Chapter 163: At a Closer Glance

Sora really wasn’t sure whether having five beast husbands was enough.

Apparently, it wasn’t.

First there had been one unexpected admirer after another, and now another man had appeared at precisely the worst possible moment.

Judging by the murderous glares coming from Ace, Lucas, Xavier, Ryan, and the others, Sora had a feeling they were already preparing to deal with this new threat.

She almost wanted to tell them that they were worrying for nothing.

Apart from them, she doubted anyone else would find her attractive.

As for why these men had been staring at her so intently for days, Sora could only blame the strange influence of their rapidly increasing affection and attraction values.

Perhaps once someone’s heart was captured, their standards simply disappeared.

With a helpless sigh, Sora stepped around the wall of beastmen standing before her and walked toward the red fox closing the gap.

She gave him a polite smile.

"Thank you for the pig you gave me, but there’s no need to bring me another one next time. My beast husbands can hunt for me."

The moment she said those words, the white tiger’s expression changed.

Nick Wilde had been eagerly waiting for the moment he could finally speak to the goddess he had been thinking about since the Moon God Festival.

He had imagined countless possibilities.

He had imagined her smiling at him.

He had imagined her beautiful eyes looking into his.

He had even imagined that perhaps she would be pleased to see him.

But the moment Sora stepped fully into view closer to him than ever, Nick’s smile froze.

His expression slowly fell.

This wasn’t the same female.

The Sora he had seen during the Moon God Festival had possessed a completely different appearance.

That day, her nose had seemed high and elegant, her eyes large and bright, and her entire face had carried a delicate charm that had immediately captured his attention.

But the female standing before him now...

Her nose was ordinary.

Her eyes appeared smaller and narrower.

The beautiful features he remembered were nowhere to be found.

The only thing that seemed unchanged was her figure.

Her body was still curvaceous and strikingly attractive.

Nick’s heart sank.

He stared at her silently.

For a moment, he couldn’t accept what he was seeing.

How could someone who looked so beautiful that day turn out like this?

He had never imagined that the person who had haunted his thoughts for so long would have such a drastically different appearance.

He couldn’t deny that he was disappointed.

Sora, however, wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

She had already expected this reaction.

If Nick had continued staring at her with the same expression after seeing her current appearance, that would have been the truly strange thing.

At least now she knew what had happened.

He had been attracted to the appearance she had created during the Moon God Festival.

That meant his feelings weren’t necessarily directed toward her real appearance.

Sora wasn’t particularly bothered by it.

She had already grown accustomed to the fact that people in this world judged females almost entirely by their looks.

Besides, once her skin returned to its fair tone, she could probably dress herself up properly and become quite attractive.

She wasn’t worried about it.

What she didn’t expect was the reaction of the people surrounding her.

Serena, who had been watching everything from nearby, couldn’t help curling her lips into a faint smile.

She had always believed that very few beastmen could genuinely be interested in Sora.

Even if Sora had become thinner, her facial features remained rather ordinary.

It was only these strange men who seemed inexplicably fascinated by her.

One after another, handsome beastmen had gathered around her.

Now there were six of them.

Serena looked at the scene with a strange sense of satisfaction.

The other females in the tribe had initially looked at Sora with a little sympathy.

After all, they had seen Nick’s expression.

It was obvious that he had been disappointed after seeing her true appearance.

But that sympathy didn’t last long.

Because when they looked at the six handsome beastmen surrounding Sora, their expressions changed.

Ryan, Xavier, Lucas, Ace, and the others were all looking at Sora with gentle, devoted expressions.

There was no trace of disgust in their eyes.

Instead, their gazes were filled with affection.

The females suddenly realized something.

Even if Sora’s appearance wasn’t considered beautiful by their standards, she still had six handsome beast husbands devoted to her.

What did they have?

Their sympathy suddenly seemed unnecessary.

If anything, they were the ones who should have been jealous.

Meanwhile, Ace, Lucas, Xavier, and Ryan were all somewhat surprised.

They had expected Sora to accept Nick as another beast husband.

After all, they knew that she wasn’t particularly conservative when it came to relationships.

They had already accepted that they had several companions.

So when Sora directly told Nick that she already had enough beast husbands and didn’t need another one, all of them felt an inexplicable warmth in their hearts.

She had chosen them.

Even if she hadn’t said it in those exact words, her meaning was obvious.

Her gaze was softer when she looked at them.

Their expressions also became noticeably gentler.

For once, none of them cared about competing with one another.

Sora’s words had been enough.

Mark, meanwhile, was the happiest person of all.

He looked toward his brother and felt relieved.

Finally.

His brother had returned to normal.

Mark had always believed that Nick’s interest in Sora had been caused by the mysterious appearance she had displayed during the Moon God Festival.

Now that Nick had seen Sora’s real appearance, his infatuation should disappear.

At least, that was what Mark had thought.

Seeing his brother’s disappointed expression, Mark walked over to Martin.

"I’ll have a word with Nick. I’ll be back later."

Martin nodded.

"Go ahead. Just make sure you talk to him properly. It’s fine if you’re back a little later."

There was another reason Martin was happy for Mark to leave.

The matter concerning the tribe’s purified salt was extremely important.

The fewer outsiders who knew about it, the better.

Nick’s sudden arrival had made Martin nervous.

He didn’t want an unfamiliar beastman discovering how Sora had taught their tribe to purify salt.

If Mark could keep Nick occupied elsewhere, that would solve the problem.

Mark quickly walked over to his brother.

"Come on. Let’s talk."

Nick looked back at Sora one last time before following him.

As the two brothers left the immediate area, Sora finally turned her attention back toward Martin.

But before she could say anything, Martin called out to her.

"Kaelira, come here for a moment. There’s something I want to ask you."

Sora immediately walked over.

Although Martin had only recently recovered from the poisoning, his eyes remained sharp and serious.

"You said there was something unusual about the salt."

Sora nodded.

"I checked the salt that was being used by the tribe. There were quite a few yellow particles mixed into it."

She reached into the supplies she had brought from the wild kitchen and took out a small packet wrapped in animal skin.

"Father, look at this."

She opened the packet.

"This is the salt I purified."

The salt inside was fine, clean, and white.

"There shouldn’t be anything mixed into it."

Martin took some between his fingers.

Then he looked at the salt his people had been using.

The difference was immediately obvious.

Under the torchlight, Sora’s salt appeared almost pure white, while the tribe’s salt was duller and contained tiny yellow particles.

Martin’s expression became increasingly serious.

"What happened?"

"That’s what I’m trying to determine."

Sora frowned.

"I personally supervised the entire purification process. Every step was followed exactly as I instructed. There shouldn’t have been any problem."

Martin looked at her.

"Then how did this happen?"

Sora shook her head.

"I suspect someone tampered with it."

His expression changed.

"Tampered with it?"

"Yes."

Sora carefully explained.

"The first stage of salt purification produces leftover brine. Under normal circumstances, that liquid should be discarded and filtered properly before the remaining material is processed. I specifically instructed everyone to filter it through coarse sand, fine sand, and charcoal before boiling it again."

She paused.

"But I suspect someone took the discarded brine and deliberately mixed it back into the dried salt."

Martin’s face darkened.

"That’s impossible."

He immediately shook his head.

"Why would one of our own people deliberately put waste liquid back into the salt? Everyone eats this salt. If they contaminated it, they would poison themselves too."

Sora remained silent for a moment.

She understood his reasoning.

That was exactly why the situation was so strange.

She had already arranged for people to supervise the different groups during the purification process.

She had been careful.

Every step had been monitored.

Yet somehow, the salt had still been contaminated.

And the result was that almost the entire tribe had fallen ill.

That meant whoever had done this had either found a way around their supervision...

or had access to the salt after the purification process was completed.

Sora’s eyes narrowed.

"That’s why we need to investigate carefully."

Martin looked down at the contaminated salt in his palm.

His expression became grave.

"Then this wasn’t an accident."

Sora slowly shook her head.

"I don’t think so."

A strange silence settled between them.

The cheerful atmosphere from the roasted pig was long gone.

The laughter, competition, and delicious food had all been replaced by suspicion.

Someone had tampered with something that every member of the tribe depended on.

And whoever had done it had known exactly what they were doing.

Sora looked toward the darkening forest.

For the first time since arriving in this new territory, she felt that the danger facing the tribe might not come from the wild beasts outside.

It might be coming from someone much closer.

Someone who knew the tribe.

Someone who understood their routines.

Someone who had deliberately waited for the perfect opportunity.

Her fingers slowly tightened around the small packet of contaminated salt.

"Father," she said quietly, "from now on, no one is allowed to handle the salt without permission."

Martin nodded solemnly.

"I understand."

Sora’s gaze remained cold.

"Until we find out who did this, we can’t trust anyone completely."

And somewhere beyond the tribe’s wooden houses, the last light of evening disappeared beneath the horizon.