As usual, Konny tried to say something to Lara with a bright face, but when she saw the four warriors standing like stone statues in the middle of the drawing-room, she quickly shut up. Then, nimble on her feet, she headed to the table, a place that was as far away as possible from them.
There were drinks, fruit, hot tea in expensive crystal glasses, and six delicious cookies on the tray Konny was holding.
No one said anything. Lara hesitated, not knowing what to say. The three Barbarians just stared intently at the little maid who suddenly appeared.
Konny thought that she would need to serve a whole cow to feed those people, not tea and cookies. The teacup was the size of their nostrils and the cookie was the size of their fingers. She figured that she should ask how hungry they were now. However, the atmosphere seemed serious for some reason. So Konny approached and talked to Demian, whom she was at least familiar with.
“Master Demian.”
“Yeah.”
“Should I just tell the kitchen to prepare a meal?”
“Thanks, Konny.”
“Hehehe.”
The simple maid rejoiced, thinking that her guess that they were terribly hungry was correct. Then, she swiftly walked away from them and went out of the drawing-room. Seeing her acting like a small animal that was avoiding a wild beast roaming from afar, Lara just smiled.
“I haven’t heard the words ‘I love you’ from Demian yet.”
She never thought that she had to hear those three words. Demian was not a talkative man, but at the same time, he was not stingy with his expressions. On the contrary, he would convey his feelings so directly that he would strongly shake Lara’s self-control and blow her away.
However, Demian’s comrades did not seem to think so. Domino, Lampion, and Oscar said to Demian in turn.
“Is that true? You punk… You made a swear even before confessing?”
“Do it now. Do it here. Say that you love her!”
“Did we just confess to her for you? And on our first meeting?”
Demian had a confused look on his face, it was as if he was asking them what was wrong with that. When he nodded with excessive confidence, the three Barbarians put their big hands on their heads.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
The three Barbarians were able to receive a generous meal thanks to the clever maid, Konny. They did not get one cow each, but they did finish one duck each. It was also due to hunger that they could eat so much, as they haven’t eaten a proper meal after moving such a long way.
Lara headed to their lodgings with Oscar, who had finished eating first.
“Is this really okay?”
“What?”
“I mean, not only have you fed us, you’ve even provided a place for us to sleep…”
Oscar was awkward with Lara and he felt troubled with her goodwill. He was a man with a slightly different personality from the Barbarians that Acerus and his assistant had told her.
“Oscar, I think it would have been fine if you lived in Dandelion.”
“How did you know? My comrades are so eccentric so I have always been in charge of communicating with the Imperial Army.”
“You must have worked hard for that.”
“Don’t get me started. Lampion is famous even among Barbarians for not being able to communicate. So there were times when I told him to just keep his mouth shut and to just use hand signals. For Domino, now that he is in his middle age, he has a lot of worries and patience… But it was no joke when he was young.”
Lara remembered well the characteristics of the comrades he spoke of. It was a good thing. The first Barbarians she met were pleasant and nice people. Moreover, she was lucky enough to meet someone she can communicate with like Oscar.
She needed to build a good relationship with them first. She could declare that she would accept Demian’s love and convey her intention through him, but as Lara wanted to build a relationship directly with them, she was going to ask if they needed anything. But, as Oscar was impatient, he talked to her first again this time.
“Back in Hautean, did Demian act carelessly? Did he act that way to just anyone? When he left, I heard that he saw a slave hunter and that he let himself get caught on purpose. Did he keep pretending to be a slave there because he was too lazy to explain?”
Lara nodded.
“Yes.”
Oscar was restless, he felt as if he had committed a crime.
“That crazy guy! I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“We’re not slaves.”
“I know that, too.”
“Tarragon took the liberty to make the slave documents. So that they could use us on the battlefield. The language and writing were different in the past so I heard our fathers signed it without knowing what it was.”
“Oh no…”
“We’re not even Tarragon’s people.”
“Yes. I know what you mean.”
“Crown Prince Acerus seems to think of us as his subjects because we fought for Tarragon. But Barbarians have no nationality, we are not interested in status or power.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
“If we thought that the enemy had justice and cause in that war, then it would be Tarragon that would have had to fight us.”
Oscar said anxiously, fearing that Lara would hate them. She understood his feelings. How unfair have they have been treated in the midst of so much discrimination and prejudice?
“Why did you side with Crown Prince Acerus and Tarragon? I don’t think Barbarians are the type of people who would be swayed by money.”
“Because back then, the northerners joined hands with the demon worshippers to win the war.”
So demons are their enemy.
Lara was able to get several clues from her conversation with Oscar.
In her past life, she had only been told that they were outlaws in the lawless zone. So she misunderstood that they were just a group of criminals and deserters gathering to achieve power. But now she knew. They were Barbarians. It could not be explained in other words.
She heard from Acerus’ aide that they would always answer ‘Barbarian’ when they were asked about their origin, occupation, or parents. Now she understood all those words. This was why a conversation was so important.
Lara made up her mind to be a chatterbox.
“Did Demian behave like that even when he was young? I heard that he had no parents or hometown to go back to. How did he become a Barbarian?”
“Did he not tell you?”
“He never talks about himself.”
Oscar hesitated. He seemed to be contemplating whether he should be telling her something that Demian had not yet told her himself.
Lara did not pester him. The Barbarian’s lodging was just around the corner, but she naturally turned around and led him to the hotel’s central garden.
After a brief thought, Oscar groaned and told the story of Demian’s past.
∘₊✧──────✧₊∘
“It’s an old story.”
A Barbarian picked up a child on the northern battlefield. At that time, the man was deeply heartbroken by a woman in the north who did not accept his love. He cried and roamed around the battlefield every day.
The child he picked up was strange. Wandering around alone in the middle of the battlefield, the child neither cried nor showed fear when he saw the dead.
Even beasts and diseases avoided the child. Flies and bugs, which usually infested the corpses, did not even approach the child. The child’s white cheeks did not cool down even when he was just wearing rags in the cold winter.
The Barbarian said he felt a strange sense of fate at that time. He wondered if his love did not come true because he had to take in and raise that child. With that thought in his mind, he approached the child and talked to him.
“Who are you?”
“I don’t know.”
Surprisingly, the child did not even know who he was. He was good at speaking but he knew nothing.
“What about your parents?”
“I don’t have any.”
The Barbarian lifted the child up and carried him on his shoulder. The child did not rebel. While hanging on the thick and bulky arms of the Barbarian, he quickly fell asleep, without even asking where he was going.
Listening to the story, Lara muttered in surprise.
“So he was not born a Barbarian… But he was raised a Barbarian.”
Oscar nodded and continued.
“But the way that old man raised Demian is a little…”
“Yes?”
“He told Demian that, since he was born on the battlefield, he needed to live and die on the battlefield. He carried Demian to all kinds of battlefields. He did not even settle down until the day he died.”
“He has already passed away?”
“Yes. He died on the battlefield, so Demian was with him on his end.”
“Did Demian think of him as his father?”
“No way. He just called him by his name. Rather than a father-son relationship, he said they were already like equal comrades from the beginning.”
I see. That’s why Demian said he neither had parents nor a hometown, he believed he would one day return to the battlefield.
Lara blinked her eyes quickly. She bit her lips once before opening them.
“That Barbarian had no regrets. A while later, the northern woman ended up accepting his confession. He did well with her and even had a son together. The woman said he looked like a family man when he carried the child around.”
“Pardon?”
“His son is Lampion, the one that you saw earlier. He inherited his father’s name. He treats Demian like a brother, he also has a sense of rivalry with him. He will rush to fight Demian when he has the chance. Be careful.”
Oscar grinned.
