The Great Chieftain's Past

Shuma carried his kitchen utensils and the astonishingly large pot containing Buggy and his companion, who had been brought in under the guise of "ingredients," as he walked along the path toward the back mountain.

Buggy tucked the island map back into his pouch. He never expected that a few words from him would have such an incredible effect; the old woman's temperament had shifted so abruptly that she seemed like a completely different person. It was truly bizarre.

Buggy asked, "Shuma, what is the deal with your Great Chief?"

Having narrowly escaped death and feeling as though his life had been extended, Mohji leaned against the large pot and glanced back at the receding village, exhaling with lingering fear. "She looked like she was ready to eat people just a moment ago, and then she suddenly turned into a neighborly old granny... though a neighborly old granny who still wants to eat people."

Shuma walked along the mountain path, leaving footprints with every step, and revealed without hesitation, "It's because the Great Chief has a quirk: whenever she hears someone praise her, she accepts their requests without any reason."

"So that's it. No wonder her attitude became so ambiguous earlier..." Buggy realized, muttering to himself, "What a strange weakness."

"Also, I heard from the others that when the Great Chief was young, she went out to explore the outside world. But after she returned, her temper changed completely. Her former longing for the outside turned into hatred. Once she became the Great Chief, she forbade the tribespeople from leaving. It seems like she was deceived and harmed out there, which is why she turned into this." Shuma finished speaking, his body suddenly stiffening, his expression turning panicked. "It's over. If the Great Chief finds out I blabbed about this, I'm dead. Buggy, Mohji-ingredient, you two better not say it was me."

Mohji said weakly, "Yes, yes, yes. And also... my name is Mohji."

Listening to the little story Shuma told, Buggy pondered with interest. "Deceived and harmed... No wonder she got so agitated when Shuma mentioned going to the outside world earlier. But what kind of deception and harm could it be..."

He silently filled in the blanks: A lonely young girl drifting at sea, luckily rescued by a fisherman on an island. The fisherman saw the girl's beauty and was struck by her appearance, praising and complimenting her sincerely. The girl, lost in the fisherman's flattery and exaggeration, developed unprecedented feelings for him. After spending days together and listening to his sweet talk, she finally gave herself to him. However, she later discovered that the fisherman already had a wife, and so she transformed from a submissive wife into the mistress hindering the fisherman's marriage.

Wait... Buggy's mind conjured up the old woman's withered face and two particularly deformed yellow teeth. A chill immediately ran down his spine, and all the images in his imagination shattered instantly. Could she really have been a beautiful young girl?!

He couldn't help but question, "Shuma, was your Great Chief pretty when she was young?"

Shuma thought for a moment and said, "Very pretty, I suppose. I haven't seen her, but Ailuo, Saya, and the others all say the Great Chief was a beauty seen once in a century."

"I see..." Buggy regained his previous train of thought. It seemed his guess was likely spot on. If that were the case, it all made sense: an innocent, ignorant girl cruelly deceived, becoming cynical, and finally seeing through the vanity of the world to retire into the mountains.

Shuma finished his own mental reconstruction without missing a beat and said, "The Great Chief must have experienced something very painful when she was young."

Mohji chimed in, "I didn't expect her to have such an unknown side."

While the three of them sighed over the cannibalistic Great Chief, on the other side, in the Kumate Tribe's large tent, the Great Chief sat on her couch, holding a mirror and muttering to herself, "Even time has not taken away my beautiful appearance..."

The two outsiders who had suddenly broken in had unexpectedly reminded her of the time she had snuck out in her youth.

That year, she ignored the advice of the previous Great Chief and went to sea alone. She drifted to an unknown island and was saved by a local fisherman. The fisherman took meticulous care of her, and she was moved by him, finally deciding to be with him. The fisherman was very touched, and then... he sold her to human traffickers.

Later, she escaped with all her might. During her flight, a kind and amiable middle-aged man helped her and took her in. Under the man's gentlemanly actions and etiquette, she admired him and confessed her inner feelings to him without reservation. She still remembered that upon hearing her confession, the man was so moved he cried all night, and finally... finally, during a meal, he pawned her off to the restaurant as a dishwasher.

Thinking of the dozen or so similar unfortunate events that followed, the Great Chief looked at herself in the mirror, consumed by resentment. "Why? Why do these people from the outside always deceive me? I am clearly so beautiful. Why do they all abandon me? They are all too dirty and hypocritical to see my beautiful exterior!"

An old man of the Kumate Tribe sitting on the ground outside the door thought of what the Great Chief looked like in her youth and sighed silently.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, Buggy and his group arrived at the halfway point of Bear Spirit Mountain.

Shuma set down the kitchen utensils and the large pot he was carrying. "We can't go any further. If we go any higher, Lord Bear Spirit will get angry."

Buggy and Mohji leaped out of the pot, and Buggy asked, "So, what do we do?"

"As long as I prepare the cuisine, Lord Bear Spirit will follow the scent down."

"Shuma, you aren't actually planning to use us as ingredients, are you?" Mohji leaned his head in, his heart thumping.

Shuma patted his chest. "You are both my friend-ingredients. I won't do anything to harm you, don't worry!"

This simple fellow was unexpectedly reliable. Buggy looked at the dense forest all around and said, "In that case, what kind of wild beasts are in this area?"

"I don't know either. This is my first time at Bear Spirit Mountain," Shuma said with a grin.

Looking at the other man's face, which lacked any sense of crisis, Buggy felt a bit helpless and suggested, "Then let's split up to find prey; it will be more efficient. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"

After Shuma agreed, Buggy continued, "Once we find prey, let's regroup here."

"It's a deal then! Whoever finds the ingredients first is the winner!" Shuma suddenly became passionate, his eyes burning with the flames of victory.

"I didn't mean it like that at all..." Buggy's eye twitched at the sight of this suddenly excited guy who loved to set the pace.

"Heh heh, in that case, the Tamer Mohji, who carries a dark legend, will compete with you!"

Wait, what was up with this tamer who had been shivering in fear just a moment ago... Had he been completely led astray?!

Mohji and Shuma immediately sprinted in opposite directions, disappearing from Buggy's field of vision.