At Gungun's question, the human child it was holding was utterly baffled. Was my mother pregnant?
My father died in battle. How could my mother be pregnant?
"Ah!" Seeing the child's bewildered expression and reading his thoughts through its face-reading technique, Gungun sighed and set him down. It reached out a paw to rub his little head, conjured a milk candy, and handed it to him, offering comfort. "Where there is life, there is death; where there is a beginning, there is an end. Even a towering hero and mighty champion like me will fall when the immeasurable calamity arrives, so don't be too sad!"
"???" Question marks seemed to fill the child's face. He did not understand what Gungun meant, but he accepted the milk candy, examined it, and popped it into his mouth. His eyes instantly lit up. So delicious!
"Tastes pretty good, doesn't it? I made it with milk from the Taicang Primeval Ox and spirit gum from the Spirit Spring Ancient Tree. It's not just delicious-it's nice and chewy, too." Seeing the child's bright eyes suddenly widen, Gungun smiled at him.
"Big Bear, Big Bear, can we have some too? We want some!" Hearing Gungun's words and seeing the happy expression on the child who had eaten the candy, the other human children clinging to Gungun immediately began wheedling.
"All right, all right. There's enough for everyone, everyone." Gungun found it rather amusing to have so many children wheedling at once. It rubbed their heads as it spoke.
Then it conjured a wooden bucket and handed out great pawfuls. Soon, every child had milk candy.
"Ancestral Bear, why do you carry so much food with you?" Qiru stepped forward and asked Gungun.
It had eaten nonstop on the cloud earlier, and now it had brought out