Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Hearing his voice, Enya’s ears perked up automatically and moved closer to the tent.

“This war is not simple enough to waste military power and time on such useless rituals. Moreover, this is not a place where only Aquileans gather. The sixteen powers of the Great Plains and countless more minor tribes have joined forces to counter the problem caused by Argon… You can’t act, making fun of ourselves in a place like that just to keep Aquilea’s unique tradition.”

It was a quiet voice, yet it was a logical rebuttal that no one present could refute.

“What do you mean making fun of ourselves!”

However, rather than being persuaded by Tarhan, Servia seemed to become more irritated. Then, another man standing beside her muttered in a voice full of laughter like mocking him.

“As expected, unless you are Aquilea’s pureblood, you wouldn’t know the importance of this ceremony. Set him right, Mother.”

She knew that voice, too.

It was Gernan, Servia’s pride and Kahanti’s second son.

Enya shuddered, remembering Gernan’s curly brown hair and the eerie look in his strange eyes.

All who knew him didn’t consider him Kahanti’s second son. He was Servia’s surviving son… he was the eldest of Servia’s surviving sons.

Of course, he had never assumed the most dangerous role on the battlefield, either on the hunt or on the battlefield, as Tarhan had. This was because he was protected by the sons of the elders who always protected him and by the fierce Aquilea pure-blooded people in Servia’s faction.

That was why Gernan was terribly selfish and ignorant of the ways.

He had not made any significant achievements, and even though he was only twenty-two years old, he was openly participating in the meeting between the allies, relying on his mother’s authority.

“What would the wild dog of Cartantina who roamed the abandoned fields know?”

At that very moment, Enya felt the urge to open the entrance and spit in Gernan’s face.

No one could insult Tarhan like that. As far as she knew, he was the most honorable and greatest warrior. The countless scars across his neck and chest were proof of that. Compared to him, Gernan’s thin nape was smooth with no scars.

Enya wanted to see what kind of gaze Tarhan was sending to Gernan at that very moment. She could hear no emotion in his low voice coming out from the tent.

“I apologize if I used a strong word, Servia. I was just concerned about the effect such a cruel ritual towards Goddess Aquilea would have on the Allied soldiers.”

Tarhan continued as if he didn’t even feel the worth of responding to Gernan’s words. Thinking that Gernan’s face would have turned red after being ignored, Enya’s heart softened a little.

After a while, Tarhan muttered in a bloody voice that was completely different from the way he had spoken earlier.

“If the morale of the soldiers were to be raised by such a cruel ritual, I would have personally ripped open the stomachs of the felons in Aquilea in front of everyone.”

She could feel that the atmosphere in the tent became bloody in an instant following his word.

The ritual toward Goddess Aquilea was an atonement ritual from ancient times. Aquilea, the goddess who governs the harvest and fertility of the Great Plains, had limited favored blood. Aquilea, who was also the goddess of evil and war, hated disobedience to order in thought, belief, gender, and body.

In other words, for people with a physical disability, people with mixed blood who was not pure, and a heretic who served other Gods that Goddess Aquilea did not recognize.

Aquilea’s sacrifices went around the whole village with their feet uncovered, receiving mud, saliva, soil, and sand up on an uphill path and lying down looking at the sky. In addition, their heart was pierced by Aquilea’s sword in the hand of the priest presiding over the ritual. They died a cruel death amidst everyone’s frenzy.

The ritual had never been performed since Kahanti became chieftain. But now, Servia was arguing that the barbaric ritual should be revived.

Enya braced herself, calmly guessing what was going on inside the tent. Due to her disability, she was not free in the selection of becoming an offering to the goddess Aquilea.

At that time, from inside the tent, Tarhan cut the words, leaving no room.

“I have heard that such a ritual was very rare before, let alone after Kahanti became chieftain. It was the same in the battle with the cavalry troops on the Zeferuna Plains, which was in a more serious situation than now… To reproduce it now is too absurd.”

Then, someone who was with him in the tent interrupted the conversation. It was the red-haired Avisak of Perugia.

“Wait, Tarhan. I think Servia’s opinion has some truth. Nothing evokes a soldier’s sense of purpose and motivation more than seeing the blood flowing right in front of their eyes on the battlefield.”

Enya glanced inside the tent with little nervous eyes at Avisak’s words. Why was that woman so confident when she had never been in a war?

At that moment, Tarhan opened his mouth by hitting an object that seemed to be a tabletop with a slightly raised voice.

“A sense of purpose? motivation…?”

He scoffed.

Even without looking, Enya could tell that there must be wrinkles between his brows, as his nerves were on edge.

“Then, what we need more than anything else is a sense of solidarity, not hatred towards an unspecified people. There are many soldiers from outside of Aquilea here. There’s no reason to shed such useless blood, even to instill in them the idea of forming a coalition and fighting without causing them confusion instead.”

Suddenly, someone muttered in a low voice.

“Of course. The woman who lives with him is disabled, so how can he say to help raise the morale of the soldiers by putting the disabled on…”

Along with those words, Enya felt her heart sink.

The owner of that voice was obviously Servia. Now that Kahanti lay on the sick bed, Servia was devoted to spitting back out and refuting Tarhan’s decisions at every step and gathering henchmen who supported her opinion.

She could feel her arm that was holding the lunch box tremble and took a step back as she gasped for breath in pain as the sight grew distant before her eyes.

Today, it was the moment when all her efforts to not become a stumbling block for him went to waste. He was being mocked like that because of her, even though she couldn’t see him. That fact pierced her heart more than any other time when someone pointed a finger at her.

Once again, the sound of a strong hit totwards the tabletop came again. Tarhan could be heard growling in an incomparably lowered voice.

“…The soldiers want blood? Then let me give it. I can give it to you right now if you want. I think it would be good to start by cutting off that tongue first.”

In an instant, a suffocating tension flowed from inside the tent.

Enya shuddered at the thought of how ferocious Servia would be looking at Tarhan from inside the tent by now.

No one even thought to raise objections to Servia, who gave birth to Kahanti’s four sons. Since Kahanti’s eldest son, whom she gave birth to, was honorably killed on the plains of Zeferuna, the power of the mother, Servia, has been stronger than anyone else.

“She is the woman who sacrificed her firstborn son for the tribe.”

Kahanti preserved his post and strengthened Servia’s position with those words before lying down on a sickbed. The words of the chieftain, who was still alive with his eyes open, were more powerful than any other.

Nonetheless, Tarhan seemed to pay no such attention to it and continued the meeting after thoroughly ignoring Servia’s remarks.

“Rather than staying up all night talking nonsense, it would be much more helpful to talk about the reinforcements to be drawn from the Southern Kehirin Mountains.”

No one present could dispute his ugly mood.

From Tarhan’s words, Enya guessed that this was not the first time the situation had come, judging from how the people inside the meeting hall started to focus on the main topic again as if nothing had happened just now.

She couldn’t stand it any longer and staggered away from the tent.

As she passed with a twisted step, unable to give strength to her bad feet, she felt several Aquilea soldiers recognize her and got startled and changed direction.

Feeling even more humiliated than that, Enya walked away, feeling the pain of a needle sticking through her chest. She was just a hindrance… The thought that she was nothing more than a heap of stones in the path ahead of Tarhan kept gnawing at her head.

After walking for a while, her tired legs started to hurt, and she heard a growl coming from her stomach.

The surroundings had already become dark. She had worked for half a day without eating anything and was now sweating profusely. Enya walked the long distance of going back to her home too. However, she couldn’t even meet Tarhan as she expected, and after going through such an energy-draining situation, she felt like she couldn’t walk any longer.

In the end, Enya sat down near the nearest large pile of stones. The sun was already setting, so she couldn’t see anything but the light from the allies meeting hall shining in the distance.

Sitting down and opening the packed lunch, the now-cold rice balls appeared. She had been holding the lunch box so tightly that the shape she had worked so hard to make in the morning had all been distorted and messy.

‘…It’s rather fortunate.’

Enya thought to herself.

If possible, she wanted to feed Tarhan only the good and pretty things. Thinking that it was fortunate that she didn’t have to show him such an embarrassing lunch box, Enya shoved the rice ball into her mouth, ignoring the slight choking feeling.

As she had eaten almost all of the rice balls she had packed, suddenly, footsteps came from somewhere.

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