Chapter 41: Utility

“Lali! Where are you going?”

“Lali!”

“Hey, Lali!!”

Nagu, who had been called three times, suddenly snapped out of her thoughts and realized that ‘Lali’ referred to herself. She stopped and turned to look at Momoli, who was running towards her: “Ah, I’m going to find the chief.”

“I called you so many times, didn’t you hear?” Behind Momoli were two or three little boys from the village, all naked except for some white paint on their faces. “Did the witch pass her bad ears to you?”

“No, I was thinking about something.” Nagu felt she didn’t have time to chat with Momoli and planned to leave quickly. “The appointment with the chief is coming up, so I have to go…”

“We’ll go with you. It’s been so boring these days with nothing to play, and the adults won’t let us leave the village.” Momoli didn’t intend to let Nagu go. She and the little boys surrounded Nagu. “Let’s go catch bugs by the pond!”

Catching bugs couldn’t be called playing; it was torture for both her and the bugs. Nagu shook her head: “I’ll go by myself. You guys find someone else to play with.”

“No way—” Momoli and the boys dragged out their voices in refusal. “We want to play with you!”

Nagu regretted not taking another path earlier. The kids in front of her clearly had no intention of letting her leave: “I’m not going to play. I’m going to get something important for the witch. After that, I have to go back immediately…”

“You haven’t come to see me lately.” Momoli seemed dissatisfied with Nagu being as busy as the adults recently. “So when will the monster problem be solved? It’s so annoying.”

That might take a while, especially since Gongduo was preparing to rebel. Nagu started to slowly back away: “You guys go play. Be careful by the pond.”

“No!”

“We want to go find Duogaluo with you!”

“Yes!”

The naked little boys suddenly jumped and ran ahead, and Momoli also pulled Nagu along: “Come on, let us go with you. It’s really boring!”

“Alright…” On second thought, Duogaluo would probably chase these noisy kids away when he saw them, so she shouldn’t waste time. She still had to go back and prepare the medicine for Hamoyin this afternoon.

The group walked along the stone path, heading upwards. Few people were outside in the village, and the doors and windows of the houses were closed, making the place look dead under the gray sky. No wonder Momoli and the others felt bored. Usually, some idle adults would play games with the kids in the open space or take the older children outside the village to practice hunting skills. But now, with such a big incident, it was naturally impossible to allow them to leave the village. Besides, there seemed to be a live monster locked up at the sacrificial site.

“What have you been doing these days?” Momoli shook Nagu’s hand. “You rarely come to play with us. By the way, did you know that Haina has come of age? Am I almost there, too?”

Who is Haina? Nagu squinted and thought vaguely, then remembered that Haina seemed to be one of Momoli’s older sisters: “Oh… that’s good. You should be coming of age soon, too.”

“Right! These days, my mom has been making me think carefully about which boy to choose. I don’t want to choose someone my age.”

“Haha…” Nagu laughed perfunctorily. Usually, she might chat with Momoli, but now she really didn’t have the energy. “Just choose someone you like.”

“I like… I like Bola and Chachake. Actually, Jike is not bad either! But for the first time, I want to choose Wa and try Chachake later.”

“That’s good, that’s good.”

“Speaking of which, what about you? You seem about the same age as me, so you should be close too, right? Who do you want to choose? Duogaluo?” Momoli said thoughtfully. “The girls who have chosen Duogaluo said he wasn’t very attentive, so Wa is better!”

Nagu laughed dryly: “I’ll see when the time comes.”

Momoli hummed a few times: “Why don’t you care about this at all? I even told you I like Wa!”

“It’s not that, I just…” But before Nagu could finish, she was interrupted by the boys who had run ahead. They were running back quickly, waving at Momoli and Nagu, mouthing something silently. Nagu couldn’t understand, but Momoli immediately got it.

“Forget it, Lali. We won’t go to find Duogaluo with you.” She let go of Nagu’s hand and backed away. “The chief and other leaders are at Duogaluo’s house!”

“W-what?”

Nagu watched the kids run away in a swarm, then looked in horror at Duogaluo’s house not far ahead. The boys might have peeked through the window and saw Azuran and others inside.

Azuran… She had always heard his name but had never seen him in person. What would he look like? A sturdy, bearded man like Gongduo or a short, fat guy?

But it wouldn’t be appropriate to go there now; it would be better to wait outside… Thinking this, Nagu unconsciously walked lightly toward Duogaluo’s house. She stood by the window that the kids had pried open a crack and peeked inside. A crowd of people sat around an unlit fire pit. Two young witches were rolling colorful stones on the ground, seemingly performing some ritual. Duogaluo and two other men were whispering.

Gongduo was also inside. Seeing his big beard made Nagu nervous. She looked around several times but couldn’t be sure who Azuran was. The ritual didn’t last long. After the witches cleaned up the stones, they left the house.

“So it seems we need to resolve the sacrificial matter quickly. Our village has three healthy young people to participate. What about you, Duogaluo? Are you coming yourself this time or giving the spot to someone else?”

“I’ll come myself,” Duogaluo answered after a moment of silence. “But besides that, our village needs a large amount of medicine for treating severed limbs.”

There was a moment of silence in the room. Everyone knew Duogaluo’s request was due to Azuran’s previous mistake. Besides those who died, many strong men in Duogaluo’s village lost arms and hands while stopping the monster from escaping.

“Okay.” The man sitting opposite Duogaluo broke the silence. Nagu noticed that although he looked older, he somewhat resembled Duogaluo.

“But in return, our village hasn’t prepared enough sacrifices to get the medicine,” Duogaluo spoke while Gongduo, kneeling behind him, kept his head down. “So I hope the chief can…”

“I understand. I’ll prepare the necessary amount.”

Azuran nodded, then stood up: “The witches have calculated the right time. In two days, we’ll take the participants to the water sacrificial site. The remaining monster is still enough for us to share.”

“Now, let’s go back and prepare.”

After speaking, everyone in the house stood up. Seeing this, Nagu immediately hid to the side of the house, pressing herself against the wall and crouching in the corner, listening to the footsteps at the door. She had thought Azuran would be some kind of vicious character, but he just looked like an older version of Duogaluo, and he seemed pretty reasonable when he spoke.

No, she couldn’t be deceived by appearances. Often, those who speak logically and coherently are the most dangerous deceivers.

Nagu waited until there was no more noise at the door before cautiously moving to the front of the house and knocking on the door. Soon, Duogaluo’s flat voice came from inside: “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Na… Lali.”

There was a rattling sound inside, and then the door opened. Duogaluo, looking tired but still smiling, appeared before Nagu: “I thought you would come later. We just finished the prophecy ritual.”

“Come in.” Duogaluo stepped aside to let her in. “Besides giving you the medicine, I have something else to tell you.”

Nagu obediently walked into the house: “What is it?”

“It’s about Hamoyin. You said his tail wound still hurts, and using painkillers all the time isn’t a long-term solution.” Duogaluo closed the door and walked inside, pointing to a few fur mats on the ground, indicating Nagu to sit down. “It needs to be completely healed.”

“Completely healed?” Nagu sat down on the fur mat. “Is there a way to heal it?”

“Of course there is.” Duogaluo sat opposite Nagu. “But I need you to get something for me.”

“What is it? I’ll get it for you!”

“…Hamoyin’s scales.”

Nagu’s previously enthusiastic attitude suddenly cooled. She looked at Duogaluo with a stiff expression: “What do you mean?”

“I need his scales. Although I would prefer bones, that’s impossible.” Duogaluo wasn’t surprised by the girl’s reluctant reaction. “I just told Azuran that I need medicine for treating severed limbs. Didn’t you overhear?”

“What, you knew I was eavesdropping outside the window?” Nagu looked away awkwardly. “I didn’t hear clearly…”

Duogaluo smiled: “Then let me discuss it with you properly now. The way I thought of to heal Hamoyin completely is to let his tail grow back.”

“Of course, I think this won’t fully make up for the harm caused by Azuran’s lies… but at least if the wound stops hurting, his daily life will be more comfortable.”

“…”

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Nagu snapped out of her shock and crawled forward excitedly, stopping in front of Duogaluo: “You, you said… cough, cough!!”

She choked on her saliva because she was too excited.

“Take it easy.” Duogaluo patted Nagu’s back to help her catch her breath.

“Really… it can really grow back?” Nagu, having caught her breath, grabbed Duogaluo’s arm. “Really??”

“Of course it’s true.” Duogaluo extended his hand in front of Nagu. “This hand of mine grew back when I was a child.”

“…” Nagu had never looked closely at Duogaluo’s hand before. Now, she noticed the skin on his right palm was lighter than on his wrist. “So the thing you said you needed to prepare last night to discuss with me was this?”

Duogaluo nodded: “But in return, obtaining the medicine that can regenerate limbs during the ritual requires one’s own flesh and blood as… a guide. I was lucky back then, just changing teeth, so I didn’t have to pull out the nails of my other hand.”

“So you need Hamoyin’s scales as a guide? Only then can the medicine make his tail grow back?”

“Yes.”

“Hair or something like that won’t work?”

“Hair can work, but it’s not very effective, not meaningful.”

Nagu thought for a moment: “The witch has Hamoyin’s tail bones… would that work?”

“If the tail bones are missing, it will be noticed. The old woman probably counts them every day, as per Azuran’s instructions.”

According to Azuran, Hamoyin’s tail bones were ‘reserves,’ so the witch kept and managed them.

“Then, what about the scales that the witch from Azuran’s side pulled out before? Can we secretly use one of those?”

Duogaluo shook his head: “If that were possible, I wouldn’t be sitting here discussing it with you.”

Seeing the girl in front of him go from excitement to disappointment was hard to watch. Duogaluo sighed: “About five scales will do, though I’d prefer more…”

“Ah!!”

Duogaluo was startled by Nagu’s sudden shout: “What??”

“I can give you twenty-three scales! They just don’t look very good. Is that okay?” She remembered that she had hidden the diseased scales that were pulled out at Hamoin’s house! Hamoyin probably hadn’t thrown them away, so she just needed to return and find them.

“Twenty-three scales?”

“Yes, twenty-three.”

“As long as they’re Hamoyin’s scales, that’s fine. You don’t need to pull out that many. Five will be enough. Can you get them to me by tomorrow night?” Duogaluo thought to himself that Nagu was quite ruthless, pulling out twenty-three scales at once. Hamoyin must have been in a lot of pain.

“I can!” Unaware of the misunderstanding, Nagu was still very happy. “I’ll discuss it with Hamoyin when I get back!”