145 – A bunch caught on the tip of a branch (4)
Quite a bit of time had passed since the people at the top ran rampant, and the animals were returning at a similar level to before.
However, they are not quite the same.
Just as animals and plants changed in the hot weather, there were rare animals that disappeared as the weather changed.
“Chester, look at this.”
While walking through the woods to set up a trap, Monia suddenly saw pure white breath coming out of her mouth and blew into the air saying it was amazing.
Up until now, he had been confined to a warm mansion in the winter, so he didn’t even know that his breath came out of his mouth when it was cold.
After looking around, setting traps throughout the forest, Chester and Monia headed to the beach.
On the beach, after all the rubble had been removed, there was a villa that was just being built again.
There were many trees that were smashed by cannonballs from ships and stones thrown by people at the top, so they are using them as materials to build stronger villas.
In other words, the villa that Chester and Monia are building now is a so-called log cabin.
Since the villa was prepared for a pastime while watching ships pass by on the sea, in fact, it may not make sense to build a log house with all sides closed.
The essential reason for the villa being built this time was to create a warehouse to store ‘things that I want to have but don’t need right now, but which are difficult to leave unattended.’
In the last incident, such items piled up and were scattered all over the yard, so it was to deal with them.
“Shall we start with the rubble today?”
“yes. It’s a lot, so I haven’t finished all of it yet.”
The boat was stuck in the immediate vicinity of the island. In addition, the sea was agitated by the stones thrown by the people at the top, so many items did not sink and landed on the island.
Of course, there were some things that disappeared into the sea as they were, but there was no need to regret or worry about them disappearing like that. They just have to rejoice at the luck that fell into their hands.
“Oh, this is a fishing rod.”
“Then can we fish too?”
Chester nodded to Monia, who spoke more comfortably than before.
“Fishing. I learned it before.”
“yes?”
“The children go to the river and play and fish. The fish you catch while playing like that will be your daily sustenance that day.”
Monia nodded in wonder and looked at the fishing rod and found a sharp needle.
“Ah, so the end is made like this so the fish can’t pull it out easily… … .”
While she checked the hooks, Chester looked for oil.
Oil is the best way to store things. Once immersed in oil, it will last a long time without any maintenance.
Oil is useful as a storage material, to the extent that in some regions there is a technique to store meat, etc., in animal fat for a long period of several months.
“Do you have such a preserved food?”
“yes. Was your name Confi? They say that soaking in oil makes the meat taste better, but I’ve only heard of it, but I don’t know how to make it.”
“why?”
“Because oil is heavy.”
It could be used as a preservation food in the village, but it was not a method that suited hunters who needed to move around lightly like Chester or those who had to travel long distances.
“Oh, but even if you find oil here, don’t use it for cooking.”
“uh? why? Why not?”
“Because it’s oil you can’t eat.”
“Hey. There are many types of oil.”
“It’s not a whaling ship, so there won’t be any whale oil.”
“Ah, a whale! Know. Is it perfume ingredients?”
At Monia’s words, Chester hesitated for a moment.
‘You mean they make perfume out of whales? I can’t understand the lives of nobles.’
Chester, who only knew that whales were hunted and eaten, their bones sold for magic, medicine, and decorative purposes, and their oil used for lamps and lubricants, Chester could not imagine what whales could be used to make perfume.
In fact, I had never even seen a whale in person.
The whale Chester knew was the ruler of an ocean larger than an island, with eyes like beads the size of a human head and a huge mouth capable of swallowing a man in one bite.
Therefore, the image of the whale in Chester resembled a dragon from a children’s book.
‘There are aristocratic families in the kingdom that use a whale as their symbol, but they are wearing strange patterns that have been glued together, so it’s hard to properly recognize the shape of the object they use as a pattern.’
“Oh, I just thought it was weird.”
Monia read the expression on Chester’s face and laughed.
“I’ve only tried it once? Since there are no whaling ships in the kingdom, there are several countries, mountains and seas to cross to get whale-related items.”
Monia shrugged.
“After the duke found it and used it, he never asked for it again, saying it wasn’t worth spending all the money to get it.”
Another thing that Monia has changed is that she no longer calls the duke her father.
In the past, at least he called me father. Perhaps that was the sliver of hope that remained within Monia.
The hope that my father did not abandon me, or that I might be able to return to the kingdom and live as a nobleman again. A fragile mind that everyone has no choice but to have in a desperate and difficult situation, and a habit of observing the situation calmly without looking at it calmly.
However, after experiencing fear and anxiety from those who would capture her and bring her to the kingdom, and after Chester came close to dying twice in connection with the kingdom, Monia completely abandoned any hope she had for the kingdom.
Maybe it was because her heart for the kingdom had disappeared, but even after she threw away the ring, Monia took off the jewel necklace she was wearing around her neck. Instead, a new necklace made from seashells and string found on the beach was in place.
“For accessories, this is enough!”
Saying that, what Monia showed was the wedding ring Chester had given her. The ring that Lortin prepared to give to Monia, but Chester stole it and kept it, and gave it to Monia after Lortin died, deciding to really live with her.
That said, it’s a pretty complex story, but neither Chester nor Monia cared about that.
Move trees while exploring objects. Chester moves a heavy tree, and Monia measures it by eye and cuts it down to fit the house.
As Chester moved and Monia cut, the logs piled up and made a house out of them.
“what?”
While moving the tree to build the house, Chester looked around for a moment when he couldn’t see the tree he had been looking for to move yesterday.
“what’s the matter?”
“… … no.”
As Chester moved the tree, he looked around the tree he had seen yesterday, and even noticed that there were trailing marks around it.
‘Are they survivors?’
I was fully aware that there might be survivors.
Just as Rottin and Urgo got out of the sinking ship and came to land, other crew members could have escaped without dying along with the ship.
And, there is a possibility that those escaped survivors are living somewhere on this island.
‘I don’t know why he dragged the tree, but you’d better find out. ‘
Chester moved the tree and brought it near Monia, then called Ant, who was playing, and gave him an order.
While Ant, hearing Chester’s command, smelled it and headed somewhere, Monia hummed a song while chopping wood.
In Monia’s hand, she picked up a saw from the wreckage of the ship.
“I don’t know why the saw was on the ship, but it’s nice to have it! It’s easy to cut because the length is adjustable!”
“There must have been a saw because it was useful somewhere.”
“Yes! Oh, that tree over there.”
“Oh, it’s pretty piled up.”
Chester took the cut trees to the cottage and started construction.
* * *
The sailors who survived the sinking ship were making their own nest in a corner of the island.
The materials were the things he had brought with him when he escaped from the ship, and he had built a wall to block the wind by piling up junk and crates, and was living there.
But still, people need fire in their lives. It took a day or two to survive while eating only dried fish, but they couldn’t stand it and decided to find materials to make a fire.
However, obtaining the materials was not easy. Plants overflow on the island, but the sailors couldn’t bear to touch them.
“The island’s demons are sensitive, so if you touch a healthy tree, they’ll notice!”
“Right, you have to move without the devil knowing.”
“Did you hear? I was walking while cutting down the bush, and the devil appeared!”
The superstitious sailors naively believed the bravado-filled, false adventures of their comrades who had survived Chester’s raid.
Maybe, while getting bloody, he fought Urgo and Rotin, killed Rotin, and even after being shot, his faith might have grown after seeing Chester come back intact and active.
In any case, because of such nonsense, it was the people at the top and the trees damaged by the ship’s shelling that caught their eye as they struggled to find materials to make a bonfire.
The tree is already broken! If you use this, even the devil won’t notice!
With that thought in mind, they brought some logs, built a campfire, and roasted dried fish for the first time in a while.
It wasn’t just dried fish.
“chicken. Let’s eat chicken too!”
“Oh, yes! Because there are enough numbers.”
In order to survive a long life on a boat, there is a limit to only dried fish and fish.
As such, some ships bring animals that are easy to raise in a small space, such as chickens, and breed and eat them during the voyage.
Since it was absurd to eat animals from the beginning of the voyage, they couldn’t even touch a feather of a chicken while sailing to the floating island, but now there is no captain to stop them.
“Where, with this chubby fat guy.”
As the sailors caught a chicken and roasted it deliciously, Ant watched quietly from a nearby bush.