It is not exactly something to brag about, but I consider myself a fairly capable engineer.
Granted, that was thanks to the implant installed in my head, but standing out in the industrial sector was not difficult when this planet’s technological level only ranged from the Middle Realm at best.
There were ultra-high-tech races like the Miho and Rabbies, but... those people were rather insular.
"Umm..."
"Tch."
That was why technicians were usually welcomed wherever they went, but...
Unfortunately, things had not worked out this time.
Ara Fulvipes, a Miho tinker and mechanitor equipped with a mechlink. Somewhere between a pet and a slave—that was her place in this settlement.
It was the fate of someone who had fallen behind in both research and crafting.
"Yip, yip..."
Scratch, scratch.
She was cute, in a way, but the sight of her staggering around drugged out of her mind was not particularly adorable.
If I thought of her as a cat rolling around in catnip, it was not completely unbearable, but...
Her half-lidded pupils, the drool running from the corner of her mouth. And when she absentmindedly scratched between her legs, I found myself looking away.
"It’s not too late yet. Want to dump her somewhere along the way?"
"Let’s watch her a little longer for now..."
Ara was so far from a normal person that even Green Shark was sick of her.
Still, the way she handled machinery was no ordinary thing, so I decided to keep her on as my assistant for the time being.
She did not eat much, either. Once we settled down, there might be some use for her.
.
.
Before Ara’s shattered leg had even fully healed, our short journey came to an end.
Even excluding the day we explored the ruins and rescued her, it had only been around a week.
But the scenery around us was vastly different from before.
"We really are deep in the mountains."
That was Marmotte’s impression as she hopped down from the Patchwork Muffalo.
Just as she said, wherever we looked, there were thick forests of trees, with wild animals frolicking between them.
It was a true wilderness, utterly devoid of any trace of civilization.
"The soil’s good, too."
Limping on her injured leg, Ara scooped up a handful of dirt and rubbed it lightly between her fingers.
Even at a glance, it was rich, high-quality soil.
"Do you know how to farm too?"
"Nooo. That one does it."
Click, click.
The Agrihand trailing after her clacked its garden shears, making its presence known.
It also took out the seeds and plant cuttings Ara had bragged about always carrying around.
The problem was that there were barely any crops among them—almost all of them were tobacco and psychoid seeds.
Gulp, gulp.
"...Are you all right?"
"Perfectlyyy."
Ara answered in a lazy drawl as she drank beer.
Her burp was enough to completely shatter my fantasy of the Miho.
[Whole Body: Tobacco Addiction (7%)]
[Whole Body: Alcohol Intoxication (Buzzed)]
[Whole Body: Alcohol Tolerance (Minor)]
[Whole Body: Psychite Tolerance (Minor)]
[Whole Body: Psychite Withdrawal]
[Whole Body: Flow of the Planetarium]
[Right Leg: Shattered (14/30)]
Her leg was seriously, even critically injured, but her internal condition was such a wreck that it almost made the leg seem fine.
Could this really be described as being alive?
Was she incapable of feeling anything like remorse toward her kidneys?
When I asked her those questions, her answer was:
"Young master, I’ve run out of cigarettes. What should I do without cigarettes?"
"...Wouldn’t you buy some nearby or go find some?"
"Wrong. The answer is to do drugs."
Ara laughed, coughing as she did.
If she had no drugs, she drank alcohol; if she ran out of alcohol, she smoked. By then, her drug tolerance would have gone down a little.
Apparently, this revolving method of drug use was the ultimate secret technique for postponing withdrawal symptoms.
"There are too many things in this world that you need to forget."
"..."
"Those clothes are synthetic fabric. You aren’t from this planet, are you?"
And you aren’t afraid of women, either.
Ara swallowed the rest of her words and merely smiled vacantly.
"When you do drugs, you forget everything else. When there’s no alcohol, all you can think about is alcohol."
"Isn’t that a total happiness spiral?" Ara said, scratching her head.
What a sadly happy little spiral.
.
Last time, we had pieced together a building from an abandoned hideout and an escape pod. This time, we were starting from bare ground.
You could call it settlement life starting from Re:Zero, literally.
"Green, I’ll need you to chop down some trees."
"Leave it to me."
Gripping an axe that would probably return in terrible condition a few hours later, Green Shark bared her teeth in a grin.
We had left all the lumber and ore at the hideout, so we needed to gather everything again from scratch.
Until we built a decent structure, we would have to sleep leaning against the cart, just as we had yesterday.
"Ara, please start by planting crops."
"Young master, you can speak casually to meee."
"If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you...?"
According to Marmotte, Miho had an average lifespan of around a thousand years.
I did not know when they started aging, but judging by the way she kept calling me young master, and the air of experience she exuded when she was fully high on drugs, she was clearly no child.
"...I’m still in the flower of my youth, okay?"
The fact that she turned her head away and denied it was proof enough.
"Marmotte..."
Sparkle, sparkle.
Marmotte, who had been acting like she was in charge, was already waiting for orders.
At this point, did that not make me the leader after all...?
Well, the impatient one always ends up doing it himself.
"Just keep growing up healthy."
"Huh?"
She frowned deeply.
But just as when we first built the generator, there was not much for Marmotte to do at this stage.
"Tch. A leader’s job is to supervise whether her subordinates are doing their jobs properly, right?"
She kicked a pebble away, thoroughly sulking, but it could not be helped.
For now, inventory management was about all she could do.
"And that fox bitch..."
"I’m a patient, you know~"
Ara proudly held up her leg, reinforced with a splint.
Marmotte clicked her tongue and quietly pronounced her death sentence.
"Let’s see, how much tobacco and beer do we have left...?"
"Ah."
With that one sentence, the hierarchy between the two was established.
Ara looked at me with doe-like eyes, but I merely shrugged.
Why complain when she had brought it on herself?
.
"Hup."
Several thick logs fell from Green Shark’s shoulder with a thud.
Since we could not get concrete right away, we had no choice but to build a wooden house.
Last time, we had been in a rush in every way, so we crammed the kitchen, bedroom, and everything else into a single room. This time, let’s build a base that actually looks proper.
First, a solid design.
"How many rooms do we need?"
"?"
"?"
Marmotte and Green Shark looked at me as though they did not understand.
Now that Ara had joined us, at the very least, the men and women should sleep separately...
"One for the fox and one for us. Two should do."
"Wouldn’t one be enough? We can just make her a doghouse or something."
"That’s meaan."
Hmm. They had absolutely no intention of letting me go.
Did I have to make another big bed?
-----
The average frontier world today.
Just build the structure roughly for now and fix it later.
If you insist on making a perfect plan from the beginning, you lose seventy percent of this game’s content.
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