Chiyu and I welcomed Shouko—the blonde gyaru—and Shion—the prim, black-haired beauty—into the group.

“Yaaay!”

“Thank you. I’ll do my best not to be dead weight.”

Shouko jumped up to show how happy she was, and Shion’s face relaxed with obvious relief.

“Oh—right, Sousuke.”

“What is it?”

“You two look... surprisingly clean. Is there some method you’re using?”

Shion’s voice was calm, but there was a faint, unmistakable envy in it too.

Now that she mentioned it, both of them had grime on their clothes and skin.

Considering they’d spawned in the forest and wandered around alone for a while, it was only natural.

“Huh? Wha—seriously! You’re right! Your clothes are clean, and your hair and skin are all shiny too!?”

Well, they’re companions now. There’s no point hiding it.

“I’ll explain the clothing part later. For now, the reason our bodies are clean is—because we built a bath.”

“No way!? A bath!? Seriously!?”

“Wow... Sousuke, your ability really is incredible.” 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Maybe it’s because they’re girls—both of them latched onto it hard.

By the way, I’d stored the whole bath setup away, so there was nothing visible where we were.

“It’s like a drum-can bath kind of thing, so it’ll be one at a time, but you two should get in too. I’ll set it up.”

...Wait. If there are more girls now, shouldn’t I just generate another stone bath?

We ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ still have plenty of water, and we can take fire from the campfire right in front of us, so it wouldn’t even be that much work.

“This is bad. I might fall for you, Sousuke.”

“If that happens, then you and Chiyu will be love rivals.”

“I’m making the childhood friend the winning heroine.”

Chiyu declared it in an uncompromising tone.

Setting up the bath isn’t a problem. I’m a little sleepy, but it’s for my friends.

And besides, I have a small goal of my own.

“Not exactly ‘in return,’ but I do have something I want to ask you, Shouko.”

“Mmm. If it’s just peeking a little while I’m bathing, I’ll give you special permission.”

With her index finger against her lips, Shouko said it like that, but—

“Why is it a given that I want to peek?”

Chiyu too... Is this their image of guys in general, or their image of me?

“Ahaha, kidding, kidding.”

“Sure. Anyway—what I want is, with your Fluffy Summoning Ability... can you summon a sheep?”

“A sheep? Like, the kind that goes baa?”

“Yeah. That sheep.”

Apparently understanding what I meant, Chiyu immediately added, “A cashmere goat would also be acceptable.”

“Mm—gimme a sec. Sheep... fluffy... wooly... fluffy... yeah, seems doable!”

Whether she can “recognize it as fluffy” is probably the deciding line for what she can summon.

“Ohhh! That means we can get wool!”

“What about a cashmere goat?”

Chiyu pressed.

“I know what cashmere is, but I don’t know what a cashmere goat is, so that’s probably a no...”

Looks like Shouko’s ability depends heavily on imagery too.

Fenrir, for example—she likes them so much she’d want to summon one, because she’s read otherworld comics. That’s probably why she could bring it into existence.

And for sheep, the image shouldn’t be that hard either.

“By the way, is there a limit on how many you can summon?”

“Mmm. Depends on size? I can’t bring out another Fenrir right now. For sheep... maybe two? Two sheep? I think that’s the limit.”

“If it’s summoning, I’m guessing you’re calling them from somewhere, but... like, if you sent Mashiro back to where he came from, could you summon him again?”

“No, I can’t. If I send him back, I’ll never see him again—and I don’t even want to think about it, but if he dies, he disappears.”

Shouko explained with a sad look.

“Got it. Thanks for telling me. Mashiro’s your important partner—I’m not going to tell you to send him back.”

“Yeah.”

“But—if you summon two sheep, then send them back, then summon two more... can you do something like that?”

If it’s before you get attached... I asked carefully.

“Mmm... it’s a little sad, but if we need it, I’ll do it.”

“So-kun. Those sheep... what about the meat?”

Chiyu’s question was fair, but... well. I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud in front of Shouko.

“No, don’t look at me like that. I thought about it too when I was starving and at my limit. But in the ability description it says, ‘Cannot be repurposed for meat.’ That means I can’t turn them into food, right?”

“I see. It gets judged as not being an intended use of the ability.”

In a way, it’s the opposite of how Chiyu got Purify because she pictured a white mage.

Shouko probably imagined summoned creatures as partners, or companions.

So the limits of the ability got set around that.

“But if that’s the case... can we take wool?”

Shion murmured.

“Probably. Even just petting something fluffy can make hairs come out, and if they’re treated as companions, brushing is obviously within the intended range too. In other words, hair coming off through interaction doesn’t contradict Shouko’s idea of what this is. The concern is—”

“When you send the summoned animals back, whether the wool you sheared disappears too.”

Shion picked up my sentence like that.

“Do you know how it works?”

“Huh? It’s fine. It doesn’t disappear.”

“Alright...!”

I clenched my fist.

Now we can get wool.

That means cold-weather gear, pajamas, rugs—items that let us stay warm.

There are wool duvets too, but those are wool on the inside, and the fabric covering them is probably a different material.

...But there are wool sweaters. If we just make that at blanket size, wouldn’t that be enough to keep warm for now?

Even if it gets dirty easily or holes form easily, if the fabric itself hasn’t been destroyed, we can store and re-place it and it’ll be back to normal.

And instead of obsessing over making a “futon,” we could just make blankets.

“Ooh—being able to contribute right away makes me kinda happy.”

“First, I’ll set up the baths. Chiyu, I want you and Shion to handle heating the water.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Okay.”

“Shouko, summon the sheep.”

“Roger~”

I quickly placed a whole new stone-bath set, plus the bath setup we’d used before.

Then Chiyu lit the fire and heated the water.

Now that we had two baths, I had Shion help too.

Shouko closed her eyes and focused, then snapped them open—

and two sheep suddenly appeared right in front of us.

“Ooh.”

Maybe because she can only summon “fluffy” things, they had thick, plentiful wool.

I took out a Stone Knife and carefully began shearing, making sure not to injure them.

“Sousuke, I’ll do it too.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

I handed her another knife, and the two of us worked steadily, shearing wool.

For mine, I could just store it each time, but having her do that too would be a hassle, so I took out a wooden box and had her put it in there.

“The sheep are just... letting it happen.”

“They listen to what I say.”

“I see. Shouko, you’re a tamer.”

“With white-mage Chiyu, tamer me, and Sousuke is... an alchemist?”

“Ahaha. Shion’s ability also gets called ‘discernment’ sometimes.”

“Ooh.”

Because the sheep didn’t resist and listened, the work went smoothly.

But it was still hard labor.

“And this is where your childhood friend’s Basic Heal shines.”

At some point, Chiyu appeared and cast magic on me.

“Thanks, Chiyu.”

“Telepathy—because we’re childhood friends.”

“Chiyu—does that feel like your fatigue goes away? Do it on me too!”

“Very well.”

White light wrapped around Shouko.

“Whoa! This is crazy—my energy’s coming back like, instantly!”

Once the water was boiling, Shouko and Chiyu swapped out.

The childhood-friend duo sheared wool while the new members got bath time.

We kept shearing in silence for a while.

“Sorry, Sousuke. Can you store and re-place the towel for me?”

It was Shion’s voice.

After drying off, she’d hung her towel on the folding screen and asked.

Like with Chiyu, we had them put their outfits into the laundry basket so we could make them clean too—and at that time, I’d also explained the convenient function of Inventory.

“Got it.”

I stored it in Inventory and re-placed it. That made the towel lose its moisture and become dry again.

“Your Crafting Ability is way too insane!”

Shouko showed off the same amazement for what had to be the tenth time.

“That’s probably because Sousuke answered while imagining a certain level of versatility.”

It’s a standard feature in the kind of games where you explore deserted islands, so it was easy to imagine.

Before long, the two of them came out after their baths.

With her side-tail let down, Shouko looked so different it felt fresh, and Shion—with raven-black hair and a flushed face—was the very definition of a prim beauty.

It made my heart jump. Both of them were seriously beautiful girls.

“Seeing your face right after a bath feels... kinda weird, Sousuke.”

Shouko smiled shyly.

“Thanks for cleaning my uniform.”

“Yeah! Thanks, Sousuke. This is seriously huge.”

“You’re welcome.”

“What do we do? Summon sheep again?”

We’d finished shearing wool from four sheep total, and we’d gotten a lot of wool.

I looked over Recipes and shook my head.

“We’re good for today. You two dry your hair by the campfire. I’m going to the hut and start generating and placing stuff right away.”

“Hey, So-kun.”

“Hm?”

When Chiyu called me, I turned—and she said this.

“There’s only one hut. There are four members. How do we sleep?”

...Right.

That problem existed.