* * *
Belsus and I fell into the farm one after another.
I landed lightly as if I’d originally opened the farm’s front gate and entered, but Belsus literally fell from the sky and tumbled on the dirt ground.
However, Belsus was already in a state where he couldn’t even feel the impact.
It was the price for suddenly standing up and sprinting at full speed with a body that had been starving for a week. Despite suddenly being dropped in an unfamiliar ruin, he passed out without even the capacity to have any questions.
The sight of him face-down on the ground looked pitiful. I pressed his shoulder firmly with the tip of my foot to turn him onto his back. Belsus’s face was revealed.
I have no guilty conscience whatsoever about handling a person with my foot. Because I need to know what smell is coming from Belsus right now.
‘How can a person smell like this?’
My house is a garbage dump right now, but this bastard is even more garbage.
If my house is a place where paper boxes are discarded, Belsus is in a state no different from a food waste bin. Thanks to that, I also smell like I went into a garbage can and came out.
I took off all my clothes and shook them out vigorously. If even a bug egg had transferred over, I felt like I’d throw that bastard outside the farm, regardless of my lifeline or whatever.
‘Ah, but even after shaking out all my clothes, I still smell something rotten somewhere.’
As long as the culprit passed out in the middle of the farm doesn’t disappear, this smell won’t end.
I turned my head to look at the farm entrance. Not because I wanted to run out due to the smell…… I can’t even leave anyway.
Subspace isn’t constrained by outside space. You can enter and exit from anywhere. However, the position where you enter and exit doesn’t change at will.
The door opens again at the position where I last exited or entered.
In short, if I leave the farm now, I’ll return to that exact spot where I spirited Belsus away and fled.
The Archer and Kaline are probably fuming and searching the area like hunting for lice, so leaving now would be suicide.
Therefore, I judged it would be better to stay inside this farm for a while.
Fortunately, since it’s nominally a farm, daily necessities were delivered in a chest like a simple starter pack, so this will do for now.
There was something useful right now.
A pouch of dried herbs.
Setting aside the herbs that will save me from the garbage dump smell for a moment, I lit a fire first. Since the cabin’s fireplace is still in an inactive state, I roughly made one outside.
With just one match, I succeeded in lighting the firewood.
‘There wasn’t even kindling to use as tinder, let alone a fire starter.’
The increase in nature-friendly handicraft skills pays off in situations like this. Compared to rankers’ characteristics, it probably looks like child’s play though.
After lighting the fire, I placed two large stones from the surroundings on either side and put a flat stone on top of them. As a substitute for a griddle.
Then I filled a pot I’d bought from the market beforehand with water, put in that herb pouch, and boiled it vigorously. The fire was strong, so the herb scent quickly became concentrated. The water color became slightly bluish.
‘Honestly, even if I put Belsus whole in here and boiled him, it wouldn’t be enough.’
No matter how crude a mercenary he is, he’d burn to death that way, so I mixed in cold water to adjust the temperature. I stood in front of Belsus, groaning while carrying the large pot.
*Splaaaash!* I poured the herb water all over his body except for his head.
‘There we go.’
Amazingly, Belsus didn’t wake up. Even looking like a soaking wet mouse from the head down, he didn’t come to his senses.
‘Good. The stench will be a bit less, so next.’
I dug up the ground and took out the wooden chest I’d buried in the pit. Since the farm level is still low and there’s no refrigerator with a cold artifact attached, I temporarily borrowed ancestral wisdom.
A chunk of fresh pork and a string of sausages, a few potatoes, carrots, corn, a handful of garlic. And one pouch each of salt and pepper.
I crouched by the well and brushed the dirt off the potatoes and carrots. I peeled them with a single cooking knife. I also cut the corn into appropriate-sized pieces, and peeled the garlic with the knife, dropping the white cloves one by one.
I washed the knife in water once and cut the pork into appropriately large chunks. I scored the sausages with the knife.
‘Here I am sitting around making someone food instead of leveling up the farm.’
But this was the only way to revive Belsus, who had nearly entered a comatose state.
I brought all the ingredients to the fire and placed them on the stone slab. The pork settled nicely on the oiled stone slab with a *sizzle*.
I threw in an appropriate amount of the herbs I’d saved after pouring them on Belsus earlier. When I sprinkled salt and pepper on top, it looked quite presentable.
As I continued this series of processes, a quiet reality check came over me.
‘What the hell am I doing? Did I get hired as a farmer or as a cook?’
Even as the question passed through my mind, my hands didn’t stop moving.
Next, I took out the two iron pots I’d bought from the market. One large, one small.
I placed the large pot on the stone slab, flipped upside down to cover the pork and vegetables. Opening the gap appropriately so it doesn’t get too sealed and explode.
While the food cooked in the makeshift oven, I poured water into the small pot and boiled a few potatoes separately.
When the potatoes were fully cooked, I poured out an appropriate amount of water and mashed the potatoes with a spoon. I seasoned with salt and pepper and stirred the thick contents over the fire—potato soup roughly complete.
The chest didn’t even contain milk. Because I added water instead, it became more like tasteless porridge rather than soup, but the smell was presentable.
Most importantly, Belsus isn’t in a position to care about taste right now anyway.
‘This isn’t cooking. It’s nursing.’
I’m doing all sorts of things. In case he gets sick if I fed pork and grilled vegetables right away to someone who’s been starving for days.
Grumbling, I picked up the soup pan and turned my head. At that moment, I almost fell backward.
‘Ah fuck, you scared me.’
Belsus, who I thought was dead, was sitting up.
The bastard was staring fixedly at the pot I was holding, swallowing his saliva *gulp gulp*. It was a terrifying gaze close to glaring. I felt the chilling sensation of encountering a starving bear.
‘……How is it that even in that state, he still can’t bring himself to rush over and snatch it.’
It’s not because he’d lose if he fought me physically right now.
No matter what, Belsus can’t even conceive of the idea of attacking me and stealing food.
It’s not that he knows how but doesn’t do it. Like someone who’s never learned that language, he absolutely cannot do it.
A bastard who wouldn’t know how to hit anyone even if he starved to death.
A good-hearted sucker…… no, a kind bastard who won’t look down on me for being a shithead.
A bastard who will absolutely never crawl to me. A bastard who, once he receives a favor, won’t forget it even after becoming emperor. A bastard who will respect me to the end.
I set down the soup pot at a slightly distant spot. I also placed a spoon.
“It’s yours. Eat.”
It was instantaneous. The moment the words fell, Belsus rushed over.
Belsus tried to pick up and drink from the pot that had been over the fire just moments ago. I hit the bastard’s head with the spoon to stop him. It was something I did without realizing it.
“It’s hot. You crazy bastard.”
Anyway, at those words, Belsus’s rationality returned.
The bastard who barely became human-shaped from being a beast calmed down and started blowing on the soup to eat it.
In the meantime, the pork and vegetable assortment I’d put in the makeshift stove was cooking to a golden brown, giving off quite a fantastic smell.
While Belsus devoured everything like someone possessed, I turned my body away from him.
‘Partly because I’d hate to waste time waiting doing nothing……’
It was a kind of performance. To show Belsus.
Even though I’m seeing you for the first time, I can show you my back. I haven’t detained or confined you. So while you’re eating, I won’t pay attention and will do my own work.
Sure enough. Even while Belsus was eating frantically, I could feel him slyly watching my movements.
Pretending not to notice, I left Belsus in front of the campfire and entered my cabin.
While cleaning, I need time to think alone. Only after being left alone did I freely make a serious expression.
‘How many possessors could there be?’
Including Belsus, there are nine origin characters.
Assuming everyone received the same directive as me to either become the Tower conqueror themselves or make their selected partner the conqueror, there would be nine possessors.
And here’s one thing.
There’s absolutely no way joint victory is possible.
‘I’m certain. Only one person can win and remain in this world.’
The characters can just live in their own place even if they don’t become emperor.
But we can’t. If we don’t become 1st place, we just return to our original world.
‘The bastards who are 1st place in one class each are crazy about games. There will probably be more bastards who want to remain in this world than expected.’
Starting with me. But in my case, it’s because I’ll die from excessive blood loss if I return to the original world!
‘I wonder how many want to remain here. Surely not everyone is like me—without family or attachment to their original life?’
Were there any notices about this in the status window?
The rundown cabin seems to generate dust again the moment I turn around even after dusting. While dusting vigorously, I habitually checked the status window.
There was nothing in the blue status window, but new features appeared in the yellow status window.
[Rankings]
[Chat]
‘Chat?’
Is it a chat among possessors?
