How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony-Chapter 18: Walter Raleigh

"He-Hewet, what do you mean? Why..."

"Good day, Mr. Hewet?"

"Ah, good day! Thanks to you we found Mr. White."

"Not at all! Why make such a fuss about that? We simply did our best for our neighbor!"

"..."

"..."

White watched with a dazed face as Hewet exchanged friendly greetings with some Spanish man.

That was indeed the galleon.

He was lying unconscious in a hammock under the mast, and on the mast... was painted a coat of arms he had never seen before.

On a shield wrapped in grape vines was a transparent shield and... an angel holding up some strange saw-like thing?

'Why a saw instead of... a sword?'

"Anyway Mr. White, it's so wonderful to see you again after 3 years! Who would have thought we'd meet again like..."

"...Don't tell me you've sided with Spain?"

"Um... pardon?"

"My, my daughter? Is my daughter alive?"

"Don't worry. Mrs. Dare is now serving the great one up close..."

"Kyaaaaargh!"

"Wh-why are you like this?"

"Shut up, you bastard! How could you side with those who killed my daughter..."

"Daddy!"

"...?"

There, Eleanor comes running from the corner of the deck.

"Mr. White! You were alive!"

"Ah, hahaha! We'll pretend we didn't hear you calling our employer a male prostitute!"

"...???"

Sir Raleigh's subordinates, who he thought were captured by Spanish troops, also come running from the other side.

"Mr. White! Welcome aboard the Nautilus!"

"...?????"

The man who seemed to be the Spanish commander also cheerfully cuts in.

John White, starting to become convinced this must be heaven, pinched his own cheek and realized he wasn't even tied up.

"What... is this?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Everyone glances at each other with troubled expressions as if finding it difficult to explain. Among them, Eleanor steps forward and speaks.

"Da...ddy? I'm not sure if you can believe what I'm about to say."

"Oh, my daughter! I'm already overjoyed just that you're alive, what could you possibly say?"

"...Then, you won't think I'm a witch or anything?"

"Witch? Nonsense! Come, tell me anything. Your father will listen to it all!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Um... Mrs. Dare?"

"Yes?"

"Since he probably won't believe it, let's start by showing him first."

"Show him... Ah, you mean the 'holy ground' and 'holy relics'?"

"Yes. Didn't 'He' give permission for this?"

"Well... that's true. Then let's go talk more on the island, Daddy!"

"...?"

John White still couldn't understand what was going on.

Soon the galleon reached a port, and White headed somewhere along a cleanly paved road.

==

Eleanor felt like she was becoming childish again upon seeing her father after so long.

"Daddy, look!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Good heavens...! The transparent wall deflects bullets!"

"Ooooh..."

==

"Daddy, look!"

Flash! Flash!

"Im-impossible...! Tremendous light suddenly coming from hands!"

"Ooooooh..."

==

"Daddy, look!"

Munch munch munch.

"Un-unbelievable...! How can grapes have no seeds!"

"Oooooooh..."

==

"Daddy, look!"

Whirrr!

"Wood cuts like butter? A carriage door automatically opening and closing would make more sense!"

"Ooooooooh..."

Thus Eleanor showed off to her father by operating simple electronic devices, imitating Lord Nemo as he had permitted.

"Ah, you see? These are all the angel's tools! He saved us and built this colony!"

"Oh, ooh... amazing."

She liked seeing her father's amazed face. She also liked smiling excitedly like a spoiled child in front of the father she hadn't seen for 3 years.

"Right? I was so surprised at first too!"

"Yes. Truly remarkable. Indeed worthy of heaven's products.

...But."

White raised his finger toward the western fields while trembling with awe. As Eleanor followed his finger's direction, she saw a familiar machine.

A powerful machine that slaughtered enemies, dug up tree roots, and scooped up enormous amounts of earth.

"That... that cart-like thing with arms, how does it move?"

"Ah! That's called an 'excavator'!"

Eleanor boasted needlessly.

"Only Lord Nemo can operate that complicated thing!"

"I-I see. If it's not too presumptuous, could I see it move? I'm very curious."

At her father's explorer-like curiosity in his words, Eleanor pondered for a moment.

She didn't want to bother Lord Nemo... but she wanted to do anything for her father whom she met again at death's doorstep after years.

"...Then, shall I go ask Lord Nemo if he can operate it?"

"Yes. I'd like to meet this... Lord Nemo too."

Eleanor walks ahead, slightly tense. She wanted to show her father how amazing Lord Nemo was, how incredible his powers were.

As his daughter, she could tell. In White's eyes that poured out amazement was a strange disbelief.

Of course everyone would feel such disbelief upon suddenly hearing that an angel appeared and saved their daughter.

Because he hadn't witnessed the moment of miracle himself. He could reasonably feel that way.

Just goodwill toward the benefactor who saved his daughter and granddaughter. Whether he was truly an angel was a separate matter.

Thus the devout daughter and skeptical father walked straight to Nemo's green-roofed mansion and rang the doorbell.

Ding dong.

But today there was no answer.

"...Huh? Lord Nemo? Lord Nemo! Strange. I definitely saw him inside."

"Perhaps he went out meanwhile?"

"No. This door definitely..."

Creeeeak.

When Eleanor absently pulled the front door, it opened with a creaking sound.

Of course Eleanor startled. It wasn't polite to enter someone else's house, especially a holy angel's house, without permission.

As she hurriedly tried to close the door again.

"...to hell..."

"...What?"

Just now, she heard a word she thought she would never hear in this holy place.

She heard the word 'hell'.

Soon a terrible sound like scratching the air rings through the door crack. At that unfamiliar voice, unfamiliar sound, Eleanor's whole body freezes in terror for a moment.

Through the cold wind that blew in, the front door slowly opens. Then the father and daughter's eyes widen at once.

"Aaah... aaagh..."

A terrible demon's hymn was coming from beyond the dark hallway.

And.

"Da-damn..."

Lord Nemo's voice.

A voice half mixed with groans, seeming out of breath.

'Co-could it be demons trying to harm Lord Nemo...?'

When that thought reached her, Eleanor clenches her fists and rushes into Nemo's house regardless of danger. Lord Nemo is in danger!

"Da-daughter!"

"Daddy! Stay there!"

"What father would let his daughter go alone into such a place!"

As the two people entered deep into the mansion, the terrible sounds ringing from all around become clearer.

"Hey Satan, payin' my dues."

"I'm on my way to the promised land, woo."

Someone was spewing out words with spine-chilling content just from hearing them. And finally.

"I'm on the highway to hell!"

"No!"

Lord Nemo's scream rings out!

Startled Eleanor finally opens the hallway door and enters the living room with John White following behind.

"Kyaaah!"

"Kya-ruk! Ki-ri-rik!"

They saw a horrific sight there.

Lord Nemo sat in a chair staring straight ahead with bloodshot eyes while holding a black object. As if possessed by something.

And that terrible cursed song they just heard echoed from all around.

That alone was a frightening sight enough to make one collapse, but that wasn't the end.

The real thing was still left.

As Eleanor Dare and John White carefully... turned their heads following Nemo's gaze.

There was a frame there.

The picture inside moved continuously.

It seemed to depict scenes from someone's point of view.

Since the scenery moved whenever click, click sounds came from Lord Nemo's hands, it wasn't hard to tell these were the scenes Lord Nemo was seeing.

In that frame Lord Nemo... Lord Nemo...

Continuously cuts and kills demons risen from hell with a saw.

And every time he killed demons, words like "Ha... shit, shit..." flowed from Lord Nemo's mouth that was always gentle.

Those eyes were drunk with excitement for slaughter. His curled lips sent cold sneers toward the corpses.

So different from the Lord Nemo that Eleanor knew!

After quite some time passed like that and demons rushed at Lord Nemo, he falls. Soon the scene in the frame goes dark and only one word appears on the frame.

'DOOM.'

The two people backed out of Nemo's house with pale faces, unable to even scream.

Lord Nemo didn't even notice their presence, perhaps using all his energy to slaughter demons.

Thus as they left the garden sweating coldly, they silently looked at each other.

"Daughter..."

"I-it's nothing! Lord Nemo was... doing some other work that's hard for us to understand!"

"Yes. He was... killing demons."

John White speaks with unfocused eyes looking at his daughter.

"De-demons... he was killing them... He-he really was... an angel..."

"..."

"..."

Thump!

In White's eyes were terror, awe, and tears.

"Lord! Good heavens what was that sight..."

"..."

"Da-daughter, I must go back to see Virginia. Se-seeing that hellish sight was too terrifying..."

It was enough to completely shake faith held for decades. John White whispered, still unable to recover his strength.

"You too... rest."

"...Yes."

Eleanor stood there like a statue watching her departing father.

And.

"...Eleanor?"

"Kya-kyaaah!"

She screamed at Nemo's voice suddenly coming from behind.

==

"Um... seems you were quite startled. I apologize. I'll make my presence known next time."

"Ah, n-no. It's fi-fine..."

"..."

"..."

What's this. Why is the atmosphere like this.

"Um... earlier Father wanted to see the excavator so we rang the doorbell but there was no answer..."

"Ah, I apologize. I was briefly... um... enjoying a small hobby then."

"...A small hobby?"

"Yes. Though small, it's quite challenging, like homework."

Well, since I couldn't clear the challenge objectives.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

"...Do you enjoy that?"

"Pardon? Of course, it's a hobby after all. Why would I do it if it wasn't enjoyable? Though it can be tiring and painful sometimes, well, that's how it goes."

"..."

"..."

...What is it really. Why are you looking at me so meaningfully.

Unable to bear this awkward and unfamiliar atmosphere, I changed the subject.

"So what happens now? Have you made contact with England?"

Eleanor's awkward and stiff expression finally softens a bit.

"Ah, no. We met Father for now, but it seems others just ran away thinking we were Spanish troops."

"Oh... I see."

"Bu-but now that we've made contact with Father, everything will be fine! Reports about our colony will follow, and now that we have a galleon we can somehow contact the homeland... but..."

"What's wrong?"

"..."

Suddenly Eleanor's face becomes serious again looking at me. Somehow I could guess why she was making a serious expression.

"What... should we do?"

"What do you mean?"

"...How should we report about Lord Nemo to England?"

"..."

I closed my mouth, recalling this era's execution methods for 'heretics' written in game catalogs.

How to report?

...Right.

Thus I fell into contemplation, and Eleanor did too.

However... there was one strange point.

"Hm, hmm... hmm...!"

For some reason Eleanor seemed more serious than me.

==

One and a half months.

That's how long it took for the Hopewell and Moonlight carrying John White to reach Plymouth, the port city in Devon, England.

From there they rushed urgently to London to deliver news to their employer and patron.

"...The colony was destroyed? And White is missing?"

Queen Elizabeth's foremost paramour and smoking enthusiast, explorer, poet, soldier, Protestant...

To Sir Walter Raleigh.

He slightly raised one eyebrow and spoke to the captains trembling before him. They were so afraid of standing before such a powerful figure that they couldn't even raise their heads as they spoke.

"...Thus, the Virginia Roanoke Island colony was mostly burned and full of Spanish graffiti. To anyone looking, it was clearly destroyed by the Spanish fleet..."

"Not saving Mr. White was, well, an unavoidable misfortune. Since Spanish warships were patrolling right nearby..."

"So, you lost your passenger to a Spanish attack, and I lost my colony.

You didn't even think to investigate whether my colony's subjects migrated elsewhere and built a new colony, whether that colony succeeded. Like mice with their tails on fire."

"..."

"..."

"Sigh..."

"We-well since the colony is in ruins, instead of the promised tax-free trading rights, perhaps some other compensation..."

"Get out."

"...Yes, understood."

As the captains left the library of the luxurious Durham House, soon Thomas Harriot, Raleigh's friend and dependent, slowly walked over and offered him tobacco leaves.

Raleigh nervously struck flint while holding it in his mouth, but when the tobacco wouldn't light properly he angrily threw away the tobacco and flint and banged his head on the desk.

Bang!

"...Please, Thomas. Tell me you've brought good news."

"You know well, sir. I tell good news ahead of time when I have it."

"...So?"

"The Steelyard bankers refused investment."

"Damn it! What reason did they give?"

Thomas slightly frowned at Raleigh's curse before elegantly raising his notebook to recite the contents he had written beforehand.

"First... they cited the failure of the Irish colony as their primary reason. Seems they estimate low chances of the colony turning profitable since Catholic farmers haven't become docile."

"Tell them not to talk nonsense. I can repay such losses just by leading a few privateering fleets. There must be another reason. Right, Thomas?"

"...Yes."

"I knew it! Well, what's the reason?"

As Raleigh raised his head, Thomas met his eyes directly and spoke.

"Information about the Virginia colony has leaked. Everyone knows about John White's failure."

"Damn it..."

Bang! Bang! Raleigh kept pounding the desk as he spoke.

"Seems some bastard let loose a rat. Who is it? Walsingham? Or the Earl of Essex? Must be Walsingham, that son of a bitch!"

"Who it is doesn't matter. There are so many people who dislike you, aren't there?"

"..."

"Anyway with 'rumors' that Virginia, the only investment target, has failed too... they say loans are now impossible."

"..."

"What will you do? The gifts for Her Majesty the Queen are running low too..."

"Shh, be quiet for a moment."

Raleigh quietly silenced Thomas Harriot and slightly pulled out a letter from his desk drawer. It was a letter from the Queen to him.

'My beloved, are you not in want? Is your fortune sufficient to maintain your beauty and dignity?'

"Ah... my Queen."

Fold.

And Raleigh thinks as he folds and puts away the Queen's letter again.

'...Seems she hasn't found out about my affairs yet.'

Love is good, more love is better.

However, the more you love, the more money flows out. Recently buying the jewel that Beth wanted made a small hole in his wallet.

Moreover, the vast Irish colony of 40,000 acres had become a money-eating hippo strangling his neck.

At this rate...

Bankruptcy.

If he goes bankrupt at this point, he'll have to perform in the Queen's bed again to squeeze out money. And when financial calculations enter love, many things tend to break.

If that delicate emotional push and pull balance with the Queen breaks, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who shares the same bed, won't leave him alone.

He will whisper to the Queen: 'The vulgar Walter Raleigh doesn't truly love Your Majesty. Withdraw your favor from him and eternally with me...' Then having lost the Queen's support, he will be even more financially shit, shit, shit...!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

"May I offer one opinion?"

"Speak, Thomas."

"Hitting the desk with your head will only increase medical bills and desk repair costs."

"...Grrrr, I'm dying."

If only that damn Virginia colony hadn't failed, he wouldn't be so financially and politically squeezed...

Wait.

Walter Raleigh lay limp then... swallowed.

"...Say, Thomas."

"What is it?"

"Has the Virginia colony failed?"

"Well, if the colony is burned and the residents are missing, it's usually considered a failure."

"That's it."

Raleigh lifts his head and exclaims.

"Missing, you say? That means we don't know yet whether it failed or succeeded."

"That's... an irrational judgment."

"No, no. Think about it. For example, what if some of the colony's settlers, while fleeing from threats to a safe place... met an angel? And the angel helped develop the colony!"

"..."

"...Just a simple example. Anyway, the important thing is no one knows yet whether the Virginia colony succeeded or not."

Jump up.

Raleigh spoke to Harriot, having regained his earlier dignity and authority.

"So we must verify properly."

"Wasn't that... why we sent John White? And now John White is missing too."

"That's because we entrusted it to unreliable fellows. If we entrust it to an explorer who is very reliable, brave, fulfills his duties, and will carry out his employer's demands to the end, it will be more certain."

"Do you know... such an explorer?"

"Me!"

"..."

"..."

"Prepare for sailing immediately. We'll soon cross the Atlantic."

"Oh, good heavens."

"It's to appease poor John White's soul."

Thus Sir Raleigh begins to gather a fleet to save his Virginia colony.

At that time, 'poor John White' was...

==

"Go-good heavens! Gr-grapes, grapes can become this delicious!"

Tasting his first Black Sapphire tanghulu while recovering from the recent shock.

It was Lord Nemo's gift.