Chapter 34
Days turned into weeks, and I took care of my fish husbandry all while watching the continuing development of my human neighbor. Evolved humans were different from normal humans. At least, comparing him to my previous world, he was probably stronger than my world’s strongest man, and the amount of stamina he showed was incredible. He could keep going and going from sun up to sun down. It was a three-day journey to town, so he would head to town, spend a single day with his family, and then head back. This guy did not rest.
True to his word, every time he returned from his trip, he would have a few fish for me. While in town, he would also buy and sell supplies. He mostly sold extra wood. So, not only did he cut wood down for his house, but he also had to fill his cart and sell it once a week. With whatever earnings he gained, he would buy the essentials he needed, rope, wax, or anything else he needed for his project. He never brought food. Everything he ate was scavenged from the forest. He set up various snares and would catch bunnies. I’d even seen him get a deer once. He’d smoke all the meat and then live off of it.
As the season wore on, he was starting to have trouble finding anything to catch. His supplies dwindled and he ran out of food. I didn’t make a point out of it because he left shortly after, heading back to town. He could buy food in town. That’s what I thought, but then one day his carriage returned, and he wasn’t driving it.
“Woah!”
The horse and carriage continued to move forward. They would have plowed directly into my pond if I hadn’t splashed water at the horse and caused him to stop. I spread out my senses and I realized that he was in the carriage, he had just passed out. I heard his stomach grumble, and I realized he hadn’t eaten much in the last week. Frowning slightly, I shot a stream of water at them. I didn’t care about humans, but this guy had a wife and family to worry about. If he died here, it’d be annoying living next to a decaying body.
He jerked up. “Huh? What?”
I threw a fish at his face, and it struck with a satisfying slap.
“I’m up! I’m up! Huh? Did I offend you?” The boy asked, still half asleep.
I chucked a few more fish onto the shore. As he looked down at them, he licked his lips.
“For me?”
I bubbled, and he immediately reached out a grabbed them. It was already close to sunset when he arrived, so he immediately made a fire. Usually, he’d camp up on the hill, but this time he did it right on the pond edge. I didn’t appreciate his horse crapping so close to my shore, but it wasn’t worth fretting about. I could forgive him this one night.
Now that he was close enough that my senses could make out details, I realized that once he put some firewood together, he waved his hand, and a small flame shot from it. I felt a strange sensation as he did so, and I recognized that sensation from back when I fought the kingfish. This was magic. He used mana to light the flames. I grew a bit excited, but I realized I couldn’t ask him any questions, so that dulled my excitement. At least, I knew magic existed in this world.
Once the fish were sizzling over the fire and he devoured a few of them, he walked up to me, an appreciative look on his face.
“It seems that you’ve saved my life again. The nobles have begun another war, and some soldiers took all of my firewood for themselves. I had no money, so I gave everything I had to my wife and daughter. I was hoping I could make the journey back until I could hunt again, but I overestimated myself.”
I remained silent. There wasn’t much to say. The fish weren’t that important to me. I had given him the small, sickly, and old ones. He had given me a random assortment of fish, but after observing them I knew which ones I would breed and which ones had no value. Handing them to him cost me nothing.
“I’m sorry I took some of your fish. I didn’t bring you any this time either. However, I did bring something I hope makes up for it.”
He pulled out a bottle. It took me a few moments to realize what it was, but as soon as I saw it, my interest immediately peaked.
“This bottle… my father gave it to me before he…” He stopped for a second. “I planned to drink it the day I got revenge. I think, though… I’d rather share it with you. I heard water spirits enjoy things like wine. Would you be interested in sharing?”
I immediately created some bubbles. My stepfather had soured me quite a bit on alcohol. I was never the party type, but that didn’t mean I was a prude. I did drink alcohol in college. No Playboy would be successful without at least a little bit of alcohol involved. This also looked like a good wine. At the least, I had never tried wine in this world, and I was curious.
Now, I had Fermentation as a skill, so I could create alcohol on my own. However, there was a big difference between pure ethanol and alcohol produced. After my confirmation, Tanner nodded and then got two glasses. He poured the wine out evenly in each. Lifting the pair, he gave a cheer, and then while sipping from his cup, he poured another into my water. I made a simile of a mouth and tongue and used it to capture the beverage. In that way, I was able to enjoy the drink.
This gave me another idea, and I began to use the Fermentation skill as well. My entire pond started to grow in alcoholic content. As he exchanged sips and poured the rest into the pond, I produced enough alcohol to fill my pond. I started to get a pleasing buzzed feeling. If I had known I could do this, I might have just become drunk long ago. Well, I was making the fish drunk too.
“I envy you in some ways,” Tanner spoke after having a few drinks, his tongue loosened a bit. “You don’t have to worry about the ways of man. This is a world where strength is what matters. Everyone tries to evolve, so they can then bully those weaker than them. The nobles have all the resources, and they use them to surpass the mortals. Then, powerful noble families suppress weaker families. And even the nobles are suppressed by the royal family.”
I bubbled, encouraging him to pour more liquor in, which he did.
“I could have taken those soldiers. They only had one evolved, and he was a low-rank evolved. However, I’m not there to protect my wife. She’s only a high-rank mortal and my daughter… If they went after them, or worse, discovered who I was… I had to act weak.” He made a face.
I bubbled in agreement, although I didn’t have that much of an opinion on what he said. He didn’t speak too much after that. By the time the bottle was finished, Tanner was passed out, lying on his back, his face toward the stars.
I thought back to all the clues I had about him. Someone had killed his father. No, his entire family had been hunted down to extinction. He was an evolved human, but his enemies were still stronger than that. He fled assassins with a wife and child, eventually managing to fake their deaths. Now, he was starting new having lost everything.
Did he envy me? Hmm… there was nothing worth envy. We both had different lives, but we struggled all the same. Life was strange that way, causing two completely unalike people to meet at a pond in the middle of nowhere. He was hopeful and optimistic even after everything he had lost. Maybe a wife and daughter would do that to you. I wouldn’t know. I had no intention of leaving my bitter life of solitude.
I squirted water on the fire, putting it out before the fish he had left on the flame became nothing more than charcoal. Then, I leaned my consciousness back, and looked up at the stars, copying the few he had. I still didn’t have senses as good as a human, but I could make out the stars well enough. There was little light pollution here, and the starry sky was very beautiful. I had never taken any astronomy lessons, and I didn’t know enough about the sky to know if it was drastically different than my old world.
I slowly processed the alcohol while watching the stars above and the drunken fish darting around below. I disliked most of what humanity brought, but I didn’t hate this.
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