Survive on a Deserted Island With the Villainous Young Lady

18 – Finding Food (1)

They endured storms, and immediately after the weather cleared, they went to work in the woods and built a cottage.

It was a situation that would be unbearable for the average person and would disrupt his sleep pattern, but Chester, as usual, woke up early in the morning, just before the sun rose.

He was accustomed to working overtime due to an urgent schedule or Monia’s insistence, and even staying up all night for several days.

And no matter how hard they work, they rarely look after their circumstances to their butler.

This is especially true for a dedicated butler, like Chester, who is assigned to Monia and has to start practicing Monia before morning begins.

Even if there is a limit to cutting one’s lifespan, no matter how hard labor and exhaustion are, you have to move according to the set schedule.

‘Is it an occupational disease?’

Chester, who confirmed that he woke up a little before dawn, got up and stretched to relieve his stiff body.

After waking up the muscles with stretching, complete sleep is pursued with simple exercises such as jumping in place and running.

When I woke up like that and looked around the villa, Monia was sleeping with a frown on her face.

Maybe it’s because he didn’t set up a bed and just slept on the floor because he didn’t have enough time, but his expression looked very distressed.

“Ugh, the devil… . The devil is after you!”

‘What are you dreaming of?’

Chester digs through the extinguished bonfire, checking Monia’s face, her arms flapping while talking strangely in her sleep.

Carefully rummaging through the campfire, the few remaining embers welcomed the fresh air and glowed scarlet.

Chester put new kindling in to light the campfire, pushed the ashes aside, and stacked the firewood again.

After lighting the fire, Chester took the harpoon and the slingshot he had retrieved from the wreckage of yesterday’s house and headed into the woods.

It wasn’t long after the storm had ended, but it was time for the beasts to move.

Big beasts can store more energy and last longer, but smaller beasts don’t.

When the storm is over, you must move and go hunting without delay.

Chester intended to target just such animals.

He could catch fish, but Chester had no intention of going anywhere.

If so, you don’t know when and where you will face new dangers without knowing.

So, he was planning to increase his understanding of the island by traveling widely around the surrounding area while also hunting.

Chester heard a strange sound in his ears as he carefully walked through the forest and hunted.

Carefully going to the source of the sound, a beast with long, curved claws was digging up a fallen tree.

‘What is that?’

The beast that dug up the tree moved its nose at the end of its elongated mouth to smell it, then dug the tree again with its claws.

How many trees were dug and split?

The beast stuck out its long tongue and took out the slugs from the tree and ate them.

Chester examined the animal in more detail.

Quadruped walking. However, the forelimbs were longer than the hind limbs, and the front limbs were armed with threatening claws.

The fur is short, but the hair on the back is long and covers the body.

Ears that move in all directions and eyes that run on the side of the face and can see behind itself tell us that this creature is not a predator.

Predators have their eyes and ears focused on the front and play the role of tracking the prey, not the role of guarding the surroundings.

But just because they aren’t predators doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.

At least at the moment of being scratched by those sharp claws, there was a high chance of dying from excessive bleeding and infection in this place without proper medical facilities.

But it was also really mouthwatering.

‘That would be nice.’

If I could find a stone of the right strength to grind it with, I could make a much better knife with it.

In addition, that curved hook shape is very useful when climbing a cliff.

While Chester glared at the claws with mouth-watering eyes, the beast found a second slug and ate it.

Watching the creature dig through the tree for more slugs, Chester picked up a stone, hooked it to the slingshot, and spun the slingshot.

Quietly, slowly, carefully… I catch my breath and aim for the perfect timing that Chester himself thinks.

I thought about aligning myself with the imaginary line I had made in my mind, and the timing of leaving the sling hole being delayed by a beat due to a stone getting caught in my pocket, and being distracted by that snag.

Chester let go of one end of the slingshot he was holding with his index finger, and the centrifugal force of the flying stone sent the impact of the slingshot to the ring of his middle finger.

puck!

The flying stone was accurately embedded in the head of an unknown creature.

‘… … I was aiming for the torso.’

In fact, Chester was aiming for a large body rather than a small head that was difficult to aim, but good was good.

It was a mistake, but rather, it was killed instantly in one shot, so it was easily hunted.

Deciding to be content with that fact, Chester grabbed the mysterious creature by the scruff of the neck and lifted the body up.

After putting the corpse aside, look in the direction of the tree the creature was digging and dig the tree in that direction as well.

With force, he cracked open the tree, and saw a slug wriggling inside.

“Five.”

Chester put it in his mouth and chewed on it.

“Is there any more?”

I dug up some more trees, but this seems to be the last one.

Chester hid his regret and moved with his prey.

‘Sorry. It looked meaty when covered in fur.’

When I looked closely, I saw that only the hair was thick, but the body was thin.

Still, it was so nice to have already found a decent game, so Chester roamed the woods, suppressing the urge to hum involuntarily.

While wandering through the woods, Chester found a bamboo tree.

‘… … Should I use bamboo as a material when making a house?’

Even if Chester could carry a thin log or two with ease, it was impossible to climb a tree with such a thing on his back.

If so, I would have to climb the tree and pull the material up with the vine, but even then I had to refrain from being too heavy.

In that sense, bamboo was the best.

It was light enough to carry Monia and strong enough to be used as a floor in a house.

Chester left a mark on a nearby tree to remember where the bamboo was.

Then, they start hunting again by wandering around the forest.

There were various creatures.

Spectacular spiders and all kinds of insects.

And birds, reptiles, and small rodents that prey on those insects.

Carnivores that hunt and live on them.

If there was one peculiarity, the animals found were many small.

‘Did the animals become smaller because of the island environment?’

Chester did not know the theory of ‘evolution’, but he knew the ability of ‘adaptation’.

No matter how you look at it, creatures that look the same are various differences in various environments.

Chester thought that was the reason there were so many small creatures.

‘It must have changed to be able to hide and endure anywhere in line with the sudden change in climate.’

In addition, he would have abandoned his huge body, which required a lot of food, and chose a small body so that he could be full and get energy with little food.

‘Then what is that bear?’

A question arose here.

The bear Chester saw was obviously about the size of Chester’s torso, a small size to be called a bear.

That’s why Chester thought it was a bear cub, but in this environment where the creatures as a whole are smaller… … .

‘Maybe it’s the Eucharist?’

bear.

Chester’s deep trauma.

When I was so afraid of bears, I couldn’t even go into the forest, and I became afraid of the nature and wildlife they live in.

Even now, after overcoming the fear of nature and the wild as the wounds in his heart healed with time, he was still afraid of bears.

Even if the wounds heal, the scars remain.

‘On the other hand, plants are big.’

Since the animals were small, the plants were large.

It seemed that there were no large herbivores to eat them.

If so, I didn’t know if there were creatures living there to eat the thick leaves on that tree.

Climbing trees and hunting consumes a lot of energy, so even if I knew there were creatures to eat there, I had no intention of hunting.

‘… … What is that?’

How long have you been wandering around like that?

Stopping at the river to drink water, Chester went home and found another suitable game.

‘What is that?’

It was a frog.

However, it wasn’t just a frog, it was a large, plump frog.

‘Isn’t the skin poisonous?’

I had heard that the Oji tribe used poison from the skin of frogs to smear their arrowheads.

But usually the creatures that use such poison are small in size.

There are creatures that are huge and use poison, but what about that frog?

‘Is there poison or not?’

Chester hung a stone on the catapult with the idea of hunting first.

That moment.

“uh?”

There was a sudden jolt in his back, something speeding past Chester as he stumbled.

Raising his head hastily, Chester saw a bird flying away clutching the creature Chester had hunted in its talons.

“… … .”

At first, Chester’s expression, not understanding the situation, was blank, but his expression immediately distorted.

“This bastard… ?!”

It was the first time Chester had been this angry since Monia, who came to see the party the day before the party that had been prepared for a month two years ago, ordered it all changed by tomorrow night.