Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 4: Engagement – Ainar Tribe

Raising the Princess to Overcome Death-Chapter 4: Engagement – Ainar Tribe

Lena burst out of her room, which was a mix of order and chaos with neatly folded underwear and a sword-sharpening stone side by side, and a leather armor hanging on the vanity.
"Oh no, I overslept."
The cool air was brisk, clearing her head from last night's drink.
Lena had fallen asleep late after sipping beer with Leo.
Thanks to her father's excitement after a long hunt, she had managed to sneak some alcohol.
Her mother had shooed them off to bed, but Lena had coaxed Leo into sharing the hidden stash with her.
However, the late sleep wasn't just because of the beer. It was Leo's fault.
Leo had been acting strange since a few days ago. He seemed troubled, not speaking much, and wielded his sword oddly.
He wasn't mishandling the sword. His movements were powerful yet balanced, each action unmistakably Leo's, but the flow of his swordplay had changed.
Previously, he was stable like his father, Noel. He would steadily pressure his opponent, leaving no openings and effectively neutralizing them.
Recently, though, Leo had become excessively aggressive. His moves were like offering up his flesh to take his opponent's head, forcing them into defense, almost suicidal.
At first glance, it seemed his swordsmanship had regressed. Such a style had a high risk of failure and backlash.
Thanks to Leo's unique sense of balance, the backlash was reduced, allowing him to quickly defeat weaker opponents, but against someone of equal skill, he couldn't sustain the accumulated losses and would easily lose.
For several days, Lena's duels with him ended that way, and he couldn't last a single round against his knightly father.
Noel Dexter was furious at the change, and Lena's father, Dehor, after a drunken duel the previous night, laughed it off as Leo becoming more manly.
Lena shared the same sentiment.
It seemed like Leo was trying to change, not just his swordsmanship but his personality too. The friendly and polite knight had become rough and curt.
Lena had thrown a tantrum the previous night to drink more beer.
Usually, Leo would find it hard to refuse her when she begged. Polite but not particularly fun, she still liked that Leo.
However, last night, Leo had grabbed her arm and tossed her onto the bed, telling her to go to sleep. She felt inexplicably excited and couldn't sleep, hence the late wake-up. So this tardiness was entirely Leo's fault.
Thinking about last night, Lena ran towards the village square, unknowingly smiling.
The village square was bustling with hunters and warriors from the tribe processing the day's catChapter As usual, the hunting team was exempt from butchering, so warriors who hadn't participated in the hunt hurried with the work.
Great warriors, of course, didn't do such tasks. Lena had seen her father and other great warriors drinking the night away as she left the house.
The Ainar tribe's warriors formed teams led by great warriors. In wartime, these teams were the combat units. However, since the tribes had been integrated into the kingdom, inter-tribal wars had ceased, and now the teams primarily hunted.
The warriors in the square waved to Lena.
"Hey, Lena. Late as usual, huh?"
"What can I do? I overslept."
Lena didn't actually have to participate in the butchering. Butchering was the warriors' job, and in the Ainar tribe, one had to participate in a hunt to be recognized as a warrior. She hadn't gone on a hunt yet.
But Lena planned to become a warrior eventually, so she always joined in to gain experience. The Ainar warriors adored her.
A great warrior's daughter voluntarily participating in such work, aspiring to be a warrior herself, was endearing.
Thus, scolding her for being late was just playful banter, and they greeted her warmly. Lena moved to where the young warriors were working.
Butchering involved removing the innards, draining the blood, and then removing the head, feet, and tail before skinning.
The innards had already been eaten by the hunting team, a privilege of the hunters.
"They say innards are a delicacy... yum."
She licked her lips and grabbed a thick knife. Young and inexperienced warriors like Lena handled the feet and tail.
The heads of the catches were already removed, similar to the innards.
The most crucial part, bleeding, was done immediately at the hunting ground, usually by cutting the throat and hanging the body upside down. The blood-drained bodies were transported on sleds.
The next step was to briefly dip the butchered carcasses in hot water (not boiling) to prepare for skinning, a job for young warriors. Lena and her colleagues sweated profusely as they lifted heavy carcasses in and out of the hot cauldron.
"Leo! What brings you here?"
Just as the work was nearly done, Leo arrived.
The young warriors' task was finished, and Lena was learning other butchering processes. Experienced warriors were skinning the carcasses with knives, while mid-level warriors divided the meat into cuts.
Leo gave a bitter smile.
"I felt like I'd die if I stayed for another beating."
When Leo stood beside Lena, the young warriors' gazes pierced him. It was a lighthearted territorial attitude rather than any serious intent to protect the tribal maiden.
Of course, this was expected since in this scenario, Lena and Leo were engaged. When Leo found out, he was baffled. Was this game designed to break the engagement or something?
This scenario was as problematic as the previous one. Lena in Demos Village wanted to become a priest, an impossible marriage, while this time, he had to make the "engaged" Lena a princess.
If he did nothing, he would marry this Lena Ainar as planned, leading to another meaningless ending.
"I'll keep repeating this until I make Lena a princess... I can't live like this forever! I have to get back!"
He tried to summon the image of Chaeha with all his might.
Though only a few days had passed since the new scenario began, Minseo's consciousness was already fading. If he didn't focus intently, he couldn't recall anything related to modern society.
If this kept repeating, he felt like he would dissolve. To avoid living short, meaningless lives, neither as Leo nor Minseo, he had to somehow make Lena a princess.
"I need to make her break off the engagement."
He had no other choice.
He couldn't be mean to her from the start. He needed to maintain a relationship where he could influence her.
Though he hadn't found a way yet, he had to introduce Lena to a prince and ensure they developed a bond. Once they did, breaking off the engagement would be the only solution.
He glanced at Lena, who was watching the butchering process.
Perhaps influenced by this Leo Dexter, he felt a strong attraction to this Lena Ainar.
Lena was a beautiful swordswoman with a short bob that suited her talkative nature. Her miraculous logic of "You're acting strange these days, let's drink some beer!" and her playful tantrums last night were hard to resist.
How could he break off the engagement with this Lena? Just to make her marry another prince and become a princess?
The madman who created this game must be a sociopath with a touch of schizophrenia.
He wanted to reach out and hold her hand. Leo restrained his hand with the other, reminding himself that they had to part ways eventually. He couldn't afford to get too attached.
While Leo was deep in his thoughts, the butchering ended.
"Hey guys! I'm off with my husband~"
"...It's hard living without a partner."
"Ugh! Hope you trip on the way."
Lena mischievously teased the warriors and then snugly attached herself to Leo's side. His eyes wavered intensely.
*
A few weeks later, Dehor led another hunting party, this time with Lena and Leo. They had recently come of age as the sun set.
Coming of age meant they could participate in hunts, and Lena didn't miss the chance.
Leo, not being a member of the Ainar tribe, technically had no right to join the hunt, but being Lena's fiancé and having Dehor's permission allowed him to join.
The hunting team set up camp on the mountain and split into groups. Lena climbed with enthusiasm but soon grew despondent. Hunting was much harder than she had imagined.
She pouted and asked,
"Leo, when did you learn to hunt? How are you so good at it?"
It was Lena's first hunt, and she had a lot to learn. But Leo, despite it being his first hunt, handled things as well as the seasoned warriors.
Hunting wasn't just about wielding a sword well.
It was almost entirely unrelated. Hunting required understanding the terrain, tracking the game, and setting traps or following the prey.
Lena had imagined confronting large carnivores in close combat, but such situations were rare.
If the traps and bows failed to bring down the prey, the great warrior led the warriors to beat it down.
"I just watch and follow."
Leo shrugged, feigning ignorance.
The lessons from his father in the previous scenario were invaluable.
Though not as proficient as his previous father, he had learned the basics, and the {hunting} skills carried over from the last ending had further improved his abilities.
Even with clumsy movements, he could tie knots neatly and set traps in strategic places. Once, he even identified the prey's path before the other warriors, impressing them.
"Haha. I chose a good husband. Noel is terrible at hunting, but his son has a keen eye."
Dehor laughed heartily, and the other warriors stopped underestimating Leo.
Lena, determined not to be outdone, worked harder but was far from getting used to hunting.
Over the weeks, Leo noticed that this Lena had many clumsy moments.
She often misplaced things and panicked, gave surprise gifts to the wrong people due to mixed-up birthdays, and now she was setting a trap backward. It seemed like she intended to catch hunters instead of prey.
Leo chuckled silently and corrected the trap without her noticing. She would likely forget and claim the catch as hers.
On the way back, Leo playfully threw a snowball at Lena's head, which turned out to be a mistake.
Lena was exceptionally good at snowball fights.
One morning, during the ongoing hunt, Lena and Leo set out to check traps after having soup made from innards. Leo had already earned enough trust to form a trap-checking team with Lena.
"Hey, there's something down there."
"Lena, wait! Don't go, stay here."
Lena had found traces of prey. Large footprints were pressed into the ground below.
"Wow! I found this. Shouldn't we go down and check?"
Leo held back the excited Lena.
The footprints she found were large but showed no sign of slipping. This suggested the animal was either small in size relative to its tracks or a highly dangerous one.
Going down recklessly could be fatal, so Leo ed it to the hunting team.
As expected, it was a wise choice.
The hunting team hunted the creature as a group. It turned out to be a massive fox-like beast called 'Noguhwa,' closer to a monster than an animal.
Noguhwa was nimble despite its size, making it hard to gauge its strength from the tracks Lena found. Had they gone down, they could have died.
Leo realized this was an {event}.
He was initially puzzled by the presence of such {events}, but he understood when winter ended.
War broke out.

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Chapter 4: Engagement – Ainar Tribe