Chapter 133: Engagement – Marketplace
“Come on in! This way! Take a look! Goods from the capital Bernoulli!”
“Selling homemade liquor made from ‘Totru’! Liquor! Brewed at home! We also have snacks!”
A market was set up in the usual slaughtering ground of the Einarr tribe.
Although it was a small-scale market, the merchants were busy displaying the goods they had brought on their carts and enticing customers.
Many residents of the Avril castle took this opportunity to set up their stalls, making the market bustling and lively, and the Einarr tribe members eagerly picked out the items they needed, delighted at the opened market after such a long time.
In the midst of the commotion, Lena Einarr asked,
“How much did you bring?”
Despite it being the middle of winter, she was lightly dressed, and to be honest, her clothes were not pretty.
Her top was roughly made from animal hide, and she wore thick, faded cotton pants she often wore. She had no accessories to complement her appearance.
Lena Einarr was always like this. She had no interest in adorning her appearance.
“This should be enough, right?”
Of course, Leo didn’t care about her attire either.
He showed two silver coins and extended his elbow. Lena raised her eyebrows and said, “Hmm?” She briefly looked puzzled but didn’t refuse his arm.
Just like the big-built Leo Dexter, Lena Einarr, who was also well-built, walked arm in arm with him through the market. The voices of customers trying to haggle and merchants promising extras rang out everywhere.
Peaceful.
“Where do you want to go first? What do you want to buy? I’ll buy you anything. Just say the word.”
“Oh really? Bragging with just two silver coins.”
Lena chuckled.
Her unwavering eyes looked up at Leo from the side and directly stared at him.
Her red lips, straight nose, and neat eyebrows were beautiful.
Leo wanted to look at that face endlessly, but Lena soon turned her head and pointed.
“Let’s go that way. I saw something yesterday. Oh! Hi! You came too.”
A warrior from one of the tribes greeted Lena warmly.
Lena was quite popular among the Einarr tribe. They often stopped as someone would strike up a conversation with her every ten steps.
Since Leo Dexter was not a member of the tribe, he would awkwardly look away every time.
“Yeah! I’m going out for the next hunt too. I’ll be an adult in a few days, so you’ll see! Everyone says I can’t hunt… They have no idea about my skills.”
Leo laughed at Lena’s naive confidence. She thought hunting was done with swords, but she would be very surprised on her first hunt.
The warrior who spoke to her also smiled slyly and said, “Sure~ You’ll do well. Absolutely.”
At that moment,
“Looking for participants for the Great Warrior’s ordeal!”
As the conversation dragged on, a pair of warrior women caught Leo’s attention. They shouted from a distance.
They had long hair down to their waists, tied in distinctive knots.
Feathers dyed in vibrant colors adorned the knots, indicating they were clearly warriors from a different tribe.
‘Why are there so many new sights today, both with this market and those women?’ Leo wondered.
This hadn’t happened in previous iterations.
Lena had occasionally complained that the market wouldn’t come.
But considering Avril castle’s militaristic nature, where most residents were Einarr tribe members, it wasn’t unusual that merchants rarely visited.
The Einarr tribe was largely self-sufficient through agriculture and hunting, and the soldiers stationed at the castle and their families received supplies.
‘Could this be the effect of the previous childhood friend scenario? The timing doesn’t match…’
Lev, who had become an apostle of Barbatos, would cause an incident next year, around late spring. By now, he should be laying traps all across Nevis, preparing for the massacre.
Although he had wiped out two large families in Nevis, that wouldn’t have had an impact here.
‘If it were Minseo, what would he have noticed?’
Leo Dexter shook his head.
He didn’t want to think about scenarios or anything. He just wanted to live happily here with Lena.
“Leo! Have you waited long? Sorry, let’s hurry.”
Lena, who interrupted his thoughts, tugged at him. Clinging tightly to his arm again,
“It’s weird that he laughs every time I talk? Does he think I don’t notice? Just wait till the hunt… ” she said, and Leo looked at her with loving eyes before feeling bitter.
My name isn’t Leo. Your name probably isn’t Lena either…
Leo, caught in a whirlwind of conflicting emotions, and the grumbling, threatening Lena finally reached their destination.
The place she led him to wasn’t a shop selling fancy jewelry, light clothes, or snacks. The vendor who had been working hard looked up.
“Welcome. What do you need? Are you here to sell or leave some leather?”
The vendor wore an apron smeared with oil and solidified white patches here and there.
Lena had come to a stall selling leather goods.
The merchant wore a long apron stained with grease and had various tools hanging from it, indicating that he might also be a tanner. His stall was cluttered with leather-hanging frames, leaving no space to step.
“I’m here to buy some leather. I saw something yesterday, um…”
While Lena was placing the order, Leo Dexter habitually looked around.
A small cauldron on one side of the stall was bubbling, emitting a musty smell and white steam.
In the center was a table, curved like the back of a cow, with blood-and-fat-covered hides spread out, indicating ongoing work.
It wasn’t an unfamiliar scene.
Leo knew how to tan leather and had done it many times. But it was a new smell that caught his interest.
‘What is this smell?’
Tanning is the process of turning raw hides into leather.
Both the Einarr tribe, who were hunters, and those at Dop Bizan’s lodge practiced tanning (untanned hides would quickly rot or crumble in the sun). However, there were differences in the tanning methods between the Einarr tribe and the hunter father from the Childhood Friend scenario.
For leather to last long, it needed to be treated with oil.
To provide this oil, the Einarr tribe would repeatedly boil the brains of their prey and apply the extract to the hides. It was a method of utilizing the brain, which was otherwise an inedible mass of fat.
In contrast, Dop Bizan, who worshipped Barbatos, had a different method because they offered the heads of their prey as sacrifices every time. They rubbed the hides with fat and then smoked them in the smoke.
His son, Lev, who was good with his hands, worked on this process while making jerky.
But this merchant seemed to use yet another method.
Leo discreetly peeked into the cauldron, the source of the smell. Some plant roots floated to the bubbling surface and then sank again.
‘Is he extracting something from plants? What kind of plant could it be?’
“Hey! You shouldn’t be peeking at someone else’s secret method.”
The merchant, who had been chatting with Lena, quickly approached and covered the cauldron with its lid.
Leo shrugged to show that he had no ill intentions, but it seemed too late to avoid the merchant’s angry gaze.
“Hey! You, get out for a bit!”
Unfortunately, he was kicked out. For some reason, Lena pushed Leo out, and he wandered outside, grumbling.
“Damn it. I did it unconsciously…”
Carrying on with the ‘game’ where failing to be alert could lead to severe consequences, he made a mistake.
Habits are terrifying that way.
Although he had no memory of his past life, his mind was filled with memories of horrible endings resulting from trivial mistakes, making him instinctively wary of unfamiliar smells.
Leo Dexter sighed.
Still, coming out with Lena seemed to have helped calm him down significantly.
Minseo. He didn’t completely misunderstand Minseo’s situation.
He must be desperate.
That’s how he thought rationally. But emotionally, he didn’t like the situation or Minseo at all.
– “Leo… Leo… Leo… Please…”
Lena, who had been hitting his back.
She tried to change the heart of the man who had turned away cruelly by undressing. Her dignity was pitifully discarded, and her desperate pleas and weak punches left a dull thud.
His right shoulder blade stung.
Leo Dexter uncomfortably cleared his throat and rolled his shoulders. Loosening his aching shoulders, he raised his right hand.
Creepy enough, a trumpet pattern was engraved on his palm.
[ Achievement: Apostle of Barbatos – You can borrow the power of Barbatos as much as you have offered. You cannot serve other gods. ]
It wasn’t a tattoo. It was the mark of apostolic ‘qualifications’ forcibly instilled into him through the achievement.
Yes. I am an apostle.
The mistake from the last scenario was etched on my palm, proving that all those painful memories were not nightmares.
Of course, Barbatos wouldn’t know me.
I hadn’t performed any ‘rite to announce to the deity’ like Lev.
If I ever did, Barbatos would be very confused. It would mean he had an apostle he didn’t know…
Phew-
Leo shook his right hand as if trying to shake off the mark. A bracelet with three red beads, the reward from the last scenario, {Bracelet of Barbatos}, dangled.
It was a good thing he got it when Minseo was zoned out. If not, who knows what that guy would have thought… it’s scary.
If he had this bracelet earlier, Minseo would have probably succeeded in breaking off his engagement with Lena.
Annoyed, Leo took off the bracelet. He almost threw it on the ground but took a deep breath to calm his emotions.
No matter how much he disliked it, it was a reward obtained with great effort. He couldn’t just ‘dispose of’ something that wasn’t his alone.
After putting the bracelet back on, Leo looked at Lena. She was whispering with the merchant, possibly bargaining or colluding.
How did I meet her?
How did we meet, start dating, and get engaged? What is Lena’s real name? What kind of stories did we usually share…
Resentment welled up. He loved Lena, but what he knew about her was only second-hand through Minseo’s memories.
Leo, who was stretching methodically, turned his head as the last step.
After shaking off his distracting thoughts and waiting a moment, Lena called out to him.
“Leo. Buy this for me.”
What she held out was a long leather strap.
It was a high-quality black leather with the fur cleanly removed.
“Sure. But why do you need this? What’s it for?”
“I’m going to wrap it around the sword handle. The sword your father gave me last time is good, but the handle is all worn out.”
Lena lifted the sword at her waist to show the worn-out handle.
It was the sword of his father, Noel Dexter.
‘Ah, that’s why she didn’t say anything when she saw my sword…’
A minor question was answered.
In the previous scenario, I received a sword from my father.
It was the sword my mother used.
Without even a blade guard and seemingly quite old, with a hint of brown mixed in it, the sword was ‘bound’ to me, and my father gave his sword to a jealous Lena.
It seemed that was fixed as a past event here.
In other scenarios, the sword would just appear out of nowhere, and Leah and the younger sister Lena would ask where it came from.
“Then I should buy one too. My handle is quite worn out…”
When Leo was about to ask the merchant for another one, Lena shouted, “No!”
“Whoa, why?”
“This, this is expensive. If we buy two, we’ll have no money left.”
“How expensive can it be? How much is it?”
“I’m telling you, no! Th-this… Ah! A knight doesn’t cling to tools! Just pay the money quickly. It’s one silver coin.”
“A silver coin? That small piece of leather can’t be that expensive…”
Realizing something, Leo closed his mouth. He handed over the silver coin to the smiling merchant, who seemed to have forgiven him for looking into the pot without asking further questions.
Lena, really… aside from swordsmanship, she is clumsy at everything else.
She was hiding something behind her back, and Leo Dexter played along as if he didn’t notice.
“Heehee.”
On the way back,
Lena was cheerful, laughing brightly, and the two of them affectionately held hands as they went home.
Snowflakes were falling heavily from the sky.
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