The Warming Island (1)
"Waaah." Her hands covered in blood, Monia sobbed as she washed them in the river.
"Good. You lost quite a bit of flesh, but it's not bad." This had happened because Chester had made Monia do the butchering of the pig as well.
"Hic... *sniff*. More importantly! Why did you just stand there watching without saying anything when you were already here!"
"Because it was funny watching a duke's daughter dance a waltz by herself in front of a dead pig."
"Kyaaa! Kyaaaa! I can't hear you! I can't hear a single thing!"
"Hahaha."
After washing her hands, Monia shouldered the basket containing the butchered pig. The thrill of a successful hunt welled up inside her again, and she couldn't help but giggle.
I even hunted an animal. Aren't I amazing!
To Chester, she looked like a child who had grown a centimeter or two and was now proudly strutting around on tiptoe, pretending to be an adult. He smiled to himself so she wouldn't see.
"Well then, let's go process this quickly before the meat spoils."
"Yes! It absolutely cannot spoil! Do you have any idea how hard it was to catch!"
Heading back to their Beach Villa, the two carved out all the edible meat from the pig and threw the bones into the sea. Then, they began the smoking process.
"Now, pig! Become delicious!"
"I bet that pig died with its eyes wide open out of sheer resentment."
"What are you talking about! I'm doing it the honor of eating it deliciously!"
While Monia licked her lips, watching the pork smoke, Chester was working on something else.
That girl seems to revert to her old self when dealing with things weaker than her.
She had lived her entire life as a duke's daughter. No matter how shocking life on the Floating Island was, and how much it had exposed her vulnerable side, her core nature wouldn't change so easily.
While smoking the meat, Monia also cut off a small piece of the pork belly, seasoned it with salt, and grilled it separately.
Bacon sizzling in the flames... It fell far short of actual bacon, but Monia decided to call it that anyway. Regardless, the grilling meat wafted a mouthwatering aroma.
Seriously, how could a creature with such flavorful meat exist on a deserted island like this?
Monia carefully checked the state of the meat in the fire. Once it seemed fully cooked, she took it and approached Chester.
"Here! Fufu, I shall graciously share a piece of my catch with you! Fufufu!"
"Oh, how generous."
Chester chuckled but accepted the piece of pork and ate it, all while continuing his work.
"What are you doing?"
"Huh? This?"
Chester was currently mashing blue, wild raspberry-like fruits on a flat rock. He crushed them with a stone, rolled the mashed fruit into small clumps, and pressed them onto one side of the rock. Then, he would grab another handful of fruit, mash it, clump it, and stick it down.
"It's just fruit, why bother doing all that? You can just eat them as they are, can't you?"
"I'm planning to make preserved food."
"What kind of fruit is it?"
"Huh? I don't know either."
"Ugh."
"It looks like a blue wild raspberry, so I just call it a blue raspberry."
Chester said as he clumped another batch of mashed fruit and stuck it to the rock.
"Is it really okay to eat something when you don't even know what it is?"
"It's actually pretty good. It's incredibly sour if you eat it raw, but drying it makes it really sweet."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Much sweeter than candy fruit."
Candy fruit. Chester loved it for its sweetness, but to Monia, it was the worst fruit imaginable—she couldn't comprehend how anyone could enjoy it. But if this was sweeter than that, wouldn't it be much better?
"And if you mash them, clump them up, and dry them like this, they get really chewy."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You know how some breads are chewy? Imagine something even chewier than that."
"..."
Monia tried to imagine the texture, but she couldn't quite picture it.
"I have no idea."
"Then you can judge for yourself once you eat it."
"How long does it take to dry?"
"Since we're making it for long-term preservation, we need to dry it for a few days."
"A few days?!"
"The sun is strong and it's quite windy here, so it might take less time."
After mashing and sticking all the blue raspberries, Chester moved the flat rock to the sandy beach.
"Up we go."
"Won't sand get mixed into it if you leave it there? It's really windy, too."
"A little sand won't kill you."
"Ugh."
Having finished preparing the blue raspberries, Chester washed his hands, stained blue with juice, in the seawater.
"I really think you need to pay a bit more attention to your food!" Monia said, tossing wild nuts into the bonfire they were using for smoking.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to infuse the meat with a sweet, fruity aroma using these!"
"Ah... like smoking meat with applewood. Does that actually work?"
"Who knows?"
She didn't know if it would work, but if an idea popped into her head, she tried it. This was the way of life Monia had learned from Chester.
"Well, good luck with that."
"Yes!"
Monia tried to infuse the meat with a sweet scent by roasting fruit on one side, and by adding slightly aromatic plants on the other side.
While Monia was preoccupied with the food, Chester finally set to work on making a knife out of animal claws, a project he had been planning for a long time.
He had struggled for a long time to find a flat, smooth stone that could serve as a whetstone, and he had finally found one.
The very rock where he had left the mashed "raspberry dough" was one of the candidates for his whetstone.
"Alright, let's give this a try."
Sprinkling a bit of water from his canteen onto the stone to keep the dust from flying, Chester began grinding the animal claw.
Incidentally, one of the things Chester had promised to do but hadn't yet was the toilet Monia had requested.
Not knowing how to build it, he had dragged his feet, and eventually, even Monia, who had asked for it, forgot all about it.
After catching the pig, Chester and Monia's days went on without much change.
Chester focused on crafting a proper knife, while Monia tried to improve their dreadful diet and make more delicious dishes.
It had been nearly a month since they had arrived on this island. A whole month.
If not for Chester, they likely wouldn't have survived the storm, and even if they had, they probably would have died from failing to adapt to the island. Even if they had miraculously survived, they wouldn't have enjoyed such a comfortable environment.
However, while their island life was improving as they neared the one-month mark, it also meant they had been using their belongings for just as long.
"Whoa!"
It was a first. No, it was more than just a first—it was an absolutely shocking sight.
"Oh my."
Chester had tripped and tumbled in the forest. *The* Chester?
This was the man who ran as if he were gliding through the air, completely unbothered by any obstacles. Knowing this, Monia burst into laughter at the sight of him falling.
"Fufu, so even you fall sometimes? Fufufu. It's okay, it's okay. Even fish can drown, after all."
"Fish don't drown."
"It's a figure of speech. Fufu, you're embarrassed right now, aren't you? It's fine! I fall all the time, so I know the feeling well! There's nothing to be ashamed of."
"First of all, tell me exactly what part of this I'm supposed to be embarrassed about."
When Chester stood up with perfect composure, Monia puffed out her cheeks in disappointment.
"Would it kill you to show a little embarrassment?"
"Sure, I'd be embarrassed if I just tripped walking down a normal path, but this is different. Even my father, a seasoned hunter, would tumble down a slope if he let his guard down in a familiar forest."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yeah. During the summer, the undergrowth grows so thick it swallows up the slopes. He stepped forward without realizing there was a drop-off and went rolling down."
"..."
Monia looked at the spot where Chester had fallen. It was a perfectly decent path, one of the easiest to walk on in this forest.
"Hey, you really are embarrassed, aren't you?"
"I told you, no. The fact that I fell on a path that isn't even rough means there's a problem elsewhere. It's not my ankle or my leg. And it's not like I lost strength from hunger."
"You're talking awfully fast, though."
When Monia pointed it out, Chester shut his mouth before he could stop himself.
"Usually you only explain exactly what's necessary... Hello?"
"Shut up."
"Fufufu."
"What!"
Sitting down on a nearby tree root, Chester avoided Monia's gaze and took off his shoe. If there was a problem significant enough to make him fall, he figured the shoes were the most likely culprit.
"...As I thought."
"What is it?"
"The sole of my shoe is gone."
"What?"
"I hoped they'd last longer, but what a shame."
No matter how sturdily crafted they were, dress shoes were never meant for daily treks through a wild, rugged forest. Furthermore, Chester had recently been sprinting through the woods to herd the pig toward Monia, which had dealt a fatal blow to the footwear.
"This is troublesome, though."
Though leather shoes were quite uncomfortable to wear in a place like this, they were still a precious necessity that kept his feet safe and allowed him to traverse any terrain.
"..."
"What are you going to do?"
"For now, I'll have to give up on these shoes. I don't have the tools to repair them. If only I could find a tree that secretes resin, I might be able to fix them."
Sticky tree resin was an excellent resource. It could be used as an adhesive, or applied to seal a finished piece of work by lightly singeing it to make it sturdier. It was waterproof, too. Chester had been constantly keeping an eye out for resin-producing trees, but he hadn't found any yet.
"So, I can't fix them right now."
"That's too bad."
"It is, but what can we do? Well, I won't throw them away."
"Then what?"
"We might find a use for them later, so I'll keep them at the shelter. If we find a resin-producing tree down the line, I can fix them then."
He examined the other shoe, and its sole was in a precarious state as well. It looked ready to tear off at the slightest step. He simply hadn't noticed because he usually walked through the forest with such deliberate care.
"Can't you just wear them anyway? By tying the sole to the shoe with some vine or string..."
"I could, but then I'd always be worrying about when the string might snap. I don't want to walk around in unreliable shoes."
Chester looked down at the shoes Monia was currently wearing. They were bark sandals he had recently made. Because the bark soles wore out easily on the rough forest paths, they had to make new ones every few days.
"Alright, let's make some new ones. I'll make a pair for you, too."
"Huh? Make what?"
"What else? Shoes."