“All right! We’ve moved all the pews out. Next, we’re tearing up the floorboards!”
A little while after lunch, the last of the pews had been delivered to the woodworking shops. Since they were about to remove the floorboards, I figured I’d ask whether those could be reused as well.
“Oh, kid. Perfect timing,” the master carpenter said as I approached. “The floorboards are all headed for the scrap pile. They’re completely rotten.”
They crumbled apart. The moment the master carpenter showed me one of the boards they had pulled up, I understood why there was no salvaging it.
After serving as the church floor for countless years, the wood had absorbed moisture until it had become soft, brittle, and riddled with decay.
“When they’re this rotten, the only thing left to do is burn them and bury the ashes.”
“I was hoping we could find some way to reuse them…”
The master carpenter shook his head.
“Think of it this way—the fact that they can’t be reused means they served their purpose until the very end. Whenever you’re building something new, there’ll always be things you have to throw away.”
If even the master carpenter had concluded they were beyond saving, then there was no point dwelling on it.
The workers cut the discarded floorboards into smaller pieces with saws before loading them onto wagons for disposal.
Swish… swish…
““Hmm-hmm-hmm~♪””
With cloth masks covering their faces, Shiro and the others swept the church floor now that the old floorboards had been removed. Casey-san and Telma-san worked alongside them, broom in hand. Since the rotten floorboards had crumbled apart during removal, the floor was covered in sawdust and wood debris. Even cleaning it up was a major task.
Fortunately, with so many people pitching in, the work progressed steadily.
Meanwhile, I left the church with the master carpenter and headed over to the orphanage demolition site.
“Careful when you pull it loose!”
“““One, two… heave!”””
Craaack!
Lively shouts echoed across the demolition site as well.
Timber after timber was pried free, and before long, half of the orphanage’s roof had already been dismantled.
“Well, just as I expected—the roof’s no good either. It’ll all have to be thrown away. Same goes for the wall boards. The real question is how many of the support pillars are still usable.”
The master carpenter said with a sigh.
I couldn’t say I was surprised. The orphanage had been in such terrible condition that I had expected a good portion of it to end up as scrap. The unusable lumber was cut down into manageable lengths before being loaded onto wagons for disposal.
“At this rate, we’ll probably be dealing with disposal work for the next several days. The church is one thing, but the orphanage will need proper groundwork and foundation work afterward. We can’t afford to cut corners.”
The master carpenter was absolutely right. Every step of the job had to be done properly.
And with that, the day’s work came to an end.
◆◆◆
“So, everything’s going smoothly so far?”
“Yes. We haven’t fallen behind schedule, and there haven’t been any problems.”
During dinner, the former lord asked me for an update on the project’s progress.
Since construction had only just begun, everything was still proceeding according to plan. If any real trouble was going to arise, it would probably be once the actual rebuilding started.
Grrrrrrr…
“I’m… starving…”
The person whose stomach is rumbling loudly is none other than the Margrave.
After stuffing himself with far too many meat sandwiches at the work site, he hadn’t been able to finish his lunch. As punishment, he’d been served less than half of his usual dinner portion. Since he had brought it entirely upon himself, everyone simply ignored his pitiful complaint.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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