A Growing Desire to Retreat

In fact, when they had just installed the Desalination Device by the shore, nearby villagers had already come to investigate.

Large areas of the Land of Wind lacked water and supplies. The coast, on the other hand, was the easiest place to obtain such things.

Wherever there was a coastline, villages had gathered to varying degrees.

Though they had food, freshwater resources were relatively scarce.

In coastal areas, there was usually a boundary between saltwater and freshwater underground.

It was what was known as the "saltwater-freshwater interface." If a well was dug too close to the shore and too deep, it might penetrate that boundary and cause the well water to turn salty.

The people here knew nothing of this. Whether they could draw freshwater from a well depended entirely on luck.

Although distillation and sun-drying methods could produce enough freshwater for daily use, they could not provide much more than that.

Besides the lack of water, there was also the problem of saline-alkali soil, which made growing crops extremely difficult.

The people here basically lived half by fishing and half by farming.

The lack of roads meant the fish they caught could only be traded for goods nearby. Money was rarely used here; barter was the norm.

Forget high-tech items—even electricity was unavailable.

Besides fish, the food here consisted of a kind of millet and the fruit of a cactus-like plant.

Many people never traveled beyond a hundred li from where they were born.

Over the course of their lives, they ate fewer than five kinds of vegetables.

Their standard of living was exceptionally poor.

Senyo roughly explained the living conditions here to Karin.

Karin was reminded of the time before she and Mio had wandered to Kusagakure as children. Although their environment had been somewhat better, their lives