novelraw Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Everything had happened exactly as we had warned.
The human merchants we had traded with before had visited the Cow Tribe’s territory, intending to buy grain as they had in the past.
If they had not known that Levelium had been occupied by the Imperial bastards, the trade would have gone ahead as usual.
“Knowing that, we couldn’t just let it happen.”
The Cow Tribe were no fools.
Because I had warned them in advance, they hadn’t planned to trade as soon as the merchants arrived.
They meant to refuse the trade coldly and issue a warning.
They had driven those bastards off, and a few days later other merchants had come.
And they had offered a very strange proposal.
All the Cow Tribe chieftains had gathered here, and the reason they hadn’t gone to the Lion Tribe for the trade was to discuss this matter.
“So, they suggested we retake Lucas Castle together?”
“That’s right. It seemed the residents of Lucas Castle were very dissatisfied with the Imperials. If the Cow Tribe attacked Lucas Castle, they said the townspeople would open the gates and join in.”
“That’s not an ordinary thing at all.”
Lucas Castle was located on the northern edge of the Levelium region, the area closest to the Cow Tribe’s lands.
If the Cow Tribe were to launch an operation in Levelium, Lucas Castle would naturally be the obvious target.
But because the people of Lucas Castle had approached them first with such an offer, the Cow Tribe found themselves in a dilemma.
From the start, the Cow Tribe had been the faction most eager to press the attack on Levelium.
‘Something felt off.’
If the merchants were from Lucas Castle, they would indeed be resentful toward the Imperials.
The castle’s supplies had likely all been requisitioned by the Imperials, and the merchants would have had everything taken from them as well.
Hearing this from people who clearly hated the Imperials, the proposal to drive the Imperials out together sounded fairly plausible.
If someone inside Lucas Castle was cooperating with them, they might actually be able to expel the Imperials.
That was why the Cow Tribe were troubled.
However, it would still be suspicious if those who had intended to trick the Cow Tribe under Imperial orders and steal grain suddenly switched tactics.
‘More plausible is that these bastards were trying to lure the Cow Tribe in and stab them in the back.’
And in the current circumstances, was that even possible?
If the fighting had been at its height it might be different, but things had entered a lull and everyone was busy reorganizing.
A sane person wouldn’t start an uprising at a time like this.
‘So, the Imperials’ real target was this place.’
Levelium’s supply situation was not good.
This year’s harvest had basically failed, and trade with beastmen had been cut off, so they were in a very difficult spot.
‘The trade failed. Then the next step is…’
This area was a fairly fertile granary, and a large amount of wheat was about to be harvested.
If they sacked this place and took all the grain, they could have solved a large part of Levelium’s shortages.
So it was more likely that the other side was using a ruse.
As Levelium’s supply problems worsened, this area had caught the Imperials’ eye before Johnson Territory did.
“So, what do you think we should do?”
Before stating my opinion, I asked the Cow Tribe for theirs.
If they had not yet reached a conclusion, that meant there were disagreements; I wanted to see who was thinking what.
“I think it’s worth trying. The hardest part is taking the castle walls, but if someone inside opens the gates, we could drive the Imperials out quickly.”
Rioxen, chieftain of the First Horn, favored cooperating with the merchants.
If they could safely get over the walls, it was worth attempting.
He hadn’t really considered that it could be an Imperial stratagem.
As blunt and stout as his appearance, his way of thinking was simple.
“Why bother? Merchants can’t be trusted either. I don’t know what they’re up to, but it seems their situation is bad. So let’s just smash in ourselves.”
Delmason, chieftain of the Second Horn, wanted to ignore the merchants and attack.
He was even more belligerent than Rioxen.
His dismissal of the merchants suggested he sensed the possibility of a trap, but that he still preferred to charge in showed he wasn’t exactly balanced.
“Why let them lead us around? It’s right to ignore them. Above all, didn’t we agree to pool the beastmen’s strength and respond together?”
Gariman, chieftain of the Third Horn, was also in favor of ignoring them.
He argued it was better to strengthen our own foundations and then, after gathering the beastmen’s forces, strike the bastards later.
I was glad there was at least one who thought sensibly.
‘Two want to attack and one wants to wait—these are hopeless fellows. Then I just need to persuade the other two from Gariman’s side.’
But there was no need for me to bother.
The Cow Tribe had their own decision-making method.
It was a process I could hardly imagine.
“So they decided to hold a duel meeting.”
“A duel meeting? What’s that?”
“It’s simple. They fight and the winner wins the decision.”
“…What the hell is that?”
A Cow Tribe duel meeting.
When a major decision was at stake and the chieftains couldn’t agree,
they resolved it by duel, letting the victor’s will decide.
—How primitive. Have they gone mad?
Even the rabbit fellow was appalled by such a barbaric custom.
At this point I began to suspect these guys might really be the bottom of the beastmen lot.
‘But isn’t that okay?’
—Okay? How is that okay? Anyone could see it’s insane.
‘So what. If I won, that’d be enough.’
—Surely, master. You don’t mean to intervene?
‘I’ll give my opinion and attend the meeting.’
If strength made right in this region, I only had to be the strong one.
Those kinds of people tended to respect and welcome the strong, and they were fairly tolerant.
If I volunteered to attend the meeting, they would surely be pleased.
“Oh? Really? A human chieftain will participate? We’d gladly accept that.”
Yes, that was exactly how I expected them to react.
—This… is allowed?
I left the startled rabbit behind and joined their meeting.
I was somewhat looking forward to when and how the fights would take place.
I had not really exerted myself much lately, except when catching flying fish in Henil, so I was a little excited.
All three Cow Tribe chieftains gathered here were Masters—by beastman standards they were Great Warriors—and they were strong enough to be worth fighting.
‘If it doesn’t work out, I could always throw Leisha in.’
Besides, with my secret weapon Leisha standing behind me, our victory in this meeting seemed certain.
“Hmm? Ah—no, a duel meeting wasn’t that kind of thing.”
“…Not really? But you said they fought to win the decision?”
“That’s true. But the Great Warriors aren’t the ones who fight. If a Great Warrior were to get seriously injured, it would be a huge loss for the whole tribe.”
The duel meeting wasn’t a fight between the chieftains themselves.
If they were to lose a Great Warrior, the cost would be too great.
For all their blatant foolishness, they were surprisingly reasonable about strange things like this.
—It’s the master who’s strange, expecting the Masters to bash each other’s heads in.
That changed my plan a little.
First, I needed to figure out exactly what kind of “duel meeting” they were talking about before making any moves.
The Cow Tribe’s duel meeting.
It was a barbaric gathering where warriors from each tribe tested their strength, and the tribe whose warrior emerged victorious got to make the final decision.
The participating warriors weren’t Great Warriors, but were chosen from volunteers among the regular warriors.
It was said to be an extremely popular event, with many eager to take part.
For the Cow Tribe, it was one of their biggest events.
“A contest purely of strength, huh.”
“Indeed. They can’t even use aura—it’s a match fought purely by strength alone.”
“Really? But if someone secretly used aura, wouldn’t it be hard to tell?”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. Everything’s prepared for it.”
The defining feature of the duel meeting was that it was a contest of pure physical strength.
They couldn’t even use aura. I wondered how such a thing was possible.
For a knight, aura was as natural as their own body, and it often moved instinctively even if they tried not to use it.
But apparently, they had their own tricks.
“This is…”
“Human Chieftain might not know this. It’s called—”
“No, I know it. I’ve seen it before. Isn’t that an Aura-Sealing Bracelet?”
“Oh, so you did know.”
When the Black Lion warriors raided the Territory of Hawrun and took people away, there had been knights imprisoned there.
And those knights had all been wearing sealing devices like these.
For Master-level knights, such tools were meaningless, but for any below that level, wearing them prevented them from channeling aura.
‘Wait, the Cow Tribe has these? And they look familiar with them?’
These devices were things used in the Empire, and even I had only recently learned of their existence.
The same went for the Black Lion warriors.
Leisha had said she’d first seen them in Hawrun, so it wasn’t something familiar to her either.
But the Cow Tribe seemed to have been using these for generations.
“Ah, yes. Our ancestors brought them when they fled from the Imperial bastards. Say what you will, but the Imperials made durable things. Can you believe something made hundreds of years ago still works perfectly?”
When aura was channeled into the bracelet, it absorbed it; occasionally injecting aura into it allowed the bracelet to be used semi-permanently.
It was said to be the perfect tool for the duel meetings where warriors below the Great Warrior rank competed.
So that was how a contest without aura could work—by using such items.
‘That’s quite an important piece of equipment. If caught, one could even be captured alive because of it.’
—That’s true.
‘But it seems the Cow Tribe knows information the other tribes don’t. Don’t beastmen share information at all?’
—Beastmen are like that. Some tribes interact, but most just live among themselves.
I glanced around at the warriors gathered to participate in the duel meeting and those preparing to host it.
They were all large and full of vigor, but their gear was a mess.
They couldn’t compare to the Won Tribe, and even compared to the Lion Tribe, their equipment was terribly poor in quality.
It seemed the Cow Tribe lacked any real skill in metallurgy or crafting.
‘How do they even fight with those weapons? No wonder the Imperial bastards targeted this place first.’
No matter how skilled they were, could they really fight properly with such weapons?
The Imperials would come wielding weapons imbued with magic enchantments.
‘I’ll have to force them to start trading.’
Even just supplying the Cow Tribe with equipment from the Won Tribe would greatly boost their combat power.
That could prove to be a critical factor later on.
It seemed the beastmen first needed to learn the value of trade and exchange.
But before that, I had to win this duel meeting fought with Aura-Sealing Bracelets and pure strength.