“Harvey! Harvey, are you there?”

Damien carried Irina and rushed to a wooden house at the edge of the village. A young man walked out upon hearing Damien’s shouts. He looked smaller than the rest of the beastmen in the tribe, but he was still relatively muscular by modern standards. He had no tattoos on his face and had a more refined and calm aura about him.

“What’s the rush?” Harvey stood at the door and glanced at Damien. His eyes then locked onto the female in Damien’s arms. “Is this female injured? Bring her inside right away.”

Damien carried Irina into the house without another word. The doctor’s house was much larger compared to those of the other beastmen. There were stone cups of various sizes all over the house, and the air was filled with the faint smell of medicine.

Irina wrinkled her nose upon noticing the faint smell of the kitchen. This caused some of the dried mud on her face to fall off.

Harvey glanced at Irina’s face and asked, “Does she have facial injuries? Did you apply mud on her face because she got stung by a bee?”

“No. Look at her ankle.” Damien helped Irina to sit on the ground, then lifted her leg up and showed it to Harvey.

Harvey bent down and looked at her ankle. He frowned and replied, “It’s a sprain. I’ll help her improve the blood circulation around her ankle first.”

Although Damien was worried, he didn’t forget to comfort Irina. He held Irina’s mud-covered face and said, “Don’t worry. Harvey studied medicine in the City of Beastmen. You’ll feel better in no time.”

“Oh.” Irina wasn’t too fussed, to begin with. She usually didn’t care if she sprained her ankle and would be too embarrassed to excuse herself from morning runs. But since she was already here, it wouldn’t hurt to get it treated.

“Hm?” Harvey suddenly exclaimed. He pulled at Irina’s shoelaces and asked, “What’s this? I’m going to massage your ankle for you. Can I take this off?”

Irina couldn’t help but laugh at Harvey’s reaction. She smiled and bent down to take off her shoe. “Of course you can.”

After she removed her gray sneaker, the breathing sounds in the house instantly stopped.

Although Irina didn’t have the beastmen’s keen hearing abilities, her gut feeling told her that the atmosphere in the house suddenly changed. When she looked up, she saw the man Damien referred to as Harvey staring at her foot in shock. Irina subconsciously looked at Damien, who was standing above her. Sure enough, his eyes had widened as well. She instantly panicked.

Oh no. Had her foot given her away? Didn’t a beastman’s foot look like this?

She couldn’t be sure as she didn’t notice the females’ feet earlier. Just when Irina was so nervous she felt like her heart would stop beating, she suddenly heard Harvey’s amazed voice.

“What a beautiful foot…”

Irina was speechless, but she still secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Irina’s foot was fair, slender, and proportionate. Her pretty toes were covered by pink, translucent toenails, making them seem pretty yet adorable. They seemed especially small and delicate underneath a large, black palm.

Damien instantly came back to his senses at the sound of Harvey’s voice. He glared at Harvey and warned him, “If you take another look at her foot, I’ll bite your head off! Quickly treat her ankle!”

Realizing that his reaction was inappropriate, Harvey immediately got up and walked away. Before long, he came back with a piece of yellow-colored root.

“Ginger?” Irina was confused. This guy wanted to use ginger to treat her ankle?

“You know what this is?” Harvey glanced at Irina in surprise. The female’s eyes were bright and soft. His heart was seemingly captured by her, and he couldn’t act like himself.

“This is called yellow root. It can dispel coldness and improve blood circulation. I’m going to use this to massage your ankle,” Harvey said somewhat nervously. He used a small knife to cut off a part of the skin of the ginger root, then gently rubbed it against Irina’s ankle.

It was clearly ginger! Irina secretly grumbled that the beastmen were weird for using their seasonings as medicine instead of using it on food.

The ginger left a cooling sensation on the skin, but it didn’t feel like it was working, only bringing about a gradual pain in her legs, causing Irina to wince softly.

Harvey set down the ginger and rubbed his hands rapidly, before laying his palms over Irina’s ankle and rubbing it with a proper application of strength. It was only then that Irina felt a spicy and hot sensation on her skin—it was indeed working.

Staring at Harvey’s actions, Damien frowned hard and finally couldn’t tolerate it any longer. He shoved Harvey aside and declared, “Let me do it!”

Slightly displeased at being shoved away, Harvey said with a sullen expression, “You don’t know how to. What if you hurt the female?”

Damien hesitated a moment, then stiffened his neck and said, “You teach me!”

Although Harvey was a refined person, he was very insistent at this moment. He stared at Damien without saying a word.

The uncomfortable Irina struggled to squirm out from Damien’s arms. “Stop fighting! Let me do it myself.”

“Don’t move!” Damien rebuked her. Seeing this, Harvey no longer dared to insist. He said to Damien, “Watch carefully.”

Harvey lifted Irina’s leg and massaged it in slow motion. This time, Damien could only hold himself back. Then, after memorizing the moves and key points, he took over.

Damien feared he would hurt Irina, so he was extra cautious and didn’t use as much strength as Harvey. He carefully observed Irina’s expression as he massaged her leg, asking her every now and then if it hurt. Irina felt that this wasn’t something to fuss over. So long as he didn’t cause her pain, she was fine with it. Hence, every time Damien asked, she would reply that she was fine.

After massaging for a while, Damien asked, “Is there anything else to be done?”

“Depends on her condition tomorrow,” Harvey said with a cold face. “Bring back this piece of yellow root and rub it on her leg when you’re free.”

Damien replied with an “Mm.”

Just as they were about to leave, Irina suddenly tiptoed over with her injured ankle to take a look at the mortars and pestles.

As she had expected, there were other condiments, but she was left speechless by the quantity.

There was garlic, Sichuan pepper, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, fennel, and even red capsicum. There were perhaps many more condiments, it was just that she didn’t know what they were.

Irina chuckled to herself, thinking that this was great—she was just fretting over having to eat tasteless food here. Thus, with these condiments, it would help the taste of the food greatly.

“Err… Harvey, where can we find these medicinal herbs?” Irina asked with a pleasing smile on her face. The mud on her face had mostly peeled off and, even though a thin layer of marl had still remained, her delicate features could be vaguely seen by now.

Harvey appeared overwhelmed with honor at the question, his face flushing in an instant. Without hesitation, he stammered, “If you want… you can take it.”

Irina’s eyes lit up as she said in a delighted voice, “Really? Would it be very troublesome to get these? Why don’t I help you the next time you go to pick the herbs?”

“No need, no need.” Harvey waved both hands.

Standing between the two of them, Damien fiercely glared at Irina, then snapped at Harvey. “My female doesn’t want anything from you. I will pay you with food. Also, she has said that she only wants me as a partner!”

Harvey’s expression dimmed, a hint of jealousy in his sour voice. “Is it…”

It was only then that Irina realized this Harvey had taken a fancy to her. She was surprised at the simple and crude approach the males took towards relationships in this world!

Although she had a pretty good impression of Harvey, she didn’t want to accept a man’s confession so casually like that. Thus, she didn’t rebut Damien’s words. After selecting the condiments she wanted, she told Harvey, “I want these.”

Harvey immediately snapped out of his gloomy state and quickly brought over a stack of dried tree leaves to wrap the medicinal herbs up in. Although the tree leaves were wind-dried, as they had been subjected to special treatment, they were softer. And even if one folded them, they wouldn’t break.

“The other medicinal herbs aren’t dangerous, but you need to take special care with that red one called oleander. Never touch it with your hands, much less get it into your eyes. It will hurt a lot,” Harvey said while holding a dried Heaven Chile, a worried look in his eyes as he gazed at Irina.

“I know,” Irina replied with a smile, then took from the pack of ingredients from Harvey. She thanked him sincerely before being carried away horizontally by Damien, whose jealousy was triggered.