How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony-Chapter 38: A Day in the Life of Kin Issei

It was a day in April 1592.

The turbulent late 16th century! Dawn of capitalism and the bourgeoisie! Beginning of imperialism! A world on fire!

The Battle of Busan, the first battle of the Japanese invasion of Korea, had just begun! About 5 months after King Henry IV of France launched a siege attack on Rouen occupied by Spanish forces!

Ah, how will the day of Nemo, the angel of Roanoke Island, and the great Japanese man Kin Issei begin?

Ring ring.

"Delicious mixed grain rice is ready. Please stir the rice well as you eat."

...Nothing special, it starts with a slow-cooker rice.

It doesn't even need to be slow-cooked anymore. My body has become one where not a speck remains even if I gorge on white rice, meat, fried food, alcohol, and tobacco.

Yet here I am eating slow-cooked rice.

This sounds like Captain America taking steroids.

I never thought my mother's "17 Nutritious Grains" would be used like this. I just tried planting them experimentally, and out came barley, millet, foxtail millet, oats, sorghum, chickpeas, and so on.

...Right. Just no rice. I somehow failed at growing any type of rice, like glutinous rice or brown rice.

So my daily food is slow-cooked grain rice. If not that, then boiled potatoes and bread (definitely not white bread. Tastes awful).

When the rice is done, I crack organic (by force) eggs into the frying pan, make fried eggs, transfer them to a plate.

Then I place potato stew, sesame leaves (organic), lettuce (organic), cabbage (organic), and all sorts of wild greens (natural) received from Manteo's tribe on the table.

Manteo definitely said those greens were delicious, but I still don't know their Japanese names. They seem to be plants that don't even have Japanese names. I ran out of sesame oil two years ago, so I'm just eating them boiled and then roasted with crushed sesame seeds and salt...

"Hmm... the seasoning is just right."

It tastes better than expected.

So.

Slow-cooked grain rice, potato stew, greens, fried eggs.

...Can such a daily routine even be called a life? Where have my tonkatsu, yakitori, agedashi tofu, miso soup, grilled saba, karaage, teriyaki pizza, pasta, udon, yakisoba, ebi fry, and curry rice gone?

Of course, they all disappeared when "Delivery Tribe" stopped working, which didn't have many delivery places to begin with.

Why were Kyoto kaiseki or cucumber sandwiches upper-class food in the past? Come to the past yourself and you'll understand everything.

"Hehe..."

The only hope in this terrible pre-modern healthy diet is one thing.

"Heh... hehehe..."

Homemade butter.

When I mix homemade delicious butter into the slow-cooked grain rice that's more like animal feed than human food, add salt and stir it up, it finally starts to smell somewhat like a dish.

After hastily finishing my warlike meal by stuffing vegetable sides and potato stew into my butter rice, and completing the dishes, my day finally begins.

Right after finishing breakfast that reminds me daily of the preciousness of butter and salt, I go without rest to check the water pipes supplying agricultural and domestic water.

"Hey... the hose has come off again."

Of course, the water taps are left on 24 hours. Not to prevent freezing... that's not the reason. It's April now, what freezing? This isn't Japan with its crazy climate where it snows in April.

Clean water is being replicated, so it would be stranger to leave it unused.

The water from our house is divided into clean water and agricultural water, which goes to the water tank behind the farm, and from there to the homes and fields of the villagers.

Thanks to this, there's no water shortage on Roanoke Island. In fact, droughts are welcome.

Last year when there was a drought, the grape sugar content went insanely high. I shed tears of emotion at the miracle of the American climate where a bunch reached over 25 Brix.

Anyway, water management is done. Next...

Rumble rumble rumble!

"Huff, huff... I can't entrust this to anyone else..."

I transfer various agricultural fertilizers and chemicals into containers.

Fertilizers, pesticides, and other pharmaceuticals like medical streptomycin sulfate (still not sure if it's legal) that Mr. Tanaka from the wholesale market insisted I mix with gibberellin, are all treated as consumables that regenerate at midnight.

These items will all be refilled at midnight anyway. Of course, I need to move them elsewhere and stockpile as much as possible.

After moving Mr. Yamada's experimental drugs of uncertain origin and refrigerated agricultural antibiotics to the cold storage, that job is done too.

But the "consumables" in our house don't end there.

I thought the only source of aluminum in our house was aluminum foil. But that wasn't the case.

Clips. Staples. Various screws. Twist ties, wires, etc.

All sorts of seemingly trivial metal consumables are infinitely copied. Although the daily output isn't large, if collected day by day, the amount becomes quite substantial.

I pour them out, separate iron and aluminum with a magnet, divide copper, stainless steel, and regular iron into different containers, and head to Brown's forge, the goldsmith.

"Mr. Brown? Could you please handle these?"

"Ah, excellent! Hasoon! Wake up all the other blacksmiths! We've got work!"

"Yes, Father!"

A 21st century rose knife is stronger than a medieval sword. That is, even seemingly trivial metal consumables are products of highly advanced 21st century metallurgy.

As Mr. Brown and his native adopted son Hasoon Brown strike the anvil, blacksmiths gather from all around the workshop like zombies discovering humans, taking the precious aluminum, steel, and copper.

Aluminum is especially important. It means that aluminum in metal form is found only on our Roanoke Island in this era.

And of course, the procession of consumables doesn't end here.

"Nemo! People have gathered here!"

"I'm coming, Eleanor!"

The multivitamins in our house are treated as medicine, not food and beverages... they're also "consumables."

That means even if I distribute hundreds of tablets, they'll all be refilled tomorrow.

"Take only one tablet each. Two or more can be harmful."

"Hey you there! Don't be greedy, take just one!"

What started in the early days, distributing vitamins with Eleanor to prevent people from suffering from malnutrition before the potato farming began, has now become a daily routine.

Well... anyway, thanks to this, none of the people here have died of starvation or disease, so I keep continuing it for now.

After finishing vitamin distribution with Eleanor, I return home.

Chalaralarak!

I pour out all the first aid medicines from the medicine cabinet, vacuum-pack them with my mother's vacuum sealer that she used for tsukemono storage, and bundle them up.

This... I remember when my father was dumbfounded, asking my mother, "Are you planning to open a butcher shop?" when buying this.

I still don't understand why someone so cautious about buying a single electronic appliance would spend his retirement money to build a 13,200 square meter Shine Muscat farm.

Father, Mother, please watch over me from afar as I'm fruitfully enjoying all the results of your reckless endeavors.

Anyway.

What do I use the vacuum sealer for...

"Ms. Lawrence! Ms. Margaret Lawrence!"

"Ah! Here I am! Goodness, there's so much today?"

"I've been too busy to come for several days. Please start by putting the headache pills in the box."

"Understood! Since there are almost no patients today, I'll start by organizing the medications!"

I use it for the "hospital."

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

Another thing I learned coming to this era.

In an age where the common treatment is to feed people opium instead of painkillers, cut off limbs, and cauterize them with fire for disinfection, I'm quite a competent doctor just with basic first aid supplies and skills.

When I first arrived here, I taught Ms. Lawrence, who had provided emergency treatment for Mr. Harriot's leg, some basic first aid and how to use medications, and now we have a clinic that heals people better than most European hospitals.

...What? Just by properly using Tylenol and aspirin, I become a great healer? Just by using distilled water for treatment and sterilizing instruments in boiling water, people who would die now live?

I can't even begin to imagine how much blood and how many corpses were accumulated to create 21st century medical knowledge.

I'm always grateful... "Survival Techniques! First Aid." I will always live with gratitude to the 2000s Japanese learning manga market...

When I return home, it's about 12:10 PM.

Now the morning schedule that started around 5 AM is roughly finished. I turn on my phone, play music, and turn on the Nintendo Switch.

The music I listen to is CCM and hymns.

The games I play are Animal Crossing and Zelda.

...Why, you ask?

If I started listening to heavy metal and playing Doom again, wouldn't they think I'm not human?

Anyway, after getting tired of managing an island in the real world and engaging in the strange behavior of focusing on managing a cyber island (credit: Tom Nook Inc.), it becomes 2 PM again.

Since it's 2 PM, soon...

Knock! Knock!

"Nemo! We have arrived!"

That's right. It's Vicente González's voice.

When I open the door, Vicente bows his head with a smile.

"We've come to get the transparent shields and iron bars."

Right. I need to gather PC panels for building materials and copper pipes for heating, steel square tubes.

I'm squeezing out everything I can from this farm.

I pass copper pipes and even aluminum clips to the blacksmiths, and carefully collect every Tylenol tablet to send to the hospital.

Besides that, when Mr. Harriot kept saying he was short on paper, I took copy paper from the printer and distributed it, and when Shakespeare and Bacon said they were short on ink, I extracted fountain pen ink for them.

Even with all this effort, I'm still eating slow-cooked grain rice three times a day. To maintain a 21st century lifestyle and feed the people around me, I need to put in this much effort.

"Shall we go then?"

"Yes, Nemo! Everyone, get ready! Connect the carts to the back of the Hijet!"

The only vehicle used for transport on Roanoke Island is the Hijet. But as you know, the Hijet is a compact car, so there's a limit to its loading capacity.

Click! Click!

But we found a way even here. Well... it's a bit crude as a method.

Roughly, we attach several carts to the Hijet like ox carts and pull them like a train.

It's only natural that the Hijet would break down doing this, but of course, it's not my Hijet! It even gets automatically washed at midnight, so it's perfectly fine even after doing this for over a year!

So as Vicente and I get into the Hijet, the Spaniards who entered the materials warehouse each pack PC panels and steel square tubes into the carts attached to the back of the Hijet.

And when I start the engine, the inline 3-cylinder engine begins a fierce rampage!

Go, Hijet! Show your power!

Putt-putt-putt...

...The Hijet starts with a sigh like a dying old man, then barely inches forward.

"It's amazing every time I see it! This cart is so powerful! To think that a cart that burns oil for power exists! It's so incredible!"

"...Is that so?"

Well, even this much output is far better than the latest vehicles (horse carts) of this era. It's true that this thing can do the work of several oxen at once.

So we slowly moved along the well-paved road toward the coast. Gradually, the new vineyards and greenhouses established here and there come into view.

...All built with these materials.

By moving materials like this every day, we produce enough in a few months to complete one greenhouse.

When the Hijet stops at the coast, the Spaniards rush to carry the PC panels, steel square tubes, various insulation materials, and accessories to be used as building materials to the coastal battery cum warehouse.

"Phew, it must be around 5 PM now. It's evening time."

"Great! Nemo, I'm thinking of having a company dinner with my subordinates now, and I wonder if you might like to join..."

"Ah, I have things to do from now on. I'm afraid it will be difficult."

"Pardon? The sun will set soon, what do you have to do?"

"Ah... I..."

I suddenly look at the distant horizon with sorrowful eyes and say:

"I plan to contemplate how the kingdoms of this earth and future humanity will spend the next several centuries. Isn't that the duty of one who possesses even a little more power and knows more knowledge?"

"As expected... Nemo...!"

Vicente looks up at me with somehow sparkling eyes. Don't look at me like that... it's burdensome...

Anyway, I'm not lying.

'Europa Universalis 5' 'Crusader Kings'

...Since I've fallen into history, this isn't addiction to games or killing time, but unavoidable "study."

I'm just "studying" world history.

Of course, in the games, Poland suddenly creates Germany and France gets invaded by the Aztecs... but that's just a means to develop flexible thinking for me who has fallen into the butterfly effect of history.

That's right.

I wasn't wrong...

Even though the playtime of those two games has increased by 1,000 hours each since I fell here.

I, I wasn't wrong.

I...

And so, before I know it, it's 1 AM.

My day ends.