Thank you to all Patrons!
Aiji S., Alex, Alexander P., Bakadeathly, Ben I., BigZak, Brben, Chocolat, Chowok11, Christian S., Code_Vio, Corey, Daniel B., Daniel L., David G., Deguaro, DKLA, Dragoncamper, Gabriel C., Jakers, Jason, Jaycob T., Jealyn L., John V., Jones, Joseph A., Kaichu, Kiriaky, Luis D., Luther S., Malinkat, Maverun, Max, Myla, Ograf, Omniamore, operaa, Otto E., Pao Y., Scott M., Sean D., Shaun, SK, Soomin B., Taiyou D., Tenkkun, Tim N., TsuTsu, Tuan N., Urko M. M., Will B., William H., XxChemical_fire, YMK, and Z!
Secret Base
I cover the surroundings of a roughly woven round cage with a thin cloth. I prepare 2 long wooden sticks and attach them to the left and right of the cage. The sticks should be crossed. That part will be the handle. I also need a wooden board as the lid and another wooden stick to support it. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
At present, this was my lifeline. With the feeble strength of a 2-year-old kid, I push the cage close to the wall. And then, I gently tap near the insect resting on the wall.
Due to the stimulation, the insect only has two options to respond. Whether to move away or stay. It might sound obvious but both are rational actions appropriate for the goal of survival. You need to move and get out of the way if danger is approaching. However, it will be easier for your natural enemy to notice you the more you move around recklessly. And the insect shows an extreme response as if turning on a switch, regardless of whichever act they choose.
This insect is a little lazy. Or maybe because it’s getting colder lately. No matter the reason, even though someone was tapping right behind it with a stick, the insect only climbed a few steps on the wall and stopped moving. But, that would be a problem for me. It needs to move at least 10 centimeters more. I try poking it once more. Please don’t fly away and leave.
Although it looked annoyed, the insect moved its legs with a rustle and went into the cage. Now. I close the gap between the cage and the board and slam it onto the floor. I check the insect situation inside the cage through the thin cloth wrapping the cage. It’s not moving still. It’s impossible not to get surprised by the sudden impact but it’s precisely because it's in this situation that the insect is motionless. But, that could be fatal.
I put a different thin cloth on top of the cage and gently lifted it up. Then I put my hand to try to grab the insect inside but.....at this time, the insect made a complete change from its previous action and chose to run away with all its strength. However, I have also anticipated that. It tries to slip away from the place where the cage is being lifted, and as far away from my hand as possible. But, there is a soft cloth covering above the insect so it will have nowhere to escape to if I just cover its surroundings with my hand.
And just like this, the insect immediately get caught in the cloth. I did it. But, it is still too early to be happy. I look left and right. After checking again that there is no one around me ,I gently open the lid covering a square cage at my feet. And I immediately throw the insect I just caught into it and close it.
This is my first hunt in a long time. I feel a little happy somehow.
Under the shade of trees by the riverbank away from my house, I have a 「Secret Base」. Though I said ‘Secret Base’, it doesn’t have great equipment or anything. I brought a small pot from my house and a stove made from stacked stones. There’s also dry wood chips piled up in a place elevated from the ground. I also laid out a cover made using grass and tree branches above to protect it from some wind and rain. This is also a form of camouflage in case some adults come to this area. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
It’s slightly dim inside this base, so I take out the captured insects from the small square-shaped cage and move it into the several other large cages. While doing that, I especially don’t forget to pluck off the legs of any carnivorous insects. I don’t want them to eat each other if possible. I’m not gathering them as part of my collection or anything, but I’m going to kill them anyway, so I just want to be practical about it. Incidentally, considering my final objective, their legs are nothing but a hindrance.
After I finish this series of actions, I once again become vigilant of my surroundings. The sun is already setting and it is getting dark. Is there anyone passing by? None. Yosh.
I reach out for the earliest among the several cages. Several insects are rolling inside the cage. They are starving and listless since I just kept them inside without giving them food. Even if they try to escape or eat each other, they have no legs.
I pick up a few of them. And then, I throw them into the small pot. After getting roughly the amount of a single rice bowl, I close the cage. Then I pour in water into the bowl and stir it roughly, drowning the insects. At the same time, it also serves to clean up the dirt and filth. After throwing the water, I pour fresh river water.
Then I take the prepared thin, dry piece of wood chips, and strike flints against each other. At first, I thought it would be enough if I just hit them with each other and get a spark. But after careful research, I found out that rather than by rubbing them together, the trick is to do it in a scraping motion,n just like striking a match to light a fire.
Once the fire is lit, first transfer the fire to dry leaves, then followed by twigs and small woods chips. Place the pot ontop of the stone stove and heat it from underneath with the fire. I added just a little bit of salt, but I brought it from home, so I can only take a little.
Just a little more....then, driven by impatience, I suddenly came back to my senses. What if I get caught in this situation now? I turned toward the exit of my base and looked outside. It was fine.
After a while, the insects were completely boiled. I take out my fork - with a dull shine - and scoop up a single insect from the pot. A cockroach was lying on the fork facing upwards, with all its legs severed and stiff. For a second, a physiological feeling of disgust wells up in me, but I turned to the side, closed my eyes, and let it pass. And then, I put it in my mouth in one go.
Don’t think of anything. Just, chew. Chew. Chew. Solely chew it. Then swallow it. Something gets stuck in my throat. I wash it away with water. Yosh. Next.
At first, I ate it while telling myself It’s a shrimp, a small shrimp. But, perhaps it’s because of that I ended up unconsciously looking for something shrimp-like in the insect I ate, which ended up focusing on the difference, and I am forced to face the reality that I am eating a cockroach. And it’s not just once or twice that I vomit out this valuable food. The best thing is not to think of anything.
But still, once I start eating, it is always the intense feeling of hunger that wins over. Although I should still avoid being careless even after I finish eating. Since I’mg going to impulsively vomit out everything when I remember what I was eating.
Incidentally, I removed the legs so it will improve safety when eating them. Most insects have spines at the tip of their legs. Especially their hind legs, it is common for them to have countless sharp ones. Even in my previous life, there are stalls selling insect dishes in southeast asian countries, but the ordinary person would eat them without removing the insects’ hind legs, resulting in the inside of their mouth getting stabbed all over and experiencing a lot of pain.
It looks like I can eat them safely until the end tof oday too. I rinse my mouth with water once more. It’s so there are no traces of having eaten something. Then I wash the pot and fork with the remaining water. I hold out my hands over the dying fire to warm myself. What to do once the fire goes out?
I didn’t go home yesterday. So, should I return home today? What’s important is a balanced action.
I still don’t know the situation back home, as usual. Only, there were no order in the villag since that day. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
After the village chief returned without his donkey, he didn’t try to go to the lord’s castle anymore. It’s understandable since he got a serious injury, but I think they should have sent another representative.
There hasn’t been any progress at all regarding the matter of selling off the village girls. I saw the mother-daughter pair parting reluctantly, but both of them had vacant expressions. Being able to be together despite being in a difficult situation.....there was not the slightest hint of joy in them.
The collective management of food was also up in the air. On the contrary, no one even tried to work anymore. Even if they started to move, that was only to go to the nearby woods trying to find something to eat.
Occasionally, the young men in the village were kicking up a fuss. They usually sneak out of the village in the middle of the night. But, most of the time, they never came back as they were.
I wonder what happened? I don’t know. What I know is that the reality that right now this Linga village is suffering from famine.
Lately, I try to go home once every two or three days. Why not every day you ask? That is to deceive the eyes of my parents and the adults around.
Even if I’m at home, my parents don’t give me any food. I tried begging them while crying, but they completely ignored me. Even the villagers’ responses were similar. So, I realized that I have to obtain food on my own.
However, all food that caught the eyes of the adults was seized by them, I have no allies in this village. That means I had no other choice but to scavenge for things that no one would even try to eat.
Of course, I tried to eat something different at first. But, I didn’t have any knowledge to gather edible wild plants or fruits. Above all, I lack the physical strength to take down wild animals.
But even so, I am still continuing my effort to obtain the blessing of nature from the mountain. I secretly followed the adults when they made their way into the mountain, checking what kinds of things they are collecting and such. However, at this stage, most of the food that can be obtained in this way has already been consumed.
For better or worse, I have some knowledge on how to cook. So, I could make use of the food that is abundant around me but went unnoticed by the adults. In short, insects. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
This is surprisingly nothing to be sneezed at. Insects are highly nutritious as they are high in protein and low in fat. Moreover, they are surprisingly high in calories. How pitiful it is for the villagers to be trapped by the belief that insects - of all things - are not food. But, I’ve been abandoned like this so I have no obligation to tell everyone about this. At most I can just suffer just like the Greenland’s Vikings who starved to death while being surrounded by plenty of fish meat.
No matter the shape, it’s a good thing to be able to obtain food, but there were also problems with that. My parents are not giving me any food. And yet I am still alive. If you think about it normally, this is strange. Once they started having doubts, there was the risk of my secret base being found out and all my saved-up food being completely snatched away. That’s why, whenever I return to the village, I pretend to beg for food. Although I didn’t get any food even after doing that, the villagers will be under the assumption that it was how I survived.
That’s why I don’t go back home every day. It was to make them imagine I might be sneaking into other people’s home without permission.
For the time being, this approach was working well. However, thinking about the future makes me very anxious.
It is now the end of autumn. It’s starting to get harder to find any insects. I happened to get a big catch today, but that was surely because winter is approaching and insects are swarming into the barn, which is at least somewhat warmer than the outside.
Once winter starts in this situation what will I even have to eat? It is said that animals like deer eat tree bark when they are starving in winter but I wonder if humans can do that too?
I look at my hands and feet. Such a terrible sight for children this age. I’ve become emaciated, and my body is all sinew. I have hardly any fat and only a little muscle.
It’s been 2 years and a few months since I arrived in this world. I no longer have any hopes or dreams. All I have are anger and despair. My life was always poor, it was painful. The people around me are always cold to me. What’s more, there was no sign of the anticipated psychic ability awakening. I should have ignored the story from that man calling himself god or something.
What I’m concerned about right now is how I will fare after death, which will surely come before long. I wonder if I will be able to retain my memories just like that time? If not, would I be silently swallowed up by that purple group and being reborn again as something else? How can I stay in that place permanently this time?
Even though I only thought about what happens after death like that, actually, I am struggling every day to survive. It was a contradiction, even if I say so myself. I should have died if I didn’t want to suffer. In the end, I don’t know whether it’s better for me to die or continue living, no, to begin with, I don’t even know if I could live or not.
Deep within the stone pile, the small red flame quietly went out.
It’s about time to go home. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
Previous Chapter - TOC - Next Chapter
I started using ko-fi again, although it is still not completely filled.. And will also post this novel over there
In case you don't like the blogspot (this website settings or color) you can go there instead
You can visit the ko-fi page here
No comments:
Post a Comment