A Roof Over Our Heads
After disposing of the snake's head, Chester draped the carcass around his neck.
"Ugh. Why are you wearing that around your neck?"
"I can't just carry a snake around. I need my hands free."
Since there were still plenty of materials to gather, Chester gave a brief reply and returned to the log he had been prepping.
Monia watched him in awe. Unlike her, who felt like collapsing from sheer exhaustion just from walking through the forest, Chester was still moving with tireless energy, completely unfazed.
Does he have infinite stamina or something?
Of course not. Since their exile to this deserted island, Chester's physical exertion had far surpassed Monia's. With their food supplies so scarce, what kept his body moving was sheer willpower—the driving force that allowed him to ignore fatigue, forget the hardship, and push forward with a positive outlook. It was no different now.
I want a proper, filling meal. Three fish just won't cut it.
Chester craved bread. Back when his hectic butler duties left him with absolutely no time for proper meals, he used to stash food in various corners of the small supply closet. Hard, stale bread, smoked meat preserved to last, cheap cheese, and a handful of dried fruit. It had been a cold, miserable excuse for a meal, hastily sliced with a pocketknife and shoved down his throat before he rushed off to his next chore. He had only eaten it out of necessity to keep working, but now, he found himself desperately missing even that.
In truth, while commoners in the capital might have turned their noses up at it, to a boy from a destitute village like Chester, even those scraps had been a luxury. Eating bread that wasn't pitch black, along with meat, cheese, and fruit every single day was something he could never have dreamed of in his youth.
Still, I had it better than most.
His father had been a skilled hunter who supplied the village with precious meat. Whenever the village fell on hard times, his father's hunting prowess saved them from starvation, earning their family various privileges. For instance, when food was scarce, they were always the first to receive rations—bypassing even the village chief.
Chester laid vines across the ground, then placed the logs he had cut to size on top of them. One tree had yielded two solid logs.
Are these a bit too long? No, it's fine. I can adjust them as I assemble the frame.
Chester chopped down another tree, sectioning it into appropriate lengths as well. He then bound the two long logs and two short logs together using several thick vines, securing them tightly by wrapping another vine around the main binding.
Grabbing the long vine trailing behind, Chester began walking through the forest, dragging the heavy logs behind him.
"...Whoa."
Monia, who felt like she was dying of exhaustion just from carrying the bundle of vines and branches Chester had handed her, stared at him in shock. How is he even doing that?
Monia's mind drifted back to Chester's naked body. His physique was certainly highly trained, but it wasn't the bulky, battle-hardened build of a knight. It was the body she had seen in the flickering light of the campfire during that harsh, stormy night. Amidst those hours filled with nothing but fear and confusion, the sight of Chester's bare skin had remained strangely, vividly etched in her mind.
Stripped of all excess, leaving only lean, functional muscle, his body possessed a delicacy and elegance that even Monia's highly refined aesthetic standards found breathtakingly beautiful.
It really was beautiful. In truth, his lean frame was simply the result of grueling labor and a meager diet, but beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder.
"Heh..."
"What are you doing drooling like that?"
"O-Oh, no?! I wasn't doing anything!"
Monia, who had been absentmindedly drooling while lost in her vivid imagination, gasped in surprise and tried to wipe her mouth. Unfortunately, her hands were occupied with the heavy bundle of branches.
"Slurp!" In the end, she had no choice but to suck back the drool that was about to spill over her bottom lip. Watching this display, Chester simply shook his head and continued walking toward the beach.
The rain made the ground slick, so dragging these is actually pretty easy. Normally, it would have been a grueling chore, but the wet, muddy forest floor made sliding the logs a breeze.
"Kyaaa!"
"Oops."
Of course, for Monia, who struggled to walk even under normal circumstances, navigating the forest with her arms full of branches was pure torture.
Having somehow made it back to the beach, Chester left Monia, who had temporarily excused herself for personal reasons, and set out to find a spot to build their Beach Villa. He searched for a location that offered a clear view of the sea while remaining sheltered by the forest for safety from the elements. Ideally, it also needed to have a clearing large enough to build the villa.
"I guess this is the best spot." The place Chester chose after scouting the beach was slightly further inland from where they had originally built their shelter, right where a path led into the forest. He would build the villa there, as if drawing a line between the forest and the beach.
Tracing an imaginary line in the air with his finger, Chester planned the construction sequence for the villa using the materials at hand.
There are plenty of trees around, but it's not as dense as deep in the forest. Building the villa and setting up a windbreak will be easy.
He would leave a gap in the windbreak to serve as an entrance between the beach and the forest. Conveniently, the surrounding trees were positioned perfectly to serve as natural pillars for a rectangular frame.
It'll be a slightly crooked rectangle. Will it lean a bit to the right?
Chester immediately brought a log to a tree, held it at his desired height, and bound it with vines. After securing the opposite end, he used that as a starting point to bind log after log with vines, quickly assembling a rectangular frame.
Next, he reinforced it by adding an X-shaped frame on top. Having finished the frame, Chester walked slightly inland to chop more wood.
Come to think of it, couldn't I have just gathered materials from here in the first place? Why did he struggle so much on the way back from the river? Is Monia's stupidity contagious? Chester shuddered in brief horror.
No, surely not. R-Right. Since we have to build a house in the forest anyway, we had to gather and move materials from the forest. It was just a practice run. Yes.
Though Chester desperately denied the reality in his panic, the truth remained that he had forgotten the simplest survival rule: gather materials as close to the site as possible to conserve energy.
"I'm back..." While Chester was engraving this new lesson deep into his heart, Monia returned from finishing her "personal business" near the rocks by the shore, her face flushed with embarrassment.
"Build a bathroom."
"Huh?"
"When you build the house! Build a bathroom! You must!"
"...Where would I even build it?" When Chester asked with a dumbfounded expression, Monia covered her face and let out a silent scream.
"Anyway! Just build it!"
"...Well, fine. Let's build one, then."
Chester strongly felt there was no need to fuss over basic bodily functions, but Monia couldn't help but care. No matter how accustomed she was becoming to the deserted island and how familiar the wild was starting to feel, she was still a lady of a ducal house, raised delicately in civilization. The tattered dress she wore and the necklace around her neck were proof of that.
But even if I build a bathroom, how should I make it? For safety reasons, it couldn't be too far from the house. But if it was too close, the smell might attract wild animals, which meant the waste would have to be carried far away to be disposed of.
While lost in thought, Chester, who had chopped enough wood, approached the ruins of their old shelter.
"I cut all the vines." Having been assigned the task beforehand, Monia smiled brightly and waved the stone knife as Chester approached. Chester snatched the knife from her hand as she waved it dangerously, then pulled logs out of the ruins.
Combining the logs he had chopped with the ones salvaged from the ruins, Chester created a floor of a satisfying width. He placed the logs one by one onto the villa's frame and bound them together with vines.
"There, the floor is finished."
"Oh! Can I step on it?!"
"Of course. Go ahead and jump on it."
"Yay!"
Monia smiled brightly, stepped onto the villa's floor, and began bouncing up and down.
"..." Observing the sturdy floor, the excited Monia, and her body shaking vigorously, Chester said,
"You know you're not wearing underwear, right?"
"Hee-kyah?!" Startled by Chester's casual remark, Monia quickly pressed her skirt down with her hands and squatted on the spot. She stared at Chester with teary eyes.
"I didn't see anything, don't worry."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. Really."
"T-Thank goodness." Monia was genuinely relieved.
"Because I'm so attractive, if I show any opening, you'll turn into a beast!"
"Where did you learn such things?"
"From a book my friend at the academy was reading!"
"..." He had wondered where Monia, who had been raised strictly as a Duke's daughter and the Prince's fiancée, had picked up such bad influences, and it seemed to be from the academy. This is why you have to choose your friends wisely.
"Well! With someone as beautiful as me, you'd probably turn into a beast even if I didn't show any opening!"
"That's not going to happen."
"Are you insulting me by saying I lack charm?! Hmph! Just you wait!"
"Wait for what?" Chester said, bringing over materials to assemble the roof frame. "Come over here and help me build the roof."
"Ah, okay."
"Now, hold this like this..."
"Yes, yes."
"Once we finish this, we'll tie it to the tree to secure it."
"Understood."
Chester taught, and Monia learned. Monia helped with simple tasks that required no training, while Chester quickly finished the grueling labor. As they divided the work and kept moving, they managed to complete the Beach Villa by the time the sun had set and some time had passed.
Though it was still just a roof and a floor without the planned windbreak, covering the center of the floor with dirt and lighting a campfire instantly made the empty villa cozy.
"We managed to finish it today somehow."
"We did."
"...Alright, it's fully cooked. Here, try some."
"Ugh! S-Snake."
That night, Monia ate a mysterious food called snake meat for the first time in her life.