Ch.634Side Story) Orhan. 21 Years Ago (2)

Imelia sighed deeply before accepting the condition I had set. She had no other choice. She couldn’t defeat me by force, and if she chose to kill herself or fight to the end, it would be impossible to save the slaves behind her.

In the end, thirty women and children who didn’t even know how to wield a sword had become her shackles.

A Champion warrior giving herself up for worthless slaves. She could have escaped safely to the Wall if she had hidden herself and fled through the downpour.

As Hatan said, the Empire’s chevaliers were foolish and weak.

The imperials seemed to call this weakness ‘générosité’… the nobility of self-sacrifice, but to me, it was nothing but incomprehensible foolishness.

At least at that time.

—-

I informed the warriors who had tracked me that I had taken her, Imelia de Median, as my concubine, and ordered them to release all the slaves they had brought. Just as I had promised Imelia.

“What…? What are you saying…?”

The warriors showed their bewilderment at the idea of releasing the slaves they had captured, and even taking a runaway slave as a concubine. Their faces suggested they thought I was joking.

But I wasn’t making a jest, and the warriors, seeing my expression, realized I was serious and bowed their heads.

No one opposed. No one anywhere wanted to risk their lives for such a ‘trivial’ matter.

“Are you sure about this? Biyashen and Meiharin won’t be pleased. Moreover, your engagement with Dahamei…”

Only Glar, my close aide, carefully expressed his concern, mentioning my wives’ names.

Biyashen, the daughter of the tribal chief who had accepted me and became my first wife. Meiharin, whom I had married for political reasons to absorb another tribe, and Dahamei, with whom marriage talks were ongoing for similar reasons.

Certainly, it was difficult to imagine that they would welcome this woman.

My purpose in taking this woman was to see a child suitable as Aishan’s successor—in other words, a child who had awakened the “wolf’s blood”—and that meant her children might push their children out of the succession.

“That’s none of my concern.”

Of course, to me, it was a matter of no consequence. These were marriages formed out of necessity. What did I care if women for whom I had not a shred of affection were displeased?

If they were worried about being pushed out of the succession, they could simply bear children with better qualities. If they wanted to succeed me and become conquerors of the great plains, they would have to prove their worth through their own strength.

Anyway, as promised to Imelia, I released all the slaves who had been used to lure her.

To the empty plains south of the Wall, which the westerners called Dane, the homeland of the slaves.

“Danke, Danke schön!”

The slaves bowed repeatedly to Imelia with tears in their eyes. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but they seemed to be expressing gratitude.

Though I doubted their thanks would reach the woman who lay unconscious with bandages wrapped around her.

—-

And so, I took Imelia de Median as my concubine.

As expected, Biyashen made no attempt to hide her displeasure, but she didn’t vehemently oppose or make a scene. According to Hatan, it was because she believed in her position as the first wife who had borne the eldest son, Targiyan.

She seemed to believe without doubt that a concubine was just a concubine, and that her son would inherit Aishan.

“……”

I didn’t bother to correct her misconception. I saw no reason to correct her delusion. It was also too early to discuss succession.

“Imelia de Median……”

The reaction of my second wife, Meiharin, was quite unexpected even to me.

“Taking a western Champion as a concubine—that’s just like you.”

She showed interest rather than displeasure. Whether she welcomed the possibility of a competitor for Targiyan, or was intrigued by the fact that a warrior of Champion caliber had accepted the position of concubine, I couldn’t tell.

—-

It took a fortnight for Imelia’s injuries to heal. Even then, she wasn’t fully recovered.

Despite her excellent swordsmanship and outstanding talent, her physical body was incredibly fragile. The tendons in her severed wrist wouldn’t even properly reattach.

While she wasn’t completely unable to use her arm, fighting as she had before was impossible.

When the physicians who examined Imelia told me this, I felt an inexplicable melancholy. A feeling close to regret.

Considering that all I wanted from her was a child who would inherit both our talents, the fact that she could no longer wield a sword shouldn’t have been a significant issue.

Why did I feel regret? It was a strange emotion that even I couldn’t understand.

Was it because I had enjoyed our fight so much that I felt disappointed we couldn’t fight again? Or was it simply that I regretted never again seeing her wielding a sword with her golden hair flying?

It felt similar to when I had broken the curved sword my father had given me as a child by swinging it incorrectly.

—-

The autumn that followed the rainy season was peaceful and serene.

Unlike before, when we had to go on expeditions to fight hostile tribes at the slightest provocation, Aishan was already establishing itself as a major tribe, and the surrounding tribes didn’t even dare to think of challenging us.

What needed to be done now was not to go on expeditions to defeat enemies, but to rebuild Ordos, which was nothing more than a tent village, into a city worthy of being the capital of Aishan Gurun.

Meaning I had plenty of time.

I invested that time in conversations with Imelia, teaching her our language. It would be a matter of face if a woman who had become a member of Aishan-Gioro, even if involuntarily, couldn’t speak the language of the steppes.

Normally, this would be a task for a maid, but there was no one I could trust with it.

Initially, I had thought to assign a western slave as her maid. However, Glar’s advice that they might conspire to attempt another escape weighed on my mind.

So I brought in a woman from the steppes as a maid, but this too was a mistake. The maid I had assigned to teach our language and serve her tried to poison her mistress when no one was looking.

She committed suicide immediately after failing the poisoning attempt, so I couldn’t determine who had instigated it. There were too many suspects. The people of the steppes despised and hated westerners, regardless of gender.

Therefore, I personally taught her until I could select new maids… ones I could trust completely.

It wasn’t a difficult task. While I could hardly be called an excellent teacher even in flattery, she was an unparalleled student. She was a woman who never forgot anything she had seen or heard once.

—-

Several weeks passed like that.

Leaning against the window of the small wooden house that would later be named the Golden Flower Palace, Imelia, who had been staring outside absently, suddenly spoke to me.

“…Why did you take me as your wife?”

Perfect eastern language except for the complete omission of honorifics. It was the first private words she had spoken to me.

I pondered for a moment what to answer, then voiced the honest reason.

“I wanted a child who would surpass me. A child who would grow to be the strongest warrior of the steppes, worthy of becoming the conqueror of the great plains.”

Imelia chuckled. It was a laugh of disbelief, but it was the first smile I had seen since welcoming her.

“For that, you haven’t laid a finger on me.”

“…I didn’t want to follow in Gisar’s footsteps.”

“Is that so?”

Imelia turned her head toward me. Blue eyes with the sun at her back looked straight at me.

“You must know. That back then… I was just lucky. Unlike now.”

She calmly pointed out the error in my answer. Indeed, everything was different from then. I was incomparably stronger than Gisar, and Imelia, with her arm tendons severed, could no longer fight as she had then.

“…I could force your body open, but I cannot force you to bear a child. If a mother doesn’t want her child, it’s simple enough to kill it before it’s born. I didn’t want to lose a potential Kagan in that way.”

I found myself offering a long excuse. I was aware of it myself. Though it was a rational answer, it was merely an excuse.

If I was concerned about a possible abortion, I could have simply cut off her limbs and kept her alive for ten months.

The reason I didn’t do that was… well… perhaps because I didn’t want to. Yes, I didn’t want to. For some reason.

“I see.”

Imelia tilted her head slightly without taking her eyes off me. Her lips moved softly for a while before forming a new question.

“What does ‘conqueror of the great plains’ mean? You speak as if there are enemies beyond the steppes. I thought you were the king of the Ka’har, was I wrong?”

“You don’t know how vast the steppes are. Countless tribes, countless warriors fill the land beyond the Barun River. They are all my enemies.”

Twenty-three years ago. The attackers who massacred my parents, siblings, and relatives. All I knew for certain was that they were steppe people from beyond the river, but I still couldn’t identify them.

That’s why all tribes beyond the river were my enemies.

If there’s no way to distinguish which wolf among dozens killed my sheep… isn’t slaughtering the entire pack the surest solution?

“If the land beyond the river is filled with your enemies… why target the west instead of them?”

“You crossed the Wall to attack us. I can’t set out on an expedition to fight another enemy with enemies at my back.”

“So we’re the problem?”

Imelia shook her head and let out a faint sigh. She looked like golden silk swaying in the wind.

“Margrave Ludwig mobilized the punitive force because he fears you. Your strength, your cruelty, your ferocity. He fears your fangs will reach across the Wall to the imperials.”

“Ludwig?”

“Ludwig Wilhelm von Landenburg. The commander who guards Berengaria… the great wall you call the Western Wall.”

It was a name I had never heard before. That wall would be impregnable no matter who guarded it, so I didn’t think the commander’s name was important.

“…I have no interest in what lies beyond the Wall. I only oppose you because you attack us. If you hadn’t, I would be crossing the Barun River by now, fighting the eastern tribes.”

“I hope so.”

A strange answer. Her tone suggested she was discussing the future, not the past. Before I could ask what she meant, she spoke again.

“Whether you’re sincere or not… if your reason for taking me as your wife was to have a child who surpasses you, I’ll fulfill that wish. But I have two conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“Yes. Conditions to prove that what you just said is the absolute truth.”

Imelia smiled and stepped down from the windowsill, approaching me as she presented two conditions to fulfill my wish.

To cease raiding activities against the west. And to send all western slaves held by Aishan to the Wall. Those were the conditions she presented.

She said that if we released the slaves, the west would not send punitive forces. I nodded. Not because I believed her words, but hoping it would be so.

Two years later, I had my third child.

—-

As she had guaranteed, after releasing all the western slaves, there were no imperial punitive forces crossing the Wall to attack us.

For ten years after that.