.｡.:✧ Chapter 15 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“It’s an utter mess.”

My Zombie coaster Tycoon operation was more effective than I thought.

Endlessly pouring out zombies and skeletons.

Snakes suffering as they tried to block them.

In the end, the seven-headed hydra stepped up and started dealing with them using acidic liquid, but the pond was already packed with zombies. If that bastard wanted to stop it, he should have mobilized when I was making walls and heading towards the pond.

The color of the pond, which had been blue and transparent, began to stain a color that looked like food waste dissolved in water.

Now that pond water would become a hellish pond that would kill you if you drank it.

The snake bastards would realize what it meant to be unable to drink water too.

From my standpoint, it was a fantastic spectacle. There was so little entertainment here that even this was quite thrilling. I chewed on some jerky from the newly built watchtower to scout the snakes’ territory.

It was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t directly strike the snakes due to the hydra bastard’s intervention… but making them unable to pay attention to our side for a while was still quite a big gain.

Renny needed time to recover, and for now, I could eliminate their ability to sabotage us by poisoning the well or doing other things.

“Now I can focus on nursing for a while…”

Anyway, since I wouldn’t be the one doing the nursing, I planned to act as usual while keeping an eye on the snakes’ movements.

In roughly a week, Renny’s body would recover enough to fight. Before that, I planned to make a weapon for Renny. Well, the weapon was nothing more than carving the bear leader’s bones into a sword… but it was a surprisingly bothersome and difficult task.

I slowly descended from the watchtower and walked the path home. The grass trampled under my feet tickled my ankles. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be bad to make a pair of sandals for Renny and Karina to wear. Karina was wearing shoes unsuitable for this deserted island because she had no other footwear. I heard they were fine because they were made by a master craftsman using high-quality leather, but…

I had seen her feet a few days ago. Blisters had formed on her feet that looked like they would be as soft as a baby’s skin if touched. I hadn’t paid attention to it because I was busy grasping the rapidly changing situation on the deserted island, but now that I had some leeway, it suddenly came to mind. Anyway, since I needed to get closer to Karina, I thought I would try to narrow the distance further on this occasion.

“The materials should be at home, and before going, I should check the traps a bit…”

Although larvae were the best nutrition on this island, you couldn’t eat only larvae every time. So today, I planned to catch and grill some rabbits. It wasn’t as delicious as pork or beef, but meat was meat. It was one of the few meats I could obtain here.

Now, would there be rabbits caught in today’s traps or not…

I walked to the place where I had laid numerous traps on the west side of my territory. Originally, it was an area where rabbits that had been scattered all over the island had moved to after realizing my territory was safe. As expected of wild animals, they were really quick-witted when it came to their own survival.

Thanks to their insane reproductive rate, no matter how many I caught with traps, their numbers didn’t decrease, making them an excellent food source for me.

It was even more so because other meats had problems, one after another.

Fish were easy to catch, but they had a bitter taste like mackerel, making them impossible to eat. Bear meat simply had no taste, and snake meat tasted fine, but processing it was a bit troublesome due to the poison. As a result, the protein supply on this island had naturally become the rabbits.

Bears ate rabbits, snakes ate rabbits, and humans ate rabbits.

Just how many are they giving birth to?

I knew very well that rabbits originally had a reproductive rate comparable to rats, but it was ridiculous that they could support the food supply of all three factions. What the hell were they eating? There was a lot of grass, but was that enough to cover it?

As I walked while pondering pointless questions, the spot where the traps were laid came into view. I immediately turned my head from side to side to check the surroundings.

Hmm. About two traps were triggered. One is too young, so I’ll release it…

I glanced around and picked up the rabbit caught in the trap. This one was quite large.

Naturally, the rabbit frantically struggled to escape. As if it could escape my grasp by doing that. It would be better to make it easier to carry before taking it.

Snap.

The rabbit with its neck broken went limp. Now it would be easy to carry.

In Korea, doing this might get you labeled as a potential murderer, but this was a deserted island. To survive, you had to know how to kill a rabbit by snapping its neck with your hands. If you couldn’t do this, you would starve to death here. I headed home, humming a tune while holding the limp rabbit carcass.

What song was this again? The memory was hazy now. It could be a single song, or it could be a mix of several songs. Either way, it didn’t matter. As long as I was in a good mood, that was enough. Although it was sad that I couldn’t even remember the title anymore.

Later, I might even forget this messed-up melody.

Because even the most intense memories fade over time.

My parents’ faces, whom I hadn’t seen for 10 years, were already blurry.

…Let’s not think about it anymore. It would only make me sad.

I let the bitter thoughts flow away with the humming.

After walking for 20 minutes with the humming, my house started to come into view in the distance.

The house I had built while going through hardships for several years. In the yard, Karina was looking down at the water container of the purification device. Karina sometimes watched the scene of water dripping down the cylinder, as if she found the purification device fascinating. Though her purpose was probably to get water for the meal.

“Karina.”

“Oh, you’re back? That’s…”

Karina’s gaze turned to the rabbit in my hand.

Hmm, come to think of it, today was the first time she had seen me bring a rabbit.

I naturally hid the rabbit behind my back. Women probably wouldn’t like this kind of thing. Even I, who had no contact with the opposite sex for 10 years, remembered that much. I hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“This is today’s lunch.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“You’re not very surprised.”

“…I used to live in a rural village when I was young. So I’m used to that kind of sight. Do you want me to help with the preparation?”

“Ah, no.”

Was there such a setting? I only skimmed through the settings on the wiki once, so I couldn’t remember. I remembered that she became an orphan around the age of 8 or 9 and was entrusted to a temple… but I wasn’t sure. I should just prepare the meat.

“I’ll go prepare it.”

After answering with a choked voice, I moved to the backyard of the house. It was where the tools for preparing the meat were.

I placed the limp rabbit on the workbench and picked up a knife.

First, I had to skin it.

My knife moved towards the head of the rabbit with its eyes wide open.

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The gaze was piercing.

It was impossible not to be bothered by the intense gaze that followed me, piercing my back as I ate and worked at home. When I looked at Renny, Karina alternated between looking at Renny and me with a puzzled expression.

Renny looked at Karina with a gentle gaze, as if she had never done anything before. The sight of her transforming from a fierce beast to a gentle puppy was absurd.

Wasn’t the difference in temperature too extreme?

No, considering what I had done, it was understandable… but did she remember? I couldn’t tell if she remembered or not. I could ask her if we were alone, but… Karina rarely left Renny’s side.

So I hadn’t had a chance to ask yet. Well, I could ask when she was better. I chewed on the rabbit’s hind leg and recalled the information I knew about Renny.

Renny.

No surname.

Commoner background.

An orphan who wandered the streets as a child, she caught the eye of a mercenary captain who recognized her talent and started her life as a mercenary. She earned the nickname “Mad Dog” due to her outstanding talent and aggressive tendencies.

While active in the mercenary group that took her in, she fell into a trap and became the sole survivor. She was discovered by Karina and received her care to recover. After Karina was chosen as a saint, Renny underwent rigorous training, received knighthood, and became Karina’s escort knight.

What else was there?

Depending on her affection with Karina, she could join as a companion, and while she had a troublesome performance as a companion, she was one of the most powerful bosses in the game on the betrayal route, earning all sorts of curses… I remembered that much. I used to curse her as the “Motherless Renny” too.

Even though I wasn’t playing on hard or the hardest difficulty, nightmare mode, having to retry 72 times was really enough to make anyone curse.

Still, she was quite popular.

What was it, because her atmosphere was completely different when she was a companion and when she was an enemy, people liked that aspect? There were even people who wanted a Renny route.

To sum up, while she wasn’t a highly popular character, she had her own fan base.

…How long are you going to glare at me?

It was uncomfortable to have a fierce-looking woman constantly staring at me with a venomous gaze. It seemed like it would be good to have a conversation with her soon. It seemed that loyal mad dog regarded me as a dangerous target.

Otherwise, there was no way she would stare at me so intently that it was confusing whether she was an escort knight or a guard.

There was no way she could have fallen for me.

“Sir Johann?”

“…Why did you call me?”

It felt awkward to speak with a mouth that rarely uttered such words. When would I be able to speak comfortably? When talking to Karina, I felt like I understood the feelings of a fan in front of a celebrity.

Karina called me, hesitated for a moment, then spoke with slightly flushed cheeks.

“Um, I have some business to attend to for a bit… Could you please look after Renny in the meantime? You just need to watch over her…”

Business?

“Uh, well, I’ll be right back!”

What business?

With a sound of the hinge scraping, the door opened and closed. Without lingering on the closed door, I looked at Renny. I couldn’t help but look at her when the intense gaze was fixed on me.

Then, Renny’s and my eyes met. We glared at each other as if engaged in a scouting battle.

A pointless, fruitless battle of nerves.

Keeping a distance that seemed close enough to reach out and touch, the fierce beast with fiery eyes finally opened its mouth.

“…Are you perhaps a pervert? Why do you walk around without a top on?”

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