Chapter 1

Chapter 1

1. Inevitable Days.

The group that went hunting has returned. In a flash, the news reached the workroom where the young women were gathered. As soon as she heard the news, Enya stiffened and dropped the sewing materials she was holding.

The head of the hunting group was Tarhan.

The women, who had huddled a distance away from where she was sitting, glanced at her with anxious eyes. It was as if she could hear the whispers of the women around her.

‘Tarhan… Tarhan is back.’

‘The deputy chieftain is back.’

Enya rolled her eyes, trying to avoid their curiosity and envy. It wasn’t her that they were interested in, though the woman of the deputy chieftain, Tarhan.

Getting up from her seat, blue veins reflected on her slender thighs. It was as blue as a jackdaw’s feather. She had whiter skin than any other woman in the tribe. Not only that she was born with it, and it was also in addition to the fact that she had never done any hard and bad work under the scorching sun.

Tarhan had never, since they lived together, forced her to work separately. Rather, it was Enya who tried to get some work.

There were times when she secretly went out looking for work, wanting to help the household somehow. They asked what she could do with a bad-legged body, and she came back with only scoldings and glares.

When Tarhan heard the news, he found Enya, who was sneaking around the house and threatened her.

“If you can’t name those damn bastards right now…!”

Taking the name of the people who pointed fingers at her, he left the house with fire in his eyes. Then, he came back that day, breaking about four or five bones in the nose of the grown-up man.

That night, he held onto Enya, at his wit’s end, not knowing what to do, and became angry for a long time while asking if the things he had brought were lacking. She gazed up at him with her eyes wide open and tears in her eyes.

How could that be…?

Their hut was always overflowing with food. It was so overwhelming that it was difficult to deal with it. The group that went out hunting shared their share fairly. Depending on how much they took, the merit they had made that day was revealed.

Tarhan’s share was always greater than that of the chieftain, Kahanti.

That day, he only calmed his anger when she promised that she would never look for work again. It was a promise she made because if he got angry after finding out she was crying alone one more time, he would break the legs of those who persecuted her that day.

Enya really didn’t know what to do when Tarhan was angry that way. All she had to do was do what he told her.

The ladies of the tribe glanced at her leaving the sewing room with pale faces. Perhaps, the gossip would start once she left the room.

‘That woman is the woman who lives with the chieftain Tarhan.’

She couldn’t be more miserable as she thought of their mouths opening over and over again.

…Tarhan.

Even though there were people in the Aquilea plain who did not know Chieftain Kahanti, no one did not know the deputy chieftain Tarhan. He was the deputy chief of the Aquilea tribe, but everyone respected him more than the chieftain. This was especially the case with young men.

To them, Tarhan was a god.

The embodiment of Reias, the predecessor of Aquilea.

The animals Reias fed and clothed inhabited the vast plains of Aquilea, including humans. As long as the seeds of the monsters living there did not dry out, Tarhan, a natural hunter, would continue to be revered.

Enya was the only woman who had been living in his hut for many years. And, it was a known fact that she was a woman with a disability that was not even treated as a living person in Aquilea.

She stepped outside, rubbing her staggering thighs in misery.

‘He’ll come to pick me up again if I’m late…’

Tarhan hated her being late. Moreover, if his nerves were in a state of brittleness right after the hunt was over, there was nothing to say. He wanted the first thing he saw immediately after his return was her face.

The last time she heard the news of his return, she procrastinated and took the time to return. Because of that, he came to pick her up directly without using his subordinates and carried her around in front of thirty women who were tanning skins.

She could not be more ashamed. It felt like her skin was peeling off.

Even in her younger years, when Tarhan was a skinny boy and she was a little girl, he often carried her around like that.

At that time, she knew no shame. Enya just believed the boy who said he didn’t want to see her overuse her legs.

At the time, she was busy chasing after him, dragging her uncomfortable left leg on the ground. Every time the boy stopped and came over to her before lifting her in a flash, she looped her arm around his neck so that he wouldn’t drop her.

Even the grown men, who were not lacking in food, were busy chasing her away, saying that seeing her would bring bad luck.

Nonetheless, this strange boy couldn’t let her go every time because she lacked food. Enya was always terrified that he might change his mind. Every time he picked her up first, she would hug the sweaty nape and poke her nose until he was embarrassed by her.

But now, it is different.

Enya begged Tarhan not to bring her back. She begged with a crawling voice, even though she noticed that the man’s face had changed when he heard those words. She said that she would arrive on time to coincide with the news of his return, so he should not bring her directly in that way.

“What…? Don’t go outside looking for you?”

When the man heard those words and raised his bewildered eyebrows, she nearly picked up the words she spat and ate them back again.

A subtle change in his expression could tell that the man was displeased with the request. Still, Enya gave him the answer that she had decided. It was because she now knew how it seemed to the people of the tribe when a man returning from the hunting season was looking for a woman.

There were very few men who could go on a hunt organized by the chieftain in Aquilea.

Twice a month, fifteen to twenty strong men go hunting to obtain the bones and meat of monsters that are supplied to the whole tribe. Needless to say, they were the strongest and most capable men in Aquilea.

In Aquilea, the stronger the man, the more children he had from many women.

Even if the man was judged to only be able to feed the child for a while, the women slept with them without much thought. It wasn’t just because the more children they had, the more people who would bring food to them when they were old.

“People die quickly. Died by getting twisted by the umbilical cord, died after getting bitten by insects, died by illness, died by drowning in the river, died killed by the bison… Babies die more, more often. No matter how many babies are born, it is rare that the child will grow up until they have a child again.”

It was the sound of the only shaman in the village and the one who oversaw women’s childbirth, the old woman Piache chanting like a spell.

Consequently, the women of Aquilea usually liked to have many children, especially if it was from strong men. Sleeping with other men other than the man whom they had slept together in Aquilea was taken for granted as if picking fruit from one tree to another. It was not a taboo.

During the Rest Day, young men and women from several small tribes stretching across the ridgeline would mingle together and share their bare affection.

It was promiscuous and intemperate. Occasionally, a man and a woman who did not look away from each other would continue to live in the same hut and raised several children together. Nonetheless, although most children were born from the same belly, they all had different fathers.

Tarhan must have had a chance. Too.

He was a man from a foreign tribe who rose to the rank of deputy chieftain. He was a handsome man that women could run to with their eyes wide open. Although he was a little rough, foul-mouthed, and easily annoyed, he never let those around him starve to death. The group that went hunting with him all returned alive.

But, he never took part in the Rest Day festival. Instead, he built a hut and put Enya in it. He never drove her out and never brought any other woman with him.

Still, no one objected to Tarhan’s way.

Naturally, Enya, too, had been living without knowing any other man than him.

It was only natural that the men who participated in the hunt were looking for women to spend the night with on the night they returned.

Enya knew that countless times she had heard the bragging of the men and women who had spent the night… How hungry were the men who returned from hunting for a soft female body that would cool the boiling blood as they crossed the crisis between life and death.

It was so wild, and how exciting it was to women.

Just the fact that an ordinary man returned from hunting to find a woman meant mating. So, it goes without saying that Tarhan would be looking for her, who had lived with him for many years in his hut.

…The only thing the strongest man in all the Aquilea sought was a limp woman.

Her face burned so hot, she couldn’t stand it.

It was obvious what the people of the tribe would be talking about when they saw it. When she was younger than this, she didn’t know how to present herself and hugged him as soon as he came to pick her up. She had no idea what the people who saw it would think, so I just hugged him because he needed me.

She didn’t know if that would lead to any backstory.

Enya hated it so badly.

She could feel the glance at her, who was limp, as she walked, looking only at the ground. Her face lit up on its own, and Enya accelerated her steps. However, she couldn’t get any speed with her feet, so it was only her heart that was rushing.

It wasn’t difficult to find Tarhan. He was sitting alone by the well near their hut.

Compared to the young women who were swarming around men who returned from hunting, his surroundings were too quiet. It had always been like that since the arm of a woman who had been hiding in his hut was broken one day.

He was sitting with his big body bent, washing away the blood and dirt.

Seeing him, Enya’s chest tightened in an instant. The shiny skin, splashed with water, was scorched red in the dusky evening light… After ten and a couple more days, his face looked a little emaciated.

At that time, Tarhan raised his large hand and rubbed his face before raising his head as if he felt a presence.

Enya moistened the inside of her parched mouth with her tongue unknowingly at the look of the man who made eye contact with her, like a hunting dog.

Finding her, he slowly got his body up. The gaze went up endlessly.

She could feel her gaze gravitate towards the bare muscular upper body and the slender, narrow waist. It seemed to her, too, why the women of the tribe who feared him to death also could not stop glancing at him when they encountered him along the way.

For a moment, the inside of her thighs got wet as if she had a chill. As soon as she met him, her body changed as though it was natural to her, and the heat on her cheeks rose to the point that it was embarrassing.

She had been with him countless times over the past few years. Even though she was the only woman who had ever embraced him, how was it that her body heated up here every moment…?

Confused, Enya turned around and entered the hut.

She could feel his gaze at her from behind. After a while, she heard the sound of pouring the remaining water from the gourd on his body.

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