Chapter 73

The Moon on Water (5)

Translated by WookEdited by Wook

“Is that true?”

“Of course. I heard it was so.”

“Crazy.”

“Ah, and did you guys know? The atmosphere was chaotic and since we’re all gathered, the incarnation of Sionil and Grand Chieftain Aran…”

Strong internal bond was a great help when building a wall with the outsiders, but it could result in too much loss between themselves.

Unless it was a secret mission between each tribe or something that had been discussed separately, stories spread too easily.

“Oh, wait a minute. I’m going first.”

It was mainly the warriors of the Aran tribe who stood on the border, but there were a lot of people who entered the basin and Shamir’s whereabouts were unknown, so other tribe warriors were also helping them in pairs.

“What is it? I heard Aran’s tribe’s women are pretty. Did one of them walk by?”

“If that’s the case, would I still be here? I would’ve already followed that woman.”

“Okay, hurry up and come back soon. Don’t make trouble when the atmosphere is bad.”

The one who exchanged jokes and chuckled took the lead leaving his colleagues behind. The man looked around and headed to a corner, pulled his pants down, and tried to do business in earnest, but suddenly he felt his spine cooled down.

He was wondering what it was, so he tried to look back, but then stopped. He felt like he shouldn’t do that.

The man shrugged, then picked up his pants and stepped out of the corner. He felt bad for being a coward who squealed over nothing. The man, who was stomping away, suddenly turned his head and checked the back.

“Phew, look. There is nothing.”

He nodded and moved away as if the farce had ended. Shortly after the man left…

“Nothing? If you had just come one more step inside, you’d have a hole in the back of your head. You don’t know how lucky you are.”

There was a grumble in the dark.

The person looked away from the man and looked around the center of the basin.

The giant tent was removed and the floor was cleaned up, as if to inform the warriors of the results of the conference and use the area as a place for a feast.

What the person was looking for was, was a lone tent near the edge unlike the tents located from beyond the perimeter of the vacant lot.

Just by looking at the warriors who surrounded it, one could see who was staying there.

“At first, he put her in prison and didn’t even look at her, I even wondered if he was getting senile. So what’s with the obsession all of a sudden?”

This meant that Aran was increasingly appreciating the value of the 2nd Empress, but there was nothing good about it.

Not only because of the increased boundaries. The more useful she was to Aran, the more he would try to suppress her and hold her in his hand.

When someone with ability bowed their head to him, Aran thought that his authority was being established.

Shamir heard about what had happened in the big tent while he couldn’t see it, and his head seemed to explode.

In fact, Shamir was very fond of the 2nd Empress, but he originally did not intend to run away with her. However, Aran crossed the last line he shouldn’t have crossed.

The moment the absolute principles that could have given Aran any validity to whatever he did were broken, all the work and value Shamir had been doing so far lost light.

‘Chieftain, what happened? I got it wrong, didn’t I? It’s a lie that you pretended to be Chieftain Laoman and communicated with the pro-Kran Kingdom faction, right? No matter how bad the relationship with Chieftain Laoman is, he is also a member of the native tribes!’

But Aran did not deny it. He didn’t even try to convince Shamir as plausible as before. He felt uncomfortable with Shamir, who opposed his orders, and took it as a challenge to his authority.

With an unpleasant frown on his face, he realized that his relationship with Shamir would never go back to the way it was before. And it wasn’t because Shamir had even erased the smile he always hung around and his eyes that were always bent.

Shamir himself has accepted it for a long time, but it wasn’t until at the top of the slope where he was feeling with the 2nd Empress that he confirmed that it was more devastating than expected.

“Aran, actually, I didn’t care about the desert. I was annoyed by all that stuff about the pro-Kran Kingdom and the native tribes, but I was curious about the future you were trying to get together.”

‘And as time went by, I became more and more worried about the future that you drew.

‘As much as I wanted to see it before, I don’t want to see it anymore. All the fun is already gone.

But now I have a new question. What kind of place does that indifferent and scary empress want to go so much?’

“I made a promise, so I have to keep it. So Your Majesty, let me go with you. I will walk on my own feet.”

Shamir talked to himself and smiled, revealing his white teeth even though no one was looking at him. And the next moment, he lightly kicked the ground and soared up.

***

How many days has it been? Has it been three or four days since the conference was held?

It seemed the time had come when she had to choose between waiting for Shamir or finding a way out on her own. If she thought about it, wasn’t waiting for Shamir the same as finding a way out herself?

Elisha erased the option of waiting for Shamir from her mind. Now she just had to pick the best time.

However, Elisha did not have to worry for long.

Early in the morning.

“Marriage ceremony? Whose?”

Elisha confirmed for the first time today that the desert was not a place for her. The women didn’t answer, but they kept bringing the clothes in their hands to Elisha,

“Haaa.”

Elisha twisted the corners of her lips. There were too many things to point out, but putting them all aside…

Her arms and legs weren’t broken, but her condition was terrible. Even though Undine swept her cheek all night long to relieve the swelling, it was of no use. And they wanted her to wear a wedding dress like this?

When that usually cold complexion was filled with ridicule, the women were startled and stiffened.

“It wasn’t directed to you.”

When Elisha spoke, the women regained their senses and finally took out what they brought. After what happened at the conference, the women treated Elisha strangely.

Especially.

“H-Here, this…”

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The youngest woman was particularly strange. She looked around and whispered to Elisha.

“Just eat dried fruits today. You’d better do that so you don’t get a stomachache.”

Elisha nodded her head. Last night, the woman was also thinking whether to put one of the foods she had brought in her hand to the table, and in the end, Elisha saw her deliberately flip one of them over. It was the same even now in the morning.

[T/N: I have no idea what is happening here, perhaps Aran did something to the food, I don’t know]

In the end, rather than confronting her, Aran seemed to have decided to use a funny expedient to quietly wrap up all these events.

Well.

Even on the day of the conference, he tried to force her to swallow the water in the goblet out of nowhere. He was just that kind of guy.

While Elisha was eating, the women went out for a while. While alone, Elisha took out the pendant and opened it to look inside.

After Leon and Ascensio, whom she couldn’t forget every day, sometimes she thought of this person. It was obvious that everyone was suffering because of his savvy personality.

‘When I get back, I’ll tell him that I’m fine, I’m okay, and give this pendant back.’

Elisha lightly swept the emerald inside the lid with her thumb and hung it around her neck again. She ate some dried fruit and drank some water from a small leather bag that the young woman had set aside earlier.

“Marriage.”

That was the line that must not be crossed for Elisha. Not because of the marriage itself, but because of the stain it would prove.

The assumption that something happened could be left unknown, but the fact that the 2nd Empress of the Empire and desert grand chieftain was married would make her unable to return to Barossa.

He must have thought he would be able to wield Elisha as he wanted, and as soon as he realized that wasn’t the case, he wanted to hold a wedding ceremony as soon as possible.

“If it’s too late, I have no choice but to leave it behind.”

Elisha had decided. Based on her standards, now was the time to risk her life to move.

Crash!

When they heard the sound of breaking coming from inside the tent, the warriors from outside came in and stopped. The wedding dress was torn and the food was scattered on the floor.

“What are you doing?!”

A stream of water gushed out of Elisha’s palm as a warrior drew near.

“Hoh!”

One could hear the sound of gasping, but it soon turned into a sigh of relief. This was because the water slowly subsided, accumulated in Elisha’s palm, and then flowed down to the ground.

Elisha staggered a little while wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, and the young woman from earlier came and supported her. Even if it was dangerous, the woman did not listen and only looked at Elisha. She hesitated at Elisha’s words, who were telling them all to leave, but decided to stay.

As Elisha stared quietly, the woman blushed. Then Elisha asked, while tucking the woman’s hair, which had been disturbed by running in surprise, behind her ears.

“What’s your name?”

“I-it’s Dahil.”

“Do you want to get out of here?”

She asked if that was what her actions and gaze meant. And Dahil, who was shy with her head down, raised her face.

“…”

“…Can you take me back with you?”

“If you help me. But even if you go out with me, it will be tough. Do you know how to get out of the desert?”

“I know someone who can help.”

When Dahil straightened her back, her eyes were at a higher level than Elisha. Elisha looked up at her and said.

“He’s not that outstanding, but he’s a warrior. He will be helpful as a guide.”

“You’re answering as if you’ve been waiting.”

“Oh, I…”

“I hope you’re not trying to say something silly about why you’re so willing to accept my proposal, I just want to know why I need to know that.”

“I heard that a favorite warrior of Chieftain Bahum wants to take me away after the conference. Chieftain Aran agreed as long as he paid by giving his games to him when hunting.”

“What would you do if I didn’t ask you to go?”

“…I don’t know. I wanted to do something, but I don’t know if I could do anything in the end. There’s not much I can do, unlike an esteemed person like you.”

“This is a life-threatening task. To me it sounds like it’s okay if you don’t do this at all. Isn’t that so?”

“It’s not because it’s not that important. But…”

If giving up was learning, resignation was a habit.

The woman learned that if someone said no, it was not up to her to wish.

Dahil only needed a small trigger. That was why she plucked up the courage of her entire life and showed favor.

She thought that if she could take the responsibility of serving as a servant in the eyes of an esteemed person, she wouldn’t have to go to another tribe.

“Did I make you cry? I heard a lot of noise.”

“Huh?”

As if tears had already begun to flow, Elisha lightly tapped Dahil’s eye area with her index finger.

“I’ve been helped by you so many times. I can’t make you cry without even saying thank you.”

“Ah…”

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Dahil exclaimed because Elisha seemed to have recognized her. When she seemed to calm down a little, Elisha brought up the subject.

“We’re running out of time, so let’s talk about what to do next.”

Dahil quickly wiped her wet face with her eyes lit up.