"Cough, cough, cough! Take it…"

Suppressing the violent coughs wracking my throat, I pushed the bowl of porridge towards her.

"R-Right away, nya!"

Her brown, medium-length hair swayed as her distinct feline ears twitched. The girl in front of me—a member of the so-called "Nako Tribe" in this world—had been engaging in daily trades with me since the second day of captivity.

Carefully balancing the bowl of porridge, she brought it over to her companions. Once there, she poured the contents onto a relatively clean patch of ground. Her companions immediately began devouring it like mad, but she returned the bowl to me first before joining them.

Half a bowl left… I wanted to tell her she could've kept more, but honestly, I could use the extra nourishment myself.

"Thanks again nya," she said gratefully.

"It's just a trade… cough, cough!"

"Um, your health…"

"Just eat. Come back later… cough!"

Snatching the bowl from her hands, I gulped down the remaining porridge in an attempt to stave off my coughing fit.

Since the second day, only the cage I was in had been receiving comparatively healthier portions of porridge. This allowed me to secure better food quality and quantity than my fellow prisoners, who indirectly benefited from my arrangement. But I hadn't stopped there.

Even without surplus food, I would have acted the same way. Still, the current supply situation was better than I could've hoped for. On the other hand, the captain seemed to be keeping a close eye on me. Every time he came to the storage hold, he'd make his way over to check on me specifically.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

This clearly indicated I held some value to him.

Otherwise, there was no way I'd be treated this well.

Not that I minded—I intended to exploit every resource available to survive.

"All right, come here," I called after finishing the porridge, not even bothering to wipe my mouth.

"Coming, nya!"

She didn't hesitate. At the sound of my voice, she hurried over, her mouth still smeared with bits of grain, evidence that her companions had left her a fair share of food.

"No time to waste—let's get started."

This was our deal.

As someone utterly ignorant of this world, I desperately needed knowledge. Language, culture, technology, history—anything she could provide was valuable.

Though, honestly, my so-called benefactor had a rather unreliable memory.

"History of the Giant Tribe, nya… um, nya…"

Tapping her fingers as if to jog her memory, the feline girl's gaze wandered.

"Didn't I tell you to prepare this yesterday? Fine, let's switch topics—cough, cough! Ugh… give me a rundown of the history of the Twelve Tribes. Everything you know."

"Nya… nya… aside from our Beast Tribe…"

"Even when it comes to the Beast Tribe, you haven't said much, have you?"

"Nyaaa…"

Her ears drooped, twitching briefly before flattening against her head, clearly dejected.

Let me take back what I said earlier—this girl is far from a benefactor.

With a sigh, I lamented two things: her lack of diligence and my own pitiful understanding of this world.

This isn't just some random place; it's an entirely different world—Chaos. A world that's seen several massive wars involving numerous races. Names of alien species like the Giant Tribe, Sylvani Tribe, and Slimentis Tribe were entirely foreign to me. There were twelve in total, yet I knew almost nothing about their histories, the timeline of wars, the locations of key events, or the geographical layout of continents.

I couldn't expect much from someone like her, a slave since childhood, to provide such detailed knowledge.

The only solid information I'd managed to extract was this: during one of the great wars, a branch of the Beast Tribe, the Nako Tribe, had done something significant—or infamous. Her explanation was so vague that it was clear she had only heard fragmented rumors.

What exactly had the Nako Tribe done? That remained a mystery. All I knew was the result: they became a despised, downtrodden group. It explained why there were so many Nako slaves in this warehouse—or perhaps, in this world, most slaves came from the Nako Tribe.

In any case, there was no squeezing more useful intel out of her. I'd need to find a new source of information.