Chapter 21

Chapter 21

He lifted her wrist and gently kissed the end of it.

The tip of her kissed fingertips were tingling. Enya felt tears welling up in her eyes and blinked quickly. Her body seemed to be broken. Even though she was so happy, why were tears coming out?

Seeing her like that, Tarhan was very hesitant and slowly approached her face.

As soon as his lips touched Enya, she closed her eyes in his arms. It was a very slow kiss, different from the usual longing and rough. He carefully opened her lips and tapped his tongue on the soft spot deep inside her mouth.

As his hand slowly wrapped around her body and caressed her, it seemed as if everything in the world had disappeared, and she was left alone.

Enya gently lifted her wrist with the bracelet and leaned it against his chest. At the same time, he showed off his presence and was startled by the sound of his heart beating terribly and dropped it again.

Then, the man took her hand again, pulled her back, and placed it on the nape of his neck.

His skin seemed to come alive. Enya’s body trembled slightly at the sound of his turbulent heart. How can the heart beat so fast on the most scarred nape of the neck in the Aquilea Plains?

Enya opened her mouth to accept him and was sucked into the sweet trance he gave.

The bracelet went back into her treasure chest. Even while Tarhan was in Perugia, she could not afford to wear these precious things he had saved for her in her daily life.

…Enya didn’t even notice that Tarhan, who had been silently watching her, looked at her back with a look that didn’t understand her intentions.

Even before morning dawned, Tarhan left the house again. When the Day of Repose was interrupted in the middle, there were many tribesmen waiting for his decision as Aquilea got chaotic with the arrival of new women from Perugia.

Although she tried to take care of him and was about to eat the leftovers, as he steadfastly urged her, she sat down with him and ate simply. More of the chubby chicken meat was torn by his hands, and the steamed rice went into her mouth than his.

After finishing the meal and sending off Tarhan, there was still silence in the hut.

Enya ventilated and cleared the darkened house again with the intention of starting the day normally. After that, she lay down on Tarhan’s spot on the bed and lay idly by holding her belly. She seemed to have fallen asleep.

“Enya… Enya…”

It was Ihita’s familiar voice that woke her up.

Piache’s assistant Ihita, one of the few who could go in and out of the deputy chieftain’s house at will, was knocking at the entrance.

As Enya hurriedly got up and arranged herself, she let Ihita in. Enterting their room familiarly with both hands full of the medicine basket, Ihita spoke in a blunt voice as she lowered the basket to the floor.

“I came here because Tarhan asked me to see you. How’s your body? Are you still bleeding a lot?”

“Yes I’m fine.”

Enya replied with a blush on her cheeks.

The man who acted as if she was the only menstruating woman in Aguilea was sometimes embarrassing her. This kind of overprotection was embarrassing. As if knowing her feelings, Ihita muttered and cursed Tarhan.

“It’s always hard to come all the way here. Did you eat something?”

Enya, unable to hide her sorry feelings for her, who was suffering from Tarhan, offered this and that. However, Ihita quickly got up from her seat and waved her hand.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. What if I stay here for a long time, and then Tarhan comes running like crazy again, whips his ax, and chases me away?”

She felt very uncomfortable with the deputy chieftain. It was an almost terrifying fear. If it was Tarhan’s threat, she would run to look after Enya instead of plowing. Enya was always sorry for that, so she tried to be nice to Ihita.

Of course, there were things that Ihita’s existence itself was good.

She was a girl who was still younger than Enya. She recently started studying medicine under the Old Lady Piache. In Enya’s mind, she was an assistant to Old Lady Piache, who was pushed by Tarhan’s back but found it hard to go back and forth to this far-off deputy chieftain’s house.

Ihita was becoming almost the only person who casually walked into the house of the deputy chieftain, whom everyone was reluctant to.

At first, she was reluctant to even look at Enya like other tribal women, though at Tarhan’s command, the girl who was forced to come and go was already talking to her so comfortably. She was still young and like the other girls.

Because of that, Enya wanted to get to know Ihita, who didn’t shy away from her.

“Why would Tarhan chase Ihita away…? Tarhan is not that kind of person.”

Ihita heard that and narrowed her eyes.

Her expression was as if that even made sense. If she hadn’t been in front of Enya, she would have snorted. Seeing that, Enya bit her lips with embarrassment. She really meant it, but she felt rejected without a second thought.

“Anyway, I’m just here to check if you’re okay.”

Ihita muttered bluntly and tried to stand up. Enya grabbed her quickly.

“Don’t do that, sit down for a while. Would you like some cold water?”

The deputy chieftain’s hut was so far from the village where the other huts were grouped she had to climb almost another hill.

It was difficult to come here. Ihita thought for a moment and then sat back stiffly. She had something to tell her today.

“…Should I?”

The deputy chieftain’s woman’s expression brightened at once, and with clumsy steps, she scooped out chilled water from the jar and gave it to her. She was limp, but her form, moving around the house, seemed to traverse a space she was really familiar with. She was quite the mistress of this house.

Eventually, Ihita sat down like a mature adult, taking the water Enya gave her, drinking it, and looking around her house.

As she always thought, it was a well-organized house. Loving hands were scattered throughout the house.

As Old Lady Piache’s assistant, she moved from one house to another, but none of them made her feel so comfortable. So, every time she came in with a cold sweat, being pushed by the vicious gaze of the deputy chieftain, she had to spend time with a woman who spoke kindly to her, not knowing what to do.

Ihita glanced at the woman in front of her. There was no way that such a terrifying chieftain would have decorated the inside of the house like this, so it must have all that woman’s touch.

“…He came to me and asked to go to Enya, but the deputy chieftain was very angry today. He doesn’t usually have a very pleasant expression, but it was really something today.”

Ihita muttered in pain as she ate the sweet barley rice cake that Enya had served with water. When she remembered the deputy chieftain she had seen before, her still body seemed to squeal on its own.

Looking at the deputy chieftain’s appearance, even the young Ihita naturally thought of the word “strength.”

The man had a sense of intimidation that made the person making eye contact with him bow their head in fear.

It was not just the way he looked… It was that they were overwhelmed by the harsh experiences he had accumulated since he was a very young boy and from the time when they met his eyes without realizing it.

Ihita also knew that the deputy chieftain looked nice because she had eyes.

The tribal women who have watched him for a long time fear him but only glance at his back as he passes by, and when even a young woman like Ihita encountered him, they were shy and itchy in their throats though they had no choice but to stare at him.

It was thanks to his handsome face.

‘Of course, I didn’t even see those things when I first saw him…’

She remembered the deputy chieftain once again, and without realizing it, she trembled like a child standing in the snow.

‘How could he have survived…’

When everyone saw the deputy chieftain for the first time, no one saw his handsome face.

…They saw his scar.

The scar on the back and chest, passing through the deputy chieftain’s chin, neck, and shoulders, was so shocking that it instantly crashed all first impressions of the man.

It was a scar that could change the person’s impression and even make them feel awe beyond the fear of how this person could have survived. Traces of a terrible past that could not have been achieved in a single battle, which would have happened as he had to risk his life over a long period of time, countless times and repeatedly.

“Are you Piache’s new assistant?”

When Ihita first saw the rumored deputy chieftain, she remembered that she had stepped backwards.

Whether it was a monster’s claw or a human sword, the gaze with the hope that the person in front of him would truly die, at that moment, gave off a ferocious look, proving the strength of the man standing firmly in front of Ihita.

In front of the deputy chieftain, most women could not even look at him, nor did they even think of walking around him.

…Except for the woman in front of her right now.

Ihita gazed down at the woman sitting in front of her with a blank look, getting out of her thoughts. The woman, who seemed to have been put together by all the soft things in the world, with a body that was unlikely to be even half the size of the deputy chieftain, and a small face that looked too fragile…

Still, Ihita had never seen the woman in front of her trembling in fear in front of the deputy chieftain.

To even bring out these words.

“I don’t think he’s angry. He has a lot of things to worry about.”

Ihita looked at the little woman who defended the deputy chieftain in front of her with a distant feeling. How could she not be surprised to hear Enya cautiously speaking with a look that seemed to believe that truth?

“…Even if Tarhan doesn’t say anything, he’ll always be thankful to Ihita. You come all the way here every day to look after me.”

Did she really think so?

Ihita opened his eyes once more and took a sip of the water. Meanwhile, Enya, unaware of her feelings, put her hands together and spoke again.

“Tarhan really likes Ihita. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked you to come to see me like this.”

Ihita was now speechless and scratched the nape of her neck.

…Was that true?

The deputy chieftain seemed extraordinary in his own way, but this woman was also a headache in her own way.

What kind of psychological shock did she have when she was young? How could she casually say that the deputy chieftain was an unusually friendly and trusting person, when he was the man who raised his bitter eyes and ordered her to go to his home.

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