Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

45 – The Price of Environmental Destruction (1)

Dawn breaks.

To see the sun is a miracle. So many people close their eyes without seeing tomorrow. Even now, someone somewhere in this world is probably dying. So we must live harder.

I yawned and got up. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I fiddled with my canteen, remembering what happened yesterday. Come to think of it, I had set up a desalination plant, hadn’t I?

I shuffled my feet. The thought of drinking water at the faucet and having a quick wash put a goofy grin on my face.

But then, a problem arose.

There was a visitor.

Even in the dim light, her golden eyes shone brightly, staring at me. The woman shook her head. Her wet black hair shimmered as it moved.

The Valkyrie of the White Lotus Unit, Rachel Brokenheart. She had woken up first and was washing her face.

“…Mage?”

“You’re up early. Did you sleep well?”

I waved my hand lightly. Her hesitant hand followed suit. After that awkward greeting, we continued the conversation.

“So, how does it feel using a water system on a deserted island?”

“This thing, you mean?”

The Valkyrie chuckled.

“Disassembled. But good. Thanks to you, we don’t need to worry about drinking water or showers anymore.”

“I made it half for you.”

“What, me?”

Valkyrie pointed at herself, wearing a puzzled look. I nodded.

“You always sweat after a fight. You don’t clean up properly before sleeping, so your body breaks down every chance it gets.”

Lately, I’ve been focusing on Valkyrie again. I can communicate with the Saintess, so even if misunderstandings occur, we can quickly resolve them. And because I spend a lot of time with the Beastman Engineer during the day, we’re becoming close quickly.

In the short term, the Beastman is a variable, but in the long run, Valkyrie is the biggest problem.

That woman tried to kill me with a clear purpose that day. Just remembering that killing intent makes my skin crawl. I didn’t want to go through that same thing twice.

“Even if we escape, you have to escape healthy. If you go back weak, it’ll be useless, right?”

“……”

“Take care of yourself.”

Valkyrie narrowed her eyes. She stood in front of me with a sulky expression. And then,

“Ah, cold!”

She splashed water on my face with all ten fingers.

“……Hmph.”

Valkyrie briskly walked past me. I could only stare blankly as she walked away.

“Is this right…?”

[‘A woman’s heart.’]

[‘Is like a reed swaying in the wind.’]

She really is the most difficult. I just can’t understand her.

Thinking I should wash myself, I turned on the water and took off my clothes. I was doing a backwash while lying down when I heard hiccups not far away.

I turned off the water and stood up.

“……Hiccup.”

“Mr. Caston.”

“……”

“I saw everything, so please come out now.”

From behind the rock, matted silver hair slowly revealed itself.

“Hey.”

“Yes, wh-what is it?”

“Are you really the Saintess?”

Cherry blossoms scattered from the morning.

*

After that, the Engineer and I built this and that. Our passion didn’t wane.

“Now that we’ve finished the capital, let’s build a wooden fence!”

We brought thick pieces of wood and placed them densely around the base.

Groundwork? Leveling?

No time for any of that. It’s not like we’ll be here long.

“We’ll need a roof to block the rain, too?”

We made a frame with bamboo and filled the upper part with palm leaves. We meticulously applied mud and sap from the trees to keep the rain from leaking in.

“Tadaa, our nest is complete!”

And with that, our house was built.

Well, it’s actually kind of shabby to call it a house. But still, I think we built pretty well for a deserted island.

[‘If you were looking for shelter from the wind and rain, finding a cave would have been several times more efficient.’]

[‘David, if everyone thought like you, humanity would have lived in caves from the beginning. As humans, shouldn’t we be able to endure some discomfort for a better life?’]

Anyway, the basic facilities were all in place. Not lavish, but not lacking either.

In that sense, I felt grateful for the Engineer. Life had become much easier since she joined.

Now that the quality of life had improved, it was time to focus on exploration.

“We need to go deep into the forest. We need to see where the leader is.”

I told the Saintess my intention. She nodded in agreement.

The four of us split into pairs. An exploration team and a foraging team, two people each.

The exploration team would be me and the Engineer. The Engineer’s eyes and ears were advantageous for scouting, and I could hear and understand it if the monsters used Whispers.

From a combat perspective, this made sense too. The Engineer and I could protect ourselves, but not the Saintess. She would need to stay close to the strongest Valkyrie among us to protect herself.

“You two, don’t go too deep just to gather food.”

“We know. We’re not that reckless. But what if you guys run into trouble going deep?”

“We’ll mark the trees along the paths we take. If we don’t return by sundown….”

“That’s too uncertain.”

The Saintess suddenly put her hand on my shoulder. She stretched up on tiptoes, struggling a little.

“Face, lower your face.”

“…What is this all of a sudden?”

“Quickly.”

I did as she said for now. The Saintess placed her forehead against mine. For a moment, I felt like my heart stopped. Our faces were so close.

“Don’t move.”

Close enough to hear each other breathe.

I was forehead to forehead with the saint for a while. I knew what she was trying to do, so I didn’t question it further.

After a moment, the saint pulled away. Both of her cheeks were flushed, like bleeding hearts.

“I memorized your mana signature. As long as you don’t stray too far, it’s okay now.”

Mana signature.

I’d heard that high priests of the Holy Order had a holy magic technique to memorize and track mages’ mana signatures for a certain period of time. They used to hunt witches easily with this method…

“Am I, perhaps, the hunted now?”

“Yes, try to run away. I will find you. No matter where you are.”

The saint replied triumphantly. I laughed with her, and raised my left hand. And then.

*Thwack!*

I flicked her forehead with my finger.

The saint let out a short, high-pitched shriek. She covered the spot she’d been hit with her hand. Her pretty eyes were tinted orange.

“Hiii, wh-what do you think you’re doing?”

“Says the person who peeped while I was taking a bath, talking about romance?”

“What’s the problem? Did I say something wrong? Huh?!”

“There are nuances. You should learn Hazkail better.”

“You’re arrogant! You should learn Ascalia instead! I’ll teach you anytime! You idiot! One-language user!”

“Sure, why not.”

“……Huh?”

“I’ll start learning from you this evening. Is that a promise?”

The Saint’s face went blank.

I grabbed my magic stones and tools, turning to leave. Before departing, I showed the Saint and Valkyrie the entry route, and we said our goodbyes.

The Valkyrie just waved a hand, expressionless. I thought she was still sulking this morning, but apparently not.

“Mage, let’s move it.”

The sapper tapped my shoulder with a wrench, a signal to hurry.

Exploration time.

The fighting style wasn’t much different from before. Hack down the tree monsters scattered within the forest with my axe, that’s all there was to it.

We kept going deeper, taking down the creatures that appeared.

“It’s a place we always pass through.”

A bamboo forest.

[‘Sparse, isn’t it.’]

[‘Like Professor Strogan’s head, you mean?’]

[‘Now now….’]

We had used a lot of bamboo the past few days. It was a useful material, in many ways.

Not today’s goal, though.

Deeper, we go deeper.

I marked the surrounding terrain as we moved. No telling how vast this island might be, so I steadily kept an eye on the sun’s position.

“Bamboo forest is followed by the pine forest, and after the pine forest…”

“…”

“Hey, doesn’t something feel off?”

The forest’s colors shifted in an instant.

Past the pine grove, there was a wisteria forest. But each wisteria was a murky black.

[‘This doesn’t feel good.’]

[‘Let’s explore a little more, and if it doesn’t feel right, it’s best to pull back immediately.’]

It would be right to listen to David and Karon’s advice.

Then, the engineer grit her teeth.

“There are monsters nearby. Lots of them. We either turn back or push through. We have to choose.”

Obviously, I couldn’t understand what she meant. But given that she, with her strong detection abilities, was showing signs of alarm, it was true that we needed to be cautious.

Sure enough.

Barely a few steps further, a chilling voice echoed in my ears.

[“Hehehehehe.”]

Not one or two. At least three or four.

I won’t be fooled this time. That’s not the utterance of a human. This island is deserted. It must be the demonic voice of intelligent monsters.

I looked up at the sky. It felt like only two hours had passed since we left the base, but the sun was already high in the sky.

The passage of time is strange.

[“You noticed?”]

[“Now that you’ve noticed, we can’t let you leave any more.”]

I signaled to the engineer. We needed to retreat.

The moment I turned to go back, the path we had taken was gone.

“Huh?”

“Shit.”

Gigantic vines had taken the place where they’d been.

Ssssst.

Figures that looked like humans made of wood emerged from the vines. They had forms close to that of a woman’s nude body.

Their hair was covered in leaves, and their limbs resembled old dead trees. Only their torsos were like humans. They blocked the retreat.

[“Where do you think you’re going?”]

[“You’re not getting out.”]

[“You’re trapped here now.”]

The tree monsters giggled. The creature at the very front stepped closer, speaking.

[“Oh, don’t you know? The moment you set foot in our dryad territory, that’s it for you.”]

[“Here we go again.”]

At my murmur, the dryads, or whatever they were, widened their eyes.

[“Oh my, you can speak the mantra language! Could you be one of us?”]

[“I don’t care. Ever since these things showed up, a lot of our comrades have been sacrificed.”]

[“How dare you take an axe to our kin… We can never forgive this. You’ll have to be remade, in the number of comrades you killed.”]

The monsters raised their arms. Their hands, which had been entangled like kudzu roots, slowly unfurled, aligning themselves into sharp, needle-like points.

[“What should we do?”]

[“The beast-b*tch is worthless. Kill her and turn her into fertilizer, let’s just offer the man to Him.”]

[“Of course, after making her bear our child first?”]

The lead creature yelled.

[“Kill the females and rape the males!”]

No sooner had the words finished than the tree monsters rose up all at once and began to charge.