Chapter 72: Hunting rules

Thankfully, Gopushadow managed to pull back at the very last moment.

The sudden change in direction threw off his balance, though. Instead of landing a clean strike, bam! He slammed awkwardly into the deer’s side and tumbled across the ground in a rather undignified roll.

The startled doe let out a sharp cry before bolting into the forest. Her little fawn immediately dashed after her, its tiny legs scrambling to keep up as the pair disappeared among the trees.

And then... the clearing fell silent.

****

"Urrghhhh..." Gopushadow groaned as he slowly pushed himself up, rubbing his head and arms after the rough landing.

Fortunately, he seemed perfectly fine, without so much as a scratch.

"Big Boss... why?" Gopushadow then asked, looking utterly confused. "You don’t want more food? But deer meat is very delicious! Everyone loves deer meat!"

Faced with that innocent question, I found myself at a loss for words. The truth was, I didn’t have an answer ready.

Instead, his question forced me to confront something I’d never really thought about before.

Hmm... why?

Why didn’t I want to kill them? Why does this feel different?

We had killed wolves and bears without a second thought. I hadn’t felt even the slightest remorse over those deaths. Hell, I’d even killed plenty of goblins before!

So why did the thought of killing those deer bother me so much?

Was it simply because they’d once lived inside my castle?

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, and for the moment, I had no answer to give Gopushadow.

****

A few minutes later, after I’d gathered my thoughts, I was able to come up with a good reason and now tried explaining it to him.

"Gopushadow, that deer has a baby. If you kill the mother, the little one might die too, because there won’t be anyone left to take care of it."

"Hmmmmm..." Gopushadow scratched his head, considering my words. "Yeah, I suppose... But baby deer is tasty too, no?"

Oh, for crying out loud...

Of course that’s what you’re thinking about!

"That’s not the point!" I replied. "Think about it this way. If you let the baby deer live, it’ll grow bigger and produce more meat for us later, right?"

Gopushadow’s expression suddenly brightened.

"Damn! Big Boss is right!" He slapped his thigh in realization. "Once the baby deer grow up into adult deer, baby deer will give more meat!"

"Exactly! And if you let them grow up and reproduce, you’ll eventually have even more deer to hunt!"

"Oooh!"

The dude seemed to get it now.

Muahahaha!

That was about the best reasoning I could come up with on the spot. It’s just basic livestock management, really.

The principle was simple: let young animals mature, spare adults that are still raising their offspring, and give populations time to replenish themselves. That way, there would be more animals to hunt in the long run.

...Though, to be honest, that wasn’t the real reason I’d stopped Gopushadow.

Even if there had been only one deer, with no fawn standing beside it, would I still have wanted to kill it?

No. I wouldn’t.

As it turned out, the answer was embarrassingly simple.

Because deer are cute.

That was it.

Yeah... call me a hypocrite or whatever, but apparently, even a castle like me had a soft side. My conscience would absolutely eat me alive if I ordered the slaughter of something that adorable.

Unfortunately, my conscience wasn’t the only thing I had to consider.

Because the more I looked into this, the more problem arose.

First... that doe had been pretty big. If I’d let Gopushadow kill it, I could have earned a decent number of Points by selling its remains. Not as much as I’d get from a Horned Wolf, perhaps, but probably at least half as much. That alone might have been enough to buy several E-tier weapons.

Thus, sparing every deer I encountered could mean giving up a considerable amount of meat, materials, and Points over time.

Yet indiscriminate hunting came with its own problems too. If my citizens hunted too many animals of any one species, their populations could collapse, disrupting the forest’s ecosystem and damaging the environment we depended on.

And my goblins were only getting stronger. As hunting became easier for them, it would also become easier to kill more than the forest could sustain. Left unchecked, they might eventually wipe out entire animal populations.

That would be disastrous.

In hindsight, it was probably a good thing I’d started thinking about this before my little settlement grew any further.

...

Thus, I spent the next thirty minutes coming up with what I decided to call the Castle Hunting Rules.

First, we would leave the young alone and spare mothers still caring for their offspring.

Second, we would focus on dangerous beasts that threatened my citizens, making the forest around the castle safer.

Finally, we would avoid hunting any one kind of beast too heavily, giving their numbers time to recover between hunts.

Of course, I’d eventually need to work out the proper seasons for hunting each kind of beast. The trouble was, I hadn’t even lived through a full year in this world yet. For all I knew, its seasons might be completely different from Earth’s.

Still, the days had been growing longer and hotter, so summer seemed to be approaching.

As I pondered the matter, another idea occurred to me.

Wait a minute... Why rely entirely on hunting in the first place?

Perhaps I could tame Starry Deer or other herbivores and raise them within my territory. That would give me a steadier supply of meat, useful materials, and Points.

In theory, it was an excellent plan.

In practice, I had absolutely no idea how to pull it off.

I was a webnovel author, not a farmer or rancher. I knew next to nothing about raising animals, let alone breeding them.

Which meant that, sooner or later, I’d probably have to ask the System for help with that, too.

*****

A few moments later...

Although we hadn’t managed to catch those deer, our scouting expedition soon yielded something far more interesting.

High above the forest floor, Gopushadow continued leaping between the treetops, his sharp eyes scanning the undergrowth below. Through [Vassal’s Eyes], I followed his gaze.

Then, something unusual caught my attention.

Hmm? What’s that?

A strange green creature was sitting on the forest floor.

It was a large, shapeless blob about the size of a beanbag chair, its translucent body wobbling gently as though it were made of living jelly.

And at that very moment, it was slowly engulfing the carcass of a dead bird, its gelatinous body creeping over the remains as the creature dissolved its meal bit by bit.