Chapter 44. The Clan’s Hero

Chapter 44: 44. The Clan’s Hero

The Chief couldn’t help exclaiming,

"How could this be? This salt tastes even better than the salt from the city-state."

Sora smiled to herself.

Why wouldn’t it be better?

The salt traded from the city-state had only undergone simple sedimentation and evaporation. The impurities in the brine had never been properly filtered, so its flavor naturally couldn’t compare to hers, which had gone through multiple stages of filtration using charcoal and fine sand.

At first, she had been rather dissatisfied with this primitive purification method, but given the limited conditions, it was the best she could do.

Lyra stood nearby, watching everything unfold. She still couldn’t believe that Sora had actually managed to refine salt.

Serena was equally stunned. She had never imagined that Sora knew how to refine salt.

It had already been troublesome enough that Sora could cook. Now she had unexpectedly added salt refining to her list of skills.

Did she really learn all of this from her black bear foster mother?

It seems I need to find that black bear.

Martin looked at the snow-white salt in his hand, laughing heartily as he patted Sora on the shoulder.

"Our Wolf Tribe has salt now!"

"Kaelira, you’ve done well!"

He had originally only wanted Kaelira to give it a try, never expecting her to succeed.

Moreover, her salt-refining technique was even better than that of the people in the city-state.

He couldn’t help looking at Kaelira with newfound respect.

As soon as he spoke, the beastmen erupted into cheers.

"Kaelira did well!"

"Kaelira did well!"

"Kaelira did well!"

The entire tribe chanted her name in unison, surrounding her like stars surrounding the moon.

Sora hadn’t expected refining salt to earn her such admiration.

She actually felt a little embarrassed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ryan looking at her with admiration. However, the instant their eyes met, his expression immediately shifted back to one of indifference.

Sora blinked.

I haven’t even done anything. Why did his expression change so quickly?

Meanwhile, Lukan looked at her with unmistakable admiration and approval.

Sora smiled and teasingly raised an eyebrow at him.

The gesture instantly made Lukan’s ears turn bright red.

Xavier folded his arms as he watched Kaelira.

A faint smile rested on his lips, but the moment he saw her flirting with Lukan, the smile disappeared.

Ace stroked his chin thoughtfully as he studied Kaelira.

Lucas found everything astonishing.

How did Kaelira do this?

The people in the city-state certainly didn’t refine salt this way.

Especially the use of plant ash and charcoal—it looked like she was simply experimenting.

Yet the results spoke for themselves.

The muddy water had turned crystal clear.

After the cheers finally died down, Martin raised his hand for silence.

In a solemn voice, he declared,

"The method of refining salt is extremely important. Everyone in the tribe must keep it absolutely secret. We cannot allow other tribes to learn about it or discover our salt well."

"Yes!"

The tribe answered in unison.

Finding a salt well was a blessing, but if word spread, it could easily become a disaster.

As the tribe’s leader, Martin understood this all too well, so he warned everyone in advance.

Then he looked at Sora again.

"When the time comes, you’ll be in charge of the salt. Tell everyone when we’re ready to begin mining it."

After the salt-refining demonstration, Sora became something of a hero within the tribe.

Many people surrounded her, asking how she had learned to refine salt.

As always, Sora credited everything to her mysterious black bear foster mother.

The tribe accepted the explanation without question.

After all, her cooking skills supposedly came from that same foster mother, so it wasn’t strange that the bear also knew how to refine salt.

When the questions kept coming, Sora escaped by saying she needed to prepare dinner.

She didn’t want to waste any more time answering questions.

Carrying the freshly refined salt back to her kitchen, she prepared to make cured meat.

The amount of salt she had extracted—about half a jar—was just enough to preserve all the remaining wild boar meat.

Back in her kitchen, Sora dug into the ground and retrieved the meat she had buried earlier.

After checking its color and smelling it carefully to ensure there was no spoilage, she finally relaxed.

The climate in this primitive world was fairly stable, and the air wasn’t overly humid, allowing meat to keep much longer than expected.

There was still plenty of wild boar meat left.

Sora planned to make two different varieties of cured meat—one smoked and one air-dried.

After washing and drying the meat, she spread several large banana leaves across the ground and laid the pork neatly on top.

Then she grabbed a handful of salt from the jar and evenly rubbed it over the meat.

Just as she was concentrating on her work, a sharp voice came from behind.

"How can you use so much salt on pork?"

"Don’t you know that’s a waste?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Sora lazily lifted her eyelids.

When she saw who it was, she rolled her eyes.

"I refined this salt myself."

"I’ll use it however I want."

She had gone through so much trouble to find the salt well specifically so she could preserve meat.

Otherwise, what would have been the point?

Lyra stared at the generous amount of salt covering the pork and couldn’t help protesting.

"Salt is incredibly precious! How can you waste it like this?"

Sora answered casually,

"Didn’t we just find a salt well?"

"We’ll have plenty of salt from now on."

She had no interest in arguing with Lyra.

Lyra’s scolding died in her throat.

There was simply no way to refute that statement.

She looked around the kitchen.

The neatly arranged cabinets, sturdy tables, beautifully crafted pottery, and orderly clay stove made the place look bright and inviting.

It was thousands of times better than the crude kitchens used by the rest of the tribe.