Chapter 9 : Parting Ways

August 29th, 2022

Right now, I’d like to have a shoulder bag or rucksack to put the harvest in.

Using the keyword search in the status panel, I found this:

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Item Production : Storage Bag（can be carried on shoulder or back) (Lv.1）

Category：Tools Production（Lv.1）

MP Consumption :　24

Explanation：A storage bag made from woven plant fibers  

Production time：8 hours

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Since I have the suitable grass for material, I could shorten the production time to only 4 hours. And if I could complete it in 4 hours, that means I could finish it before I sleep tonight.

Then after the bag is finished, I’ll just wait for a while until my MP is fully recovered, and then set my magic to create bread for tomorrow morning before finally sleeping.

It’ll be time-efficient, and we won’t have any problem with breakfast.

When creating same items, I can set my magic to make several items at once until it hit the MP limit, so I can set to create 6 loaves of bread and go to sleep.

6 MP per loaf of bread is 36 MP. Since now my Max MP was 40 I can do it.

When I returned to the cave, Chris was already there and finished laying the dry leaves on the stone bed.

“I’m home”

“Hey Shirou, check this out. Tonight, we’re going to sleep really well”

“Certainly, that is many times better than the bench in the prison cell”

There was only one King size bed. From the beginning, Chris had intended for us to sleep together. Well, I’m happy with the arrangement too.

“By the way, what are you going to do from now on, Chris-sama?”

I had already heard the general outline of the plan in the boat; Chris intends to regroup with the 10,000 strong border guards stationed in the east and mount a counter-offensive.

The eastern garrison is based in Bawanda Castle, which has a solid castle wall, and it seems that even the full might of imperial army won’t be able to take it down easily.

“Certainly, I intend to go to Bawanda Castle as originally planned. Though I can’t confirm it, I think we were swept by the wave towards the southeast. So if we head east, we should be able to get back to mainland”

Yeah, just like I thought.

“Just to make sure, but Bawanda Castle is already in a battle state, right?”

“Unfortunately, it is. However, the last report that I heard was Bawanda Castle Army had dealt a heavy blow to the Imperial Army and forced them to withdraw. It can be assumed that the standoff continues even now. There is a fertile field within the castle walls, and it is said that the stockpile can last for 10 years, so I’m sure it will be alright”

After listening to Chris’ explanation, I finally made up my mind.

“Chris-sama, please leave me here”

“Wha-!?”

This is something that has been on my mind for some time.

“I can’t fight. Most probably I will only be a hindrance to Chris-sama”

“But Shirou!”

That’s right. No matter how strong Chris is, she will get injured if she fights while protecting me.

“You don’t have to worry about me, Chris-sama.  Food and daily necessities can be made with magic, and if my level rises, someday I should be able to create a high-performance ship and be able to easily escape from this island. But that will still take some time, and Chris-sama is in a hurry, right?”

“Shirou….”

“So don’t worry about me and sail east. And then, reclaim your land”

“Shirou! I’m… sorry…”

Chris hugged me tightly, clinging like a child.

Chris is a princess; she has her own duty.

I know that we can’t decide our actions based on feelings alone.

Besides, to be honest, I also didn’t want to go to the battlefield.

I like Chris, but…

Yeah, like I thought, I’d prefer to live a quiet life instead.

“However, you can’t just leave right away. We’ll have to prepare enough food and water for your journey first”

“Um”

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That night, we made a lot of love.

Chris let out a satisfied sigh.

“Shirou, I think you’re the type of man that every woman can ever dream of”

“Me?”

Well, that’s unexpected…

“It’s like what they say, ‘chaste by day, and lustful at night’. For a woman, that kind of man will make her happy”

Wow. What a crappy phrase. The audacity of it left me speechless.

…wait a minute.

I think back on earth, I also heard something similar to the opposite of this.

Maybe in the end, everything in the world was just made convenient for those who hold the power.

After we finished things and was dressing up, the usual announcement was displayed.

Chime ♪

Storage bag     Time Until Finished   00:00:00

Storage bag is completed. Please specify the location to appear.

There was also additional announcement appeared.

Chime ♪ Chime ♪

Creation magic has reached level 2

Now this is what I’ve been looking forward to! Let’s quickly check the status screen.

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Creation Magic:　Lv.2

Acquired Experience：31/100

MP 55/55

Food Production Lv.1（EXP:54/100）

Tools Production Lv.1（EXP:77/100）

Weapon Production Lv.1（EXP:0/100）

Material Creation Lv.1（EXP:0/0）

Golem Production  ――

Medicine Production ――

Other  ――

Keyword Search＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿

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My Max MP has increased from 40 to 55.

Now I can make things that I couldn’t before because of lack of MP. However, I’m still unable to create golems or medicines.

Is it because the level of each category needs to rise? Or maybe the level of creation magic itself needs to rise. Anyway, there are a lot of necessary things, so let’s make more and more and aim to level up.

I changed the set of bread that I want to make from 6 to 9 loaves and then went to sleep. I think it will be finished just in time for breakfast.

Now I want to have coffee for breakfast too.

Is there a coffee tree growing somewhere here?

Well, even if it doesn’t grow here, I can still make it using creation magic, so let’s try to do it sometime.

Oh, that means I will need to create pots, cups, and so on.

Maybe I should’ve just created a drip coffee from the start!

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For breakfast, we ate freshly baked bread and fruit as planned.

Today, we’re going to work hard to stockpile food.

We don’t even know how far we are from mainland, and we need water and food for about a week for Chris to travel safely.

Chris went hunting in the forest, and I collected fruits while making water bottles to fill with water. The bag I just made yesterday is already proved itself useful for collecting fruits.

For water, human being needs at least 2 litres of water a day, so that means 14 litres for a week.

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Item Production：Water bottle（small）（4 litres）（Lv.1）

Category：Tools production（Lv.1）

MP Consumption　25

Explanation：Unglazed water bottle

Production time：10 hours

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One water bottle has 4 litres of capacity, so I need to make four. The normal creation time is 10 hours, but if I use the soil on the ground, I can create it in just 6 hours.

For now, I’ll set my magic to create two bottles at once, so it can be completed by 8 o’clock in the evening. I won’t be able to make bread for lunch, but there’s no helping it.

I quickly started the production of water bottles.

After walking around the forest looking for fruits, I learned one thing; a knife is an absolute necessity for survival.

Even picking bananas and mangoes was difficult without a knife, so I tried to create a makeshift chipped stone knife by hitting a falling rock, and it’s much better than not having a knife. I can cut mango vines easier with it.

I can’t make a proper knife yet because I don’t have enough MP, so I’m thinking of using this knife carefully. I plan to later polish and upgrade it back at the cave.

As I was sharpening my knife in front of the cave, Chris came back dragging a boar.

“Chris-sama, that’s huge!!”

It was so big that it’s hard for me to drag it, let alone lift it.

“Yeah. I managed to kill it with a magic arrow, but now I’m troubled with something else”

“With what, if I may ask?”

“I don’t know how to dismantle it”

Under her rugged personality, Chris is still a princess after all. However, the problem is I also don’t know how to dismantle a boar. If it’s a fish, I can pretty much do it though, since I used to make a lot of dishes using fish.

“If I recalled correctly, we need to drain the blood first, but I’m not sure what to do after that”

“I think the next step would be to peel the skin off and take out the entrails. Right Chris-sama?”

“Yeah. Should we try it out?”

The two of us moved the boar to the river and tried to dismantle it.

Both of us were amateurs, so I think we lost many parts that were actually edible, but we somehow managed to finish dismantling it thanks to Chris’ hand sword. Its sharpness is outstanding, it easily cut through bones and skin.

Anyway, the boar has so much meat; even its thigh meat alone was so much, we can’t finish eating it off. 

“Now, what should we do with the rest of it? Even if I want to preserve by curing it with salt, I don’t have enough salt to do it”

 Since unfortunately we only had a handful of salt left from the process of making fresh water from sea water.

“Don’t you think we can preserve it by smoking it?”

She’s right, we can preserve it by smoking.

Chris fell some tree using her sword-hand and we made a large box. We then hung the meat inside and smoke it. Usually when camping, we use smokers made out of cardboard boxes, but here we have more wood than cardboard.

For igniting the fire, I asked Chris to use her magic.

Come to think of it, when Chris is gone, I won’t be able to light a fire. I can make lighters with creative magic, but at the moment it’s impossible due to lack of MP.

Fortunately, I found something called flint using the Keyword Search, which can serve as alternative.

 It seems that I’ll be able to ignite fire using charcoal, sawdust, dry grass, and such.

Let’s make it when Chris is just about to leave the island.

That night, I ate yakiniku for the first time in a long time.

The meat was a little tough, but I was impressed by the sweetness of the fat.

Was meat usually taste this good before?

Now that I think about it, it’s been three days since I’ve consumed a decent amount of protein. Maybe it only tasted so good because my body was having protein deficiency.

Later on, the two water bottles were completed, so I set my magic two create another two bottles and went to bed.

It was my last night with Chris. Maybe we’ll never meet each other again.

I can feel that Chris was more passionate than usual. It’s joyful, and yet melancholic at the same time.

“This will be the last time for us to sleep in the same bed…”

To say goodbye is to die a little, I think it was the French who said that. (AN:  Partir, c’est mourir un peu)

I couldn’t quite remember, but I couldn’t put together any more words.

Because Chris locked our lips together with tears in her eyes.