123 – Iron Age (4)
As Monia twisted her waist and pulled the ax back, the ax showed off its radiant appearance as it penetrated the sunlight between the branches.
The moment he moved his body gently while shifting his weight, and accurately hit the target point with the ax, the thick ax blade accurately dug into the tree, unlike before, when it was close to crushing with a stone axe.
“Ugh!”
Monia, accustomed to the stone ax that bounced off the tree, was shocked when the metal ax got stuck in the tree and the hard impact was transmitted to her wrist.
“wow. The feeling of writing this is very different.”
“Yeah.”
Talking about the feeling of using the Moniada metal axe, Chester, who fell down a tree before he knew it, agreed with Monia’s words and took out a knife.
Chester pulled out a knife that was quietly tucked away in a sheath made of wood, and pressed it gently against the surface of the wood to cut off the branches.
Since the claw knife could not cut the branch at once, it had to be trimmed to almost break it in half, but the moment the metal knife was pushed all the way, it lightly sliced at least a thin branch and passed by.
Even a slightly thick branch could be easily broken by inserting a knife into it and tapping the back of the knife to give it a shock.
After trimming the felled tree, he pulled out a metal ax that had been driven into the base of the felled tree and began chopping it into pieces of a suitable length for moving the tree.
Muscles wriggled under his clothes, and the ax he swung was driven deep into the wood. After shaking the stuck ax out, swing it again on a slightly different leg to drive the ax, and change the location a little bit to drive it.
After repeating that a few times, I stepped on the tree with force, and the tree snapped with a loud sound.
“Oh oh.”
Seeing that, Monia jumped up, pulled out her ax stuck in a tree, and started swinging it eagerly.
If you’re not familiar with it, it won’t be easy to hit a tree even if you use a metal axe, but Monia, who has had a lot of experience swinging a stone ax dozens or hundreds of times to knock down thick trees, was able to knock the tree down without too much effort.
“Wow! I’m already down!”
So far, thick trees are difficult to knock down, so they have mainly aimed at thin trees.
But there was no need for that now.
Even thick trees can be felled easily!
“Okay then!”
When the tree fell, Monia took something out of the basket.
What Monia took out was an object that at first glance looked like an abandoned iron plate.
The lump of iron, with its surface distorted here and there, was so smooth and sharp that it blinded one part.
It was shorter than the original machete but thicker. An item made by adjusting the length to fit Monia’s body.
Holding the machete that Chester had made with a lot of ore, Monia swung it and began clearing the thick twigs from the tree.
“Heh heh heh heh. How does it taste, you guys!”
Chester, who was gathering the cut trees and tying them up with a rope, smiled at Monia, who was cutting branches with a machete as if she was dancing with a sword.
“Will it be that good?”
Even Chester, who said that, treasured the knife to the point of sleeping with it in his arms every night.
“The work is already done!”
Wielding a metal machete, then a metal knife, and then a metal ax, Monia finished the job in an instant. She trembled with a shocked look on her face. .
“Ah!”
Of course, even if you kicked a rock, there was no way the rock would hurt. Only the kicked Monia hurts.
“what are you doing.”
“but! Stones made it hard for me!”
“You’ve been doing well up until now because you have that stone.”
“ah.”
Monia stroked the rock she had kicked and apologized.
* * *
After returning home and sorting out the firewood, Chester and Monia had a meal and free time.
“Doesn’t it seem like you’ve been seeing animals lately?”
“Yes. I think we can start hunting again soon.”
“yes. Then tomorrow, let’s work on moving the trap location first.”
animals learn If you keep leaving traps in the same spot, one day you will learn the location of the traps and avoid them.
So Chester was doing the work of changing the position of the traps spread out in the forest periodically.
“What are you making now?”
“yes? A statue of a god.”
“Where are you going to write it?”
“To leave the demon where it came from before.”
“ah! right! Something like that happened.”
“Did you forget?”
“lol.”
Monia looked at the statue that Chester was shaving.
Chester was good with his hands, but that was good in the sense of his hands being tight.
I’m good at bringing this and that and making something and using it practically. However, if you ask me if I have good dexterity in the artistic field, I can say that I am better than the average person, but I can say that I am an artist.
Of course, it was impossible for Chester to carve a statue of a god with a delicate and complex shape on a small piece of wood.
“If I make it ugly, won’t the gods be angry?”
“no way. This is sincerity, sincerity. My father and I offered the leftover scraps of our last game every year as offerings to the gods, but we never received any punishment from God?”
“I had to sell the leftovers… … .”
“That’s right, it’s a waste to dedicate money to a god you’ve never heard the voice of.”
“Then go to hell.”
Despite saying that, Monia did not stop Chester from making an ugly new statue.
As a result, ugly results came out due to lack of skills, but Chester really put his heart and soul into his new look.
The complex patterns of the statues he had seen at the church in the royal capital, which he couldn’t quite remember, he worked hard to remember and imitated, albeit clumsily.
“As for Chester.”
“yes?”
“Is there a reason you love knives so much?”
“Why did you like knives?”
“Yes.”
Chester paused for a while to look at the knife he had made.
“It’s a knife that my father gave me as a gift when he first recognized me as a decent hunter.”
“… … There, that knife.”
“I don’t know. Because the country lost it. Isn’t it lying around in a corner of a warehouse in a prison somewhere?”
Monia’s expression darkened at Chester’s words.
“It’s fine.”
Chester put down the knife and statue and pulled the darkening Monia into her arms.
“but.”
Monia was about to say something, but kept her mouth shut.
Chester’s parents are dead.
During a drought, an entire village was attacked and annihilated by people who had turned into bandits in the midst of starvation.
No matter how strong Chester’s father was, he could not defeat dozens of thieves in a state of starvation and dryness from lack of food.
In other words, for Chester, the knife he received as a gift was a memento of his father.
do it yourself… … .
“I learned how to handle a knife from my father.”
As Chester stroked Monia, he opened his mouth as if telling a child an old story.
“How to handle a catapult, how to shoot a bow, knowledge about edible plants, how to hunt animals… … .”
Next, Chester pointed to the house they had built.
“That too.”
And pointed to the tools they had.
“That too.”
Finally, he pointed alternately at himself and Monia.
“Our lives too.”
Chester picked up Ant, who was lying next to him, and dragged him into his arms.
“Everything my father gave me. You don’t even need a knife.”
“… … .”
Monia, who was listening to Chester’s words while crying quietly, smiled unconsciously when Ant licked her cheek.
“excuse me.”
“yes?”
“sorry.”
“what?”
“Just, a lot of this and that. I’m not sure what to apologize for… I’m sorry.”
“I have enough of that.”
After spending some time sharing emotions like that, Monia, who calmed down, asked.
“Hey, by the way, what kind of person was Chester’s mother?”
“yes? my mother?”
“Yes. You always talk about your father and never talk about your mother.”
“Hmm. mother What would you like to talk about?”
Chester pondered and said.
“My dad is honestly a bit of an eccentric, isn’t he? He is also the one who chose to leave his family behind and wander the world. Although I met my mother and settled down.”
“That… Yes? In fact.”
It was a subject that was difficult for others to just nod in affirmation, so Monia nodded clumsily.
Chester didn’t care too much about it and talked about his mother.
“My mother is usually kind enough to accept such a father well, but when she gets angry, she is the kind of person who can easily shatter a kitchen knife with force.”
“Yes? What now?”
Perhaps, he didn’t know that Chester’s grip strength was inherited from his mother, not his father.
* * *
“Captain! Captain!”
Rotin, who was sleeping quietly, heard the voice of the navigator in his ears.
“I found an island!”
The moment he heard those words, Rotin’s eyes widened as if his deep sleep was a lie.