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67. Engagement – Lena, I’m Sorry

Lena was alive.

Immediately after capturing the Old Phantom Fox, the warriors rushed in. They saw Lena’s condition and quickly brought a sled to carry her off.

After that,

“Listen up! You foolish brat!”

Leo, brought home, was getting beaten with a stick by Noel Dexter and was also punished by holding a large water jug.

“Are you risking your life for something so trivial?!”

Noel, still furious, paced back and forth in front of his kneeling son, scolding incessantly.

“You want to be a knight, yet you’re blinded by ambition to the point where you don’t value your own life. What a fool. What a knight must protect are righteous beliefs, not some petty honor!”

His lecture seemed to last all day, but Dehorman interjected to stop him.

“That’s enough. It’s good enough. And while it may not be important to you as a knight… it is indeed a tremendous achievement for our tribe.”

He defended Leo, but for some reason, he didn’t smile like he usually did.

In fact, Leo also got scolded by Dehorman. Before Lena was urgently escorted, Dehorman had heard that the kids were hunting monsters recklessly and was extremely angry.

With his head drooping low, a guilty Leo got slapped right there by Dehorman.

Lena, heavily injured and being carried on the sled, almost got kicked by her father, but the tribe members rushed in to stop him.

“Great Warrior! Hold on! It’s true the kids broke the rules, but shouldn’t you treat her and scold them afterward?”

“That’s right. And this was a remarkable achievement. It’s like passing the Great Warrior’s Trial… I apologize.”

One of the warriors, who had been scolded, glanced nervously at Dehorman’s piercing gaze.

The Great Warrior’s Trial.

Not just for the Ainar Tribe, but many northern barbarian tribes had this so-called ‘Great Warrior’s Trial.’

It was a life-and-death challenge that recognized a few young warriors from the tribe.

The participants, limited to five or fewer, had to hunt monsters using only their own strength with no external help, and naturally, using poison was prohibited (who would eat prey caught with poison?), and since it was a ‘trial,’ the use of traps was also banned.

Dehorman had also endured the Great Warrior’s Trial in the past.

The warriors who set out with five, including him, returned as three.

Those three became the Great Warriors representing the Ainar Tribe, and whenever they shared drinks, they always poured a separate cup for their two fallen comrades.

The Great Warrior’s Trial was extremely dangerous.

In many cases, the warriors who set out together would disappear without a trace. Nevertheless, this brutal custom continued on with clear rules due to the superstition of the north.

Monsters, even without birthing young, appeared continuously from somewhere.

The northern barbarians believed that this phenomenon was a test from the gods for the warriors. So some sought to test their fortune with a small group hoping to become great warriors.

Those who were recognized as Great Warriors after hunting monsters did not seek out other monsters. They passed on their glory for the next great warriors to be born.

The reason Great Warriors like Dehorman rarely participated in the tribe’s hunts was similarly related to this sacrifice.

When warriors who couldn’t challenge the trial went hunting as a team and encountered monsters, they would help them participate, even in a small way, in the great test.

The trial held great significance to the warriors.

Noel said.

“Get up.”

Leo cautiously stood up, his leg wobbling from having been hit by his father.

Noel Dexter still wore a stern expression but turned to Dehorman to ask about Lena’s condition.

Dehorman informed that she was safe, mentioning she’d likely need to recuperate in the church for a while, signaling to Leo.

He had picked up on Leo’s anxious mood.

Leo bowed his head and went outside. He could hear whispers among the tribe members as he approached the church.

Lena and Leo had not been recognized as Great Warriors. They had caught a monster together, but they broke the rule against using traps.

The warriors of Ainar, recalling the fierce battle in the valley, murmured, “Still, isn’t this enough to grant them the title of Great Warriors?”

The signs of the fox that bled while darting around were indeed remarkable.

As for Leo, he couldn’t care less. He searched for Lena in the church ward.

She was sleeping.

Priestly healing worked wonders. The bruises that would heal with time were left as they were, but the broken bones were already firmly set.

However, her ribs seemed slightly misaligned, causing her left chest to noticeably sink in.

‘Lena, I’m sorry.’

Leo, examining her body here and there, sat beside her bed. He lamented his situation while blaming himself.

To avoid war, there was no other way.

But that excuse brought no comfort before the injured Lena.

The dark bruise covering the left side of her face. How much pain must that have caused? Her shoulder had been smashed and burst… It was a stroke of luck that she had healed.

‘Lena, I’m sorry.’

Successfully completing the {Hunt} event while Lena was severely injured had opened a new route in the engagement scenario for the first time.

What would happen next was still unknown. What would unfold for us now that we wouldn’t go to war? And what could we do?

After the {Hunt} event, Leo had long planned what to do. Now that they wouldn’t go to war, what he must do to clear this scenario…

‘Lena, I’m sorry.’

According to the {Noble Society} information, there were three ways to make Lena a princess.

[The Prince’s Fanatical Love] or the {Bloodline} event, or to become ‘King’ himself. Yet the engagement scenario with no noble blood offered only two choices.

However, a rebellion in the Austin Kingdom was nearly impossible.

A decade ago, the northern kingdom had suffered a bloody civil war, splitting into two kingdoms.

The Austin Kingdom and the Aster Kingdom.

That tragic civil war left the Austin Kingdom with poverty, the great Swordmaster Arpen Albasete, and a centralized system.

Many nobles died during the ‘Nine-Day War.’

Unlike knights, nobles had to publicly declare their allegiance, making them easy targets for hidden knights.

A tremendous number of nobles fell victim to ambushes.

Moreover, back then, no one knew the west would become the Austin Kingdom and the east the Aster Kingdom.

Nobles with territories in the west who supported the Aster Kingdom mostly died, and those who survived to the end lost their lands. This was the same in the Austin Kingdom.

As a result, the number of nobles in both kingdoms plummeted. The lands they held became the king’s property, significantly strengthening royal power.

However, this wasn’t a normal transfer of power.

The administrative system didn’t develop enough to govern the entire populace and territory solely by the king, nor was there a new power group to replace the nobles.

In the end, it was a mere recycling of the old regime that claimed to be a new system.

The second sons and despised bastards who couldn’t inherit the family lands were granted power instead. They were dispatched as the king’s representatives to empty territories, just like the Abrival Castle.

The second sons and bastards, who inherited nothing but the surname from their parents, gladly accepted their roles and swore loyalty to the king.

Thanks to this, the royal power of the Austin & Aster Kingdoms became as powerful as that of the emperors in the days of the Acaian Empire.

Of course, as time passed, they would use all means to inherit the territories they held, slowly restoring the original noble society. But at least for now, they served the king’s orders faithfully as representatives.

This was also why the Austin Kingdom could openly ‘draft’ soldiers in the engagement scenario.

Most of the land and commoners belonged to the king.

The situation in the Belita Kingdom, where the noble society operated smoothly, was completely different. The royal family there had to actively ‘recruit’ soldiers.

It was possible to conscript from territories owned by the royal family, but not from those owned by nobles.

Thus, the Belita royal family sought consent from the lords and recruited soldiers, with most of the money provided by the royal family ending up as taxes collected by the local nobles.

‘Lena, I’m sorry.’

It wasn’t an easy task to overturn this temporarily centralized system in the Austin Kingdom.

Due to Lena’s age and their engagement, there wasn’t time to plan a rebellion, so other methods had to be sought, but there were no feasible alternatives.

The starting point of the childhood friend scenario in the Orun Kingdom, for instance, not only didn’t have a centralized system but also at least held the possibility of suppressing barbarians.

But here, officially, there were no barbarians at all.

The northern kingdoms had long accepted the barbarians as citizens.

So the remaining method was…

Leo tightly gripped Lena’s hand.

‘Sorry.’

The engagement scenario had economic stability and the strongest Leo among the three, but it was the most complicated path to becoming king, and it harbored significant contradictions.

The day when he would have to break the ‘engagement,’ which was a contradiction entangled in the engagement scenario, had finally arrived.

He planned to call off the engagement with Lena.

[ Achievement: Monster Hunt – ‘1’, a weak mana begins to dwell in your body. ]

Having gained the power from hunting monsters opened up paths to gain strength in other scenarios, and he considered merely accumulating power in this scenario to help the others.

But,

‘Would really clearing just one of the three scenarios be the end of it?’

This chilling question had plagued him every time a scenario began.

Would this cruel game be satisfied with merely returning the Beggar Siblings’ {Bloodline}?

The conclusion was negative.

This game would likely force him to clear all three scenarios.

Minseo had enough insight to see that.

[ You have died. 2/3 ]

[ Achievement: Second Death – The rate at which the Player becomes Leo slows down. ]

Thus, through two deaths, he could impact Leo for a long time, and since it had only been the 11th round so far, this was the last chance to attempt a breakup. The real Leo Dexter would never, absolutely never, break off his engagement with Lena.

‘Lena, I’m really sorry.’

Leo released Lena’s hand.

In truth, he had been preparing for this moment since the day their engagement began.

On the first day, Lena had dashed up the stairs, hiding beer she had stolen. Breathless, she insisted on having a drink together, but Leo had refused.

Even after getting his father’s approval, he never once sought the open space while coming and going from the blacksmith.

He couldn’t afford to get attached. From now on, he had to treat Lena poorly.

Leo twisted his face and pouted.

From now on, even if Lena cheerfully greeted him in the morning, he would have to ignore her. If she teased him, he would have to reprimand her for acting childish and embarrass her.

He wanted Lena to dislike him.

So, when he brought up the breakup, she would be less hurt and sad.

Of course, he might still be friendly with her until he found a prince. He could chat and have fun with her while concealing his heart of wanting to break up.

But Leo couldn’t do that.

He wasn’t that clever of a person. No, he thought that would be a trick to mock Lena.

He didn’t want to stab her in the back when she firmly believed that they would become knights together and marry.

Caught up in the situation of having to find a way to part with Lena, he still hoped that in the end, she would feel a little less sad.

So… he would slowly distance himself. Until her heart healed.

Tears streamed down Leo’s face as he clenched his fists, which trembled below.

He resented the god. He hated the one who made this into a game.

And… more than that, he hated himself.

A game cruelly squeezing humans like toys. Here he was, the fool opting for the easier path of breaking off the engagement to make a princess rather than standing up against it to become a king.

Yet, to be a king (王) who plants a flag on the vast continent and reigns over the cunning nobles while receiving the admiration of countless subjects…

That wasn’t a position easily aimed for, not even as a class president among a bunch of middle school kids barely turning forty.

While Leo wiped away his tears, the sunset painted the window. He gazed longingly at Lena, who shimmered like fallen leaves in the glow.

Her straw-like hair was dry but abundant, her gently high nose, thick and straight eyebrows, adorably folded triangular ears, and lips that, though stubbornly closed most times, would slightly part only in sleep…

And her low, regular breathing.

He meticulously captured Lena’s image in his eyes. For this was the last moment he could truly look at her.

From now on, he would have to avoid her gaze, showing false emotions.

Leo stood up abruptly.

‘This is not something I should be doing either.’

Clenching his teeth resolutely, he wobbled his way out of the ward.

“Hmmnya. Fox Jabata… Neonan…”

Lena murmured in her sleep.