Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Yaru, who saw that, shouted at him, scolding him.

“Reyhald. Don’t show off your cheeky cheeks. Really, be conscious that you are taking away all of Nervana’s dignity.”

“Don’t be silly, Yaru. You guys should stop pretending to be so upright. What’s the good of Enya being scared? Didn’t you come here to be friends after all? That’s why Kiyan put me, a young and lively person, into this dull, decrepit group.”

Saying so, he pushed his good-natured face towards Enya and smiled.

“Enya, nice to meet you. Please take good care of me in the future.”

From what she had heard, the man named Reyhald seemed much younger than Yaru and Nihitan.

Enya’s mouth was open, overwhelmed by his friendly voice that came in without warning and the affinity for calling her Enya lightly. It took quite a while for even Ihita to open up to her for the first time.

It was the first time in her life that someone approached her, saying they wanted to be friends with her.

“Oh. Your eyes got bigger.”

Reyhald, who was looking down at her, scratched the nape of his neck and turned to Yaru and spoke again.

“Hey, Yaru. Is this okay? Are we doing well?”

“I don’t know. Why do you ask me that?”

“Talk more.”

When Yaru replied cynically, Nihitan added as well as, who was standing next to him and crossed his arms.

It was as if the costs outweighed the benefits, they were more interested in Enya than the jar of honey they had come to buy. They naturally surrounded her and tried to ask her questions, as if their purpose in coming to buy honey was actually to talk to her.

If Old Lady Piache hadn’t driven them out with fiery eyes blazing in suspicion, asking them not to disturb her workshop, they would have been ready to talk to her for over half a day.

“Look at all the weird guys…”

Piache, who had almost driven the Nervana Forest people away, hissed and muttered to himself while stirring the spatula in the jar. Her eyes changed strangely, and she turned to Enya. She had an expression as if there was something creeping up on her.

Still, Enya didn’t notice it as she stared blankly into space, feeling as if she had just been stabbed in the back of the head by a miracle that had just happened.

“They said they were ancient tribes, and I thought they would live on only dew with noble bloodlines, but they speak the Great Plains language better than I thought… It is very peculiar.”

Ihita muttered as if she was also surprised by Piache.

Enya couldn’t help but agree. To Tarhan, the noble Kiyan, who led nearly a hundred Nervana people, expressed her strong aspirations to take responsibility for the livelihood of the tribe she had led. She couldn’t believe that she was the one who purposely came down to the village entrance to see them.

“But Enya, looking at it again, you’re really similar.”

Glancing at her, who was lost in thought, Ihita murmured. At her words, Enya turned her head and looked at her.

“I think the skin color and light hair color are very similar to Enya. Those people’s.”

At that moment, there was a sound like a plate breaking before Ihita fell forward and screamed.

“Shut up, Ihita! If you’re going to talk nonsense like that, go clean some more jars!”

“Crazy, old woman! Why are you hitting someone in the back of the head!”

Even though Ihita threw a fit and burst into anger, Piache screamed out loud with her hands on her thick waist.

“It’s because you don’t work and talk nonsense! Who looks alike?! Stop saying weird things, and go get some work!”

Hearing those words, Ihita mumbled and turned around to finish washing the jar. Piache, who sent her away, turned to Enya. Then, with a voice that was incomparably softer than before, she also scolded Enya.

“You too, Enya. Don’t think about talking with those strangers unnecessarily. Since you’re here to help, focus.”

Enya was accustomed to being scolded like that, so she nodded and hurriedly moved in the direction where Ihita had disappeared. But even so, she couldn’t get rid of the thoughts about the people of Nervana Forest that lingered in a corner of her head.

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As promised, they came to find honey early the next morning. It was a different group of people this time. The jovial man, called Reyhald, still waved his hand at her, but the woman she saw next to him wasn’t Yaru.

“I came with Fiarca today. I don’t know who you might like.”

Having said that, Reyhald introduced a well-mannered woman with relatively dark hair.

“Fiarca, a relative of Kiyan. Well, in terms of relativity, I’m also deeply entangled. Nervana Forest is a very isolated area. Even if you don’t like it, for mating to be with a woman who is like family… Ugh, Fiarca!”

When she saw Fiarca, who seemed calm despite her appearance, hit Reyhald’s side with her elbow, Enya opened her mouth in amazement. Like Yaru, who came yesterday, she wondered if all the women of Nervana Forest had the same personality.

Fiarca was also more interested in the food than the ceremony. She also blindly grabbed Enya’s hand and smiled affectionately, ignoring the honey she had come to find.

“Nice to meet you, call me Fiarca. Reyhald shouldn’t be here in the first place. Were you embarrassed by this madman?”

Fiarca also spoke much more affectionately than the Nervana people before her.

Perhaps, while learning the common language of the Great Plains, they could not have learned the concept of being respectful.

Enya was quite surprised by Fiarca, who talked to her for the first time like this, like a friend who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. Still, she wasn’t as shocked as yesterday, so she shook her head and opened her mouth shyly while her cheeks blushed.

“By the way, is there any reason to buy a jar of honey?”

In fact, that question had been lingering in her all night, picking and choosing questions to ask the people of Nervana Forest who were coming tomorrow. It was because yesterday, she was so embarrassed that she couldn’t even respond to the people who spoke to her first, only shaking their hands.

Enya was upset about it.

Yesterday, too, Tarhan hadn’t come home early, but Enya wasn’t pierced by the desolation and loneliness she’d grown accustomed to in the hut without him. Her mind was full of the people of Nervana Forest and the words to tell them.

‘I’m a little sorry for Tarhan, who is having a hard time…’

She felt guilty as she thought of her man, who, as the head of the Allied Forces, shouldered ever-greater responsibilities and obligations, and shadows cast over his face day by day.

As he was struggling outside, Enya wondered if it was right to get close to the Nervana people, whom she didn’t even know well. However, she found herself talking to them before she knew it, almost completely deprived of control and will, in a social scene that was almost a first experience for her.

In front of the sweet trap of interacting with kind people, for the first time in her life, she collapsed without mercy.

Enya swallowed nervously as she recalled the words she had prepared to exchange a few more words with them, who were coming to receive the jar of honey today. Fortunately, to her courageous question, Fiarca suddenly responded positively with a wide-open face.

“Ah, of course, to talk to…”

Then, suddenly, as if by mistake, Fiarca covered her mouth. She then responded with a more serious attitude.

“To talk to you about getting honey .”

“This is the current situation…?”

When Enya asked in disbelief, Fiarca was flustered and evaded the answer.

“Hmm, hmm. By the way, Enya. I have so many stories to tell you. Don’t you have a lot of questions about Nervana Forest, too?”

Enya was a little suspicious of Fiarca, but she quickly fell for her kind and friendly attitude and willingness to talk with her actively. She couldn’t help it. After all, she had been trying to talk to someone her entire life, and it was the first time someone was interested in her life.

She couldn’t resist the temptation.

They had left Piache’s herb workshop and were sitting together in a secluded corner talking. Beside her, Ihita, who had been sent to Enya with disapproval from Old Lady Piache, was making a fuss while playing with Reyhald and Nervana people’s things.

The two, with similarly simple personalities, quickly became close and were busy teasing each other by teaching each other curses of the other tribe.

“Kiyan’s tribe is a very large tribe with a total of fifty-four people. All are made up of women. Kiyan’s biological nephew, Yaru, alternates with Kiyan to assume the role of the leader.”

“It’s, it’s only made up of women…?”

Enya widened her eyes as she couldn’t believe what she had just heard and asked Fiarca.

“Yes, but there’s nothing wrong with it being made up of only women. Together, we cut down trees, hunt monkeys, and make bows and arrows to protect our beds and food from the monsters in the forest.”

There was pride in Fiarca’s eyes as she explained her own tribe. Through the conversation with Fiarca, Enya also learned that the cloth technology that they used to spin cocoon-like worms and make padding cloth for wounds came from Nervana Forest.

“The worm is native to Nervana Forest. If you stop the bleeding with that cloth, the disinfection effect is excellent. Even the dying could be saved.”

With an uncharacteristic boast of Fiarca, she added.

“We Nervana women also wear that cloth when giving birth. If you wrap your new baby in a new clean cloth, they will never get sick or be bitten by insects. Unless there’s something else going on, two years pass quickly. After that, there is nothing but to pray to God.”

Just listening to her words, Tarhan’s words that Nervana Forest had lived in an ancient way seemed to be true.

“But, but how is the tribe maintained without men?”

Enya listened to Fiarca and frowned at the contradiction she discovered while listening. Surely there were men who came with them, like Reyhald and Nihitan, who also introduced themselves as residents of Nervana Forest…?

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