บท 3: 3. Learning The Truth
Torao forgets to prepare a place for Zoro to sleep.
"Uh, do you like camping?"
Without any other choices, Zoro & Torao decided to spend the night in the forest. They are building a shelter using wood & leaves. The result isn't that good because they make it hastily as it starts to get dark.
They also make a campfire to warm themselves and cook the meat they got. They can only cook the pieces of meat by roasting them. But the taste is very plain because they don't have any seasonings.
"You know, we need to earn money quickly. We need to at least secure a living place and buy seasonings."
"The only way I can think of now is by selling what we hunted. Tomorrow, I will look for places to sell our game. After all, there's no Adventurer Guild here, so we need to find buyers ourselves. But we need to be careful or we'll get scammed, so I'll check them first."
"Alright. I already know the gist of how to set those traps. Let's hope we'll get quite a lot of prey tomorrow."
They quickly sleep so they will be ready for tomorrow. Zoro already accepted his new life and acts normally. He doesn't have that much attachment to his previous life, after all. His only regret is he knows about his blood family after he died, but it doesn't affect him too much because he is used to living alone.
The night is cold, but the fire gives them some warmth. They also use leaves as blankets to block the cold wind. Torao can sense animals if they get closer, so they will be safe. But the insects, especially the mosquitos are big problems.
The smoke somehow repels them a bit, but there are still some that bite him. It's annoying at first, but he eventually falls asleep, ignoring the mosquito bites. He is just too tired, so he falls asleep despite the disturbances.
The next day, Zoro eats some of the meat he saved for breakfast before going to check the traps while Torao goes to the town. He set them again after checking them yesterday in hope to catch some prey at night.
Unfortunately, the 1st trap he checks breaks. The branch he used to tie the rope snaps. Most likely due to a big animal that gets caught. It must be too big and strong for the snare trap to hold. It's unfortunate, but he needs to leave it and check the other traps.
In the end, the snare traps manage to catch just a wild turkey. It's just one prey, but the turkey is quite big, so Zoro is satisfied. As for the cage traps, 2 squirrels and a small snake got caught.
"The turkey can be sold while the squirrels and snake can be eaten by ourselves. They are too small to be sold and I doubt someone will even buy them anyway."
Zoro kills the squirrels and snake, but he keeps the turkey alive just in case it can be sold at a higher price if it's alive. So he just ties it with the rope and goes back to his camp.
Sometime later, Torao returns and tells Zoro that he has found some potential buyers. Torao sees the Turkey and he approves of Zoro's decision to keep it alive. Most buyers will want the meat very fresh and there's nothing fresher than a living Turkey.
"Oh, wait. There's a small farm that raises some Turkeys. Let's check if they can offer a higher price for it than some restaurants."
"Sounds good. Let's go to the town then."
"Alright, I'll go ahead to check the place first."
As they thought, the price for a live Turkey is higher and the farm is offering more than the restaurant. The reason is because it's a male and they are always in need of good males so they will have good offspring. A wild Turkey is a good choice because it's stronger than farm-raised male Turkeys.
They get some money, but obviously it's still not enough to have a good life. It's just a Turkey, after all, not a bucket of gold. So for now, they keep the money and think of a way to get more. Torao keeps the money in a different space using his storage jutsu.
"How does that jutsu work?"
"Actually I don't really understand it. What I know is I can use a space in another dimension. I can send any non-living things there and take them anytime I want."
"Uh? Can you explain it so that even a little kid can understand?"
"Imagine I have an invisible box to store things that I can access anytime."
"Ooh, alright. Can I learn it?"
"There is a jutsu for it, but mine is special. It's different from the normal storage jutsu and only I can use it. Also, different from normal storage jutsu, mine is much bigger. I can even fit a mansion in there."
"Woah, that's awesome."
"Right? So you don't really need to learn it, just my storage instead. We are bound by a contract anyway, so we will always be together."
"A contract?"
"Yes, I am your assistant, remember? Our souls are bound with each other, so we'll always be allies."
"Heeh, I see. But why do you become my assistant? Are you also a reincarnated person?"
"No. I told you that a Grim Reaper mistakenly took your life, right? I was that Grim Reaper."
"W-what?!"
"This is God's command. I need to take responsibility for what I did. So he sent me here to help you in this life until the day you die."
"You are a Grim Reaper?"
Zoro is surprised that Torao was the one who made him die too early. But Torao's current appearance is too unconvincing to be seen as a Grim Reaper.
"Were. I am now just a cat with some abilities that is tasked to assist you. I can only become a Grim Reaper again after I finish my duty here."
"Are you okay with that?"
"As I said, this is my way to atone for my mistake. It's a very lax punishment. I thought I would be erased from existence when I knew I made that mistake."
"Eh? Erased from existence?"
"Yeah, it's applied to Angels who have made very grave mistakes. Well, there hasn't been any angel that received that punishment. Even the Fallen Angel only receives Eternal Damnation as the punishment and will suffer for eternity after the world's end."
"Angel? You were an angel?"
"Grim Reapers are Angels of Death, tasked to take the souls of living beings and bring them to the afterlife."
"Oh, alright. So you will always be with me, right?"
"That's right."
"Great! That means I'll never be alone again in this life."
"You can start a family in the future, so you'll never be lonely in your whole life."
"Starting a family, huh? I guess I can do that if I have a good economy at least. I always want to have a wife and children. But I was too poort and barely had enough to sustain myself. So there was no way I could start a family. I couldn't even date any girl because I couldn't buy them presents."
"Then let's work hard to make it happen. Almost everything is possible if you have power in this world."
"Right, I'll make sure it can happen."
They talk while walking to the garbage dump to search for more materials to make traps. Right now, the only way to earn money that they know is by hunting animals and selling them. It's also a way for them to get food without money.
When they search for materials, they realize that a lot of people live around the garbage dump. Zoro thinks about living there as well, but Torao opposes it. Living here is very risky because they can catch serious diseases which can be much more dangerous than getting bitten by a tiger.
"There are Tigers in the forest?"
"It's just an example. Even if there are tigers in that forest, they will live very deep inside, not on the outskirts near a human town. I just want to say that even if you die in both cases, at least being bitten by a tiger will give you a quick death while you will suffer for a long time if you have caught a dangerous disease."
"Well, let's avoid all those cases. I want to live a long life."
"Absolutely. So let's earn more money."
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