"Kareena, I cut out a bra for you. Turn around, let me tie this on you." After we finished eating and washing ourselves clean, I took a wide strip of cloth and turned towards Kareena as she dried herself.
"Lift your arms up." With her back turned towards me, I wrapped the cloth around her chest and tied it securely behind her.
"There, how do you feel? Is it comfortable?" I asked, ensuring the knot wasn't too tight. Turning her around, I noted how the makeshift bra pressed her chest slightly inward, reducing the imbalance caused by her front-heavy build.
Though her breasts were flattened, they were still a little visible even with how wide the tube top was, and her figure was still noticeable.
"Mmm." Kareena adjusted the tube top a little before moving around. "Thank you, Master. I feel lighter now."
"You're welcome, Kareena. Now today, you're just going to follow me when I hunt okay? You don't need to fight or anything. Just watch what I'm doing. Okay?"
She nodded excitedly. "Yes, Master."
"The rabbits' den is northwest of our cave exit. We're at the river, which is northeast of the cave exit. Since I don't need to send you back to the cave, how about we go along this river and see where it leads. Besides, the rabbits should be wary now that I've hunted two of them. So we should find something else to eat."
"Okay, Master. I'll just follow you." Kareena said after she wore her clothes and smiled brightly.
"Here, just in case." I handed her the spear I had been using as I had made a wooden sword, which I was more skilled with.
"Be careful with the tip. Always make sure it's pointing away from you and other people around you. Since this is your first time using it, hold it with both your hands. You can..." I spent a few minutes explaining to her the basics of using a spear before we started trudging through the forest, following the flow of the river.
As we moved through the forest, golden lights penetrated through the canopy, and the temperature started getting warmer; the sun had now almost fully risen, and the chirping of birds had now filled the air.
Kareena stayed close to me, her steps cautious as she matched my pace.
"Master, what do you usually do in your world?" After nearly half an hour of walking, Kareena suddenly asked.
"... With all the wars happening around the world, I have either been studying or training. Waiting for the time when the wars spread and I would have to get involved in my family affairs. But for now, the only thing I've been doing is learn and practice."
"Waiting for the war... have ever fought before, master?"
"I've helped my grandfather take care of certain problems and got rid of a few nuisances. But if you're talking about proper fights... I've never had any face-to-face fights before... just sparring sessions with my teachers."
"'Take care of certain problems'?" Kareena repeated.
"Yes, even though my family made me learn a wide variety of skills, we-..." I paused, my ears perked up as I heard a soft rustling as well as the blaring silence from the absence of other animals, leaving only the gentle sound of river flowing, the contrast causing me to feel prickling sensations throughout my body, a feeling I felt more frequently after arriving to this world.
"Kareena. Move to my left."
Grabbing Kareena's wrist, I tugged her to my left and readied my sword.
As soon as my voice resounded, a grey shadow leapt out from the bushes to our right. The temperature around us sharply increased suddenly.
The shadow quickly pounced towards me, instantly arriving in front of me as its claws stretched out towards me.
[A coyote. It's heading straight for me. I can't dodge, Kareena's behind me. I need to kill it in one slash to not get badly injured. There's orange lights around it and the temperature suddenly increased.]
My thoughts flashed, with Kareena behind me, I refrained from dodging and stepped forward.
Looking at the animal less than half a meter away from me, time slowed down as my senses became amplified.
With a short inhale, I moved, swinging my sword in a powerful, controlled arc, meeting the coyote mid-leap.
The blade cut cleanly through the air, and the coyote's momentum brought it straight into the path of my slash.
As my sword came in contact with the coyote's neck, warm blood splattered, the force in my arm threatening to break the roughly made wooden sword.
The animal's head flew as it was now separated from its body.
The animal collapsed without a sound, blood pooling around me and its lifeless body.
I drew a steady breath, feeling the familiar calm that accompanied such encounters.
Turning around, I saw Kareena, still gripping the spear I had given her, staring wide-eyed at me.
"Kareena?" I said gently, snapping her out of her daze. "Are you okay?"
"M-m-master! You're bleeding!" Kareena suddenly shouted as she stared at me.
"Hmm?" Following her gaze, I glanced down to find four shallow claw marks across my right side, blood oozing slowly.
"Oh, don't mind this. When I decided not to dodge just now, I did expect to get a little injured." Blood trickled slowly from four shallow claw marks and I saw that the wound was also slightly burnt.
"D-does it hurt, master?" she asked, her voice trembling. I felt the emotions her soul core exuded becoming more chaotic and the blue lights around her moved erratically, causing the winds around us to shift.
"Kareena." Seeing her reaction, I placed my hand on her head. "It doesn't hurt that bad... calm down. Don't worry about it."
Seeing as Kareena calmed down, I took deep breaths to reduce the feeling of burning sensation I was feeling from the wound.
[I guess those orange lights allow it to manipulate heat. No... maybe just generate heat.]
I then glanced at the coyote's carcass and saw purple soul mana slowly seeping out and the orange lights dispersing from around it.
"Let's go to the river, I need to wash these wounds first. As for the corpse, eating carnivorous animals is not healthy, and now is not the time to take its pelt. So we're leaving the corpse here."
"Nn." Kareena nodded as she stared worriedly at my wound.
At the riverbank, I rinsed off the coyote's blood from my face and cleaned the wounds, cooling the feeling of heat on my skin while Kareena watched silently.
After finishing, we sat beside the river as we waited for the wound to stop bleeding.
"Don't worry, Kareena," I said, noticing her watery eyes. "This isn't my first injury. Look." I looked down and gestured to a scar on my left abdomen.
"If you want to touch it, touch it, it doesn't hurt anymore."
Seeing Kareena staring intently at it, I allowed her to touch it. She hesitated before reaching out, her fingers brushing the scar.
"As I was about to say before, my family is a family of assassins. I got this when I went to complete the first task my grandfather asked me to do. I had to get rid of a spy from another country. The guy managed to stab me when I let my guard down after slitting his throat."
Kareena continued stroking my scar and asked.
"Was it painful, master?"
"Mmm... It was, but my family's subordinate was there to cover me. So nothing serious happened afterward.
Kareena retracted her hand then turned her gaze to my fresh wounds.
The blood flowing out has started to harden and bleeding has stopped.
"Does it still hurt, master? My family has a... healer? Yes, a healer, she can heal your wounds."
"One of the sheep?"
"Yes. She always heals us if we are attacked."
"Sure, but we should go find some food first now that we're this far out."
Seeing that my wound had fully stopped bleeding, I slowly stood up.
"Let's go, we'll continue for maybe half an hour more before turning back. If we don't find any meat then we'll eat fruits or something. I want to go back and study more about this soul magic. Are you okay with that?"
"I will follow you, master."