idris with eyes that told him not to argue, he took the hint and shut his mouth. Her skills were so hopeless that even her parents, who had always doted on her, had pointed it out. She did not particularly want to have it confirmed again.

“By any chance, do you know how to paint oil paintings as well?”

“I know how to paint. Just enough to say I know how.”

Oh, I just asked.

This was unexpected.

“Really? Did you perhaps learn how to draw? When you were young? When you grew up? Or as a hobby?”

“I learned briefly from an acquaintance when I was very young. After that, I painted occasionally as a hobby… but it has been a long time since I stopped, so I do not know if I will even remember now.”

“You always say you cannot do things like that. Even though you do everything well once I actually make you do it.”

“It is true. I only ever heard rebukes from that person asking why I could not draw exactly what was plainly visible before my eyes.”

Hmm? Something about those words was strange. Wasn’t that person just a genius?

“Was that person a painter?”

“No. …No, thinking about it again, it would be correct to say they were. Because they were someone who had gone right up to the point of becoming a painter.”

A corner of Idris’s face darkened as if he were slowly tracing back through his memories.

“They had injured their hand in an accident… It was a pity. Even if their way of speaking was a bit crooked, they were a good person in their own way.”

To the point of teaching a kid next door how to draw with all their heart without taking a single penny. He added the words in a tone tinged with faint regret. Irene stared at Idris as if finding it fascinating.

Disliking the somehow drooping atmosphere, Irene smiled and changed the subject.