Calamity Upon This World

"What are you zoning out for Gabura?" asked the man as he shook Williams shoulder.

"Ah, nothing!" William exclaimed.

"So, as I was asking, did you find anything to eat?" the man asked.

"Sadly, no." William faked his guilt to try and stop the man from any further questioning.

"Ahh, well, it's fine; we all have bad days." The man just laughed off William's failure as he patted him on the back, trying to cheer him up.

"Thanks," William replied.

"Come guys, Gabura and Miyasi are back!!" the man announced.

Hearing him, a bunch of men and women came out of their little tents, like houses made up of twigs and leaves.

"Welcome back, Gabura and Miyasi."

"Welcome back"

"Miyasi, come with us; let's prepare the food while Gabura and the others can go and bathe to clean themselves," suggested an elderly woman.

"Sure, grandma." Miyasi heeded the women's advice as she went away with her and the other women in the village to prepare food.

"Well, you heard the elder come, let's bathe you stink," said the black-bearded man from earlier as he patted William on the back, encouraging him to go clean himself.

"Shut it, Baruk; that's not dirt or sweat; it's a men's honour of battle," said a cleanfaced,  young-looking man.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to take advice on being a man from a beardless baby face like you, Karul."

"Even my wife has more hair on her face than you," Barakul mocked Karul.

"That says more about your wife than it says about me," Karul retorted.

"Hahaha"

"Haahaaha"

"Karul, man, you're too funny."

Everyone in the area chuckled at Karul's remark at the expense of Baratul's wife.

Even William let out a small chuckle, finding the whole atmosphere amusing and pleasant despite not knowing the context.

Enjoying the atmosphere, William and a few other men made their way towards the bathing area.

The whole bathing area was just one big pool.

While most people may have found it embarrassing to get naked in front of other men, not William.

William was pretty confident in his own body, and his current body wasn't even his own, so he didn't care about it.

Also, the whole thing was similar to the onsens from an eastern country on Naoya's home planet.

The whole process was supposed to be relaxing for both the mind and body, so William was pretty excited for it.

But sadly, his dreams were crushed after discovering the water to be cold instead of hot like it was supposed to be in Onsens.

So William was basically naked in cold water with a bunch of old, hairy men.

It was similar to Onsens, but just without the good parts.

'This sucks'

**

Now refreshed, William and the other men, were clean with their spirits high and enjoying the pleasant atmosphere, made their way towards the main lobby, excited to eat the food they had worked hard for while hunting.

"Come, take a seat," said a woman with a baby moustache on her face who William didn't know the identity of.

Until he remembered the conversation between Karul and Baratul from earlier and finally understood what they were talking about earlier.

"Hoom!!" William bit his tongue, trying to stop himself from laughing, as he covered his mouth with his hand and his cheeks puffed up.

"What's the matter, Gabura?" the woman asked, confused by his reaction.

"Don't worry about it," William replied, finally managing to get his emotions back in control.

"Anyways, go take a seat; food is ready," the woman said.

William and the other men took a seat on rocks that were carved to be comfortable to sit on.

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Before long, a woman appeared holding big leaves similar to banana leaves, which served as plates.

The men of the village were excited to see the food they were served.

"Nothing beats a good old meal after a hard day of work."

"I agree"

"Man, this is life."

Even the women were happy to see the excitement of the men seeing their cooking.

Everyone was excited except for William, who was having a mental breakdown after seeing the raw meat he was served.

'Did they just serve us raw, uncooked food? '

'Nah, this can't be; surely there has to be a catch,' William thought as he saw the other men enjoying the meat as if it were the best food they had ever had the pleasure of tasting.

"This is amazing!" Baratul exclaimed as he furiously devoured the meat.

Ignoring his common sense, William closed his eye and took a bite of the meat.

Almost instantly, as the meat went into his mouth, William barfed.

"Blargh"

William spat out the meat on the ground, as it turned out there wasn't a catch or some secret spice that made even uncooked meat edible. The people around him were just crazy and genuinely enjoying uncooked and unseasoned meat.

Despite having been through poverty and living in the underworld, even in his past life, William could never consume raw meat.

As if the awful taste alone wasn't enough, all the hygienic problems with consuming something like this would never allow William to eat this kind of food or let anyone else eat it.

After all, food was something William deeply respected and understood the value of.

William had experienced starvation for days in his past life, and in his opinion, it was the worst kind of pain imaginable.

But even despite this, William refused to eat this unseasoned and uncooked meat.

"What happened, Gabura?" Baratul asked, seeing his confused friends weird actions.

"Yeah, what the fuck? Why did you disrespect food like that?" Karul asked, enraged at seeing Williams disrespectful act.

"Why are you guys eating something uncooked like this?" William asked, confused.

"What do you mean, we eat this daily, and you used to love meat?" asked Miyasi in confusion.

Miyasi had heard all the commotion and came to see what was wrong and was surprised to see her husband acting weirdly.

Seeing the confused reaction of everyone around him, it finally clicked for William.

'These people don't know what fire is'

"Get me some twigs, stones, and dry leaves," William demanded, leaving no room for rebuttal.