CHAPTER 142: CHAPTER-142.

Then Kaya turned to look at Kyuu, her smile soft and real.

"Thanks," she said, her voice lighter than usual—almost cheerful. "It’s really beautiful. How did you even make it?"

Kyuu’s eyes widened, and his face turned bright red. He quickly covered his mouth with the back of his hand, mumbling behind it, "Actually... I, um, I already knew how to make clothes like this."

Kaya blinked. Then suddenly, her eyes lit up like stars, and she rushed over to him, grabbing his arm.

"Wait—so you mean you can make clothes?"

He nodded shyly, still covering half his face.

Kaya leaned closer, genuinely curious now. "And where did you even get the... you know, the tools? Like the needles, and everything?"

Kyuu hesitated, looking down. His voice came out low and a bit unsure.

"Well... back when I was a slave, I used to work in a place where they made iron weapons. And, um... I learned how to melt small pieces of iron and shape them. I poured the metal into something I carved out myself. It turned out thin, and after it cooled, I sharpened it. I even made a hole through one end."

Kaya’s eyes widened in shock.

"You... made a whole set of needles?!"

Kyuu blinked, tilting his head. "Needles?"

She laughed softly. "Yeah, yeah—that’s what they’re called."

He scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Oh... I didn’t know that. But I made a bunch of them."

Kaya looked at him with a mix of admiration and amazement.

This wasn’t just strength or survival—this was skill. Quiet, unspoken talent hidden behind a soft-spoken bear beastman.

She had no idea someone could do this in a place like this.

And suddenly, for the first time in a while, Kaya felt... hopeful.

Suddenly, Vayu spoke up—his tone sharp, slightly irritated.

"You stole iron?"

Kaya turned to look at him, then glanced at Kyuu, who was now trembling where he stood, his head lowered.

Her gaze returned to Vayu, and this time, her voice came out colder than usual.

"Lower your voice."

The moment she said it, a strange stillness settled in the air. The mood shifted. Even the wind seemed to hesitate.

But Vayu didn’t back down.

"Are you crazy?" he said, louder now. "Do you even know what this means? Stealing iron? Do you understand how dangerous that is?"

Kaya narrowed her eyes but said nothing yet.

Vayu continued, his voice filled with worry more than anger. "If the people who run that factory—who own that mine—find out someone stole iron from them... they’ll hunt him down. It’s not a joke."

Kaya shrugged, her tone laced with sarcasm. "So what? It’s not like he stole a kidney or someone’s lungs. He just took some metal. Stop overreacting."

Vayu looked at her, frustration growing. "You know how much iron costs. You remember, right? That weapon you bought—it cost you two whole kilograms of salt. Two! And now you’re saying it’s no big deal?"

Kaya stepped forward and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It’s okay," she said calmly. "We’re not going to bang a drum and announce it to the whole world that someone here used stolen iron. So calm down."

Vayu went quiet, but his expression still held concern.

Kaya, on the other hand, wasn’t all that shaken.

She already knew how things worked in this world. Iron, gold, rare metals—everything was valuable. But more than that, she knew there were people with strange powers... entire tribes with unique abilities.

One of those tribes, she’d learned, had the power to find metal buried deep underground. They discovered iron-rich mines completely by chance. And once they did, they’d start digging and extracting it.

But here was the catch—there were no big machines or factories to process the metal.

Everything was done by hand.

Raw chunks were pulled out and refined manually. It was slow, difficult work. Which was exactly why even a small amount of processed iron was expensive—because of the labor behind it.

So yes, she understood why Vayu was worried.

But right now, looking at Kyuu—nervous, trembling, scared of his own past—Kaya wasn’t going to scold him over something he did to survive.

Not when that same iron had brought her comfort for the first time in weeks.

Vayu rubbed his forehead in frustration, his brows tightly furrowed. Then, suddenly, he clenched his hair, pulling at it like he was trying to stop his thoughts from spiraling.

Kyuu, watching from the side, flinched—his body tense, shoulders rising slightly like he was expecting to be yelled at or blamed.

But before anything else could happen, Kaya stepped forward.

And gently—so gently it surprised even herself—she reached out and patted Vayu’s head.

It was the first time she’d ever done something like that.

Vayu froze.

His eyes slowly lifted to meet hers, confused and stunned. He looked like he didn’t know whether to speak or just stand still.

Kaya’s voice was soft, but steady. "Calm down. It’s okay."

She patted his head once more, like she was grounding both him and herself.

"It’s not like this is the only reason we’re being hunted," she continued, her tone calm but firm. "We have salt. We have other resources. If someone wanted to come after us, they’d do it—iron or not."

Vayu’s fists slowly loosened, and he let out a shaky breath.

Kaya lowered her hand. "Right now, we focus on surviving. Winter is coming, and it’s going to be brutal. That’s what matters now. After that... we’ll deal with everything else."

After calming everyone down, Kaya finally sat down with Kyuu to talk more seriously about the clothes.

She asked him how many sets he could make in a day.

Kyuu, a little shy but proud, replied, "Three."

That honestly shocked her.

Three sets a day?

She blinked at him, impressed—but then she nodded like it made perfect sense.

"Well... you are a bear," she muttered to herself. "And bears are smart."

Her brain wandered a little. Haven’t we all seen those cartoons with clever bears? That one famous one with a hat or something? Yeah. Exactly. So just... trust the bear.