Take Away My Sickly Beauty [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 28

The cub’s tender words were laughable; Sana didn’t take a single thing Keno said to heart. She simply straightened her back, caught her breath, and said, “You are still small. A cub shouldn’t think too much. The soup is almost ready; come and eat first.”

Hearing this, Keno’s brow furrowed slightly. As she stepped forward to help, she explained earnestly, “I am not a cub. I am already an adult. I came of age on the very day of the White Rain Festival, it’s just that… I cannot transform into my beast form.”

Cubs always long to grow up, as if becoming an adult makes one omnipotent. But once they do grow up, they often wish they were still ignorant cubs who knew nothing of the world. Sanna had felt this way herself, so she simply nodded in agreement, not taking Keno’s words seriously at all.

Seeing this, Keno pursed her lips, feeling once again dissatisfied with her inability to transform. In their Gryphon Tribe, beastmen would transform into their beast forms on the day they reached adulthood, and their bodies would shoot up to adult proportions. Because Keno could not transform, she still retained the appearance of a cub despite having come of age.

As she helped Sanna serve the meat soup, the frown on Keno’s face never relaxed. The dried meat that Sanna had repeatedly aired and dried, trying every possible way to keep moisture out, had still turned moldy in the pervasive dampness of the White Rain Festival. The moldy Red Goose meat had a strong, earthy smell, and in the entire pot of soup, there was only a piece of dried meat half the size of her palm sinking at the bottom.

Having watched Sana’s busy movements, Keno knew that this was already the entirety of Sana’s remaining food stores. What touched her even more was that Sana served the entire piece of meat into Keno’s bowl, while she herself so thin and weak that a gust of wind could knock her over kept only a bowl of bland, watery broth.

At this, Keno couldn’t help but clench her fingers, asking in a muffled voice, “You gave all the food to me. What will you do later?”

“A cub shouldn’t think so much,” Sana repeated. She rubbed Keno’s messy hair and said calmly, “Eat while it’s hot.”

Dissatisfied with the dismissal, Keno grabbed the hand resting on her head, her large eyes staring intently at her as she asked, “What if I am not a cub?”

Sana hadn’t expected this little cub to be so stubborn, so she replied, “Whether you are a cub or not, you must eat well. Your curse hasn’t been completely cleared yet; if you want to live, hurry up and eat.”

Keno knew what a curse was. She had once eavesdropped on the tribe’s Great Priest giving lessons to the cubs, so she knew that some small tribes referred to illness as a curse. And those who were cursed were feared by the tribespeople.

But Sana wasn’t afraid of her. Why?

Sana did not hide the truth: “The Saintess said I am a devil. The people of the tribe drove me out.” As she spoke, Sana tilted her head to look at the little cub, her expression somewhat stiff as she added, “If you are also afraid, then leave once the rain stops.”

“You are not a devil,” Keno scoffed. “What kind of devil goes around saving people?”

Sana’s expression softened slightly upon hearing this, though she still assumed the girl was just young and didn’t understand the terror of devils and curses.

Sigh…

Having lost her temper to Sana’s stubbornness, Keno could only emphasize again with frustration: “I am not a cub! I am an adult!”

“Yes, yes, of course.”

“Hey!”

With a cub in the house, the small hut that was once so quiet it felt dead finally gained a bit of liveliness. Although the meat soup was bland and smelled of earth, Keno was too hungry. She fished out the meat and tore it apart, giving half to Sana and devouring the other half ravenously. Sana didn’t even see her chew before the meat was swallowed down.

Seeing this, Sana pushed her own bowl over, signaling for her to eat it. Keno’s movements as she drank the soup paused, and her face suddenly flushed red. She wanted to say she wasn’t hungry, but her growling stomach wouldn’t allow her to lie.

“Eat it. I can’t keep anything down,” Sana said, not lying. Her body was very weak; she often felt dizzy, and sometimes when she forced herself to eat, she would just throw it back up. If it weren’t for the sake of boiling meat soup for this cub today, she probably would have waited until evening to chew on some grass roots to stave off hunger.

This won’t do.

Keno frowned. She had secretly learned the Great Priest’s skills for healing and saving people, so she knew Sana was ill. She had to eat soft, fresh food to regain her health. With that thought, Keno took Sana’s bowl and ate quickly. She needed to eat her fill to replenish her strength, then go out hunting to feed this sickly female.

However, the two of them came to a disagreement regarding going out to hunt. The torrential downpour of the White Rain Festival was the wrath of the Beast God, interspersed with curses. Therefore, Sana did not agree to let a cub head out into the heavy rain to hunt.

“This is not up for discussion,” Sana said, a trace of sternness appearing on her pale face. She hadn’t saved this cub’s life just to let her run back out into the rain to die.

“But if we don’t go out to hunt, we will starve sooner or later.” The storms of the White Rain Festival lasted at least a month.

The geographical location of the Tabu Tribe was excellent; it was surrounded by dense forests with plenty of food and no large carnivores. Most importantly, the tribe’s location happened to avoid the flash floods rushing down from the mountains, so they didn’t have to worry about being swallowed by the rising waters.

“I will go hunting,” Sana said, putting on a cloak woven from broad leaves, preparing to head out. Even if she couldn’t catch prey, she could still find some edible plants. “You stay honestly inside the house,” Sana urged Keno uneasily. She always felt this cub was very headstrong and had many little schemes of her own.

“Impossible.”

Keno explicitly rejected Sana’s proposal. She even said very bluntly, “The moment you step out the door, I will follow. You can’t control me. Instead of wasting energy guessing whether I’m behaving, it’s better if I go hunting while you stay home.”

As Keno spoke, she grabbed Sana’s hand. Sana was startled to find that she actually couldn’t break free; she could only follow the cub’s pace back to the stone bed, where she was pressed down to sit.

“Whoever is stronger gets the final say.” A forceful, commanding light flashed in Keno’s golden beast-like eyes. “I’ll go gather firewood first; it’s too damp in here. Living in dampness all the time isn’t good for your body.”

Regardless of whether Sana believed she was an adult, Keno had already claimed Sana as her own female. She had seen and even touched the other’s slender body; she had to take responsibility. A true beast warrior must never shirk responsibility.

For a moment, Sana was actually intimidated by her. In the world of beastmen, obeying the strong was the instinct of the vast majority. It wasn’t until Keno opened the door and disappeared into the curtain of rain that Sana snapped back to her senses and ran to the doorway, her face filled with anxiety and regret.

She wanted to step over the threshold to look for Keno. But for some reason, just as her foot lifted, those golden eyes of the cub seemed to appear before her. And within them was an unquestionable command.

Stay here. Wait for me to come back.

Sana’s lifted foot hesitated before she pulled it back. She lowered her brow and bit her lip, her half-closed eyes carrying a complex gaze. At this moment, the small wooden hut returned to the sound of pattering rain and a silence devoid of human voices.

Sana stood by the doorframe for a long time without moving. She was likely waiting for something, yet also seemed to have given up on something. The last person she had saved, upon learning she was a devil, had also disappeared into the curtain of rain. Using the excuse of hunting, they left and never returned.

The female beastman leaning by the door returned to the stone bed, curling up in the animal skins amidst the cold and dampness, closing her eyes. Her hand tightly gripped a sharp wooden thorn.

Everything had returned to the way it was at the beginning, as if nothing had changed at all.

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