Chapter 31: Replacement

How difficult.

Nagu was tugging at the hair by her ears, staring intently at several stone tablets on the table. The stone tablets were densely engraved with many twisted, worm-like characters. They were not pictographs, nor could they be said to be phonetic characters. These unfamiliar characters still had a “drawing” feel to them, but Nagu couldn’t discern the meaning from those “drawings.”

In short, she couldn’t understand them at all, and learning them was very difficult. She was about to be sucked into a vortex of uselessness again.
After staring at the tangled characters on the stone tablets for nearly half an hour, Nagu finally connected them to the rough explanations the witch had given her this morning. It roughly meant “raising something towards something.”

“…”

So, what was raised towards what? Nagu scratched her head in frustration as she looked at the incomprehensible text. In the quiet room at night, the only sound was the faint scratching of her nails on the wooden table as she scratched in despair.

Two days ago, after meeting Hamoyin at the market, she mustered up the courage to ask the old witch if she could teach her to read. The answer made Nagu very happy. She didn’t expect the usually indifferent old woman to agree immediately upon hearing her request and even gave her many slates.

However, the witch’s teaching method was a bit too aggressive for Nagu. She simply picked up the slate, read the contents twice or thrice to Nagu, and then let her figure it out alone.

This led to Nagu staring at the slate with a head full of questions:
What does this mean?
What does that mean?
What is this line saying?
What are they trying to express together?

Just as Nagu was pondering these questions to the point of her eyes almost bleeding, the witch’s door was knocked loudly, startling Nagu in the quiet environment: “Who, who is it!?”

“It’s me, Momoli!” came the muffled voice of a girl outside the door. “I have something to tell you. Come open the door.”

“…Coming.” Nagu put down the slate and walked towards the door. It should be around eight or nine in the evening now, a time when people in the village usually go home to prepare for bed. What could Momoli want at this hour?

This question was perfectly answered before Nagu even opened the door. Momoli, not caring whether the door was open or not, anxiously explained through the door: “Tonight, they killed several big deer to roast right in the village square. Duogaluo asked me to invite you to join us! Hurry up, come out quickly, or my favorite parts will be gone!”

What? A barbecue party?

Nagu opened the door to see Momoli jumping anxiously. As soon as the door opened, Momoli grabbed Nagu’s wrist: “Quick! Let’s go!”

“No… wait, Momoli, I’m not going.” Nagu stood her ground, not letting Momoli pull her. “You go ahead. I’m dealing with something important right now, and I’m not hungry.”

“You’re really not coming?”

“Really not coming.”

“Alright then, I have to go quickly.” With that, Momoli turned and ran off. “You do your thing. If you get hungry, come to the square. I’ll save some meat for you!”

This was just a small episode for Nagu. She closed the door and walked back inside, adding a few pieces of wood to the small fire basin on the wall to light the room. Of course, this also made the dried animal corpses and jars full of insects more visible.

“…”

Nagu forced herself to ignore these things and sat back at the wooden table. She was determined to finish reading half a slate tonight, no matter what!

However, just as she sat down and hadn’t even finished reading two lines, the witch’s door was knocked again… accompanied by Duoagluo’s voice.

“Lali? Lali!”

Oh my god.

Nagu resignedly stood up and walked to the door: “What’s up?”

Duoagaluo, still in the act of knocking, was surprised to see Nagu open the door so quickly: “I just sent Momoli to call you.”

“Yes, I saw her.”

“Then why didn’t you come?”

“I have things to do…”

Duogaluo looked into the house behind Nagu: “The old lady is already asleep?”

“She’s been asleep for a long time.” Nagu stepped aside to make room at the door. “Do you want to come in?”

“What are you doing now?” Duogaluo walked into the house and looked around. The fire basins on the walls were all lit, and the wooden table against the wall was piled with many slates. “Are you looking at these?”

“Yes, I’m learning to read.”

“Learning to read?” Duogaluo raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Have you become braver? When you first came, just seeing the bugs and corpses made you cry, and now you can stay alone at night reading slates?”

“I wasn’t crying…”

“You were.”

“I wasn’t!”

Duogaluo laughed at Nagu’s anxious defense, then walked to the table and carefully looked through the slates. They recorded the birth of the earth and rain, and the mercy of the Mother Goddess. “How much of this do you recognize?”

Basically, she didn’t recognize any of it. Nagu awkwardly walked to Duogaluo’s side. “I just started learning, so…”

“So you don’t recognize much yet.”

“Right…”

“But why do you want to learn to read? The children in the village hate doing this the most. I tried to teach my sister’s kids to read before, and they ended up hating me.” Duogaluo shook his head helplessly at the memory.

It seems that no matter where you are, adults who force children to study will be disliked. This could be considered a law of nature. Nagu sighed while thinking about whether to ask Duogaluo for help. But it didn’t seem like the right time, as Duogaluo would probably need to return to the square. She turned her head to look at Duogaluo, who was reading the slate line by line. The man’s originally resolute and heroic face appeared much softer under the helpless expression and the warm yellow firelight.
‘Dogaro seems to be a pretty good person.’

Nagu had thought this a few times before, but recently, she felt that Duogaluo wasn’t just ‘seemingly’ good but genuinely a good person. So maybe… maybe she could be a bit more demanding and ask Dogaro to teach her a few lines of text now, and he wouldn’t mind?

“Duogaluo…” Thinking this, Nagu hesitated before speaking, “I want to ask you… um, a question.”

“What question?” Duogaluo turned his head to look at Nagu. “Is it about the characters you don’t recognize? Sure, ask away.”

He agreed too quickly; I hadn’t even said what I wanted to ask yet.

Nagu looked at Duogaluo, who naturally sat down at the wooden table, holding the slate and looking at her with an expectant expression. This made Nagu feel very confused. Logically, the one waiting expectantly for answers should be her, but now it seemed to be. But it made sense. Nagu suddenly recalled what Momoli had said about Duogaluo two days ago. ‘Brother loves nagging the most!’

“What’s wrong, not asking?” Duogaluo looked at Nagu, who seemed to be hesitating. “Or is it not about the slate?”

“I-I wanted to ask, is it okay for you not to go back to the square now?” Nagu, feeling guilty, abruptly changed the topic. “Is there some event going on there?”

Duogaluo stared at Nagu thoughtfully for a while until she felt uneasy, and then he spoke, “Honestly, I was thinking earlier that you’re terrible at lying.”

“…”

“Ask away. I know you want to ask about the characters.” Duogaluo gestured for Nagu to sit beside him. “It’s fine if I don’t go to the square. Gongduo and the others caught a few extra does today and are celebrating the birth of a few children. It’s quite boring.”

“I see…” Seeing that Duogaluo really wasn’t interested in going back to the square, Nagu relaxed and sat beside him. “It’s just from here to here. I don’t recognize these. The witch taught me to read them once, but I can’t match them now.”

“Just reading them once isn’t teaching you.” Duogaluo shook his head, then pointed to the first few characters. “This is the name of the Mother Goddess, Tuwa. The rest says her appearance is a blessing of the earth and rain, a supreme glory. The Mother Goddess lifted her hands towards the sun…”

“This group here, these two together mean something related to death, and here…”

While Duogaluo explained the slate, Nagu listened attentively beside him. Although it was still a bit difficult to remember, Duogaluo would occasionally stop to let her look for herself, so it was much better than trying to read alone.

After about an hour, Nagu felt she could fully understand the meaning of nine characters. Having someone teach really made a difference.

“You learn quite fast.” Duogaluo was very satisfied. Nagu was much more obedient than the other noisy children in the village who only knew how to step on bugs and play in the mud. “Let’s stop here for today. Come with me to the square to eat something and rest. I’ll come back to teach you more when I have time.”

“Thank you…!” Nagu looked at Duogaluo gratefully. Getting such thorough teaching was completely unexpected. “But will there still be food left if we go now?”

“They’ll save some for me, let’s go.” Duogaluo stood up and took Nagu’s hand, heading towards the door. “I’m so hungry. I didn’t eat much at noon.”

“Why? Were you busy with something at noon?”

“Making… cages at the sacrificial site.” Speaking of this, Duogaluo’s previously cheerful tone became depressed. “To trap monsters. There was news from Azuran two days ago that they are coming back soon and have caught two live ones.”

At this moment, Nagu suddenly felt a sense of tension in her body, but strangely, it wasn’t her own feeling. When she heard Duogaluo say that Azuran was about to bring back live monsters, she didn’t react much; she just listened to someone narrate the events. However, her body instinctively reacted to Duogaluo’s words.

What’s going on?

The fear gripping her throat grew stronger, and her hands and feet began to tremble uncontrollably. Duogaluo immediately noticed Nagu’s unusual state. He stopped and looked back at her in surprise, “What’s wrong? Why are you shaking?”

“I-I think I’m tired…” Nagu let go of Duogaluo’s hand and started to retreat slowly. “I think I should… I should go back and rest. The square, I…”

Duogaluo looked at Nagu with great concern. Her face suddenly turned ashen, “What’s wrong with you?”

“I…”

“Duogaluo!! Where are you!”

Before Nagu could finish her sentence, Gongduo’s voice came from the road leading to the witch’s place. He sounded very anxious and called out several more times when he didn’t get a response from Duogaluo.

“I’m here!” Duogaluo finally answered, but his eyes didn’t leave Nagu. “What do you need me for!?”

Following the sound, Gongduo quickly found Duogaluo outside the witch’s dark house. He was breathing heavily as if he had sprinted several hundred meters, “They’re back.”

“What came back?” Duogaluo looked at Gongduo inexplicably.

“The Great Chief and the others have returned and are almost at the sacrificial site with the monster!”

Choosing this exact time to return, Duogaluo glanced at Nagu, who still looked uncomfortable. “Sorry, you should go back and rest now. I’ll come to see you after the sacrificial matters are handled.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about me… I’ll be fine after a nap.” After saying this, Nagu hurriedly turned and walked back to the witch’s house. At this moment, she could still vaguely hear Duogaluo’s words.

“I’ll take people to the sacrificial site to check the situation. You go and have the men in the village bring weapons to guard the fence. All women and children should go home and lock the doors.”

“No one is allowed to leave the village until the living monster is dealt with.”

Nagu couldn’t hear the rest of Duogaluo and Gongduo’s conversation. She stumbled back into the house and bolted the door with a wooden latch. After doing this, her despair and tension eased a lot; at least her hands stopped trembling.

Nagu knelt weakly on the ground, leaning against the door. She looked at her hands, feeling utterly confused. Now that she had calmed down, she could guess that the fear just now must have come from the ‘monster’ Duogaluo mentioned, but this fear was clearly not her own. So, does that mean… it was the fear of the original ‘Nagu’ of this body?

What on earth is going on…

Unable to figure out the reason for her body’s abnormality, Nagu herself began to feel afraid. It was like knowing there was a stranger standing behind you, not knowing his purpose, but he just kept standing there, following you. What will she become? Will her consciousness be replaced, just like she replaced Nagu before?

And then, after being replaced, where will she go? Back to her original place? Or… is there no original place for her to return to at all? After all, since she came here, she has completely forgotten her real name, her former residence, and the people she once knew.

She had been consciously ignoring the question of ‘who she really is’ because she knew thinking about it would only make her more desperate. She couldn’t remember anything except knowing that she didn’t belong here. Now that her body was out of control, she had to face this question. Who is she? Who will she become? Even recalling any useful clue would be enough, but the reality is…

She doesn’t know. She has no idea at all.

Nagu buried her head between her knees. She couldn’t tell if her hands trembled because of her fear or ‘Nagu’s’ fear. Tears of unknown origin wet her arms covering her eyes.

At this moment, the only clear thought in the girl’s chaotic mind was that she wanted to see Hamoyin.