Green Wood And Firewood

After returning from the home improvement store, Sakuma built us a proper hearth pad and heat shields. These were designed to prevent the surrounding wood and other materials from gradually becoming carbonized through prolonged exposure to the heat of the wood-burning stove. Their purpose wasn’t simply to prevent fires.

He also properly sealed the chimney we’d temporarily installed through the window so that cold drafts could no longer enter.

Once word spread that the nursery school had a wood-burning stove, nearby residents began gathering there.

The children and housewives were welcome, but men started showing up with alcohol as well. The director grew concerned that their drinking would have a bad influence on the children.

The leader of these men was a middle-aged former fisherman named Muto, who now worked as an Explorer. The young men who gathered around him were fellow Explorers.

“Sorry about this, Director Doi. We’ve been holding our discussions at the meeting hall and putting up with the cold, but the younger guys say they can’t stand it anymore.”

The meeting hall was a former guesthouse that could accommodate around twenty people. I could understand why they might have needed alcohol to get through meetings in such a freezing building.

“But you don’t hold meetings every day, do you? Besides, surely you don’t need alcohol just to have a meeting.”

Muto rubbed his balding head.

“You say that, Director, but the young guys feel like they can’t get through this mess without a drink.”

Apparently, the young people of Higashikami Town felt that the authorities had abandoned them. Whenever they drank, they complained about the mayor and his people over in Higashishimo Town.

There was something I found puzzling.

“Muto-san, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“About that alcohol. I’m surprised there’s enough for you to drink every day.”

Muto grinned.

“Heh heh heh… There’s one good thing about this town. Believe it or not, Yaso City’s only sake brewery is right here!”

I’d heard of it myself. It was Watayuki Brewery, the producer of a Japanese sake called Watayukizakari. However, I’d only recently turned twenty, and beer was about the only alcohol I ever drank. I’d completely forgotten about the brewery.

Apparently, there was enough sake to last an entire year, even if they kept drinking it.

“Why don’t you just install a wood-burning stove in the meeting hall?”

Elena suggested to Muto.

“Hey, now! Where exactly are we supposed to find a wood-burning stove?”

The Aberrant Beasts had first appeared in summer, so the stoves left at the home improvement store were probably unsold stock from the previous winter.

“It doesn’t have to be a proper wood-burning stove. Couldn’t you make one out of something else?”

I offered a suggestion.

Muto considered it for a moment, but apparently couldn’t think of anything, so he asked me.

“Like what, for example?”

“Let’s see… How about a steel drum?”

“A drum, huh… Anything too big would be no good. A fifty- or sixty-liter drum might work.”

Muto gathered the young men who had been drinking and began discussing the idea with them.

The next day, they apparently found a drum somewhere and used chisels and other tools to modify it into something resembling a wood-burning stove. They also found an iron pipe about ten centimeters in diameter and used it as a substitute chimney.

These makeshift wood-burning stoves fashioned from steel drums became popular throughout Higashikami Town, and more households began installing their own by modifying small drums.

The problem was that the growing number of wood-burning stoves created an enormous demand for firewood.

“What do you think we should do?”

Muto suddenly showed up at the nursery school and asked me that question.

“What’s this about, showing up out of nowhere? Why don’t you and the other Explorers figure it out yourselves?”

“Because those guys are hopeless! That’s why I came to ask you!”

The proposal raised at their meeting had been to cut down trees in the mountains and use them as firewood. Apparently, the younger generation knew little about forestry and assumed that a freshly felled tree could immediately be used as firewood.

I wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about forestry either, but living on the island had improved my survival skills and knowledge. At the very least, I knew that freshly cut wood had to be dried before it could be used as firewood.

“Isn’t there anyone in this town who used to work in forestry?”

“Unfortunately, they’re all dead.”

Apparently, the forestry workforce had been aging for years. Every last one of them had died from the poison.

“You’ll be in trouble too when the firewood you’ve collected runs out, won’t you, Kojiro?”

Muto called me Kojiro, probably because that was what the children called me.

It wasn’t as though I hadn’t thought about the problem. Eventually, we’d have to cut down trees in the mountains, dry the wood, and turn it into firewood. However, that would be for next winter.

“I do think we’ll need to cut down trees in the mountains.”

Muto gave me a look that seemed to say, You too?

“I know we can’t use the wood as firewood until it’s dried.”

“Then you understand that cutting down trees now won’t give us anything we can use right away.”

“That’s for next winter. As for the firewood we need now, I think our only option is to demolish houses in the Goblin Zone.”

Muto looked shocked.

“Those houses belong to other people! If we tear them down without permission, we’ll have to pay compensation…”

Muto seemed to remember that the police and courts responsible for enforcing such laws were no longer functioning.

“…They say houses deteriorate quickly once nobody lives in them. Maybe tearing them down would actually be better.”

“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to plant trees afterward, too?”

We couldn’t plant trees on concrete foundations, but I thought it might be interesting to plant trees in the gardens and increase the number growing there.

“Plant trees…? Kojiro, do you think things are going to stay like this for years?”

“Who knows? I certainly don’t. But I think we should assume things will stay this way until help arrives.”

Muto grimaced and bit his lip.

“Could you start attending our meetings too, Kojiro?”

“When do you hold them?”

“Saturday nights.”

“But you seem to get together every day.”

“Those are just drinking sessions.”

What a hopeless bunch. If they had time to sit around drinking, they should be putting some effort into improving their living conditions. That was what I thought.

Elena and I transported all the food remaining at the supermarket in the Goblin Zone to the nursery school, securing enough supplies to last an entire year. As for vegetables, we’d already been receiving some from a farmer named Yoshino.

In exchange, we helped with farmwork and fetching water. Yoshino had made a success of growing eggplants in greenhouses and owned five large plastic greenhouses.

However, after the electricity stopped working and his remaining gasoline ran out, he could no longer operate his machinery, and most of the vegetables he’d been growing were ruined. Even so, he still had more vegetables than his family could consume, so he supplied some to the nursery school.

There were more than two hundred people engaged in farming in Higashikami Town, like Yoshino. Many other residents obtained food by providing labor to these farmers.

Vegetables and grains were reasonably plentiful, but production of meat and eggs was limited. Some farms kept chickens, but nobody operated a full-scale poultry farm, so the nursery school rarely had either.

Incidentally, the fishing industry was apparently in a terrible state. Without fuel, the boats couldn’t go out to sea. Rod fishing was still possible, but the bad winter weather and shortage of fishing hooks had made things difficult. Muto had apparently given up fishing and become an Explorer instead.

One day, Muto came to the nursery school and asked if I would accompany him to the home improvement store. Apparently, Sakuma had told him that I’d been there.

“You’re an Explorer too, aren’t you, Muto-san? Surely you can manage a trip to the home improvement store…”

Muto shook his head emphatically. Apparently, only a small number of Explorers were capable of defeating Orcs in combat.

When I asked about it, he told me that the Explorers’ levels ranged from ‘05’ to ‘10’. They operated mainly in the Goblin Zone, and the Beastman Zone, with its Orcs, was too dangerous for them.

“What do you need from the home improvement store?”

“I want some fishing gear. I’d also like to get a proper set of carpentry tools.”

I found it strange that a fisherman needed fishing gear. I’d assumed he would already have some at home. However, Muto had made his living fishing with nets, so he apparently owned very little rod-fishing equipment.

“I don’t mind going, but will it just be you, Muto-san?”

“I’d like to bring three of our Explorers along.”

I agreed, since I wanted some fishing gear myself. I’d eaten almost nothing but fish while living on the island, but I hadn’t had any for the past several days. Now that I thought about it, I found myself craving the very fish I’d supposedly grown tired of eating.

The three men accompanying Muto were Kashiwagi, Kuroi, and Ninobe. Kashiwagi was a waterworks bureau office employee in his late twenties, Kuroi was a truck driver in his early twenties, and Ninobe was an eighteen-year-old high school student.

Elena wanted to practice archery, so I set out with Muto and his three companions.