Vol. 1 Chapter 1.7 – Mid-July, 1565

With the rainy season over and early summer upon them, the heat clung unpleasantly to the skin.

Even under such conditions, Shizuko’s workload showed no signs of decreasing. On the contrary, it continued to rise at an astonishing rate.

“So hot…”

Shizuko muttered as she replenished her fluids from a bamboo water flask.

She felt like forgetting everything and taking a refreshing dip in the water. If it weren’t for the people around her, she undoubtedly would have done so.

She figured that even pouring water over her head would make her feel better, but unfortunately, she couldn’t afford such a luxury.

After all, right before her eyes, they were constructing a hot spring—or rather, a building that resembled a fortress.

To make matters worse, Shizuko was the construction supervisor, so she wasn’t in a position to abandon everything and run off to play.

“Having such a massive, imposing building in the middle of the village really makes it stand out…Well, I suppose it’s fine.”

Making only the hot spring luxurious would create far too great a contrast with the surrounding buildings, making the entire place appear rather suspicious.

Therefore, Shizuko had suggested renovating the surrounding houses in the same fashion.

As a result, her proposal was approved, allowing all the houses in the village to be completely rebuilt.

The villagers were generally delighted with their newly refurbished homes but Wittmann apparently found the new house rather unsettling.

It would frequently wander outside and bask in the sunlight.

“Ah, I should probably head out to hunt some deer soon.”

Although she was the construction supervisor, as long as she determined the day’s tasks in the morning, her presence was hardly required afterward.

Unlike the villagers, she wasn’t desperately pressed for time, so postponing today’s problems until tomorrow wouldn’t cause any particular trouble.

For Shizuko, that was something of a blessing.

“Better get ready…”

Muttering to herself, Shizuko returned to her house.

Wittmann was nowhere to be seen but she figured it was probably somewhere near the river, so she began making her own preparations.

That said, there was nothing particularly special she needed to bring along.

A bamboo water flask for hydration, a knife for draining blood, hemp ropes for restraining captured prey, a whistle for issuing commands to Wittmann, and a hunting crossbow.

There were several reasons why she chose to carry a crossbow rather than a bow, which had originally been developed as a hunting tool before later being adopted as a weapon.

One problem with conventional bows was that the more powerful they became, the harder they were to draw using human strength alone.

However, thanks to its structural design, a crossbow could be used in conjunction with mechanisms such as levers and winding devices.

By employing such mechanisms, even bows powerful enough to be extremely difficult to draw by hand could be operated with relative ease.

Furthermore, attaching a sighting device to the stock made aiming considerably easier.

This allowed the already accurate crossbow to achieve an even higher degree of precision.

Another advantage was that mastering a crossbow required a shorter training period than mastering a conventional bow.

It was also beneficial that crossbows could be constructed using a relatively simple design without requiring the same level of craftsmanship as traditional bows.

On the other hand, their structural limitations came at the expense of rapid-fire capability.

However, since hunting fundamentally revolved around bringing down prey with a single decisive shot, there was little need to consider rapid-fire performance.

Moreover, although crossbows were regarded as inferior weapons in modern times due to their relatively limited power, they were perfectly respectable weapons during the Sengoku period, when even firearms were valuable commodities.

In summary, the crossbow’s advantages included its virtually silent firing mechanism, ability to launch projectiles other than conventional bolts, low manufacturing costs, high reliability, lightweight construction using only wood, ease of maintenance and repair, relatively short learning curve and high accuracy at distances within one hundred metres.

Conversely, its disadvantages included being unsuitable for long-range shooting, having virtually no rapid-fire capability, being unable to exceed a certain level of power, and possessing lower structural strength than metal.

Shizuko had chosen the crossbow over a conventional bow because it was comparatively easy to handle, while its horizontal firing position made aiming easier for her to visualise.

To begin with, she lacked the advanced skills required to use a conventional bow proficiently.

In that case, something she could fire in much the same manner as a tactical slingshot was considerably easier for her to handle.

Even so, she still needed to practise several times, so she had trained frequently when the crossbow was first completed.

Thanks to that practice, she had become proficient enough to achieve a high hit rate against stationary targets, provided they were within a few dozen metres.

“A few bolts should be enough.”

Since she had no need to hunt large numbers of animals, there was no reason to carry enough bolts to warrant using a quiver.

All that remained was to bring along the device for winding back the bowstring, and her preparations would be complete.

“Right then, everything’s ready. Time to call Wittmann.”

After muttering those words, Shizuko placed the whistle between her lips and blew into it with all her might.

Although she called it hunting, Shizuko was specifically targeting younger deer.

By continuing this practice, she intended to gradually age the deer population and bring about a decline in its reproductive capacity.

However, the sheer number of deer was staggering. No matter how many she hunted, there was a limit to what Shizuko could accomplish on her own.

Furthermore, she couldn’t simply slaughter them indiscriminately and waste a valuable source of protein.

After all, no matter how much dried meat she produced, there was a limit to how much could be preserved.

She needed to maintain a delicate balance between reducing the deer population and ensuring that not a single animal went to waste.

“Ah, deer tracks. And they’re fairly fresh, too… They might still be nearby.”

Crouching down, Shizuko murmured as she examined the deer tracks on the ground.

Upon checking the wind direction, she found that the area beyond the tracks was upwind. This meant that if they followed the tracks, there was little risk of the deer detecting their scent.

“Two fawns and one adult…a mother and her young, then. Wittmann, target the fawns, okay?”

She estimated the number of deer from their tracks.

Then, moving forward while making as little noise as possible, she emerged into a small clearing.

Apparently, the mother and her young had come to feed in an area where the undergrowth was flourishing.

“Now, where are they… There they are.”

Looking around, she spotted three deer a short distance away.

By her estimation, they were roughly thirty metres away, well within range of her crossbow.

However, the deer were facing in an inconvenient direction. From her position, they were oriented lengthwise rather than presenting their sides.

“《Can’t be helped. Wittmann, I’ll aim for the fawn at the back, so you take the one on the right, okay?》”

After giving Wittmann a simple command using hand signals, Shizuko lowered the crossbow she had been carrying on her back.

She had already drawn the bowstring before climbing the mountain, so all that remained was to load a bolt.

After checking the wind direction once more, Shizuko placed the whistle between her lips and took aim at the deer.

The instant she had her target lined up, Shizuko pulled the crossbow’s trigger.

The bolt traced an arc through the air and struck the fawn precisely in the back of its head.

Realising that a predator was nearby, the mother deer and the surviving fawn immediately bolted toward the forest.

Shizuko blew forcefully into the whistle between her lips. It was the command signalling Wittmann to attack.

Understanding the command conveyed by the whistle, Wittmann burst out of the undergrowth.

Since this would be a short pursuit, he immediately accelerated to his maximum speed of seventy kilometres per hour.

Although deer could reach speeds comparable to those of wolves, a fawn’s body was not yet developed enough to achieve such speed.

Unable to keep up with its fleeing mother, the fawn lost its life without even putting up anything resembling resistance.

“No counterattack, huh?”

Shizuko had kept her crossbow ready in anticipation of retaliation from the mother deer, but her concerns proved unfounded.

The mother deer disappeared into the forest in the blink of an eye.

After removing the bolt from her crossbow, Shizuko blew her whistle again. This time, the rhythm had slightly longer intervals between the notes.

If translated into Japanese, the command would mean, 『Bring me the prey.』

Wolves have an even stricter social hierarchy than humans, so individuals of higher rank are permitted to eat their prey first.

For that reason, Shizuko always finished processing the prey and ate a little herself before giving Wittmann his share of the meat.

In modern times, there would probably be people calling this『cruel』or saying『How pitiful』but anyone intending to keep a wolf needed to understand its instincts and natural behaviour.

That said, Shizuko herself had learned this lesson the hard way after being bitten by her pet dog during childhood.

She drained the blood from both fawns on the spot, tied them to a suitably sized branch, and carried them over her shoulder.

After descending the mountain, she performed another round of blood draining and cooling at her usual location.

Since the internal organs only needed to be removed within an hour, she merely drained the blood while still in the mountains.

Although she could have discarded the entrails, she tried to bring them back whenever possible, as they could be left to decompose and used as ingredients for compost.

“Since they’re fawns, there isn’t much meat, huh?”

They yielded nowhere near as much fur or meat as fully grown deer, but she still managed to obtain a reasonably substantial amount.

However, Shizuko only butchered one of the fawns. The other was intended as Wittmann’s meal.

She removed the liver, sprinkled it lightly with salt, and roasted it over a flame. It was a simple dish, but foods believed to help replenish the blood were valuable.

She needed to eat such things whenever she had the opportunity.

“Well then, I’ve finished eating. You’re next, Wittmann.”

After polishing off the entire liver, Shizuko retrieved the other fawn from the river.

She then removed only its hide before placing the rest of the carcass directly in front of Wittmann.

“This one’s yours.”

Understanding her words, Wittmann immediately sank his teeth into the fawn’s flesh with tremendous vigour.

He tore through the meat without seeming the least bit bothered by the tendons or cartilage.

“That’s a wolf with a bite force of 180 kilograms for you…”

Shizuko could only marvel as Wittmann devoured the entire fawn in the blink of an eye.

The meat from the butchered fawn was cut into suitably sized portions and distributed among the villagers.

It was what one might call sharing one’s bounty with others. This helped improve the villagers’ nutrition while also boosting their morale by giving them the opportunity to eat meat.

Of course, her hunts were not always successful and it was hardly unusual for several days to pass without her managing to hunt a single deer.

Even encountering a deer did not necessarily guarantee a successful hunt. If she was unlucky enough to be upwind, the deer would immediately detect her scent.

For a hunt to succeed, she had to remain downwind and spot the deer before it noticed her.

“I wonder where your wife could be, huh?”

Lying sprawled out on the floor, Shizuko addressed Wittmann, who was resting beside her.

At first, Wittmann looked at Shizuko with a puzzled expression but it soon seemed to lose interest and turned its gaze forward again.

‘Judging by his size, he must be from a colder region. I’d imagine they brought both a male and a female over together, though.’

Of course, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that the female had already died. After all, Wittmann himself had been on the verge of death.

Had Shizuko not rescued him, he would undoubtedly have lost his life.

To begin with, even when wolves hunted in packs, their success rate was only around ten percent.

For a lone wolf, a success rate of even one percent would be considered fortunate.

“Maybe she’s surviving by scavenging animal carcasses or perhaps she’s really dead… Or maybe there wasn’t even a female to begin with… Ahh, enough! Enough!”

Realising that thinking about it would not provide any answers, Shizuko shook her head to drive those thoughts away.

Ultimately, things would work themselves out however they were meant to. That was the conclusion she always reached.

“I’ve got another early start tomorrow, so I’d better get some sleep.”

She spread out her sleeping mat, removed her kimono and draped it over herself like a blanket.

“Well then, good night, Wittmann.”

No sooner had she spoken those words than Shizuko fell into a deep sleep within a mere few dozen seconds.