novelraw Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Leisha had once had a brief conversation with Leon.
She had asked what he thought about the Johnson Territory.
The clever Leon had answered firmly.
He had said it was truly a good place for the Lion Tribe warriors to live.
The knights who guarded the territory were treated well by the residents, and the atmosphere of the territory overall was fairly decent.
Unlike in the Levelium region, the perception of beastmen here was also very favorable.
Even the Rabbit Tribe, who worked as laborers, blended in well with the residents.
‘On top of that, the lord of this territory feeds the warriors.’
Battles were the specialty of the Lion Tribe warriors.
Could they make a living just by lending their strength when needed?
There was no better environment for the Lion Tribe warriors.
Especially if that lord happened to be a wealthy man with countless Horned Rabbits in his possession.
‘This is by no means a bad story.’
Although the Black Lions were treated as nothing more than defective goods from her own perspective, others might see them differently.
At the very least, they appeared outwardly as imposing and respectable warriors.
Especially in a place like this, where battles occurred frequently, the combat power of the Black Lions would be very enticing.
‘Good. Calculation complete. I’ll dump the Black Lions on the Bear.’
There was just one problem.
‘Would those guys really listen to the Bear? The Bear isn’t stupid. He wouldn’t take in warriors he couldn’t control, right?’
Controlling those deranged troublemakers was truly not an easy task.
By nature, they wouldn’t listen unless someone was strong.
‘I’m getting tired of this too. Since things have come to this, I just want to stick to the Bear and live off him, eating Horned Rabbits.’
It might be a bit better if Leisha herself kept leading the warriors, but in the end, it would just repeat what had happened in the Lion Tribe.
What they needed was a breakthrough, and she herself wanted to cast off this shackle.
She was exhausted from taking care of the hopeless Black Lions all this time.
In that sense, the past few weeks had been extremely satisfying.
‘Passing them off is one thing, but I’ll have to hand them over in a way they can still be used, or else those burdens will just come back to me.’
So in the end, would she have to follow Leon’s words?
Letting out a small sigh, Leisha gathered the restless warriors again.
“You guys should just enter Johnson.”
“Oh, so you’ve finally made up your mind?”
“Shut it. What I mean is, come under Lord Johnson.”
“You want us to follow a human lord’s orders?”
Rimond was the first to protest.
The others were subtly agreeing as well.
In any case, they were the kind who had no ability to support the tribe but were needlessly prideful.
“Then what are you going to do? Do you have another option?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just build a Black Lion village somewhere else?”
“Sure, go ahead. But I’m planning on staying here for the time being, so suit yourselves.”
“…Leisha, are you thinking of abandoning the tribe?”
Turning to face the grim-faced Rimond—
“That’s not it.”
Leisha dropped a bombshell.
“I’m currently observing a potential husband candidate.”
At Leisha’s words, every warrior present looked shocked.
“There’s a husband candidate here in Johnson. How could I leave? If you want to make a new tribe somewhere else, then wait for me there.”
“A… husband candidate?”
“Why are you so surprised? I should get married and have children too, right? Am I supposed to live alone my whole life?”
“No, but still… You’re saying you’ll take a human as your husband?”
“And why not? Even if I marry a human, I can still have children and live well.”
Beastman women did not choose their husbands lightly.
They usually circled around a man for at least a few years, observing everything carefully, and only if they were truly convinced would they decide to marry.
Since the Beastmen had no concept of divorce, the choice of a spouse was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and no one could interfere.
‘Even if I’m the Great Warrior of the Lion Tribe, no one can force me to give up choosing my husband for the sake of the tribe.’
The only reason these useless men, who had no ability to survive on their own, had been able to recklessly abandon the Lion Tribe was because they believed in her presence here.
If she herself had a reason to stay here, then they would be left with no answer.
“Ha, that’s absurd!”
“And why not?”
“Who is this man?”
“Didn’t you hear? The lord of this place.”
“Oh, now that you mention it. Back then…”
“They called him the Bear, even when the Great Warrior was little…”
“So, even the Great Warrior had such pure feelings.”
It wasn’t entirely baseless talk.
The appearance of Iron when she had met him as a child had appealed to Leisha’s heart, and she had even spoken about it to the other Lion Tribe warriors.
So even if she said she had rekindled good feelings upon meeting the Bear again after so long, who would think it strange?
‘His looks really are my type. His big, rugged build reminds me of my childhood pet bear, Puga.’
While she was lost in these old memories, Rimond suddenly shouted.
“Nonsense! I’ll test him myself!”
“Test him?”
“Of course, with a duel!”
“Ah, so that’s how you want to play it?”
Everything was unfolding just as Leon had predicted.
When she had asked what would be the best way to bring the Black Lions into this place, Leon had answered like this:
‘If you tell Rimond that you’re staying here because of marriage, that simple-minded brother will go berserk right away. If you pit him against the lord and break his spirit, the other warriors will more or less fall in line.’
At first, she had wondered if it was really necessary to go that far, but seeing how things were turning out, this was indeed the best solution.
As expected of Leon.
Such astonishing insight befitting the brain of the Black Lions.
“Fine. A test it is. But if Rimond fails in the test, then the Black Lions will obediently enter Johnson Territory and live here, understood?”
“Is… is that how it works?”
“Of course. Rimond is the representative of the Black Lions. If the representative loses, then he must hand over the position to the victor.”
“That seems a bit…”
“Feels like a stretch.”
“What about the Great Warrior?”
“I’m directly involved here. You want me to beat up my husband candidate? If he ends up hating me, I’d be the one losing out, right?”
“Well, that’s true, but still…”
“If you’re upset, then you should challenge him and take it yourselves. Since when did the Black Lions only run their mouths?”
Things were going more or less according to plan.
She would slip out cleanly while pushing Rimond to the front to quell the Black Lions’ resistance.
Since in the Lion Tribe the words of male lions carried far greater weight, no one could force her to do something that would incur a male’s hatred.
That was exactly why Leon had brought up the matter of a husband.
By dumping the test onto Rimond, the first stage was solved.
The Black Lions had pride, but they always gave due respect to the strong.
Besides, they were simple-minded enough that as long as Lord Johnson kept their tribe’s bellies full, they would have no real reason for discontent.
If she herself wasn’t here, it might have been different, but since she also planned to stay in Johnson, they couldn’t help but watch her lead.
‘The only issue now is that the Bear has to defeat that stupid brother cleanly. But that seems plenty possible.’
The Bear was admittedly frail, but her foolish brother was just as weak.
In any battle between weaklings, the one with stronger will usually had the advantage.
Rimond should be easy enough to topple.
Of course, it was an exaggeration to say that the Bear would become the new representative after defeating Rimond, but that didn’t matter.
‘If they’re upset, they can take the position themselves.’
From the start, since they had followed her here after abandoning the tribe where they had lived comfortably, her word was law.
Feeling satisfied that things had been resolved well enough, Leisha heard one of the Black Lion warriors carefully ask,
“If Rimond loses to Lord Johnson, will the Great Warrior become Lord Johnson’s wife?”
“Hm? Oh, I’ll have to wait and see. It hasn’t been long since we met again. But why do you ask?”
“If things go well, wouldn’t that mean we won’t ever have to worry about survival?”
“Even without that, you won’t have to worry. In Johnson Territory, the lord provides for all the residents.”
“My goodness.”
“Indeed, what an extraordinary male. To be able to feed all 800 Black Lions.”
“That’s the kind of man worthy of the Great Warrior…”
Their blunt responses made her chuckle.
As long as the Bear defeated Rimond, there didn’t seem to be any problems.
And she found herself feeling anew that the Bear was quite remarkable.
‘To take responsibility for 800 Black Lions is truly an amazing feat. Could it be that the Bear is the true strong one?’
After all, what use was being the Great Warrior if one couldn’t even provide for the tribe?
Leisha once again reconsidered the meaning of strength.
“All right, then. Understood. Lead the tribe members slowly over to Johnson Territory. I’ll be waiting there.”
Putting aside abstract ideas like the meaning of strength, she decided first to save the tribe.
The Black Lions were one thing, but the Bear hadn’t yet given his permission.
This too required some delicate coordination, so it weighed on her mind.
It had already been over a week since I started training under Leisha.
At first, I wondered what the point was, but after continuing the training, I began to grasp something little by little.
The harmony between body and mind?
I could sense subtle misalignments that I hadn’t noticed before, and I could feel those gaps gradually shrinking.
Of course, I still got beaten down just the same, but feeling even a little bit of improvement was more than satisfying.
‘If I keep stimulating my instincts and senses like this, something will eventually change.’
If there was one problem, it was the strange rumors about Leisha spreading through the territory.
—Depending on how you looked at it, it was only natural such thoughts would arise.
‘If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.’
Leon, Leisha, and the four female Black Lion warriors who had remained in the territory were now staying in my mansion.
Since I didn’t have a proper place for guests, that was the arrangement, though it felt rather odd.
Except for my runaway former wife, this was the first time I had ever had women staying in my house.
The four female warriors practically stormed the knights’ training grounds at the crack of dawn every day to play, but Leisha was different.
At first, she had holed up at the Horned Rabbit ranch, but lately she had been exclusively in charge of my training at my mansion.
She sometimes helped Rudick with his training too, but she spent overwhelmingly more time with me.
A beautiful lion beastwoman entering the lord’s mansion, spending every day there, enjoying secret trysts(?) with him?
‘At this point, it would be strange if no one was talking.’
Leisha seemed to have a bold personality, showing no sign of caring about what others said.
That was fortunate.
I had already insisted it wasn’t like that, but rumors of this kind were impossible to stop once they started.
In this world too, the “auntie network” was frighteningly powerful, and it was very interested in my love life.
Thanks to that, the news was spreading at unimaginable speed.
‘Aside from that, things are fine.’
The knights and soldiers continued their training.
The Rangers, who had taken in the Rabbit Tribe as recruits, were also training separately.
The residents continued their preparations for winter, living their peaceful daily lives.
“Leisha? What’s the matter? Something feels different from usual.”
I had been resting, thinking life would continue this way for a while, when Leisha approached me.
There was a different air about her than usual.
My instincts told me this was something significant.
“Bear. I have something to tell you. It’s important.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Well…”
“Well?”
“The Black Lions are coming here.”
“What? The Black Lions? Why? Did something happen to the Lion Tribe?”
“No. The Black Lions have left the tribe. They intend to settle here.”
“…The Black Lions intend to settle here?”
It was out of the blue.
The Black Lions had been living fine in their Lion Tribe village, yet suddenly they had come all the way to Johnson, a human domain.
I had wanted to settle Leisha in the territory, but I had never anticipated this development.
“Did you summon the tribe here?”
“Of course not. I just planned to rest a bit longer before going back to the village.”
“That makes sense.”
Which was why I hadn’t pressed her to settle down.
But now the Black Lions were apparently packing up and moving here.
They had said they were treated poorly, but had their hearts completely turned away?
—What incredible fortune this was.
‘So this is the blessing of Lady Bestia? Unbelievable.’
The reason didn’t matter.
What mattered was simply that the Black Lions were joining our territory.
Could it be that the Diary had shown me Leisha because it had foreseen all of this, weaving it into a grand design?
Praise be to Lady Bestia.
It seemed I needed to prepare a temple for Bestia as soon as possible.