6.1 The Provoke Family (I)
Unity and Pet Animal
Our hearts were broken.
But thanks to that pain, we became even closer.
In addition, Shopping’s charm made it impossible to stop laughing.
Book 2-6.1 The Provoke Family (I)
Pareia was extremely busy for a while.
They had gained two oasis, and had to deal with tons of prisoners. Plus, they needed to distribute the now former Shuarei citizens to their other oasis, and send only Pareia’s people to the new oasis. All of this was quite a lot to handle.
The Shuarei offered an extra oasis as the ransom to return all prisoners, but after discussing with the chiefs, Yulian rejected that offer.
It was because the citizens of the two oasis were Pareia’s citizens at one point, and an oasis without people does not help much for the nation’s power.
Normally, the prisoners taken during war between tribes were returned for a fair amount of ransom, but in a situation like this, the scale was so large that Pareia rejected it.
The new warriors and women and children will take time to adjust, but since everybody knew that all of the desert were one tribe in the past, they will assimilate quickly.
Most importantly, because the current Shaurei’s Glow was extremely useless, many of the people of the tribe had been grumbling at the distribution of wealth. So there were many people who thought that being absorbed into Pareia like this was actually a good thing.
After discussing with the Greatest Warriors, Yulian divided the warriors in half to defend against the Shuarei and the Wikaly in the North.
There will be some grumbling from the warriors who will be separated from their families, but they were going to be changed in a yearly cycle, and if they were separated from their families, they were promised that their family will be given special treatment to settle the grumbling.
Yulian dealt with these types of businesses without rest during the day, and at night, he continued to train with Chun Myung Hoon. He was tired, but shedding a lot of sweat with his master actually made him feel refreshed, so he continued to fiercely charge at his master.
Three months passed by like that and Pareia was now in a state of revival.
“Yulian.”
After eating a dish called Dongpo Meat made of pina (sheep-like animal) and drinking wine with his master, Yulian was happily relaxing on the bed when Grace laid down next to him and called his name.
“Hmm?”
As Yulian became excited at Grace’s movement and responded, Grace started to caress Yulian’s chest with her hand.
‘Now that I think about it, I’ve been so busy I haven’t even embraced Grace in a while.’
Yulian suddenly felt sorry and tried to hug Grace when she started to speak.
“Honey, what do you think about taking in another wife?”
At Grace’s sudden question, Yulian was extremely shocked and shot right up from the bed.
“What are you saying out of the blue?”
Grace stood up after Yulian and answered.
“It has already been five years since we got married, but there is no news of an heir. If father was alive and you were still the Young Glow it might be okay, but since you are now the Glow, you need to think about an heir. Honestly, I am starting to get more and more scared.”
“I am still young and so are you. What is there to be scared about?”
“Since you are young, you need to hurry and get more wives. By your age, there are many warriors who already have three wives and six children.”
Yulian’s face changed color as he answered.
“Everybody has their own stories. Plus, you need to first have a son. I want to see our child first. If they take after you, whether it is a son or daughter, they will become a great individual. Once that happens, we won’t even need to worry about a successor.”
Grace shook her head.
“I am also full of desire for a child. Honestly speaking, with father and mother passing away like that, the only people left in the direct line of the Provoke family are you, young master Pere, and young master Orca. With both young masters not marrying yet, the household is quiet. Where should I stick my love to? I came from a family with nine siblings so it was always loud but here it is just extremely quiet ……”
As Grace bitterly answered, Yulian embraced Grace tightly as he responded.
“Do not worry much nor be afraid. The birth of a person is determined by the heavens. Plus, lately you’ve been busy dealing with all sorts of complaints coming from the different oasis that you have become weak. Do not do anything for a while and get a good rest.”
“Those things are normal to do as the Mother of Pareia. I do not want to push away my responsibilities.”
“You are doing your duties admirably. Who could say anything else about it? If Mother Seina was alive, there would be someone to think about an heir, but is there anybody in this household saying anything to you? Even Pere cannot say no if it is something coming from you, so why are you so afraid?”
At Yulian’s consoling, Grace started to tear up and tightly hugged Yulian as she spoke.
“I myself am scared. What if I end up not having a child at all? Plus, I heard about how your mother Mairez-nim needed to force father to marry other women. I feel like I will need to do the same……”
“That was an issue between Mother and Father; we can do things our own way. There is no reason to follow what they did.”
Seeing Grace crying like that, Yulian really came to understand that his wife was a woman as well.
Seeing her not miss a beat and never pushing anything back, Grace had the nickname of Iron Women amongst the chiefs. He had never expected that she would cry because of this reason.
“Do not cry. Let’s both think about this for a while before making a decision. But you know, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you cry.”
At Yulian continuing to console her, Grace stopped crying and started to caress Yulian’s back as she continued.
“But eventually, you will need to take in a couple more wives. The desert is a place where there are a lot of women and only a few men. I will look around a bit more before I speak to you about it again. Also, please tell the two young masters to quickly get married. I keep talking to them about it, but they just continue to say they haven’t thought about it yet.”
“I understand. So you can relax a bit now.”
It seemed like this had been weighing on Grace’s mind for a while. After letting it all out, Grace quickly fell asleep in Yulian’s arms.
‘Now that I think about it, I have neglected the household because of everything I’ve had to do.’
Yulian thought to himself as he caressed Grace’s cheek while she slept in his arms. Pere was moving around with him so it made sense, but he had not been paying any attention to Orca.
‘He is the one who is the most hurt from the recent events, but I haven’t paid any attention to him. That is my fault.’
Yulian decided to visit him since he was thinking about it, and slowly got up to make sure Grace did not wake up.
‘Should I go with Pere?’
Since Pere was with him all the time, Pere probably did not have any time to go see Orca either. Thinking that way, Yulian started to move toward Pere’s paoe.
“Pere, are you there?”
Yulian called toward Pere’s paoe, but there was no response from inside.
‘Where did he go?’
Yulian tilted his head in confusion and decided he will go to Orca on his own. As he was about to move, he felt some people heading that way and ended up hiding behind the paoe.
‘Huh? Why did I hide?’
Yulian thought it was weird how he instantly decided to hide and thought about moving again. But he heard an unfamiliar voice and decided to stay hiding.
“This is the place, right?”
“I confirmed it in the morning. This is it.”
After the two men chatted with each other, he heard a third man.
“Why did they put their paoe so far away in the middle of nothing? The Glow-nim and Orca-nim all have their paoes in the middle of nowhere.”
“Regular warriors like us would never understand their reason. We just need to do what we came to do.”
Listening to the voices and the footsteps, Yulian could tell there were at least five people. Based on the fact that they were addressing them with respect, there didn’t seem to be any malice behind their actions.
“But will it be okay with the five of us? Pere-nim is known for his strength. Wouldn’t we end up being defeated?”
“That is why five of us showed up. Shut up and start digging the trap. The moment he falls in the trap, don’t forget to shoot the Sleep Pin (a weapon used by the desert warriors, it is a weapon that is a blow dart where you put in a needle that’ll make your enemy fall asleep once they are hit. The name is different depending on the poison). He will probably need at least two hits to fall asleep.”
‘Are they planning on kidnapping Pere? For what reason? The way they are talking doesn’t seem like there is any malice……’
Yulian thought like that before deciding he could not let them continue. In the end, they were planning on kidnapping his younger brother. The moment he started to lift his body up to confront them, he heard the men talking again.
“Will we need two hits? The lady mentioned she was going to get him extremely intoxicated.”
“If he end up just falling over there, isn’t what we are doing all for nothing?”
“It is all for just in case. But since he just recently ended his fasting prayer, it it possible that he will get intoxicated easily.”
Yulian, who was amused at their words, decided to just keep watching for a while. The men never even thought that Yuilan could be hiding behind the paoe and continued to talk.
“Anyways, our lady is very cute. Of course Pere-nim is like the number one husband material, but how could she have thought about taking the initiative like this?”
“It is all because she is like Trebol-nim. Isn’t Trebol-nim’s style the same way to push first and see what happens? Since Pere-nim has not married yet, if she manages to succeed, it is the chance to become Pere-nim’s first wife. Do you think the lady would miss this chance?”
‘Oho.’
Yulian finally realized who they were and what their goal was.
A while ago, he went with Pere to meet Trebol’s family, where Pere ended up sweating quite a bit.
Trebols’ daughter Prada, who had just turned nineteen, looked at Pere with a sparkle in her eye and would not leave him alone.
Trebol had no thoughts about stopping his daughter and rather encouraged her. With her father in her corner, how could Prada, as someone who inherited her father’s personality, let go of that opportunity?
She pretty much stuck to Pere, continuously asking questions like ‘Is there a girl you like? What kind of girl do you like? What do you think about me?’ Yulian recalled how in the end, Pere turned really red and used training as an excuse to slip away first.
He just found it to be really funny at the time, but witnessing the current situation, she wasn’t someone to take lightly.
Seeing as how she was able to recruit the family’s warriors to do this, Trebol must be involved in this plot as well.
He really thought they were a funny father-daughter duo and continued to laugh internally as he just waited.