novelraw Chapter 133: Engagement Relationship - Marketplace
Chapter 133: Engagement Relationship - Marketplace
133. Engagement Relationship - Marketplace
"Come on over! This way! Take a look! Goods from the capital Barnaul!"
"Selling alcohol brewed with 'Totru'! Alcohol! Homemade! We also have snacks!"
A market opened in the usual open space where the Ainar tribe conducted their slaughtering.
Although it was a small-scale market, the merchants busily displayed the goods they brought in their wagons and lured customers.
Many residents of Avril Castle also opened stalls, making the market grow noisily, and the Ainar tribe members busily picked out the necessary items, delighted at the market's return after a long time.
In the midst of the bustle, Lena Ainar asked,
"How much did you bring?"
Despite it being midwinter, she was lightly dressed, though, frankly, her outfit wasn't very pretty.
She wore a roughly made fur coat and her usual faded thick cotton pants. She had no accessories to complement her appearance.Lena Ainar was always like this. She had no interest in adorning herself.
"Will this be enough?"
Of course, Leo didn't care about her attire either.
He took out two silver coins and offered his elbow. Lena raised her eyebrows, "Hmm?" looking puzzled for a moment but did not refuse his arm.
Leo Dexter, being large, walked arm in arm with Lena Ainar, who was similarly well-built, through the market. The voices of customers haggling for lower prices and merchants offering extras could be heard all around.
It's peaceful.
"Where do you want to go first? What do you want to buy? I'll buy you anything. Just say it."
"Oh? Boasting with just two silver coins."
Lena chuckled.
Her unwavering eyes gazed up at him, her red lips, straight nose, and arched eyebrows beautiful.
Leo wanted to gaze at her face endlessly, but Lena soon turned her head and pointed.
"Let's go over there. I saw something yesterday. Ah! Hello! You're here too."
A warrior of the tribe greeted Lena warmly.
Lena was well-liked in the Ainar tribe. Every ten steps, someone would speak to her, making them frequently stop.
Leo Dexter, not being part of the tribe, felt somewhat awkward with them and often looked away nonchalantly.
"Yes! I'll go out for the next hunt. In a few days, I'll be of age, so just wait! Everyone thinks I can't hunt... They don't know my skills at all."
Leo laughed at her naive confidence. She thought hunting was done with a sword and would be very surprised on her first hunt.
The warrior who had spoken to her also smiled slyly, "Sure~ you'll do great. Absolutely," as if looking forward to the expected future. Just then,
"Looking for someone to undertake the Great Warrior's trial together!"
As the conversation lengthened, Leo, feeling awkward, noticed a pair of sisters. Two strong warrior women were shouting from a distance.
Their long hair reached their waists, tied in unique knots.
The knots had feathers dyed in vivid colors, making it clear to anyone that they were warriors from another tribe.
‘Both this market and those women... Why are there so many new things?’
Leo tilted his head. In all the repeated rounds so far, nothing like this had happened.
Lena had once complained that the market never came.
But this Avril Castle, being primarily for military purposes and mostly inhabited by Ainar tribe members, rarely had visiting merchants, which was not strange.
The Ainar tribe almost self-sustained through farming and hunting, and supplies were sent to the soldiers stationed at the castle and their families.
‘Could it be the effect of the last childhood friend scenario reaching here? The timing doesn’t match, though...?’
Rev, who became Barbatos' apostle, would cause trouble next year, around the end of spring. By now, he would be laying traps all over Nevis, preparing for a massacre.
Although he had wiped out two major families in Nevis, that shouldn't have had any impact here.
‘What would Minseo have noticed?’
Leo Dexter shook his head.
He didn't want to think about that. No matter the scenario, he wanted to live happily here with Lena.
"Leo! Have you waited long? Sorry. Let's go quickly."
Lena snapped him out of his reverie. She hooked her arm firmly into his again and
"Why does that guy always smile slyly when I talk? He thinks I don’t notice, but just wait. On the hunt, I'll just...”
- she said, and Leo, looking at her with honeyed eyes, soon became wistful.
My name isn’t Leo. Your name probably isn’t Lena either...
Engulfed in complicated thoughts and with Lena grumbling and making threats, they finally reached their destination.
The place Lena led Leo to wasn’t a shop selling fancy jewelry, fluttering clothes, or snacks. The merchant who was sweating profusely looked up.
"Welcome. Are you looking for something? Or are you here to sell or commission leather?"
The merchant wore an apron stained white in places with grease.
Lena had come to a stall selling leather.
This merchant seemed to be a tanner, as his long apron had tools stained with grease hanging from it, and the stall was cluttered with frames holding leather, leaving no room to step.
“We're here to buy leather. I saw something yesterday, that…”
While Lena placed her order, Leo Dexter habitually looked around.
A small cauldron on one side of the stall was bubbling, emitting a thick smell and white steam.
In the center was a table with a smooth curve like a cow's back, covered with leather stained with blood and fat, as if in the middle of processing.
The scene wasn’t unfamiliar.
Leo knew how to tan leather and had done it many times. But the unfamiliar smell piqued his interest.
‘What is this smell?’
Tanning is the process of turning raw hide into leather, transforming the animal’s skin into what we know as leather.
Even in the tribe of Ainar, who hunted, and in the mountain lodge of Dof Bizaine, tanning was done (untanned leather easily rotted or crumbled in the sun), but the tanning done by the Ainar tribe was different from the tanning done by the hunter father in the childhood friend scenario.
For leather to last a long time, it needed oil (grease).
To supply this oil, the Ainar tribe repeatedly boiled the brains of hunted animals, applied it to the leather, and washed it off. It was a way to utilize the brain, which was a fatty lump they didn't eat.
On the other hand, Dof Bizaine, who served Barbatos, chose a different method since they offered the heads of the hunted animals as sacrifices each time. They smeared the fat lumps on the leather and then smoked it to tan it.
His son, Lev, who was good with his hands, did this work while making jerky.
However, the merchant's method seemed to be different again.
Leo sneaked a peek into the cauldron, which seemed to be the source of the smell. Some roots were floating up and down on the bubbly surface.
'Are they extracting something from plants? What kind of plants?'
"Hey. You shouldn't be trying to steal someone else's secret."
The merchant, who had been chatting with Lena, quickly approached and covered the cauldron.
Leo shrugged to show he had no such intention, but it seemed it was too late to avoid the merchant's glare.
"Hey! You, go outside for a bit!"
In the end, he was kicked out. For some reason, Lena pushed Leo out, and he grumbled as he wandered outside.
"Damn. Without realizing it..."
As he proceeded with the 'game' where a little mistake could lead to disastrous outcomes, he had made a mistake.
Habits are indeed scary.
I have no memories of my past life, but my head is full of memories of dreadful endings caused by trivial mistakes, so my body moved on its own to be wary of unfamiliar smells.
Leo Dexter sighed.
Still, maybe because he went out with Lena, his mind was much calmer.
Minseo. I don't completely misunderstand his situation.
He must be desperate.
Logically, I think so. But emotionally, I don't like this situation or Minseo at all.
- "Leo... Leo... Leo... Please..."
Lena, who was hitting his back.
To turn the heart of the man who turned his back cruelly, she took off her clothes. Her pride was pathetically discarded, and her desperate pleas and feeble punches remained as dull vibrations.
The right shoulder blade hurt.
Leo Dexter uncomfortably cleared his throat and rotated his shoulder. While loosening his aching shoulder, he raised his right hand.
To his horror, there was a trumpet pattern engraved on his palm.
[Achievement: Apostle of Barbatos - You can borrow Barbatos' power as much as you offer. You cannot serve other gods.]
It wasn't a tattoo. It was a qualification of an apostle engraved through forced achievement.
That's right. I am an apostle.
The mistake of the past scenario was imprinted on my palm, and it proved that all those painful memories were not nightmares.
Of course, Barbatos wouldn't know me.
I didn't perform the 'ritual' like Lev to announce the presence of a believer.
If I were to perform the ritual, Barbatos would be very confused. It would be like having an unknown apostle for himself...
Sigh-
Leo shook his right hand as if hoping the mark would fall off. A bracelet with three red beads dangled. It was {Barbatos' Bracelet}, a reward from the past scenario.
I was very fortunate to get this bracelet when Minseo was distracted. If it weren't for that, I dread to think what he would have done...
If I had this bracelet earlier, Minseo would have surely succeeded in breaking off the engagement with Lena.
Angry, Leo took off the bracelet. He was about to throw it to the ground but took a deep breath to calm himself.
No matter how displeased he was, it was a reward obtained with great effort. He couldn't just 'use it up' carelessly as it wasn't only his.
Putting the bracelet back on, Leo looked at Lena. She was whispering with the merchant, possibly haggling or colluding.
How did I meet her?
How did I meet her and start dating? How did we get engaged? What is Lena's real name? What did we usually talk about...
Bitterness surged. I love Lena, but everything I know about her is through Minseo's memories.
Stretching slowly, Leo tilted his head for the last time.
After waiting for a while, Lena called him.
"Leo. Buy me this."
What she held out was a long leather strap.
It was a good-quality black leather with cleanly removed fur.
"Sure. But why do you need this? What's it for?"
"I'm going to wrap it around the sword handle. The sword your dad gave me last time is good, but the handle is all worn out."
Lena showed the worn-out handle of the sword at her waist.
It was the sword of his father, Noel Dexter.
'Oh, I wondered why she didn't say anything when she saw my sword...'
A small question was answered.
In the last scenario, I received a sword from my father.
The sword that my mother used.
It didn't even have a guard, and it seemed to be very old, with a hint of brown in it, and it was 'bound' to me. My father had given Lena his sword, who was envious.
Here, it seemed to be fixed as a past event.
In other scenarios, the sword appeared out of nowhere, and Rea and her sister Lena asked where it came from.
"Then I should buy one too. My handle is pretty worn out too..."
As Leo was about to ask the merchant for another one, Lena shouted.
"No!"
"Whoa, why?"
"T-this is expensive. If we buy two, we won't have any money left."
"It can't be that expensive. How much is it?"
"It's not allowed! Th-the-the... Ah! A knight shouldn't be obsessed with tools! Just pay up quickly. It's one silver coin."
"One silver coin? There's no way such a small piece of leather is that expensive..."
Sensing something, Leo shut his mouth. He handed the silver coin to the merchant without a word, who smiled as if forgiving him for peeking into the cauldron.
Lena is really... Clumsy at everything except swordsmanship.
She was hiding something behind her back, and Leo Dexter pretended not to notice.
"Hehe."
On the way back.
Lena laughed brightly as if something made her happy, and the two held hands as they affectionately returned home.
Snowflakes were falling heavily from the sky.