Chapter 6
What a bunch of ungrateful, insolent brats.
The sun was already slanting. Scolding those two could wait—right now, I had to prepare for the coming night.
Judging by the length of the shadows, it was around three in the afternoon.
I raised my hand toward the two idle men and asked,
“Anyone have a lighter? Raise your hand.”
“What’s a lighter?”
“Then anyone have flint? Raise your hand.”
“Who even carries flint around?”
I flipped off the snickering naked guy and turned away.
Since there was no lighter and no flint, I’d have to start a fire the hard way.
I picked up some flat pieces of wood and branches nearby and tossed them between the two of them.
“One of you start a fire. The other help me build the house.”
The one who raised his hand to help build the house was Ben.
But the so-called crown prince pretended not to hear and looked off somewhere else.
That little…
“Hey.”
Ah, damn it. I forgot his name again.
Messing up someone’s name once or twice is one thing, but doing it over and over is rude.
Staring at the back of the so-called crown prince as he slowly turned away despite clearly knowing I was calling him, I tried to think.
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t remember his four-letter name.
The only thing that came to mind was the name of the weed growing right next to where he was sitting.
I went, Got it, and called out,
“Hey, baby dandelion.”
Bingo. He finally turned around and looked at me.
“Are you seriously calling me?”
“Yeah, you.”
“Have you lost your mind? You dare call me by the name of a mere weed?”
He looked at me like he was both shocked and offended, so I shrugged.
If you’d just answered when I first called, this wouldn’t have happened.
The naked guy snorted beside us, which made baby dandelion’s face crumple.
Worried he’d take it too personally, I scolded the naked guy instead.
“You’ve got time to laugh at someone else’s name? Why don’t you look at yourself wearing nothing but a diaper?”
This time, baby dandelion laughed.
The naked guy tried to look cool and smirked, but his brow twitched slightly.
Now that they’d both taken a hit, it was time to work.
“Alright, let’s get moving. Naked guy, help me. Baby dandelion, you make the fire.”
While the naked guy slowly started moving, baby dandelion raised both hands and stopped us.
“Wait.”
We were busy as hell already.
“What. Now what.”
I jerked my chin at him, telling him to speak.
He said,
“Sorry, but I don’t know how to do such a thing, and I have no intention of learning.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes.”
I nodded. I see. I see.
I felt heat rise to my head. I tilted my head back and took a breath.
Then I picked up one of the wooden boards I’d thrown earlier and walked over to him.
I really didn’t want to use this method on someone I’d just met, but…
“Alright, baby dandelion. I get that you probably hit your head somewhere and can’t read the situation properly. From what I can see, what you need right now is to come to your senses. So—”
I kicked him in the shin.
“You need to get beaten a little, you bastard.”
He grabbed his shin and screamed as he rolled on the ground.
His jewel-like eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out.
But I didn’t care and brought the wooden board down on his back.
“What, you can’t do it? Is that something to brag about? If you don’t know how, you should be begging to be taught! But what? You don’t even want to try? Then go die!”
“Ah! S-Stop!”
“Stop my ass! We’re supposed to work together to survive this shit, and instead of helping, you’re sitting there acting like a lunatic all by yourself?!”
No matter how sickly and scrawny he looked, he was still a man.
But baby dandelion couldn’t resist even once and just got beaten until dust flew up.
I don’t know how long I hit him.
Only after I finally got him to say he’d do it did I stop and stand up.
The so-called crown prince—baby dandelion—sat on the ground with his hair a mess and his clothes disheveled, rubbing a stick against a wooden board just like I’d shown him.
He muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.
Something like, The moment I return to the empire, I’ll have you executed, or whatever.
I just snorted and turned away.
When I went back to the construction site, the naked guy, who had been standing at a distance, cautiously came closer.
His attitude was noticeably more subdued.
After that, he helped without slacking off. Later, he admitted it was because he figured it was better to die working than to die getting beaten by me.
In other words, I looked like a tyrant who’d go berserk if you didn’t listen.
I told him to untangle the vines, and I propped up two bamboo poles.
I was planning to make an A-frame bed like Bear Grylls made on a deserted island.
First, I crossed two thick, long bamboo poles and tied them with vines to make two A-shaped frames.
Then I placed a long branch across them as the roof’s center beam and fixed it in place.
Next, to make a place to lie down, I tied bed posts to the legs of the frames—same on the opposite side.
After that, I wove vines like a net between the bed posts to make a hammock-style bed.
Once the bed was done, it was time to put on the roof. I carefully covered it with palm leaves that baby dandelion had split in half.
Bear Grylls finished his in two hours, but since there were two of us, we finished one bed in an hour.
It was shabby, but there was nothing we could do.
There wasn’t enough time to make three beds, including baby dandelion’s.
A real house would have to be built little by little while living here.
“We’re going to need more bamboo.”
I was about to head into the forest with the naked guy to get more wood when I stopped.
Baby dandelion was still struggling with the stick, unable to make fire.
“I’ll just go alone.”
When I sighed, the naked guy said he’d go instead and went into the forest by himself, leaving only me and baby dandelion on the beach.
I clicked my tongue at the sorry sight of him and went over, plopping down beside him.
He was sulking, and when I sat down next to him, he flinched.
Probably thought I was going to hit him again.
Tsk. Then don’t talk shit and get beaten.
“Give it here. I’ll do it.”
I took the wooden board and stick from his hands.
You have to rub it like your life depends on it, but this idiot was doing it like he was grating potatoes.
No wonder it wouldn’t catch fire.
I knelt down and got into position.
The board was split in half so air could pass through, and there were marks where he’d been rubbing the stick along the split.
I told him to hold the board tight.
Then I just… rubbed the hell out of it.
Baby dandelion, realizing his effort before had been child’s play, let out an exclamation of amazement.
After a while, smoke finally began to rise from the board.
He shouted,
“Incredible. At this rate, it’ll catch fire!”
Of course it will. A salty taste filled my mouth, and I felt like I was biting the inside of my cheek through clenched teeth.
But I didn’t have time to care.
When smoke appears, that’s when you have to sprint and make an ember.
“Hey, go grab some dry grass. Now.”
Startled, baby dandelion hurried off and came back with a handful of dry grass.
He even dropped half of it on the way, of course.
When I brought the grass close to the smoking spot, a tiny ember finally transferred.
Baby dandelion looked like he was witnessing the birth of life.
That almost made me lose my concentration from how ridiculous it was.
I picked up the ember-filled grass with both hands and blew on it.
The ember spread to other grass, and pale smoke rose up.
“Bring some wood. Dry wood. That one!”
He ran off again and brought back the pieces I pointed at without a word.
He was so excited to see fire that he didn’t even realize I was ordering him around.
Next to the branches, he’d also brought extra dry grass.
I hadn’t even asked.
“Oh, you’re actually useful.”
When I praised him, he coughed awkwardly and turned his head away.
The little brat, getting shy now.
The fire spread to the wood and burned brightly.
While I piled on more fuel, the naked guy came back from the forest.
He stared at the completed campfire in surprise.
“I thought it’d take until tomorrow.”
It was a jab at baby dandelion. Baby dandelion glared at him angrily.
These guys really can’t miss a chance to pick a fight.
I waved my hand between them.
“Enough. I rushed him a bit and it caught pretty fast, that’s all.”
I felt the naked guy’s gaze shift from baby dandelion to me.
But I didn’t react.
I felt kind of bad about beating him earlier, so I decided to give him credit for the fire.
With the fire done, baby dandelion joined us to help build the house.
His job was splitting palm leaves along the stem to make roofing material.
“Hey, baby dandelion.”
Watching him struggle even with that simple task, I tossed him my MacGyver knife.
“Use this.”
The knife landed exactly where I aimed, stabbing into the ground by his feet.
Both of them looked at me at the same time.
They were both surprised, but baby dandelion reacted more dramatically.
“W-What is this madness?! You dare try to kill me—!”
What is he even saying?
His panicked face was so ridiculous I almost laughed.
Still, I opened my mouth to calm him down.
“If I really wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have thrown it that sloppily.”
Both of them shut up and went back to work.
Since baby dandelion had the knife, I picked up a sharp stone nearby.
Rubbing the leftover vines against the stone blade a few times cut them easily.
But using a stone blade like this gave me a strange feeling.
It felt like I’d gone back to the Paleolithic era.
Why did this feeling stop being just a feeling and start syncing with my surroundings?
As I was thinking that, I noticed someone in front of me walking around with a stone blade.
And I realized.
Yeah. It was because of him. That naked guy.
Seeing him running around dressed like a caveman with a stone axe made me feel nostalgic for an era I’d never even lived in.
Seriously, where did he leave his clothes to end up wandering around in nothing but that diaper thing?
I stopped looking at him.
Time-slipping into the Stone Age wasn’t exactly pleasant.
I focused back on work when suddenly baby dandelion, who was splitting palm leaves some distance away, screamed.
“Ah!”
He must’ve cut his hand on the sharp tip of a leaf.
Of course, neither the naked guy nor I paid him any attention.
We had cuts too from working on the roof.
But we couldn’t ignore him completely.
“B-Blood…!”
Baby dandelion raised his hand, face pale as if he’d lost a bucket of blood.
“Bring the palace physician at once…!”
It was just a shallow cut with a few drops of blood forming.
We stared at him coldly, and he realized what he’d said and slowly shut his mouth.
I spoke to the devastated baby dandelion.
“Stop making a fuss and just suck on it. The only thing that’ll come running for your blood here is a shark.”
