Survive on a Deserted Island With the Villainous Young Lady

71 – coming-of-age ceremony (1)

Treating Ant as a hunting dog, the amount of hunting animals during exploration increased.

Originally, Chester and Monia avoided hunting as much as possible.

It was possible to get enough food from traps and traps, and even if food was not available, there were preservatives such as smoked meat prepared in advance.

There was no point in hunting while consuming excessive stamina.

In addition, traps are traps, but there is no guarantee that hunting will always succeed.

No matter how skilled a hunter is, when the hunt fails, it fails.

Even carnivores who were born to be hunters can fail to hunt and starve, and even more so, when they find a dead body, they give up hunting that is cumbersome and requires a lot of energy, and pursue efficiency by coveting the meat of the dead body.

Even animals are like that, but what is better than a human being?

That’s why hunting was meaningless if you didn’t have to.

Just, while exploring, if there is a suitable creature in a good position to catch, it’s all about shooting arrows or throwing stones with a catapult.

Then, if you caught it, you would eat it, and if you missed it, you would give up.

But with Ant, things changed.

Efficiency of hunting, probability of success.

All levels are different.

Chester and Monia make up for what Ant lacks, and Ant fills what both lack.

Of course, the hunt that would fail would still fail, but it was clear that the failure had fallen to a level that could be tolerated to some extent.

There is nothing to regret even if you fail, so you try to hunt a lot, and you succeed and get meat more often.

Thanks to this, the supply of warehouses has steadily increased, and it has reached a level where you are wondering whether you should build a new warehouse again.

“If we are going to build a warehouse, should we cut bamboo?”

During the search time as usual, Monia looked around the forest and said.

“Um, no. Well.”

Chester thought for a moment.

After thinking about it for a bit, I saw Ant digging hard in the ground to pull out the bulbs he found while exploring.

Chester now faces several problems.

One is, of course, cold.

It’s not as fast as when the island got hot, but the temperature is dropping little by little to feel it.

It is safe to say that winter will surely come.

This is the first problem.

The second is clothing.

The hide of the ant wolf, which was pickled by rubbing salt, stopped rotting when all the moisture was drained from the hide, as Chester had thought.

As a result of persistently watching to throw away if it rots, I was sure that the leather would not rot anymore.

However, leather that does not rot and cannot be made soft is difficult to make clothes with, so I am worried about what to do with it.

The third is chilli.

I thought that making a weapon out of chili would be a good way to escape when encountering a predator like a bear.

So, when Chester grew, he divided the peppers into edibles, seeds to sow in the field, and research to study as weapons.

At first, I tried peppers here and there.

I tried to break it up with a knife, but it was so small and light that it was obvious that it wouldn’t fly far if I threw it.

The second time I tried polishing it against a stone plate.

However, because of the moisture in the peppers, the ground peppers clumped together and turned into dough.

Shall we toss this chili paste?

I thought so, but I was not satisfied with something.

So these days, Chester is drying peppers.

If you dry the chilies, they won’t clump together when you grind them, and they will turn into powder.

In other words, what Chester was thinking about was a weapon that would fire the ground pepper.

Buried in a stone and thrown? It’s nonsense.

Carry red pepper powder and sprinkle it when a predator approaches? I want to be okay, but I can’t guarantee the safety of my body.

What should I do if a running predator gets hit by red pepper powder and rushes forward without stopping?

Or what if you become more ferocious and run amok?

If you’re going to use something like ground beef as a weapon, throwing it from a distance to attack the predator and then running away is the right way to do it.

Thus, Chester faced three problems.

Chester watched as Ant dug up and dug out the bulbs and rolled them to Chester’s feet.

This is because he knows that he cannot use the bulb if he bites it.

“Hmm.”

Chester praised Ant with the plant he dug.

and said

“Monia.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s divide the labor.”

“… … Yes?”

Division of labor.

Monia, who did not understand that, tilted her head and looked at Chester.

Chester said to Monia.

“I didn’t trust you when you first came from the island.”

“Ugh. … It has to be.”

“But now I can believe it. I believe in your abilities too. You’ve grown so much, you’ve become great.”

believe in ability

Chester’s words made Monia feel as if she would ascend to heaven.

“Ah, hey, that, the division of labor… What do you want to do?”

“I’m saying this because I believe in you.”

Chester said so.

“Until now, the two of us have always done something together to prepare for any possible accident.”

accident.

mistake.

“Of course, even now, the two of us should explore the forest together. It’s never better with two than alone.”

But housework is different.

“If you are now, you should be able to do pretty much anything by yourself.”

So Chester suggested a division of labor.

“Let’s have one make a warehouse and the other make a weapon out of red pepper powder.”

It would be better for the two of you to do one thing at a time.

It will take much less time.

But Chester felt that this division of labor was worth doing.

Just as Ant became an adult dog, his training was over, he was recognized by Chester through hunting, and he realized his own growth.

I felt that in order for Monia to grow further than she is now, she definitely needed ‘the experience of doing it alone without Chester’s help’.

In other words, this is not a report on efficiency, but a division of labor for the growth of Monia, that is, for the future.

Thinking of something and trying it by yourself.

And to do something alone.

Chester believed that such experiences are necessary for human growth.

Just as a tribe of warriors living in a remote area succeeds in challenging a dangerous task alone for a coming-of-age ceremony.

The experience of going through a harsh world with only one’s own body, beyond the trustworthy fence of being a parent.

So, to create a stable life and foundation for oneself with dignity.

That is the growth of the soul, not the growth of the body, and that is the true ‘coming-of-age ceremony’.

Independence, trials, success.

“how?”

Chester asked Monia quietly.

“Would you like to try it yourself?”

“… … .”

Monia looked at Chester quietly.

who defended himself.

who guided him.

who taught himself

Chester was Monia’s parent, mentor, lifesaver, and at the same time the man Monia loved.

He taught Monia how to live.

He taught Monia how to fight.

He taught me how to make things I wanted, taught me manners to respect even animals, and taught me how to overcome the difficulties of the world and overcome them at the same time.

said Chester.

The reason of the world is simple.

At a glance, it looks so huge and complex that it seems dizzy, but in fact, it is so simple that even a child can easily understand it with a little thought.

Monia remembered what she had first learned from Chester.

What was the first thing you learned?

‘It’s to get water.’

Monia was desperate to get water in the bamboo.

After getting water, the second realization came.

‘I also learned that you have to do something to get something.’

It was different from the time when everything was saved by sitting still and just snapping a finger, and now I knew that I had to win something on my own.

A candy fruit that at first felt terribly bitter and astringent.

Now you can eat deliciously.

At first, the snake was so terrifying and horrifying that it was mistaken for a devil.

However, Monia is now able to catch and eat snakes on her own.

You can run in a forest where even walking was terrifying.

It is now possible to knock down and move as many bamboos as was difficult to knock down.

I also learned how to make traps to get food.

I also learned the plants to find and eat when my stomach hurts or my head hurts.

When she lived in the kingdom, she also learned that mushrooms, which were high-quality foodstuffs, could take her life if she ate them.

I learned a lot.

A lot has changed.

That was something Monia herself knew well.

However, anxiety still remained inside Monia.

She learned from Chester.

saved

When he felt like giving up on life, Chester’s promise to be by his side helped him.

The ring on her ring finger was gone, but a rope was still tied around her wrist.

A symbol of the promise that Chester tied on that stormy day.

Monia carefully touched the rope.

Now, Chester is speaking.

Would you like to do something by yourself?

Would you do it alone without Chester’s help?

Unstable.

scary.

The moment Chester disappeared, I felt like I would lose even how to walk.

I’ve definitely been doing well on this island so far, but just thinking about not having Chester next to me made me feel helpless as if I was going to die tomorrow.

But.

‘Do you believe I can do it?’

Chester never asked Monia to do something she couldn’t do.

Saying this means that Chester believes in Monia.

‘If not now.’

I can’t walk with him by Chester’s side for the rest of my life.

I will always stand behind him, and remain as a ‘child’ whom he must lead and protect.

‘I hate that.’

It was much more frightening to Monia.

Even now, whenever she got close to Chester, her beating heart encouraged Monia.

“I will try.”

Monia looked straight at Chester and said, and Chester laughed when he saw that.

“great.”

Chester reached out.

However, the hand didn’t go to Monia’s head or shoulders, but held her hand gently.

“Let’s do well together.”

Chester’s rough palm gripping his hand firmly.

“Yes.”

Sensing that, Monia said with a slightly shy smile.

“Let’s see how it goes!”

Then, swallowing the fear and confusion, he proudly spread his chest and bluffed.