The lunch consisted of meat and potatoes with flat bread. It was a cooking style that was similar to India.

Fortunately spices and salt weren’t a problem for Noah, or the usage of salt might have been limited and the taste could have been affected with the lack of spices.

The cooking was simple in the village and it was rare for anyone to get creative with the materials. That would be considered a waste of resources for these people, so such extravagant acts were limited to people with more wealth.

Richard wasn’t picky with his food, so he was satisfied with the current setting and didn’t have to revolutionize anything for the moment.

Nonetheless, there was still a problem.

Lunch time used to be boisterous where both men talked excitedly and sometimes other friends would also join in.

But, these days it had just been the three of them because Noah didn’t want others joining in and noticing a problem.

Things got better after the talk, but Noah ate silently and Lala couldn’t come up with a way to get it started.

Richard was also not in the mood for conversing and ate silently like usual.

Regardless, Lala gave him more food and even Noah seemed to unknowingly pass him more meat. The concept proper nutrition was unknown to these people and they ate what was available.

Though, they considered meat the food needed for strength.

It was unknown if anyone really knew about the subject in the proper manner, but even if they knew it wouldn’t be spread out and would be a secret.

Knowledge was hoarded by most people and only rare few people would love to share.

Especially when it came to real power, knowledge was much more valuable than anything else.

It was fortunate that people in the village seemed to be aware about sickness from the water. The water was heated before used for drinking.

People used to drink from the river before knowledge was shared and many had died. Wells were made and knowledge was shared, leading to a better life.

There was also a medicine master in the village, but Richard wouldn’t trust most of his cures. Nonetheless, the people knew their herbs and found uses for them through experimentation.

It was unfortunate that such knowledge was expensive and a book containing it wouldn’t be found in a village.

“Thank you for the food mother. It was the best.” Richard knew that even the things that he considered mundane could help others feel better.

It wasn’t something that Lala was used to hearing but she felt good listening to the praise. Noah’s eyes moved from one to the other and also nodded.

“Mother, you can rest now with father and I will make the tea.” Richard placed his hand on Lala’s shoulder as she was about to get up.

It was common knowledge in the village that milk tea helped against sleepiness while the herbal tea was good for digestion.

It was spread by Charles to his men and from there to the rest. He didn’t want the men using alcohol when getting sleepy and end up crashing.

He also didn’t want them to get stomachaches and get indisposed for a time.

The people were unaware of the different causes of the pain, so just used all the cures of the problem.

Fortunately, the tea seemed to have lessened the rate of the problem among the villagers.

It was kind of different from earth because of Ki and the high level of focus on the body.

Seeing Richard leave, Lala stared at his back for a few moments. Watching for a week, it wasn’t hard to notice that he had problems with the village life.

It showed on his face that he disliked the smell and the uncleanliness of it all. But, he didn’t complain and look down on them.

He tried his best.

Even handling cow dung and such, it showed that he truly cared for them and didn’t mind sharing the tasks.

She had seen the lord’s children, and they would never do such things.

It all felt so different, but her son was still in there. He had just lived a different life and come back.

She felt like looking at it that way.

“Dear, you shouldn’t treat him so coldly. He is still our son. His words and actions feel the same.” Lala sat closer to Noah and held his hand.

Noah was silent as he listened to Lala. Turning to her side, he stared into those eyes.

“Are you sure?”

Under his intense gaze, Lala backed down.

“I am sorry. You know how I am, so let’s not judge too quickly. It could all be a trick.” Noah put his arm around Lala and hugged her close, as he whispered those words.

“Fine, but you still need to act normal.” Lala insisted as she couldn’t deny his words. It put her on a crossroad as both men were two halves of her heart.

She really didn’t want to imagine anything negative.

“I will try. It isn’t easy with his foreign mannerism.” Noah replied as he looked at Richard focusing on the flames.

The boy still had the same habit of losing focus of the real world and going into the dream world.

‘They don’t look so different.’ A thought flashed by his head and Noah saw the boy look towards them, and nod.

He also had the odd habit of nodding to people instead of raising his hand for greetings or saying it.

‘Was that laziness or something from his world?’

“That’s what happens when kids grow up. You aren’t the same either, you know.” Lala smiled as she snuggled into his chest.

Noah couldn’t refute that, but both of those things were totally different. He could argue, but it was pointless and a waste of breath.

He shifted the topic and asked about what she wanted for a gift. Lala was saddened by the ordeal, so he wanted to cheer her up.

Things didn’t become dandy so soon. However, there was no urgent issue at the moment. Finishing up with the tea and relaxing for an half an hour, Richard left with his father.

They walked towards their destination at a moderate pace along with the dogs. Noah’s partners were big enough to ride and they could also use Ki.

Even the Hawk was large as a Harpy Eagle from earth and could easily carry a human with its claws. It was left behind to protect Lala.

The walk was silent and they passed by various fields before arriving at the forest that stood between them and the next village.

Though it wasn’t very long vertically, it was very long horizontally and went for miles. Following the path on the right and left would also lead to other villages, but those were a lot further.

Richard didn’t really know much about plants, so he couldn’t say their names or identify most of them.

But he did see similar trees and crops.

The forest was filled with mostly normal trees, Fir, Pine, and Blackwood etc.

It was filled with little critters and dangerous ones.

Noah moved around with Richard looking for signs of any dangerous beast in the vicinity. The path through the forest was used frequently so they had to ensure the safety.

He looked for slash marks on trees, tusk marks or bite marks that belonged to bears, boars or big cats.

They identified the piss smell in the region to see which beasts were around the area.

They looked for broken branches or trees.

They looked for the animal waste in the region.

They looked for footsteps.

Noah also had the dogs called Po and Liam search for the different beasts he had listed as dangerous.

In his life as a hunter, Noah had come across various beasts and collected something from them to help in sniffing them out.

Some he had actually ended up killing and some he had just seen from afar.

Po and Liam knew the smells, and rushed into the forest to scour it.

It was a unique experience for Richard, knowing that he was around danger. Looking around, Richard realized that he might have to travel through such difficult locations a lot.

‘I hope it gets easier or I will get lost without a gps.’

Other than the animals, the forest also had all kinds of plants and bugs. It felt like he was in Australia with those cat sized bugs.

Richard felt the chills from seeing those creatures.

He hoped with all his heart that he won’t have to battle a giant cockroach, spider or any of those terrible looking bugs.

“Father, do you have some insect repellent?”

Noah turned to him and felt annoyed that his son sounded weak.

“Endure it.”

Hearing the cold tone, Richard decided to explain to avoid a misunderstanding. He knew that Noah wasn’t worried about getting poisoned because he had trained his resistance. It was the same for Richard.

“Father, we can get sick because of insect bites. They can carry diseases, especially mosquitoes.” Richard explained in a simple manner and in a controlled manner, he didn’t want to sound annoying.

Fleas, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats and even some birds carried diseases on earth. The people of old times wouldn’t know it and they especially wouldn’t have the cure for it.

These were ones he knew about. The world was totally bonkers, so the diseases should be a lot worse as well.

He didn’t want to test it on his body.

He also felt disgusted and annoyed by the bugs, but that was a secret from Noah.

Hearing those words, Noah was surprised. He only knew that people got sick from cold, too much sun, bad food, rust and bad water.

The other cause would be miasma, dark energy going wild in the region.

“What are the other causes?” Noah was curious as he understood that this was precious knowledge. He had seen many people die from unknown causes.

It had been painful to watch and he was scared of seeing it get to someone closer.

Richard already wanted to share the information, so he was happy to oblige. He took the metal container with the paste inside and applied it on his skin.

The paste had a pungent smell that warded of insects.

“Other than insect bites, all the other animals can also carry diseases. It is best to avoid getting bitten by anything and when you do get bitten, clean it up and apply alcohol on it.

You can also get sick because of others. If someone is sick, keep your distance and don’t touch them. You can get sick from sex. If someone sleeps around with many people, it can happen.

It can happen because of the dust, don’t let it touch your wound or your eyes or your mouth. Always have a clean environment, or you will definitely get sick one or another.

Most diseases are caused by small things called bacteria and viruses that enter our body to cause these problems.

Some problems happen because of worms or parasites, as we can end up eating their eggs from water or fruits.

We can get sick in many ways, so it is best for us to be careful with our surroundings and keeping things clean.

I can’t explain in much detail, so I apologize for not being a doctor.” Richard explained carefully as he gathered the data in his head. It was unfortunate that he didn’t have his phone and net to check Google.

His younger brother would have known more as well.

With the information, Noah looked around cautiously and applied the cream. He always that he was careful but knowing about all that, there was negligence.

“Thank you for sharing…Take a short rest and we will separate. I want you to hunt a new target.” Noah looked at Richard and expressed his gratitude in an awkward manner. He was silent after that for a moment and continued.

Hunting solo had been a thing since Richard turned 12. Noah gave him a new target each month to improve his skills and give him experience with operating alone in a dangerous region,

Listening to those words, Richard felt happy even though those were just simple facts. It made him feel desire to quickly make changes to the village and show them a new world.

The rest of the words got him acting normal. Richard had luckily hunted in the past, so there was no conflict inside.

But, he was definitely worried about being in the forest at night. He wanted to raise that question but it would be a sign of weakness and low confidence.

He had to finish the hunt before night.

Noah looked at him before shifting his head to the side, and stood with his back against a tree. He had wanted to leave Richard for the night as well. However, after that short bit on diseases, he changed his mind.

“You will hunt a Dire Fox. You have 3 hours to finish the job.”

Richard gave a nod and collected the information about the fox inside his head.