Rattle rattle rattle rattle.
Thud.
Phew... Once I gathered food for thirty people on top of medicinal supplies, there was no way my stamina could handle carrying it all. I barely made it here, dragging a pack frame and even a cart.
“...Ah, you’re all awake? How are you feeling?”
“...”
“...”
What?
Why is no one reacting?
Is it because I’m too unfamiliar?
Or are they being racist because I’m not white?
No wonder these people’s descendants ended up doing Brexit.
Wicked English bastards. Even so, to repay the person who saved their lives with nothing but this reaction? As expected, you should never take in a black-haired beast.
Just as my expression stiffened slightly... this time, the atmosphere suddenly turned so icy it felt oppressive.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Seriously, what is this?
The racists exchanged glances among themselves, and after trading some hand signals and looks, one person stepped forward.
She seemed to be the one leading the group... Huh?
She was a young woman around my age. How strange. There seemed to be plenty of people older than her here. Why? Was she a noble?
As I stared at her in bewilderment, she suddenly bowed deeply at the waist and greeted me—
“Th-th-thank... you...”
“...”
...Did that count as a greeting?
“Th-th-th-thank you...”
“Please, calm down.”
“...Yes.”
“And take a deep breath.”
“Hoo. Haa. Hoo. Haa.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...Do you have any other words to bestow upon us?”
“...”
Was she nervous?
Well, I suppose anyone would be nervous if they ran into an adult man carrying a blade in a strange land. Especially if their group had two children and even injured people. On top of that, I was dressed like some kind of alien.
I waved my hand and tried to reassure the woman in front of me.
“Relax. I have no intention of harming you. I simply brought some food because you looked hungry.”
“...”
“I thought it wouldn’t be good for you to suddenly gorge yourselves on the food you normally eat while starving, so I brought ‘these’ for now.”
I handed the woman in front of me a bundle of simple meals that doubled as patient food, packaged as canned drinks.
“...Huh? Ah. Yes.”
I thought they might finally relax a little, but no. Instead, everyone’s eyes just went unfocused.
“If you pull this ring on top to open it, you can drink the contents inside. Understood?”
“...Y-yes, understood.”
“For now, substitute your meal with that... And here, I brought some light cloth. You can use this to make a tent.”
“Cl-cloth?”
“Yes. And bandages and splints for the person with the injured leg over there...”
“...”
“...There, that should do it. Do you have any questions?”
“Ah, um, well... thank...”
“Then I’ll be going back.”
“Yes...”
“Ah, just in case, let me say this.”
Shing.
I drew my machete.
I had helped them because I pitied them, but they numbered thirty, for starters.
Thirty starving strangers faced with an unfamiliar outsider.
They could become looters, so it was best to prepare for that.
“...I would prefer it if you did not follow ‘us (We).’ ‘We’ have circumstances of our own.”
“...”
“...”
“Then, farewell.”
...Did that work?
Seeing how they had all more or less frozen, it seemed to have worked.
Good. I had hidden the fact that I was alone, and I seemed to have sent the message that “I have force at my disposal,” so my immediate safety was secured.
Now I just had to help them for about three more days—
“M-my name is Eleanor! Eleanor Dare!”
“...”
Hm? Was she introducing herself out of nowhere?
Should I reveal my name too?
“...It was nice meeting you, Eleanor.”
No. There was probably no need to go that far.
I brushed it off casually, turned around, and accepted her greeting.
Then I deliberately took a roundabout path so they wouldn’t discover the route to my house.
***
Thud.
‘...Wh-what was that conversation just now?’
It was hard even to breathe.
If, after death, God were to ask her what the most terrifying and nerve-racking moment of her life had been, she would name that very moment.
“They say a plague will spread through London! That’s only a few years from now!”
“H-has there ever been a time when a plague didn’t spread through London? Perhaps he merely guessed...”
“Then what about the French queen consort dying next year?”
They had heard a “prophecy.”
“Is that the problem here?! He said Governor White might not return until the year ninety!”
“What on earth did the angel... foretell?”
In an instant, the surroundings became chaotic with people kneeling, crossing themselves, and praying.
The area had grown noisy, but honestly, talk of a plague spreading through London or when France’s war would end meant nothing to Eleanor.
There was only one piece of news that mattered to her.
The present year was 1588.
—“After the Spanish Armada is defeated by England in 1588, John White, who could not sail during the war, finally returns to Roanoke in 1590...”
Her father, who she had thought would return around now... would not come back for another two years?
And because a war would break out with Spain?
Eleanor wanted only to cry, but...
When she looked back, thirty people were staring only at her.
In this situation, she could not be afraid or mentally collapse. If she collapsed, everyone would collapse.
She forced the corners of her trembling mouth upward.
“I-it’s fortunate that Father is alive...! Isn’t it? He said Father will certainly return!
And besides, there is someone friendly here who has shared food with us, and even cloth to make tents!”
For now, those two things were worth seeing in a positive light.
Once Eleanor lifted the mood, the atmosphere of the group, which had been sinking into panic, slowly calmed. Everyone gradually regained their reason and began murmuring among themselves.
“No matter how you look at it, he did not seem like an angel, did he?”
“Even so, he did not seem like one of the savages around here either...”
“He spoke English even better than the other savages who lived with us, did he not?”
That was true.
For an angel, the actions of that unidentified man just now had been far too “human.”
The way he worried over Eleanor’s party, assessed their attitude, and carried and moved the luggage one piece at a time did not resemble that of a transcendent angel. However...
“Did you hear that just now?”
Everyone’s voices naturally lowered.
Since many members of the group were poor, the moment the voice of a “gentleman” rang out, their gazes turned in that direction of their own accord.
The lawyer “sir” with the injured ankle, Thomas Hewett, spoke to Eleanor Dare.
“He referred to himself as We. Like some sort of king.”
He had.
At that moment, Eleanor had been afraid even to dare speak to the being before her eyes.
“His build was different from the savages around here from the bone structure up. He looked to be about six feet tall, and his face was pale, as if he was unaccustomed to hard labor.”
“Ah, that’s right, Mr. Hewett! I heard Mongols and Chinese look like that...”
“I suspect he may be an extremely noble person from the far East, Mrs. Dare. As for why such a person is here alone...”
“Could he be an explorer? Or perhaps someone exiled...”
“Wait a moment.”
Someone cut in. When Eleanor turned her head, it was Mr. William Browne, the goldsmith.
He had just taken hold of the drink given by the being who might have been some prince of the East, his eyes wide as he trembled.
“What is it, Mr. Browne?”
Eleanor asked Browne with an inexplicable sense of unease, and he answered.
“Th-this vessel for the drink. Do not throw it away under any circumstances. No, everyone, gather them in one place!”
“Why so suddenly? It’s just an iron can—”
“This isn’t iron, is it? Why would iron not rust after holding liquid?”
“...?”
Lighter than iron.
As sturdy as iron.
And it did not rust.
“Then what on earth is this thing?”
“...!”
A kind savage (x).
A being who might be a prince of the East (o).
An angel (...???)
Eleanor could not sleep a wink that night.
***
The next day, I prepared to visit the Englishmen again. All I had to do was pack my weapon, medicine, bandages, and simple meals.
I put thirty cans of simple meals I had gathered from the refrigerator into a box, then opened the cupboard to take out painkillers and bandages for the injured...
“Painkillers, painkillers... Huh?”
Why were the painkillers fully stocked? I had definitely given some to the Englishmen yesterday.
...Had I counted wrong? For now, I shoved as much as I needed into my backpack.
Anyway, when I returned to the Englishmen, everyone’s eyes looked hollow for some reason.
These people—after I went out of my way to bring them food and all, what had they been doing all night instead of resting?
When I held out a box of simple meals, Eleanor stepped forward like yesterday, received it, and bowed her head.
“Th-thank you...”
“You should stay here for now. There are several injured people, and if you force yourselves to move now, something terrible could happen.”
“Um... here...”
“What is it, Mrs. Dare?”
With trembling hands, Eleanor held out a pouch to me.
“...We thought about it all night, and it did not seem proper for us to keep such things...”
“...”
It was the can trash.
“W-we also have no way to dispose of them anywhere, so we thought it right to return them to you for now...”
I was shocked.
Shocked by their character.
“Thank you... for saving us...”
‘Thanks for saving us, but you clean up the trash.’
As expected of subjects of a pirate nation, they must have worn away every last scrap of conscience.
“...For now, I understand.”
I picked up the empty cans wrapped in cloth and sighed. Fine. If I held on to these, the day might come when I could recycle them.
Like yesterday, I applied appropriate threats and warnings, then circled around and returned home. I erased my footprints and cleaned up other traces along the way, so they probably would not find their way here.
...Is this really right?
“Haa, this is no easy thing to do.”
To think I was sweating buckets and suffering like a dog for the second day in a row just to feed those racist English bastards. It made me want to cry.
Still, unlike them, I was a “civilized person,” so I couldn’t just leave people to die recklessly. Take up the yellow man’s burden, Kim Isang...!
Enough bullshit.
As I walked toward the front door of the house and looked toward the farm, the grapes were already nearing harvest season. I was worried about what I was supposed to do with all those grapes by myself, and worried about what I would use them for after harvesting them.
...Nothing but worries.
As soon as I got home, I collapsed onto the bed in exhaustion and diligently read through the catalogue for Immortal Order: Origin. The name Eleanor Dare was in here... there it was.
“Daughter of John White, she gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World... Ah, so the baby she was holding was a daughter after all? She looks young, but she already has a child?”
Well, it was the sixteenth century. It wasn’t that strange.
While resting my exhausted body like that, I glared at the advertising copy written on the back cover of the catalogue, which now looked nothing but suspicious.
—“Full Korean localization for the first time in the series!”
...Right. So that was why I could converse perfectly well with sixteenth-century English people.
You transport a person here along with his entire farm and don’t even give him a translation cheat? I would have worked my ass off to alter history so that Hwangsuksoft or whatever never even got established.
—“Immortal one, will you become a pioneer of the New World amid infinite blessings? Or will you become a slave to fate?”
Even an extremely ordinary phrase like “Korean localization” had a chilling meaning hidden within it. Maybe there was some profound meaning in copy like this too.
Why do they keep calling me immortal?
And what are these infinite blessings supposed to be?
...Yeah, right. Like the bastards who suddenly transported a person to just before the outbreak of the Imjin War would kindly explain.
As I struggled and pored over the catalogue like that, midnight passed before I knew it, and the date changed.
My lifestyle as a morning person had been wrecked because of all the suffering I’d done hauling cargo today. Since my eyes refused to close, I sighed, got up, and washed my face first.
“...Right. Let’s pack what I’ll hand out tomorrow.”
I went straight to the refrigerator, took out thirty cans of simple meals, put them into my bag, then opened the cupboard and took out fresh bandages and medicine. Since I normally stocked and checked things like household medicine, the amount should be sufficient for now—
...Huh?
“What… the hell. Why is it full again today?”
The bandages were fully stocked. The medicine container where I’d gathered the painkillers was the same.
They should definitely have been empty by about two days’ worth, yesterday’s and today’s.
Shaaaa.
Oh crap, have I lost my mind? I washed my face and didn’t turn the water… o…ff…
…Huh?
I’d been transported to wild, untamed sixteenth-century North America, and yet clean water kept coming out of the faucet?
The bandages and medicine I’d clearly taken out and handed out earlier had been replenished?
“…”
‘The Blessing of Infinity.’
I checked the refrigerator again. The ready-made meals had not been replenished.
Come to think of it, I’d cooked rice and side dishes yesterday too, but the rice, vegetables, and meat hadn’t been replenished.
‘Does it not refill food?’
It was only a rough guess, but I was probably right.
The ready-made meals I’d handed out to people back then had not been replenished.
Ah, now that I thought about it, yesterday.
The batteries had run out yesterday, so I hadn’t been able to take the flashlight today.
My fingertips began to tremble.
No way. Come on, no way.
I opened the drawer by the shoe cabinet where I often kept batteries.
—‘Powerful and long-lasting Enerxizer!’
It was full.
“…”
The next day, I tried using up a battery completely.
I also poured gasoline from the storage room all over the place and used it to start a fire.
Besides that, I used, threw away, and wasted every kind of resource in the house except for food. I even threw a robot vacuum cleaner I didn’t use much and deliberately broke it.
Once midnight passed, everything was restored to its original state.
“…”
A universal language cheat.
And on top of that, probably a resource cheat too.
Now, with emotions I could no longer control, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror. I had been shaving, so my chin was covered in shaving cream (infinitely duplicated).
After taking a few deep breaths… I shouted.
“Status window!”
…
“System! Status!”
…
It was quiet. If someone had been next to me, I would have died of embarrassment.
Ah, why give me everything and leave out the most important thing?
I sighed and picked up the razor again. After shaving off the dark stubble and looking at the area above my upper lip, I saw a small cut.
“Ugh, I swear I only mess up at times like this when I’m already pissed off.”
I hurriedly wiped away the blood and stuck a Band-Aid over the small cut. The Band-Aids would be newly duplicated after midnight anyway.
And then I went straight back to sleep.
…Yeah. It’s funny, but I feel a little relieved now.
At the very least, excluding the internet, I can maintain a modern lifestyle.
At the very least, my grape farming won’t fail because I don’t have enough irrigation water.
…
…
…Still, they could’ve given me one more cheat. Even if not a status window, couldn’t they have given me something like mind reading or SSS-rank swordsmanship?
Hmm… Eh, whatever.
Even this much is something to be grateful for.
***
And so, Kim Isang stuck a Band-Aid straight onto the small cut above his upper lip and fell asleep.
And beneath the Band-Aid, quietly, so quickly that the sleeping Kim Isang did not notice the anomaly.
The wound healed.
Not even a few seconds passed before the cut disappeared without leaving a scar.
From the computer Kim Isang had left on before falling asleep, a faint voice could be heard.
—‘Immortal one, will you become a pioneer of the New World? Or will you become a slave to fate?’
—‘Immortal one.’
—‘…Immortal one.’