There’s a saying: ‘It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.’
Despite all the people gathered here, the town remained eerily quiet. If a pin did drop and was indeed laying around, wouldn’t that be quite worrisome? Well, I’ll leave the details for later.
More importantly, what I should really be worried about was how to advance from here. Yes. Right this instance.
The people in the room numbered nine, including me and Wolf. The room was certainly big enough to accommodate all of us, but somehow it felt like I would suffocate just from tension coming off the people who were staring daggers at each other. That said, no one dared to open their mouths. But was my suffocation a mental or a physical one, I wonder?
There were two people at my left and right respectively and another two were right behind me. And finally, there was one person who sat in front of all of us. In other words, I was utterly and completely surrounded. This is super uncomfortable! I wanted to run away, but I knew better than to go through with that idea.
“Wolf, you…What on earth is the meaning of this?”
It was the man at the front that broke the heavy silence. I think he’s in his prime fifties. With dry wrinkles between his brows and thin lips that stretched from one side to the other, he gave off the feeling of your typical ‘old grumpy grandpa.’ He had a lean body. His grey hair was stroked back, and he wore ethnic, tribal clothes. Yet somehow, he reminded me of a doctor. He looked nothing at all like Wolf but they had the same eyes, so this must be Wolf’s father, the current chieftain.
He glared at Wolf with a grim expression.
“It is absolutely unheard of to invite outsiders to our village. Don’t think you’ll be let off with just a slap on the wrist.”
“I know that.”
Although he had everyone’s gaze on him, like bedrock under the storm, Wolf wasn’t disturbed in the slightest.
After Wolf had given his nonchalant reply, the chief’s wrinkles dug themselves in even deeper.
“Why did you, our next chieftain, commit such a foolish action?”
“If I said that it was for the Kua Clan, would you believe me?”
“If you want me to believe anything you say then knock off that joking attitude of yours and start over.”
Wolf who got told off simply shrugged his shoulders in an exaggerated fashion.
“I’ve gotten used to it. What do you think? No one would think I’m part of this tribe if I talked like that, right?”
So Wolf faked his girly voice in order to not be associated with the Kua Clan. It was pretty obvious that his appearance and voice didn’t match up, but it didn’t click in my head until now. I’ve really been had from the start. Even when he was treating injuries and telling me all about the medicines he had, I still didn’t suspect a thing. Let’s just say his ruse was very effective.
Sometimes, he went back to a more masculine way of speaking, probably because that’s what he’s used to.
“What do you want?”
“Oh my, whatever do you mean?”
“Weren’t you pretending to be harmless in order to trick that girl you brought with you?”
I turned my head to get a better look at the pair, but my shoulder was caught on one of my guards.
‘That girl’ was probably me.
“That’s quite a delicate question to ask your own son.”
“My son happens to be a complete imbecile. What a shame. Are you trying to take advantage of a young girl’s naivety and have her waste her life away in these mountains?”
…Hm?
I followed their conversation along and hit a snag. Somehow, the flow of their discussion wasn’t what I was expecting.
“She may be young, but she’s amazing, you know? She can treat wounds and has tons of knowledge about various medicines. She even knows of diseases that we don’t know!”
“That’s it? You’re not satisfied with the knowledge that was passed down to us by our ancestors, and now we’re stealing ideas from somewhere else? …You’re a greedy fool.”
Right after those words, the chieftain sighed deeply, saying he felt an oncoming headache. He stroked his forehead, trying to relax the wrinkles, then the talks continued.
“Wait a second! Don’t tell me you’re going to go along with his plan?!” The people around me suddenly became agitated.
“I don’t want to either, but now that he brought her here, what else could we do?”
“That’s…”
“Now that she knows where we are, we can’t let her leave, but we also can’t put her in the village prison forever.”
“But the wife of our next chief is nothing but an outsider!”
I knew it!! You said wife just now, didn’t you!
I’m not being treated like a wife candidate. In fact, they’re acting like I’m going to marry Wolf right away!
“Moreover, it’s clear from her appearance that she isn’t from Flamme! Even if you wished to increase our knowledge, to stain the blood of the Kua Clan with that of an outsider’s… How could I bear to face our ancestors again?”
No, no, no, no, no.
I have zero intentions of mixing my blood with anyone! The only blood I will ever mix will be to make some red dye!
At the thought of marriage, I immediately began thinking of Sir Leonhard. What if I couldn’t marry him because I was forced into something with the Kua Clan? My heart chilled and I became upset.
I tried to take in what I could with my confused head. It turned out Wolf truly was searching for a bride and I learned that the Kua Clan was so reclusive they even restricted marriages between the villagers only.
They really are treating me like Wolf’s chosen bride… That’s not something I’d find funny even as a joke.
The quarrelling continued even after I had calmed down.
Many topics flew about the room: my treatment skills, Wolf’s retirement plan, etc. I hated how they were steering the conversation all by themselves, but I didn’t have the courage to butt in either. Actually, I was going for the more subtle, ‘absolute silence’ plan. I didn’t want to add anymore oil to the fire, after all. What an adorable genius I’ve become!
But as usual, Wolf paid no heed to the tense atmosphere.
“This girl is not going to be my bride.”
Unfortunately, Wolf’s firm voice didn’t get lost in the commotion.
The room suddenly froze. Following Wolf’s remark, people looked at each other as if confused. ‘What do you mean?’ Their faces seemed to ask.
“What are you saying? Then what do you intend to do with that girl? Are you saying you want to marry her to someone else?”
The chief asked the question that had been on everyone’s minds.
“Not a chance. To marry this girl, one must be of high rank and status, and no one from this small village fits that description.”
“…Rank and status?”
Tension ran through the room like a ripple from a stone thrown into a pond.
The chief slowly repeated Wolf’s words, pressuring him for an answer with his lowered voice. But Wolf lifted up the corners of his mouth as if defying the gravity of the situation.
“That’s right.”
Aaaaaaaaaah! Please stop! Time out! The timing isn’t right yet!
Unlike Wolf who was displaying his signature hearty laugh, I was but a little princess who was crying inside.
“The person who stands in front of you now is the Kingdom of Nebel’s first princess, Her Highness Rosemarie von Verward!”
“Huh…?”
A sound of utter confusion leaked out.
Everyone had similar stupefied expressions on their faces, not understanding what was going on. When I saw those faces, I wanted to crawl in a hole and escape this cruel reality.
“She is the new master of our Kua Clan.”
‘Please let it be over already…’
I whispered in a small voice and looked up towards the heavens for help.
There’s a saying: ‘It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.’
Despite all the people gathered here, the town remained eerily quiet. If a pin did drop and was indeed laying around, wouldn’t that be quite worrisome? Well, I’ll leave the details for later.
More importantly, what I should really be worried about was how to advance from here. Yes. Right this instance.
The people in the room numbered nine, including me and Wolf. The room was certainly big enough to accommodate all of us, but somehow it felt like I would suffocate just from tension coming off the people who were staring daggers at each other. That said, no one dared to open their mouths. But was my suffocation a mental or a physical one, I wonder?
There were two people at my left and right respectively and another two were right behind me. And finally, there was one person who sat in front of all of us. In other words, I was utterly and completely surrounded. This is super uncomfortable! I wanted to run away, but I knew better than to go through with that idea.
“Wolf, you…What on earth is the meaning of this?”
It was the man at the front that broke the heavy silence. I think he’s in his prime fifties. With dry wrinkles between his brows and thin lips that stretched from one side to the other, he gave off the feeling of your typical ‘old grumpy grandpa.’ He had a lean body. His grey hair was stroked back, and he wore ethnic, tribal clothes. Yet somehow, he reminded me of a doctor. He looked nothing at all like Wolf but they had the same eyes, so this must be Wolf’s father, the current chieftain.
He glared at Wolf with a grim expression.
“It is absolutely unheard of to invite outsiders to our village. Don’t think you’ll be let off with just a slap on the wrist.”
“I know that.”
Although he had everyone’s gaze on him, like bedrock under the storm, Wolf wasn’t disturbed in the slightest.
After Wolf had given his nonchalant reply, the chief’s wrinkles dug themselves in even deeper.
“Why did you, our next chieftain, commit such a foolish action?”
“If I said that it was for the Kua Clan, would you believe me?”
“If you want me to believe anything you say then knock off that joking attitude of yours and start over.”
Wolf who got told off simply shrugged his shoulders in an exaggerated fashion.
“I’ve gotten used to it. What do you think? No one would think I’m part of this tribe if I talked like that, right?”
So Wolf faked his girly voice in order to not be associated with the Kua Clan. It was pretty obvious that his appearance and voice didn’t match up, but it didn’t click in my head until now. I’ve really been had from the start. Even when he was treating injuries and telling me all about the medicines he had, I still didn’t suspect a thing. Let’s just say his ruse was very effective.
Sometimes, he went back to a more masculine way of speaking, probably because that’s what he’s used to.
“What do you want?”
“Oh my, whatever do you mean?”
“Weren’t you pretending to be harmless in order to trick that girl you brought with you?”
I turned my head to get a better look at the pair, but my shoulder was caught on one of my guards.
‘That girl’ was probably me.
“That’s quite a delicate question to ask your own son.”
“My son happens to be a complete imbecile. What a shame. Are you trying to take advantage of a young girl’s naivety and have her waste her life away in these mountains?”
…Hm?
I followed their conversation along and hit a snag. Somehow, the flow of their discussion wasn’t what I was expecting.
“She may be young, but she’s amazing, you know? She can treat wounds and has tons of knowledge about various medicines. She even knows of diseases that we don’t know!”
“That’s it? You’re not satisfied with the knowledge that was passed down to us by our ancestors, and now we’re stealing ideas from somewhere else? …You’re a greedy fool.”
Right after those words, the chieftain sighed deeply, saying he felt an oncoming headache. He stroked his forehead, trying to relax the wrinkles, then the talks continued.
“Wait a second! Don’t tell me you’re going to go along with his plan?!” The people around me suddenly became agitated.
“I don’t want to either, but now that he brought her here, what else could we do?”
“That’s…”
“Now that she knows where we are, we can’t let her leave, but we also can’t put her in the village prison forever.”
“But the wife of our next chief is nothing but an outsider!”
I knew it!! You said wife just now, didn’t you!
I’m not being treated like a wife candidate. In fact, they’re acting like I’m going to marry Wolf right away!
“Moreover, it’s clear from her appearance that she isn’t from Flamme! Even if you wished to increase our knowledge, to stain the blood of the Kua Clan with that of an outsider’s… How could I bear to face our ancestors again?”
No, no, no, no, no.
I have zero intentions of mixing my blood with anyone! The only blood I will ever mix will be to make some red dye!
At the thought of marriage, I immediately began thinking of Sir Leonhard. What if I couldn’t marry him because I was forced into something with the Kua Clan? My heart chilled and I became upset.
I tried to take in what I could with my confused head. It turned out Wolf truly was searching for a bride and I learned that the Kua Clan was so reclusive they even restricted marriages between the villagers only.
They really are treating me like Wolf’s chosen bride… That’s not something I’d find funny even as a joke.
The quarrelling continued even after I had calmed down.
Many topics flew about the room: my treatment skills, Wolf’s retirement plan, etc. I hated how they were steering the conversation all by themselves, but I didn’t have the courage to butt in either. Actually, I was going for the more subtle, ‘absolute silence’ plan. I didn’t want to add anymore oil to the fire, after all. What an adorable genius I’ve become!
But as usual, Wolf paid no heed to the tense atmosphere.
“This girl is not going to be my bride.”
Unfortunately, Wolf’s firm voice didn’t get lost in the commotion.
The room suddenly froze. Following Wolf’s remark, people looked at each other as if confused. ‘What do you mean?’ Their faces seemed to ask.
“What are you saying? Then what do you intend to do with that girl? Are you saying you want to marry her to someone else?”
The chief asked the question that had been on everyone’s minds.
“Not a chance. To marry this girl, one must be of high rank and status, and no one from this small village fits that description.”
“…Rank and status?”
Tension ran through the room like a ripple from a stone thrown into a pond.
The chief slowly repeated Wolf’s words, pressuring him for an answer with his lowered voice. But Wolf lifted up the corners of his mouth as if defying the gravity of the situation.
“That’s right.”
Aaaaaaaaaah! Please stop! Time out! The timing isn’t right yet!
Unlike Wolf who was displaying his signature hearty laugh, I was but a little princess who was crying inside.
“The person who stands in front of you now is the Kingdom of Nebel’s first princess, Her Highness Rosemarie von Verward!”
“Huh…?”
A sound of utter confusion leaked out.
Everyone had similar stupefied expressions on their faces, not understanding what was going on. When I saw those faces, I wanted to crawl in a hole and escape this cruel reality.
“She is the new master of our Kua Clan.”
‘Please let it be over already…’
I whispered in a small voice and looked up towards the heavens for help.
