Grabbing the first batch of materials, Iron headed to the Central Sector. He took the left staircase up to the second floor, walked down a long corridor, and pushed open the door straight ahead of him.
The room greeted him with emptiness and the rich scent of oak. Taking his time, Iron began assembling and arranging the furniture: a massive bed went into the corner, a rectangular desk sat along the wall, and a sturdy wooden chair took its place right next to it.
Stepping back, Iron surveyed the room. The furniture was aligned perfectly, but the room’s impressive size made the furniture look a bit sparse.
"Still too empty..." he muttered.
"But it'll fill up with details over time."
Wasting no time, Iron moved on to the next rooms. One by one, he fully furnished three more rooms. By the end of it, four rooms on the second floor had their basic furnishings: a comfortable bed, a desk, and a chair.
However, he ran out of furniture before he could finish the fifth room. Stepping inside, Iron only managed to set up the last remaining bed—there were no more desks or chairs left.
Glancing at the solitary bed in the middle of the spacious room, Iron let out a sigh and headed back to the house to fetch the larger furniture for the ground floor.
After grabbing the next batch of materials and components, Iron returned to the first floor of the Central Sector. Crossing the hallway, he approached the wooden door positioned dead center.
He pushed it open and stepped inside. A vast, empty room with high vaulted ceilings stretched out before him.
"Well, let's see how my workspace turns out..." Iron said quietly, dropping his materials onto the floor.
He had immediately scrapped the idea of using a classic rectangular desk here. For someone who had to work with piles of blueprints, maps, and documents, standard furniture was just too impractical—it would mean constantly stretching in every direction or having to stand up.
Instead, Iron had designed a custom, massive desk with a smooth semicircular cutout in the center. After assembling and placing it in the middle of the office, he found that his calculations were spot-on: the cutout allowed him to sit flush against the work surface. Now, with just a slight sweep of his hand, Iron could reach any document on his left or right without making any unnecessary movements.
To complement the desk, he hadn't settled for a simple wooden chair, opting instead for a proper engineer’s chair with a swivel mechanism. Iron set it up, sat down, and spun from side to side, testing its smooth rotation and ergonomics.
"Perfect. It doesn't catch on anything, and everything is within reach," he said with satisfaction.
Rising from his chair, Iron tackled the rest of the room. On either side of his desk, he set up two small side tables, each with a chair. Directly in front of his main workspace, he arranged a seating area for visitors: two plush sofas with a small round table between them.
Once the layout was complete, Iron walked around the desk and turned to face the solid dark oak wall directly behind his chair. Looking it over, he made a mental note:
"I'll need to cover this entire wall with weapon racks and displays."
Finished with the office, Iron grabbed his remaining containers of adaptive compound, sheets of standard transparent glass, and his tools, then headed back outside to resume work on the exterior.
His first stop was the side walkways connecting the Central Sector to the east and west wings. They were still drafty. Iron carefully mounted the transparent panes into their frames and applied his adaptive compound along the joints. The liquid crystal solution flowed smoothly along the wooden frames and solidified instantly, transforming the breezy walkways into enclosed, sturdy, and fully weatherproof transparent tunnels. Now, moving between the buildings would be perfectly comfortable, even in a blizzard or a torrential downpour.
With the bridges finished, Iron made his way through every floor of the complex, sealing the remaining unglazed window openings in the wings.
At one point, while setting another frame, he happened to glance out the window and spotted Elyria. She was hovering motionless nearby, near the canopy of one of the towering trees. With her eyes closed and her tiny hands folded over her chest, she was bathed in a soft, green glow.
Iron watched her for a brief second before getting back to work, securing the final sheet of glass.
Meanwhile, deep within the forest, an equally important task was in full swing. Clerk, Lera, Helda, and the others were working together, felling trees and gathering logs. Eliza worked right alongside them, lightening the grueling work with her laughter.
Wiping a tiny bead of sweat from her brow, Eliza turned to the girls with a bright smile:
"Ah, the river was absolutely wonderful today! If only Iron would give us a few more hours of rest... or better yet, a whole day on the shore!"
Lera and Helda exchanged amused glances and nodded in agreement.
"Oh, that would be lovely!" Lera replied with a smile, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
Clerk, however, gently lowered another log to the ground, sighed, and shook his head.
"Yeah, resting is great... but we'd end up stuck halfway through the project," he said, a hint of sadness in his voice. "To be honest, I actually feel a bit guilty. Lady Elyria and Iron are doing so much for all of us. They're literally building an entire complex from scratch right before our eyes! And us... we’re barely doing anything. I just wish we could step up and match them, even a little."
Noticing their doubts, Eliza planted her hands on her hips:
"What are you talking about? You guys are doing an incredibly important job! Without your wood, there'd be no warm campfires, no walls, and not a single wooden house in the settlement. If you weren't here, this entire construction process would take far longer. Your help is the foundation that holds everything together!"
Clerk and the other guys looked a bit sheepish at such genuine praise, but grateful smiles soon appeared on their faces.
"Well... you do an awful lot too, Lady Eliza," Clerk muttered shyly.
"Maybe I do!" Eliza said with a bright laugh, adjusting her grip on her tool. "But the important thing is we're doing it together. Now back to work!"
With their confidence and spirits renewed, the settlers dove back into their tasks, and the forest soon echoed with the sounds of their coordinated efforts.
After another fifteen minutes of hard work, Eliza hoisted an impressive bundle of heavy logs and branches onto her shoulder. She easily made her way toward the camp, emerging from the tree line into the open clearing.
Approaching the central plaza, where the settlers had been neatly stacking all the harvested timber, Eliza dumped her load onto the communal pile. She paused for a moment and glanced up at the towering Main Building. Through the transparent structures, she could make out Iron’s silhouette—he was completely absorbed in his work, applying the adaptive glass and sealing the window frames.
She smiled softly at the sight, then turned on her heel and headed back into the woods.
But as soon as the trees shielded her from view, the smile vanished from her face.
The warm spark in her eyes vanished, replaced by a heavy, chilling glare.
Eliza walked slowly down the forest path, her gaze fixed blankly on the ground. In a low, heavy whisper, she muttered:
"It’s so hard to pre..."
But then, a sharp snap came from the nearby bushes, followed by Clerk’s hurried footsteps as he hauled another load of wood.
In an instant, the coldness vanished from Eliza’s eyes, and her familiar cheerful smile returned:
"Oh, Clerk! Here, let me help, or you’ll end up carrying the whole forest by yourself!"
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