CH 39

However, what was considered a very pleasant pastime for the Kantas cubs, would appear to be a disaster of sorts in other’s eyes.

The door of their nest was soon knocked on rapidly

“Black! White! Come out quickly!” Eim’s anxious voice was heard from outside.

Black and White who were still in the midst of rolling, stiffly stopped. Just when they finished transforming back to humanoid form, Eim couldn’t wait any longer and barged in.

“You guys–”

As soon as Eim spoke, he saw the two with messy hair and dishevelled clothes… Er– Black was even lying on top of White.

“囧!” Eim’s mouth widened to a “口” shape, but he quickly remembered his reason for coming and hurriedly spoke, “Now is not the time for this! There was an earthquake just now! I could feel it from my house, the ground shaking!”

“Pulling on each other’s clothes, Black and White looked at each other with guilt in their eyes.

“Oh, that? That was our cubs rolling around!” White self-righteously pushed the blame onto Louis and Meng Jiuzhao who were unable to prove their innocence.

“Chirp?” Only knowing his name was called, Louis paused, before raising his little claw. Meng Jiuzhao immediately rolled a few meters away.

“AHHHHH!!!!! You can’t!” No longer caring about the ground shaking, Eim quickly carried Meng Jiuzhao up, swiping off all the grass that stuck onto his body.

Looking at Meng Jiuzhao who had a @ @ expression on his face, he asked distressedly, “Baby! Are you alright?!”

Meng Jiuzhao, who could see stars in his eyes: I, am, not, alright…

The games played by Kantas cubs were… Really, too, savage, for, humans!

Meng Jiuzhao’s head hung low, and he fainted.

***

Sita was the second person who rushed over.

The people left to guard the tribe felt slight tremors, and pretty much everyone rushed out immediately to go to the open space at the center of the tribe. Sita noticed that Black and his family were not there, thus she came over to find them.

Everyone waited at the open space for a while, but there was no aftershock after a long time. After confirming that it was safe, Sita told everyone to get back to their activities.

“Let’s go to the kitchen to help make dinner. Our hunters must be very tired after a long day of hunting.” While walking, Sita explained a couple of the tribe’s work and leisure habits to Black and his group.

“In our tribe, we take turns following the hunting team to search for food, and then we will share the food we find with everyone. Of course, we don’t go out everyday.”

Noticing that Eim was a little uneasy after hearing her words, Sita immediately continued, “No worries, although prey are considered food, any edible wild fruit or plants are also considered food. To us who can transform, both of these types of food can fill our stomachs, so they are equally important to us.”

“Dad and Brother are the best at finding Stem Fruits!” Eim finally showed a wide smile.

“And hunting is my forte!” White puffed his chest proudly.

Sita looked at White, sweeping her gaze all over him, before decisively changing the topic, “Let’s go see what they have in the kitchen!”

“Today’s menu, let me see…” Carat widened his blank eyes, “I know, dinner will be chicken. Boiled chicken, roast chicken, raw chicken… All sorts of chicken.”

This menu was too cruel!

The two Kantas cubs swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

“Why is it all chicken?” Sita was slightly puzzled.

“This morning, the chickens in the coop seemed to have gone crazy and all died.”

Everyone: Hey! Are these chickens even safe to eat?! ==///

Carat then said, as he grabbed a chicken casually from the side, “Anyways, let me boil them first.”

“Ahhh!!! You don’t even know what illness this chicken has, boil the water first!” Eim hurriedly stopped Carat, only to hear a ‘plop’ sound, and the chicken was already thrown in.

An even higher pitched scream resounded–

“AAAAHHH! That’s my Louis you’re throwing!” Black went crazy, jumping into the pot with a loud roar. He scooped out Louis who was energetically treading in the water.

“Chirp?” Louis, who had his first experience playing with water, actually felt quite nice.

“Ah… Apologies.. Thank goodness the water has not been heated.” Carat tilted his head and waited for Black to climb out of the pot, panting, before throwing in another chicken in, and the next.”

“You’re… Not going to change the water?” Eim weakly reminded from one side.

“Oh…” Carat tilted his head again. “It’s not dirty, so just leave it.”

And so, when the warriors of the tribe returned, they were greeted with a large pot of boiled chicken.

Looking at the chicken which still had feathers and seemed to die wrongfully, the hunters let out a sigh, accustomed to this.

“Is it delicious?” Looking at Sita biting on the chicken leg with a face of death, Eim swallowed his saliva.

Sita chewed for a long time, before painfully swallowing the chicken, then drinking some water to cleanse her palate, and finally answered, “How could that be?! Carat’s cooking skills are way worse than mine!”

“Then, why do you still get him to prepare your meals?” Eim asked weakly.

“Because Carat knows magic.” Sita took another vicious bite of meat. “The food he makes lets us feel stronger.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t just stand there, you guys haven’t eaten for an entire day. Aren’t you hungry? Quickly eat.” Sita said, before pulling out an entire chicken for all of them.

Eim looked at the chicken in front of him with some doubt.

He really wanted to try the chicken that was said to make people stronger, but the dying look on its face was really horrifying, and made the chicken look extra disgusting.

“Black, this is for you guys!” Fendi ran up to them from who knew where, holding a chicken wrapped in leaves in his hand. “I baked this chicken, it should taste much better than that!”

Fendi looked at them with anticipation after he finished speaking.

“… I won’t eat it.” Looking at the dead Kantas wrapped in leaves, Black shook his head firmly.

Louis was hungry, and faced with the temptation of the baked chicken, he was slightly unable to bear his hunger, and just when he wanted to jump out to take a bite, Black hugged him back gently but with much strength.

“Darling, we can’t eat that, that’s a Kantas.” White’s voice softly sounded in his ear, causing Meng Jiuzhao to be stunned.

He suddenly remembered, in their eyes, this wasn’t just a chicken, but someone of the same race, a Kantas.

It was recorded in books that in ancient times, during the uncivilised era, Kantas never ate one of the same species. Even in dire circumstances, living Kantas would never eat their companions’ corpses.

For this reason, some scholars believed that the Kantas were a very united species. They weren’t just united, but also affectionate. Even if they were considered invaders who had a different, ruthless way of handling matters, they were always compassionate towards those of the same species.

Seeing the serious expressions on Black and White’s faces, Meng Jiuzhao’s mouth opened and closed, but he finally decided not to say anything.

He thought of Gulunza, then himself, who was always tenderly treated, and thought: Perhaps the heavens arranged for him to be reborn as the child of two Kantas to let him better understand the Kantas species that he regarded as enemies in his past life.

While Meng Jiuzhao was still lost in his thoughts, Black’s voice sounded again–

“Grandpa said before that Kantas meat is the most unpalatable in the world. Not only is it difficult to swallow, if you eat it, it will make you constipated for many days, so you must definitely not eat it!”

Meng Jiuzhao was immediately brought out from his thoughts: ￣▽￣

Damn! So this is the real reason!

It turns out that my esteemed[1] grandpa had eaten Kantas meat before?

Return my feelings back to me aaahhhhh! 

References