Hut of Leaves
Jincheon and Beatrix kept surveying the deserted island's forest, piecing together a rough picture of what they had to work with.
Nothing grew poisonous enough to kill them outright, but plenty of the fruit tasted so foul it would need creative preparation just to be edible. Beyond that, they catalogued the plants that could be eaten and took stock of the animals living on the island.
Deer-like creatures with aggressively sharp antlers and legs that had shortened into something more compact. Watching them graze on grass, devour caterpillars, and scavenge carcasses made their omnivorous nature clear.
"Alright. We've got the essentials. Let's find somewhere to sleep."
"Uh… yeah."
Why is he so good at this?
An ordinary person would have despaired at being dropped onto a deserted island with no Bio Device and no emergency kit, sitting around dejected until hunger finally forced them to move. She herself had felt her heart drop when she realized she'd washed up with nothing but her bare body. The sight of the rebels leaving behind only a radio detector had nearly crushed her with despair.
"No caves, unfortunately. We'll have to build a hut ourselves."
A cave would have made a perfect shelter, but none were in sight. He'd briefly considered spreading his senses to search, then decided it wasn't worth the effort and settled on building a hut instead.
Once he'd found a reasonably open patch of ground, Jincheon looked around for materials. The broad leaves typical of the tropics were everywhere — more than enough for roof and walls. He started gathering dry branches for a fire while hunting for thick, long trunks to frame the structure.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like? Getting ready to build a hut."
"How are you going to build a hut with no materials?"
"…"
Jincheon stared at her for a moment, speechless.
Of course. She was a noble and a soldier. Her survival training assumed a crash-kit built into the escape system — not bare-handed living. And why wouldn't it? Those kits held everything: a high-frequency vibration knife, a rechargeable laser pistol weak enough for wildlife but strong enough to start a fire, high-calorie bars, emergency blankets, a composition analyzer, signal flares, a portable water purifier and canteen, and medical supplies. With gear like that, who bothered learning real wilderness survival?
If the escape system took enough damage to destroy the kit, the pilot was usually dead or close enough not to matter.
"Forget it. Just do what I tell you."
"Uh… okay…"
Jincheon cleared protruding stones from the building site and arranged rocks for a fire pit. Fortunately Beatrix, unlike most women, had a sense of responsibility and the benefit of biological enhancement procedures. She followed his instructions well enough that the work went smoothly.
"There! Hold it properly!"
"Pass it over here!"
"Don't wobble — brace it!"
Following his one-sided stream of orders, Beatrix watched broad leaves become a roof and the frame take shape into something that could actually keep out wind and rain. It felt strangely fascinating. The Giranlek Empire had no programs about returning to the wild; the only survival method anyone learned was depending on a crash kit.
Both of them had exceptional physical ability, so within a few hours a proper walled hut stood finished.
"Whoa…"
The moment she saw the structure of branches, leaves, and tough grass, Beatrix let out an involuntary sound of wonder. She had never built anything with her own hands. Even if it was only for survival, finishing a leaf hut left her with a peculiar sense of accomplishment.
Then the reality that she would have to sleep in it settled over her, and her mood sank again.
Meanwhile Jincheon had already taken a thick branch and begun shaping it with a stone axe.
"What are you doing now?"
"Can't you tell? Making a spear. It's a weapon, and how else are we supposed to catch animals or fish without one?"
"…"
"Damn it. Even for a noble, isn't this basic common sense?"
"Well, sorry for being a noble who doesn't know common sense!"
Beatrix snapped back at his irritation. Honestly, she had a point.
"Isn't it weirder that you know this stuff? People don't just drop onto deserted islands bare-handed!"
In the twenty-first century, sudden natural disasters could wreck ships or planes. In this world, technology had advanced far enough that crew only ended up stranded naked if something catastrophic — like a meteor strike — hit them. And if the situation was that bad, they usually didn't survive at all.
"Besides, how do you even know all this?"
Since the subject had come up, she asked how he possessed this kind of knowledge.
"Because I had to live like this to survive."
"What?"
"No money, no connections — just a body and the will to keep eating. That's how I picked it up."
Half true. After being thrown from the twenty-first century into the Murim world, Jincheon had become a disciple of a second- or third-rate sect and roamed the mountains trying to grow stronger. After settling the Pacheonhoe affair, he and his wives had traveled the entire world, and along the way he had learned how to eat well in the wild.
"I… um… sorry…"
Beatrix took it to mean he had been so poor he had no choice, and offered a careful apology. That wasn't entirely wrong either. After arriving in this world he had taken hunting jobs just to make money.
"Haa… Should I just risk it and try to contact someone?"
Looking at the leaf hut and the wooden spear, Beatrix felt the future stretch out bleak and endless. As an elite mecha pilot and captain of the Imperial Guard, she had never lived anything close to a wild existence. The rebels had probably thought the same way — which was why they had left only a radio detector and skipped the trouble of searching the forest in case anyone was still alive.
"Go ahead, if you want."
"Huh?"
"Just don't mention I was here if the enemy catches you. I don't feel like being a prisoner."
"…You know, I've wanted to say this for a while — you're a real asshole."
"Heh heh heh."
Most people would have taken offense. Jincheon only laughed, as if the insult amused him.
"Geniuses are destined to be resented by ordinary people."
"So I'm one of those ordinary people who resent you?"
"Aren't you?"
"What the hell do you take me for?!"
Jincheon finished one wooden spear with a few final strokes, then started on another.
"Then why do you hate me?"
"That's the problem — you don't even know! What even are you? A commoner acting so damn arrogant! You think people resent your talent? No! That talent is the only reason you're still breathing! Without it you'd already be in a cell for insulting the nobility!"
His provocation, the dread of an indefinite life in the wild, and every frustration she had bottled up finally detonated. Beatrix's voice cracked with raw fury.
"You're not even a genius! That high-speed combat of yours comes from a Calsorn Empire relic! If I had something like that—!"
"I don't."
"…What?"
"There's no relic. I made it up so people would leave me alone."
"…"
The sudden confession left Beatrix speechless.
"What? But…"
"I got tired of the interrogation — how some no-name mercenary could be that strong."
"…"
The old Beatrix would have called it nonsense and argued. The Beatrix who had started to understand his personality found this version far more believable.
"Then how do you even survive that impossible speed… wait. Martial arts?"
The word he had mentioned before rose in her mind. He had demonstrated strange bare-handed abilities, but simple tools or a nano-suit could roughly imitate them, so everyone had shrugged it off. By process of elimination, his unnatural speed had to come from martial arts.
Suddenly Jincheon, still carving the spear, fixed her with a sharp, predatory stare.
"Wh-what? Why are you looking at me like that…"
"Don't move!"
He snatched a nearby stone and hurled it hard into the brush behind her.
A wet crack. Then a sound tore out of the undergrowth — something like a dog's bark twisted into a sickening shriek.
A moment later one of the short-legged, deer-like animals Jincheon had spotted earlier burst through the brush, blood streaming from its head, and charged.
As he had noted earlier, its antlers were far sharper and more aggressive than any ordinary deer's. Lower its head and charge, and the target became a skewer.
"Ah… ah…"
The moment her eyes met the animal's, Beatrix's body locked. For the first time in her life she felt the raw, bestial killing intent of a wild creature, and it froze her solid.
Something whistled past her cheek and punched into the animal's body. Momentum carried the creature tumbling across the ground.
"Finish it!"
An ordinary woman would have collapsed trembling. Beatrix was still a trained soldier. She snapped back to herself, raised the stone axe she was holding, and brought it down on the fallen animal's skull.
Bone split. Brain matter ruined. The creature convulsed once and went still.
Then more of them came crashing through the brush.
"Wh-what? Why are they swarming us?!"
Five of them. They pressed in from all sides, forming a rough circle.
"One of two things. Either they're territorial and want us dead for trespassing, or they're omnivores looking for protein."
"!!"
"Either way, they don't plan on letting us walk away."
At the words die or become food, Beatrix yanked the wooden spear free from the carcass and armed herself.
"What do we do?"
"What do you mean, what do we do?"
Jincheon gave her a look of pure disbelief.
"We die, or they die. The answer's already decided, isn't it?"
"Kh…!"
Don't tense up. It's no different from killing people!
She had started out nervous and snappish, but the moment real combat arrived, the soldier who had taken lives before steeled herself.
"Don't just watch the antlers. A front-leg strike or a rear kick will shatter bone if it lands clean."
People who saw horned herbivores always made the same mistake — assuming the horns were the only threat. Antler charges needed a running start. When that wasn't possible, the animals switched to close-quarters kicking. A solid rear kick could crack bone as a baseline.
Fight with trees between us. Keep them from swinging those antlers freely.
This clearing had few trees — that was why they had chosen it for camp — so she wanted to move the fight elsewhere.
Jincheon had other ideas.
"KRAAAAAAH! UWAHHHH!"
He flailed his arms and legs and let a thin thread of killing intent leak free. From an ordinary person it would have looked like suicidal theatrics. From a man who had personally slaughtered more people than most mass murderers could claim, the killing intent hit the animals like a physical threat.
One of them — antlers larger, more branched, clearly the leader — charged straight through the pressure.
That bastard's the boss.
Unlike the others, it refused to flinch. Jincheon stomped down hard.
"That's too reckl—!"
His foot crushed the animal's head between the antlers. The body flipped upside-down like a handstand.
He drew a sharp breath, then swung the stone axe in a full arc into the soft junction of flank and belly. The blade buried itself to the haft. A wet, tearing scream ripped through the clearing.
Jincheon abandoned the axe, seized the wound with both hands, and ripped. Entrails and blood burst free. He kept tearing with bare hands until he was soaked red, forcing the wound wider. The leader thrashed and shrieked; he pinned its neck under his boot and held it still.
"KRAAAAAAH!"
He brandished the dripping entrails and roared with exaggerated, killing-laced fury. The remaining animals broke and fled in terror. On an isolated island with no predators, these herbivores had lived soft lives. Watching their leader torn apart by raw savagery and drowning in that killing intent was more than they could endure.
"Looks like they've never fought for their lives. Running this easily proves it."
"…"
Beatrix stared at the man who had driven off a pack of wild animals almost casually. At first the sight simply stunned her.
Then—
"Huh?"
Blood spattered across part of Jincheon's face. For a single heartbeat her cheeks flushed and her chest gave a hard, unexpected thump. On a sharp-featured handsome man, the blood lent a wild, primal allure she had never seen on him before. The usual half-smile was gone; what remained was the face of a male driving off enemies, and that only intensified the effect.
The flutter vanished almost as quickly as it came. Her expression settled back to normal. She decided it was just the high of fighting an animal for the first time, and let the feeling pass without further thought.