“No matter how you look at it, they’re still the ones bullying us,” Etta Moore puffed out his cheeks, resentful of the people who had snatched their things.
“Check your surroundings before you throw a fit.
Do you want your life, or do you want the well?” Mandy Donovan smacked Etta on the back of the head.
‘When is he going to stop throwing these childish fits?’
She had the dowsing rod, so finding water was easy for her—
She just didn’t know if anyone had seen her and Gary Moore find the water.
If they had been seen, she would hand the dowsing rod over to the Defense Force.
Despite what had happened in the Old East District, Mandy Donovan still held the Defense Force in the highest regard.
On the front lines against the Mutant Beasts, it was always the Defense Force who charged in first.
Etta wasn’t an idiot.
He immediately shut his mouth after seeing the people around them.
Those were vagrants!
In the presence of vagrants, there were no rules.
When they went into a frenzy, they weren’t even afraid of the Defense Force.
“Help them get their things home,” Leo Lewis arranged for two Defense Force soldiers to escort them and their belongings back to the city.
Even the muddy water Mandy had asked for was delivered in a bucket.
After the Defense Force left, the three of them stared at the things on the ground, silent for a long time.
After a while, Etta said plaintively, “But…
we spent half the day digging that well, and now it’s just…
gone?”
“If the Defense Force hadn’t arrived so quickly, it might have been the three of us who were gone,” Gary Moore said, shuddering as he recalled the circle of bloodthirsty, wolf-like eyes.
“But, what right did they have?
Even with the vagrants there, they still can’t just take our stuff,” Etta said.
Seeing his brother wasn’t on his side, he turned to Mandy Donovan.
“Mandy, you tell me.
What gives them the right?”
“The right comes from them having to kill Mutant Beasts, and from the three of us being unable to protect it ourselves!” Mandy Donovan was more rational than the two brothers.
She had seen more of the world and had a better understanding of human nature.
Maybe it wasn’t right for the Defense Force to forcibly confiscate the well.
But looking at it from another angle, the Defense Force had taken on all the dangers, both seen and unseen.
She and the twins had been sent away.
The vagrants, however, hadn’t left.
Instead, they were steadily tightening their circle, clearly waiting for an opportunity.
“But—” Etta started to say more, but every word from Mandy and his brother made sense.
If he kept complaining, he’d just be throwing a tantrum, and it wouldn’t bring the well back.
“We can still use that thing to find water in the future, right?”
“Of course.
We have a secret weapon, and they don’t,” Mandy Donovan said, pulling the simple dowsing rod from her clothes.
“What you two need to do is use your superpower to make a lot of buckets.”
Gary Moore patted Etta’s back.
“Listen to Mandy.
Let’s make buckets.
Think about it, if we’d had buckets today, we could have taken more water with us, right?”
“It’s all my fault for not taking it seriously.” His brother had a Gold Element Superpower, and he had one too.
Etta was filled with regret, and his expression was no longer as aggrieved as before.
He also knew that with the vagrants there, the three of them couldn’t have protected the well.
Having it taken by the Defense Force was actually the best possible outcome.
It just felt awful!
After all, something he had worked so hard for half the day to create had been taken by others.
“Do your hands still hurt?” Gary unfolded his younger brother’s hand to look at his palm.
“I can make the buckets by myself.”
“We’ll do it together,” Etta said, lowering his head and muttering, “It’d be great if I had a Space Ability.
I could just hide the water in my Space, and no one would be able to take it.”
Mandy, who actually did have water in her Space, saw that the brothers had managed to talk themselves around and began to break a hole in the wall connecting the kitchen and the bedroom.
The heated wall needed to be adjustable—used when it was cold and not when it was hot.
The heated brick bed would be warm in winter and cool in summer.
As long as it didn’t collapse, it could be used for a long time.
Mandy piled the yellow earth on the floor, dug a hollow in the middle, poured in the muddy water, and began mixing it vigorously with a shovel.
“What are you doing?
Let me help you,” Gary said after finishing a bucket.
He walked over and reached for the shovel in Mandy’s hands.
Dodging Gary’s hand, Mandy didn’t stop moving.
“I’ll need both of you to help in a minute.
It’ll be faster that way.
You hand me bricks, two at a time, and Etta will be in charge of shoveling the mud next to me.”
Once the mud was ready, Mandy stood in the spot she had chosen in the kitchen for the earthen stove.
“Start passing the bricks!”
One of the brothers passed bricks.
The other shoveled mud.
Mandy’s movements were quick.
A layer of bricks, a layer of yellow mud.
Every gap was filled with the yellow mud.
In the blink of an eye, a rustic earthen stove was built.
It was still missing some parts, which she would get from the Black Market.
“This is the stove.
It’s not dry yet, so don’t touch it.”
“It doesn’t look like the one at the welfare center,” Etta said, holding a shovel full of yellow mud.
“Will it even work?”
“You’ll find out later whether it works or not.
Let’s keep going.” The spot chosen for the heated bed had to be right next to the kitchen.
Mandy had allocated a ten-square-meter area: eight square meters for the heated bed, and two for a cabinet.
The three of them worked in concert.
The heated bed was complete!
Mandy built a wall with just a doorway, dividing the 25-square-meter house into a 10-square-meter section and a 15-square-meter section.
The 15-square-meter part was L-shaped and would be used as a planting and storage area.
But until the heated bed was finished, this area was still where they slept on the floor.
“Our home is halfway set up.
Let’s eat our rations now.
Before bed, you two can get back to making buckets with your superpower,” Mandy said, washing her hands with the clear water that had settled from the mud.
The twins weren’t in high spirits.
Seeing the buckets they were making only dampened their mood further.
Mandy knew they were still upset about the confiscated well.
She didn’t try to persuade them further.
The twins would come to their senses eventually; they knew which was more important—their lives or a well!
What was called a well was, for them, little more than a water hole.
It wasn’t that valuable.
After dark, Leo Lewis came knocking, carrying a bucket of water.
“Here’s the water I promised.
When you’re done with it, I want the bucket back.
I want the one with the mud back, too.”
He immediately spotted the new wall in the center of the room and instantly understood what the bricks had been for.
“Can’t you sell the buckets to me?” Mandy wanted the two 100-liter buckets.
“I’ll pay with points.”
Selling two buckets was within his authority.
Leo Lewis thought for a moment.
“Fifty points.”
As long as he was willing to sell.
Mandy transferred the points immediately.
“With this well, the water pressure on the New Sharn District should ease up a bit, right?”
“It’ll only alleviate it,” Leo Lewis said.
Ten wells wouldn’t be enough, but there was no need to tell a child the whole truth.
“We sent people to dig many wells in the area, but none of them produced water.
You guys were just lucky.”
Only Mandy knew it wasn’t luck.
“It’s good if it can relieve some of the pressure.
Ordinary people like us can’t make much of a contribution anyway.”
She knew how to say the right things, too.
Leo Lewis looked up at Mandy in surprise.
He had assumed that an outsider like her would know how to get by in the New Sharn District, yet this kid…
she didn’t show the slightest intention of currying favor with the Defense Force?
He couldn’t help but say, “This well is very important.
You could have asked for something else.”
“Give the well back to us?” Etta blurted out.
Leo Lewis shook his head.
“And what happens after I give it back?
Can you protect it?”