Non-commentated version of this chapter here for those that don’t want to interrupt their reading of the story with my rambling.
Chapter 32 – Escape path
Two days have gone by since the start of the extermination of the Arrow Crows from Alus Island.
I also took down some Arrow Crows, but I also did a bunch of other things as well, like checking the terrain features of Alus Island and Tialus territory, helping with cleaning up the government buildings with the slimes, etc etc.
(TN: The author actually wrote Tialus Island, which is obviously wrong so I corrected it in translation. I also noticed the Alus comes from TiAlus as well. That surprised me.)
As a result, I came to know that there was really nothing here on Alus Island.
No ancient texts or treasure laying around is entirely reasonable. However, no usable weapons or armor could be found either.
(TN: I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here with a floppy balloon poodle, but the place was abandoned a thousand years ago. Most things would’ve decayed by now if they weren’t magically preserved, in which case they would’ve been taken by either the former inhabitants if they left on their own initiative, or the invading force.)
The small vegetable gardens were overgrown with weeds as well.
(TN: I guess I have no choice but to institute a drinking game where you need to take a shot whenever MC acts like the place was abandoned at most a few years back instead of a hecking thousand. SHOT.)
The only thing that comes to mind is the water from the reservoir.
Thanks to the Holy Tree it has some restorative effects, so we could sell it as Holy Water like the church does.
It’s not as effective as a potion, but it should sell for about five copper. It’s the same price as a meal at a cheap restaurant in the Capital. I guess we’ll sell a few bottles of it in Lobrion.
(TN: Wow, that means if you manage to complete a single delivery job at the adventurer guild, you will be able to eat simple meals at a cheap restaurant either a hundred or ten thousand times depending if the exchange rate is ten or a hundred bronze for one silver and same for silver to gold. I guess it’s a pretty lucrative job. I even checked back and made sure I hadn’t messed up by translating silver as gold back then.)
While I was thinking about that, Selena triumphantly came into the office.
(TN: What office? There was no mention of it before this.)
“Your Highness! First of all, I confirmed that we’ve managed to exterminate the Arrow Crows from the island!”
“Already? That was fast.”
(TN: Yeah. *long sigh* Yeah…..)
In these two days, we managed to hunt almost a hundred Arrow Crows.
(TN: Those should be nowhere near the number of birds that live on an island that should be at least a couple of square kilometers large.)
We ate some of the meat ourselves and sold the rest in the Capital and Lobrion and the feathers and beaks were used as material for bolts.
(TN: If he didn’t keep procrastinating on finding out whether his Pandora’s Box preserved food indefinitely, they may have been able to store the meat for later instead of having to sell I guess most of it.)
Even selling the meat turned into quite a large fortune, enough for everyone to live off here for about three months.
(TN: Where did all his money from the horse race go? He’s acting like they were destitute before this.)
“Everyone really did a good job. We were able to make quite a bit of money. With this we should be fine for a few months, but…..”
More Arrow Crows will most likely come in from the continent soon. However, in time they will most likely learn to fear the island.
In exchange, there is a possibility that other monsters will come instead, but….
(TN: If other monsters can just swim the few kilometers to the island then what stopped them from doing it until now? Why would the Arrow Crows shying away from the island in the future cause other monsters to invade instead?)
“We won’t be able to support ourselves with only our smithing business in Lobrion and selling the Holy Water. We need to think of other possible sources of income…..I guess fishing should be possible on this island.”
“Although I think it’s a good idea, handling fishing nets and going out to sea by boat might be a tad too difficult with their current physique.”
(TN: In other words: it’s a hecking terrible idea.)
Like Serena said, mouse people and slime are not suited for fishing with their small body. Though aquaculture should be safe.
Aside from that, only making salt comes to mind in relation to the ocean.
We should be able to provisionally start both for now, but I don’t think we will be able to make money from those just yet.
Even if we want to try making a farmable field, a large part of Alus Island is taken up by sandy beaches and the rest is rocky terrain, so we won’t be able to make anything large.
(TN: Precisely none of that was established until now. It took them more than a chapter to reach their destination on the island, shouldn’t the author have described these attributes? I distinctly remember thick forests and mostly flat terrain being described instead. I have an inkling that the author just pulled this excuse from somewhere delicate to forcefully nix the farms for some reason.)
It seems we really can’t make any of it work without going to the continent.
“Serena…..do you know if there is a place nearby where we can mine magical metal ores from?”
“This place was famous for its significant deposits of magical metal ores. I have a single place in mind that might be useful.”
“Really?”
“Yes. There is a hidden tunnel underneath Alus Island that leads to the continent. I’ve heard that it also connects to the nearest magical metal ore mine.”
Alus Island is surrounded by the sea on all sides.
(TN: Yeeees…. that’s what being an island means….)
Although it’s easy to defend, if they manage to encircle the island, then everyone gets locked in.
This escape path must be to protect from that. It was probably intended as a way of escape and a way to obtain important materials such as magical metal ores.
Serena then continued.
“The governor of Tialus territory and the residents escaped via that tunnel…. That’s the last thing I can remember. My subordinates and I were supporting the retreat.”
(TN: There was no indication that there was an actual attack on the island before this. All that was said is that some black clothed woman killed Serena’s group, that’s it. Even here there is only the fact that the inhabitants were evacuating for some reason and nothing about actually why.)
“I see. I guess we should go and take a look.”
“Understood. I will lead the way. It should still be usable if the seawater didn’t get in. There may be Guardians there, but as a Division Commander they should listen to my orders.”
“I see. Having them as allies would be reassuring.”
They should be helpful not only for defending Alus Island, but to take back the continent as well. Guardians don’t die unless their Magic Cores get destroyed.
Magical metal ore is really important though.
Depending on the type of ore and the refining method, some metals go for the same amount of gold as the metal itself.
(TN: That sounds quite cheap to be honest.)
“Okay, then let’s go and take a look at that passageway tomorrow.”
So we decided to head for Alus Island’s underground tunnel the next morning.
(TN: Should’ve started that drinking game earlier, I guess it’s just one shot for now, shockingly.)
