Chapter 28: The Fifth Beast Husband

After the three left, Sora didn’t stay idle either.

She set more corn kernels out to dry. Besides making popcorn, she planned to grind some cornmeal. The shepherd’s purse and mushrooms were fresh, and together with pork they would be perfect for making corn dumplings.

During the apocalypse, grinding corn into flour had been easy. You simply plugged in a grinder and let the machine do the work.

But in this primitive world, she had to rely entirely on manual labor.

Sora found a natural stone trough shaped like a crescent moon and poured the corn kernels inside. Then she picked up a long, narrow stone and began grinding with both hands.

Just as she was working, the system suddenly spoke.

Ding! Congratulations, Host. Your attraction value has increased by 10 points. Current attraction value: 40.

Such a large increase surprised Sora.

After thinking about it, she realized the only thing she had done today was make popcorn.

Could it really be because of that?

It seemed the saying "the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach" really did have some truth to it.

With that thought, she asked the system:

"What are their affection levels now?"

The system replied:

Report to Host: The current affection values of the targets have not changed.

Sora sighed.

She had clearly been overthinking things.

In the end, appearance still mattered. A simple snack was only enough to increase their attraction, not their genuine affection.

Grinding corn flour looked easy, but it was exhausting work. After pushing the stone for a while, Sora was covered in sweat.

Fortunately, she considered it exercise.

If she found more corn later, she would definitely make a stone mill and grinder. That would save her hands a lot of effort.

After half a day of hard work, she finally produced a fine corn flour.

Since conditions were limited and there was no wheat flour available, she simply made do.

She poured the corn flour into a fruit-shell bowl, added cold water, and kneaded it into dough. After covering it with a large taro leaf to rest, she gathered fresh mushrooms and shepherd’s purse, washed them in the deep pool, and chopped them finely.

She also diced some wild boar meat and mixed it together with the vegetables. After adding fine salt and a little cooled lard, the filling was complete.

Once the dough had rested, she kneaded it again, divided it into small portions, and rolled each piece into a thin wrapper using a wooden stick.

Using a pair of chopsticks, she placed filling onto each wrapper, dabbed water around the edges, folded it in half, and sealed it tightly.

One corn dumpling after another soon filled the fruit-shell bowl.

After wrapping them all, Sora set them aside and waited for the others to return before cooking.

At the same time, she cut more pork and prepared ingredients for stir-fried porcini mushrooms.

Just as the dishes were nearly ready, Lucas and Ace returned carrying a massive tree.

Before Sora could say anything, the enormous trunk was sliced into four large sections right before her eyes.

Lucas held up one of the pieces.

"About this size?" he asked.

"It’s perfect!"

Originally, Sora had planned to join several wooden boards together, but she hadn’t expected the tree to be so huge.

Back in the apocalypse, timber of this size would have been considered a priceless treasure, likely hundreds of years old.

Primitive society was different. Massive trees like this seemed to be everywhere.

She nodded.

"This works, but a square shape isn’t very convenient."

Taking a piece of charcoal from the fire pit, she improvised a compass and drew a large circle.

"Let’s cut it along this line."

Sora always came up with strange ideas, and Ace found them intriguing, though he didn’t ask questions.

Following her instructions, he carefully cut out the circular board.

A round tabletop was soon completed.

"This looks nice, but it still needs support underneath."

Hearing that, Ace used his ability to carve four proportionate table legs.

Sora then directed him to make wooden pegs, and together they fitted the legs to the table.

Using the same method, they crafted six chairs.

Everything fit together perfectly.

Sora watched as Ace and Lucas worked together. Using the same method, they made six chairs.

Everything fit together perfectly.

With the remaining wood, Sora had the three of them build storage racks and cabinets as well, making it easier to organize things in the future.

While they were busy, Sora reheated the popcorn she had made earlier so it would stay crisp. Then she wrapped it in leaves and handed it to Lucas.

Lucas inhaled deeply.

"Yes. That’s the smell."

He noticed the portion was exactly the same size as the one Xavier had received earlier and couldn’t help looking at Sora with admiration.

She really handled things fairly.

When Ace saw the popcorn was ready, he immediately hurried over.

Lucas grabbed a fresh leaf, spread it on the newly made round table, and began dividing the popcorn piece by piece.

"Three hundred and six."

"Three hundred and seven."

Ace’s sharp eyes immediately spotted the extra piece.

"Why do you have one more than me?"

Lucas gave him a cold look.

"Did you forget? You ate one before we left."

Ace instantly fell silent.

The two of them began eating enthusiastically.

Since Xavier hadn’t touched his popcorn yet, they deliberately showed off in front of him.

To their surprise, after washing his hands, Xavier calmly pulled out a hidden handful of popcorn and started eating it.

The three immediately turned it into a competition.

Watching their childish behavior, Sora shook her head helplessly.

Once the water boiled, she dropped the dumplings into the pot and began stir-frying the porcini mushrooms on another stove.

The aroma quickly spread through the air.

After finishing his popcorn, Ace had originally planned to leave, but when he smelled the food, his eyes lit up again.

"So all I have to do is work, and I get food?"

Lucas snorted.

As if he had never shamelessly begged for food before.

Seeing that Ace had spent the entire morning helping, Sora generously pointed toward the giant tree beside them.

"If you want to eat, make yourself a bowl and a pair of chopsticks."

Ace immediately climbed up to a tree, picked a large fruit, hollowed it out, and returned with his makeshift bowl before sitting at the round table.

Watching Xavier and Lucas use chopsticks to pick food from the same dish, he frowned.

"Isn’t it dirty? Eating from the same plate?"

Having spent enough time around him, Sora already understood his personality.

"You think it’s dirty?" she asked. "There’s still plenty in the pot. Go serve yourself."

Ace’s eyes brightened.

"Good idea."

Lucas rolled his eyes.

"So pretentious."

Xavier added,

"With food this good, you’re still worried about things like that?"

Sure enough, by the time Ace finished serving himself, there was barely anything left in the pot.

He immediately regretted being picky.

Next time I definitely won’t do that.

After lunch, the three beastmen prepared to leave.

Before Ace could go, Sora called out:

"Ace, when are you going to the deep pool?"

The question instantly reminded him of the embarrassing incident from before.

His expression stiffened.

"What for?"

"I want to take a bath," Sora replied deliberately. "I’m trying to avoid running into any of you."

She glanced meaningfully at her three beast husbands, making sure her innocence was clear.

Ace’s expression eased.

"In the morning."

Xavier spoke next.

"I have water in my cave. I won’t be going."

Lucas crossed his arms.

"I prefer bathing late at night."

Sora nodded.

"Good. Then I won’t run into any of you."

She had wanted to properly wash herself and clean her clothes for days.

During the day she worried about unexpectedly encountering Ace.

At night, couples from the tribe often visited the area, which made her uncomfortable.

Because of that, she had only been wiping herself down with water.

That afternoon, the tribe members left to hunt and gather fruit.

Finding the area deserted, Sora carried her clothes and headed to the deep pool.

After checking that nobody was around, she finally relaxed.

She removed her leaf top, her skirt, and the simple underwear she had painstakingly fashioned from animal hide.

To be fair, the little piece of underwear was surprisingly stylish.

Sora admired her handiwork proudly.

Just as she lowered her head to wash it, a figure suddenly emerged from the water.

Startled, she lost her grip.

The underwear flew from her hand and landed perfectly on the stranger’s head.

Silence filled the pool.

Only the sound of water remained.

Embarrassed, Sora immediately sank deeper into the water.

The man pulled the garment off his head and stared at her coldly.

"I haven’t settled accounts with you yet," he said. "And now you’ve delivered yourself right to me."

Sora froze.

Who is this?

She had carefully calculated that everyone should have left the area.

How had someone appeared here?

And more importantly—

He knew her name.

Realizing this, Sora lowered herself further into the water and tried to get a better look at him.

Earlier she had only seen a silhouette because she had been too focused on her unfortunate underwear incident.

But before she could examine him properly, the stranger tossed the garment back into the water and swam directly toward her.

"Hey!"

Sora immediately protested.

"Don’t throw that away! It took me forever to make!"

In this primitive world there were no scissors.

She had spent ages sharpening a stone knife just to cut the hide into shape.

After all that effort, she had only managed to make two pairs.

If she lost one, she’d have nothing to wear.

The thought terrified her.

Without caring who the stranger was anymore, Sora immediately dove underwater and swam after the drifting underwear.