Chapter 6

“Uh, s-sir, if it’s not too much to ask… could you possibly… take us in? W-we will do anything!”

Success.

I had to suppress the urge to shout for joy at her response.

I had finally created a ‘friendly force’ in this strange new world. Surviving here all by myself would be next to impossible. There were the native peoples, who would surely want to eliminate the strange man who had suddenly appeared on their land. And there were the future white settlers, who would likely want to eliminate the strange man they found after seizing someone else’s land. I would have to find a way to balance the two factions while pursuing my own survival.

And right now…

“…It is difficult to give you a definite answer right away. I must take a moment to consider.”

“Oh… yes?”

This was my last chance to gain such a position of advantage over these white colonists.

The group of English folk before me numbered only thirty. I had saved them from the brink of starvation, so if they were human, they would understand the concept of gratitude. What’s more, their own resources and weapons were meager, and they were the ones who had come to me, bowing their heads. Of all the scenarios I had imagined, this was the best possible outcome.

For that very reason, I showed a moment of hesitation. Accepting their plea too eagerly could expose a weakness.

“…”

“…”

The longer my silence stretched, the more palpable the anxiety grew among the English. Several minutes passed, the silence deepening until the air itself felt heavy. When I finally spoke, my voice alone was enough to command everyone’s attention.

“…Very well.”

The moment my answer came, cheers erupted from all around. The sounds of prayer and outright sobbing filled the clearing. Eleanor, too, seemed unable to contain her emotions. Her hands trembled as she briefly lowered her head, clenching her fists, before looking up to speak. The rims of her eyes were red.

“Th-thank you…”

“However.”

I raised a single finger before the emotional Eleanor.

“It would be… burdensome for you to come to Our settlement.”

“J-just allowing us to settle nearby would be more than enough! If you could share a little food…”

“Will that truly be enough? If you build a village near Our settlement, We can help you get established. We can provide you with seeds and tools, if you wish.”

“…”

“In return, you must abide by one condition.”

“…What is that condition? We will do anything!”

To Eleanor’s desperate question, I answered with the most benevolent smile I could muster.

“…We only ask that the friendship between us endures.”

***

…It was unbelievable.

Eleanor nearly had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

He will permit us to come near his settlement.

He will help us build our own village.

He will even provide us with tools and seeds.

And in return, he asks for… nothing.

The unbelievably generous terms left her dumbfounded. She felt like a small child who had received a gift she had never even dared to hope for.

“W-we cannot simply receive so much! If there is anything we can give you, we will give it.”

“Oh? And what could you possibly give me?”

“Mr. Nicholls here is a tailor! If you have any clothes that need mending…”

“I have sufficient clothing.”

“Ah… in that case…”

“It is fine. We also require a few days to prepare, so we ask that you wait.”

“…Thank you.”

“It is nothing. If you feel truly sorry, you may lend a hand with some work from time to time.”

A few more meaningless pleasantries were exchanged, and then he was gone.

“…”

“…”

“…”

No one dared to be the first to speak. They simply stared at one another.

The painful memories of the past few years flashed through each of their minds. The journey to the New World had been a series of endless hardships. They had arrived too late for the farming season due to the sudden whims of their navigator and had been forced to settle on the swampy Roanoke Island instead of their intended destination. While trying to catch fish and crabs, they had encountered a hostile tribe, and several people had died. They launched a night raid in retaliation but mistakenly attacked an allied tribe.

They had been constantly starving. On the journey to this island, Croatoan, several more had drowned. And here, they had once again come to the brink of starving to death. Eleanor could imagine all sorts of terrible outcomes. They could have fought amongst themselves and killed each other, or they could have been attacked and killed by a hostile tribe. If that ‘hand of salvation’ had been even a little later… that would have been their fate.

And now, that same savior had promised them another chance. He had said he would help them achieve the very reason they came here: to build a ‘new life.’

“Th-this isn’t some temptation of Satan, is it? Like, if we follow him to his settlement, a fiery pit of hell awaits…”

“What kind of Satan brings medicine and food every day to people who are starving to death?”

“…Well, that’s true.”

It was a kindness without condition. A favor unlike any they had ever known, an opportunity so immense and unexpected that people spoke nonsense, wondering if there was some hidden catch. They uttered these doubts even as they knew them to be false, simply because the situation felt too good to be true.

“Now, ‘He’ said he will return tomorrow. Let us stop talking and go to sleep early! We will have to move again starting tomorrow!”

At Eleanor’s words, the people began to lie down one by one.

They rested under the tents made from the cloth ‘He’ had given them.

They sipped the mysterious drink ‘He’ had given them.

They fiddled with the mysterious metal tins ‘He’ had given them.

And they dreamed of the hope that tomorrow would bring. They couldn’t sleep. There was no reason to fall asleep and dream when, tomorrow, they would see their dreams come true while wide awake.

“…”

Eleanor was no different.

Until now, Eleanor had been nothing. But now, having become a leader, at least for this small group of mostly women and children, she stood on the verge of building a new colony. All because she had found a new ally she had never expected, because she had met a new person she could never have imagined.

Eleanor looked at the beautifully etched pictures and mysterious letters on the metal tin. The strange characters, some square, some round, looked less like a language and more like mathematical symbols. And Eleanor could not read a single one.

I am heading into an unknown world.

Perhaps the man was the king of a kingdom filled with gold and pure silver. A rich and powerful monarch who commanded thousands of servants and ruled over millions of subjects. Perhaps… as some whispered, he was an angel. She didn’t truly believe it, but the mercy and devotion he had shown the English colonists were indeed like that of an angel. It was understandable why some thought so.

Whichever it was, Eleanor lay awake all night, imagining the settlement they would begin building the next day. As she pictured the mysterious Eastern kingdom that would be their neighbor, she finally drifted off to sleep.

And when she woke the next day, when she was guided by ‘Him’ to that place…

CRASH!

“Move the injured into the farm hut inside that fence.”

“A farm… what?”

“That cabin over there.”

“And the rest of us…?”

“You can make use of the forest over there by clearing it. I will help.”

“Ah, no! It’s all right! There are thirty of us! One more person won’t make much of a difference…”

WHIIIIIRRRRRRRR!

CRUUUUNCH!

“…The difference… is there…?”

All of Eleanor’s imaginings had been wrong.

…On second thought, maybe he is an angel after all.

***

It was now early September. The ripening period for the Shine Muscat grapes was coming to an end. It was just before the harvest.

I sprayed a foliar fertilizer, which is applied directly to the leaves for quick absorption, to enrich the soil with potassium phosphate for better flavor and shelf life. At the same time, to prevent the fruit from becoming watery and bland, I reduced the amount of water to the point where only the surface soil remained moist. About sixty percent of the usual amount should be enough.

After working for some time, a sudden realization struck me.

‘…What’s the point of all this?’

It’s not like I was going to eat all the Shine Muscat grapes from my 1,500-pyeong greenhouse by myself. So why was I doing this… and all alone at that?

“…Uggghhh.”

Confucius once said, “If one hears the Way in the morning, one can die in the evening without regret[1].” After attaining this enlightenment, I now wanted to die.

‘…No. There might be some other special perk.’

For example, maybe the Constellation [Master of Olympus] will buy my grapes, and I’ll earn [Coins] to awaken my Hunter abilities. Or maybe my grapes are some incredible elixir, and if I eat one and practice Qi cultivation, pure inner energy will overflow from my donjon…

As if.

Even if I did buy the wrong game cartridge and get thrown 400 years into the past, that was just too far-fetched. If that were the case, a status window would have opened up long ago.

Therefore, my current actions, preparing for the grape harvest, were completely meaningless. They were nothing but the result of inertia, lingering attachment, and stubbornness from years of living this farmer’s life.

“…This farm, I poured everything into building it.”

The fact that my life’s work, forged from the entirety of my early twenties, had become meaningless in an instant was apparently hard to bear.

I sat there, slumped on the ground, until the sound of approaching footsteps made me get up again.

Hooo… Focus. I have to focus.

It was thirty against one. I had to minimize any chance of conflict or showing any weakness. I needed to maintain a friendly, allied relationship while ensuring I never lost the upper hand.

To that end, the course of action I had decided to take was as follows.

“…I believe I told you not to enter this area.”

“I-I apologize! Someone was injured, so I came to see you…”

“Did you move them to the farm hut as I instructed? I will be there shortly.”

“Th-thank you.”

“It’s fine.”

“…”

“From now on… do not enter this place unless I call for you.”

“…Yes.”

Mystique.

In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, did the prisoners aboard the Nautilus ever try to take Captain Nemo hostage or escape? No. For years, they acted as docile passengers. Why?

Because they did not know their captor. They didn’t know what he was capable of, or how inferior their position was compared to his. In fact, the protagonist never even uncovers Captain Nemo’s true identity by the end of the novel.

My strategy was the same.

Mystique. It was all about the mystique.

“Is this… a vineyard?”

I could tell by the tense expression on Eleanor’s face. As she saw the long, neat rows of grapevines and the large bunches of grapes hanging from them, her eyes widened. The sight of me rolling around on a wheeled chair, spraying fertilizer, must have seemed utterly alien to her.

I tried my best to maintain a nonchalant, calm expression as I slowly began to spray fertilizer on the leaves again.

“Yes. As you can see.”

“I have seen many vineyards when I visited Sussex and Kent… but I have never seen grapes this large.”

“This is what happens when you grow them as a simple hobby.”

That’s right. I was not a debt-ridden grape farmer. I had to be some mysterious and powerful being. With a look of utter leisure and boredom, I gracefully sprayed the leaves. Like Bob Ross[2] with his brush, I made it look so easy, so enjoyable, as if it were nothing at all.

Then, I spoke nonchalantly.

“Would you care to try one?”

“Oh, thank you.”

I plucked a few grapes, washed them, and handed them to her. Eleanor looked at them over and over as if they were a marvel, whispering, “They look like some kind of jewel…”

Of course, they do. They were created by a research institute under the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, using the combined agricultural technology of the 20th century.

And when she finally put one in her mouth, her eyes went wide.

It’s delicious, isn’t it? I checked its sugar content earlier; it was over 20 Brix. It had to be delicious; it was department-store quality.

“This, it tastes wonderf… huh?”

“What is it?”

“…”

A serious look clouded Eleanor’s eyes.

“Th-there are no seeds.”

Ah, right. I forgot. This is 400 years in the past.

“…Yes. Is it so strange for a grape to have no seeds?”

…Don’t panic. Speak naturally.

“W-well, of course! Then how does this grape reproduce?”

“Through cuttings, of course.”

“Then it cannot reproduce without a human hand, can it?”

“Correct.”

“How can such a thing exist in nature…”

“It cannot.”

“…”

“I removed the seeds.”

By promoting its growth with gibberellin[3].

“G-good heavens…”

“It is a product of… not my homeland, but an island nation in the far East.”

Thank you, NARO[[NARO (농업식품산업기술종합연구기구): The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization of Japan, the actual developer of the Shine Muscat grape variety.]], for developing this. And thank you, Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, for forgetting to register the variety, meaning I don’t have to pay any royalties for growing it.

“Y-your homeland… where is it?”

“…”

I simply gazed up at the distant sky and said, “…It is in a place you can never reach.”

I am an honest person.

So I only told the truth.

***

He really is an angel.