How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony-Chapter 9: Clearing Stock

WHIIIIIIR!

Slice slice slice.

THUD!

"Everyone stay back! I can handle the logging work alone!"

"No, how can we just keep receiving help? We want to help too!"

I had always thought chainsaw work was very difficult, but...

Screech. Creak. Sa-ga-ga-ga-gak.

"...It's fine."

Seeing several adults sweating profusely while holding one saw, that impression completely disappeared.

This thing cuts like a butter knife through butter. Come to think of it, I remember seeing something on the internet. They said even a modern ordinary kitchen knife would be treated like a legendary sword if taken to the past.

Then how big must the gap be between that half-rusted, dulled saw and this 18-inch chainsaw I'm holding? It's terrifying to think about doing this work with those axes and saws.

Maybe this chainsaw could even cut through a knight's armor in this era. (It can't.)

"...Chainsaws really are god-tier."

...Thank you, X Electronics. And thanks to the village head who sold me a used engine saw for exactly 10,000 yen.

I'll cleanly forget about that 100,000 yen village development fund.

...Come to think of it, I can't forget.

You bastard.

Anyway, after pushing away the settlers and finishing clearing about 3,300 square meters of forest by myself, the sun was high in the sky. That concluded several days of work.

I put down the chainsaw while wiping sweat from my forehead.

"This must be about 3 roods of area! It's enough for us to farm!"

"...Indeed, Eleanor."

Since I also use unit systems like '1 tsubo = 3.3 square meters', I decided to just keep my mouth shut about area measurements.

"Next, will you bring out 'that' like last time?"

"...Yes."

I nodded and.

THUD THUD THUD THUD!

Soon brought out a 10-ton forklift and dug up all the remaining tree roots!

"Wooooow!"

"The machine arm is so strong!"

Haha, hahaha! This feeling of omnipotence is no joke! It gives me an incredible sense of superiority seeing adults watching with their mouths open and children jumping around excitedly.

By the way, how do I operate a forklift over 3 tons when you need both an excavator operator's license and construction machinery operator's license? How did I get those when I must be in my mid-twenties at most?

I didn't!

Mr. Shoji next door got them! This was originally rented by Mr. Shoji! He brought it to clear trees from the hills and forgot about it, and it got transported here with me!

I knew how to operate small forklifts, so after trying a few times, it moved similarly enough. Of course, it broke a few times... and I spent several nights practicing... but well. It regenerates.

Something wrong with that? Then where's the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to regulate me? Where's the Japanese police to arrest me for unlicensed operation?

Nothing can constrain me. I am free!

This is America!

THUD THUD THUD THUD!

"Woooooow!"

Ha, truly America. A free and bold operation befitting the land of freedom. Just like that, 3,300 square meters of forest instantly became land for plowing fields and building huts.

People immediately rushed in with shovels and potato sacks to plant potatoes the way I taught them.

The settlement has grown quite large now.

Originally 10 people crowded into one house, but now each household can have their own house, and everyone is enthusiastic about soon establishing buildings like a church or workshop.

Plus now that we've secured enough cultivation area for everyone to live on, food worries have lessened too.

"...Though we can't be too relieved."

The settlers are people who have never seen potatoes in their lives. It would be stranger if they succeeded from the start after just one simple farming lesson.

So I was planning to create a separate potato field of about 1,650 square meters using the empty land in this farm.

Any questions about it requiring a lot of labor were discarded before they could even come up.

Because behind me are 21st century agricultural technology and mechanical engineering.

The so-called cultivator.

You can think of it as a miniaturized tractor. Because it can do everything a tractor can do.

VROOM VROOM VROOM!

For example, like now, instantly plowing fields, building ridges, and simultaneously doing vinyl mulching (ground covering).

Labor that would take hours crouching over the ground is completed in an instant.

That black vinyl spread on the ground in rural areas - this is what it is. This vinyl maintains moisture to prevent the field from drying out, suppresses weeds, and prevents soil erosion.

POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!

When you dig holes in the vinyl laid like this with a seeder and dig into the ground, it digs exactly between 10-15 centimeters. Just the right depth for planting potatoes.

Throw the cut seed potatoes into the seeder and cover them with soil, and just like that, potato planting is done.

...This too would have taken hours or days if done with just hoes and shovels.

21st century agricultural technology, what is it?

It looks simple at first glance, but underneath lie countless small advances, and it took hundreds to thousands of years just to reach there.

Synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, various farming tools...

'If only I could replicate this, it would be huge.'

Of course, replication is impossible. At best, it can only make life comfortable for me and the 33 people gathered around me.

But couldn't they at least take it apart and study it later? If we exclude parts difficult to reproduce in this era like engines and make it run on animal or human power...

That would be huge.

Feeling like I'd thought of something amazing, I immediately noted it down. Right. Later, later when the settlement grows bigger...

'...When it grows bigger?'

What should I do when it grows bigger?

In the original history, the Roanoke colony failed. And those famous Jamestown and Plymouth remain as the beginning of early American pioneering history.

But in 1590, that is, in about two years, when I meet John White returning from England, things change from that moment.

This place becomes the British Empire's first North American colony.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

And I become its beginning.

"..."

Then what should I do?

Can I survive? How do I explain my resources, and how can I maintain ownership of them?

Then... after all that, what happens to me?

"Nemo!"

"...Ah, Eleanor."

Let's put aside complicated thoughts for now. The English probably don't want to create conflicts with me either.

Thankfully, this era is appropriately primitive enough that there are no scientists who would want to dissect me, nor anyone who would dig up my entire farm to uncover its true nature.

Frankly speaking, whether I say I'm the last resident of sunken Atlantis or an alien from the moon, they would have no choice but to believe.

What if my lies are exposed?

What does it matter when it would be after I die having lived well-treated in the British Empire?

'O Immortal, will you become a pioneer of the new world in infinite blessing? Or will you become a slave to fate?'

Well, IF I actually became immortal, that would be different...

...Well, let the future me deal with that.

"Eleanor, what is it?"

What we need to worry about now is food for the future.

Food from hunting, gathering, and small vegetable gardens won't be enough to last until the potato harvest. We might have to eat some chickens, but considering the eggs they would lay, that would be a waste...

"The savage tribes..."

"'Natives.'"

"Ah, sorry. The native tribes have come."

"What?"

"They say they've come with thank-you gifts for those grapes from last time? Can we let them in for now?"

"..."

I glanced toward the gate. Dimly visible were about a dozen people standing around carrying something.

Most were unclothed, instead expressing their status and identity through complex tattoos on their bodies.

Should we let them in? Showing them my resources and capabilities as they are... no. They wouldn't understand even if they saw.

"They may enter. It was their land originally after all."

"Alright! I'll let them in then!"

Eleanor, who had dirt on her face, hurriedly checked her reflection in a nearby puddle and fixed her hair as if she were an official diplomatic envoy.

Then she walked with exaggerated noble steps and opened the gate. I turned off the cultivator and followed after her.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

When she tapped the iron fence with her finger, the natives who had been looking around nervously turned their attention this way.

Among them, a man dressed almost like a European stepped forward as representative. It was this man Eleanor spoke to.

"...'He' has permitted entry to his domain."

"Eleanor, why are you walking so strangely, swaying back and forth? Your voice is lower than usual too..."

"Ah, hahaha..."

"Then where is 'he'? His name is..."

"Nemo."

"..."

"Nice to meet you. Are you that Manteo? I heard you brought gifts - please, come inside first."

"..."

I paused briefly seeing Manteo's expression strangely harden.

What is it? Did I make some mistake? I just greeted him and offered a handshake.

After thinking for a while, I finally realized.

"...You're very fluent in our language. Which tribe are you from?"

Ah.

I didn't just speak in English.

Apparently the language cheat wasn't limited to just English.

==

"Then where is 'he'? His name is..."

"Nemo."

"..."

"Nice to meet you. Are you that Manteo? I heard you brought gifts - please, come inside first."

"..."

Manteo was surprised twice in this short conversation.

He had seen it directly.

London, England's wealth and power. For a long time of one year, no less.

The English built structures as massive as mountains and made clocks that detected instants while ticking away.

They created stained glass where light shattered like rainbows, and assembled ships that carried over a hundred strong men across the great sea.

He saw the queen and nobles wrapped in uncomfortable clothes decorated with gold, silver, and all manner of brilliant jewels. He also saw muskets that killed not just people but fierce beasts in one breath.

He saw cannons that threw huge boulders.

That pure splendor, that pure power!

That power came from strange people who looked completely different from him until now. People with high noses, pale faces, and sunken eyes.

Yearning for that power, Manteo dressed like them. Yearning for that power, Manteo received their baptism.

"Then where is 'he'? His name is..."

"Nemo."

But the man before him... looked more like them than those Europeans.

Manteo could easily read the reverence in Eleanor's eyes.

He also saw the huge house and farm spread out behind her. All of this was built in just 1-2 weeks...?

There Manteo was surprised for the first time.

And second.

"Nice to meet you. Are you that Manteo? I heard you brought gifts - please, come inside first."

He was too "fluent" in Algonquin.

So... Manteo had to ask.

"...Which tribe are you from?"

At those words, the man's demeanor suddenly changed.

He looked up at the sky with somehow distant eyes and spoke as if whispering.

"...A place you can never reach. Far in the East, perhaps the West. Where all traces of spirits disappear. A place I can never return to."

"..."

"Ah... I got lost in thoughts of home for a moment. I apologize."

"No, not at all."

The man looked very noble in that moment speaking of his homeland. Though his clothes were strange, they looked sturdy and well-crafted, and the sword at his waist looked heavy and solid.

"Eleanor, let's bring our guests inside."

"Ah, yes!"

Above all, the man skillfully wielded both English and Algonquin.

He also seemed very accustomed to commanding people.

Either he was a very high person...

"...Or a god."

"What did you just say?"

"Ah, nothing."

As Manteo entered, the wire mesh gate smoothly closed behind him. He couldn't even tell what that thing with the huge arm stopped in the distance was for. A weapon?

While standing tensely, a fellow tribesman poked his waist from the side. Ah, he was so nervous he forgot to deliver their purpose.

"Ah, ahem, we came to repay your kindness from last time."

"Repayment? There's no need."

"No. Such food must surely be precious."

"..."

Manteo saw the man's face slightly harden then relax. Why?

Manteo didn't know that the vast farm spread behind the man was all fields of that 'precious thing.'

"Ahem, anyway we brought welcoming gifts from our tribe to repay you. We hope this land pleases you."

As Manteo said this, the tribesmen behind him put down their loads all at once. There were corn, peas, and various fruits.

"Though it's inadequate, we hope you'll accept our sincerity..."

"It's not inadequate at all!"

Suddenly the man's voice rose. His face noticeably brightened too.

"We won't have to eat the chickens... no, never mind."

"..."

"But this seems a bit much in exchange for just one grape."

"Actually... we have a request."

Because it was quite a difficult request, Manteo hesitated for a moment. He bowed politely and asked the man before him.

"Perhaps, could you give us more of those precious grapes..."

"Of course!"

"...What?"

Again.

No, this time the man's voice rose even higher, and his face brightened even more. No way to know why...

"Uh..."

"Please come more often! Let's exchange like this once a week, Manteo!"

"Th-thank... you but... I haven't said how many we'd take..."

"Take as much as you want! As much as you want!"

"Then... we'll take 100 bunches. We need to share with nearby related tribes."

"Of course! You can take 200 bunches, 300 bunches!"

300 bunches! Of those sweet grapes?

At those words, Manteo thought he was the victor in this trade negotiation.

He probably would have been greatly shocked if he knew what the other party was thinking.

==

Finally.

Finally found a buyer for these damn 10,000 bunches of grapes.

==

And so, 13 weeks after starting the grape trade.

While receiving 500 bunches of grapes, Manteo realizes something has gone wrong.