Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 16
Chapter 10: I was welcomed
“I-I’m sorry…”
“No no no, you did more than enough work.”
It was my first time swimming with clothes on, but somehow I managed to swim to the beach safely, and when I was squeezing the hem of my clothes, Uru who was shriveled as if she had been squeezed, started to apologize.
That’s was an accident, and if you think about the damage that the giant shark had caused if he landed, it was a pretty cheap price to pay, so there’s no need to apologize at all.
“That’s right, young lady!”
“Well done! Thank you!”
“It was amazing!”
The villagers who also swam to the sandy beach, without worrying about being soaked, raised their voices in gratitude towards Uru.
“I thought I was doomed… Thank you for helping me! You’re a good archer!”
When I was nodding with my arms crossed in praise of Uru, a voice called out to me as well.
If I look closely at his face, he looks like the villager who was being attacked by the shark on the boat just now. It seems that there was no particular injury. I’m glad that all ended fine in the end
However, Being praised make me feel good. Uhehe.
Beside me who is blushing from the praises, Uru’s eyes are blinking in confusion… Perhaps is she is not used to being complimented?
“Everyone, are you okay?”
When we were talking about the joy of overcoming the crisis without that much damage, an elderly man from the village ran up to us with the speed that made me worry about him falling over.
“Hey village chief, thanks to these girls, everyone is safe.”
Hmmm, Just when i thought he was wearing a little more luxurious clothes than the surrounding villagers, he was the village chief.
No, his clothes felt more than just luxurious, thas outfit is…
“Yes, even from village the people were also able to see your activities. Thank you very much for your efforts for our sake. It was the God of Creation’s guidance that you girls came at this timing.
I’ll prepare hot water, so please purify yourself. After that, even if is just a modest dinner please let me treat you all.”
“Eh, yes, i appreciate your offer.”
If you leave the seawater alone, it will become sticky, I am very grateful to be able to wash it away. So i decided to accept the offer.
Ah, but before that.
“This, could you please scatter this around this village and even if it’s just in shallow waters could you also scatter towards the sea?”
“This is… holy water? Is it okay to use something so precious…?”
I rummaged through the item box and took out several bottles of holy water, when I handed them to the village chief, he was very surprised and thanked me again.
Hmm, to holy water be precious huh… Well, to do this and that in this village is a work to tomorrow.
Well, here is the public bath of this village. It’s not that big because of the size of the village, but right now it’s a private space for me and Uru, so it’s spacious enough.
“Uhhhhh, It entered my eyes!”
“Hey, Uru, don’t rampage! If you don’t wash it properly, it will stiff later!”
I pour hot water over Uru’s head from behind many times with a wooden bucket and let the seawater flow down. Unfortunately, there is no soap (it seems that you normally just rub it off with a slightly rough cloth), so you can’t wash it thoroughly.
When I use my fingers like a comb in her hair, it went down smoothly without any big tangles. In this world, you wouldn’t be able to take good care of it, but you have pretty beautiful hair.
Putting that aside, I want a shower or a shampoo. But showers is one thing, but the shampoo…
I think it’s possible to make soap now that the restrictions have been loosened, but unfortunately I don’t know how to get the ingredients… how can I get caustic soda outside of a shop? Ah, can it be made from lime too? Also, I heard a story that you can make rinse with vegetable oil… hmmm.
“Unuu… Rion, not yet?”
“No, not yet. Next time I’ll wash the back.”
I rub it with a sponge made from a sea sponge material that I just a moment ago.
“Hyuu!? What are you doing!?”
“I’m just washing!”
“Ku, it tickled me… hyaaaa”
In the back of Uru who is making strange voices while twisting her body, I ran the sponge while rying not to think about unnecessary things as much as possible.
This facility doesn’t seem to have soundproofing equipment and I’m afraid I’ll be misunderstood if she continue to let out ‘That’ type of voices!
“Good, now the front you wash by yourself!”
“… haa haa… what is this?”
The sponge that i handed to her must be something she never seen before, she is playing with it in her hands while looking at it like it is a strange thing.
Then I just said ‘now you just rub your body with it’ and sat down on the next chair and tried to wash myself.
But.
“Bufu!?”
Hot water was poured over my head.
“This time I will do it for you!”
“No, no, I can—”
I couldn’t continue to say, I can do by myself.
“Don’t be noisy! this is my revenge!”
“Wait a minute!?”
I don’t dare to tell you what happened after that, but instead of resting my body, when I came out of the public bath due to exhaustion, the men’s eyes slightly averted from me, and the woman’s gently scolded me “Be a little more quiet”.
……Gununu.
It’s became evening, and normally everyone would be quiet and stay home…But hhanks to the holy water, there was no need to worry about monsters invading, and a large fire in the center of the village??a bonfire was set up, and it became the place of a banquet for all the villagers.
I didn’t understand what a good sake tasted like, but just as I expected from a fishing village the seafood was fresh and delicious. When i was expecting just salt as seasoning, but my expectations were betrayed, in a good way.
I was able to enjoy various flavors such as steamed sake, grilled herbs, and soup stock made with kelp and fish bones.
It is also good point that they have a wide variety of shellfish, crabs and shrimps, not just fish. But they doesn’t seem to have octopus, It’s either that they can’t catch it or they are treated like a devilfish, right?
The drunk villagers told us stories of their past bravery, and children asked us what we were doing before visiting here. ……I was mostly withdrawn in the plains, so it was difficult to bring it into a harmless conversation…….
The drunk people were quarantined to avoid getting involved with children, after listening to stories of hardships mixed with complaining from aunties, we had a lively cooking discussion and they accepted to later teach me some cooking recipes.
Before long, a small weight was placed on my shoulders.
Ah, oh my bad, it was so fun talking about making food that I left Uru alone for too long…?
I had seen her replying the questions of the children that approached her with sparkling eyes, but after that, she had completely disappeared from my mind.
“I-I’m sorry, Uru. Are you sleepy ?”
When I hurriedly checked her, she fell down on my lap.
“Uru!?”
“… I’m tired…”
Come to think of it, it’s almost time to go to bed. And Uru felt sluggish at night.
It might because she was using her full-power in the daytime, she is even more tired now. I should have paid her more attention and let her rest earlier…
“Excuse me, she seems to be tired, so I would like to rest for today, but is there is an inn or an empty house in the village?”
I picked up Uru and looked around the surroundings where a different type of commotion began.
I met the village chief’s eyes, but he bowed his head apologetically.
“I’m deeply sorry, I missed the arrangement for it. There is an empty house, but the cleaning is…”
“I’ll do something about it, so it’s okay. Please lend me that place!”
In the vacant house that I was guided to, I told Uru “Wait just a little longer” and entered the house.
Because it was rather troublesome to clean and the floor was more damaged than what i expected, I pulled the floorboards off and replaced them with the wooden boards that I took out of the item box. The walls, for the time being, I just pasted one a additional layer from the inside to cover them.
I made a cloth curtain for the wooden window, and also made a canopy of cloth to prevent the dust from falling from above.
And finally, I put a bed that was made as an extra in the center. As expected, there is no space to put it in the tent, but here there is enough space.
That’s how I finally put Uru to sleep, at the end I tried to say good night to the villagers, but…
“…don’t go…”
……If i’m begged by her with a weak voice like that I couldn’t just leave her side.
“…I understand. I’m sorry, I’ll be right here.”
I also chose to go to sleep here and gently stroked Uru’s head.
…… Well, the next morning, She was fine like always, I wonder what it really is that weakness?