One bird alone was nowhere near enough to fill the stomachs of a Saiyan and seventy‑three children.
After lowering everyone to the ground with vines, Broly stripped off his Baya‑beast fur clothes.
Naked, he slipped into the nearby river. Compared to the game in the forest, the prey in the water seemed a lot dumber.
No sooner had he gone under than several big fish swam over on their own, gaping wide with sharp teeth as if they meant to eat the "fallen" boy.
Eat him they would not. One after another, the big fish were punched flying out of the water. It was only because Broly had warned them before going in that the kids were watching the river, or they would have been flattened by the rain of fish landing on the bank.
After knocking a dozen or so fish into the air, Broly figured that was enough. He then chased down a passing danger beast that looked like a huge crocodile—one of the local riverbank overlords. Smarter than the fish, it had sensed he was a dangerous predator and tried to keep its distance, but he still dragged it out.
The crocodile was over ten meters long and was something Broly meant to eat himself. As he grew, his appetite had grown with him.
After struggling in the water and realizing that even there its strength was no match for the boy's, the beast took a punch, got hauled up onto the shore, and promptly played dead.
Or rather, it conserved its strength and waited for a chance to slip away from this terrifying upright ape.
Under normal circumstances, it would never have gotten that chance. But someone else created one for it.
Last night, when Broly blasted out the clearing and blew apart the giant tree, the commotion had been loud. Gozzi, waiting in the forest's center, had heard it.
An ordinary person who heard a racket like that in a forest crawling with danger beasts would never have gone to investigate.
But Gozzi was no ordinary person. As a fighter from the Four Rakshasa Demons of the Huangquan Temple, he was strong. The empty wait for children had already put him in a foul mood; then his sleep was interrupted by the noise in the night.
So when he mounted a flying danger beast that morning, he changed the return route on the spot, deciding to check out the source of the disturbance.
"Is that really necessary? It was probably just some danger beasts fighting."
Bill could not quite grasp his thinking.
"A man my age doesn't sleep easily. I was losing hair this morning. That has to be because I was woken up last night. I'm going to cut down whoever made me shed."
Gozzi cherished his hair. He took great care of it every day, but whether from stress or something else, it had been thinning in recent years.
"There are a lot of flying danger beasts in Gifnora Seatre Forest. They're not that strong, but if they swarm you in the air, it's still a pain."
"I'm just going to take a look. If I don't find the culprit, I won't waste time on it."
"Fine, then."
Saying that, Bill reflexively rubbed his own bald scalp.
He suddenly felt farsighted. Knowing how stressful work in the Intelligence Bureau was, he had preemptively let his hair go.
A sad story.
"Hey, what's that?"
As smoke from grilling fish and bird rose into the sky, Gozzi and the others, standing on the backs of imperial‑tamed flying beasts, saw signs of fire in the direction they were heading.
Gozzi ordered the rider to steer the beast toward the smoke.
When they arrived, the first thing he saw was a massive tree, its upper trunk blown off, leaving a terrifying cross‑section.
Then, near the broken tree, on a sudden clearing by the river, he spotted a group of ragged children grilling fish and birds over several fires.
"Gozzi…"
Bill's mouth twitched as he glanced at the man on the other flying beast.
"Mm. Those should be the kids we dropped into the forest."
Gozzi confirmed. How they had made it all the way to the northwest part of the forest, far from the central zone, he did not know.
But seeing the fish they had roasted and the pile of danger beast corpses beside the clearing, he realized their aptitude might be far beyond what he had imagined.
The children they had ordered bought were all under ten, easier to brainwash. For kids that young to be hunting danger beasts—even in groups—was no small feat.
"Looks like we wronged the logistics guys. We'll have to commend them later."
Bill smiled.
"Let's go down first. Kids who can survive in Gifnora Seatre Forest won't necessarily be easy to recruit."
Strength always brought more variables. A child with no one to rely on had to run for his life through the forest to throw himself into the empire's arms. But once they could survive together in a place swarming with danger beasts, the empire was no longer their only option.
"Still, they're just kids. A gentle touch or two and they should be easy to win over."
As wary eyes turned toward them, Gozzi and Bill led the Intelligence Bureau members in jumping down from the backs of the landing flying beasts.
"My dear children, I did not expect you to lose your way in this forest. As your potential future foster father, I've come to pick you up."
"It's the empire!"
"They're with the ones who drove us into this death forest!"
Not one of the children moved to approach the newcomers.
"All right, come with us. We'll take you where you belong. There you'll have good food, warm beds, and proper medical care. There you'll find your purpose in life—"
(Be turned into killing machines.)
"—and gain your happiness."
"Liar. I heard the slavers talking. If you weren't buying kids, we wouldn't have been kidnapped."
As some of the children began to waver at Gozzi's words, a bespectacled boy shouted angrily.
With someone to take the lead, the rest glared at the newcomers as well. Not all of them had been kidnapped by slavers, but that did not stop them from pinning all the misfortune that had brought them here on the imperial personnel who had suddenly appeared.
"What a hassle. Couldn't those slavers at least stick to one story and say they were all sold by their parents?"
Gozzi rubbed his brow, then suddenly flashed forward to stand before the boy who'd stirred up resistance and kicked him like a ball.
"As a bunch of unwanted wild brats, you've had no education."
"Hey, hey, Gozzi—beating them up like that isn't going to help when you're picking elites for special training later."
Bill reminded him. If they needed discipline, subordinates could do it.
"It's fine. I've got to establish myself as the strict father figure anyway. And this lets me—uh—screen which of them—"
He never finished the sentence. Broly flew in and kicked him the same way he had kicked the boy.
The kid had only been booted away and was now lying on the ground vomiting up stomach acid, still alive. So Gozzi had also only taken a light kick.
Even so, with Broly holding back, the blow still sent him flying into a tree.
Crack.
He smashed a pit into the trunk. His hair stood up and stuck into the wood, acting like a cushion where he hung.
"Urk…"
When his hair loosened and he dropped, he still ended up on his hands and knees, dry‑heaving. The fierce twisting pain in his abdomen made him and the boy over there, who was also vomiting, look almost in sync.
"So that's how it is. No wonder you could all get here and take down so many danger beasts."
As a former Four Rakshasa Demon who had trained his body to the limit, Gozzi recovered fast.
"It's because of you… Hard to believe a kid your age could kick me like that. Even if it was a sneak attack, it's impressive."
He did not get angry about being kicked. On the contrary, his eyes burned as he stared at Broly, as if he were looking at a priceless treasure.
"Become my child."
Gozzi held out a hand and invited him.
"I can make you even stronger. The empire will give you whatever you want."
Old man, there's no ship left in this new era that can carry you.
Broly shook off the strange line that had popped into his head and answered Gozzi seriously.
"I already have a father. His name is Paragus. He's stronger than you. And I'm stronger than him."
Rejected, Gozzi was not particularly surprised.
"Give me your sword."
He went to one of the Intelligence Bureau agents and took the man's longsword before continuing.
"Kid, you don't really think a surprise kick that sent me flying gives you the right to bargain with me, do you?"
He was not using his own blade because his weapon was a Teigu—an Imperial Arm. A single scratch from it could curse and kill.
"Since you won't come quietly, I'll just have to use rougher methods. Bill, with the empire's medical techniques, we can fix severed tendons in hands and feet, right?"
"Relax. With Dr. Stylish's 'Hands of God,' you could chop all his limbs off. As long as they're preserved properly, Dr. Stylish can put them back on good as new."
"In that case, I'm reassured."
Gozzi's lips curled. Wild children who did not understand the rules needed to be taught.
He shifted his stance, bent low with the sword in hand. His body blurred into motion.
Time for some violent education. It was time that brat learned just how terrifying adults could be.
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