Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Just then, the ritual of the Nervana Forest men, with the elderly man named Lehijin as their leader, ended. As soon as they finished their ritual, Enya spotted a large man running toward her.

“I was wondering when you would come? How did you endure the ceremony because you were itchy?”

Yaru scolded Reyhald, who dug into the center, ignoring his size, and occupied the spot closest to Enya.

“Yes, if you don’t do the ritual, your body will stumble, and it’s hard to stand up. Anyway, what did I miss? What were you talking about? Your laughter wouldn’t even stop…!”

Enya couldn’t help but laugh when she saw Reyhald lick his lips and rub his hands together. As she laughed a few times with her mouth open and her shoulders moved up in time, suddenly, all around her suddenly became quiet.

She looked around her anxiously, wondering if she had made a mistake.

Soon, Fiarca exclaimed.

“She laughed!!”

At the same time, Reyhald and the women still gathered around her burst into cheers and shouted.

“Oh, my God. I always thought you were intimidated when you only kept your lips shut like that. Even when you smile, it doesn’t look like you were smiling though how nice it is to see you laugh like this.”

“Hey, Reyhald. Try that mosquito-like movement again. Let’s make Enya laugh one more time.”

“What. I’ve never done anything like that!”

In an instant, the surroundings became noisy again. Enya pressed her lips together again at those words and pondered the words again.

‘Intimidated…?’’

As they said, maybe she always had an impression of being intimidated outside. She only bit her lip, unable to laugh even when it was funny, and the expressions she could make were limited as she could only hang around without being able to fit in with people.

The next moment, Fiarca put her hand on her shoulder.

Enya looked up at Fiarca. Her eyes gleamed softly at Enya with a refreshing smile.

“What do you think? It’s good to come to see the ceremony, right? It’s just a day to recover, play and eat like this. It will last until night, will you stay until then?”

There was no reason not to nod her head at those words.

Friendship in a harmonious atmosphere that she was feeling for the first time in her life. The sweet temptation had already caught Enya out of her mind, like a bee in honey. Indeed, as they said, the banquet that started as soon as the ceremony was over continued very naturally and lively.

The people of Nervana Forest showed great interest in Enya and, at the same time, refrained from expressing it too much so as not to burden her, and each began to have a good time in their own way.

“The skull spider is our greatest enemy.”

Across the campfire, the relatively young people of the Nervana Forest were playing their instruments, clapping their hands, and singing to create a festive atmosphere. Enya was sitting around the older people who looked at them with delight and had a constant conversation with them.

“Every year, we send out strong warriors from among the women of the tribe to dig up the skull spider’s web. The same goes for the males of the Lehijin tribe.”

Said Kiyan, looking at Yaru and Fiarca happily from the other side of the campfire, teasing Reyhald and enjoying the festivities.

“These two are so talented that no one can compare them.”

Enya gazed with admiration and envy as she watched the shadows of the vibrant Nervana Forest youths cast over the blazing fire. The desire to become a person who could be trusted by someone like that started to appear inside her.

“Is there any reason to risk digging through the skull spider’s web?”

Enya shuddered at the thought of the calamitous monster called the Skull Spider that brought Nervana’s tribe to the brink of extinction.

Kiyan answered the question with sharp eyes.

“We can’t not help it. There are women who get pregnant every year. Because we don’t have the ‘daughter of the forest’ to control the skull spider.”

Enya couldn’t understand it, so she had to ask.

“Pregnant women? What does that have to do with the skull spider…?”

Hearing her question, Kiyan changed her expression at once. She murmured in a sullen voice.

“Literally so. The skull spiders are crazy about pregnant women and newborn blood.”

Enya felt the goosebumps rise on her forearms. Following her words, Kiyan’s eyes caught the red light of the bonfire and shimmered like flames.

“In the past, there was a noble lineage that could control such catastrophic monsters for generations. We called them the Daughter of the Forest. However, they were now a being that had disappeared into the dark side of history. We are in the same position as the foolish tribes of Argon who lost their ‘daughter of the desert’ a long time ago. Even more so after losing the last remaining line…”

For a moment, pain hung over Kiyan’s eyes as she said those words before she suddenly stared at Enya’s face.

Enya trembled when she found the desire that could not be hidden from Kiyan’s expression and the anticipation that was proportional to it.

…Why? Why was Kiyan looking at her like that?

It was then. Several young men from the Lehijin tribe, who were celebrating over a bonfire, approached them.

Kiyan furrowed her eyebrows at them and gave them a disapproving look. However, a group of strong men, led by Reyhald, spoke to Enya straight away without being intimidated by Kiyan’s eyes.

“Hey, Enya. What are you doing with the old people there? Don’t do that, come over here and play with us. Shall I teach you how to play the horn?”

Behind Reyhald, who smiled brightly and showed off his white teeth, there was a man who looked just as young and healthy as he did. All of them were throwing off their tops coolly because it was right after the ceremony was over.

A tattoo was also shown on their muscular forearms as proof that the coming-of-age ceremony went smoothly.

“This is, in turn, Leroi, Zechariah and Cugnac.”

Reyhald introduced them playfully. The man, introduced as Zechariah, put one arm around Reyhald’s neck and winked at Enya.

“What do you think, Enya? Will you come with us?”

Beside her, she could see Kiyan’s expression distorted and her mouth opening to say something, but Reyhald was quicker.

“Shh. Kiyan. That this is part of the operation. You know Enya is also very young. She doesn’t have children yet. Don’t you think it’s too ignorant for an old hag like Kiyan to hold on to her?”

While she couldn’t understand the ‘operation’ he was talking about at all, she knew right away that what they were throwing was flirting.

Flirting of this kind had only recently been thrown by the men of Aquilea during the Day of Repose when they did not realize it was Anya. So, Enya quickly shook her head, her skin flushed all the way up to her earlobes.

“I, I… I think I’m good here. I’m fine.”

However, unlike the Aquilea men who persistently clung to each other, Reyhald’s group only shook their shoulders once and turned around and left with the words,

“Come if you change your mind.”

“Anyway, Lehijin. How does he educate the children…”

Kiyan, who was watching this, stood next to Enya, crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.

“What is wrong with that? It’s when they are in full energy. And they’re the best fighters out there in that group. The water was a bit muddy because of Reyhald, but you know what? They’re not bad either.”

The woman who was watching the festival scene over the bonfire with a child sleeping next to her in her arms laughed at Kiyan’s sigh and said.

Time had passed.

In the meantime, the bonfire had almost turned to a wood fire, and the fever of the festival was heightened. After Kiyan left, saying she had something to say to Lehijin, Enya stayed alone on a tree stump to watch the banquet of the Nervana Forest.

Soon, a shadow approached her.

Startled, she looked up and saw that it was one of the three men whom Reyhald had introduced earlier.

“Would you like a drink?”

The man grinned as he handed one of the wooden glasses.

Enya tried to remember his name but to no avail. The man who gazed at her giggled and answered.

“It’s Leroi.”

Even though she felt uncomfortable with the sudden approach, Enya couldn’t push him away, so she lowered her head and muttered that she was sorry. She had never been in such close contact with a young man other than Tarhan.

Naturally, she shrank.

Leroi had a knack for relieving her tension.

“What? Reyhald’s twin brother…?”

Leroi gave a funny look and shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t we look alike?”

“It seems a little like that…”

At that, Leroi opened his mouth all at once, giving her a disapproving look.

“Really? You say we look alike? Me, with that child?”

Enya mumbled in a grumpy voice, not knowing what kind of rhythm she was supposed to tune to.

“…Looking back, it may not seem like it.”

As Leroi looked at her and gave her a perfectly broad grin, Enya felt very comfortable with him as his childishness was completely different from the men she knew, and it was like seeing a little brother.

That was how she talked to Leroi and was able to become friends with him.

He really was as young as she thought. On the outside, he seemed to have passed the coming-of-age ceremony long ago because of his tall, muscular body like the other young men of the Nervana Forest, but he was also a new warrior who had just finished the season of fall in the Lehijin tribe, just like Reyhald.

He taught Enya various things about the young Nervana Forest youths who had come with him earlier.

“Cugnac is Lehizin’s son. He’s almost like the deputy chieftain, except for Nihitan, of course. The funniest guy, of course, is Reyhald. Zechariah is an amazing dagger thrower. No one has ever beaten him. And…”

He said, pointing at himself with the bridge of his nose raised proudly.

“I run the fastest. I’m faster than a puma.”

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