111 – Beach walk (4)
“how?”
As the thick and long thing dug deep inside, Monia stared at it with a reddened face.
“Well… .”
“Shall we go deeper?”
“Swing.”
Monia, who had been slightly frowning, nodded cautiously, and Chester said he understood, and twirled the stick and stabbed it deeper.
“Yes.”
Monia trembles.
Chester stopped the spinning stick at some point, and thrust it deeply into his body, pressing down on his waist.
“Black!”
Monia, who shuddered and flinched.
“Echwi!”
Coughing, I watched Chester stomp on the soil around the properly poked stick.
“cold?”
“Well. It seems a bit like that.”
“I want to get salt quickly. You should also make your own clothes. Would you like to wear what I have for now?”
“Ugh. No, I’m still fine.”
“It’s okay, and then it goes hook.”
Chester, holding the stick firmly, took off his coat and gave it to Monia.
“… … thank you.”
“You made the clothes in the first place, so thank you.”
Carefully accepting the coat, Monia aimed her arrow at the stick Chester had stuck in, feeling the warmth, whether it was Chester’s body heat or the warmth effect of the bearskin.
In the past, Monia used to practice shooting with a wide board as a target, but as her skills gradually improved, she started training with a wooden stick as a target.
“Whoa… .”
The moment Monia, who was taking a deep breath and aiming at the target, let go of the bowstring, the arrow literally flew like a shot and stuck into the wooden stick.
“Cheer up!”
“Oh, good job.”
“Aren’t you completely gray-haired now?”
“Then, shall we increase the level of difficulty in the future?”
Saying that, Chester pulled out the arrow from the target, looked to see if it could be reused, and gave it to Monia.
“Someday I’ll be able to do it like Chester.”
“You must have a better bow for that? Because the range and power of an arrow basically comes from the bow. If the bow is not good, no matter how good the skill is, there is a limit.”
Now, the two were spending time at a seaside villa.
Normally, I would do it as a pastime, but even if it is a pastime, if I do it steadily every day, it will surely end someday.
For example, if unused rope or string is made to the extent that it piles up in a corner of the warehouse, or if all tools are overhauled, there is no need to make new tools.
When that time was free, Chester and Monia did some additional training at the beach.
He swims in the ocean, takes a walk on the beach like he did when he found the octopus earlier, teaches Monia a new trick, and spends time playing with Ant when he really has nothing else to do.
‘A lot has changed… … .’
Monia suddenly felt that her life had really changed a lot.
However, what Monia was thinking about was not the difference between the lives of the noblewoman Monia and the current Monia, but the difference between the former Monia abandoned on the island and the present Monia.
In the past, I had to spend every day doing something desperately without any spare time.
Not only was it impossible to obtain food on a steady basis, but it was impossible to even dream of stocking up on food. It must have been because even Chester frequently failed in hunting.
Sometimes there were days when I was starving because I couldn’t find anything.
It was difficult for Chester, who was mentally strong and experienced many harsh situations in nature, but what about Monia, who was mentally weak at the time?
“… … .”
The deep experience made me quickly forget the old memories. The years of living as an aristocrat were just as monotonous and meaningless.
All of a sudden, the foundation of ‘life’ called ‘Monia’s life’ was changing to the time she lived on this island.
It is more accustomed to sleeping on a moss bed on a curved bamboo floor with a wooden block as a pillow than sleeping on a wide, fluffy bed with a cloud-like blanket.
As a chef who has professionally learned and mastered that dish alone, he is more familiar with food with a little bit of fruit and seasoning suitable for the fish caught here than the best food with a variety of flavors, aromas and flavors made with the finest ingredients obtained from all over the country. .
I am more accustomed to running through the woods, exercising my strength, shooting my bow, climbing trees, practicing all kinds of chores, than sitting in a chair chatting, having tea parties, having social parties at night, or watching the opera every day. .
No, I’m not familiar with it. Monia got used to it. This island, which I hated, was terrible, and despaired of being abandoned, contemplated suicide.
The island where everything was scary became comfortable. Now, he didn’t mind seeing a bug crawling near him, and when he found a snake he mistook for a devil, he rushed at it, saying that he could get meat from it.
‘Actually, when I first came to this island, I thought I would die in a week.’
Saying that she had lived well so far, Monia stroked the bow in her hand.
At first, I cut my fingers a lot while sharpening this one bow. Of course, thanks to the mysterious water that flows on this island, it healed clean without any scars, but if it wasn’t for it, it would have been Chester’s hands.
Chester’s hands have many minor scars from handling knives and doing rough work since childhood. Anyone who saw it would have thought that he was not a butler, but a person who lived on a knife.
However, as the process of scarring and healing is repeated, the skin is raised and lowered, resulting in a bumpy shape, but there is no calluses as expected.
According to Chester, calluses do not form at all because they repeatedly form and peel off. Instead, perhaps because of this, Chester’s palms are thicker than normal, giving them a leathery feel.
“what.”
“Why?”
“It’s about to split here.”
“Hmm.”
Monia felt a tingling sensation at the tip of her finger as she stroked the bow, and showed it to Chester.
As Monia said, the part was about to split along the grain.
“Like Chester said, I want a better bow. The one my father had was fine no matter how many times I pulled it and shot it.”
“Monia, comparing that to this is without conscience.”
Just as Monia insists on the highest quality in everything related to art and dining, the duke had that kind of obsession.
Chester and Monia don’t know about its existence, but the Sky Knights, created by the duke to oppose the Royal Knights, also made everything from weapons, knights, and warhorses to the highest quality, and so did the bow he loved.
Actually, unlike Monia, who has one of the world’s best talents in ‘seeing and evaluating’ in the field of art she loves, maybe she was hated by the bow she loved so much, but her skills weren’t very good.
“Will there be another tree like that last time? I thought that was the best way to make a bow. The bow made from it was the best.”
“Hmm. so? Let’s find it tomorrow.”
As he said that, Chester drove in a new stick, fastened it securely, and undid the catapult tied to the rope around his waist.
The catapult was also different from the one made before.
The catapult, which used inner pockets and strings as materials, became unusable because the pockets were torn after using it, and Chester made a new slingshot using only one string as a material.
It is a masterpiece without any of the various defects that were in the slingshot made of pockets.
“Then I will be making a bow?”
“yes.”
Monia, who went back to the villa to write a map using the bow as an excuse, watched Chester’s training while writing the map.
After watching Monia’s training, it’s Chester’s training time.
Since being abandoned on a floating island, Chester never skipped training unless absolutely unavoidable.
No matter how satisfied you are with your skills, no matter how great you think you are, you never know where and how you will lose your senses and skills.
It was like that this time too.
After fighting the bear, his body senses were newly adjusted to match the injured leg, and after borrowing the power of the lake, his leg was instantly restored.
No matter how many stones you throw with a catapult, no matter how well you shoot a bow and arrow, it will not hit the target properly. There were often times when I was careless and made a mistake cutting grass with a machete or stabbing something with a wooden spear.
Now, I have returned to my original skills by matching my body, skills, and senses, but I don’t know what else might break this.
That’s why Chester continued to hone his skills so that even if it was broken, he could demonstrate at least the minimum level.
Chester’s target was a stick of wood thicker than Monia’s, and it was more deeply embedded than the target Monia was shooting at, so it didn’t shake much more than a stone thrown by a slingshot.
Of course, if you hit it right, it’s easy to smash a wooden stick like that, but that wasn’t Chester’s purpose.
“where… .”
Chester’s arm swung softly, and unlike that smooth, leisurely motion, the stone moved faster than an arrow.
Throwing stones with a catapult is an extension of the act of throwing stones, but in Chester’s case, that expression didn’t fit.
In Monia’s view, the word ‘shooting stones’ would be more appropriate.
Pak!
The shot stone brushes past the wooden stick. Repeat it over and over again, step by step.
Never in a hurry, so that breathing or senses are not disturbed, but all movements are organically and smoothly interlocked so that none of the movements are superfluous and elegant.
He moves his body as if it were a machine made to shoot stones with a catapult.
Just as a lighter is a tool for lighting a fire, it moves beautifully for a single purpose that is set from the moment it is made.
stones are fired
The stone that was fired continued to brush past the wooden stick, and the wooden stick that was cut off by hitting the stone gradually began to take on a certain shape.
Chester moves from place to place and fires stones at the stick again.
After repeating it for a while, change the place again and shoot the stone.
As the stick continued to shoot stones as it went round and round, the wooden stick, which had been roughly cut and out of shape, slowly began to take on an orderly, cylindrical shape.
“Whoa.”
When Chester finished his training, the stick turned into a perfect cylinder.
Of course, if you look closely, it’s rough and lumpy enough to make you wonder what kind of cylinder it is, but at least from a distance, it looks like a neat cylinder, unlike before.
“Wow.”
Seeing that, Monia marveled as Chester tried to turn away, hiding the map in a basket.
“I didn’t hit the stick once this time.”
“yes. Whoa, it took longer than I thought. Next time, why not stop and walk around the stick and throw it?”
“Yes? Will that be?”
“It’s not about whether or not you can do it, it’s about doing it until it works.”
“No, he is not a master artist who sculpts masterpieces of the century.”
“Isn’t it similar? hahahaha. Let’s go back now.”
Chester roughly tossed the wooden stick that had turned into a cylinder, packed his things in a basket, and went home.
When the three of them, including Ant, who was playing near the sea, returned home, an unexpected visitor awaited them.
– Huh?
First, Ant found it with his nose.
“uh? It’s a black wind, right?”
Next, Chester discovered with his own eyes.
“Yes?”
Finally, as it entered Monia’s eyes, the huge black hairballs turned and looked at them.
“Hey, it looks like there are 10 windy people? One, two, three… Oh, and there’s one on the tree too. There are seven of them.”
“Why did you come as a group like this?”
I wonder if ten days have passed since I parted with the black wind.
Chester and Monia reunited with the black wind sooner than expected and in a very different form than expected.