Chapter 398: The Beast Tribe and the Beastmen
Kaise squinted through her blurry vision, watching the figures of the others quickly fade into the distance.
She shouted once, but received no response.
Her body ached, and her heart ached even more.
Everything her father left behind was snatched away by others, and she was about to plunge into the eternal abyss of darkness.
She was going to d*e.
In her dazed state, she seemed to hear a strange yet melodious voice.
“You’re going to d*e.”
“Yeah…”
“This injury should last about ten more minutes.”
Ten more minutes? Well, that’s not too bad.
“If you don’t want to just d*e like this, I can help you. But in exchange, you must honestly answer my questions.”
d*e? If there’s a chance, of course, I don’t want to just kick the bucket!
Kaise instinctively nodded.
In the next moment, a warm energy flowed through her body.
In this rare ocean of warmth, Kaise’s heartstrings suddenly relaxed, and her consciousness sank as she drifted off to sleep.
“Uh… she just fell asleep? Really, just like a cat. Little Li, do you think you two are related?”
“Guh?”
About an hour later, Kaise suddenly opened her eyes.
She found that the sky had turned half dark, with a small campfire providing some light beside her, and something was roasting over the fire.
“Huh? Where am I… what happened?”
“Ah, you’re awake?”
Hearing the voice beside her, Kaise’s confused mind became clear in an instant.
She remembered leading those people to get something; it was stolen, and she was almost killed.
But in that last moment, she seemed to hear an angelic voice pulling her back from the darkness.
She murmured, “I’m still alive; that wasn’t a dream…”
“It seems you remember what happened?”
“Ah! Yes! Thank you so much for saving me!”
Kaise immediately turned around and bowed sincerely.
As she moved, she caught a glimpse of the person’s attire beside her.
A black robe, a very smooth face, and a few strands of golden hair; everything else was covered by the robe.
“Now I have to ask you some questions.”
“Okay… ah, wait! Please put out the fire first! It’s not allowed to make fire here.”
Yuliya looked at the small fire pit, confused, and asked, “Why?”
“It’s a rule; making a fire without cause is not allowed in all areas outside the designated zones.”
“But it’s so dark now! I lit the fire for illumination.”
“Doesn’t your species have strong night vision?”
“I… don’t have it; my night vision is totally fine, just more used to brightness.”
Kaise, hearing this, directly grabbed something to extinguish the fire.
“It must be put out! If we’re discovered, we’ll be in trouble.”
After Kaise put out the fire, she looked around and, finding no large beasts nearby, finally let out a sigh of relief, “It seems we haven’t been discovered yet.”
“I can tell from your accent that you’re from out of town; I understand the lack of knowledge about the rules around here, but please be careful from now on.”
“Right, I’m indeed from out of town. That’s why I wanted to find you to learn about this place.”
So it can be heard from the accent, that explains a lot.
“You were just checking for monsters, weren’t you?”
“Checking for any large beasts around; if there were, we might need to seal our mouths about it. Luckily, there aren’t any, and we haven’t been discovered.”
Yuliya raised an eyebrow.
Large beasts? She must mean the monsters.
Seal our mouths? Monsters also need their mouths sealed. It seems the beastmen can communicate with monsters.
This is understandable; monsters are sentient, and the higher-ranked and more powerful monsters have higher intelligence.
Just like that Steelback Bear King I beat up before, its IQ was on par with an average person.
Actually, the term “monster” isn’t quite accurate.
It’s just the name humans from the Jade Emperor Kingdom used within their territory; more accurately, they should be called by their respective races, such as beastmen, insectoids, or sea folk.
That’s how they were referred to during the Golden Kingdom era.
And as Yuliya recalled, there seemingly weren’t any beastmen back then.
Beastmen are probably a high branch of the beast tribe, resulting from long-term evolution.
But these didn’t appear in the vast area of the Jade Emperor Kingdom; they still referred to everything as monsters.
Looking back now, that area really was just a small, remote part of the entire continent; the perspective was simply too narrow.
Nations are similar, as are individuals; there’s no variety among races, nor are there any neutral divine beings.
This might be connected to how the Golden Land protected that area very well.
But it also limited development there.
After contemplating these matters, Yuliya chuckled lightly, “Don’t worry; I’m careful about hiding my tracks. Just because there’s a fire here, it still looks pitch black if you look from a distance.”
“Ah? Then I…” Kaise awkwardly glanced at the ashes of the fire she had just extinguished.
“It’s fine. But…” Yuliya pulled out a skewer with a piece of fruit on it, “Want to give it a try? It’s from somewhere else.”
“N-no, I… gurgle~”
Yuliya glanced at Kaise’s stomach, her smile unwavering: “Just a taste, it’s really good.”
“Thank you!”
Kaise took it and immediately took a big bite.
But the moment she bit into it, her face turned red, and she quickly pulled it out, sticking out her tongue.
“Hot, hot, hot!”
Yuliya’s smile widened: “Slow down, no rush.”
A cat, a cat’s tongue, cat girl!
What if I accidentally want to ruuua her…
No, no, that would just get me into trouble!
Kaise slowly took small bites.
She was very diligent and serious about the eating.
Yuliya watched, feeling a hint of proud satisfaction.
It was like a chef seeing their dish being carefully savored.
Though the food was delicious mainly due to the ingredients, it cost a gold coin each!
But even if the ingredients had a 90% impact, did my roasting not have at least 91% effect?
As they continued eating, Kaise suddenly choked up, a few tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s so good… too good. Ever since my father left, I haven’t eaten anything this delicious for a long time…”
“Uh…”
“It reminds me of my mother. Although I’ve never met her, my father said her cooking was fantastic, and he learned from her.”
Kaise suddenly turned her gaze toward Yuliya for no reason.
“…”
What are you looking at me for? Am I supposed to be your mother or something?
Not like sisters… I’m younger than you!
But this cat girl looks pretty pitiful; she truly is a poor child.
“They’ll be watching over you from the heavens,” Yuliya reassured her.
“May I ask, are you a saintess?”
“A saintess?”
Yuliya didn’t quite understand the term, as she still wasn’t fluent in the beast language.
“I noticed your hair is golden. There are also gold-haired folks at the station, all very noble races or individuals, but their hair color doesn’t compare to yours in beauty.”
“Someone like you, I can only think of the saintess my father once mentioned.”
