A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 82: Awkward Questions

When they finally got to the patch of long, orange squash, Elder Samuel quickly showed her how to harvest them properly, so they didn’t get damaged. He then gave her a quick guide on storing them before having to head back to make sure things were going well with the traps.

Before he left, he promised to speak again with her soon and Serena agreed. He was a busy man running a whole village, so she didn’t want to take up his time more than necessary.

Instead she focused on harvesting quite a few long, orange squash. She filled half her basket with them, the other half filled with other plants. Then she set to work filling up a basket from her subspace with them.

By the time she was done, it was mid-morning and she was tired so she decided to head back to the village. She wanted to try the new vegetable out and see how it tasted. For now, she’d make them roasted, but afterwards she’d try out Elder Samuel’s suggestion to boil them.

What she didn’t realize was just how heavy the long, orange squash was when she picked up her basket. Sure, the other vegetables weren’t exactly light either, but these squashes were much bigger than the other vegetables.

Still, she kept moving her body as she walked back to the village, not wanting to get in. Her shoulders strained a little under the weight but she ignored it, only stopping when she finally got to the hut.

Jason still hadn’t returned, but Serena didn’t worry too much about it. Instead she headed to the underground part of the hut and began storing up the vegetables, leaving a few to take up with her.

She then headed back up and went to grab some more water before she started another fire for cooking. By then Kiro and Theo had returned and Serena noticed some of Theo’s injuries had completely disappeared.

"Sister, what are these?" Kiro suddenly asked, pointing at her squashes. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"They’re long, orange squash." Serena replied. "Elder Samuel recommended them, so I thought we could try them out today."

"Can we have brown roots too?" Kiro asked eagerly.

Serena shook her head. "Not now."

She could see his disappointment, so turned away to focus more on the fire instead. Kiro seemed to love brown roots more than the other vegetables, but she couldn’t let him just eat those.

They had other vegetables that they needed to eat too. Besides, if they kept eating only brown roots, they’d run out of stock before the rainy season came and she wasn’t sure if there’d be any more around.

Not to mention, she wasn’t sure if eating a lot of brown roots was bad for you. There was that old saying of moderation is important, but Serena wasn’t sure if it was directed at food too.

"If you behave, we can have some tomorrow." Theo suddenly said. "I can hunt a deer and we can make a nice soup with brown roots and orange roots."

Kiro’s eyes widened with excitement. "Really?!"

"Yes." Theo nodded with a smile while Serena glanced at him curiously. He noticed her stare and added, "I’ll use that bird to track down a herd of them tomorrow and maybe bring a few back."

Serena sighed at his words, thinking that it wasn’t that simple. Finally she murmured, "Alright... But don’t overdo it."

His shoulder would just be healed by then, so overworking it so quickly would definitely put some strain on it. She didn’t even want to think of the long term efforts of not letting his shoulder heal properly.

Beastmen may have incredible healing abilities, but it came at the cost of them underestimating the necessary time needed to care for an injury. Some would strain themselves, leading to further problems for themselves.

It was better to take it slow now than regret it in the future. That was why she had been so pushy with Theo about healing up properly.

"I won’t..." Theo retorted. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but was interrupted when someone called out to them.

They all turned to the direction of the voice and found Jason heading over to them. When he got over to them, he set down Theo’s hunting basket they had let him borrow.

"I managed to hunt a few wild birds." Jason said, pulling out two birds which had already been plucked and cleaned. His eyes spotted the long, orange squash and he exclaimed, "I didn’t know there was long, orange squash! Are you making some now?"

"I am." Serena nodded her head. "Do you enjoy them?"

"I do." Jason nodded his head. His eyes then shifted to Kiro, who was hiding behind his sister. "By the way, I didn’t expect you two to have a cub already. You both look so young."

"That’s my brother, Kiro." Serena muttered deadpanned.

This bird beastman really didn’t know how to filter his words. He just said whatever came to mind, making for awkward situations.

Jason gaped at her, opening and closing his mouth like a fish, not sure how to respond to her words. Serena just shook her head and turned to Kiro.

"This is Jason." Serena stated. "He helped us today, so is going to have lunch with us."

Kiro nodded his head in understanding. He glanced at Jason for a moment before turning to Serena and asked, "Is he going to be your mate too?"

It was an innocent question, Kiro only used to family eating together. Even while they were traveling together, Serena and Kiro tended to eat some distance away from everyone, but that was because Serena was trying to get away from idle conversation.

Not that Kiro understood that. He just assumed everyone that ate with them was going to be family. And the only way a strange beastman would be family was to be Serena’s mate.

Of course, his words made everyone cough, either trying not to laugh or choke on his words. Serena placed a hand over her forehead.

"No, Kiro." Serena murmured. "Now come help me with lunch."