Chapter 10: I Am A Blessing To Your Tribe!

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: I Am A Blessing To Your Tribe! "What is this?" Isabella turned to see a woman standing beside the Lion King. She was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in a wrap of fur and leather. Her dark, wild hair was adorned with small bones, and her golden eyes narrowed in disgust. She looked Isabella up and down, wrinkling her nose. "Did you pull this thing out of a swamp?" Isabella clenched her jaw. "I can hear you, you know." The woman snorted. "Good. Then you know how bad you smell." The guards barely concealed their amusement. Isabella stiffened, her pride roaring to life. She might be dirty. She might be injured, exhausted, and on the verge of elimination from existence. But she would not be insulted by some side character with an attitude problem. The Lion King, meanwhile, looked completely uninterested in the conversation. He leaned his chin against his hand and stared at Isabella like she was nothing more than a mild inconvenience. "You," he said, voice deep and commanding. "Why are you here?" Isabella straightened, trying very hard to ignore how distractingly attractive he was. She licked her lips. Took a deep breath. And declared: "I am the most beautiful woman you will ever see. A blessing to your tribe." Silence. A long, painful silence. Then— The Lion King blinked. And without hesitation, he said: "Get out." "Wait! No, no, no, you can’t just kick me out!" Isabella panicked as she looked at the timer 3:02 "I just did." "But I—!" She scrambled for a response, hands flailing. "I can be useful!" The woman beside him scoffed. "With what? Looking like a half-dead rat?" Isabella gasped dramatically. "How dare you? I’ll have you know I have many skills—" The Lion King cut her off. "Name one." ... Isabella opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it again. ...Crap. She looked at her system skills. Most of them were locked or completely useless for survival. She had one option. She cleared her throat, squared her shoulders, and proudly announced: "I am extremely good at maintaining flawless skin." Silence. Absolute silence. The woman burst out laughing. The Lion King stared at her like she was an idiot. Which, okay, fair. "Get. Out." "No, wait—!" Isabella clasped her hands together, giving him the most pitiful look she could manage. "Please! I’ll do anything! I’ll work hard, I’ll—" The woman cackled. "Look at her. Begging like a pathetic little worm." Isabella snapped. "Oh, shut up, BONE NECKLACE." The woman’s smile vanished. "Excuse me?" "You heard me, Skull Collector," Isabella huffed. "What, you think because you’ve got bones in your hair, you get to act like a discount final boss?" The guards choked on their laughter. The Lion King sighed and rubbed his temples. "I do not have time for this." But Isabella wasn’t done. She turned back to him, eyes dead serious. "Listen. I may not be a warrior. I may not have survival skills. But I am beautiful, and if you let me stay, I promise that you will not regret it." The Lion King exhaled slowly, staring at her like he was physically restraining himself from throwing her out the nearest window. She was useless. Filthy. An eyesore. But she was also persistent—too stubborn to break, too stupid to give up. Most outsiders would have run by now. Yet here she was, after hours of humiliation, still demanding a place in his tribe. Isabella watched him, waiting tensly for his answer. She prayed and look at the timer. 00.09 He rubbed his temple. If she had this much fight in her, maybe—just maybe—she could be molded into something useful. If not, well... throwing her out later would be satisfying. Finally, after a long, agonizing pause... "You have one week." Isabella lit up, she immediately looked at the timer and almost cried. She was glad it was no longer counting down. 00:01 Bone Necklace gasped. "What?" The Lion King’s voice was final. "One week. If you prove yourself useful, you stay. If not, you leave." Isabella grinned. Challenge accepted. [System Notification] Congratulations! You have acquired the protection of a Four-Striped Beastman. (+100 Points) Achievement Unlocked: Smooth Talker! Successfully convinced the guards to grant you entry. (+20 Persuasion Points) Isabella excitedly looked at her skills stat: [SKILLS] Cooking: Lv.0 (1/50) Foraging: Lv.0 (Locked) Crafting: Lv.0 (Locked) Combat (Hand-to-Hand): Lv.0 (Locked) Combat (Weapons): Lv.0 (Locked) Trading & Negotiation: Lv.0 (Locked) Persuasion: Lv.0 (20/50) + 20 points Leadership: Lv.0 (Locked) Skincare & Beauty: Lv.5 Fitness & Training: Lv.0 (Locked) Beastman Culture Knowledge: Lv.0 (Locked) Beast Taming: Lv.0 (Locked) It still looked really disappointing, but to be honest, she felt really good of herself. "Thank you so much, Your Majesty," Isabella said with a smile—one that might have been cute if she didn’t still look like she’d crawled out of a swamp. Kian barely spared her another glance. "Assign her a hut," he ordered. To him after a week she was out. A man who had been standing quietly in the corner nodded. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with the same sharp features as the other beastmen, though his expression was unreadable. "Come with me, miss," he said. Isabella followed him out of the main hall, her legs aching with every step. The village had settled down somewhat, though a few embers still glowed in the dying fire pits. The stone pathways were uneven beneath her sore feet as they made their way toward the edge of the settlement. Finally, he stopped in front of a basin-shaped stone hut. It wasn’t large, but it was solid—rough walls carved directly from stone, with a roof layered in dried leaves. The inside was simple: a small fur-covered bed that was made of only fur was, pressed against the corner, a crude wooden log, and a single unlit torch mounted on the wall. There was no door—just a heavy fur curtain hanging in the entrance. "Wait where do I sleep?" She asked eyeing the makeshift fur bed that lay on the ground. "On the fur" the poor beast man answered sincerely oblivious to the reason why isabella sounded that way. "You expect me to sleep on the ground? Darling, I don’t even sit on public benches." Isabella said with such shock that the man felt like he was the problem. This woman was really strange, he wanted to leave, he did not like her. For a moment Isabella felt bad seeing his reaction, she should be grateful that she was even given a place, talk less of screaming at him. Still Isabella took it all in with an unimpressed sigh. No windows, no silk sheets, no soft pillows. Great. "This is going to be your room?" the man said unsure, maybe she did not get that this was how they lived here. She turned to him, arms crossed. "And where’s the bath? The hot water? The scented soaps?" This time around her tone was softer. The beastman blinked at her like she had spoken in an alien tongue. "...There’s a stream nearby." "Wait like cold water?" She asked now irritated again. "Yes?" The man said now exhausted, why did his lord accept this spoilt thing. "You want me to bathe in a cold river? Darling, I require warm water, scented oils, and an ambience! What do I look like—some barbarian?!" Isabella said said almost crying. "You can keep being dirty, or take what you see" The man said coldly for the first time, makeing Isabella flinch a bit. She could see that he was really getting fed up with her. A stream? Isabella wanted to cry. Instead, she forced a tight-lipped smile. "Right. Of course. Thank you." The man gave a short nod and left. He was definitely complaining about her to his king. He hasn’t even spent hours with her, and he already felt like he ran mad in just a few minutes. The moment he was gone, Isabella flopped onto the fur-covered makeshift bed on the ground—then immediately sat back up, nose scrunching. It smelled like wet animal. She groaned, rubbing her face. "Great. Just great." She needed a bath. Desperately. But where was she supposed to get water at this hour? She sighed, eyeing the dark entrance of her hut. Looks like she had a new mission.