Chapter 28 - 3-5
The next day, there was another visitor. Once again, a lone rider. It was Kohal herself who had come.
Sighting the silhouette of a horse galloping toward them, kicking up clouds of dust, Geraha instinctively knew who it was.
—It's her!
The rider of the horse took the form of a woman. Geraha looked around, searching for a place to hide. Astai's tent was nearby. When he dove inside, he found Astai lying around in plain clothes, drinking liquor.
"Oh, you've come at a good time."
"Astai-nii, Sinkuk-nii's daughter is coming."
"What's this? Are you panicking?"
"Astai-nii, Sinkuk-nii's daughter is—"
"What about it?"
The area outside the tent began to stir.
"It is General Sinkuk's daughter, Kohal. She has business with the captain."
It was a woman's voice, laced with irritation.
"Ho, how rare," Astai-nii shouted with a smile. "If it's Geraha you're after, he's right here."
"Astai-nii!" Geraha screamed.
"You have something you want to say, don't you?" His brother-in-law's eyes were already drunken. "Go ahead and say it. No need to hold back on my account."
The curtain was violently flung aside. Light poured in.
The woman's hair, billowing in the wind, looked as if it were standing on end with rage. That sight was more terrifying than an enemy's arrow, more terrifying than his own death.
The entire tent shook as Geraha fell flat on his backside.
What a beautiful woman she had grown into. To an ugly man like Geraha, she was so radiant he could not look at her directly. Long hair that spilled like light, skin and a face that looked as if a foreign god of creation had given them a single caress. She was tall, her breasts rising prominently from her chest, and her torso tapered down toward her stomach. She wore the knee-length skirt that Kosa women wear when riding, with trousers underneath. Even just the part of her legs visible below the skirt was longer than most people's.
Her dark eyes were burning. Like a wolf enraged by hunger, Kohal moved to the right, then to the left, glaring at Geraha.
"You might as well sit," Astai said, yawning. "Go on and talk. Just pretend I'm not here."
"Vice-Captain Astai."
Kohal looked down bashfully, and after a moment of hesitation, she lowered herself to sit cross-legged.
For a long time, she looked at Geraha without saying a word.
> For Kohal, it was almost a wonder that she was even here now. She had naturally assumed that she and Geraha would become husband and wife. In her chest, moving with her breath, there was impatience. Had she bullied him? No, they had played together.
Geraha should have the same understanding. She had even confessed the feelings of love that had swirled in her young heart.
It had been on the banks of the Tarshi River, which flowed between the hills. Geraha had been sitting alone.
"Wherever you go, I'll go too. I want to be with you, forever and ever."
His broad back had shuddered violently, but there was no answer from him.
Growing frustrated, she had picked a fight. No matter if she hit his head or kicked his back, Geraha just let it happen. He should have been able to fight back. With that massive body, that monstrous strength. It would have been simple to shake her off.
But he didn't.
—He's kind. He likes me.
Kohal thought her feelings had reached him. Once she believed that, she became too embarrassed to stay and had no choice but to run away.
It had been since the first time they spoke. She had loved him all along. Geraha was a conspicuous boy. He had a large body, and then there was that face. Everyone in the clan teased him. However, no matter what was said, Geraha did not react.
Intending to somehow make Geraha feel diminished, Kohal had said something foolish upon their first meeting:
"Your face is disgusting."
Geraha had simply looked at Kohal with a dull expression and given a single nod.
She had been taken aback. In that moment, she realized that Geraha's unapologetic attitude was perfectly suited to that countenance. It wasn't ugliness; it was a fearless soul manifesting on the surface.
Thinking back, she had fallen for him then. At first, she hadn't noticed it, and she certainly had been mean to him.
According to her father, Sinkuk, Geraha apparently still cares about those events. Now, the Geraha before her eyes was sitting on his backside, a faint trace of something like bewilderment floating on his face.
—As I thought.
Even a man of prowess who had achieved feats in this war apparently felt guilt. The claim that he didn't want her as a wife because she had bullied him was a lie. An excuse.
"You," Kohal spoke in a low voice. "It seems you... wish to hold a wedding celebration with a woman other than me."
Geraha shifted his seating and averted his eyes from Kohal. It was a brazenness unthinkable for a boy.
"Is it true? How appalling! Did you see a princess of the Byo nation? You've likely never even seen one. You, you, why!"
While feeling a terrifying premonition spreading within her heart, Kohal thought she was glad she had come.
Geraha showed no expression. She waited for him to say something, but he said nothing.
Can he not change his mind—the big man's displeased demeanor was like a silent wall. She had come thinking that they would understand each other if they talked, but given this state—
"You should know my feelings." While thinking this was bad, that it was wrong, Kohal could not help but speak.
What was the point of her talking? She had come to hear Geraha speak.
"Between you and me, there is, well, that. The... thing of having spent our childhood together. With a princess of the Byo nation, there is surely nothing like what exists between us, is there?"
This is bad, this is bad. The impatience would not vanish. A wound spread within Kohal's heart. Something terrifying, something she knew could become a lifelong scar, was growing even now. If she stopped talking, the wound would begin to ache. Fearing that massive pain, Kohal continued to speak.
She should have arrived at noon, but while she spoke, sunset approached. Sweating, Kohal spoke of how she loved him. Seeing Geraha open his mouth, Kohal stopped her tongue.
—The most important person to me is my older brother, and I wish to follow my brother.
Geraha said something to that effect clearly.
"What do you mean?"
"I will be with the woman my brother recommends. I will not be with you."
Forgetting even what she had been about to say, Kohal stood up. She left the tent and searched for her horse. Someone whose face she knew but whose name she couldn't recall brought Kohal's horse to her with a pitiful expression.
"Can you return alone?"
The man asked as he handed over the reins.
Of course she could return. What was he talking about. She thought she should convey that, but she had forgotten the words. Kohal mounted the horse. As she manipulated the reins, her beloved horse began to walk quietly. She wanted to look back at the tent. She could not look back.
While riding the horse, Kohal shook her head.
—No, that's not it.
She must not look back. If she didn't look back, Geraha would chase after her. At least, that hope should not be denied.
Thinking that, the desire to look back intensified. She endured it and rode the horse. He would chase her. It wasn't an impossible story. Her ears caught the sound of galloping hooves chasing after her.
Kohal pulled the reins to turn the horse and looked up.
The grasslands stretched out coldly. It looked as if she were the only one between heaven and earth.
From inside the tent, Astai watched Kohal's receding figure as she rode away.
While Astai had enjoyed the unexpected spectacle, he also felt something like a responsibility arising from what he had overheard.
—A girl like Kohal would suit Geraha.
The previous Astai would have thought so.
There are various forms of courtship among the Kosa. Tenge had arrived suddenly, settled things with the clan elders, and married Astai's younger sister, Hishaku. This was the rough way. In a rougher method, there was the way of kidnapping the woman one fell for by force and marrying her. If the world became even more chaotic, there was even the way of challenging the girl's father to a duel, killing him, and seizing the livestock, the house, and the woman one loved.
However, the most common method was to persuade the girl's father. Astai himself had obtained his bride, Nisua, through the common method. One goes to the woman one loves and negotiates with the father for the daughter. First, one tells the father how much they like the daughter. The daughter listens to the talk of the prospective groom while fidgeting in the corner of the tent. She does not speak. If the daughter is opposed to the marriage, the prospective groom is clearly told "no" through the father at a later date, and the man loses the right to negotiate. If not, the negotiations continue.
To convey his love, the prospective groom would recite poetry to the father or learn and perform an instrument.
Once that stage ended, he then had to present his thoughts on livestock management and explain how he would make the bride happy.
The good thing about this method of courtship was that how the married life should proceed was discussed before the marriage began. By performing this tedious work, the possibility of the couple's future going well increased.
—A peaceful and gentle marriage would be good for Geraha.
Kohal had spoken and spoken. It was unusual for a woman to convey love to a man, but the essence would not change. It is a good thing to approach marriage after exposing one's thoughts in that way. If she, such a beautiful girl, approached him, it might resolve Geraha's lack of confidence.
The previous Astai would have thought so.
Astai had seen Geraha's way of fighting.
—Perhaps Geraha's partner should not be someone who considers personal happiness as the most important thing.
Astai was beginning to think.
He looked back at Geraha. On the face that had been ulcerated since birth, there was nothing resembling an expression.
—Poor fellow.
Though he felt it reflexively, he corrected himself, thinking that sympathy was also his own weakness. Geraha had to become stronger and stronger, and he would undoubtedly become so.