第１話
文字数 5,266文字
1. Village feast
This is the village of Bontang in the Land of Mao bordering China. It is a very small village in a tropical rainforest with a population of about 100.
The whole village was preparing for a feast.
Women were mashing ten chickens and plucking their feathers while chatting. They were also boiling grass, mushrooms, and potatoes in a huge pot.
Then the men returned from hunting. A large wild boar was hanging from a pole.
Everyone's eyes were shining with anticipation.
After all, a feast was to begin tonight.
Soon, before the sun set, a Japanese car arrived.
Everyone ran to the car to greet it. The person who came in this car was supposed to have brought sake.
A man wearing sunglasses got out of the SOYOKA Rend Cruiser.
Oh, wow!
They all greeted each other with a loud welcome.
The man smiled and shook hands with each of them, calling out their names one by one.
Everyone's eyes were glued to the back seat of the car,
The man bought them. Take it with you. Take it," he said.
When everyone approached the car, the village head was the first one to open the back seat door.
Inside were ten 4-liter bottles of 25% Japanese shochu Nakagoro, ten 4-liter bottles of 39% whiskey DED, and ten 4-liter bottles of 40% Japanese vodka.
When all of them were put out, everyone watching cheered.
Some started tapping their taikos, others started dancing.
The feast continued for the next four weeks.
Of course, the liquor ran out quickly, but every time they ran out, the men took the money they had brought with them and bought more liquor and snacks one after another at the huge supermarket Castco, which was a three-day walk away.
In this village, when there was money, the drinking spree would continue until it ran out. Of course, work is off.
When everyone was sober and in a daze, the village chief said, "We have to go to work. There are too many people here.
Everyone looked at each other.
2. 2525, Mars
A year had passed since the feast. Thirty adult men from the village were on Mars, almost all of them except for the village chief.
They arrived on the Bittership, a spacecraft launched by the space company Space Z, led by entrepreneur Aaron Mellon.
The Bittership is a spacecraft developed by Mr. Mellon with the goal of human settlement on Mars.
Terraforming of Mars was completed in the year 2500, and they are the first settlers.
They were really sick of being in a place like this for a year.
Everything felt artificial and fake.
Beyond the grasslands was an endless desert.
When would they return to earth?
They worshiped the tiny sun in the distance.
The Martian wind blew. Once it starts blowing, it doesn't stop for a week. The environment of this planet has not yet been settled.
3. The God who appeared
Then, a small Japanese man arrived by special flight.
He came to greet us at a meeting place in the Bontang village residential area.
“I am Japanese and my name is Ota.
Is there anything I can help you with?"
They all said.
“Give me some sake.”
There was no sake here.
Soon Ota was called "God" by the villagers.
Ota said, "If you don't have sake, just make it.
First, start with greening.
Ota's favorite saying was.
"You should only make things that can be repaired by the local people.
He always said, "We must only make things that can be repaired by the local people. He also intended to make sake only with local products.
With the help of the villagers, Ota turned the desert into legume grassland. This took five years.
When the villagers saw the grassland, they cleared their throats.
The soil had improved.
As the soil improved, buckwheat was planted. Buckwheat has traditionally been considered a salvation plant in times of pioneering and famine.
Since buckwheat can be grown at high altitudes where it is cold and the air is thin, it was expected to be harvested even in the Martian environment.
After three years of trying to grow buckwheat, they finally managed to harvest a modest amount.
The villagers shed tears.
Soon, soon, that hot liquid would run through their bodies!
Then they made buckwheat shochu.
The buckwheat seeds were boiled, hulled, and fermented with water and yeast in barrels made from a plant similar to paulownia that grew locally.
It was then distilled, filtered, and aged for three months.
And the result was...
It was undrinkable. It had gone bad. It must have been infected with bacteria during the distillation process.
Ota tried again with a device to prevent bacteria from entering.
Six months later, the result was not sake.
It was not rotten, but it was a bad liquid.
Ota reviewed the entire process and replaced the yeast.
And one year later.
There was shochu in front of them. It smelled good already.
One barrel per person.
The sound of their throats was heard.
They were dry all over.
It had been ten years since they had come to Mars, and they had not drunk a drop of liquor in that time.
And it was right in front of them.
They fearfully took the first drink into their mouths.
Gradually, a delicious, sweet, hot, nostalgic feeling spread through their mouths, throats, esophagus, and stomachs to their entire bodies.
One of the men cried out.
“God created this liquor.”
Needless to say, they did not work until the liquor ran out.
Translated with DeepL.com free v. and adjusted by me.
This is the village of Bontang in the Land of Mao bordering China. It is a very small village in a tropical rainforest with a population of about 100.
The whole village was preparing for a feast.
Women were mashing ten chickens and plucking their feathers while chatting. They were also boiling grass, mushrooms, and potatoes in a huge pot.
Then the men returned from hunting. A large wild boar was hanging from a pole.
Everyone's eyes were shining with anticipation.
After all, a feast was to begin tonight.
Soon, before the sun set, a Japanese car arrived.
Everyone ran to the car to greet it. The person who came in this car was supposed to have brought sake.
A man wearing sunglasses got out of the SOYOKA Rend Cruiser.
Oh, wow!
They all greeted each other with a loud welcome.
The man smiled and shook hands with each of them, calling out their names one by one.
Everyone's eyes were glued to the back seat of the car,
The man bought them. Take it with you. Take it," he said.
When everyone approached the car, the village head was the first one to open the back seat door.
Inside were ten 4-liter bottles of 25% Japanese shochu Nakagoro, ten 4-liter bottles of 39% whiskey DED, and ten 4-liter bottles of 40% Japanese vodka.
When all of them were put out, everyone watching cheered.
Some started tapping their taikos, others started dancing.
The feast continued for the next four weeks.
Of course, the liquor ran out quickly, but every time they ran out, the men took the money they had brought with them and bought more liquor and snacks one after another at the huge supermarket Castco, which was a three-day walk away.
In this village, when there was money, the drinking spree would continue until it ran out. Of course, work is off.
When everyone was sober and in a daze, the village chief said, "We have to go to work. There are too many people here.
Everyone looked at each other.
2. 2525, Mars
A year had passed since the feast. Thirty adult men from the village were on Mars, almost all of them except for the village chief.
They arrived on the Bittership, a spacecraft launched by the space company Space Z, led by entrepreneur Aaron Mellon.
The Bittership is a spacecraft developed by Mr. Mellon with the goal of human settlement on Mars.
Terraforming of Mars was completed in the year 2500, and they are the first settlers.
They were really sick of being in a place like this for a year.
Everything felt artificial and fake.
Beyond the grasslands was an endless desert.
When would they return to earth?
They worshiped the tiny sun in the distance.
The Martian wind blew. Once it starts blowing, it doesn't stop for a week. The environment of this planet has not yet been settled.
3. The God who appeared
Then, a small Japanese man arrived by special flight.
He came to greet us at a meeting place in the Bontang village residential area.
“I am Japanese and my name is Ota.
Is there anything I can help you with?"
They all said.
“Give me some sake.”
There was no sake here.
Soon Ota was called "God" by the villagers.
Ota said, "If you don't have sake, just make it.
First, start with greening.
Ota's favorite saying was.
"You should only make things that can be repaired by the local people.
He always said, "We must only make things that can be repaired by the local people. He also intended to make sake only with local products.
With the help of the villagers, Ota turned the desert into legume grassland. This took five years.
When the villagers saw the grassland, they cleared their throats.
The soil had improved.
As the soil improved, buckwheat was planted. Buckwheat has traditionally been considered a salvation plant in times of pioneering and famine.
Since buckwheat can be grown at high altitudes where it is cold and the air is thin, it was expected to be harvested even in the Martian environment.
After three years of trying to grow buckwheat, they finally managed to harvest a modest amount.
The villagers shed tears.
Soon, soon, that hot liquid would run through their bodies!
Then they made buckwheat shochu.
The buckwheat seeds were boiled, hulled, and fermented with water and yeast in barrels made from a plant similar to paulownia that grew locally.
It was then distilled, filtered, and aged for three months.
And the result was...
It was undrinkable. It had gone bad. It must have been infected with bacteria during the distillation process.
Ota tried again with a device to prevent bacteria from entering.
Six months later, the result was not sake.
It was not rotten, but it was a bad liquid.
Ota reviewed the entire process and replaced the yeast.
And one year later.
There was shochu in front of them. It smelled good already.
One barrel per person.
The sound of their throats was heard.
They were dry all over.
It had been ten years since they had come to Mars, and they had not drunk a drop of liquor in that time.
And it was right in front of them.
They fearfully took the first drink into their mouths.
Gradually, a delicious, sweet, hot, nostalgic feeling spread through their mouths, throats, esophagus, and stomachs to their entire bodies.
One of the men cried out.
“God created this liquor.”
Needless to say, they did not work until the liquor ran out.
Translated with DeepL.com free v. and adjusted by me.
