Time Limit

"Here."

Akame chewed on the grilled meat. Before she could swallow her first bite, she suddenly spit it out, then snatched the skewer from her younger sister's hand and handed both skewers, which had only just touched their mouths, to the boy beside them.

"Aren't you eating?"

Broly looked puzzled.

"We'll eat, but you eat first."

"I still have plenty here."

On the large leaf in front of Broly lay many first bites of meat that others had given him.

"We want to acknowledge you as our Big Brother too."

Akame spoke earnestly. Life had been too difficult, wandering around with her younger sister. She wanted someone she could rely on as well.

Clearly, she had heard what Little Fatty had said about acknowledging a Big Brother nearby. After thinking it over carefully, just before the meat entered her stomach, Akame's reason overcame the instinctive hunger in her belly. She chose to give Broly the first bite she had not yet swallowed, along with Kurome's portion.

Kurome's Happiness Value is decreasing.

"You're already my best friends. You don't need to give me your meat..."

Akame's Happiness Value is decreasing.

Kurome's Happiness Value is increasing.

Broly paused, then handed over the grilled meat he was eating. "How about this? I'll eat your meat, and you eat mine. We'll trade and eat together."

Akame's Happiness Value is increasing.

Kurome's Happiness Value is increasing.

Akame agreed. As though forming some inexplicable pact, she exchanged grilled meat with Broly.

Not caring much that the grilled meat had the boy's saliva on it, Akame began gnawing on the chunk of meat.

Seeing the grilled meat return, Kurome brightened up too. Like a little squirrel, she gripped both ends of the skewer and gnawed away with crunching sounds.

Though the sisters ate differently, they ate at roughly the same pace—both very quickly.

Before long, they had cleaned the large skewers of meat.

They hugged their knees and waited for fresh skewers by the campfire to finish cooking.

"Why don't you eat mine first?"

Broly said. He actually ate faster than both of them combined.

But he had too much meat on his side, and people kept bringing him new grilled skewers.

"How could we accept that?"

Akame was rather reserved. Two minutes later...

"Who grilled this meat? It's so good. It has a sweet taste."

"I grilled it. Before grilling it, I soaked the meat in flower nectar for a while."

Tsukushi raised her hand. Before her family had been killed by Bandits, she had often watched her Mother prepare meat. She was one of the few girls who had picked up some cooking skills before becoming a wandering child.

"Did I do something wrong?"

She asked worriedly.

"No, you're Nan Ta Tian!"

Hearing that her meat was delicious, Broly directly bit off the portion of grilled meat Akame had not finished.

That flavor, which stood out from all the other grilled meat, made new information appear in his mind.

"What is Nan Ta Tian?"

Before Tsukushi could figure it out, the boy who rushed over stuffed a pile of grilled skewers into her hands.

"Let's trade!"

In exchange, Broly took her grilled meat.

The BBQ continued until late at night. The other children had long since eaten their fill.

But Broly was not full. He finished all the remaining Ingredients by himself.

Two years. He had not eaten like this in two years.

"We'll rest here tonight, but this place is dangerous. We'll take turns..."

Before Nahash could finish saying they should take turns keeping watch, Broly, full and satisfied, aimed at a giant tree in the distance and fired an Energy Blast.

Jiffonora Sea Tree Forest was called a Sea Tree Forest because its trees were countless and all extraordinarily tall.

Based on Broly's experience living like a caveman atop a mountain on Vampa, staying somewhere higher could avoid many dangers.

The dense canopy was annihilated by the Energy Blast. Broly returned to the ground and told everyone, "You can sleep up there with me."

Very good, very powerful. This Big Brother was extremely reliable and had directly solved their sleeping arrangements.

Of course, the tree was not necessarily safe either. But compared to the rustling sounds constantly rising from beneath the trees and the deep beast eyes occasionally visible in the distance, it was far safer.

"It's so high. I'm not confident I can climb up there."

However, the terrifying height of the giant tree whose canopy had been blasted away made some children with poor climbing skills hesitate.

"Can't you fly?"

Broly scratched his head.

"You say that as if people being able to fly is normal!"

No one spoke, yet it was as if they had all voiced the Complained in their hearts together.

"Fine, I'll take you up."

Seeing everyone's reaction, Broly finally remembered that people from other worlds usually could not fly.

After more than two years of using Qi to fly on Vampa, he had flown for so long that his brain had gotten a little flight-addled. Every day, all he thought about was speeding up, speeding up, and speeding up again.

He casually pulled down two sturdy vines for everyone to hold onto. Broly made four trips up and down before bringing all seventy-three children up the tree.

The giant tree's cross-section was broad. Though not very level, its core was surprisingly soft, almost like a mattress.

Without any torches, the moon in the sky provided enough light from the tallest tree nearby.

After thinking for a moment, Broly plucked some large leaves from a neighboring tree and tossed them to the children of his External Wives to use as blankets.

A quiet night was impossible. These children had suffered plenty of torment under the Slave Traders.

Before becoming merchandise to be sold, they had all come from different backgrounds. Some had been sold to Slave Traders by their parents, some had become orphans through accidents and wandered around begging, while others had been abducted.

The sobbing from the tree, along with the occasional sounds of relatives comforting one another, kept Broly awake. He did not really understand the circumstances of these peers around his age, but they all seemed to want a home or to go home.

So this did not count as home?

Broly thought, but no one gave him an answer.

He thought for a while but could not reach any conclusion.

So Broly simply turned his attention to the Crystal Palace.

The amount of time he could stay in this world after this crossing was...

"62 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes, and 22 seconds?"

"Eh? Why is it so much?"

Notice: Because this world does not possess a World Will that subjectively rejects outsiders, this Crystal Palace does not need to expend additional Space-Time Energy to counteract it.

Note: Because each world has a different passive rejection force, the Time Limit one can remain in an Other World differs after traveling to different worlds. However, the more Space-Time Energy available, the longer one can remain.

Being able to stay in this world longer was very good news. Satisfied, Broly fell asleep.

The next morning, Broly was awakened by a commotion. An early-rising avian Danger Beast had discovered them in the tree.

Avian Danger Beasts did not judge danger by smell, so it launched an attack on them. Fortunately, Nahash, who slept lightly, spotted it in advance and scared off the not particularly large avian Danger Beast with a shout, while also waking the other children sleeping in the tree.

By the time Broly got up, some of the more capable children were already tangling with the large bird that had landed on the tree.

One of them was Losang, the Little Fatty who had talked about acknowledging a Big Brother the previous night. He was sturdy and strong, so he was on the front line, but he was also unlucky enough to be targeted by the bird first.

"Losang!"

The large bird grabbed him in one claw. He braced himself with both hands and feet while the children who had only met him last night shouted his name.

Some children rushed forward to help, but the Small Knives in their hands could not Breach the thick layer of feathers covering the avian Danger Beast.

As for stabbing its claws, the layered keratin on those bird claws was as hard as thick wood. With the children's strength, they could only pierce the surface and could not drive their blades any deeper.

Broly walked over with a yawn, feeling that this new world was quite nice. Food had Approached him the moment he woke up.

"Move aside. I'm about to show off!"

Casually blurting out the words that suddenly Appeared in his mind, Broly walked before the large bird as the other children moved aside.

The bird watched him approach. It had just been using Little Fatty beneath its claws as bait, intending to peck at the children who came to rescue him. This time was no different.

But Broly moved faster. He grabbed its claw in one motion and, as an almost human-like expression of What's that supposed to do? appeared in its large eyes, lifted it up.

Broly began swinging it, slamming the large bird against the cross-sections of the surrounding giant trees with loud smacks.

After only two or three swings, the large bird twitched and became a dead bird.

"We'll eat it for breakfast."

Pointing at the dead bird, Broly spoke to the children around him, and they cheered.

Although they had already witnessed Broly hunting Danger Beasts yesterday, seeing it again today still filled them with admiration for him.

One look was enough to tell them that if they followed such an impressive Big Brother, they would definitely never go hungry again.