Chapter 443: I Don’t Want Trouble

[I apologize, but you did not ask me before.]

’Is it going to affect my health in any way?’ 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

[For all direct consumption purposes, you boil the water. The risk of it impacting your health was minimal. But the commoners and even those in the higher placements in your territory are highly prone to sickness if they drink the water without boiling it, and most of them do not have the habit of boiling water before drinking.]

Adrian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as he made a promise to himself.

’The moment I get back, I am going to make boiling water legally mandatory. If possible, I will have to get someone to invent some sort of massive filtration system. I mean, I could technically make one myself, but we will see how it goes. I have a lot of free time here, so I could use this time to test a few things that I will introduce to the people once I get back.’

He looked down at the water again.

’Is this water bad to drink?’

[Negative. You can safely drink it. There are no harmful bacteria present that your immune system will not be able to easily deal with itself.]

’That doesn’t really help,’ Adrian thought dryly, but this time the system didn’t say anything in response.

Adrian sighed, wiped his face, and looked at everyone on the bank.

"Do you guys want to take a break, or should we head straight over to the clearing that we saw?"

"There is no need to waste any more time, is there?" Claire said eagerly.

Adrian nodded. "Yeah."

He looked at the group. "Do you guys feel any difference from the water?"

Everyone just shook their heads.

"Yeah, even I felt no difference," Adrian noted. "There is no mana inside this river water. There must be a different way in which they get their mana."

Everyone nodded.

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrian saw Vance playfully elbowing Octavia while she blushed furiously.

"What are you two getting distracted for?" Adrian sighed.

He looked at Octavia. "This is not a place for romance, or at least not the time for it. You can do that later once you actually settle down safely."

Octavia shook her head immediately, her blush deepening. "No, no, my lord! You are misunderstanding. I have no interest in this idiot and honestly speaking, he is too dumb for my liking."

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Oh? My bad then... I misunderstood."

"My lord," Vance smirked widely. "There was this guy who knocked on her door the night before we left, and he confessed to her. She went bright red, but in the end, she coldly rejected the guy. I actually felt sad for him back then."

Vance reached over and playfully slapped the back of Octavia’s head, only to immediately get a hard knuckle punched into his own head in return.

He rubbed the top of his head, still smirking.

"Well, this idiot here, instead of outright rejecting him properly, she told him that she is only into strong men. Specifically, strong knights. And I found out that the very next morning... right before we left for the docks in fact, hehe. I saw the guy talking to Uncle Burke. She motivated a regular guy to officially become a soldier just to win her heart!"Vance said as he laughed.

"But the reality was, right after he left our house, she was bright red and we all made fun of her for it. And I am not going to stop making fun of her for it."

He finished with a wide grin, only for Octavia to send a punch flying straight toward his stomach, which he easily dodged with a laugh.

Adrian just chuckled as he looked at Octavia, who had gone from a slight shade of pink at the start to a brilliantly bright red now.

"You look good, youth is good, all of these things... they are good," Adrian smiled. "But for now, focus on the mission. You can do whatever you want in your free time."

He turned toward the tree line. "Let’s go."

Everyone nodded, their playful moods shifting back into focus, and they started walking.

This time, it didn’t take them too long to reach the clearing.

It wasn’t exactly just a plain clearing. There were multiple tents pitched up, most of them being basic tents made of large leaves and sticks, but there were also sturdy huts that were made of dried mud and clay.

But as Adrian got closer, four native men stepped out of the bushes nearby and completely blocked his path.

They all held sharp, iron tipped spears.

Adrian noticed the iron immediately and he couldn’t help but think to himself. ’They know how to produce and process iron... they must be decently advanced when it comes to blacksmithing and similar things.’

Adrian took a step forward. "Do you understand me?"

As he spoke, his gaze drifted down toward their clothes. They were wearing raw animal hide. They were basically using the animal hide to cover their privates, and it wasn’t like a small thong, but more like a loose skirt. In simpler words, it looked exactly like a long strip of animal hide was basically wrapped around their upper thigh area and tied tightly with a thick thread to keep it in place.

Apart from that, they also wore long necklaces that were basically made with sharpened animal teeth. These men also had animal teeth earrings hanging down from their stretched earlobes. On top of that, two of them also wore a massive skull of a creature that Adrian could not even recognize, but it fit their heads perfectly. It was almost like they were using them as actual helmets.

The guards at the entrance looked at Adrian, then looked at each other.

"We understand you," one of them grunted. "What do you want from our tribe?"

"We don’t want anything bad," Adrian smiled warmly, raising his hands. "We are just here to trade. We don’t want trouble, and we definitely don’t want to fight."