CHAPTER 72: BABIES

"Don’t—!" Gara nearly had a heart attack for the second time that day.

He snatched Rea up, trying to force the squirrel to spit out the poisonous seed. But Rea shook her head and chirped loudly, as if to say she liked it and was perfectly fine.

"...Did surviving that snake’s crystal poison make you able to eat toxic food now? But..." Gara decided to wait and see.

Wina stepped out of the house, already informed by Fian that Rea was safe.

After confirming the squirrel was indeed fine—though disturbingly fond of poisonous plants all of a sudden—Wina headed toward the herb fields with Fian to water them.

"When I get back, we’ll talk about the snake meat and hide," Wina said before leaving.

Even though they started a little late, with Fian’s help they still finished in time.

That night, they feasted on snake meat.

"There’s too much of it," Wina said as they ate, the sun dipping low in the west. "Even if we store it in the ice room Fian made, it won’t last long. We’ll have to sell it."

"Is it really okay to sell that much? Won’t it draw attention?" Gara asked nervously.

"We can just ask Captain Tristan to handle it."

"Right..." Gara had almost forgotten—he actually had a powerful backer in Falopo Town now. Someone with more influence than the mayor himself.

After dinner, Gara went to his room and found Rea nursing her three babies near the foot of the bed.

He sat beside her, studying the tiny white squirrels. One had a black stripe down its back, one had black circles around its eyes like a panda, and the last had a black-tipped tail.

"What are their names?" Gara stroked Rea’s cheek. She answered with a soft chirp.

"No names yet? Want me to name them?"

He stared seriously at the trio—though honestly, naming wasn’t his strong suit, especially since they all looked so similar.

Finally, he just blurted out whatever popped into his head. "Becky, Pandy, Taly." He pointed to the striped one, the panda-eyed one, and the black-tailed one in turn.

"Tck. Tck. Your children should not be named by you," Goddess Freya’s robotic, thoroughly dismissive voice rang out.

This time, Gara didn’t even bother to defend himself. She was right—he really was terrible at naming things.

But Rea seemed perfectly happy. She accepted the odd, unnatural names without a fuss.

Not wanting to feel even guiltier about his questionable naming skills, Gara decided the best choice was to just... go to sleep.

The next day, after refilling the water barrels in the herb field, Gara walked home alone. Fian had stayed behind to help.

On the way, he ran into Madha, who had come to visit. Since Gara had granted him permission to pass through the barrier, Madha was no longer affected by the disorienting spell it carried.

"Come on, let me check your wound."

Madha’s injury had already healed.

The herbs mixed with Gara’s water were truly effective—something that would normally take months to recover from had mended in just a few days. Even the scar had vanished.

"Oh, by the way," Gara said after finishing his examination, "Rea’s little ones are staying at my place now, in my room."

"That’s good. Saves her from running back and forth," Madha replied, echoing Gara’s own thoughts.

"We still have some bamboo and wood left over from before, right? How about I build a house for Rea and her kids?"

"Great idea," Gara said, pleased.

The two young men were heading toward the back of the house when Rea scurried out of Gara’s room, chirping frantically.

"What? Are your kids sick?"

Alarmed, Gara rushed into his room, Madha close behind.

The three baby squirrels lay limp on the bed. Beneath their still-sparse fur, their skin had taken on a bluish tinge. From the smallest one—Taly—white foam trickled from her mouth.

"They’re poisoned?" Gara muttered, forcing each tiny body to swallow some of his water while trying to figure out the cause. "What did you feed them?"

With teary eyes, the mother squirrel shook her head quickly, chirping in sorrow.

"Only milk... Then it must be the poison from those plants you ate, still in your body," Gara concluded.

Rea seemed to realize her mistake, bowing her head in shame.

After a long, nerve-wracking struggle, each of the baby squirrels finally vomited up the contents of their tiny stomachs, including a thick black liquid that was clearly poison.

It had only been possible because Gara controlled the water he sent into their bellies, flushing everything out except their stomach acid.

Good thing he still remembered his biology lessons, he had almost given them an instant kill by mistake.

"Looks like I really need to make a proper antidote... Maybe I should plant a coconut tree," Gara murmured to himself.

He sank onto the bed, while Madha’s gaze lingered on him, still edged with worry. It wasn’t about Rea’s babies anymore, it was because he looked utterly exhausted.

He had mentioned to Madha earlier that he was having trouble finding an antidote for the poison.

Antidotes could sometimes be found in cities or counties, though only in small amounts. But what he truly wanted was to track down the antidote’s ingredients.

Unfortunately, herbalists, nobles, and Liners who knew the recipe guarded it with the utmost secrecy. He was sure that secrecy was one of the reasons progress in this world moved at a crawl.

Madha himself had no idea which herbs could neutralize such a toxin.

Turning to Gara, the brown-haired man asked, "This coconut you mentioned, what is it, Gara?"

"It’s a fruit. The water inside can help cleanse poison. Though it’s not very effective," Gara replied.

"What does it look like? I’ll find it." Madha’s brown eyes held a firm resolve.

Then, Gara described the coconut.

He didn’t expect much from that tropical fruit, but at the very least, it was worth experimenting with.

It was better than relying solely on his water.

...