CH 9

The heat made her skin wet with sweat since the season changed from the rainy season to summer. Shizuko’s workload didn’t decrease, rather, her workload was only rising rapidly.

“It’s hot…”

Shizuko hydrated herself with the water from a flask made of bamboo as she said so.

She felt like she wants to bath in the cold water and forget everything. She would really do it if there was no one around her. It was a bit different feeling from splashing water on one’s head but unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed to do such a thing. Since they were building a bathhouse as strong as a fortress in front of her. What’s more, Shizuko was the construction overseer, a position where she couldn’t run playing and forgetting everything.

“There is a terrible feeling of being out of place when there is such a tough building in the village but… well, that is fine”

No matter how gorgeous the hot spring was, there was a terrible feeling of it being out of place with the surrounding buildings that it would only make the hot spring suspicious. So Shizuko advised them to do the same thing to the surrounding houses. The result was, she got permission and the village houses were completely renovated. The house became neater and it was generally popular among the villager but Wittmann seemed that he couldn’t calm down in the new house. So Shizuko went out with him basking in the sun.

“Ah, I should start hunting deer soon”

Even if it was said that she was the overseer, she only had to decide what to do in the morning and it wouldn’t be necessary for her to anything after that. It wouldn’t be a problem to leave her problem for tomorrow since she was different than the villagers who have to struggle desperately. It could be said that it was the only thing that Shizuko can be thankful about and she was really grateful for that.

“Let’s start the preparation…”

Shizuko returned to her house while muttering so. There was no Wittmann there but Shizuko thought that he would be in the river’s vicinity so she began to prepare.

She didn’t take anything special even if she said she would do a preparation. She brought a water flask made from bamboo for water supply, a knife for blood draining, a hemp rope for capturing the prey, whistle for giving orders to Wittmann, and a crossbow for hunting. There were several reasons why she brought a crossbow but not a bow that was created as a tool for hunting and used later as a weapon.

The problem with a bow was that it’s power depended on how far a human could draw the string. However, for a crossbow, it had a device and mechanism such as a lever and hoist gear that could be used in conjunction with the structure. It was possible to use a bow which has a problem with requiring human power to draw it by using this mechanism. It also made it easier to aim by attaching a sight to the base. And it could raise further the accuracy of the crossbow which originally already has a high accuracy. One of its advantages was the training period to be able to use crossbow was shorter than a bow. It also didn’t need to require a craftsmen’s skill compared to a bow and it was fine even if it was created with a simple structure/framework.

On the other hand, its ability to do rapid fire was lost because of its structure. However, rapid fire was considered unnecessary since the foundation of hunting was to certainly kill it in one hit. Moreover, its power was weak even if it was treated under the category of weapons available in the modern era and it would be a fine weapon in the Sengoku period if even a gun was treated a valuable article.

To conclude, crossbow advantages were there was almost no shooting sound, it was possible to launch even without bullets, it could be created at low cost and at a high reliability, it was lightweight as it made from wood only, easy to maintain and repair, able to be  used with a little practice, its accuracy was high within a hundred meters, and those  were only the points she could mention of. On the other hand, the disadvantages were it couldn’t be used for shooting from a long distance, rapid fire was impossible, its power couldn’t be more than the fixed amount, and its strength was lower than metal.

Shizuko’s reason to choose crossbow rather than a bow was because of its relatively ease of use and her impression that it was easy handling a horizontal shooting. She didn’t have much skill to handle a bow to begin with. That being the case, it was easier to shoot with an image similar to shooting with military pachinko. Even so, people had to practice well to be ready to use it since you still needed practice several times sometimes. She was able to shoot a still enemy within dozens of meters thanks to the practice.

“As one would expect of masseter muscle power from a 180kg wolf…”

Shizuko was impressed at Wittmann who completely ate up the fawn in a flash.

The dismantled deer meat was cut into a moderate size and distributed to the villagers. It was the so-called “sharing a portion of the profit with others” deed. It would be resulted in improving the villager’s nutrition and raised their motivation. There was no reason for the hunting to always succeed the most, it couldn’t be done unless hunting for several days or you could say it as a continuous session. And it wasn’t possible to always meet a deer. They would notice your smell immediately if you were unluckily in the downwind position. And the hunting wouldn’t be a success either if you didn’t notice the deer before them even if you were in the upwind position.

“I wonder where is your partner?”

Shizuko who lied down on the floor talked to Wittmann. It was Wittmann who stared at Shizuko with a strange expression at first but he immediately faced away whether it was because of he lost his interest or not.

(he must be an individual who was brought from a cold region judging from his size. Though I think that someone brought male and female as a set~)

Of course, she couldn’t deny the possibility of the wolf being dead. Since Wittmann was in almost dying state when she found him. It was sure that he will die if Shizuko didn’t help him. In the first place, wolves had a low success rate at ten percent even if they hunt in packs. Moreover, the success rate became less than one percent if they were alone.

“Did it survived by eating animal carcasses or did it really die… Is there really a female individual in the first place. Arghh no no”

No answer would come out even if she thought about it so she shook her head to clear those thinking. The answer would come out eventually, that was the conclusion she always has.

“Tomorrow will soon come too, so it is time to sleep”

She spread out the sleeping mat, took off her kimono and used it as a bed cover.

“Well, good night, Wittmann”

As soon as she said so, she got into a deep sleep after ten seconds.

Early August, the time for summer season became full-scale. It was the time to harvest tomatoes, pumpkins, and sweet corns except sweet potatoes and sugarcanes. The villagers worked hard to grow the vegetables but they felt a bit unpleasant when eating them because they never saw those foods.

“Hmm, the tomato is so-so. The pollinisation is good and it has a nice size since we pluck off the lateral bud. Isn’t it will be edible before long?”