FREE USE in Primitive World

Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Bathing With Kira?

The aftermath of the tribal square’s absolute pandemonium was a blur of shouting, cheering, and chaotic celebration, but Sol eventually managed to slip away from the overwhelming adulation of the crowd.

He was a god to them now, a walking legend who held the sky and the earth in his palms, but beneath the terrifying, aura he had projected, he was physically and mentally running on fumes.

Kira didn’t leave his side for a single second. The feline-eyed warrior expertly navigated him away from the mob of overly eager elders and swooning villagers, guiding him back to the quiet, secluded safety of his own quarters.

The moment the heavy wooden door shut behind them, cutting off the deafening roar of the tribe, the adrenaline that had been keeping Sol upright finally began to crash. He let out a long, ragged exhale, leaning heavily against the petrified timber wall.

“Come,” Kira said, her voice unusually soft, stripped of its usual sharp edge. “You smell like death and vaporized acid. The healers have already prepared hot water for you.”

She led him to the back of the spacious hut, where a large, hollowed-out wooden tub was waiting, steaming with hot water infused with crushed, fragrant violet leaves and medicinal jungle roots, and left.

He stripped off his ruined, acid-singed leather armor and slipped into the scalding water. A deep, involuntary groan of profound relief escaped his lips as the heat soaked into his aching, overtaxed muscles.

Soon, Kira came back, surprising Sol, but he didn’t show any reaction. She also didn’t seem to mind that he was bathing, and went to pick up a coarse woven cloth, dipped it into the hot, fragrant water, and knelt behind the tub.

Gently, with a care that completely contradicted her status as a lethal warrior, she began to wash the dried mud, dark blood, and toxic residue from his broad shoulders and back.

Even though, internally he was even more confused, as they didn;t seem to be close enough for such acts, but then he thought that it was Primitive world, with not much complicated stuff like shame, so he relaxed and let her help him out.

The silence in the room was heavy, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the intimate, fragile silence of two people who had genuinely feared they might never see each other again.

Sol leaned his head back against the rim of the wooden tub, closing his eyes. He could feel the slight, uncontrollable tremor in Kira’s hands as she worked the cloth over his skin.

“You were worried,” Sol murmured, his voice a low, soothing rumble in the quiet room.

Kira paused. She didn’t speak for a long moment. When she finally did, her voice was thick with suppressed emotion. “You vanished into the deep woods alone, Sol. Without a spirit. Without a guide. In the middle of a territorial warzone. I… I thought the jungle had swallowed you. When the sentries blew the horn, and I saw you standing there covered in Sovereign blood…”

She stopped, taking a shaky breath, her hands resting flat against his wet shoulders. “You are an absolute idiot. But… I am glad you are alive.”

Sol opened his eyes and reached back, gently placing his hand over hers. Her skin was calloused from years of gripping a bone sword, but it felt incredibly warm. He was genuinely touched.

In this brutal, savage world of the Great Orrath, where lives were snuffed out daily and empathy was often a fatal weakness, seeing this fierce warrior so visibly exhausted and worried over his safety moved something deep within him.

“I told you I’d come back,” Sol said softly, his thumb tracing the back of her hand. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, Kira. I have too much left to do here.”

A faint, beautiful blush dusted her cheeks, extending to the tips of her ears. She pulled her hands back quickly, clearing her throat to regain her composure. “Get out and dry off. I brought you fresh clothes and hot food. You need to eat before your core cannibalizes your own muscles.”

Ten minutes later, Sol was dressed in a set of fresh, clean leather garments that fit comfortably over his newly refined physique. He sat at the small wooden table in the center of the room, ravenously tearing into a large wooden bowl of steaming, high-tier essence-meat stew that Kira had brought.

Kira sat across from him, resting her chin in her hands, watching him eat with a soft, lingering gaze that she didn’t bother to hide anymore. The tension of the outside world seemed a million miles away.

She took a deep breath, her golden feline eyes dropping to the wooden table for a moment as she gathered her courage. The atmosphere in the room shifted, growing suddenly thick with a different kind of tension.

“Sol,” Kira began, her voice barely above a whisper, hesitant and entirely uncharacteristic of her. “I… I have to tell you something. I—”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The sudden, frantic knocking on the heavy wooden door echoed like a thunderclap, shattering the intimate, fragile bubble they had built.

“Sol! Sol, are you in there?!” a loud, intensely energetic voice chirped from the other side.

Sol froze, a piece of essence-meat halfway to his mouth. Kira’s eyes widened, and she immediately snapped her mouth shut, her cheeks flaring with a brilliant, embarrassed crimson as she rapidly sat back in her chair, looking anywhere but at him.

Sighing in mild amusement at the universe’s impeccable timing, Sol put his bone spoon down, got up, and pulled the heavy door open.

Standing on the threshold was Lumi. The young, petite girl was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. She possessed a bubbly, relentlessly energetic personality that seemed entirely out of place in a world where everything was constantly trying to eat you.

Her bright eyes were wide with pure awe, and a massive, beaming smile stretched across her face.

“You’re alive! And you’re amazing!” Lumi blurted out, her words spilling over each other in her excitement. She immediately launched into a barrage of praise. “I saw you in the square! Well, I saw you return, but there were so many people crowding around, and the elders were shouting, so I could only watch from afar! But the pressure! The aura! It was incredible!”

Sol couldn’t help but smile, his earlier exhaustion melting away under the sheer radiance of her enthusiasm. “Well,” he chuckled, leaning against the doorframe and gesturing for her to come inside. “You’re not watching from afar anymore. You’re seeing me up close now. Happy?”

Lumi nodded hurriedly, her hair bouncing as she stepped into the room, barely acknowledging Kira, who was still silently fuming at the interruption at the table.

Lumi rushed right up to Sol, her eyes sparkling like polished gemstones. “Did you really get a Lord Blood? A Layer 3?! Wasn’t it terrifyingly dangerous? How did you survive the night out there in the deep Orrath all alone? Were there thousands of beasts? Oh! How did the Great Badger look? Was it as big as a mountain?!”

She fired off a badger of questions without pausing to take a single breath.

Sol laughed out loud, a genuine, hearty sound. He really liked her energetic and bubbly personality. In this brutal, savage world where every warrior walked around with a permanent scowl, hyper-vigilant and overly cautious, someone like Lumi was a profound breath of fresh air. Watching her jump around excitedly, Sol couldn’t help but reminisce about Earth.

It was a sharp, nostalgic pang. Only on his old, modern world could girls be this carefree, this delightfully innocent, without having to constantly worry about the apocalyptic dangers of giant beasts, tribal warfare, and starvation. Lumi was a rare luxury of innocence in the Great Orrath.

He patiently began answering her questions, of course, not without heavily exaggerating the details to make his survival seem even more impossibly heroic. He described the Great Badger as a titan whose footsteps shattered mountains, and the Dreadwing as a demon that blotted out the sun. Lumi hung onto his every word, gasping and covering her mouth at all the right moments.

After a few minutes of entertaining her, Sol finally chuckled and held up a hand. “Alright, alright. I survived, and I’m here. But you didn’t just come here to ask me for a bedtime story, Lumi. What is the reason for your visit?”

Lumi blinked, her face going blank for a second before she violently bit her tongue, letting out a cute, embarrassed sound. “Te-hehe! I was so excited I almost completely forgot! Warchief invited you to the High Hall.”

Sol raised an eyebrow, his mind instantly pivoting back to tribal politics. “Why?”

Lumi shrugged her slender shoulders, looking completely innocent. “I don’t know. She just told me to run and fetch you. She said it was important.”

“Okay, let’s go then,” Sol said, picking up his Void-Oak spear from the corner.

He turned back toward the table, his eyes softening as he looked at Kira. “You were about to say something,” he prompted gently. “What was it?”

Kira looked at him, then glanced at Lumi, who was still practically vibrating with leftover excitement. Kira swallowed hard, a myriad of emotions crossing her golden eyes. She opened her mouth, hesitated halfway through, and then firmly shook her head, the moment completely lost.

“It was nothing important,” Kira said quickly, looking down at the table. “Just… nonsense.”

Sol obviously noticed the lie. Her body language was screaming that it was important, but since she clearly didn’t want to tell him in front of an audience, he decided not to push it. He respected her boundaries.