Raising the Princess to Overcome Death

Chapter 139

Engagement - Festival

Is this what a triumphant return feels like?

A festival was held in the Ainar tribe. The chief, filled with joy, even ordered the opening of not yet matured barrels of liquor, and all ongoing hunts were halted.

Without a doubt, Lena Ainar and Urok Ainar were the stars of this festival.

According to tradition, the two of them carried the carcass of the beast on a sled around the walls of the Avril Castle. At the end, they climbed the platform set up in the open space and lifted the head of the white stag high. The cheers of the Ainar tribe members gathered around were loud enough to shake the castle.

“Hahaha! Well done! Well done!”

Dehor laughed heartily from the platform. He looked very pleased as he patted Lena on the shoulder.

But beside him, two other warriors grumbled.

“This guy, just yesterday he was nagging us about his daughter going through trials because of us…”

“I’ve always known that guy had a bit of a daughter complex. To think that a big warrior like him is so protective of his adult daughter. Sigh, good thing she came back safely.”Ignoring the gossiping warriors, the old chief stepped forward to Lena and Urok.

With the cheers growing louder, he first approached Urok and grasped his hand.

“...Uncle’s... I knew you would... Thank you... Is your leg alright...?”

Lena, standing next to him, couldn’t hear the chief well due to the loud cheers.

She turned around occasionally, waving her hand triumphantly. Eventually, the chief turned his head towards her.

“You’ve done well. You overcame the trials and returned as a great warrior. Hehe. No matter how young you are, there won’t be another young warrior like you in the North.”

He also grasped Lena’s hand and stood her beside Urok, smiling.

“If only you were my granddaughter-in-law... hehe.”

“Haha. Grandpa, sorry but that won’t happen.”

Lena said confidently.

Maybe her voice was a bit loud because Dehor, hearing her call him grandpa, glared at her, but Lena just shrugged.

I’m a big warrior now too.

Despite Dehor and the other warriors being particularly respectful, the relationship between the chief and the warriors was equal.

Lena bent down and whispered into the old chief’s ear.

“I’m going to marry Leo.”

“Hehe. That’s a pity. Now, let’s stop the personal talk.”

The chief smiled with wrinkled eyes and turned her around. He held up the wrists of Urok and Lena high.

- Waaaah!

Amid the deafening cheers and the sharp whistling sound, Ran, Anne, and Leo, who were not members of the Ainar tribe, clapped from below the platform.

It was a day halfway through winter, and there was still more than a month left until the war broke out.

  *

“What are you going to do now?”

Anne asked at the drinking table. The ceremony to celebrate the birth of the big warrior was over, and the real festival was just beginning.

“Of course, we’ll go back.”

Ran answered. Leo was filling the glasses beside her.

The surroundings were rather noisy. Since it was winter, it was difficult to hold a party in the open space, so the Ainar tribe had turned the leather storage into a tavern.

It was nothing more than using leather bundles as chairs and tables to place the provided drinks and food roughly, but people gathered in groups, chatting happily.

Among them was an old man named Boris Ainar. He was telling his own story that no one believed - “I’m telling you! There’s a mysterious temple. I saw it with my own eyes! It was a night with a blue moon…”

Anne raised her voice and asked again.

“Going back is obvious. I mean how are we going back. Are we going to find Uncle Vernon, or go back by ourselves?”

“Well, it would be faster to go by ourselves but…”

Ran Aviker, her sister, clinked her wooden cup with Leo’s, took a sip, and continued.

“Uncle must be worried. I think it would be better to go back together. The next destination is Baron’s estate, so it’s not far.”

Leo joined their conversation.

“Who’s Vernon?”

“I didn’t introduce him to you. He’s the one who lent us the horses.”

“Oh.”

Leo nodded understandingly.

When we left to hunt the beast, we borrowed horses from a merchant. He seemed to have a close relationship with Ran and Anne and gladly lent us two horses, making it easy for us to find the white stag.

“Oh come on, Grandpa Boris. No one believes that stuff anymore.”

“What!? Why not? I’m a vivid witness. Do you think I’m lying?”

“Grandpa, you often lie. Last time you said you saw a fairy or something, a girl with wings…”

“Ahem! That was a joke. But this is real. I stayed at that temple for a day. There was a sword on the altar. But in the morning, everything was gone. The sword, the temple. I’m sure it was the hall of ‘Lachar’. I saw the temple of the gods. Yes. Absolutely. As expected, a great warrior like me…”

Oh, so noisy.

While Leo was scratching his ears, Anne continued the conversation.

“By the time we arrive, won’t they have already left?”

“If we can’t avoid it, we’ll just have to track them down... If I had known it would take this long, I would’ve told Uncle Vernon where to meet us in advance.”

“Why do we need to find him?”

Leo knew through his tracking skills that Vernon and his caravan were currently southeast.

“It’s time to go home. We live in the capital.”

“Barnaul? You guys?”

“Why? Is there a problem with us living in the capital?”

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just heard there were no native tribes near the capital.”

“That’s true. There aren’t any. We just married into that area.”

Leo noticed she was holding back on something. It felt awkward to ask more, so he quietly sipped his drink. Ran, seemingly reading his mind, propped her chin on her hand and asked,

“You, you want to go to Barnaul, don’t you?”

“...”

Leo remained silent. He still wasn’t sure what to do next, so he had no answer.

Ran cooled her flushed neck with her cold hand and guessed,

“I get it, someone with your skills wouldn’t want to waste away in a place like this. I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but I was really impressed. Your skills are amazing, but... you also lead well. Are you a noble? Did your family fall during the civil war, so you ended up here? There are quite a few people like that.”

“...It’s true I came after the civil war, but I’m not a noble. My family has been a lineage of knights.”

“Hmm~ So that’s why your skills are so impressive. A knight... Ah! So you want to go to the capital to participate in the tournament. Right?”

“A tournament? What tourna...”

At that moment, the tavern door burst open, causing a commotion. Cheers erupted as Lena entered, surrounded by people.

After courteously greeting everyone, Lena approached Leo.

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Oh, you’re here too, sisters. Let me join you.”

“How did you get away?”

“I escaped under the pretext of checking on Urok. Gosh, the chief grandpa and the big warriors have so many nagging things to say... Leo, is your shoulder okay?”

Leo shrugged his shoulders.

Since he had gone to the church for treatment along with the injured Urok Ainar, he was now comfortable.

Leo made a spot for Lena. He brought another leather bundle from the corner and placed it next to him, and the four of them shared drinks in the lively atmosphere of the tavern.

They chatted about various things.

Questions ranged from how it felt to be revered as a big warrior, to the teasing inquiries about the relationship between the two of them.

Lena chatted away without hesitation. As the conversations flirted with the edges of feminine topics, Leo, quietly listening, occasionally blushed.

With her face flushed from the alcohol, Lena said,

“I’m happy now, but I don’t plan to be satisfied just being a big warrior. I have big dreams. I want to become a knight. And...”

“Oh? We were talking about that just before you came. Right, Leo wants to participate in the Maunin Tournament. Are you going together?”

“When did I ever say that...”

“Really? Leo, did you want to participate in the Maunin Tournament? You said you didn’t want to before.”

Lena looked at him excitedly. Leo momentarily lost his words under her expectant gaze. More so because...

‘What is the Maunin Tournament? I’ve been hearing about it since earlier.’

He had heard of the Maunin-Letii Tournament from Lena’s mouth before. It was the tournament Dehor and his mother had entered when they were young, and he had heard about it while distancing himself from Lena to break off their engagement, in the Bidorinin Castle of the Holy Kingdom of Jerome.

It seemed like a shortened name for it... but what did it have to do with being a knight? And, had he ever expressed reluctance to enter that tournament?

“...I just changed my mind.”

“That’s surprising. You were so stubborn about this. Is it because of me?”

He had no idea what she was talking about.

But, sensing that agreeing would please Lena, Leo nodded slightly, and Lena smiled brightly with her flushed face.

“Thank you. For setting aside your pride. I’ll work hard. Even though I’m quite behind...”

The smell of alcohol.

Drunk, Lena leaned in closer. Her face, so near, looked like she wanted something, and she gently stuck out her tongue and touched his lips.

Leo blocked her slightly protruding lips. Glancing at Ran and Anne, who were watching expectantly, he said,

“What are you doing, with everyone watching?”

“...Tsk. Such a coward.”

“Aw, too bad. We could’ve seen something good... You’re in your prime. You’re in your prime. Instead of this, should we go outside? It’s a bit cold, but they’ve lit a bonfire in the open space.”

Ran gave Leo a wink, signaling something, and got up. The four of them soon moved to another spot.

As they left the storage and closed the door, Boris’s old man’s exaggerated tales of the distant northern sea's 'War Island,' where warriors battle daily, leaked through.

“To Lena! For the great achievement of our big warrior!”

Around the large bonfire made from hundreds of firewood, warriors who had been drinking raised their cups high towards Lena.

“Now that the star of the night is here, let’s party even harder!”

After finding a spot to sit, the young men stood up and shouted. They dragged out several large Nenato (waist-high cylindrical drums) and began to beat them loudly.

The warriors danced in sync with the rhythm, singing as they circled the bonfire.

Naturally, Lena, the star of the night, was quickly pulled into the dance. At first, she grumbled, “Hey! Let go! I want to hang out with Leo!” but soon she became part of the group, dancing along.

“I’m jealous... Did our village have festivals like this?”

Anne asked quietly. She was always calm, but her voice was melancholic as she watched the warriors.

“...Probably. Hey, should we join the dance?”

“Pfft. We’re too old to join in that. It’d be ridiculous.”

“So what? We’re in another tribe, and we’re leaving soon anyway. We should experience it. That’s why we came here. Let’s go!”

Ran forcibly pulled her sister up. They joined the dancing warriors, clumsily mimicking their movements.

The young men of the Ainar tribe, with their flashy feather decorations, gladly accepted the somewhat older women into their dance.

Leo watched from a distance.

He sat down at the original spot and drank alone when Lena came running.

“You come too!”

“Huh? But I’m not a tribe member...”

“What does that matter? I’m the big warrior of this tribe, and you’re my husband!”

Lena dragged Leo Dexter to the bonfire. On the joyous night of the big warrior’s birth, the moon in the sky had already lost its blue hue and was faintly red, but tonight, no one cared.