pillar man 2.0

Chapter 34: Foolish

Huitzi arrived at the village near the mountain, the darkness of the night preventing anyone from seeing anything. He released the model rat into the village, and Nobunaga took about an hour to return.

"Master, I managed to infect a few rats here. Soon, I'll create other model rats," Nobunaga said through the flesh sprout.

"Good, now let's go back. We need to infect more rats," Huitzi then began to head back to the yadoya with the model rat following him.

'This won't be easy, but soon we'll have a vast espionage network. Unfortunately, infected rats cannot infect other rats since they lack the core of the flesh sprout. Fortunately, to control a mere rat, only a tentacle from a human-sized flesh sprout is needed. But since the rat isn't a vampire, regenerating a tentacle from the core takes time and requires energy, meaning food. This will really take a while,' Huitzi thought about the advantages and disadvantages of the model rat.

After an indeterminate amount of time walking, Huitzi and the model rat finally arrived at the yadoya.

"Nobunaga, don't follow me directly. I don't know if we're being watched, so we need to be careful," Huitzi said, worried that someone might see the model rat following him and find it suspicious.

Huitzi went to the room and opened the door. Soloctis and Kokushibo were inside, resting.

"Lord Nosferatu, welcome back," Kokushibo greeted him while kneeling.

After a few minutes, the model rat appeared. Huitzi then introduced it, "Hi, Kokushibo, this is Nobunaga's model rat. Nobunaga, this is Kokushibo."

"Kokushibo? Who is he?"

"He is my first blade, and the baby beside him is Soloctis, a crucial piece in our plan."

"If I may be so bold, who are you speaking with?"

"Ah! How could I forget? This is not Nobunaga's real body. I communicate with him through the link from the flesh sprout I left with him. You can't understand him because you don't have a flesh sprout in Nobunaga to hear him like I do."

"I understand, my lord. But why did you take him as your servant just to control a rat?"

"He will be our spy. Would you notice a mere rat in your house? Or better yet, would you think it was spying on you?"

"This Kokushibo seems quite formal. Isn't that a bit annoying, sir?"

"Yes, it's a little bothersome, but I know it's his way of showing loyalty, so I don't mind."

Kokushibo felt something strange with his lord's last words.

"Lord Nosferatu, why a special servant for gathering information? Couldn't you or I handle that?" Kokushibo asked as if dismissing Nobunaga.

"It's quite simple, and it also relates to why I asked you to stop using the flesh sprout. Having one, two, even five flesh sprouts is acceptable, but each additional one we have, a part of our consciousness is spent controlling that flesh sprout since we need to share the senses constantly. Sure, we could avoid doing this passively and do it actively instead, but then it loses its usefulness as a spy tool. And I need all my thinking capacity. As a fighter, you should know the price to be paid if part of your consciousness is used for something else, especially in battles against specialists." Huitzi explained calmly to Kokushibo.

"I understand, Lord Nosferatu." Kokushibo still seemed dissatisfied with Nobunaga, but Huitzi didn't care.

"In any case, it's almost dawn. Did you find any information about what I asked you?" Huitzi asked Kokushibo.

"No, my lord, the people of this region don't seem to have any such information."

"They don't, or are you incompetent?" Nobunaga transmitted into Huitzi's mind.

Sigh "Nobunaga, have you also turned those village rats into models?"

"Yes, we currently have six model rats, including this one."

"Have the tentacles of this rat regenerated yet?"

"Not yet, sir."

"Then use the ready model rats and try to infect a crow. That will give you the ability to communicate with Kokushibo. In the meantime, use this rat to take care of Soloctis. Kokushibo and I have work to do."

"Hmm, what time do people usually have breakfast, Kokushibo?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it's still about seven hours before breakfast time."

Huitzi then put his hat back on his head and left the yadoya.

'How am I going to get money now? Even with my invention and Nobunaga, I still need money for paper. I know, a food stall. I'm not the best person in the kitchen, but I still have knowledge of foods from other cultures that can be replicated here. That would help us earn money and also clear our name with Muzan since he might be more attentive to what I do after I disappeared for hours on Nobunaga's mountain.'

"Kokushibo, go hunt a pig or a boar."

"Yes, my lord." Kokushibo seemed not to understand why, but Huitzi didn't want to waste time explaining.

Kokushibo went off to complete his new mission, and Huitzi looked for some large stones.

With his veins, he created drills, and with another, he placed a sharp bone fragment. He cut the stone so that the back had a half-circle shape, sunk downward like a basin. The front had a cylindrical hole leading to the bottom, where another hole opened outwards like a box.

'Now I just need wood.' Huitzi then cut a tree trunk and carved it into what looked like a broom handle, but with a circular support in the middle.

'Well, I need salt and bread. Salt is too rare to simply ask the neighbor for, but soy sauce is a good substitute. I can just steal it from the yadoya. I'm not very comfortable doing this, but I can repay them later. For the bread, I think I'll follow the same route as the soy sauce.'

Huitzi then took his stone and placed it near an alley where many people passed by on their way to work.

Huitzi then broke into the yadoya's kitchen and stole some seasonings to flavor the meat, doing the same at the bakery.

At that moment, Kokushibo arrived with a huge boar on his back.

"Great, now go debone it and bring the skin and meat. Although it's a waste to throw away the rest, we can't use it."

"Yes, my lord." Kokushibo then went into the forest and returned shortly after with the meat and bones.

"You were quick, but now cut the meat into paper-thin slices." Huitzi then went to create a type of tent to cover him and Kokushibo from the sun before it came out.

After making the tent, Huitzi took the already cut meat and seasoned it with what he had taken from the yadoya.

Then the two of them placed the rod Huitzi had made into the hole with a vein underneath, wrapped around the rod to allow it to spin.

The sun was about to rise, so they hurried.

Using that round base as support, they placed the meat on top, stacking several layers of meat slices, using the rest of the wood they used to create the rod to light a fire at the back of the stone. From time to time, Huitzi would pull the vein used as a rope to turn the meat and cook it evenly.

People were already starting to leave their homes, so the smell caught the attention of those who hadn't eaten anything yet.

Only at this moment did Kokushibo speak up about something that had been bothering him.

"Lord Nosferatu, what are we doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're making money to buy paper and start producing the newspaper."

"But why this? If the problem is money, you could have asked me." Huitzi looked at Kokushibo, who pulled out a pouch that seemed to contain a lot of money, disbelieving and not understanding where in the world he had been hiding it.

"Since when do you have that?"

"For a long time. I was a hunter and also a member of a noble family. Of course, I would have money."

"Wait, let me check something." Huitzi then contacted Nobunaga and asked if he had any money.

"No, aside from what was hidden in the futon, I don't have any money. Why?"

"What money in the futon?"

"Wait, you didn't take it? I thought you already had."

Huitzi slapped his own forehead for his stupidity.

'Of course, they both had money. Why didn't I ask them instead of coming up with this whole plan? Maybe my habit of trying to do everything alone is getting in the way. I'll try to improve on that later. Now we have to make money.'

End of chapter.