CH 5

Chapter 5: How to obtain clean water?

Translator: yuzu

+ + +

Luya felt exhausted and sore all over. She slept very lightly, woke up intermittently throughout the night, and had many fitful dreams.

Finally, the second day arrived!

In the early morning, she woke up with a parched mouth. This volcano seemed to be dormant, and it was fairly cold towards the peak, but it was still quite warm by the dragon. When she woke, up the red dragon was still curled up, snoring with its eyes closed.

Luya couldn’t help but stare at the red dragon for a long while. Its torso was majestic and awe-inspiring. Judging from its strong build, she figured it must have been a young dragon. Its back and neck were covered with dark red scales, which shimmered with a faint luster. She sighed, thinking to herself that this dragon was a magnificent creature. It was fearsome and terrifying, but she couldn’t help but admire it. Perhaps this was the unique charm of dragons.

Of course, Luya didn’t have the guts to touch the dragon. She didn’t want to die. She was weak from dehydration, so after hesitating for a bit, she ended up taking a bottle of wine from the dragon’s treasure hoard. She opened the bottle cap and took a big gulp from it.

Although this was a bit too Russian, she really needed to rehydrate herself.

Holding the wine bottle in one hand and dragging the greatsword in the other, Luya continued to drink as she walked towards the cave’s entrance. In this post-apocalyptic world, the morning light was a murky crimson color, and it wasn’t refreshing at all. When she exited the cave, she saw that yesterday’s Shiba Inu was still there. It seemed unhurt, just a bit exhausted as it laid on the ground, tongue lolling outside and panting.

“You’re still alive.”

Luya was quite surprised when she saw the Shiba Inu. This dog was afraid to enter the dragon’s lair, but it had stayed outside all night. The dead tree that the dragon lit on fire had burned out long ago, yet somehow it managed to survive the undead in the darkness… it really wasn’t an ordinary dog.

Of course, Luya knew that there was no way for a regular dog to survive this far into the Dark Age. It was probably unique somehow, although right now she had no way of knowing.

Seeing her stroll out of the cave, the Shiba Inu also looked shocked, as if it couldn’t believe that she came out of a dragon’s lair alive.

Seeming to understand, Luya spoke: “Even though neither of us have any idea how the other survived the night, today is a new day. Let’s work hard to live! Oh, by the way, are you thirsty?”

She noticed that the dog was staring at the wine bottle in her hand. Luya immediately shook her head and said, “No, you can’t. Dogs can’t drink wine, and it’ll hurt you. You might as well drink your own pee.”

The dog gave Luya a vicious look, and Luya could tell that it must have been very thirsty. But right now they were on a volcano, close to the peak, so there were no other sources of water aside from the sulfur springs. She didn’t dare stray too far from the dragon’s territory, so finding a method to distill water was their best option.

Luya searched her brain. It would be way too difficult to make a proper distillation apparatus in this environment. She remembered that the easiest way to distill something was with a chicken steamer pot1. As long as there was water underneath, it was possible to steam a bowl of soup.

“So I’ll dig some clay, and make a simple container to hold water.”

Luya set a goal for herself. She wanted to have drinkable water by the end of the day, so she chugged the remainder of the half bottle of wine in one gulp. She picked up the very light sword and headed off to dig.

Luya didn’t dare walk too far, so she picked a nearby patch of land that was suitably damp to excavate.

The Shiba Inu also followed, and when Luya was about to start digging, it sat down beside her and watched her work like a supervisor.

“No, wait a minute.”

Luya seemed to suddenly remember something. She put the sword down and started to take off her clothes.

Shiba Inu: !!!

“Even though my clothes are already dirty and tattered, it will be too hard to wash them if I get mud all over my body. Anyhow, there’s nobody around, so it doesn’t matter if I’m wearing clothes or not. I might as well work naked.”

Luya was talking to herself, and the Shiba Inu was rendered speechless. It shifted away and averted its eyes from Luya’s body. It looked even more depressed at this point.

It really was such a strange dog. Luya glanced at the Shiba Inu and ignored it. After stripping naked, she officially started to get to work.

She couldn’t help but remark that the sword that she found in the dragon’s lair really was a good sword. Even though it was weirdly shaped, it sliced into the ground easily, kind of like cutting tofu. Sure enough, the dragon didn’t collect useless garbage. She was too rushed before going to bed last night, so she ought to examine the dragon’s treasury more carefully later on.

After reaching a layer of yellow clay, Luya put the sword aside. She spread some clay over her skin to prevent getting sunburns, and began to make pottery underneath the sun.

Pottery making was more difficult than she thought. As someone who only watched Li Ziqi videos2 yet had zero real life experience, attempting to make real pottery killed her. Luya spent an enormous amount of effort to mold only a few pots. The pots were asymmetrical and ugly, but thankfully the bottoms were flat. They were shoddy products, but they would be fine as long as they didn’t leak. She created a steamer based on what she remembered of chicken steamer pots, and then made a base. After it seemed like she was pretty much done, she ran back to the dragon’s lair, and made a request to the red dragon who had already woken up.

“In short, can you breathe some fire and help me bake some things?”

She remembered that pottery needed to be fired at a temperature of at least 1000°C. In this place, the easiest way to fulfill these conditions was to count on the dragon’s fire. When she suggested her idea apprehensively3, the red dragon immediately stood up and crawled out of the lair.

It really does everything that I ask… Luya thought to herself in surprise.

Luya brought the dragon to her pottery-making site. Even though she didn’t say much, the dragon intuitively understood her. When the dragon started breathing fire, the dog ran far away. After a short while, her pottery was finished. It was a pile of freshly baked yet horrendously ugly pottery jars, pots, and plates — the biggest jar could even be used for bathing.

After helping Luya fire the pottery, the red dragon spread its wings and flew away. Meanwhile, Luya got to work. She chopped some firewood, used the burning embers leftover from the dragon’s breath to start a fire, placed a pot of hot spring water on the base, and then used the chicken steamer pot to start distilling water.

She hoped that this would solve her drinking water problem. Something like this would probably work?

It would take around an hour or two to boil a pot of water. In the meantime, Luya decided to take a bath using hot spring water.

Consequently, Luya began to pour hot spring water into the biggest pottery tub. After filling about half of the tub, she waited for the water to cool down. Then she slowly washed the mud away from her body, rinsing herself from head to toe, and then climbed into the tub. She soaked in the hot spring water comfortably.

It was so nice. In her past life, she had only experienced such an authentic sulfur spring bath in Hakone4. In fact, sulfur spring baths were good for the skin, but it would have been even better if it was at a hot spring hotel instead of in a post-apocalyptic world…

After soaking a while with such depressing thoughts, Luya climbed out of the tub. She then looked at the Shiba Inu and beckoned to it.

“Come over here, doggie.”

?

The Shiba Inu saw Luya calling him, and came trotting over curiously. When he got close to Luya, she suddenly grabbed him and flung him into the tub of water.

Startled, the dog splashed around in the tub while doggie-paddling. Luya pushed him into the water and vigorously began scrubbing his fur. Soon, a few fleas that she hadn’t combed out earlier emerged from the dog, and their corpses floated on the water’s surface.

Finally, when she finally fished the Shiba Inu out of the water, it frantically shook its fur and bolted away.

It was fine to let it run around to dry its fur.

Luya dumped the water that was in the tub, and then went to check on her steamer. When she opened the lid, there was already a half pot of water. However, the odor of the heated sulfur from underneath was very pungent, and even the pot smelled like rotten eggs. Thankfully, the distilled water looked clean and transparent.

Luya couldn’t help but be excited. She used a tool to lift the steam pot off the lower base, which contained hot spring water. After the temperature cooled down, she dipped her finger into the water and gave it a taste.

!!

It had this difficult-to-describe sour taste! It caused Luya to remember some high school chemistry that she had clearly forgotten until now.

After heating the sulfur spring water, the sulfur would react with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide, which would become sulfurous acid in the presence of water. Drinking it for a long time would cause hydrogen sulfide poisoning. This distilled water wasn’t safe to drink!

Luya immediately felt defeated, and she promptly poured out the water in the pot. The plan to distill sulfur spring water was a total bust. Was it possible to distill your own urine? No… that was psychologically unbearable, and she didn’t want to do it except as a last resort…

Luya fell into deep thought. Fortunately, her mind moved quickly: there was a large temperature difference between day and night on this mountain. Although it was a volcano, it was dormant, and there was plenty of humidity from the hot water that gushed out. In that case, she had another idea. She could collect dew.

She remembered watching some documentaries about collecting water in desert environments, mainly relying on condensation. Last night, when she was examining the dragon’s treasure hoard, she thought she saw some golden wire. Perhaps she could try to make a simple device to collect dew.

But would this dog be able to survive?

Luya looked at the sickly-looking dog that was sprawled out on the ground. She was a little worried that it wouldn’t live through another night.

Author’s notes:

I won’t hide it from guys.

Actually, I have more than thirty chapters saved.

Also you guys are totally messed up… earlier you only wanted to shave the dog, and now you want to have him neutered?!

The prince will murder you guys…

He is also very civilized, and won’t eat his own shit (?)

PS: I originally wanted to write about distilling urine to get water, but then my friend told me that all the readers would run away if I wrote this, so I gave up…

Thank you all for your support! I will continue to work hard!

Translator’s notes: