No Work, No Food
Returning to the beach, Chester examined the ankle of Monia, whom he had painstakingly carried on his back.
"Well, it's not broken, just a mild sprain. It'll heal on its own if you keep off of it. You should avoid moving your ankle, though."
"What absolute nonsense, you quack! It hurts so much! I'm certain my ankle is snapped in two!"
"What are you even talking about?"
Chester lightly flicked her ankle with his finger.
"Kyaah?!"
"Anyway, just stay put. Of course, since you can't work in the meantime, I won't be giving you any food or water."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"It's only natural, isn't it? He who does not work shall not eat. Or you could help out by doing something that doesn't require using your feet."
"I have a noble purpose that I must fulfill! Why should I set aside my purpose to help you? You should be dedicating yourself to me!"
"*Sigh.*"
He had hoped she might have improved even a little, but aside from the fact that she was no longer crouching in gloomy silence, nothing had changed.
"And what exactly is this grand purpose of yours?"
"To exact revenge on those wretched bastards who betrayed me! My family, my country—I will never forgive them!"
"Ah... No, never mind."
"What is it? Why are you suddenly dodging the subject?"
"It's nothing."
Revenge? Chester thought it would be impossible. Not because taking revenge on an entire nation was inherently impossible, but rather...
By the time this island circles the globe and returns here, will there even be anyone left to take revenge on?
That was the issue.
Their kingdom had been a powerful empire, far stronger than its neighbors. However, that was only because the royalty and the nobility had kept each other in check without outright fighting, combining their strength to bolster the nation's power.
And the glue holding that alliance together was the generational intermarriage between the royal family and the Duke's family, the leaders of the aristocratic faction.
But things were different now.
Because that idiotic prince went and broke off the engagement. And he did it unilaterally, using a commoner as his excuse.
An engagement made in the names of the royal family and the Duke's family had been shattered unilaterally by a mere prince. He had done it without even consulting the King, acting entirely on his own whim, and had proudly declared it at a banquet right in front of the heirs of every other noble house.
Once the deed was done, there was no taking it back. No matter how foolish he was, he was still the prince, and his words carried the weight of the royal family. If they retracted his statement and apologized, the royal family's prestige would plummet to the dirt, allowing the aristocratic faction to stand above the crown.
In the end, the King had been forced to swallow his pride, defend the prince, and sacrifice Monia—and by extension, the Duke's family.
There's no way that greedy Duke would let a golden opportunity like this slip by.
The Duke had seized the moment to disown Monia. He would likely use the excuse that the royal family had threatened them and forced his hand. The other nobles would rally around the "poor Duke" who had been betrayed by the crown and lost his beloved daughter.
A coup d'état is inevitable. The Duke will want to wear the crown himself.
Monia's exile, which would never have happened under normal circumstances, was born entirely from the Duke's greed for the throne.
It was quiet for now, but a civil war would undoubtedly erupt before long.
The royal family and their loyalists versus the Duke and his aristocratic faction. And in the cracks between them, opportunistic nobles would conspire with foreign powers or form their own splinter factions to carve out a piece of the pie.
Even neighboring countries, sensing a prime opportunity to strike a weakened superpower and expand their territories, would be watching like hungry wolves.
The country will be devastated.
What about the prince and his commoner girl? Would they regret the catastrophe they had unleashed? Chester highly doubted it.
If they had the brains to understand cause and effect, they wouldn't have done something so incredibly stupid in the first place.
That incident had taught Chester that there were fools in this world whose stupidity transcended all common sense.
Consequently, the look in Chester's eyes as he stared at Monia shifted to match the one he reserved for the prince and the commoner girl.
"What is with that look? It's highly offensive."
"It's nothing."
He was simply looking at an idiot.
The only one who will regret this is the King.
The King should have found a way to minimize the damage to the royal family's reputation. He should have swallowed his pride and made a minor sacrifice. It still would have caused issues, but it would have been infinitely better than a war that could destroy the entire kingdom.
The reason the King couldn't do that was his own greed.
Having worked as the butler of the Duke's family, Chester knew all too well. The moment people tasted power and wealth, the brilliant minds, sharp instincts, and courageous decisiveness that had brought them those riches became choked and corrupted by the very mud of their greed. People became hideous.
Well, whatever.
Chester had no intention of returning to that country anyway. If his parents were still alive, he might have gone back to live in hiding under a false identity, but they had been killed by bandits during a drought three years ago.
Still, I'm going to need money.
Even if he fled to another country to settle down comfortably, funds were essential.
If all else fails, I suppose I'll have to take up mercenary work.
"..."
While Chester was lost in thought, Monia stared at him intently.
Despite his deeply contemplative expression, his hands moved with practiced ease, binding the logs he had brought to a palm tree.
Using two trees from the forest edge and one palm tree as pillars, he lashed the logs together to form a triangle.
As a precaution, he had already harvested all the coconuts from the palm tree to eliminate the risk of a lethal head injury from a falling fruit.
Once the triangular frame was secure, he wove branches and vines across it to construct a raised floor.
Having finished the floor of his shelter, Chester lay down on it to gauge the optimal angle for a roof that would effectively block out the sun.
"..."
He set to work again, weaving branches to form the roof's framework. After securing the frame tightly, he layered palm fronds over it to complete the roof.
"Oh, turned out pretty well."
With the roof finished, Chester snapped out of his thoughts and smiled with satisfaction at the surprisingly sturdy shelter.
Because it was elevated off the ground, it would shield him from the scorching heat radiating from the sand during the day, and eliminate the risk of the cold earth sapping his body heat at night.
Furthermore, by layering the palm fronds at a steep angle, any rainwater would naturally slide off, providing effective shelter from the elements.
"...I'm hungry."
Now that his shelter was complete, a sense of security washed over Chester, bringing with it a sudden, sharp pang of hunger.
Time to find some food.
As Chester stood up, Monia panicked and tried to stand up with him.
"Ouch!"
"I told you not to use your leg."
Leaving her with those brief words, Chester headed into the forest. Left entirely alone, Monia stared in the direction he had gone, then looked down at the leftover materials he had used to build the shelter.
"Wretched bastard," Monia muttered.
"How dare he abandon me under this scorching sun? Is he out of his mind? Wretched bastard. Devil. He must be a devil. How could anyone..."
Glancing anxiously toward the forest where Chester had vanished, Monia continued to mutter to herself for a long while.
"He's truly awful."
With a final sigh, Monia carefully dragged the leftover materials closer to her branch.
Chester had told her that crying wouldn't solve anything here. And then he had walked away.
In that moment, Monia finally realized: to obtain anything in this place, she had to work for it.
Water, food, and even shelter—none of it would simply be handed to her.
She could no longer snap her fingers to tear down a finished building and have it rebuilt just because she didn't like the design.
To escape the blistering sun on this hot sandy beach, she had to build her own shelter.
The only saving grace was that she had watched Chester build his shelter from start to finish.
I saw him do it, so surely I can replicate it! Absolutely! I even managed to get water from that bamboo earlier!
Chester had used up all the logs for his own shelter, but she figured that even a simple lean-to made of branches and palm fronds would be better than nothing.
However, Monia had failed to realize one crucial thing.
"Aaaagh!! It's not working!"
Watching someone do something and actually doing it yourself were two entirely different matters.
Chester wedged the heel of his dress shoe into a rotting log to create a gap, then pried it open with all his might.
"Ah, nothing."
No matter how thoroughly he searched the split wood, he couldn't find any edible grubs.
However, his foraging trip wasn't a total loss. He had managed to find a decent amount of edible wild fruit.
While fruit alone was far from enough to meet his nutritional needs, it was perfect for taking the edge off his hunger and giving him the energy to keep moving.
"..."
After devouring three or four fruits he had gathered, Chester pressed forward with renewed vigor.
I can hear birds singing nearby. Birds... I'd love some meat. Maybe I should make a sling.
As a child, Chester had run wild through the fields with a toy sling his father had made for him, catching birds and rabbits.
I was actually really good at it.
He had once proudly taken a rabbit he caught to the local butcher to sell it, though in hindsight, it was hardly in a sellable condition. The kindly butcher had probably bought it just to give a young boy some pocket money.
I wonder if I've still got it?
Nostalgic for the past, Chester retraced his steps to a tree he had spotted earlier.
He pounded the tree's bark with a stone and peeled it away, revealing a fibrous, cloth-like inner layer. He meticulously shredded the fibers into thin strands, gathered them together, and began twisting them into cordage.
Folding a bundle of fibers in half, he held one end, twisted it, and plied it. Then, holding the untwisted side, he twisted and plied again.
Though his fingers were clumsy at first, his muscle memory quickly returned. Before long, Chester had fashioned two long, sturdy cords.
Next, he tore out the inner pocket of his butler uniform. By scraping a sharp stone against the heavy stitching, he easily detached the pocket from the durable fabric.
He punched holes in both ends of the fabric pocket with a pointed rock and threaded the two cords through them. Then, using strips of bark, he bound the cords securely to the pocket, shaping the fabric into a cradle perfectly suited for holding a stone.
"Perfect."
Chester fashioned a loop at the end of one cord, slipped his finger through it, and took a few practice shots at a nearby tree.
Is the stone catching slightly on the pocket?
The release was a fraction of a second slower than he anticipated, which threw off his accuracy.
Well, it can't be helped.
Without proper tools to refine the cradle, he would just have to adapt to the slight drag.
With his makeshift sling complete, Chester gathered a few smooth stones to use as ammunition, packed some spare cordage and bark, and set off to hunt in earnest.