Chapter 634

Ai-mel-ra finally accepted my terms after a long sigh. She had no other choice. She couldn’t defeat me by force, and if she chose to fight to the end or take her own life, saving the slaves behind her would have been impossible.

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

A warrior of paladin caliber, throwing herself away for worthless slaves. If she had hidden and fled through the heavy rain to the barrier, she might have escaped safely.

As Hatan said, the Empire’s so-called “chevaliers” were foolish and weak.

The Empire called that weakness “générosité”… the nobility of self-sacrifice, but to me, it was just incomprehensible stupidity.

At least, at that time.

—

I informed the warriors who had tracked me down that I had taken her, Ai-mel-ra de Median, as my concubine, and ordered them to release all the slaves they had brought. As I had promised Ai-mel-ra.

“Huh…? What are you saying…?”

The warriors were baffled by my command to release the slaves we had just captured, and even more so by my decision to take a runaway slave as my concubine. Their faces said it all—they thought I was joking.

But I wasn’t joking, and the warriors, seeing the seriousness in my expression, bowed their heads.

No one opposed me. There was no one willing to risk their life over such a “trivial” matter.

“…Are you sure about this? Biasiren and Meiharin won’t be pleased. Not to mention, the marriage arrangement with Da-ha-mei…”

Only Glar, my close aide, cautiously expressed concern, mentioning the names of my wives.

Biasiren, the daughter of the chieftain who had taken me in and my first wife. Meiharin, whom I married for political reasons to absorb another tribe, and Da-ha-mei, with whom marriage talks were ongoing for the same reason.

Certainly, it was hard to imagine them welcoming this woman.

My purpose in taking her was to have a child who would inherit our talents—a child with the “blood of the wolf,” suitable to be the heir of Ai-shan. And that meant their own children might be pushed aside in the line of succession.

“Not my concern.”

Of course, to me, it was of no importance. These were marriages of necessity, devoid of any affection. Whether these women, who held no love for me, were displeased or not was none of my concern.

If they were worried about their children being pushed aside, they simply needed to bear children of superior quality. If they wanted to become the conquerors of the Great Plains after me, they would have to prove their worth through their own strength.

In any case, I released all the slaves I had used to lure Ai-mel-ra, as I had promised her.

To the empty plains south of the barrier, which the Westerners called Dane—the slaves’ homeland.

“Danke, Dankeschön!”

The slaves bowed repeatedly to Ai-mel-ra, tears streaming down their faces. I didn’t understand what they were saying, but it seemed like they were expressing gratitude.

Though it was unlikely their thanks would reach the woman who was unconscious, bandaged and lying there.

—

And so, I took Ai-mel-ra de Median as my concubine.

As expected, Biasiren didn’t hide her displeasure, but she didn’t throw a fit either. According to Hatan, it was because she believed in her position as the first wife, having borne the eldest son, Targien.

A concubine was just a concubine, and she seemed to have no doubt that her son would inherit Ai-shan.

“……”

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

“Ai-mel-ra de Median…”

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

“Taking a Western paladin as a concubine… that’s just like you.”

She showed interest rather than displeasure. Whether she was pleased that Targien might have more competition or intrigued by the fact that a warrior of paladin caliber had accepted the role of a concubine, I couldn’t tell.

—

It took half a month for Ai-mel-ra’s injuries to heal. Even then, she wasn’t fully recovered.

Despite her excellent swordsmanship and remarkable talent, her body was incredibly fragile. Even the tendons in her severed wrist didn’t heal properly.

She wasn’t completely unable to use her arm, but fighting as she once did was now impossible.

When the physicians who examined her said this, I felt an inexplicable melancholy. It was closer to regret.

Even though all I had wanted from her was a child who would inherit our talents, the fact that she could no longer wield a sword didn’t seem like a significant issue.

So why did I feel regret? It was a strange, hard-to-define emotion.

Was it because I had enjoyed fighting her so much that I regretted not being able to fight her again? Or was it simply that I would never see her golden hair flowing as she swung her sword again?

It reminded me of the feeling I had as a child when I accidentally broke the curved sword my father had gifted me.

—

After the rainy season passed, the autumn that followed was peaceful and serene.

Unlike before, when we had to constantly go on expeditions to fight hostile tribes, Ai-shan had now established itself as a major tribe, and the surrounding tribes didn’t dare to provoke us.

What we needed to do now wasn’t to go on expeditions to crush enemies and return, but to transform Ordos, which was little more than a tent village, into a city worthy of being the capital of Ai-shan Gurun.

It meant we had time to spare.

I spent that time conversing with Ai-mel-ra. It was to teach her our language. It wouldn’t do for a woman who had become a member of Ai-shan Gi-or to not even know the language of the grasslands.

Normally, this would have been a task for maids, but there was no one I could trust enough to entrust her with.

At first, I considered assigning her a Western slave as a maid. However, Glar’s advice that they might conspire to escape again gave me pause.

So, I assigned her a grassland maid, but that too was a mistake. The maid, who was supposed to teach her our language and serve her, not only failed to teach her the Eastern language properly but even tried to poison her in secret.

After the poisoning attempt failed, the maid committed suicide, so I couldn’t find out who was behind it. There were too many suspects. The grassland people despised and loathed Westerners, men and women alike.

Thus, until I could select new maids—ones I could truly trust—I ended up teaching her myself.

It wasn’t too difficult. I was far from being a great teacher, but she was an exceptional student. She never forgot anything she saw or heard.

—

Several weeks passed.

One day, Ai-mel-ra, leaning against the window of the small wooden house that would later be named Gold Flower Palace, suddenly spoke to me.

“…Why did you take me as your wife?”

Her Eastern language was flawless, aside from omitting all honorifics. It was the first personal remark she had directed at me.

I pondered how to respond for a moment, then gave her the honest reason.

“I wanted a child who would surpass me. A child fit to become the conqueror of the Great Plains, the strongest warrior of the grasslands.”

Ai-mel-ra chuckled. It was a laugh of disbelief, but it was the first smile I had seen from her since she arrived.

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

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

“Is that so?”

Ai-mel-ra turned her head toward me. Her blue eyes, backlit by the sun, stared straight at me.

“You must know this too. Back then… I was just lucky. It’s different now.”

She calmly pointed out the flaw in my answer. Indeed, everything was different now. I was far stronger than Gisaha, and Ai-mel-ra’s tendons were severed, making it impossible for her to fight as she once did.

“…I could force her body open, but I can’t force her to bear a child. If the mother doesn’t want the child, it’s easy to kill it before it’s born. I didn’t want to lose a potential Kagan’s heir that way.”

I found myself spouting a long explanation. I was aware of it myself. It was a rational answer, but it was still just an excuse.

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

The reason I didn’t… well… maybe I just didn’t want to. Yes, I didn’t want to. For some reason.

“Is that so?”

Ai-mel-ra kept her eyes on me as she tilted her head slightly. Her lips moved quietly for a while before she posed a new question.

“What do you mean by ‘conqueror of the Great Plains’? It sounds like there are enemies beyond the grasslands. I thought you were the king of Ka-har, but is that not the case?”

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

Twenty-three years ago. The raiders who slaughtered my parents, siblings, and relatives. All I knew was that they were grassland people from beyond the river, but their identities remained unknown.

Thus, all the tribes beyond the river were my enemies.

If you can’t identify which wolf in a pack of dozens killed your sheep… isn’t slaughtering the entire pack the surest solution?

“If the lands beyond the river are filled with your enemies… why are you targeting the West instead?”

“Didn’t you cross the barrier to attack us? I can’t leave an enemy at my back and go on an expedition to fight another.”

“So, we’re the problem?”

Ai-mel-ra shook her head and let out a faint sigh. Her golden hair swayed like silk in the wind.

“Lord Ludwig of the Borderlands formed a subjugation force because he feared you. Your strength, cruelty, and ferocity. He feared your fangs would cross the barrier and reach the Empire.”

“Ludwig?”

“Ludwig Wilhelm von Landenburg. The commander who guards Berengeiria… the massive barrier you call the Western Wall.”

It was the first time I had heard the name. That barrier was impregnable no matter who guarded it, so I hadn’t thought the commander’s name was important.

“…I have no interest in what’s beyond the barrier. I’m hostile because you attacked us. If you hadn’t, I would have crossed the Barun River by now to fight the tribes to the east.”

“I hope not.”

It was a strange answer. She spoke as if discussing the future, not the past. Before I could ask what she meant, she spoke again.

“Whether you mean it or not… if the reason you took me as your wife is to have a child who surpasses you, I’ll grant that wish. But on two conditions.”

“Conditions?”

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

Ai-mel-ra, with a faint smile, stepped away from the windowsill and approached me. She presented two conditions to fulfill my wish.

Stop the plundering raids against the West. And send all the Western slaves held by Ai-shan back to the barrier. Those were the conditions she set.

If we released the slaves, the West wouldn’t send subjugation forces, she claimed. I nodded. I didn’t fully believe her, but I hoped it would be true.

—

Two years later, I had my third child.

—

As she had assured, after we released all the Western slaves, the Empire’s subjugation forces never crossed the barrier to attack us.

For ten years, that is.