182 Receive a warrior’s life
***[Heroine Oscar]***
While preparing to leave in a hurry as if eating beans roasted by lightning, I set up a time to talk with the grassland tribe about the future.
Where to go from now on, how to deal with the enemy, what kind of tendencies the tribes that make up the invading steppe army have, who are the generals and what their characteristics are.
The stories to be confirmed and shared are piled up like a mountain.
While talking with the warriors, encounters between the warriors and the people who were kidnapped and brought to the kingdom also take place.
Considering the custom of grasslands where men and women who are not family members do not mix, the large room is divided by several partitions.
If they are completely covered by a partition, they cannot see each other’s faces.
For this reason, the partitions are sparsely placed with some space between them, and several thin fabrics are hung in some spaces so that the opposite side can be vaguely seen.
It made it possible to see the warriors sitting and talking from the other side and identify their families.
If someone knows at least one person, you can talk to him later and let him know if he is alive or dead.
‘Warriors should do the same.’
Among the warriors who came along this time, including the steppe tribes, I heard that there were quite a few cases where family members were kidnapped to the kingdom.
Even if you don’t have a wife or children, you may find a younger brother, sister, or relative.
Since it is a grassland tribe that values family, the hearts of warriors will be focused on the women and children who come here.
However, the warriors did not turn their heads toward them even when the women and children entered.
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During the war, it may be that work and family are separated, feeling like an office worker who went to work.
However, it is certain that the attention of the warriors is focused on that.
Except for the warriors talking to me, everyone was silent.
Unlike yesterday, I don’t eat prepared food or drink alcohol.
I just quietly listened everywhere, trying not to miss the voices of children and whispering women.
***[Woman from Grassland, Kicha]***
Women and children enter the large hall.
Kichado, holding his son’s hand, followed them into the splendid space.
Two winters have passed since she was brought to the kingdom.
The third winter this year,
The son, who was still a baby when he came to the kingdom, has turned five years old.
Women brought here are often sold as s*x slaves.
However, Kitcha was wounded when she was kidnapped, and her appearance did not seem to be attractive in the eyes of the people of the kingdom.
Kitcha was sold in bundles with old and injured women, and the person who bought her seemed to have bought her at a bargain price, expecting death.
She became a slave to do chores.
The work was hard and the food was poor.
However, as she learned in the meadow, she somehow survived by eating grass and bugs.
The child also saved his life by supplementing the lack of food in that way.
Many of the women who are here now are people who survived that way.
“mom mom….”
The son was frightened and clung to her body.
It seems that you are afraid to enter an unfamiliar place.
If they were properly raised in the meadow, they would not behave like this.
However, after being captured as a slave, the child could not properly learn the behavior of the plains man.
Kitcha thought it heartbreaking and lowered her body.
Looking straight into the child’s eyes, Kitcha spoke with a stern expression like never before.
“You have to act bravely. A warrior from the steppe is here today. Maybe someone knows your father. But are you going to show a cowardly side like this?”
“…”
The son shook his head and bowed his head.
“You are a proud man of the Blackrock tribe. The son of the brave warrior Tium, the son of your father. Keep your head high and open your chest. You must not show a shabby appearance in front of the men of other tribes. Then you will be disgraced by the tribe.”
The son was still terrified, but nodded when he mentioned his father.
While being brought to the kingdom, Kitcha told his son many times about his father’s bravery.
What a brave man my father was, what a great warrior he was, and how…
Kitcha got up and took her son’s hand and walked forward.
The husband may think he is dead.
She lost a lot of blood when she was kidnapped.
but alive
He was alive and well with his son.
His body, which had been overworked so far, was skinny, and he was still here because he hadn’t recovered enough to go on a long journey, but he survived.
If you see someone you know who came today, you should inform the tribe.
I have to inform my husband, my first wife who cared for Kitcha, and most of all, the other children she gave birth to that my mother is alive.
‘We will meet again in the near future.’
I survived because of that one wind.
With just that wish that one day I will definitely bring my son back.
Kitcha wiped the tears from his eyes.
The large space was separated by several partitions.
The partitions that divide the space and the stretched thin cloth enclose the space in a circle rather than a straight line, allowing even a little more warriors to be seen.
The women who entered the hall stood still for a moment.
It seems that I couldn’t move because I remembered the joy of meeting my own people and the humiliation and hardships I had received on this land.
The rescued women who were sold as s*x slaves stood at the entrance without being able to come inside.
I’m moving my body a little.
Some older women approached them and said something.
It’s okay, so I guess I’m telling you to find someone you know first and tell your family the news.
In the meantime, the slightly older children moved closer to the partition and the thin cloth and began to examine the warriors.
Let the children act first, and the women also move slowly.
People wandered this way and that, observing the warriors through the thin cloth.
Kitcha also held his son’s hand and moved.
The warriors turned their heads away pretending not to know this, but they did not sit in the center, but rather sat in a semicircle close to the partition and the cloth.
Most of the women have their hair up so that they can see themselves a little better.
It seems that several women have found someone they know.
He came close to the thin cloth and sobbed at the warriors.
Kitcha and her son started walking along the partition and the thin fabric.
Occasionally I stopped and stood on tiptoe to look at people, but I couldn’t easily find the face of someone I knew.
A child started crying loudly to see if he had found his father.
“Mom, me too! Me too!”
When the other child finds the father, the son seems to be in a hurry too.
Kitcha picked up her son and put her palms on his hips.
His son, who had his legs close to her like a frog, peered through the thin fabric as he stretched his body upward to see as far as possible.
A few women found a family again.
Kitcha’s heart also became impatient.
If you miss this time of the day, it will be too late to inform your family that you are alive.
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During a war, tribes may move, and if they do wrong, it will be difficult to return.
As she busily walked along the screen, her son suddenly pulled her upright, his legs tight around her waist.
“… dad?”
what.
Kitcha stopped walking.
It is unlikely that a son will remember his father’s face.
I left the tribe when I was too young.
I kept telling him not to forget it, but the memory would have faded before he knew it.
But at first, the voice that was long and minty soon changed to a firm one.
“Dad! Dad! It’s Gel! I, Gel!”
The son swayed and rocked his little body up and down.
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Did the son really find the husband?
Kitcha looked through the thin cloth, blinking her tear-clouded eyes.
At that moment, one of the warriors who was sitting jumped up from his seat.
“ah…!”
It’s my husband.
don’t look this way
However, she raised her head so that Kitcha and her son could see her better.
In an instant, my eyes blurred again.
“I want to go to my dad. Mom, I want to go to my dad.”
My son struggles and tries to get off.
Kitcha held her son tight.
“No, did you forget, Gel? Women and children do not attend warriors’ gatherings. If you are also a child of the grassland…”
At Kitcha’s words, the son started crying loudly.
“But Dad… Dad…”
At that time, an elderly woman from the Duke’s family approached us.
I think I heard it was the head maid.
She looked at Gel with a kind face and said to Kitcha.
“This meeting will be over in a little while. At that time, I will guide you to the family room, so please wait. The war hasn’t started yet, and since this is a kingdom, I heard that family meetings are allowed. .”
“yes yes….”
When Kitcha nodded, the head maid took her hand with a kind face.
The maid held Kichya’s hand tightly and headed to another woman.
The head maid told another woman a similar story.
It seems that everyone who met the family is assigned a separate room.
However, it was still difficult to wait until that time, so Kitcha opened her mouth while looking at her husband from a little distance.
“…Gel is five years old. It’s difficult to teach horses here, so he still can’t ride well. But after arriving here, he started practicing again…”
I’m not sure if I’ll hear this or not.
But the room was quiet, and somewhere else, another woman was talking incoherently to someone like herself.
Her husband clenched his fists with his whole body tense as if he didn’t want to miss her voice.
‘You’re listening to me. My husband is here to tell me.’
Ah, you’ve really been rescued, and now you can really go back home, only then did you feel that fact in reality.
***[Heroine Oscar]***
There were also women who could not find their families.
A certain warrior heard from another woman that his wife or child had died.
There were several women talking about the situation through the partition and the cloth.
But there are also warriors who have met family members they thought were already dead.
Such was the case with one of the Blackrock Clan warriors.
The terribly thin child was shouting that he had discovered his father before his mother.
As if to show himself to his wife and son, the warrior stood motionless for a moment.
I don’t know how long I stood like that.
A warrior who had been standing for a while walked towards me.
I was talking to the other warriors and stood up when he stood in front of me.
“I am Tium, a warrior of the Blackrock tribe.”
T-um looked straight at me.
His eyes were slightly wet.
“I thought my wife and children were dead. But I heard that they managed to survive because they were treated here. They said they would have died if it was a little later.”
Tium raised one arm and placed it on his chest at an angle and opened his mouth.
“Once for his wife, once for his son. Natium sacrifices his life twice for the child of the moon.”
I’ve heard from Martin once before.
When a steppe warrior receives something, it repays something similar.
Life for life, death for death, resentment for resentment.
It is dishonorable not to do so, and if they offer to repay the favor, you should not refuse it.
Recalling what Martin had taught me, I raised my arm to my chest and opened my mouth as Tium did.
“I, Oscar Moon’s child, gladly accept the life of Tium, the Blackrock tribe. Friendship to my friend.”
Behind Tium, another warrior spoke the same words in the same way as in front of me.
That day, I was given the lives of countless steppe warriors.
Not just the life of the duchy or my family, but their lives are on my shoulders.
“…”
We have to wage a war that kills no one, at least saves everyone with minimal sacrifice.
Responsibility weighed on my heart, and I suddenly felt short of breath.