Chapter 373: A Colorful Plan

Roxanna carefully flipped through the pages until she found the section she had been reading earlier. The pages were filled with drawings of different plants, fruits, flowers, roots, and even different kinds of soil and stone.

Calen immediately leaned closer, staring at the colorful pictures with interest. "Can we make all those colors from plants?"

"Not just plants," Roxanna explained. She pointed at several pictures on the page. "Some colors can come from flowers and fruits, while others can come from roots, tree bark, soil, or even crushed stones. We just need to find the right materials."

Zeir reached over and carefully turned one of the pages. "Do these things grow around here?"

"Some of them should," Roxanna replied. "But I’m not sure about all of them. That’s why I need your help looking."

She had already spent some time studying the book earlier, but recognizing plants from pictures and actually finding them in the forest were two completely different things.

Her husbands knew the surrounding area far better than she did, so searching with them would make everything much easier.

Cyrus studied one of the pictures before pointing at a plant with broad green leaves and small yellow flowers. "I’ve seen this before."

Roxanna’s ears immediately perked up. "Really? Where?"

"Near the river," Cyrus answered. "There are quite a lot of them growing between the rocks."

Roxanna quickly looked at the description beside the picture. According to the book, the flowers could be crushed and boiled to create a yellow pigment.

"This one can make yellow!" she exclaimed happily. "Then we already know where to find our first color."

Calen immediately stood up. "Let’s go get it!"

Roxanna stared at him in disbelief. "Right now?"

"Yes!"

"We just finished eating!"

"So?" Calen asked, genuinely confused about why that mattered.

Luan grabbed the back of Calen’s clothes before he could walk away. "Sit down. The flowers aren’t going to run away."

Calen reluctantly sat back down, though his eyes remained fixed on the book.

Roxanna laughed softly before continuing to flip through the pages. "We don’t have to collect everything today since it’s already dark, and it would be hard to find them."

She added, "We can collect them tomorrow morning. For now, let’s just read the book first and try to remember what’s inside."

Her husbands nodded at the same time before moving closer to her so they could get a better look at the book. Or perhaps they simply wanted an excuse to stay close to her.

"This book is really helpful," Roxanna mumbled as she pointed at several examples on the page.

According to the book, red could be made from certain berries and flowers, while yellow could come from flowers and roots. Darker colors could be made using charcoal or dark soil. There were even ways to create brown, orange, and green by mixing or preparing different materials together.

Zeir stared at the page for a moment before saying thoughtfully, "There are red berries growing deeper in the forest."

"Are they poisonous?" Roxanna immediately asked.

Zeir paused for a moment, then said, "Kind of."

Fine lines formed on Roxanna’s forehead before she said, "Maybe we should find another kind of berry."

It would be ridiculous if her attempt to make the settlement prettier ended with someone accidentally poisoning themselves.

"We should only collect things that we know are safe to touch," Roxanna decided. "Especially if the females and children are going to help us later."

Cyrus nodded in agreement. "That would be better."

They continued reading and discussing the materials for a while. As the night wore on, however, Roxanna finally closed the book, deciding to continue it the next morning.

[I actually only woke up this afternoon, but... I’m already sleepy again.] Roxanna sighed inwardly. [Cooking is really tiring.]

The funny thing was, she had barely done anything in the kitchen. Cyrus had handled most of the cooking while she mostly sat there, watched him, and occasionally helped with small things.

So maybe cooking wasn’t actually the reason she felt so tired.

It was probably because of Luan.

[But that doesn’t make sense either...] Roxanna thought. [It’s not like my body can’t handle him.]

Besides, with her healing ability, there was no way she would get sick just because of mating.

Still, Roxanna was far too sleepy to keep thinking about it.

Whatever the reason was, she just wanted to sleep.

Her husbands had already spread out the folded mattress in the communal area, so Roxanna naturally slept there with them. Since they could all see how tired she was, none of them bothered arguing over something as silly as who would get to sleep beside her.

For once, they behaved themselves.

===

On the next days, Roxanna finally came out of the hut and met with Carla and the other females.

"I’m really sorry for ruining our big night a few days ago," Roxanna said in a guilt-filled tone. "I promise I’ll make it up to you someday."

Carla simply waved her hand as if it were nothing. "Oh, don’t worry too much about that. I know your clingy husband needed you."

Roxanna couldn’t help but laugh when Carla called Luan ’clingy.’

It wasn’t exactly wrong.

But unfortunately, the cat beastman in question happened to be close enough to hear her, and judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t very happy with his new nickname.

"Yeah, we can always hunt for more meat again today if you want," Sonya offered.

Roxanna smiled at her. "Actually, I wanted to ask for your help with something else today."

She quickly explained her plan to bring more color into the settlement before showing them the book she had bought. The females immediately gathered around her, looking at the colorful pages with interest.

"If we really want to add color to all the huts in the settlement, we’re going to need a lot of materials," Roxanna explained. "We don’t have to collect everything in one day, but I think we can start gathering them now."

Neria nodded without hesitation. "We’d be happy to help. Do you want us to tell the others too, Leader?"