Chapter 37: Red Leaf Tribe

"Redwood tree branches — our tribe also uses them as seasoning, but we usually wash and soak them in running water for a long time to reduce the toxins before using them.

Even so, poisoning still occurs occasionally; when someone is poisoned by redwood, their senses are paralyzed starting with taste, and they gradually lose the ability to move..."

At this point Lidriel stopped, because the boy behind her could still walk and fly, and aside from a somewhat bitter expression on his face, he didn't seem to show any symptoms of redwood poisoning.

"And our tribe's method for curing this poison is actually to pick the green leaves of the redwood tree before they grow and turn red, grind them up, and make them into juice for detoxification."

As she spoke, the Red Leaf Tribe's Clan Chief handed over the ground greenish leaf juice she held, not forgetting to add beforehand: "It's very effective against redwood poison, but I don't know if it will work for the bitterness in your mouth."

Broly took the leaf water; as long as it could lessen the bitter taste in his mouth a little, he didn't care what he was drinking, and downed it in one gulp.

After drinking, Broly smacked his lips twice, and the bitterness in his mouth really had lessened considerably; his eyes brightened.

"Can I have another cup?"

"Of course, but can you tell me about how you saved my daughter?"

Lidriel took the clay cup and began inquiring of Broly; he wanted to get answers from the boy who had saved his daughter.

Hearing this, Broly became somewhat troubled; Lidriel's daughter was just someone he had saved incidentally — there were 71 children he had saved incidentally like this.

Asked to suddenly describe the specific circumstances of the rescue, Broly couldn't recall at all; he could only say: "There was some kind of prey that big chasing her from behind, then I went up and kicked like this, and the thing chasing Rivarina went 'uwah' and fell down."

Lidriel: "..."

Who could tell him what kind of prey "some kind of prey" actually was, and what was with this boy lifting his leg to demonstrate a kicking motion beside him while making strange sound effects, then acting out sticking out his tongue, tilting his head, and collapsing on the ground — was that supposed to represent the dangerous prey chasing his daughter being killed by him? The general plot, Lidriel as a clan chief living in the mangrove forest could still make out, but this abstract yet vivid gesticulating description felt even less impressive than his own daughter's simple verbal account.

"Thank you for saving my daughter; you will be a friend of our Red Leaf Tribe, and for friends, our tribe always offers enthusiastic hospitality."

After curing Broly's mouth-bitterness poison, Clan Chief Lidriel adopted the attitude of treating a benefactor, having the tribe prepare a great deal of food to entertain Broly and the other children.

This meal was far tastier than when they roasted meat in the forest themselves, because there were many more seasonings — importantly, salt.

"Everyone eat your fill; if it's not enough we can make more."

"What's gotten into the Clan Chief?"

"He's happy, of course — his missing daughter has returned."

"You mean Rivarina? Wasn't she dead?"

"She didn't die; word is she was captured by Imperial slave traders and sold into the Giant Tree Forest to the north, but someone helped her escape from there and she ran back."

"So these children are the ones who helped her?"

"Mm."

"No wonder..."

The Red Leaf Tribe people, through private discussion, understood why the Clan Chief was using tribe food to entertain outsiders.

Though some grumbled a couple of sentences, in the end no one said anything strange openly; repaying kindness received — the people here all acknowledged this principle more or less.

A night passed without incident; the children slept soundly on the vine-covered clearing the Red Leaf Tribe had arranged for them.

The next morning upon waking, the tribe had prepared food for them again.

The children were a bit bewildered; they discovered they and the others seemed to have nothing they needed to do.

Unconsciously, they looked toward Broly.

"No labor, no reward; we'll help hunt too."

It was called hunting, but in reality it was just fishing; only the spots in this mangrove forest where fish easily gather had all been occupied by the Red Leaf Tribe people.

Although they didn't openly reject them, they also made it inconvenient for this group of outsiders to catch fish near the fish ponds they had laboriously built.

Fortunately, when they came yesterday, Broly had brought them from another mangrove forest; the waters there had no people.

Rivarina ran over to fish with them; no need to travel to other places, and the whole day passed leisurely.

Originally they thought the outsiders were a bunch of freeloaders, but unexpectedly in the evening they brought back a pile of catches; some Red Leaf Tribe people acknowledged this group of outsider children, but some thought the outsiders had seized their tribe's mangrove forest resources and muttered complaints.

"Our fishing spot isn't your mangrove forest — it's the mangrove forest on this side that Broly-san flew us to; we didn't steal your fish."

"Bragging — how would a mangrove forest fly? You just stole our tribe's fish."

Because of this, a child got into an argument with children inside the Red Leaf Tribe, and it even escalated into a brawl.

The Red Leaf Tribe children were fierce and their fighting ability wasn't weak, but the children who came out of the Gifnora Sea Tree Forest were assassin seedlings — their combat ability was even more formidable, and they won with a slight advantage.

The Red Leaf Tribe adults found it somewhat shameful and wanted to intervene, but were stopped by the Clan Chief. "Children's matters belong to children; what does it count as if adults meddle?"

What can serve as communication isn't only words but also fists and feet; the group of children who came with his daughter were quite good, and Lidriel had the intention of absorbing them into his own tribe.

And the best way to absorb them was to let the children fight until they blended together, naturally completing the process of accepting each other.

As Lidriel predicted, the initial rejection was a natural phenomenon; after the children fought and blended, they gradually accepted playing together with the outsider children.

And the biggest catalyst in all this was actually related to Broly flying into the Gifnora Sea Tree Forest, hunting some Danger Beasts, and carrying them back.

The Red Leaf Tribe children, upon witnessing this scene with their own eyes, were directly assimilated by the outsider children.

Thinking that Rivarina could worship such a powerful big brother, they actively expressed that they also wanted to worship a powerful big brother.

With a shared object of worship, everyone had a common language, and friction naturally decreased.

One sentence: as long as you think Big Bro is badass and are willing to cheer for Big Bro together with us, then we're the best of friends.

In less than five days since arriving at the Red Leaf Tribe, the children under ten were playing together.

From originally "this is our tribe's (Big Bro's) mangrove forest, you outsiders (tribe) can't fish here" to "this is our mangrove forest, you can come fish freely, even compete to see which side catches more fish" — such a huge transformation occurred.

And the tribe children's attitude also influenced the adults; more importantly, with an additional connected mangrove forest, the tribe's daily catch increased.

"Broly, I challenge you!"

Just as this trend of outsider children integrating into the tribe was underway, Rivarina's own older brother Riparipu suddenly issued a challenge to Broly.

The reason was that Riparipu couldn't stand being gradually called "Second Bro" by people in the tribe.

Originally, whether it was his younger sister or other children in the tribe, they would all affectionately call him "Ripu Big Bro" when they met him, but after Broly came to the tribe, he was demoted.

Now, Riparipu wanted to use strength to reclaim his status as the true Big Bro in the hearts of his younger sister and the tribe children.

"Broly, I know you're powerful, so I won't hold back just because you're younger than me; I'll go all out, and let everyone know who the real Big Bro of the Red Leaf Tribe is."

This is a status struggle among children; Riparipu is fifteen and not yet an adult, but still counts as being on the edge of childhood.

"Forget it, Riparipu Second Brother, you haven't even Hunted a Danger Beast, how can you have the nerve to compete with Broly-san?"

The children spoke words that struck at confidence, and the ones saying this were mostly children born within the tribe.

"Less nonsense, I haven't Hunted a Danger Beast, that's only because there are few Danger Beasts appearing near our Mangrove Forest.

When it comes to strength, me, who can collect pearls from the mouths of over twenty freshwater clams in the Deep Water Zone in one shot, definitely won't lose to anyone."

The youth lay prone on the wooden stump, intending to use arm wrestling to decide a win/loss with Broly.

Then, best of three, he unexpectedly lost all of them.

"Big strength doesn't count for anything, let's compare speed again, but no flying."

Comparing speed, restricting Broly's flight, but Broly still easily ran and won against him.

"Let's compare lung capacity."

Riparipu buried his face in the water, held his breath for thirty minutes in one shot, only raising his head when he truly couldn't hold it anymore.

"How about it, my lung capacity……"

"Broly-san hasn't come up yet."

"Never mind Broly-san, even Chitong and Heitong over there are still holding their breath."

In the subsequent contests, Riparipu lost every battle, and even some of the little kids who joined in to compete midway performed better than him.

"I lost, Big Brother!"

After a day of contests, Riparipu failed to reclaim his status as big brother, instead willingly acknowledging a boy younger than himself as big brother.

It was also on this day that Broly, through various contests that seemed like games to him, muddleheadedly became the sole big brother in the hearts of the Red Leaf Tribe's children big and small.

Of course, Broly didn't care about big brother or not; the experience of playing games together with everyone was what made him feel happy.

The happiness values on Chitong and Heitong also rose quite a lot during the contest games; pity that after so many days, Broly still hasn't encountered another wife who can be recognized by the Crystal Palace.

(Chapter End)