Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was a light conversation like a friend. Enya was embarrassed and did not readily respond to the words, ‘a full-fledged Aquilean maiden.’

Other women also intervened cautiously.

“Yes. Tarhan can also come along.”

Some women blushed and giggled at the words.

The Day of Repose was Aquilea’s most significant celebration. It was also the most important ceremony for the Aquileans. It was a great festival to worship Aquilea, the Goddess of fertility and abundance, and to commemorate the harvest and the leisure of grain with physical pleasure and joy for men and women.

“I’m starting to feel full too like this. Still, I’m thinking of going to play with the child’s father, you know? Enya is not too young enough not to know that…”

At Ruhan’s words, the other women burst into laughter.

Enya felt speechless.

Day of Repose… A night of lust where men and women mix in love. At that time, there was no need for any kind of sensibility or fidelity. A day when you simply indulge and covet pleasure while standing, lying, sitting behind a tree, in a grassy area close to the person you meet, or in a place where there was an eye to see.

She once asked Tarhan about the Day of Repose.

“What? Day of Repose?”

Tarhan’s eyes widened and asked back as if his blood was welling up when she mentioned the Day of Repose from her mouth. That afternoon, he remained restless the entire time and followed her, asking and asking if she wanted to participate in the Day of Repose or if she had been dissatisfied with anything.

In front of him, who gave such a reaction, Enya couldn’t even take the word Day of Repose after that.

“I will ask. For once…”

Enya answered with her head bowed to hide her blushing face from embarrassment. The other women who saw it made strange expressions among themselves and then changed the topic of conversation.

“Ah, really. That’s not how you do it…”

While weaving the basket again, another woman next to Enya glanced at Enya’s basket and gave her a scolding, but blurred the end of the sentence.

“Ah… I’m, I’m sorry.”

Things like how to tie a knot or how to weave a basket were usually taught by a mother sitting down to the child a little over ten years old. Abandoned immediately after weaning, Enya, of course, did not learn this.

The person who taught her how to weave baskets was, of course, Tarhan.

The problem was that the method was probably the Cartantina method he used often. It was not a knot familiar to the eyes of Aquilean women.

“It’s high quality.”

A memory suddenly came to mind. Tarhan murmured as he kissed Enya’s ear, who was leaning her back against his chest and moving her hands. After all, it was just one of the words he used to praise her.

Enya stopped her hand, blushing in embarrassment.

“That’s okay. Since you did it, try to do it till the end.”

She sighed helplessly.

From then on, she started working while glancing at the other women weaving baskets. However, the women around her also seemed to be not very good at it. The basket that Enya had fixed looked much more neat for it to get a scolding simply because the method was wrong.

It would take twice as long for the other women to fix the basket the Aquilean way.

In the end, it was only when the work time was finished that she only managed to finish one.

‘…I have to go home and practice.’

Enya made a vow as she put the basket she had fixed at the place where she and the other women would collect them.

Then, something caught her toe.

It was a baby of the same age as the child who had been clinging to Ruhan’s side earlier.

“Ah…”

Enya hurriedly pulled back her left ankle, which had reached the child’s hand, unconsciously.

Her heart pounded at the sight of the child’s tiny body and plump cheeks. Looking around her quickly, she didn’t find a woman who looked like the child’s mother. Their surroundings were bustling as they brushed off all their seats and prepared to get up.

The baby lifted its tiny, chubby wrist and clenched its little fist towards Enya. Then, it clenched and opened the same fist, and in that little hand had all five fingers. It was so pretty.

Enya unknowingly reached out to the baby. She was going to find the child’s mother.

“Oh, my God!”

At that moment, a woman next to her was startled and lifted the child off the floor. She then panicked and took a couple of steps away from Enya.

“Ah…”

At that moment, she didn’t even know exactly what had just happened. In a hurry, another woman came running.

UWAAH!

The child broke out in a cry.

The next moment, a woman who appeared to be the child’s mother took the child from the woman who had taken the child from Enya. The mother, holding the child tightly in her arms, gazed at Enya with fearful eyes.

The mood changed in an instant. Now, almost everyone in the room was paying attention to them.

“Ah… I’m trying to find the mother…”

Enya opened her mouth as she felt her body freeze.

“I didn’t mean to touch the child… To find the mother…”

However, the surprise and displeasure in the women’s faces around her did not disappear.

Enya hid her left ankle behind her right leg once again, where their gaze was pointed at. She felt like she was standing naked in front of the women. Suddenly, she wondered why she was making these excuses. Her bad feet were not contagious, like leprosy.

Her eyes went numb, but she knew she couldn’t stand still.

Enya hurriedly opened his mouth. If this happened again, she had a word she had practiced by herself to bring out.

“…It doesn’t pass on. It’s not like a contagious disease. Both my mother and younger sister were fine. In my family… It was only me.”

She shut her eyes tightly.

She couldn’t even say that Tarhan, who lived with her, was fine. It was terrifying to bring him into this matter.

“…So, you don’t have to worry about touching me.”

She could feel her voice getting smaller again. Even though everything she said was true, trying to bring out the truth as an excuse in front of so many people made her ears tingle, and her hands trembled as if they were festering wounds.

Enya looked up at the baby’s mother, conflicting with familiar pain and anguish. She still had a distorted expression on her arm while holding her baby.

“Of course, Enya. I know. It is not a contagious disease.”

At that moment, someone approached Enya. Walnut-colored eyes met her face.

It was Ruhan.

Ruhan smiled kindly and opened her mouth.

“Everyone looks tired. We need to go home. What are you doing?”

As soon as she uttered that, the women who had gathered around Enya began to disappear like a receding tide. After dismissing the people, Ruhan spoke, comforting her.

“Everyone is just being careful. At that time, too, many people died from the plague. I hope you’re not too offended.”

Everyone is just being careful.

Even Ruhan’s comfort felt like a dagger was stabbed into her chest. Nonetheless, Enya endured the resentment that pushed to the end of her neck. She nodded her head and replied.

“It’s okay. I was not offended.”

Of course, she knew.

The plague killed Enya’s mother and younger sister as well.

Ironically, she survived the plague… Leaving the disabled Enya in the ‘abandoned land’ ultimately resulted in her not getting the plague.

The ‘abandoned ‘land’ was the place where Aquilea left the sick, the elderly, and the disabled. That was normal for Aguilera—the old, weak, and sick are removed from the tribe as early as possible. It was a method that has been maintained since ancient times to survive.

It was Enya’s home until she met Tarhan.

A person who has entered the ‘abandoned land’ couldn’t enter the tribe even after death. In principle, it was an unwritten rule.

“Enya, you worked hard today. However, from tomorrow, I think we’ll probably have enough hands. Do you know what I mean?”

Ruhan smiled softly and kindly towards Enya. While her mouth was smiling, her eyes were not.

Enya’s heart seemed to shrink in an instant at the apparent refusal. People from the ‘abandoned land’ bring plagues and disasters. So, this was natural. Even though Tarhan broke the rule to bring her into the tribe, Enya, even in death, would not be accepted within the tribe.

“I see. Tomorrow… I’ll rest.”

Seeing that she nodded her head, Ruhan very carefully placed her hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for understanding Enya. However, uh…”

Enya raised her head ominously.

Meanwhile, Ruhan was troubled and spoke out her mind, “My man, the father of my third child. He had been called up for the new bridge on the river’s construction, but he was having a hard time. Could Enya speak well to Tarhan?”

She was smiling again with her lips, but her eyes didn’t smile along with it again.

…Why couldn’t her ominous premonition be wrong? Enya looked at her with a feeling of distantness. In an instant, Ruhan’s hand that gripped her shoulder got stronger.

She gasped and barely answered.

“That… It will be difficult. I’m not involved in Tarhan’s business…”

Ruhan’s expression changed moment by moment at the negative reply. Even after noticing that, Enya had no choice but to tell the truth.

“Even if I talk to Tarhan like that, it won’t do much to the father of Ruhan’s child. I heard that Tarhan left all the bridge construction to Ikachi…”

Enya stammered and gave advice as to what Tarhan had told her the other day about the bridge construction work division system.

“Rather… It is much better to directly tell the truth to Ikachi, the head of the workgroup, or to get the opinion of a doctor if he’s not feeling well and pass it on to the leader of the group he belongs to…”

However, Ruhan’s reaction was cold. Her smiling lips were twisted slightly, and she quickly removed her hand from her shoulder like quickly pulling her hand out of a dirty thing. Enya could not finish her words and shut her mouth.

When she saw Ruhan’s cold expression, it felt like her heart was shriveling. Ruhan sighed and ruffled her hair, and she roughly spoke. Her voice was very cynical.

“Thank you. Enya. As expected, Enya is just as kind as I heard.”

Ruhan left without looking back.

Eventually, Enya was left alone in the empty workshop.

—

Thank you so much for always supporting the novels I work on, even if you don’t buy me a coffee, I really do appreciate it a lot.