Chapter 139. Engaged – Festival
Is this what it feels like to return in glory?
A festival was held in the Einarr tribe. The chieftain, brimming with joy, commanded even the not-yet-fermented barrels of alcohol to be brought out, and halted the ongoing hunts. Without a doubt, Lena Einarr and Urok Einarr were the stars of this festival.
Following tradition, the two paraded the carcass of the spirit beast on a snow sled around the Avril Fortress. At last, they ascended the platform set up in an open space, and hoisted the head of the ice-horned stag high, as the cheers of the gathered Einarr tribesmen threatened to blow the fortress away.
“Kuhahahaha! Well done! Great job!”
Dehorman laughed heartily from the platform. He seemed extremely pleased as he patted Lena on the shoulder.
But next to him, two other great warriors whispered disapprovingly.
“This guy was scolding us just yesterday, saying his daughter was going through trials because of us…”
“I knew from the start he was a doting father. Can’t believe a guy who overprotects his grown daughter this much is a great warrior. Well, at least she came back safely.”
The old chieftain passed these gossiping warriors and approached Lena and Urok.
Amid the intensified cheers, he first shook Urok’s hand.
“…I knew… you could do it… Thank you… Is your leg okay…?”
Standing beside, Lena couldn’t quite hear the chieftain’s words due to the loud cheers.
Turning back now and then to wave proudly, Lena soon caught the chieftain’s eyes directed at her.
“Well done. To overcome the trials and return as a great warrior… Haha. Age doesn’t matter for warriors, but you’re the youngest great warrior in the entire north.”
He took Lena’s hand too, placing her next to Urok with a smile.
“If only you were my granddaughter-in-law… Haha.”
“Heh. Grandpa, sorry but that won’t happen.”
Lena declared confidently.
Perhaps her voice was a bit loud, for Dehorman’s eyes flared at the mention of “grandpa,” but Lena just shrugged it off.
I am a great warrior now, after all.
Though Dehorman and the other senior warriors were particularly formal, the relationship between a chieftain and a great warrior was one of equals.
Lena bent down and whispered into the hunched-over chieftain’s ear.
“I’m going to marry Leo.”
“Ha ha. That’s a shame. Well then, no more personal talk.”
The chieftain laughed, turning her around, and raised both Urok’s and Lena’s wrists high.
– Woaaaaah!
As the deafening cheers and sharp whistles resounded, Lan, Ann, and Leo, standing idly below the platform as they weren’t Einarr tribesmen, applauded.
It was a day mid-winter, with more than a month remaining until the {war}.
* * *
“What’s the plan now?”
Ann asked at the drinking table. With the great warrior birth ceremony over, the real festival had just begun.
“What else? We go back.”
Answered Lan. Leo was filling their glasses beside her.
The surrounding was quite noisy. Being winter, it was hard to hold festivities in the open, so the Einarr tribe had converted a leather storage into a bar.
Though it was merely using leather piles as chairs and tables, and serving liquor and food, people gathered in groups, cheerfully conversing.
Among them was an old man, Boris Einarr. He was in the middle of recounting his tale which nobody believed – “I’m telling you, there really is a mysterious temple. I saw it with my own eyes! It was a night with a blue moon…”
Ann raised her voice to ask again.
“Going back is obvious. I’m asking what’s the plan to return. Are we finding ‘Uncle Vernon’ or going back on our own?”
“Hmm? It would be faster on our own, but…”
Lan Avviker, her older sister, clinked her wooden cup with Leo’s and took a sip before continuing.
“Uncle might be worried. It would be better to return together. The next destination is the barony of Bryna, and it’s not far.”
Leo interjected into the sisters’ conversation.
“Who’s Vernon?”
“Oh, we didn’t introduce you. You remember the person who lent us horses?”
“Ah.”
Leo nodded in comprehension.
When we set out to capture the spirit beast, we borrowed horses from the merchant, who seemed to have a close relationship with Lan and Ann, as he readily lent out two horses, making our expedition easier.
“Ah- Grandpa Boris. Nobody believes in that stuff anymore.”
“What!? Why not? I’m a living witness. Are you calling me a liar?”
“Grandpa often tells tall tales. Like how you saw a fairy or some winged girl last time…”
“Cough! That was a joke. But this is real. I stayed a night in that temple. There was a sword at the altar. But come morning, everything had disappeared. The sword, the temple. I swear it was the hall of ‘Rachar.’ I’ve seen the sacred temple. Indeed, a great warrior like me…”
Oh– it’s so noisy.
As Leo rubbed his ears, Ann continued her conversation.
“When we arrive, won’t they have already left?”
“There’s nothing we can do about that. We’ll just have to ask around and chase after them… If I’d known it would take this long, I would’ve told the old man where to meet us beforehand.”
“Why do we need to find them?”
Leo, using his {tracking skills}, knew that Vernon and his party were currently southeast.
“We need to go home now. We live in the capital.”
“Bernoullie? You guys?”
“Why? Can’t we live in the capital?”
“That’s not what I meant. I heard there are no native tribes around the capital.”
“That’s right. There aren’t any. We just got married into that area.”
Leo noticed that she was holding back her words. Reluctant to ask more, he took another sip of his drink, but Lan, resting her chin on her hand, asked as if she could see right through him.
“You want to go to Bernoullie, don’t you?”
“…”
Leo remained silent. He had no answer because he himself didn’t know what to do going forward.
Lan, cooling her flushed neck with a cold palm, made a guess.
“I mean, someone with your skills wouldn’t want to rot away in a place like this. I should have said this earlier, but I’m honestly impressed. Your skills are amazing, but… you also lead very well. Are you perhaps a noble? Did your family fall during the civil war, leading you to this remote area? I’ve heard there are quite a few people like that.”
“…It’s true I came after the civil war, but I’m not a noble. My family has been a lineage of knights for generations.”
“Hmm~ That explains why you’re so skilled. A knight, huh… Ah! So you want to go to the capital to participate in the tournament. Isn’t that right?”
“Tournament? What tourna…”
At that moment, the door of the tavern swung open, causing a commotion. Cheers erupted as he turned to see Lena entering, surrounded by people.
Lena, after maintaining enough courtesy, approached Leo.
“So you were here. I was looking for you. Ah, the older sisters are here too. Let me join in.”
“How did you get away?”
“I escaped under the pretense of visiting Uruk. Oh, the nagging from the chieftain grandpa and the great warrior uncle… Leo, is your shoulder okay?”
Leo Dexter shrugged his shoulders.
He had gone to church for treatment with Uruk Einar, who had injured his leg, and now felt no discomfort.
Leo made a place for Lena. He got another bundle of leather piled in the corner and put it beside her. The four of them drank amidst the lively atmosphere of the tavern.
Small talk ensued.
From questions about how it felt to be revered as a great warrior to playful interrogations about the nature of the two’s relationship.
Lena chatted away freely. As the conversations among the women became slightly more intimate, Leo, who had been quietly listening, occasionally turned red.
With her face flushed from the alcohol, Lena spoke.
“I’m happy now, but I don’t intend to be satisfied just being a great warrior. I have a big dream. I want to become a knight. And…”
“Oh? I think we were just talking about that while you weren’t here. Right. Leo said he wanted to participate in the Maunin Tournament. Are you going together?”
“When did I ever…”
“Is it true? Leo, did you intend to participate in the Maunin Tournament? You said you didn’t want to before.”
Lena looked at him with excitement. Faced with her hopeful gaze, Leo momentarily lost his words. Not just because of her gaze…
‘What is the Maunin Tournament even about? Since earlier.’
Through Lena’s words, he had heard about the ‘Maunin-Retii Tournament’ before. It’s the competition that Dehorman and my mother participated in when they were young, which I heard about when I was distancing myself to break off the engagement with Lena at Vidoliin Castle in the Holy Kingdom of Jerome.
It seems to be an abbreviation, but… What does it have to do with knights? And I never said I wanted to participate in that competition?
“…Just. I changed my mind.”
“What’s gotten into you? You were so stubborn about this. Is it because of me?”
He didn’t know what she meant.
But from the context, he thought she’d be happy if he agreed, so Leo nodded slightly, and Lena, with her flushed face, smiled brightly.
“Thank you. For swallowing your pride. I’ll work hard. I’m a lot behind but…”
The smell of liquor.
A drunken Lena leaned in closer. Her face now very close, had an expectant look, and she stuck out her tongue slightly to touch her lips.
Leo stopped her lips that were about to touch him. Noticing the expectant eyes of Lan and Ann, he said.
“What are you doing in front of everyone?”
“…Tch. Coward.”
“Aww, what a shame. We could’ve seen something nice… Enjoy your time. Enjoy it. Why don’t we go outside instead of staying here? It might be a bit cold, but they set up a bonfire in the open space.”
Lan winked at Leo with a strange signal and stood up, and the four of them soon moved out.
As they exited the storeroom and closed the door, they could hear the old man Boris’s tall tale about the time he fearlessly went to the ‘War Island’ in the far frozen northern sea, a true warrior’s land, battling day after day.
“To Lena! For the great deeds our battle warrior has achieved!”
Around the giant bonfire made from hundreds of pieces of firewood, the warriors, who had been drinking, raised their glasses high towards Lena.
“The main character is here, let’s have fun again!”
They settled in one place and sat down, the young men stood up and shouted. They dragged over a few large Nenato (a waist-high cylindrical percussion instrument made from tree trunks) and started beating them with a thud.
The warriors danced in sync with their arms on each other’s shoulders. They sang songs as they circled around the bonfire.
Naturally, the main character, Lena, was quickly drawn in. At first, she protested, “Oh! Let go! I want to play with Leo!” but soon became part of the group and danced joyfully.
“I’m envious… Was our village like that too?”
Ann asked quietly. Although she was always calm, she sounded melancholy as she gazed at the warriors.
“…Probably. Hey, why don’t we go dance over there?”
“Pfft. At our age, you think we can fit in there? Nonsense.”
“So what? It’s another tribe, and we’ll be leaving soon. We came all this way to experience things like that. Let’s go!”
Lan forcibly lifted her sister. They joined the dancing warriors and awkwardly imitated their movements.
The young men of the Einarr tribe, adorned with extravagant feather decorations, willingly accepted the slightly older women.
Leo was observing from a distance.
Sitting alone and sipping his drink at the spot he had initially settled, Lena came running over.
“Come on, join us!”
“Huh? I’m not a member of the tribe…”
“What does that matter! I’m the great warrior of this tribe, and you’re my husband!”
Lena dragged Leo Dexter to the bonfire. On the joyful night the great warrior was born, the moon in the sky had already lost its blue hue and turned slightly red, but for tonight, no one cared.
