I sorted out the advice I'd gotten from Nord Dad in my head and tried again.

　This time I felt the blade bite down firmly, probably because the tip of the blade went in vertically.

　I hit the stump with the wood and it cracked easily.

'Oh!'

　I couldn't help but marvel at the pleasant feeling of splitting wood.

　I set up a new piece of firewood and swung the axe down in the same way, not forgetting the feeling now.

　The vertical blade dug in and cracked as soon as it struck the stump with a thump.

'Looks like you got it right,'

I think I did a good job. It feels good to chop wood.

It's not just the movement, but the exhilaration of a good crack.

　It's sober work, but it's also exhilarating. I think this is the work for me.

　I think I can take this as a winter exercise.

　Once you get the hang of it, it's easy to get the hang of it, and the wood cracks in no time.

　The sound of scraping, scraping, and cracking echoes through the courtyard.

　I feel like I'm enjoying the slow life right now. The time spent chopping wood has given me a sense of contentment like never before.

　I wish this kind of slow time could go on forever.

　As I swung the axe, I chewed on my joy and didn't bite into the wood at all.

　Hm?　Didn't it go in vertically?

　When I checked it out, I found that the tip of the blade was firmly in the vertical. However, the feeling of the axe that sticks out is just as jittery as if it had entered at an angle.

''Huh?　The tip of the blade is solid and perpendicular, but it doesn't crack.

Maybe it's dry and the wood is too hard or the grain is too rough. If that's the case, you can take an axe that's been bored into the wood and hit it from above.

　I follow my dad's advice and bite the axe into it, and then tap it with the wood. I can definitely feel it biting into me.

'You can hit it harder with the wood and you'll be fine.

　That being said, I struck the axe with the wood even harder, and the blade bit into it with a thump and cracked.

''Oh.''

'If you still can't crack it, you can try the other side. If you still can't, you can give up.

Okay.

　I'm just an impotent seven-year-old. If I don't break it after trying that far, I'll give up right away. If I injure myself trying to break something by force, I can't even look at it, you know.

　If he can break something normally, he'll break it with a bang, and if he struggles with it, he'll hit the axe with the wood to break the wood.

　Yeah, I like this process. I feel like I could do this endlessly.

'Al, it's time to start splitting some big wood,'

　As I was mindlessly chopping wood, Dad Nord said with a wry smile.

　I noticed that a large amount of small firewood had been born around me. He was apparently quite absorbed in the work.

'I'll try,'

　I nodded, and Dad Nord placed a large piece of wood on top of my stump.

　It's so thick that it would take a lot longer to do it the way it was done earlier.

It's a little heavy, but I think I'll use a long axe. Can you hold it?

　The axe handed to me by Nord Dad was a little heavier than it was earlier.

　I could hold it normally, but it would be a little tight considering how many times I had to lift and swing it.

''I'll be fine, but I'll use my body enhancements just in case.

That's a relief.

　While Nord Dad laughed, he was able to hold the axe with no problem when he used his physical enhancements.

'Well, let's hold the axe vertically first. If the blade isn't vertical, its trajectory will be slanted when you swing it, and that's dangerous.

　I see. If the blade is out of alignment, the trajectory will deviate that much more.

　It's so that you can swing the blade straight down.

"The height of the next chopping block. Would you like to give the axe a light tap on the wood?

Yes.

　With that said, I lightly slammed the axe down on the wood.

　Then Dad Nord checked the position of the axe and my body.

'Yeah, looks like it's fine at the height you're at now.

What does this mean?

The force is transmitted best when the point where the axe is struck is about the same height as the navel. If it's too high, the force won't be transmitted, and if it's too low, it's easy to miss your aim.

I see...

　The height of the stump is also important in chopping wood.

The last thing is how you swing. "The last thing is the swing," he says, "you have to swing halfway up, put your right foot in front of you and swing the axe down.

Right foot forward?

'If I had my left foot in front of me, it would be hard to avoid the axe I swung off,'

　Oh, the bigger the movement, the greater the danger.

　I'm afraid to do it, so I'll make a shield around my feet.

I think Thor was doing it with his legs apart.

As a beginner, it's easier to do that, but that's a lot of pressure on my back.

'I see, it's important to work on your back for the future. We'll do it this way.

That's pretty quick for a guy your age to worry about his back.

　No, Father Nord. He's laughing all the way to the bank, but his back is not stupid. Even in a past life, I regretted why I didn't work on my back before.

　I don't want to get sore with every little movement, so I'm going to try to swing in a way that is gentle on my back.

'Okay then, let's go over your form and you can try to hit it until you hit it.

Okay.

　Compared to chopping wood earlier, there are more precautions and more stringent checks.

　That's how difficult it is to handle the axe, and I'm sure my dad is worried about it.

　As Nord's father watches, I hold the axe upright and measure the distance between the wood and the axe.

　As soon as I half lifted the axe, I stuck my right foot out and swung it down.

　With a scoop, the tip of the axe blade dug lightly into the wood.

''Well yeah, it looks fine. You should try splitting it next time.

　It looks like I've been given a pass by Father Nord.

　Perhaps swinging an axe is better than swinging a sword like Thor.

　Next, I carefully repeat the action I just did and swing the axe down to try to crack it.

　Then the wood cracked with a light sound.

'Oh, refreshing!'

　It's a strong, exhilarating feeling, different from the small wood chopping I just mentioned.

'It's nice to chop up a big piece of wood.

　That's for sure. This seems to have a stress-reducing effect or something.

　Maybe in a previous life, if I would have gone home and chopped wood, I wouldn't have gotten so frustrated.

　After splitting the firewood, I would get the next large piece of wood and put it on the stump.

　Once it was self-supporting, I put the axe upright and kept my distance, then halfway up and lifted the axe and at the same time stepped my right foot out and swung it down.

　The wood splits, and then I get a new piece of wood and split it again.

　This routine is very comfortable.

　Sometimes it wouldn't split on the first shot, but then I could swing the axe a second or third time and it would split cleanly.

　The trick seems to be not to smash them with force, but to use the weight of the axe blade to smash them.

　As I continued to work in silence, Nord's father also began to chop wood with the axe.

　Splitting wood like this with his father. It's nice.

　It's a much more meaningful way to spend time than training.

　The sound of my father's chopping and my chopping echoes intermittently.

　I'm gradually warming up thanks to the fact that I keep moving my body. I'm outside, but my body doesn't feel cold.

　The body doesn't get too tired thanks to the strengthening of the body, and I can keep doing it.

''Al, it's time to end it.

　As I was busy chopping wood, Nord's father called out to me, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

　Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I say, "What?

'Huh?　Is it over now?

It's almost noon now. We've done quite a bit of chopping. We've got firewood all around us.

　The next thing I know, we're completely covered in firewood all around us.

　It must have been more than a hundred. I wondered how many firewood we had chopped. I hadn't counted it at all because I was doing it mindlessly.

'But,' said Al, 'already?' You must really like chopping wood to say that.

Yeah, I'm not averse to this kind of sober work.

　Some people will find it too monotonous and boring, but that's what I love about it.

　In a way, it's the easiest thing to do without having to think about it.

Now, here's the hard work.

What?

　What else is there to do besides chopping wood?

'I need to get the firewood here into the wood rack in the barn.

..........

　Do you want to take the firewood here to the barn at the back of the compound?　It's a pain in the ass just thinking about it.

　You have to go back and forth to put it in a box of some sort.

'You don't mind the sober work, do you?'

　I frown in anticipation of the process, but my dad smiles at me and says, "I don't like simple work, but I don't like wasteful work.

'I don't mind plain work, but I hate useless work.

　It was too inefficient to carry the split firewood back and forth.

　I put a psychic on all the split firewood.

"Let's just put it in the cupboard in one go.

　Looking at the firewood floating in the air, a stunned Nord Dad shrugged his shoulders.

''Well it's nice to have Al around to help us clean up afterwards.

　Don't give me that kind of Erna-mom line.