The tribe’s population was increasing, and the work increased accordingly.
The daily reports from each factory added up to quite a lot; Eric’s house really didn’t have enough space anymore. Moreover, every time they discussed something, everyone had to sit on the heated bed, which didn’t look very formal. Now everything had been moved to that two-story building.
He led Moon around the tribe: "Look, there’s really nothing fun here. Dragon Island is full of exotic flowers and rare plants, much more interesting than here."
Moon ignored his implied dismissal and pointed excitedly at a place where many furry cubs were gathered: "What are they doing there? It looks fun!"
Looking in the direction he pointed, Eric revealed a complicated expression: "Ah, that’s the playground for the cubs. Don’t tell me you like playing with those things too?"
In the beginning, beastmen were worried about food and clothing, so naturally, they couldn’t pay attention to other aspects.
Now that life was better, Eric also found ways to enrich the spiritual life of the tribe members, starting with the cubs. Following the idea of children’s parks from his previous life, using magic as power and equipment handmade by Dwarves, he built a playground.
Slides, swings, seesaws, and even a small Ferris wheel, spinning cups, spinning wooden horses... It was just that because materials weren’t as abundant as in his previous life, everything was made of iron, steel, and wood, and the colors weren’t as colorful, but the cubs liked them very much.
With this playground, the cubs immersed themselves in it every day and were no longer interested in playing with mud, so the adobe bricks at the brick kiln weren’t destroyed anymore.
Only Leo, Robin, and the older cubs were very sensible every day, going to help for a while before going to play with their friends.
But now that there was plenty of manpower and no need for child labor, Eric was happy to see them living happily like normal children.
The playground wasn’t built small. Since there were more and more cubs, and who knew if they would increase in the future, it was made larger from the start so the kids could play to their hearts’ content.
He had originally planned to make a set of fitness equipment for the elderly beastmen like in his previous life. Later, thinking that the elderly beastmen did quite a lot of work every day, he decided not to increase their exercise load; it would look like abusing the elderly...
It was Moon’s first time seeing such a place for fun. Looking at the highest slide, he was a bit eager to try.
Since there were many beastmen here, Eric had built a few with high difficulty. Besides the small slides, there was a super large, super high slide that the Dwarf children and brave cubs liked to play on. Below it was a layer of soft sand brought back by Grass when refining salt.
Eric followed his gaze. Up there, besides a bunch of fluffy ones, there were several Dwarf children, and even three or four tiny human children, happily lining up to slide down. Some didn’t even wait for the one behind to run off before sliding down in a hurry, crashing into each other...
Eric watched with trepidation and couldn’t help but reach out his hand: "Flower, Tullte, be careful with the human children! They can’t withstand collisions!"
Flower shook the dirt off her head, giggled, ran over, and rubbed against Eric’s hand: "It’s okay! If a human child slides down, we all use our bellies to catch them!"
Eric held his chest and watched for a while. Seeing that the kids weren’t hurt, he finally relaxed.
These children were the oldest among the humans, about four or five years old. They must have become braver recently to dare run up to this highest one. It seemed his safety measures were still insufficient.
Looking around, he didn’t see the parents of these children. If they weren’t at the breeding farm, they were working in the dairy product factory. Truly daring.
Leo jumped out from who knows which corner. There were many small spaces here, just right for cubs to crawl in and out of.
"Eric! Don’t worry, I left Gray guarding the stairs. If a Dwarf or human child falls, he will catch them."
In just a few short years, Leo had grown quite a bit from the small blonde boy he was initially. He had matured somewhat and, along with his friends, always worried a lot.
Even his height had reached Eric’s eyebrows. The two were ten years apart; by the time he became an adult, he would probably be taller than Eric.
Jealously pinching the teenager’s delicate face, Eric grinned and said:
"With our Leo here, I’m relieved. Then I’ll trouble you to watch them, and take this big brother in to play as well."
Moon’s eyes lit up beside him. Eric naturally saw his intention. Although he found it quite funny in his heart, he wasn’t surprised.
Recalling when this place was first built, the adult beastmen all came here secretly to play too. Don’t look at how serious everyone acted; seeing each other when sneaking here at night, that scene... tsk tsk.
As for why Eric knew so clearly - cough, cough - he hadn’t been to an amusement park for a long time, and his body in this life was that of a minor, so it was hard to avoid wanting to play. He dragged Max to the playground, and as a result, they met quite a few tribe members as soon as they arrived...
Thinking back, Eric wanted to facepalm and sigh, feeling both embarrassed and amused.
Moon pretended to nod reservedly, then blended into a group of cubs...
Eric casually scooped up a small orange cat to pet. Worthy of the legend of the orange cat, it was heavy despite its young age. It was just a bit ill-tempered; if its chubby paws could reach his neck, it would have definitely scratched him a few times.
Seeing Moon playing happily, Eric put down the angry little orange cat and walked away with his hands behind his back, feeling smug.
Thought he would be hard to deal with, but he was just like this.
He strolled to the cafeteria. The cafeteria had constantly expanded over the years and had set up different counters like a school canteen. The food was also getting better and better.
The dessert counter was managed by Sam. The smell of butter permeated the cafeteria.
He went over to take a look. Besides pudding desserts, there were cookies fresh out of the oven, decorated with colorful dried fruits and crushed nuts. Eric couldn’t resist taking a piece and stuffing it into his mouth.
Only he could walk inside and eat openly; anyone else would be beaten out by Sam.
It was rare for Eric and Max to both have time today. The two went out on a date after being apart for days.
Calling it a date, it was actually just seizing a bit of free time. Eric lay lazily on Max’s broad and strong back, his mouth still chewing the fruit gummy candy he had just made.
It was gratifying that, given the limited conditions, his skill in making things by hand was getting better...
The sweet smell of fruit spread around Max. His tall, straight nose twitched slightly: "Is it sweet?"
Eric kicked his legs: "Of course. I offered you some just now and you didn’t eat. Gummy candy I just made, chewy and delicious to death."
The corners of Max’s mouth curled up involuntarily: "It’s not too late to taste it now."
Eric was about to take a piece of candy from his pocket to give him when the large hand supporting his buttocks suddenly lifted, and his face was instantly close to Max’s.
Max turned his head and gave Eric a sweet kiss scented with fruit. He didn’t let go with a smile until Eric was about to run out of breath.
"Good for you, turns out you wanted to take advantage of me, hmph." Eric sat up straight, criticizing righteously.
Max said nothing, but his upturned lips revealed his happy mood.
He carried Eric aimlessly, arriving at a tangerine forest laden with fruit.
He remembered the fruit Eric liked to eat most was tangerines - juicy, sweet and sour.
Although he had already filled Eric’s cellar with several large baskets, he still climbed the tree to pick an armful of tangerines for him.