Chapter 135. Engagement – Feather
After returning from hunting, Leo secluded himself in his room. When Lena asked, “I’m going to drink with the veteran warriors tonight, do you want to join?” he declined, citing fatigue.
‘What is going on here?’
The fearsome creature, Noguhwaho, had disappeared. With no traces in sight, he tried to convince Lena to go down the valley.
In the valley where Noguhwaho should have been…
– Yip! Yip!
There was a family of foxes.
In front of the burrow that seemed smaller than before, a pair of pure white foxes bared their teeth, growling.
Cuddled inside the burrow, the fox cubs poked their heads out playfully, and Lena clapped her hands in delight, saying they were cute.
“Wow, so cute. Look, Leo. They even have cubs.”
Leo felt suffocated. This had never happened before.
Usually, Lena would find its tracks and inform the hunting team, and they would hunt it. And in the previous round, they had caught it together using a trap…
[Achievement: Beast Hunting – ‘2’, Mana slightly imbues your body.]
‘Could this be happening because we caught Noguhwaho last time? But why? We’ve killed humans before, and they were fine…’
Leo Dexter couldn’t understand why Noguhwaho had disappeared. He couldn’t grasp the mechanism behind it.
Unlike Minseo, he had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘games’. But he knew well enough that a crisis was at hand.
A war was imminent. Lena, who went out to hunt, would become a warrior, and according to their tribe’s customs, as the daughter of the Great Warrior, she would inevitably join the war. Then…
Count Herman Forte. He would meet the Swordmaster. Minseo had been certain that this would happen as an {Event}, an inevitable occurrence.
“How many are there? One, two… three. Oh, they’re so cute.”
Lena reached out her hand from a distance. While wild foxes wouldn’t come close to lick it, she laughed joyfully.
“At least it wasn’t complete nonsense. There are foxes after all.”
“…”
As Leo stared blankly without responding, Lena teased him.
“You fool. Who told you to believe an old man with dementia? What about all those metal skewers?”
“…”
“Leo!”
“Uh? Oh. What?”
“What are we going to do?”
“With what?”
“With the metal skewers you brought. Hunting a beast? Grandpa Boris’s boast was really something. We came here for nothing. Let’s go back. Or should we take those?”
Pointing to the fox family, Lena joked, and soon the two of them began climbing back up the valley.
The pair of foxes, having built a simple home, watched them vigilantly before retreating into the burrow with their cubs.
How they finished the hunt and returned home, Leo could not remember. He locked himself in the room with a pale face, clutching his head.
‘Damn. Damn. Damn.’
The warriors who went hunting with De Horman were delighted at the good harvest of this hunt, but Leo could not care less.
He was at a loss as to what to do.
Unexpected situations had occurred before. Each time, Minseo would somehow understand the situation and come up with a countermeasure.
But now Minseo was gone. Trapped in the horrific memories of killing tens of thousands of humans, she had lost her senses.
He was feeling hopeless.
Leo Dexter, pacing the room in distress, thought long and hard before hurriedly heading outside. He ran toward the village clearing.
The market was not open today. Warriors of the Einarr tribe were busy butchering the game they had caught.
Of course, Lena was not among them.
The hunting team that had gone out was resting, while the others took over the butchering tasks.
The caravan had gathered in one corner of the clearing.
Seven wagons were lined up. It had already been several weeks since they arrived, and the goods were sold out, but the merchants were delaying their departure due to the snowstorm.
Without much ado, Leo used his {Tracking Skills} to easily find the person he was looking for. He called out to the warriors leisurely covering themselves with blankets in the empty wagons.
“You want to go hunt a beast together? Are you a warrior?”
A tall female warrior (although still shorter than Leo) looked him up and down skeptically.
Her hair was tied with a fancy feather headband. He had seen them recruiting people for the Great Warrior’s trial during a previous market day.
The suddenly appearing caravan, unfamiliar warriors, increased game… Leo couldn’t understand what was going on entirely, but he felt he knew why these things were happening.
It was because Noguhwaho had disappeared.
Thinking back to the last round when they captured Noguhwaho, he remembered the deep gash on its side.
That half-healed wound must have been…
Leo took notice of the pair of battle axes leaned against one side of the wagon and spoke.
“Does it matter?”
“It’s not really important, but… why? You don’t seem like a warrior, why go through the trial? Do you have the skills for it?”
Another female warrior asked.
With identical black hair and thick upper lips, it was obvious they were sisters. The one who spoke was younger and shorter.
It’s funny to argue about who is older or younger (for example, among the Leos, the prince who was one year older was the smallest), but there is a feeling.
“Do you really need a reason to undergo trials? And if it’s about skills, I’m more than sufficient. More than you guys.”
Leo provoked them. The warriors looked down on those who lacked confidence, so there was no need to be humble. Of course, that only applied when one had the skills to back it up.
However, aside from that reason, Leo naturally spoke down to people older than himself.
“Oh really? Let’s see your skills then. You sure are big, but you look so gentle… no, ‘noble’ that it’s hard to believe.”
[ Quest: Nobleslayer 50/50 – {Nobility} ability increases by one level. ]
[ Quest: Rebel 10/10 – {Blood of Kings} ability increases by one level. ]
The emphasis placed somewhat strangely, but his younger sister intervened.
“Sis, we agreed that the tests would be done all at once. Hey, come back at noon when the ‘Blue Moon’ rises.”
“…I don’t know when that is.”
Northern warriors often counted dates by the color of the moon.
Simply put, it was a lunar calendar.
What was unique related to the one and only moon was that it emitted a different color each day.
The shapes, like crescent, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, and new moon, were the same, but it alternated periodically between blue and red.
Long ago, after the Achaia kingdom’s early establishment of a solar calendar, those who considered themselves civilized people stopped keeping dates by the shape and color of the moon.
However, barbarians, especially northern warriors, projected their superstitions onto the moon’s color. They specifically referred to the blue full moon as ‘Blue Moon’ and used it to keep dates.
“You’re not a real warrior, are you? It’s the day after tomorrow. The other warriors are also gathering then, so let’s see what you’ve got. If no one catches our eye, we’ll just let it go. The gathered people might go or not…”
I agree. It would be troublesome if your skills are insignificant too. Leo nodded and asked.
“Before that, there’s something I want to ask. Do you know where the beast is?”
“Of course. Why else would we gather people? That’s obvious.”
The sister shrugged her shoulders.
“Where is it? If it’s too far, it could be troublesome.”
“Not very far. We saw it on the way here. It’s three days away and it’s known as ‘Snow Horned Deer’. It’s quite magnificent. Oh, by the way, let me tell you in advance, the horns are ours. You have to credit us for finding it.”
“Alright. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow. Is it okay to bring one more person?”
“As many as you want. But the trial of the great warrior only allows up to five participants. You can only bring two more with you.”
Leo didn’t respond and turned his back.
At least he found a beast. The northern region was abundant with beasts, so he expected to find at least one more, which was fortunate.
No, there’s no time to think about it as fortunate. What if the disappearance of the ‘old tiger’ was because it was caught in the previous round…
Leo felt a chill down his spine.
* * *
“What? You want to undergo the trial of the great warrior?”
Lena, who had been lazing around in her room, half-opened her eyes and asked back.
Having returned from her first hunt and become a proper warrior of the Einarr tribe, she had drunk a lot the previous night.
Until then, she had to be careful of her mother’s watch, but now she didn’t have to, so Lena celebrated becoming a warrior by drinking heavily with her father, which resulted in this state.
“Oh, my head. More importantly, Leo, bring me some water. Why does dad give so much alcohol to his daughter? Even the other great warriors left two more drinks next to me. As if they did it for me…”
Leo felt slightly baffled at her complaint. Thinking about how she might share the blame for not refusing, he almost brought over a cup of odor tea… but ended up fetching water.
This wasn’t a time for jokes.
Soon enough, Lena came to her senses after drinking cold water and spoke.
“Suddenly undergoing the trial of the great warrior? What nonsense is that?”
Leo explained the situation.
Since he couldn’t yet talk about the {War} that hadn’t happened, he mentioned that there were warriors planning to undergo the trial in the present column. Lena interrupted him.
“Are you doing it because you couldn’t catch the beast last time? Back then, it seemed like you tried to trap it with iron skewers, but traps are forbidden in the trial of the great warrior. It won’t be easy. You don’t even know their skills.”
“They looked capable to me. Let’s catch a beast. Come on? What’s the big deal about the trial. If you undergo the trial of the great warrior right after becoming a warrior, you’ll definitely be revered as a legendary warrior…”
Lena’s negative words still left some room for persuasion, so Leo pleaded.
Fortunately, Lena seemed interested in the trial of the great warrior.
Maybe it was because she drank with the great warriors of the Einarr tribe, including Dehorman, the night before.
The great warriors wouldn’t have held back on good words for Lena, who had just become a warrior, making her quite elated.
Of course, her confidence might have stemmed from not yet encountering a beast.
In previous rounds, Lena had expressed concerns, even after being told how to catch the ‘old tiger’ and seeing it for herself.
Capturing a spirit beast is difficult. I have captured it twice, but it was because I knew how to hunt it, and Abowandon had two knights, making it possible. Both times, traps were also used.
So, the trial of a great warrior, where traps cannot be used, would be much more challenging.
Lena could get hurt, and I could die.
‘But…’
If we don’t capture the spirit beast, we will have to go to the battlefield. If we go there, we will surely die.
Leo Dexter’s persuasion continued.
Just like Minseo used to do, when he sweet-talked, Lena’s ears twitched with interest.
“Okay. But first, I need to see what kind of people those friends you mentioned, who will undergo the trial with us, actually are.”
Having successfully captured Lena’s interest, Leo sighed in relief.
Just like Minseo often did, he let out a deep sigh filled with worry and frustration.
The limitations of each round.
The threat of death.
For Leo Dexter, there were different but similar constraints.
This time, it seems we can avoid {war} by somehow capturing the spirit beast called ‘Snow Horned Deer.’ But if that spirit beast disappears in the next round… what then?
Just as the {priest} event leading to the main church is forced in the childhood friend scenario, it seemed impossible to avoid the war anymore.
Then, next time with Lena Einarr and I…
At that moment, Lena took Leo Dexter’s hand as he was worrying. She led him to the backyard and requested a spar.
She said she had learned something from the hunt…
Of course, she was no match for him and was easily defeated.
Lena made a frustrated but resolved expression, muttered, “Ugh,” and began training again, forgetting her hangover.
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