The Herbalist

Tara's body stiffened as she let out a small protest. "My Lord! My mom is here," she said in a hushed tone.

Hiro's smile widened, and he glanced to the left to look at Furina. Furina's head was lowered with a blush, but she still stole occasional glances at her daughter and her lord.

When Hiro's eyes met hers, she found herself getting lost in his piercing gray gaze, unable to look away.

While making sure she was still looking at him, Hiro bent down slightly and captured Tara's lips in a deep and passionate kiss.

"Mnnff!" Tara tried to resist at first, but she soon realized there was no getting out of this. She closed her eyes and let her Lord do as he pleased with her.

Furina's face had turned completely red by this point. At some point, she realized she had the free will to leave the tent whenever she wanted. Despite that, she stayed still and kept stealing glances at the scene in front of her.

A part of her wished that it was her being kissed like that. Another, more rational, more virtuous side of her told her she was wrong for wishing that. Unfortunately for the virtuous side, it was a losing battle. Furina did not have enough willpower to win against Ensnaring Touch.

Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself in front of her daughter.

Hiro ended the kiss after some time. He hadn't planned to go further than this from the start.

"You're too weak to worry about the dangers of the Desolate Lands right now. Just focus on what you can and should do," he said.

Tara absentmindedly nodded at his words.

But then she realized… 'Wait a second! I'm supposed to be angry right now!'

This thought caused her to pout cutely and stomp her foot. Even her fake anger turned into embarrassment when she remembered her mother was still here, seeing everything.

Hiro pretended not to notice the changes in her face and soon sent the two of them out of the tent.

'Haah… it's going to be harder to make my moves on the ladies with the way things are right now.'

Hiro couldn't possibly have done anything to either of them inside the tent in broad daylight. With the current barracks arrangement, it would be risky to do anything at night too.

'If the women I'm interested in have their own personal houses, then things should improve quite a bit,' he thought.

But it would take a while for his Realm to get to that point.

With such thoughts, Hiro was the last person to leave the tent.

***

Hiro wandered through the camp to examine the current state of things. Things already felt much better than yesterday. There was a certain… liveliness to the camp as people busied themselves with their work.

Humans were interesting creatures in some ways. They were capable of forgetting their problems to a certain extent as long as they kept themselves busy.

Hiro stood in front of the water container and peeked inside. The container was nearly full. One of the new arrivals, the only person in his Realm with the Cook class, approached the container.

"Greetings, my Lord," she bowed and said.

Hiro nodded at her with a smile.

The woman smiled back and filled a small jar she had brought with her with water before quickly moving away.

'Hmm… this is not very hygienic,' Hiro thought.

The water container only had one opening at the top. People had to dip their jars inside the water. If they were careless, their fingers could touch the water too.

'Creating a simple tap shouldn't be too difficult if we get a woodworker. Temporarily, we will live with this,' Hiro thought. He made a mental note about what the next stage of improvement would be for this container.

Then, he moved to the barracks. It was still taking shape but was already almost half done. Hiro had explicitly instructed Bob that the roof and walls were the priority. Even the flooring could happen later.

The ground around where Hiro spawned was already very flat. In addition, a lot more people were now helping Bob with the construction, leading to greatly increased speed.

"How is it looking, Bob?"

"Greetings, my Lord!" Bob said cheerfully. His jolly mood was unaffected since he did not hear any of the scary details from Targon back in the tent. "Unless something goes disastrously wrong, everyone should have a roof to sleep under by tonight."

The barracks was big enough in area that it could support close to fifty people, depending on how you crammed them inside.

"Excellent work, Bob. Keep it up," Hiro praised before leaving the men to do their work.

Some distance away, Hiro saw a woman with dark green hair crouching on the ground on a carpet. The Cook and her child were also crouching beside this woman. Many clay utensils were laid before them as they discussed something.

Using Citizen Appraisal, Hiro could tell that the woman's name was Hema. She possessed the Herbalist class.

He decided to approach the group.

The cook's child was the first to spot that Hiro was coming closer. He hid behind his mother. The poor lad was really scared of Hiro after what he did to those troublemakers earlier.

Seeing the boy's reaction, Hema glanced up, brushing a strand of dark green hair behind her ear. She had dark brown skin and a modest, well-proportioned figure.

When she noticed Hiro's approach, she hesitated for a second before standing up and smoothing out the folds of her clothing.

"Greetings, my Lord. I'm Hema, a herbalist."

Her green eyes were full of vitality, and her voice was cool and composed.

Hiro's eyes looked at her appreciatively when she bowed.

He then nodded at her. "Be at ease. It is reassuring that we have an herbalist in the settlement. How are things going?"

"We were just taking stock of the cooking supplies, my Lord. There aren't any problems on that front. But…"

"What's the matter?"

"I heard from Fiona regarding the hypnotic effects of the strange mist that can erupt from the building over there…" she said, referring to the cock-shaped building.

"Indeed, it is a troublesome matter. It will probably be even more troublesome once the number of citizens increases. Do you have any ideas?"

 "I actually wanted to talk to you about this, my Lord. I would like to survey the local herbs soon and would appreciate it if you could assign some people with combat classes to protect me while I do so."

"You think you might be able to come up with a remedy for the hypnotic effect?" Hiro considered her request for a second and asked.

"I cannot say for sure just yet, but I would like to try. Even if my experiment fails, the details of the local herbs will always be useful to the settlement," Hema replied with a steady gaze.

Hiro knew that she wasn't wrong about the knowledge being useful. Moreover, wasn't this a great opportunity for him?

He suppressed the smile that threatened to form on his face and turned his head to see who was free in the settlement.

Obviously, the answer was nobody.

"It doesn't have to be immediately, my Lord. Later is fine. Once someone is avail—"

"No. Let us not postpone such an important matter. I like your idea, Hema, and I like your enthusiasm. Since everyone else is occupied, I will accompany you myself," Hiro offered with obvious ulterior motives.

Hema's eyes widened slightly, but she was quick to mask her surprise. "You would be willing to do that, my Lord?"

Her mind raced with thoughts. Having witnessed Hiro's strength firsthand, she knew that she would feel quite safe with him. Not to mention, should they manage to survive the Desolate Lands for long enough, building a relationship with the Baron himself would certainly benefit her.

Hiro shrugged at her question. "Only because I don't have anything else to do for now. What do you say?"

For a brief moment, Hema's eyes flickered with a strange light as she looked at Hiro's handsome visage. Soon, she made a decision.

"Thank you for your help, my Lord," she said with a bow.