Chapter 23 – First Time Independent Activity and Shion’s Story
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The stew was a big hit among everyone. If we had eaten it on Earth, people would have likely complained about it being seasoned too lightly, but we were simply full of appreciation to eat a decent dish after no more than one day of our life on an uninhabited island.
After all, we’d been eating mushrooms and fruits as staple food until just this morning.
The portions of stew prepared for everyone had filled our bellies sufficiently.
“This was bliss~”
Shouko stroked her belly while looking satisfied.
“Thanks for the treat. Delicious meals and a bath…I don’t know how to thank you all,” Shijiyo said with a polite bow.
Her uniform has become clean, and her hair as well skin have regained their original beauty. She seems to have enjoyed the stew as well, but her eyelids looked a bit heavy.
“Shijiyo, how about you take a rest?”
“No way. I cannot waste the valuable daytime on sleeping. I will do whatever I can. I have to repay the favors as much as possible.”
“But, going by your current state, you haven’t been able to sleep properly yesterday, you know? Fortunately we’re not troubled for food today and tomorrow. So it’s fine for you to take a good rest now so that you can work hard after recovering your energy.”
The other three also agreed with me on this. Even so, Shijiyo still wavered somewhat. However, eventually feeling like it’d become a bother if she kept being obstinate here, she finally nodded.
“…I’m truly thankful. Well then, I think I will take you up on your kind offer.”
“Okay, please take a rest in the hut then.”
I retrieved the hut from my Inventory and deployed it in its usual place.
“…!? B-Buildings are also counted as a category of your Crafting Ability? No wait, if it’s a hut, it’s definitely something that’s being built by individuals. But…if that works, something like log houses also…hmm…”
Shijiyo was shaken.
I went inside the hut and laid out the carpet. I also deployed a blanket into my hand and handed it to Shijiyo.
“Please take your shoes off before entering the hut. Also, here you have a blanket.”
“Wow, it’s so fluffy… I keep repeating myself, but thank you for everything.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Kuno-kun, you’re incredible. Instead of simply going with an ideal, you chose an ability that can resolve the bottlenecks of an environment like an uninhabited island, such as 『Lack of tools』, 『Lack of technology』, and 『Time allocation』, with a single stroke.”
For some reason, Shijiyo is looking at me with eyes full of respect, but…
“A-Ahaha…”
I limited it to a wry laughter.
In reality, this is just the ability I thought I’d like to have after using it in games. It’s extremely useful, but usually I’d have picked a simple ideal.
But, this wasn’t anything I could say in the current atmosphere.
“I’m grateful and will use it with great care.”
“Yeah, have a good night.”
“Yes…g-good night,” Shijiyo answered bashfully and retreated inside the hut.
I went back to my friends.
“What are we going to do? Leaving Minorin alone is not an option.”
I nodded at Shouko’s comment.
“We’re going to split into two teams just like earlier. One team will go explore while the other stays home. I’m sorry, but considering the combat force distribution, I’d prefer to have Shouko and Mashiro join the exploration team.”
“Aye aye, sir!”
Mashiro is in charge of fighting, but he’s a mythical beast who was summoned by Shouko. It looks like he’s taken a liking to us, her friends, as well, but I think it’d be best for Shouko to be present for quick instructions.
“Alright, then I will join the exploration team.”
“You sure, Chiyu?”
“Leave it to me. I will catch chickens in order to redeem my position as your favorite cook.”
Somehow it looks like my childhood-friend is on fire. After seeing Shion’s cooking skills, she seems to have developed a competitive mindset.
“Umm, make sure to finish up in due time, if you don’t find them.”
“Rooooger.”
“That means Sousuke and I will be staying back, right?”
“Yeah. As might be expected, Shijiyo won’t be able to feel at peace if she’s alone with a guy, so can I ask you to cover that side?”
“Of course,” replied Shion with a smile.
With this, the teams were set. Before their departure, I asked Shouko to summon the sheep.
“We talked about it before, but you want their milk, right? That’s fine.”
Yep, apparently it’s absolutely no problem to get their milk.
“Sou-kun, can you also make cheese?”
“Can you make cheese out of nothing but milk?”
“If I remember correctly, you need rennets as well,” Shion said as if rummaging through her mind while placing a finger on her chin.
“Ah, I feel like I’ve heard something about that, too. Those are in the stomachs of cows, aren’t they?”
“Capture cows as well. Alright.”
“No, please don’t try to force yourself.”
It’s great that they’re brimming with motivation, but it’s just the second day so far. Even if they try the impossible, some things will simply remain out of reach for the moment.
For the time being, I handed the two back baskets for collecting stuff.
“Oh, nice~ Alright, Chiyu-cchi. Let’s have a match, who can collect the most, okay?”
“That’s just what I wanted.”
When Shouko called for Mashiro, Chiyu drew close to me. And then she stood on her tiptoes and stole my lips.
“C-Chiyu?”
I was embarrassed by the sudden kiss.
“Sou-kun, a harem can be reliable in a situation like this.”
Telling me something like under the current circumstance means…
“…Chiyu, you don’t hate the idea?”
“No problem. It’ll be fine as long as I have you for myself in the end.”
H-How manly…
“Besides, it doesn’t feel bad for the charm of your beloved to also work on others.”
With those parting words, Chiyu left our base together with Shouko.
The ones left behind were Shijiyo, who was sleeping in the hut, Shion, me, and the sheep.
“Ah…I-I guess we’ll start with the milking for the time being.”
“Sure.”
I took out wooden buckets and after splitting the work, we gave milking sheep a try. As soon as we got a hang of it after doing it for a short while, milk started to shoot out.
“Kyaa! Amazing…for it to shoot out so vigorously…”
As soon as I heard Shion, bad imaginations started to infest my mind, but I somehow managed to shake them off.
“Hey, Sousuke-kun, would you listen to me for a bit?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Not milking in silence might be fine as well.
“What was your impression of me in class?”
“What, you ask… You seemed to fit in as a popular person.”
“Ahaha, thanks. It’s nice if it seemed like that. But, I couldn’t drop my guard everyday for it to stay like that. I always checked the chat app and looked up the newest topics to stay in the loop, even though it didn’t interest me. I memorized what my friends told me so as to not forget it, and made sure to follow the conversations diligently.”
During elementary school, I’d find friends thanks to matching hobbies, even without having to put much effort into it. And if it was something piquing my interest, such as popular manga or anime, games, or other such things, I’d get all hyped about it with my friends.
But, once I went to junior high, our interests started to divert. Now everyone had one or two artists they liked, but there existed a plethora of artists to choose from. It had become quite difficult to find friends who shared the same hobbies as I.
It was still possible to become good friends, I think, just that building friendships had become more difficult, compared to my childhood.
“My reputation would drop, if my appearance was too slovenly, but if I put too much effort into it, some people would be triggered by it as well, so I was always looking for the right balance. And yet, I couldn’t achieve perfection. If I rejected a boy’s confession, I’d sometimes be hated by a girl who loved him. Yet, that was no reason to simply accept his confession. Things were constantly suffocating like that.”
There are good and bad parts about being a man, and the same probably applies to women as well. Chiyu drew jealousy upon her during her junior high period because she was cute and cool, and there was a time when she was bullied by some of the girls. She herself didn’t mind it, but because I knew my intervention would make things only worse, I felt very vexed over being unable to do anything for her.
“Because of that, I was surprised when I was able to befriend Shouko-chan after entering second grade. She’s a very openhearted girl and since she has no ulterior motives, I don’t need to overthink stuff when I’m with her.”
“Yeah, some people say one thing but think another thing, don’t they?”
“Yep. That’s why I wanted an 『Ability to detect lies』. I thought that I’d be tied to the social rules of the class even on this uninhabited island. I wanted to lead a good life among the other students, at the very least.”
Even if you have few friends or don’t belong to the top group in the class, you can enjoy your life. But, it’s a fact that many boys and girls worry about such things and I can also understand their feelings.
Shion is Shion, and she probably has some circumstances which led to her fussing over 『doing things skilfully』.
“Didn’t you also have the option to choose an ability which would allow you to survive well by yourself?”
“Hahaha, you’re a strong person, Sousuke-kun. But, being alone is hard, you know?”
“Well, you might be right, I guess.”
I had Chiyu with me from the start. Because of that I was able to keep at it without worrying unnecessarily and my heart didn’t break either.
“Also, I didn’t want an ability which would have been useful to everyone. I mean…it’d definitely lead to disaster.”
Being exploited as a handyman or people simply assuming that you’ll be using the ability for their sake anyway, huh? If she had the power to heal others, she’d be told to go around and heal even the slightest injury. If she could create useful things for living, she’d be flooded with requests. And if she could form a contract with mythical beasts, she’d be told to gather such mythical beasts.
We share a mindset of helping each other, but such perfect balance is fragile and can break at any time. If we join up with everyone from class, our current, comfortable atmosphere will likely disappear.
My current friends are thankful for my ability and I’m grateful to them as well. But, there are definitely people around, who don’t feel a shred of gratitude, and us joining up will likely give birth to some people treating us as tools.
Shion might have feared that and chosen an ability allowing her to work well within a group setting. Well, her plan got slightly derailed as the class was split up all over the place during the transfer.
“That’s also why I consider you to be truly amazing.”
“Back then I only thought about myself, though.”
Thinking it’s a dream, I simply chose whatever I wanted without caring about the atmosphere.
“But, you immediately grabbed Chiyu-chan’s hand, resulting in you two transferring together. On top of that, you not only helped each other as fellow childhood-friends, but accepted Shouko-chan and me as well. Even Shijiyo.”
“All of you are beauties, so I might only be acting to be the nice guy.”
“That’s a lie. You know that lies don’t work on me, right Sousuke-kun?”
Shion giggled cheerfully.
“Ah right, there was that.”
“Besides, there’s no falsehood to be found in your kindness. Except for times when you’re joking like just now, of course.”
“What’s going on? You’re making me embarrassed.”
“Sousuke-kun, you might be slightly perverted, but you don’t harbor any ulterior motives when facing others with kindness. I think that’s a very lovely trait.”
I somehow got what she was trying to say. If a beauty and a normal girl were to drop something, not a few boys would pick up the item for the beauty, but ignore the other. They aren’t genuinely kind, but only acting as if they’re kind while having secret motives.
“That’s not me being amazing, but my parents’ upbringing, I’d say.”
It’s something at the level of helping those who are in trouble in front of me.
“In that case, your gentle parents and you, who are observing their teachings, are both wonderful.”
What’s with this atmosphere? It’s oddly embarrassing.
“U-Umm, the milking…it seems like it’s almost done. I’ll 『Itemize』 it for the time being. Ah, do you want to secretly give the milk a try ahead of the others?”
I stored the milk Shion and I squeezed out, trying to change the mood, but…
“No, I think it can wait for later.”
Shion stood up, approached me, and then took my hand.
“S-Shion?”
“The bath is still set up, so should we head over?”
She pulled my hand towards the bath.
“What’s up? If you’re going to take a bath, I’ll heat up some water…”
“Hehe, look, Sousuke-kun, I think you get it after listening to my story, but I want this group to get along well. It’s a gather of nice people who won’t come up with nasty lies. Getting along well means I have to feel comfortable about staying here. Otherwise, I won’t be able to stop from feeling uneasy.”
“…If it’s about the difference in our abilities, you don’t need to worry. I’m sure that there will be times where we’ll need to rely on your ability.”
“True. But, right now I feel like I’m not contributing enough. At this rate, I’m going to receive too much. That’s why I have to repay as much as I can.”
Shion leaned against me and put her arm around my back.
“I got Chiyu-chan’s permission, you see? It’s fine. Us girls have already talked it over. Though, Shijiyo-san still doesn’t know about it, so we have to make sure she doesn’t find out.”
Was Chiyu’s remark based on her expecting such a development?
Shion looked up to me with moist eyes.
“I want you to let me be of use to you, Sousuke-kun.”
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