147 – winter(1)
The floating island quietly made its way across the sea. Without caring the least about what the creatures living on it would have to endure through the harsh winter to come.
It just quietly followed the waves and moved along the currents that spanned huge continents of snow and ice.
* * *
After a single snow fell, the weather on the island changed in an instant.
As if the fact that it had been a life-filled island full of green vegetation until now was a lie, the island fell asleep covered in pure white snow.
“… … .”
Winter came so quickly and on the first month, Monia woke up in the morning and came out to the yard, exercising lightly and waking up her body.
“Whoa!”
After stretching and relaxing your body, as you exhale, a strong breath comes out.
“Ohhhhh.”
Monia, who saw the strong breath coming out like the breath exhaled by a dragon, smiled and stroked her reddened cheek with her hand.
“Ugh. cold.”
What Monia is wearing now are the sailor’s boots she picked up on the ship. Shoes made of wood and laces could not keep out the cold, so boots were modified to protect feet from frostbite.
Even if it was an alteration, it was all about putting leather on the inside of the big boots to make them a little warmer, but that alone prevented my toes from getting frostbitten and falling off.
I cleaned it up hard yesterday, but when I walked somewhere, stepping on the clean snow that had been freshly accumulated overnight, Chester, who had finished his morning workout, was standing in the snow sweating even in this cold weather.
After the ore could be used for other things, Chester, who was thinking about what to make, decided to make exercise equipment out of the ore.
Whenever he had time to improve his house, warehouse, or chicken coop in preparation for the winter, he melted ore to make exercise equipment.
Black Wind, who came to play with his girlfriend, had no concept of exercise or training, so no matter how much Chester explained it, it was not easy to understand.
Even the people at the top had the concept of challenging a strong person to become a stronger warrior.
In fact, Chester was also a person far from training.
It was thought that there was no need for anything more as long as one could move one’s body freely while living in nature.
However, because I move so violently and do difficult things often, my body was trained unintentionally.
But now Chester wanted more power than he needed to simply survive. power to protect
Fortunately, Chester’s senses are sharper than before.
A line of light awakens inside Chester when he wakes up to fight Rotin. It is usually invisible, but the moment Chester pulls it up to the point where all his senses feel dull, a line of light forms on his retina again.
If you use that light line, you can handle your body much more efficiently, quickly and strongly than usual.
Even if you have more muscles than you have now, if you train that much and can handle the light line freely, there will be no problem in moving while maintaining the best performance.
After all, in the winter, things to do are extremely reduced. There is nothing to go out hunting, nothing to explore the surroundings, just spending time at home is all you can do.
So Chester rather took this as an opportunity to train his body and senses.
My goal for this winter is to build muscle. And in any situation, Chester can see the line of light as soon as he wants.
Right now, I have to overuse my senses to deal with the lines of light, and to that extent, the lines of light are unstable and cannot be maintained for a long period of time.
It was natural that it would be difficult because he was trying to bring out the awakening effect that occurred in the situation where his feet were on the border of life and death in a normal state.
The sweat on Chester’s body is quickly lost to the cold air and turned into ice crystals. Likewise, as the heat escaped from Chester’s body, a cold aura permeated deep into his heart.
Slowly, blurry lines of light began to appear in Chester’s eyes as he calmly raised his senses, feeling a terrible chill as if the goddess of winter had breathed directly into his heart.
As Chester endured the cold and repeated the training to wake up the line of light again and again, snow began to fall from the sky again.
“… … Snow.”
Seeing the snow, Chester stopped training and headed to a nearby campfire.
Immediately light a fire and boil the water to melt the frozen body for a while with the heat of the fire. Then, when the water boils to a certain extent, scoop it out, cool it to lukewarm, and sprinkle it on the body.
“Whoa. It’s cold.”
After slowly warming himself up with lukewarm boiling water, Chester dried himself again by warming himself in the fire, and finally got dressed.
“Acch.”
Turning around at the sound of coughing from behind, I saw Monia, who had been constantly watching Chester do it, coughing out of the cold.
“Monia. Tell me when you come.”
“no. I hope you are concentrating.”
Monia, who was touching her reddened and numb nose with her fingers, laughed at Chester wearing a butler’s uniform, sailor’s gloves, and boots.
“Why?”
“no. just. Whoops.”
Unlike the well-dressed butler’s uniform, shabby gloves and boots. It was oddly funny to see Chester in such a strange outfit with the beautiful nature behind him.
“Let’s have breakfast. Hungry.”
“yes. What was your share today?”
“Two pieces of meat. one potato. A spoonful of pickled fruit.”
Since food cannot be supplied in winter, the food situation naturally worsens. The stored food that I worked hard to accumulate is still piled up in the warehouse, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go on a spree.
“Then shall we eat only a piece of meat for breakfast? Let’s survive on half a potato for lunch, and have a bit of luxury for dinner.”
“great. Let’s do it.”
After returning home, the two warmed up by the bonfire for a while and then prepared a meal.
“Ant! Ant! come out slowly Let’s go in!”
Chester shouted outside, and Ant, which had been roaming around buried under the snow in the yard, popped out.
Seeing Ant, Chester threw it under a large pot with a rope tied to it, and Ant jumped on top of the pot.
While Chester pulled Ant up like that, Monia, who went down to the warehouse, was trembling.
“Ugh. It’s colder here than up here because we don’t have a fire.”
Monia came up with a piece of meat for herself, Chester, and Ant to eat, and Ant, who had been playing under the snow a while ago and had a lot of snow clinging to her body, jumped at Monia.
“Kya?! Look at him, mommy is cold!”
Chester grabbed Ant by the back of the back before he could rub it against Monia, and then held Ant out the window and dabbed the snow off his body.
– I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Ant, who was pushed out the window, trembled with anxiety, but ignored it and kept rolling his eyes.
“Okay, just be patient.”
When Chester, who had closed his eyes, put Ant back in, Ant dug in between Chester’s legs and rubbed his body against him, as if telling him not to throw it away.
Monia looked at Ant like that and sliced the frozen meat thinly with a knife and put it in her mouth.
“This is salted.”
When smoked, a variety of smokes were made, such as simply smoking the meat or smoking it with salt, or pepper, or both.
Peppered ones are barely recognizable as they have black marks, but salt smoked ones are barely recognizable.
Chester also cut the smoked meat he received from Monia with a knife, put it in his mouth and chewed it.
Ant also put the ice-hard meat in his mouth and chewed it as if he were chewing on a bone.
After breakfast, Chester scooped up a gourd of grain from the shed and headed for the chicken coop.
In the chicken coop, which was covered with several layers of cloth to protect it from the cold, I could hear the chickens running around eagerly.
As Chester lifted some of the fabric, the cold air and light penetrated the coop, and the frightened chickens screamed and thumped vigorously.
“Eat a lot.”
After pouring grain into the feeder, Chester watched as the chickens and slightly larger chicks clung to each other to feed, then put down the cloth again and tied it tightly with rope to keep it from being blown away by the wind.
‘I’m glad I can stock up on grain. I don’t have to worry about feeding the chickens.’
While I was thinking about that, Monia brought a cup of warm tea and inspected the chicken coop.
“Did you feed the kids?”
“yes.”
“I want to see chickens.”
“Will you?”
Chester undid the rope he had just tied and lifted the cloth completely.
The two of them sipped tea leisurely in the cold of winter, watching the chickens roam and cry in the chicken coop.
This tea is a product made by combining various plants obtained from the island where Monia wanders.
“yes. it’s good.”
“lol. Is this combination okay?”
“yes. I think it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.”
Just as they were finishing their tea, Chester, feeling the wind getting stronger, let Monia into the house, covered the coop with cloth, and tied the rope meticulously.
“The wind is picking up again.”
Where did the clear sky a moment ago go? In an instant, black dark clouds cover the sky.
The gentle sound of the wind changed to harsh and brutal, and a cold, sharp wind began to blow.
“Monia! Let’s close all the windows!”
“yes!”
It was a peaceful moment during the long winter that landed on the floating island.