A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 133: Making Lye

Once they were done with lunch, Serena let Kiro go back to the village center, wanting to use this change to finally get some soap made. The water had taken some time to prepare, but at least now she had it and could proceed with making lye.

After Kiro was out of sight, Serena headed into the hut to grab an empty wooden bucket and one of her smaller baskets. She entered her subspace and filled the basket with wood ash she’d been collecting before grabbing her eye protection goggles and gloves.

She then left the subspace and brought everything outside, going some distance away from the hut. Theo curiously followed behind her, carrying the water they had boiled the previous day.

Serena set the wooden bucket down on the flattest patch of ground before placing the basket over it. She then turned to Theo.

"You need to put these on before you pour the water in." Serena instructed, holding out the gloves and eye protection goggles.

Maybe it was a little overkill at this stage, but the lye they were making was a potassium-based one and unstable. If it got onto one’s skin, it would burn. Perhaps not while they were making it, but Serena would rather be safe than sorry.

Theo set the water down and took the objects from her, looking at them strangely. He’d seen gloves before, they were quite popular in the northern regions where it was colder, but had never seen eye protection goggles.

"What are these for exactly?" Theo asked, holding up the goggles. "And where did you even get them?"

"They’re for your eyes." Serena answered, grabbing the goggles and moving to place it over his eyes. "Bend down for a second would you?"

Theo instinctively bent his head down, allowing Serena to put the goggles over his eyes. As she did so, his eyes couldn’t help but move down to her lips.

"There done." Serena said, taking a step back.

Theo blinked, mentally shaking his wayward thoughts away. His brain then realized Serena had yet to answer his question about where she hadn’t gotten these things.

Because he’d never seen any goggles or for that matter gloves like these before. All the gloves he had ever seen were fur. These ones didn’t look like fur nor looked like wool.

"You still haven’t answered where these are from?" Theo pointed out. "Also why am I wearing them? I thought we were making soap."

"Technically we’re making lye for the soap... And lye tends to cause bad burns." Serena stated. "Wouldn’t want your hands to get disfigured or have you go blind."

Especially when the concentration of the lye was unpredictable since they were making it from wood ash. It could range from having no effect to being way too harsh to use as soap.

But it wasn’t like she could make proper soap. She lacked the technology to produce the right chemical for lye and accurately measure it too. Serena was stuck with old methods and prayers.

So, she was doing what she could with what she had.

Of course, when Serena brought up hand disfiguration, Theo’s mind went to the soap makers in the city he had met a few times while wandering the market. They always had their hands wrapped up in strips of cloth.

And some had massive scarring on their arms and hands. Which now made sense.

It also made him a little happy, more than he wanted to admit, that Serena had let him take over instead of doing it herself. She even made sure he was protected so he would get hurt.

"As for the goggles and gloves..." Serena mused, bringing Theo out of his thoughts. "Well, that’s a trade secret. I can’t tell you because I’m bound to secrecy. So please don’t ask me."

Liz lifted its head at her lies and hissed out, "What nonsense are you talking about?! You were never sworn to secrecy."

Serena ignored the snake on her arm as Theo pursed his lips at those dramatic words. He felt something was off, but he also feared making Serena accidently break her vow if it was true.

After all, it wasn’t uncommon for clans to keep knowledge secret among their members.

Though it does make me wonder if it’s really okay for Serena to show me this soap recipe? Theo wondered to himself as he put on the gloves. Normally those recipes are strictly kept within families... Wait, does she think of me as family?

But they hadn’t even properly mated. They were just playing the part of being mates for their own reasons. There was no way Serena could think of him that way.

Unless...

"Why are you going red?" Serena frowned. "Are you getting hot or something?"

Theo shook his head and picked up the water, turning away from Serena quickly. He needed to let go of those stupid thoughts because there was no way that was happening.

"It’s nothing..." Theo murmured. "Let’s just get this done."

***

Theo let out a sigh, stopping his stirring of the wood ash and water mixture. He then turned to Serena and asked, "I think that’s it."

Serena silently nodded her head in agreement. They had poured the water over the before mixing the solution to let it seep through the basket into the wooden basket. Occasionally, they would stir the mixture to help drain out the water.

Most of the water had drained though, leaving behind a sludgy mixture. Serena decided to let the mixture sit overnight and check on the lye tomorrow morning.

She’d drop a brown root into the lye water and if it floated then the lye was done. If it sank, then she’d need to redo it again. Hopefully, the brown root would float.

"We should probably start getting dinner going." Serena mused, glancing over at the sun.

It was slowly sinking towards the horizon, probably giving them about an hour or two of sunlight at best. Which just made her realize how long it had taken them to make the lye.

"Sure." Theo nodded his head, rotating his right shoulder for a moment. "Um... what should we do about the lye?"

"We can keep it here for now." Serena said.

She would place it in her subspace for safety once Theo was gone and put it back in the morning. Serena already had an empty bucket to replace it for the evening.

Theo pursed his lips, clearly not pleased about keeping a dangerous substance out in the open, so Serena added, "We’ll just keep Kiro close to us for the evening."

"Alright, fine." Theo sighed.

And with that they made their way back to the hut to start preparing dinner. Only for Jason to suddenly run up to them, stopping at the sight of Theo wearing the eye protection goggles.

"What are you wearing?" Jason asked, walking over to them.

Serena let out a hiss of annoyance, completely forgetting to tell Theo to take off the goggles and gloves. And now this no-filter bird brain had seen it.

"Just some eye protection." Serena answered, moving in front of Jason to block his path.

Theo, meanwhile, quickly removed the goggles and gloves and headed straight into the hut to put them inside. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to let the bird beastman get a close look at them.

Who knew what he’d say?

"Anyway, why are you here?" Serena questioned, hoping to distract the bird beastman and figure out why he was here.

There was no reason for him to be here.

Jason gazed down at her for a second before he sheepishly answered, "Oh right... I was helping Davis hand out some herbs. Here’s yours."

He pulled out a wrapped leaf pouch from a small leather pouch hanging on his waist and held it out to her. Serena carefully took it, giving him a confused look.

"And this is for?" Serena asked just as Theo returned to her side.

"Some cold medicine." Jason shrugged. "Every female gets one pouch. If you feel sick, make yourself some tea using the leaves inside. It should help you recover. If you don’t get over your sickness in a few days, then send Theo to Healer Kai’s hut."

Serena pursed her lips, grateful for the medicine. Granted she was a little confused as to why she was getting it now. She wasn’t sick.

"Is there a reason Davis is giving them out now?" Theo voiced the question they both had.

"Eh... It was something about preventing unnecessary visits." Jason mused. "Apparently Healer Kai doesn’t like anyone coming over and some male... are a bit much. So he just gives them the medicine beforehand so they don’t cause trouble."

"I see..." Serena murmured.

She still thought it was a little weird, but she wasn’t going to refuse the free medicine. It was one less hassle for her. Perhaps she could even have Liz look into the herbs to see exactly what they were.

Then she could stock up her own bunch.

"Anyway, I still got a few more houses to stop by." Jason said. "I see you around."

And with that, the bird beastman was gone.