Chapter 467: Afternoon Wood?

That was when she couldn’t help but frown.

She crossed her arms and muttered to herself.

"There is no bathtub."

This was actually a pretty big problem for her. She was incredibly used to the luxury of Oresfall’s plumbing and Celeste’s scented soaps. But she just took a deep breath and calmed her mind.

"It is fine. This is a mission, so luxuries can come later on."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"I wonder how these tribesmen wash themselves?"

Thinking about this, she walked out of the bamboo hut and stepped into the cool morning air.

As she walked around the dirt paths, she thought back to the citizens of Crestwall. The commoners usually did go to the nearest river to wash themselves. But those who lived in towns that were far away from rivers mostly used wet cloths to wipe themselves down instead of just pouring buckets of water on top of their heads.

She couldn’t help but ask herself a simple question.

’Wait. If the people are in towns that are far away from the rivers, how did they even get water in the first place?’

She did not know the answer.

She just stood near the edge of the camp and watched the locals. The kids all huddled together in a massive group. They picked up a bunch of crude arrows, ate the simple meat, berries and roots that their mothers gave them, and then headed off into the tree line to hunt small game.

As for the adult men, they made their own hunting groups and went out into the deeper jungle.

Once everyone was gone, the women took care of the heavy clay cooking pots and the leftover utensils. And then even they headed out into the forest to gather herbs and roots.

They were extremely efficient.

Every single person, be it a small child, a woman, or an adult man, was totally busy with something. Everyone was going out to get food for the tribe.

In a single glance, it clearly looked like they did not have any distinct, separate gender roles like the people back in Oresfall or the Crestwall Empire did. Survival was just a collective effort.

Feeling a little lonely since the entire camp was practically empty, Claire just walked back into the hut.

She saw Serena cuddling comfortably against Adrian’s chest.

Claire just shook her head with a small, fond smile. She sat down on the floor near the bed and closed her eyes before she started to meditate and consolidate her mana. She couldn’t drawn mana from the atmosphere, so she used to chance to solidify her foundation.

After around an hour or so, Serena finally woke up. She quietly slipped out of the bed and sat down on the floor next to Claire. Then, even she started to meditate.

It was only after two whole hours of total silence that both Serena and Claire opened their eyes and looked at each other.

Claire finally asked the one question that was bothering her.

"Did these two come back before we slept? I don’t remember hearing them."

Serena just shook her head.

"I stayed up pretty late waiting for them. But I fell asleep while waiting, and you already slept way before me."

Claire frowned.

"Don’t tell me they were busy talking for the whole night. That can’t be the case, right?"

"Well, you never know," Serena smiled softly. "Adrian is pretty unpredictable after all. And Aria absolutely adores him. It has been a while since they actually spent some quality time alone together, so I don’t think they even noticed the time passing by if we assume that they talked for the whole night."

Claire let out a sigh and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess we will just let them sleep."

She closed her eyes again.

"Let’s just go back to meditating."

Both of them closed their eyes and went back to consolidating their foundations.

It was only after around five hours when Adrian finally woke up.

He slowly stretched his stiff back and looked at the two girls sitting on the floor.

’Maybe I should just go back to sleep.’ he thought to himself.

But right at that time, he heard Aria’s voice.

She mumbled softly against his side, like she was still in her sleep.

"Papaaa. Mmmmmm..."

Adrian looked down. He saw her rubbing her face all over his arm like a small cat, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight.

Hearing his laugh, Claire and Serena opened their eyes and looked up at the bed.

Claire smirked. "You slept for quite a while there, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you stayed awake the whole night."

Before Adrian could even answer her, Aria woke up. She rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her hands and looked up at Adrian, and then over at Claire.

Adrian looked back at Claire.

"Yeah. We ended up staying out testing things until morning."

Aria yawned widely.

"Papa, shouldn’t you talk to the tribal chief about the methods they use for drinking this liquid mana?"

Adrian nodded and sat up on the edge of the mattress.

"Yeah, let me go ask him right now."

He stood up and Claire immediately stood up from the floor and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around his right arm and hugged it tight against her chest.

She leaned up and purred softly in his ear.

"Adrian~"

Adrian, who had literally just woken up, immediately felt a spike of excitement. He smoothly put his free arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him.

"What?"

Claire immediately went bright red. Her entire facade crumbled in a single second. She panicked and directly headbutted him right in the chest.

"You.... I just wanted to ask for a shower or a bathtub, but now..."

She didn’t even complete the sentence. She just buried her face into his chest.

Adrian just smirked down at her. He looked over at Serena, who was watching them with a highly amused smile.

"Let’s all go take a shower together."