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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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It had been four days since Renny woke up.
Thanks to Karina’s devoted care, Renny, who had recovered enough to move around, persistently followed Karina. Despite Karina rarely raising her voice in anger to scold Renny for the laughable sight of a critically ill patient trying to guard another patient, Renny ignored those words and followed Karina around.
Is this a stalker or an escort knight?
Even Karina now looked at Renny as if she had a headache and spoke to her gently, but Renny’s expression didn’t change at all. She must have known that soft words would never get through to her. In the end, Karina declared in front of me,
“If you keep doing this, I won’t treat you anymore!”
Only then did Renny stop her fuwazuho.
By the way, fuwazuho means regret, obsession, and desolation.
From the perspective of a spectator, it was a rather intriguing combination of words. Regret that she wouldn’t have ended up in this situation if she had found another boat. Obsession with stubbornly following Karina around despite her battered body. Desolation from being hurt when Karina was startled by it.
…Actually, desolation was just thrown in there.
That stalker, no, escort knight was the type of person who would think she was doing a good job even with that. She might have ended up following Karina to the bathroom if it had gone a little further. From the side, it was spine-chilling. They say girls go to the bathroom together, but… is that not the case? Where did I hear that from?
“The snakes won’t appear on the beach, right?”
Renny asked me with an exaggerated manner, as she had been doing for the past few days. It was a common occurrence whenever Karina put on the shoes I made and went out for a walk alone on the beach in front of the house. The beach wasn’t very far from the house, and I had eliminated all the risk factors, so there was no problem, but despite saying that, she was still making a fuss. Her annoying personality seemed to be the same in the game and in reality.
“This is the tenth time already. It’s safe, so stay put.”
It’s also annoying to keep listening while working. The somewhat hostile relationship we had at the beginning had diminished to some extent after eating and sleeping under the same roof for four days. It must have been because Renny’s suspicion had subsided since I didn’t lay a hand on Karina at all. Instead, I had become a victim of Renny’s exaggerated behavior…
Worrying about Karina is one thing, but at this rate, my ears would develop calluses. I set aside the leather I had been working on and picked up a softened tree stem. I was planning to twist it and make a band that would fix the sole and the foot.
Before that, there was one thing I needed to do.
“Renny.”
“…What?”
“Let me see your foot for a moment.”
“What?”
I carefully grabbed Renny’s almost completely healed foot and examined it from various angles. Toes with hardened skin like grains, tanned from long training. Scars etched from going through battlefields. They say scars are a warrior’s medal, but were they really medals for her? I had such thoughts as I traced the scars with my fingers.
“H-hey, hey! What are you doing?!”
“Measuring your foot size. Those worn-out military boots can’t fulfill their function anymore. I need to make new shoes.”
Renny wriggled her foot as if telling me to let go, but in her current state where she could barely hold a spoon, it was only ticklish even if she resisted. If Renny’s body were intact, I might have been kicked and flown through the wall like the protagonist of a gag manga by now. As I grabbed her foot and started examining it from side to side, Renny, who had been trying to pull her foot away, sighed and stopped wriggling.
“I’m grateful, but… don’t suddenly grab my foot. You startled me.”
Only then did I let go of Renny’s foot, which had become docile, after fiddling with it for a long time. I had roughly estimated the size by touch. Renny looked at me with a complicated expression and then swiftly turned her head away.
Now I could make shoes more comfortably.
I picked up the tree stems I had laid out in front of me. Now, I just needed to twist them to make the sole, create a cushion with leather to absorb the impact on the foot, and attach a leather-covered band to make sturdy sandals. Next, I planned to select usable bones from the bones I had brought and make a sword that was decent enough to use. A knight without a sword was a serious problem.
I couldn’t let her use a broken sword either. Since it wasn’t an item I made, I couldn’t repair it.
Should I learn blacksmithing if we manage to escape the island? Maybe I should also learn alchemy while I’m at it. Anyway, I need a job to make a living-
“Aren’t you counting your chickens before they hatch?”
We don’t even know for sure if escape is possible yet. It’s better not to have any expectations right now, or else I might be disappointed. However, once a person makes up their mind…
“What did you say?”
“…Just talking to myself.”
“…You talk to yourself a lot.”
It was a remark Renny casually made. It was really a trivial comment, but being pointed out by someone else made me feel strange. It made me realize once again that I had been living on this deserted island for too long.
“When you live alone for a long time, you naturally start talking to yourself.”
“Is that so…”
Silence fell between us. It was because neither of us could find a topic to discuss. When Karina wasn’t around, our conversation would cut off abruptly like undercooked noodles.
Neither of us was the type to engage in small talk, and I was always doing something except when I was sleeping. It was only natural for the conversation to die out when I was focused on work. Perhaps Renny also felt it was unwise to bother me while I was working.
We had already run out of things to talk about anyway. We couldn’t bring up sensitive topics either, so, well, there was nothing left to do but keep our mouths shut.
“…Hey, you made all the things here with your own hands?”
“That’s right.”
“Impressive.”
“When you live alone, you have to be self-sufficient in everything, so it’s not that impressive. Have you ever made anything?”
“No. I was always on the side that smashed things, whether they were enemies or allies.”
Somehow, Renny’s voice sounded gloomy.
Was it my imagination, or was it real? I checked the sole, reserving judgment. It was an important part because if there were any protruding parts, the foot could get injured. Although the person wearing it was a person, it wasn’t like they would get seriously injured from that much, but on a deserted island where even a small wound could lead to a fatal injury, it was better to be careful.
Of course, we had our healing machine Karina, so we wouldn’t be talking about life and death over a small scratch, but…
Good. The sole was fine like this. Now I just needed to connect each part to shape it, and it would be complete. It wasn’t a very time-consuming task, so once I finished, I was thinking of going to check on the snakes’ movements for a bit. While roughly planning in my head…
“…This time too, I almost did it again. If it weren’t for you, neither Lady Karina nor I would have survived.”
“I just did what had to be done.”
If you live on a deserted island for 10 years, even a serial killer would try to save someone’s life. Moreover, Karina was practically my savior. Thanks to her, I was able to learn the identity of the world I was possessed by for the first time in 10 years, and I could take the first step in my escape plan. I couldn’t say it directly, but…
“There are mountains of people in this world who don’t even do what they have to do. Shouldn’t you take pride in that? You’re much better than someone like me.”
…Someone like me.
“Aren’t you a decent person too? It’s not an easy thing to dedicate yourself to someone.”
In the absurd situation where we were praising each other, Renny and I looked at each other, forgetting what to say, then smirked and turned our heads away again.
“It’s not like we’re having a flattery contest. What are we even doing?”
That’s what I’m saying. I held out the leather shoes, which had taken on a somewhat shoe-like shape, to Renny.
“Try them on. I need to know if the size fits or not.”
“Sorry, but could you put them on for me? My arm strength is still as flimsy as a week-old baby’s.”
Putting them on for her is no big deal. I grabbed Renny’s foot and put the shoes on. As she inserted her foot into the leather shoes, Renny looked at me with a strange expression and asked,
“What fur is this? The texture feels a bit unusual.”
“Bear fur.”
“To think I’d end up wearing shoes made of bear hide in my life.”
“How’s the size?”
“It’s just right. I don’t think it’ll be too uncomfortable to move around in them. They do feel a bit heavy, though…”
Renny seemed quite satisfied with the shoes. I took off Renny’s shoes again and started the final finishing touches.
Shaping the appearance and applying a specially made substance to prevent the leather from rotting.
I placed the finished shoes under Renny’s feet and stood up.
Now that the shoes were done, it was time to make a sword.
I brought the bear leader’s claws that I had pre-selected and placed the bones in front of Renny. As I set down the bones, Renny threw a question at me with a puzzled look.
“What’s with the bones?”
“I’m planning to make your sword with these bones. How long was the blade in your standards?”
“In spans? Hmm… about three spans?”
“Three spans… What about the handle?”
“About one and a half spans.”
“Crafting.”
The claws were compressed and transformed, starting to take the shape of a sword. Although it was close to the form I often used, the shape itself wasn’t much different from the sword Renny used, so it should be fine. As a crude-looking sword was completed in an instant, Renny looked at me with a dumbfounded expression and voiced her doubt.
“If that’s the case, couldn’t you have made the shoes with a skill too?”
“I can’t make everything entirely with skills.”
The sword had too long a process of processing and refining, so it was ambiguous in terms of time to put in the effort to craft it. It’s not like I was going to make a demon sword, and I couldn’t spend a long time making a weapon when we didn’t know when the snakes would invade. Still, wouldn’t this be considered a famous sword to some extent?
“It’s a pity I can’t swing it right away.”
Renny looked down at the sword with an expression like a child who had received a gift. At that sight, I added briefly,
“You’ll be swinging it a lot soon.”
Since the war with the snakes was not far off.
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“Sir Johann. Have you gotten a bit closer with Renny?”
Karina’s playful smile caught my eye.
Gotten closer… have we?
It does seem like we’ve gotten closer than before. I’m not sure.
The meaning of getting closer is too difficult for me.
Perhaps understanding my expression, Karina spoke with a bright smile,
“Seeing you ponder over it, it looks like you’ve grown even closer than before.”
“Maybe.”
An awkward answer was all I could give in response to her words.
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