Whiiiiiiir!
Scrape, scrape.
Thud!
“Everyone, stand back! For now, I can handle the logging work by myself!”
“No, how can we live doing nothing but accepting your help? We’ll help too!”
Until now, I had thought working with a chainsaw was extremely hard.
Screeeech. Creak. Saw-saw-saw-saw.
“…It’s fine.”
Seeing several grown adults sweating buckets while clinging to a single saw made that thought vanish completely.
So this was actually cutting as smoothly as slicing butter with a kitchen knife. Come to think of it, I remembered seeing something online before. They said even an ordinary modern kitchen knife would be treated as a legendary blade if taken back to the past.
Then how great was the gap between that half-rusted, dulled saw over there and this 18-inch chainsaw in my hands? Just imagining doing this with that axe and saw was horrifying.
Maybe this chainsaw could even cut through a knight’s armor from this era. (It can’t.)
“…As expected, chainsaws are KeyX.”
…Thank you, Xyang Electronics. And thank you as well to the village chief who sold me a used chainsaw for a clean 100,000 won.
I shall graciously forget that trifling one-million-won village development fund.
…On second thought, I can’t forget it.
You son of a bitch.
Anyway, after sending the settlers away like that and finishing up the last thousand pyeong or so of forest by myself, the sun was already climbing high in the sky. Several days of work had finally come to an end.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and set the chainsaw down.
“This should be about three roods of land! It’ll be enough for us to farm!”
“…I see, Eleanor.”
As someone who used units like “1 pyeong = 3.3 square meters,” I decided to simply keep my mouth shut on matters of area.
“After this, will you bring over… ‘that’ again, like last time?”
“…Yes.”
I nodded.
Kukukukukukung!
And soon I brought over the ten-ton excavator and dug up every last remaining tree root!
“Wooooooow!”
“The machine arm is so strong!”
Ha, hahahaha! This sense of omnipotence was no joke! The adults stood there with their mouths open, and the children bounced around in excitement, giving me an absurd sense of superiority.
By the way, how was I driving an excavator over three tons when you needed both an excavator operator technician license and a construction machinery operator license? When did I get one, when I was probably only in my mid-twenties at most?
I didn’t!
Old Man Choi next door got one! This thing was something Old Man Choi had borrowed in the first place! He’d brought it over to clear trees from the hill behind the village, forgot about it, and it ended up getting transported here along with me!
I knew how to operate small excavators, so after trying a few times, it moved more or less the same way. Of course, it broke a few times in the process… and I did stay up several weeks’ worth of nights practicing… Well. It regenerates anyway.
You ask if there’s a problem? Then where is the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea to regulate me? Where are the Korean police who’ll arrest me for driving without a license?
Nothing can bind me. I am free!
This is America!
Kukukukukung!
“Waaaaaaah!”
Ha, as expected of America. It was a free and bold maneuver worthy of the land of freedom. And just like that, another thousand pyeong of forest was instantly turned into land for plowing fields and building cabins.
The people immediately grabbed shovels and sacks of potatoes and swarmed in to plant potatoes the way I had taught them.
The settlement had grown quite large now.
Whereas before ten people had been gathered into a single house, now each household could occupy one house of their own, and everyone was full of enthusiasm, saying they would soon prepare buildings like a church or workshops.
On top of that, we had secured enough cultivated land for everyone to live on, so worries about food had lessened as well.
“…That said, I can’t relax.”
The settlers were people who had never seen such a thing as a potato in their lives. So if they succeeded from the very beginning after just one simple farming lesson, that would be stranger.
That was why I planned to use the empty land within this farm to create a separate potato field of about five hundred pyeong.
Any question about whether it would require a lot of labor was discarded before it could even arise.
Because behind my back stood twenty-first-century agricultural technology and mechanical engineering.
Namely, a cultivator.
You could think of it as a miniaturized tractor. It did everything a tractor could do.
Kukukukuku!
For example, it could plow the field in an instant like now, raise the ridges, and even lay plastic mulch over the ground at the same time.
Hours’ worth of labor spent crouching on the ground was completed in a flash.
The black plastic spread over fields in rural areas was this very thing. This plastic kept moisture in so the field would not dry out, suppressed weeds, and prevented soil erosion.
Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk!
If I used a seeder to punch holes through the plastic laid out like this and dig into the ground, it dug exactly ten to fifteen centimeters deep. The perfect depth for planting potatoes.
Then I tossed the cut seed potatoes into the seeder and covered them with soil, and just like that, potato planting was done.
…If I had done this with only a hoe and shovel, it would have taken hours, maybe days.
What exactly was twenty-first-century agricultural technology?
At a glance, it looked simple, but underneath it lay countless small advances, and it had taken hundreds, even thousands, of years to reach this point.
Synthetic fertilizer, herbicide, various farm tools, and so on…
‘If only I could replicate this, it would be huge.’
Of course, replication was impossible. At most, I could make life more comfortable for myself and the thirty-three people gathered around me.
But couldn’t I at least take it apart and study it later? Leaving out parts that would be difficult to reproduce in this era, like the engine, and making it run on animal or human power instead…
If I did that, it would be huge.
Feeling as though I had come up with an incredible idea, I immediately wrote it down in my notebook. Right. Later, later, once the settlement grew larger…
‘…Once it grows larger?’
Once it grows larger, what should I do?
In the original history, the Roanoke Colony failed. And the famous Jamestown and Plymouth remained as the beginnings of early American pioneer history.
But if I met John White when he returned from England in 1590, in other words about two years from now, the story would change from that moment on.
This place would become the British Empire’s first North American colony.
And I would become its founder.
“…”
Then what?
Could I survive? How could I explain my resources, and how could I keep them as my own?
Then… after all of that, what would happen to me?
“Nemo!”
“…Ah, Eleanor.”
For now, let’s set aside complicated thoughts. The English probably wouldn’t want to come into conflict with me on purpose either.
Thankfully, this era was moderately uncivilized, so there were no scientists who would try to dissect me, nor anyone capable of digging up my entire farm to uncover its true nature.
To put it bluntly, whether I said I was the last inhabitant of Atlantis, sunk beneath the sea, or an alien from the moon, they would have no choice but to believe me.
What if my lies were exposed?
By then, I’d probably have lived out my life being treated lavishly by the British Empire and died, so what would it matter?
—“Immortal, will you become a pioneer of the New World amid infinite blessings? Or will you become a slave to fate?”
Well, if by some chance I really did become immortal, that might be another matter…
…Well, future me could deal with that.
“Eleanor, what is it?”
What I had to worry about now was the food we would eat going forward.
It would be difficult to last until the potato harvest with only food obtained through hunting, gathering, and tending small vegetable gardens. We would probably have to slaughter a few chickens, but thinking of the eggs they would lay made that feel wasteful…
“The Savage tribes…”
“‘Natives.’”
“Ah, I’m sorry. The Native tribes have come.”
“Pardon?”
“They said they came to offer a gift of thanks for the grapes from last time. Should we let them in for now?”
“…”
I glanced toward the gate. Then I faintly saw a dozen or so people loitering there, carrying something on their backs.
Most of them wore no clothes, and instead expressed their status and identity through intricate tattoos drawn over their bodies.
Was it all right to let them in? Showing them my resources and capabilities as they were… No. Even if they saw them, they wouldn’t understand.
“You may let them in. This was their land to begin with.”
“All right! I’ll bring them in for now!”
Eleanor, whose face was smeared with dirt, hurriedly looked at her reflection in a nearby puddle and tidied her hair, as if she had become an official diplomatic envoy.
Then she strode off with an exaggeratedly aristocratic gait and opened the gate. I turned off the cultivator’s engine and followed after her.
Tong. Tong. Tong.
When she tapped the iron fence with her fingers, the gazes of the Natives, who had been tensely looking around, turned this way.
Among them, a man dressed almost like a European walked forward as their representative. He was also the man Eleanor addressed.
“…‘His Lordship’ has permitted you to enter the estate.”
“Eleanor, why did you walk over in such a strange waddle? And your voice is lower than usual…”
“Ah, hahahaha…”
“Then where is ‘His Lordship’? His name was…”
“Nemo.”
“…”
“Pleased to meet you. Are you Manteo? I heard you brought a gift. Please, come inside first.”
“…”
I hesitated for a moment as I watched Manteo’s expression stiffen in a strange way.
What was it? Had I made some kind of mistake? I had only greeted him and offered a handshake.
Only after thinking for quite some time did I realize it.
“…You are remarkably fluent in our language. Which tribe are you from?”
Ah.
I hadn’t just spoken in English.
Apparently, this language cheat wasn’t limited to English.
***
“Then where is ‘His Lordship’? His name was…”
“Nemo.”
“…”
“Pleased to meet you. Are you Manteo? I heard you brought a gift. Please, come inside first.”
“…”
In this brief exchange, Manteo was surprised twice.
He had seen it with his own eyes.
London, and the wealth and power of England. For a full year, no less.
The English built structures as vast as mountains, and they made clocks that ticked away while sensing fleeting instants.
They wove stained glass where light broke apart like a rainbow, and assembled ships that carried more than a hundred grown men across the great sea.
He had seen the queen and nobles wrapped in uncomfortable garments decorated with gold, silver, and all manner of splendid jewels. He had also seen muskets that could kill not only people but also ferocious beasts in an instant.
He had seen cannons that hurled enormous stones.
That pure splendor, that sheer power!
That power came from strange people who looked completely different from him. People with high noses, pale faces, and sunken eyes.
Admiring that power, Manteo dressed like them. Admiring that power, Manteo received their baptism.
—“Then where is ‘His Lordship’? His name was…”
—“Nemo.”
But the man standing before him… resembled them more than he resembled those Europeans.
Manteo could easily read the awe in Eleanor’s eyes.
He also saw the enormous house and farm spread out behind her. All of that had been built in barely one or two weeks…?
That was when Manteo was surprised for the first time.
And the second time.
—“Pleased to meet you. Are you Manteo? I heard you brought a gift. Please, come inside first.”
He was far too “fluent” in Algonquin.
And so… Manteo had no choice but to ask.
“…Which tribe are you from?”
At those words, the man’s atmosphere suddenly changed.
For some reason, he looked up at the sky with distant eyes and spoke as if whispering.
“…A place you could never reach. The far eastern lands, or perhaps the western lands. A place where the traces of all spirits disappear.
A place to which I can never return.”
“…”
“Ah… I was lost in thoughts of home for a moment. My apologies.”
“N-no, not at all.”
In the moment he spoke of his homeland, the man looked exceedingly noble. The clothes he wore were strange, but they seemed sturdy and meticulously made, and the knife at his waist looked heavy and solid.
“Eleanor, let us bring the guests inside.”
“Ah, yes!”
Most importantly, the man spoke both English and Algonquin with perfect fluency.
He seemed very used to commanding people as well.
Either someone of very high standing…
“…or a god.”
“What did you just say?”
“Ah, nothing.”
As Manteo stepped inside, the wire-mesh gate slid shut behind him. The thing in the distance, standing still with a massive arm attached to it, was impossible to tell what it was used for. Was it a weapon?
As he stood there tensely, a fellow tribesman at his side poked him in the waist. Ah, he had been so nervous that he had forgotten to deliver their purpose.
“Ah, ahem. We came to repay the kindness you showed us last time.”
“Repay me? There’s no need for that.”
“No. That food must surely be something precious.”
“…”
Manteo saw the man’s face stiffen slightly, then relax again. Why?
Manteo did not know that the vast farm spread out behind the man was entirely fields of that “precious thing.”
“Ahem. In any case, to repay you, our tribe has brought a welcoming gift as well. We only hope this land is to your liking.”
The moment Manteo said that, the tribesmen behind him set down the loads they had been carrying all at once. They were corn, peas, and various fruits.
“It is not much, but we hope you will accept our sincerity…”
“It is not lacking at all!”
The man’s voice suddenly rose. His face brightened visibly as well.
“Now I won’t have to slaughter the chickens… Never mind.”
“…”
“But it does seem a bit much in exchange for a single grape.”
“The truth is… we have a request.”
Since it was a rather difficult request, Manteo hesitated for a moment. He bowed politely and asked the man before him.
“Would it be possible for you to give us more of those precious grapes…”
“Of course!”
“…Pardon?”
Again.
No, this time the man’s voice rose even higher, and his face brightened even more. Manteo could not tell why at all….
“Uh…”
“Please come by more often from now on! Let’s have exchanges like this about once a week, Manteo!”
“Th-thank… you, but… I haven’t even told you how many we would take…”
“Take as many as you like! As many as you like!”
“Then… we will take one hundred bunches. We need to distribute them to our neighboring kin tribes.”
“Of course! You may take two hundred, even three hundred bunches!”
Three hundred bunches! Of those sweet grapes?
The moment Manteo heard those words, he thought himself the victor of this trade negotiation.
If he had known what the other party was thinking, he probably would have been greatly flustered.
***
At last.
At long last, I had found a place to unload the damned ten thousand bunches of grapes.
***
And so, thirteen weeks after the start of the grape trade.
As Manteo received five hundred bunches of grapes, he realized something had gone wrong.