Book 1-7.2 The Plot (I)
“Honestly, that is a problem I have
been thinking about for a long time. Currently, many of the desert
tribes are paying tribute to the large powers of the continents. The
question is, whether those large powers could realistically invade the
desert.”
“Young Glow, even if there was only a ten percent chance
that they could invade, we would need to prepare for their invasion.
That is why I am asking, what would you do, if they do go with that less
than ten percent chance and choose to invade.”
Yulian responded without any hesitation.
“I
am confident that they will not invade Pareia right now, and I am also
confident that I will be able to prepare our Pareia for defense before
they invade. However, even if they were to invade today, I am confident
that we will be able to hold them off for many years. And within that
time, they will choose to retreat on their own.”
He answered
thinking about the current situation of the continent. The Silence
Empire and the Rojini Kingdom, their preparation was almost over.
Soon, the two powers will start to unsheath their swords against each other. Yulian was keeping that in mind.
If
the Silence Empire decided to invade Pareia, Pareia could first provide
tribute to the Rojini Kingdom and make a deal with them to start the
war.
If the Silence Empire truly invaded Pareia, they would need
to send at least 50,000 soldiers, and that was an opportunity the Rojini
Kingdom would not miss.
“If the Silence Empire sent less than
30,000 soldiers to invade Pareia, that would be foolish of them. If
something like that happened, we would not be defending; we would attack
them and destroy all of their soldiers. Those soldiers do not know how
to fight in the desert, with the scorching sun and the unstable sand.”
As
Yulian drew up multiple situations in his head and confidently shared
them with the chiefs, the chiefs were all contemplating Yulian’s words.
“Okay,
okay, that is enough. We do not need to worry about something that has
not happened yet. We are not at a point where we can spare time to worry
about things that have not happened yet.”
Baguna knew the exact moment to interrupt and stopped the conversation.
“Since
the Shuarei tribe has been quiet for a while, let’s use this chance to
figure out how we can bring together the warriors stationed in the
different oasis and create a training curriculum.”
The people in
the paoe started to once again have heated discussions, and chatted away
loudly at times and quickly at times, coming up with a plan. It was
late in the night when they all returned to their own paoes.
The only ones left in the paoe were Baguna, Yulian, Pere, and Orca.
They were the men of the Provoke family.
Baguna looked towards his three sons as he spoke.
“In
the future, make sure all of you take part in these meetings. Yulian
must have the ability as a Glow and Pere and Orca, you must support him
from the back. This father of yours did not have many siblings, and my
one older brother and one younger brother both completed their mission
as a warrior and returned to Neo Latin-nim’s side during a war. That was
why I had a lot of suffering once I became the Glow. Even without
saying this, you don’t know what it is like to not have any siblings who
are able to understand the reasons for your actions. I trust that you
all understand the meaning of your father’s words.”
“Yes.”
All three sons answered in unison.
Seeing Pere not show any disdain to his father’s words and answering as needed, Yulian started to ponder.
‘Is it because I said I would accept his challenge on the day of the Glow selection?’
At that moment, Orca spoke up as if he came up with an idea.
“Father,
brothers, since we have all gathered together like this, why don’t we
share a drink together? Even though it was your birthday, father, your
sons were unable to lift up a single glass of alcohol to you. Mother
mentioned that the foreigners brought some good alcohol and sent some to
my paoe.
Baguna smiled at Orca’s words and Yulian shouted happily that his younger brother was already at an age he can drink.
“Orca, do you have to even ask? Go get it.”
Orca happily smiled before getting up and heading out of the paoe to get the alcohol.
Looking at Orca, Baguna started to speak.
“Both
of you must take good care of the third. His body has been weak from
birth, and he has been watching his two extremely talented brothers
since he was young that rather than relying on his own abilities, he
seems to want to rely on the two of you. That is not because Orca is
weak, nor is it his fault. The saying goes that the father must help the
first son, but for younger siblings, it is the job of the older
brothers to help. The two of you have been so focused on your individual
goals; have either of you paid any attention to Orca at all?”
Both Yulian and Pere lowered their heads at Baguna’s words.
“Yulian
was because he was the oldest son, Pere, for you, it was because you
care too much about competing with Yulian, but sigh…there is nothing I
wish for more than for the two of you to not be so focused on competing
with each other.”
Baguna knew of the brothers’ relationship all this time, but pretended to not know.
What could he do? Whose side could he take when they were both his sons?
However,
Yulian was the eldest son, and his abilities were not lacking to be the
Glow. That’s why he had selected Yulian to be the Glow of the next
generation.
If Yulian had shown any faults, he may have selected his second son, Pere, the perfectionist, to be the next Glow.
Both Yulian and Pere lowered their heads further at Baguna’s words.
“Even
though he shows no aptitude to be a warrior, he was showing interest in
incantations. He seems to be going to the chief Shaman, Tuma Takaka,
quite often lately. According to Tuma Takaka, Orca shows a lot of
aptitude towards incantations. As such, I plan to send Orca to Tuma
Takaka to learn. However, as you have seen with Tuma Takaka, those who
learn incantations seem to go a bit crazy, so the two of you will have
to make sure to lead Orca forward in the future.”
“We will keep that in mind, father.”
As
he watched his two sons respond in unison with a satisfied expression,
he started to share a lot of family stories and stepped back from the
position of Glow and said things to his sons as a father. As they were
chatting, Orca returned with a clay vase.
“What kind of stories were you sharing without me?”
Watching his father and two older brothers chatting away, Orca asked with a smile on his face.
“He asked us to watch over you. Okay, I’ve heard that you’ve been interested in incantations lately, is it fun?”
Orca scratched his cheek in embarrassment at Yulian’s question.
“I
have no talent to become a warrior like hyung-nims. I need to find a
talent that is fitting for me on my own. That is the only way for me to
stand side by side with my two hyung-nims in the future. I am not
learning it for fun.”
As the fifteen year old Orca answered with a
surprisingly reliable answer, the three of them smiled and found him to
be commendable.
“Really, you were thinking internally that ‘this
youngster is saying all sorts of things’ weren’t you? However, I must
also start to prepare to become an adult. Hyung-nims, the two of you
were interacting with warriors at my age, but you two have a habit of
looking at me as just a little child.”
Orca spoke as if he did not
like how his brothers treated him as a young child, and Pere put a
smile on his stoic face and answered.
“If I have done that, this
hyung apologizes to you. I forgot what kind of thoughts I had when I was
your age. You are also my brother.”
“I also forgot that you are a son of the desert. This hyung also apologizes to you.”
Even though he was just sharing his complaints, seeing his two brothers respond ike this, Orca was completely surprised.
“There
is no reason for you to apologize. There is nothing I hope for more
than for the two of you to consider me a son of the desert from here on.
This alcohol is very fragrant. I don’t think it is an alcohol of the
desert.”
After smelling the fragrance rising up from the clay
vase, Orca started to fill his father and brothers’ cups. Baguna took
the vase from Orca and put a glass in front of Orca as he started to
speak.
“A desert son who is fifteen has earned the right to drink. It is time for you to accept a glass from your father.”
“Ah! Thank you, father.”
Being accepted as a man by the father he respected, Orca was extremely happy as he received the alcohol with two hands.
“Alright
then, since all of the men of the Provoke family have gathered
together, we will drink the first glass for the glory of Pareia, the
second for our Provoke family, and the third for only good things to
happen in the future.”
As Baguna spoke like that and took a drink, the three brothers all took a drink as well.
However, Pere just pretended to drink, and poured the alcohol into his sleeve.
The
reason Pere, who could finish four jugs of alcohol if he started to
drink, did this, was because he had been praying to their guardian Neo
Latin-nim for the past few months and promised to abstain from alcohol
for the next year.
“Next, I will pour.”
Yulian stood up and
filled his father and younger brothers’ glasses, and with another
‘gunbae’ they drank again. Lastly, Pere repeated the motion and the
third cup was finished.
Afterwards, the three brothers shared many stories they could not share before and shared their brotherly love.
Soon after, Orca was wobbling as he spoke.
“This is weird. I have secretly drank before without father or hyung-nims knowing, however, I have never been so dizzy before……”
As Orca fell over before he could even finish, Baguna, Yulian and Pere all laughed while looking at Orca.
“As
Orca mentioned, the taste of this alcohol is quite peculiar. I have
never drank alcohol like this in the desert… seeing my head spin like
this already, it is very strong……”
Slam.
Watching Yulian,
who had a pretty high tolerance, fall over not long after, Baguna and
Pere were about to laugh. However, Baguna’s expression changed as he
realized that something was wrong.
He was someone who could drink
ten jugs of alcohol without problem, and he had even tried to strongest
alcohol in the continent. But even he was feeling weird and his mind was
starting to get fuzzy.
And feeling this sense of danger starting to creep up, Baguna woke up his intuition that he had not used in a long time.
“Pere… hurry, go get Tuma Takaka and the warriors……”
Pere
finally realized that something was wrong and quickly got up and headed
out of the paoe. However, his feet stopped the moment he headed
outside.
There were many desert warriors with murderous gazes standing in front of him with weapons.
And surprisingly, in the midst of the desert warriors were the soldiers and knights of the Silence Empire.
As Pere hesitated, a woman stepped forward from the crowd.
“Mother Librie, what is going on?”
Pere
shouted towards that woman. The woman who had stepped forward from the
crowd was the Glow’s third wife, their mother and Orca’s biological
mother, Librie.
“Looks like you didn’t faint? That’s too bad. If
you had fainted, I wouldn’t have to kill you like your mother Seina.
Just blame it all on your bad luck.”
Listening to Librie’s word that struck like lightning, Pere became lost. What was this woman saying?
“You…what…what are you saying?”
As Pere got anxious and started to stutter, Librie had an evil smile on her face.