Book 1-7.2 The Plot (I)

“Honestly, that is a problem I have been thinking about for a long time. Currently, many of the desert tribes are paying tribute to the large powers of the continents. The question is, whether those large powers could realistically invade the desert.”

“Young Glow, even if there was only a ten percent chance that they could invade, we would need to prepare for their invasion. That is why I am asking, what would you do, if they do go with that less than ten percent chance and choose to invade.”

Yulian responded without any hesitation.

“I am confident that they will not invade Pareia right now, and I am also confident that I will be able to prepare our Pareia for defense before they invade. However, even if they were to invade today, I am confident that we will be able to hold them off for many years. And within that time, they will choose to retreat on their own.”

He answered thinking about the current situation of the continent. The Silence Empire and the Rojini Kingdom, their preparation was almost over.

Soon, the two powers will start to unsheath their swords against each other. Yulian was keeping that in mind.

If the Silence Empire decided to invade Pareia, Pareia could first provide tribute to the Rojini Kingdom and make a deal with them to start the war.

If the Silence Empire truly invaded Pareia, they would need to send at least 50,000 soldiers, and that was an opportunity the Rojini Kingdom would not miss.

“If the Silence Empire sent less than 30,000 soldiers to invade Pareia, that would be foolish of them. If something like that happened, we would not be defending; we would attack them and destroy all of their soldiers. Those soldiers do not know how to fight in the desert, with the scorching sun and the unstable sand.”

As Yulian drew up multiple situations in his head and confidently shared them with the chiefs, the chiefs were all contemplating Yulian’s words.

“Okay, okay, that is enough. We do not need to worry about something that has not happened yet. We are not at a point where we can spare time to worry about things that have not happened yet.”

Baguna knew the exact moment to interrupt and stopped the conversation.

“Since the Shuarei tribe has been quiet for a while, let’s use this chance to figure out how we can bring together the warriors stationed in the different oasis and create a training curriculum.”

The people in the paoe started to once again have heated discussions, and chatted away loudly at times and quickly at times, coming up with a plan. It was late in the night when they all returned to their own paoes.

The only ones left in the paoe were Baguna, Yulian, Pere, and Orca.

They were the men of the Provoke family.

Baguna looked towards his three sons as he spoke.

“In the future, make sure all of you take part in these meetings. Yulian must have the ability as a Glow and Pere and Orca, you must support him from the back. This father of yours did not have many siblings, and my one older brother and one younger brother both completed their mission as a warrior and returned to Neo Latin-nim’s side during a war. That was why I had a lot of suffering once I became the Glow. Even without saying this, you don’t know what it is like to not have any siblings who are able to understand the reasons for your actions. I trust that you all understand the meaning of your father’s words.”

“Yes.”

All three sons answered in unison.

Seeing Pere not show any disdain to his father’s words and answering as needed, Yulian started to ponder.

‘Is it because I said I would accept his challenge on the day of the Glow selection?’

At that moment, Orca spoke up as if he came up with an idea.

“Father, brothers, since we have all gathered together like this, why don’t we share a drink together? Even though it was your birthday, father, your sons were unable to lift up a single glass of alcohol to you. Mother mentioned that the foreigners brought some good alcohol and sent some to my paoe.

Baguna smiled at Orca’s words and Yulian shouted happily that his younger brother was already at an age he can drink.

“Orca, do you have to even ask? Go get it.”

Orca happily smiled before getting up and heading out of the paoe to get the alcohol.

Looking at Orca, Baguna started to speak.

“Both of you must take good care of the third. His body has been weak from birth, and he has been watching his two extremely talented brothers since he was young that rather than relying on his own abilities, he seems to want to rely on the two of you. That is not because Orca is weak, nor is it his fault. The saying goes that the father must help the first son, but for younger siblings, it is the job of the older brothers to help. The two of you have been so focused on your individual goals; have either of you paid any attention to Orca at all?”

Both Yulian and Pere lowered their heads at Baguna’s words.

“Yulian was because he was the oldest son, Pere, for you, it was because you care too much about competing with Yulian, but sigh…there is nothing I wish for more than for the two of you to not be so focused on competing with each other.”

Baguna knew of the brothers’ relationship all this time, but pretended to not know.

What could he do? Whose side could he take when they were both his sons?

However, Yulian was the eldest son, and his abilities were not lacking to be the Glow. That’s why he had selected Yulian to be the Glow of the next generation.

If Yulian had shown any faults, he may have selected his second son, Pere, the perfectionist, to be the next Glow.

Both Yulian and Pere lowered their heads further at Baguna’s words.

“Even though he shows no aptitude to be a warrior, he was showing interest in incantations. He seems to be going to the chief Shaman, Tuma Takaka, quite often lately. According to Tuma Takaka, Orca shows a lot of aptitude towards incantations. As such, I plan to send Orca to Tuma Takaka to learn. However, as you have seen with Tuma Takaka, those who learn incantations seem to go a bit crazy, so the two of you will have to make sure to lead Orca forward in the future.”

“We will keep that in mind, father.”

As he watched his two sons respond in unison with a satisfied expression, he started to share a lot of family stories and stepped back from the position of Glow and said things to his sons as a father. As they were chatting, Orca returned with a clay vase.

“What kind of stories were you sharing without me?”

Watching his father and two older brothers chatting away, Orca asked with a smile on his face.

“He asked us to watch over you. Okay, I’ve heard that you’ve been interested in incantations lately, is it fun?”

Orca scratched his cheek in embarrassment at Yulian’s question.

“I have no talent to become a warrior like hyung-nims. I need to find a talent that is fitting for me on my own. That is the only way for me to stand side by side with my two hyung-nims in the future. I am not learning it for fun.”

As the fifteen year old Orca answered with a surprisingly reliable answer, the three of them smiled and found him to be commendable.

“Really, you were thinking internally that ‘this youngster is saying all sorts of things’ weren’t you? However, I must also start to prepare to become an adult. Hyung-nims, the two of you were interacting with warriors at my age, but you two have a habit of looking at me as just a little child.”

Orca spoke as if he did not like how his brothers treated him as a young child, and Pere put a smile on his stoic face and answered.

“If I have done that, this hyung apologizes to you. I forgot what kind of thoughts I had when I was your age. You are also my brother.”

“I also forgot that you are a son of the desert. This hyung also apologizes to you.”

Even though he was just sharing his complaints, seeing his two brothers respond ike this, Orca was completely surprised.

“There is no reason for you to apologize. There is nothing I hope for more than for the two of you to consider me a son of the desert from here on. This alcohol is very fragrant. I don’t think it is an alcohol of the desert.”

After smelling the fragrance rising up from the clay vase, Orca started to fill his father and brothers’ cups. Baguna took the vase from Orca and put a glass in front of Orca as he started to speak.

“A desert son who is fifteen has earned the right to drink. It is time for you to accept a glass from your father.”

“Ah! Thank you, father.”

Being accepted as a man by the father he respected, Orca was extremely happy as he received the alcohol with two hands.

“Alright then, since all of the men of the Provoke family have gathered together, we will drink the first glass for the glory of Pareia, the second for our Provoke family, and the third for only good things to happen in the future.”

As Baguna spoke like that and took a drink, the three brothers all took a drink as well.

However, Pere just pretended to drink, and poured the alcohol into his sleeve.

The reason Pere, who could finish four jugs of alcohol if he started to drink, did this, was because he had been praying to their guardian Neo Latin-nim for the past few months and promised to abstain from alcohol for the next year.

“Next, I will pour.”

Yulian stood up and filled his father and younger brothers’ glasses, and with another ‘gunbae’ they drank again. Lastly, Pere repeated the motion and the third cup was finished.

Afterwards, the three brothers shared many stories they could not share before and shared their brotherly love.

Soon after, Orca was wobbling as he spoke.

“This is weird. I have secretly drank before without father or hyung-nims knowing, however, I have never been so dizzy before……”

As Orca fell over before he could even finish, Baguna, Yulian and Pere all laughed while looking at Orca.

“As Orca mentioned, the taste of this alcohol is quite peculiar. I have never drank alcohol like this in the desert… seeing my head spin like this already, it is very strong……”

Slam.

Watching Yulian, who had a pretty high tolerance, fall over not long after, Baguna and Pere were about to laugh. However, Baguna’s expression changed as he realized that something was wrong.

He was someone who could drink ten jugs of alcohol without problem, and he had even tried to strongest alcohol in the continent. But even he was feeling weird and his mind was starting to get fuzzy.

And feeling this sense of danger starting to creep up, Baguna woke up his intuition that he had not used in a long time.

“Pere… hurry, go get Tuma Takaka and the warriors……”

Pere finally realized that something was wrong and quickly got up and headed out of the paoe. However, his feet stopped the moment he headed outside.

There were many desert warriors with murderous gazes standing in front of him with weapons.

And surprisingly, in the midst of the desert warriors were the soldiers and knights of the Silence Empire.

As Pere hesitated, a woman stepped forward from the crowd.

“Mother Librie, what is going on?”

Pere shouted towards that woman. The woman who had stepped forward from the crowd was the Glow’s third wife, their mother and Orca’s biological mother, Librie.

“Looks like you didn’t faint? That’s too bad. If you had fainted, I wouldn’t have to kill you like your mother Seina. Just blame it all on your bad luck.”

Listening to Librie’s word that struck like lightning, Pere became lost. What was this woman saying?

“You…what…what are you saying?”

As Pere got anxious and started to stutter, Librie had an evil smile on her face.