Savage Forest - Chapter 70
Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi
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Chapter 70
The face that looked at him hesitantly was still flushed.
Tarhan felt dizzy before her eyes and tried to lift his hand to remove her wet hair, but he put his arms back down in a stiff manner. He couldn’t bring herself to not touch her body once he touched her hair.
“Why… did you not use boiled water.”
It felt like eons had passed since he uttered those words.
Cold water in this weather. Tarhan muttered, clenching his jaw, suddenly hating her for not using even such basic things for herself. He only touched the back of his head for no reason.
His gaze was still unable to meet hers.
At those words, the woman’s mouth hardened. The hand that had been rolling up her clothes, which had been clutched in her hand, hesitated and was sent back.
“Oh, there’s something on my clothes… I was in a hurry to clean it.”
His eyes rose at those words, and he turned his gaze back to her.
“Did you fall?”
When he suddenly asked, she closed her mouth and quickly shook her head. Her hand came up to him again. Her hand gestures were hesitant as if she was trying to get closer to him somehow.
She turned her words around.
“Are you hungry? There’s something I’ve made… would you like some?”
He couldn’t answer that he had eaten because her eyes were full of anticipation, so he nodded, swallowing dryly. He thought that it didn’t matter because he could spend half a day like that just sitting at the head of the table with her and watching her little mouth pucker.
As she hurriedly passed him and he watched her limping towards the kitchen, he suddenly noticed a yellow stain on the clothes she had hidden behind her.
For a moment, his head seemed to stop.
He quickly snatched it up without any further thought.
“Ah…!”
Surprised when she looked back, she quickly raised her tiptoes to get it again, but there was no way she could reach his arm.
Tarhan stared at the clothes he had snatched with wild eyes. Even without holding it to his nose, it was clear that the smell that came up was feces.
Something hot surged up his throat.
“Those women came again…?”
Enya’s face was seen turning bright red with embarrassment and betrayal. Only then did he fully understand why she washed herself with cold water around the time he returned.
Last month, just in time for his return, some crazy Aquilean girls got together and left a lot of dirt on the front door of the house where they lived. He found out what had happened when he caught her cleaning her hair alone with feces on it.
When he thought about what happened back then, he was still so angry that he couldn’t even taste his food.
“Even though that woman lives in the village, she hasn’t had a coming-of-age ceremony yet or participated in the Day of Repose, an important ceremony in Aquilea! That’s shameful…!”
That was their answer.
The back of his neck suddenly became stiff. It felt like he knew who was behind it without having to say anything. One of the women was Servia’s henchman.
‘…That woman clearly had a grudge against me for rejecting her back then.’
Of course, Tarhan also knew implicitly that that was not all.
Now that he had already decided to leave the empty fields and take root in Aquilea, he could no longer raise his fists carelessly. In fact, he was even afraid that such behavior would cause more damage to her while he was away.
Still, he couldn’t help feeling angry.
But the answer that came back shattered his courage even more.
“What do you mean by that? Wouldn’t it be okay to have a coming-of-age ceremony? Invite them to participate in the next Day of Repose.”
At that moment, the chieftain’s attitude, as if the women’s protest was natural, made Tarhan turn his head and almost punch him in the chin. He really would have done that if Rigata hadn’t been by his side.
Their coming-of-age ceremony had already been confirmed as Tarhan joined Kahanti’s hunting team.
However, he did not like the way it ended.
Just like other tribes, the Aquileans brought their own game to prove their independence during the coming-of-age ceremony.
For women who had difficulty hunting, there was one more method.
It was a method of having an affair with a man from Aquillea who had just had a coming-of-age ceremony and having that man prove it and make it public. Men and women who had a coming-of-age ceremony were obligated to participate in the next Day of Repose.
Day of Repose.
Thinking of those words, Tarhan closed his eyes as a sharp pain rushed to his eyelids. He suddenly felt as if a candle had been poured down his throat.
When he thought of her in Aquilea’s Day of Repose, thrown in the midst of that beastly festival of carnality and being spoiled, a crushing humiliation and bitter pain seemed to surge through his legs. It seemed like nothing else could make him angry like this.
‘…That will never, ever happen.’
He warned the chieftain with red eyes, barely maintaining his senses in the midst of his blinding fury.
“That girl… Enya will not participate in the ritual. In the first place… Is there a precedent for a woman from the empty fields to participate in the Day of Repose?”
Then, Kahanti’s mouth, which had been open as if satisfied, became scary.
When the women learned that the man they chose as the first priority during the coming-of-age ceremony was a man of high status, such as the chieftain, their expectant and disgusted faces instantly changed.
“You are the one who chose to live in the village despite the risk of participating in the hunting group as bait. Are you sane if you don’t follow Aquilea’s providence now?”
Suddenly, an unpleasant voice struck him. Still, Tarhan did not back down.
“She is a woman with a weak body. She can’t handle the Day of Repose.”
“You are the ones who wanted to get rid of the stigma of being from the empty field and be accepted into Aquilea.”
Kahanti raised his lips as if to laugh at his desperation.
“It seems like some women are saying it’s unfair. It is customary to throw out a woman who does not follow back into the empty fields.”
There was no way he could do that now. He chewed on his teeth.
“We will have a coming-of-age ceremony.”
“By what means? Do you think any man would embrace a woman who does not participate in the Day of Repose?”
Kahanti showed his yellow teeth and scolded him.
“Send her back to the empty fields or make her participate in the Day of Repose. If she is a woman of Aquilea, she must prove herself worthy.”
He had already lost his composure. Even though he knew that going any further would cause danger, he couldn’t stop. He seemed to have been let loose.
In the end, he spat out the words.
“Her coming-of-age ceremony will be held with me.”
Even after saying those words, he didn’t know how he could at that moment. That was how desperate his heart was.
Kahanti frowned at him, not even snorting before he started giggling as though it were funny.
“That’s nonsense. The guy who hasn’t even had his coming-of-age ceremony yet is rude.”
Tarhan opened his eyes wide and clenched his fists. At that time, the chieftain’s eyes suddenly turned sinister. He smiled wickedly as if he was measuring something.
Kahanti’s lowered voice burst out uncleanly.
“If you brought Geppas’ ivory from the plains as a by-product of the ceremony, then I might…”
An impossible sound came out of the mouth of the elderly chieftain, who was looking at him strangely.
Tarhan felt his body stiffen at that ridiculous sound.
It was because Geppas was a type of high-class monster so large that its single ivory exceeded the size of the body of an adult male.
“…Are you kidding me? We cannot avoid injury even if dozens of people stick to it.”
It was like telling him to go and die.
He clenched his teeth tightly. While he was well aware of the chieftain’s two-faced attitude toward him, he did not know that Kahanti would take unreasonable measures like this.
Tarhan stood up in a defensive manner.
Kahanti also looked at the new competitor, who was beginning to receive support from the younger generation with a defiant gaze.
The chieftain showed his teeth like a wild beast.
“Then, either die. I will make sure that the woman’s coming-of-age ceremony is held well.”
The memories of that day became an afterimage and quickly passed before my eyes.
Tarhan noticed that the woman’s eyes in front of him were clouded with anxiety, and he shook his head.
As he faced her, his heart seemed to recede infinitely, but when he recalled the conversation back then, the heat, like the excitement he felt just before breaking the monster’s neck, seemed to dominate his whole body, and it returned to his head.
Absolutely.
He wouldn’t leave her in that situation.
His blood boiled. She, who knew nothing, stretched out her arms in front of him as if asking for her clothes to be returned.
“Tarhan, it was really nothing. Give it back quickly…”
Her face was red, up to her earlobes, with an emotion that he didn’t know whether it was embarrassment or frustration at having this incident caught by Tarhan again.
“It was nothing. I just fell…”
“You said you didn’t fall earlier.”
He scolded her with a sigh.
This time, too, he couldn’t help but resent her for never opening her mouth in front of him. He crumpled the dirt-stained clothes in his hands.
“Sh*t…! I will burn these clothes.”
He was able to get as many new clothes as she wanted. In the end, he couldn’t control his anger and took it with him, striding towards the fireside where a small ember still remained.
He felt her getting startled and rushing after him.
“Tarhan, you don’t have to…! Just, just wash it…!”
Even though an urgent voice held him back, he did not stop his steps. Guilt strangled his throat every time she begged in that voice of hers.
He knew that she, too, was as unwelcome as he was.
If that girl hadn’t lived in his house, would she have had to go through this horrible situation? Too many things have changed to go back to the empty fields now. The comfortable bed, the hearth, and most of all, the incredible sense of security that she didn’t have to be left alone in the empty fields, never knowing when the threat of a monster might come.
Should he give up everything about her and run away into the forest with her on his back? He didn’t know how many times he had had that thought.
Every night, all kinds of thoughts came and suffocated him.
Then, in the end, there was only one destination.
Even if his hands become more torn apart and torn. No matter how many times he throws himself into the monster’s mouth, dripping with poisonous stings, relying only on the rope held in the hands of those who will abandon him at any time and run away.
His treasure, now unrivaled by anything in the world, was looking up at him painfully.
“Ta, Tarhan…”
Why?
It was because when he met those eyes that looked at him as if he was everything in the world, it made him want to live…. because it gave him a reason to endure a worthless life, so much so that he didn’t want to let go of this insignificant life.
Even in pain, perhaps to the point where he wants to go to the end.
If only this woman wouldn’t leave his side.
“…A coming-of-age ceremony will be held.”
A very hoarse voice came out.
Even though his expression was contorted as if he couldn’t see what was in front, he couldn’t avoid his gaze at her.
“I might not come back.”
The shock in her eyes seemed to flow into him. The trembling was conveyed directly to her desperately shaking hands. Nevertheless, she held out her hand again. Her cold fingertips touched his hot cheek, just like the first time.
Thinking about it, it was she who always approached him first.
Tarhan, unaware of the shame, pulled her hand to his lips.
He kissed the back of her trembling hand.
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