Yes, I did give the decision-making to my colonists again. Maybe I will also continue to do it again in the future.
"Please, guys." Leva stood up. "Don't listen to him."
"I agree with Suja too." Eric answered while looking at his food which he only ate a little. "We cannot rely on existing weapons, because they may be completely damaged or stolen. However, the problem is that we haven't been able to find the source of the gunpowder."
"Gun powder?" Suja raised an eyebrow.
Eric turned his head to the old man. "It's the explosive powder used to launch the bullets inside those firearms. I know how to make those things. I've seen it many times before. However, we have to mine the raw material somewhere or buy it. The problem is, I'm not sure there are any merchants selling it in this area."
I'm sure in the real world, gunpowder is not mined.
"Well, there's someone with mineral detector abilities among us." Manu sighs.
My three original colonists looked at Leva, who immediately snorted and shook her head. Realizing that, Suja and Eric also looked at Leva.
"I can tell what characteristics the mineral detector will feel if it finds an area containing that gunpowder material." Eric added, continuing to look at Leva. "You must be able to sense various other minerals without knowing what they are, right?"
Leva shook her head again, this time with a firm expression. "I would never do that."
"Okay, then." Suja took a deep breath. "But at least we can still reverse engineer those weapons so that if they break, we can fix them."
"Hey, we haven't reached the majority of votes yet." Leva's voice was getting louder.
Seb sighed. "Sorry, but I don't agree with Suja's suggestion. Firearms will only pose a higher risk of violence. I've seen it many times in my original world."
It wasn't surprising that the words came out of Seb's mouth. Perhaps he thought that if knowledge of these weapons spread, even more terrifying wars could arise. Yes, just like my worries.
However, any decision has its risks, right?
"I agree with Suja's proposal." Kat answered and went to the toilet.
Everyone there looked at Kat in silence. Leva spread her arms and snorted, walked over to the front door, and opened it. A sizable windstorm immediately greeted her, forcing her to close the door again. "Argggghhhh!!!"
"Relax, Leva. We're not going to make a functional weapon if you don't look for that gunpowder material." Manu said, still clutching his chest.
Leva sat in front of the fire, muttering in an incoherent voice.
***
Everyone was asleep, except for Leva. She was still sitting in front of the fireplace with the blanket wrapped around her. Her gaze continued to focus on the fireplace.
Suja got up from his sleep, then went to the toilet for a few minutes. As soon as he got out, he didn't go straight to his sleeping bag but approached Leva with a small, modern-looking bottle. Maybe that metal bottle came from one of the escape pods that landed on the planet.
As the former tribe leader sat down in front of the fire, Leva shifted away from him. Suja shrugged, took a sip from the bottle he was holding, then handed it to Leva.
The red-haired woman glanced at the bottle for a moment. "It's alcohol, right? That's basically poison. I'll never drink poison."
[New trait unlocked]
[Straight Edge – Leva does not like smoking, using recreational drugs, and drinking alcohol. She didn't want her body and mind to be damaged by those things.]
Suja shrugged, then took another sip of his drink. He pulled away and shook the bottle into his open mouth. However, only a drop finally landed on his tongue.
"What's your business coming here, old man?" Leva asked in a lazy tone. "You want to persuade me again to agree with your plan?"
Suja shook his head, looking at the silver bottle in his hand. "No. I know you're stubborn."
Sighing, Leva pulled the blanket over her body. "Do you know the reason I haven't killed you yet?"
"Because only me that might have a chance of healing Manu, right?" Suja smirked, also looking at the fire. "It turns out that you are quite fond of your friends. Honestly, I'm quite surprised, Leva. I don't think you'll be able to open your heart to anyone outside of your own family."
"One of the good things about you dumping me is that I'm trying to change to become a better person. I realized that after a while people would get sick of my shitty actions and they would do something to me."
Suja nodded. "Well, that's what got me punished. They are fed up with what I've been doing all this time, and they took everything from me."
"Are you saying that we are the same?" Leva laughed bitterly. "What a fucking joke."
Suja was silent for some time. "The thing is, you still have plenty of time to reorganize your life, while I don't. I know that I am old and far from healthy. I can feel it, maybe my life won't be long."
"You want me to pity you, old man?"
"No. Why pity this lowly me?" Suja chuckled. "I just wanted to ask you, don't you want to continue to be happy?"
Leva snorted again. "Hurry up and say what you want to say now. I'm sick of your long talk."
"Like I said, you're already very fond of these friends of yours." Suja's smile blossomed. "It means that the source of your happiness is in them, right? You don't want to protect them with something better?"
"You said earlier that you weren't going to persuade me to look for that explosive powder." Leva scratched her head with a troubled expression. "What a fucking liar."
"I'm not asking you to forgive me." Suja looked at his shaking hands. A hand that only has three fingers. "Maybe I sound shameless and selfish. Since I am now here with you guys, I also want to have safer protection. And I think that firearm is the answer…."
Before Suja had finished speaking, Leva got up from the fireplace and walked over to her sleeping bag.. Suja couldn't help but smile at that.
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