"Here."
Chewing on her roast meat, Akame had not even swallowed the first bite when she suddenly spat it back out. In the same motion, she snatched the skewer from her sister's hand and held both pieces of meat, which had only just touched their lips, out to the boy beside them.
"You're not eating?"
Broly looked puzzled.
"We are, but you eat first."
"I've got plenty here."
On a big leaf in front of him lay a heap of "first bites" other people had given him.
"We want to swear you in as our big brother too."
Akame said seriously. Life on the road with her little sister had been too hard. She wanted someone they could lean on.
Clearly, she had heard the chubby kid's talk about "swearing to a big brother" earlier. After thinking it through, just as the meat was about to go into her stomach, her reason beat out her hunger. She chose to hand over that first bite she had not yet eaten—hers, and Kurome's as well.
[Kurome's Happiness Value is decreasing]
"You're already my best friends. You don't need to give me meat…"
[Akame's Happiness Value is decreasing]
[Kurome's Happiness Value is rising]
Broly paused, then held out the roast he was eating.
"How about this: I'll eat your meat, you eat mine. We'll swap and eat together."
[Akame's Happiness Value is rising]
[Kurome's Happiness Value is rising]
Akame agreed. It felt like sealing some strange, wordless pact as she traded skewers with Broly.
She did not care that his meat had his saliva on it and bit in.
Seeing her meat come back, Kurome brightened, gripping the stick with both hands like a squirrel and gnawing away.
Their table manners were different, but their speed was similar—fast.
In no time, both big skewers were bare.
They hugged their knees and waited by the fire for the next batch to finish.
"Want to eat mine first?"
Broly offered. He ate faster than the two of them combined.
He also happened to have much more meat—kids kept bringing him fresh skewers.
"We couldn't…"
Akame tried to be reserved. Two minutes later—
"Whoever roasted this meat, it's amazing. It tastes kind of sweet."
"That would be me. I soaked the meat in flower nectar before roasting."
The girl named Chikushi raised her hand. Before bandits killed her family, she had often watched her mother prepare meat. She was one of the few who had picked up some cooking before ending up on the streets.
"Did I do something wrong?"
She asked anxiously.
"No. You're a culinary prodigy!"
The moment Broly heard how good it was, he chomped off what Akame had not yet eaten from her skewer.
The flavor stood out from all the others, and as the taste hit his tongue, new words floated up in his mind.
"What's a 'culinary prodigy'?"
Before Chikushi could figure it out, the boy rushed over and shoved a bundle of skewers into her arms.
"Let's trade!"
In exchange, Broly took all of her meat.
The barbecue went on late into the night. The other kids had long since eaten their fill.
Broly had not. He single‑handedly polished off the remaining ingredients.
He had not eaten like this in two years.
"Let's sleep here tonight. It's dangerous, though. We should take turns—"
Naha Shu had not finished talking about standing watch when Broly, full and content, turned and fired an energy blast at a huge nearby tree.
Gifnora Seatre Forest was called a "sea‑tree forest" because of its countless, towering trees.
From his cave‑dweller days on Vampa, Broly knew that the higher you slept, the safer you were.
The dense crown exploded under the blast. Dropping back to the ground, Broly turned to the others.
"You can sleep up there with me."
Strong and reliable—their big brother had solved the question of where to sleep.
Of course, the treetop was not guaranteed safe either, but compared to the constant rustling below and the occasional gleam of bestial eyes in the dark, it was far better.
"It's so high. I don't think I can climb that."
The sheer height of the crownless giant made some of the weaker climbers blanch.
"You can't fly?"
Broly scratched his head.
"You talk like flying is normal or something!"
No one actually said it out loud, but everyone thought the same thing.
"All right, I'll take you up."
Seeing their reactions, Broly finally remembered that people in other worlds generally could not fly.
After more than two years of lifting off and soaring for movement charging on Vampa, his brain had gotten a bit "air‑headed"—constantly thinking about going faster and faster.
He tore down a couple of sturdy vines for them to hang on to and made four trips up and down to carry all seventy‑three kids into the tree.
The trunk's cross‑section was wide. Not exactly flat, but the heartwood was surprisingly soft, almost like a mattress.
They left the torches unlit. From the highest treetop around, the moonlight provided more than enough light.
Broly thought for a moment, then went to a neighboring tree and picked a pile of big leaves, tossing them to the group of "external‑slot wives" as makeshift blankets.
A silent night was out of the question. These children had suffered plenty at the hands of slavers.
And before they became merchandise, their backgrounds had been all over the place. Some had been sold by their parents. Some had lost their families by accident and become beggars and drifters. Some had been kidnapped.
Soft sobs drifted through the branches, occasionally broken by families comforting each other. The sound kept Broly awake. He did not really understand the situations of these peers about his own age, but they all seemed to want a home—or to go home.
So… this doesn't count as home?
Broly wondered. No one answered.
After a while of turning it over and getting nowhere, he gave up and focused on the Crystal Palace instead.
This time, how long could he stay in this world?
"Sixty‑two days, six hours, thirty minutes, twenty‑two seconds?"
"Huh? Why so long?"
[Hint: Because this world lacks a subjective, exclusionary World Will, the Crystal Palace does not need to spend extra spacetime energy to resist it.]
[Note: Different worlds have different levels of passive rejection. The time you can remain in a world will vary accordingly. The more spacetime energy you have, the longer you can stay.]
More time here was very good news. Broly fell asleep extremely satisfied.
At dawn, noise jolted him awake. A bird‑type danger beast, up early, had spotted them.
Bird‑type danger beasts did not rely on scent to judge danger, so it launched a direct attack. Luckily, Naha Shu's light sleep let him spot it in time. His shout startled the not‑so‑large bird and roused the children sleeping on the trunk.
By the time Broly got up, the more capable kids were already grappling with the big bird on the tree.
One of them was Losan, the chubby boy who had talked about "swearing to a big brother." Solid and strong, he was on the front line—but also unlucky enough to be the bird's first target.
"Losan!"
The bird snagged him in one claw. He braced against it with hands and feet as the children who had met him just last night shouted his name.
Some rushed in to help, but their knives could not get through the thick feather layer on the bird's body.
Stabbing its claws did no good either. The hard, layered keratin there was as tough as heavy wood. With the kids' strength, they could only scratch the surface.
Yawning, Broly walked over, thinking this world really was not bad—he had just woken up, and food had already come to him.
"Move. I'm about to show off."
He spoke the phrase that had suddenly popped into his head, and as the other children stepped aside, he faced the bird.
The big bird watched him approach. It had been using the chubby boy as bait, trying to peck at anyone who came to help. This time was no different.
But Broly moved faster. He grabbed its claw, and as its large eyes seemed to show a very human "What does that do?" he lifted it.
Then he started swinging.
Smack, smack, smack—the giant bird was slammed again and again into the trunk's cut surface.
After only a couple of blows, it convulsed and died.
"We'll eat it for breakfast."
Pointing at the bird, Broly announced to the kids.
They cheered.
They had seen him hunt danger beasts yesterday, but watching it again today only deepened their awe.
One look at him and you knew: following a big brother like this, they would never go hungry again.
__________
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