Chapter 57: The Woods

“I knew I didn’t need to worry about letting you handle it.” The middle-aged man sitting cross-legged in the upper seat inside the house spoke slowly. He was seated on a pile of rare white animal skins, surrounded by various exquisite earthenware filled with gems and minerals. A whole withered tree was fixed to the wooden wall behind him, adorned with dyed fabrics and painted animal skulls.

Herbs and strings of peacock green ornaments were also placed in the tree hollow in the middle of the withered trunk, filled with dried flowers to repel insects.

The bright and spacious room contained only him and Hamoyin, who was sitting with his head bowed below.

“So, the woman you want, which village is she from?” Azuran fiddled with the various stones and bone fragments spread out in front of him.

“Speaking of which, after killing Gongduo, do you want another woman? You’ve been holding back for so long.”

Hamoyin shook his head. “Let’s not talk about that.”

“Not talk about that?” The man stopped fiddling with the bones and smiled at the monster below him. “Have you suddenly changed your mind and want a different reward?”

“Nothing, as long as you can make me human as soon as possible.”

“Regarding that, I think I might have made some progress. I will prepare the corresponding items for the next sacrifice to the Mother Goddess.” Azuran’s voice was very sincere when he talked about this. “Sorry to keep you waiting for so long, but I think it won’t be long before you become one of us.”

Hamoyin didn’t speak, and Azuran, already accustomed to the monster’s silence, didn’t mind at all. “Has Duogaluo been acting strangely lately? I always feel he might have noticed something. After all, Gongduo is like a close brother to him.”

“He hasn’t noticed anything. Just still holds a grudge against you for the injuries caused by capturing the monster alive.” Hamoyin lied with a calm voice. “Gongduo’s interactions with Duogaluo have been normal recently.”

“Having grievances is natural. It’s best if he never finds out about Gongduo.” Azuran laughed twice and resumed fiddling with his stones. “Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to kill my brother from the same mother, which would be very disrespectful to the Mother Goddess.”

“By the way, has the old witch’s body been sent back to the Mother Goddess?” The death of a witch in the tribe was a major event. They needed to hold a farewell ceremony by the Mother Goddess to let the witch return to the embrace of the land. “Has Duogaluo arranged the time for the ceremony?”

“I don’t know.”

“Alright, someone should inform me later.” Azuran waved his hand at Hamoyin. “You can go back now. By the way, which woman do you want? I can still make one or two of them obey by force.”

Azuran naturally knew that no sane woman would follow Hamoyin without crying or making a fuss, so he initially planned to control one with drugs and give her to Hamoyin. If Hamoyin didn’t want her, he would be relieved. “I’ll only give you this chance.”

Hamoyin originally wanted to refuse directly, but he thought that suddenly changing his mind might make Azuran suspicious, given how many thoughts this man had. So Hamoyin could only pretend to hesitate. “I haven’t decided who I want.”

“I see. Then you can take your time to think about it.” Azuran didn’t care much. “Let’s talk after dealing with Gongduo.”

“Okay.”

…

…

After leaving the chief’s house, Hamoyin didn’t stay in the main village. He walked straight along a less crowded road, taking with him a bent-horned ram tied behind a house. He needed to reach Duogaluo’s place from Azuran’s territory before nightfall, and running alone wouldn’t be fast enough.

Hamoyin adjusted the wooden bow on his back and mounted the nearly human-height bent-horned sheep. The ram initially resisted, seeing that it wasn’t its owner taking it away, constantly kicking and retreating. But after Hamoyin firmly pulled the reins and locked eyes with the ram using his golden vertical pupils, the restless sheep calmed down, even trembling slightly.

After mounting the ram, Hamoyin patted its neck and took a few fruits from the pouch at his waist, stuffing them into the ram’s mouth as a gesture of appeasement.

Indeed, he was different from Nagu. As the ram began to run toward the dense forest obediently, Hamoyin felt a sense of loss. He always carried the aura of a predator, and an ordinary human could never tame an animal with just a stare.

Although Hamoyin knew that Nagu didn’t mind these unique traits of his, it was because she had lost her memory and couldn’t recall her past experiences. Even if Nagu had said she wouldn’t hate him if she remembered… how could that be certain?

She said that because she didn’t know anything. Now, Duogaluo was always around Nagu, and his lies had been exposed. What if she… really changed her mind and agreed to Duogaluo because of this? What if she remembered her past?

She would stay in the human village, be with a human man, and have human children.

A perfectly normal thing.

The more Hamoyin thought about it, the more suffocated he felt. He thought that if Nagu no longer wanted to go with him, he would still stay in human territory as long as he could see her or —

Or he could take her to a place far from humans, where she would have to rely on him alone. There would be no Duogaluo or anyone else. Even if she remembered her past, it wouldn’t matter. Given enough time, she would get used to it. At this moment, the ram suddenly lifted its front hooves to jump over a high tree root protruding from the soil. Hamoyin bent down to avoid the hanging vines but still had a few soft leaves brush against his cheeks and ears.

Hamoyin closed his eyes, imagining that the soft, ticklish touch came from Nagu’s fingertips. She would call his name with a voice full of affection and warmth, as if seeing him or calling his name was enough to make her happy.

Those strange thoughts naturally disappeared. He couldn’t do anything to make Nagu sad, so even if she wanted to stay in human territory, it didn’t matter as long as she was happy.

She was such a gentle person, and this gentleness made Hamoyin feel a sense of crisis. Ever since he realized he couldn’t leave Nagu, he had been in constant fear. He was afraid that Nagu would remember her past, afraid that she would fall for Duogaluo, worried that she would realize that a human village was where she should be, not with a monster like him.

These worries prompted him to pretend to cooperate with Azuran. He just wanted to take Nagu away as soon as possible before she changed her mind; the sooner, the better.

Moreover, for some reason, he had been particularly uneasy since last night. Now, he just wanted to see Duogaluo and Nagu as soon as possible.

But the sun was just turning red when he reached the agreed location. This was a lake about half a day’s journey from the water sacrificial site, so Duogaluo and Nagu should have already set off. After riding the ram around the lake once, Hamoyin finally stopped. He tied the ram to a low bush with plenty of tender leaves and then sat on a nearby rock, staring blankly. He watched as the orange-red surface of the lake gradually darkened, and finally, tiny glowing lights began to float on the black lake under the cover of night.

After the ram with bent hooves knelt down and began to doze off, Hamoyin heard footsteps not far away. He stood up and looked towards the southern bushes. Sure enough, a tall man emerged from there, but he was alone.

“How long have you been here?” Duogaluo asked, looking at Hamoyin, who was walking towards him. Because it was night, he couldn’t see the path clearly and had to stand still.

“Where is Nagu?”

As expected, he asked this right away. Duogaluo didn’t intend to lie to Hamoyin, but he first handed a bottle to Hamoyin. “Take this. It’s a medicine that can regrow limbs. I got it from the sacrificial site today.”

Hamoyin didn’t take the bottle. “Where is Nagu?”

“…Just take it first.” Duogaluo anxiously shoved the bottle into Hamoyin’s arms. “It’s not that I didn’t let Nagu come, but something strange happened to her.”

Hamoyin’s inner unease was confirmed. He instinctively tightened his grip on the bottle. “I’m going to find her.”

He turned to walk towards the dozing ram, but Duogaluo stopped him after a few steps. “Wait, listen to me first.”

Hamoyin looked at Duogaluo without any expression.

“Yesterday, after we dealt with the witch, Nagu came home with me because she was afraid to stay alone in the old witch’s house.” Duogaluo tried not to mind the murderous look in Hamoyin’s eyes. After all, he probably wouldn’t really act on it.

“Then she started acting strange. At first, I thought she was poisoned because she kept sweating and talking nonsense. In the end, she fainted.”

“Move.” Upon hearing that Nagu had fainted, Hamoyin raised his hand to push Duogaluo aside. He needed to go to the village to find someone.

“Listen to me!” Duogaluo grabbed Hamoyin’s arm. “Nagu woke up this morning. I had the witch check on her, and she said Nagu was fine, but I still felt something strange had happened.”

“I told her to come to the lake to meet you tonight, but she cried and refused to come no matter how I persuaded her.”

Hamoyin froze.

Seeing his reaction, Duogaluo let go of his hand. “Isn’t it strange? I feel like she might have been poisoned. Why wouldn’t she want to see you?”

“Did Nagu say anything else?” Actually, that possibility had already crossed Hamoyin’s mind, but he didn’t want to face it. She had said she wouldn’t hate him even if she remembered…

“Before she fainted last night, she told me to tell you that she likes you very much and would never hate you,” Duogaluo repeated her words. “Then she pulled this off.” He took out a string of scales from a small pocket. “You gave this to her, right? She pulled it off her hair and gave it to me, telling me not to return it to her. But she also said she would come to get it from me when she came back. I don’t really understand what she meant…”

Hamoyin stared blankly at the string of scales in Duogaluo’s hand, the rope still entangled with many strands of hair, probably broken off during the forceful pull. “What else?”

“She also said she wanted to stay.” Duogaluo felt guilty saying this to Hamoyin but decided not to hide it. “Stay in the human village. When I asked her today, she said the same thing.”

Duogaluo didn’t know how to explain Nagu’s strange change. “Isn’t it strange? I thought she would still want to follow you.”

“Not strange.”

“?”

Duogaluo looked at Hamoyin, who took the ornament. His face looked ashen. “Not strange? Why not? She suddenly… changed so much.”

“She just regained her memory, that’s all. It’s normal.” The previous unease was indeed about this. Hamoyin tightly clenched his scales, his knuckles turning white. Then he bypassed Duogaluo and quickly walked towards the bush where the ram was tied.

“Wait, what do you mean by regaining her memory?” Duogaluo chased after Hamoyin. “Memory? Nagu had amnesia before?”

If that’s the case, then Nagu’s abnormal behavior was indeed explained. Remembering her past and not wanting to follow Hamoyin was perfectly normal. Duogaluo watched as Hamoyin mounted the ram with bent hooves. “Where are you going now, to the village?”

“No.”

“Then where are you going?”

“Back to the treehouse.” Hamoyin pulled the reins, not looking at Duogaluo standing beside him. “You take care of her from now on.”

With that, he left Duogaluo and disappeared into the forest.