Chapter 173: Creating an Opportunity - 14
Chapter 173: Creating an Opportunity - 14
A day later.
A banquet for the Commons was held in the Blue Seal barracks annex.
Even the Purple Commons were invited, an occasion to commend everyone's hard work.
Jiha was the center of it.
"You've all worked hard."
"Thank you, sir!"
Dozens of seated Commons shouted as one.
"You've probably all heard by now, but the day after tomorrow I'll be fighting Lungtao in the Summoning War. My first rematch in a while."
"We'll be cheering for you!"
"Win for sure, sir!"
While the other Commons shouted vigorously, Uben alone wore a subdued expression.
He clearly wasn't happy about Jiha and Lungtao settling things in a one-on-one duel.
"I'm giving special weapons to those who distinguished themselves in the fights against the escort guards. Don't use them carelessly; save them for the decisive moment. First, Squad 1, Garaon."
Jiha called up, one by one, the Commons who'd performed best in the street fighting and distributed the grade-2 daggers taken from the gnolls.
The Commons' faces flushed with excitement.
Grade-2 weapons were forbidden for Commons to possess and couldn't be brought into the barracks.
Yet Jiha owned dozens of such weapons and was handing them out without reserve.
With these grade-2 weapons, even martial-faction Commons would be able to take on Rare Grade opponents without much trouble.
"You all know this, but don't use them carelessly. However, don't die holding back, either. Better to use them when it counts and come back and report to me. Then I'll clean things up."
"Yes!"
The ones who received them strengthened their resolve, while those who didn't swallowed their disappointment and looked to the future.
The truth was Jiha had plenty of grade-2 daggers, but he deliberately handed out only fifteen. Amassing them just to hoard would turn him into a dagger merchant, not a commander, and that was pointless. In the end he'd arm everyone, but he meant to stagger it deliberately for motivation.
"Alright, drink up!"
"To the commander's battle!"
"To the commander!"
Everyone forgot which camp they belonged to and raised their cups in high spirits.
The night began.
The atmosphere grew lively.
With every common offering even a single cup, it made for dozens of drinks.
Jiha used Mana to suppress the alcohol's effect, but a pleasant buzz still crept in.
As everyone roamed freely and chatted, Uben slipped quietly to Jiha's side.
"A moment, let's get some air."
"Sure."
Jiha rose from his seat and stepped outside the building.
Gazing up at the night sky, Jiha spoke calmly when Uben came out.
"Here to nag me?"
"......How could someone like me dare do that to you, sir?"
"This is something that has to be done."
He'd already sent Guason to Lungtao.
He'd also spread word among the citizens: the decisive battle between Jiha and Lungtao, the proxy war supposedly fought over winning Leticia.
The Summoning War where Jiha would appear the day after tomorrow had sold out completely, standing room and all.
Hundreds of thousands of Waris citizens would watch this fight.
"I already know you can't back out. I was just wondering if you had any kind of contingency in mind."
"Not really."
Jiha usually engineered a winning situation before he fought.
All the more so when his opponent was powerful.
"I don't."
"Pardon?"
"I said, I don't."
Jiha looked up at the sky with a matter-of-fact expression.
"The situation always matters, but sometimes you just have to overpower things with strength. This is one of those times."
Schemes don't work on the kind of man who stands his ground like a mountain and waits.
Even less so if you intend to bring that kind of man under your command.
Proving you're on top through sheer strength was the fastest way.
"Wouldn't it be dangerous?"
"It's always been dangerous. But the gains are big."
It also mattered that the fight would happen in front of the citizens.
If he won, he'd get Lungtao, his 2,300 escort guards, and even Narsha in his hands.
Leaving all that aside, he wanted to fight Lungtao.
He wanted to give it his all, trade fists with their lives on the line, and win. He wanted to tell the world, and himself, that he'd grown stronger.
As a man.
"So don't go setting up any strange plans to prepare."
"......Understood. I'll drop it."
At Jiha's warning, Uben nodded.
Just as he'd expected. Jiha laughed inwardly.
Uben had apparently been planning some scheme, thinking that if Jiha lost, the power he'd built up until now might collapse.
He was a useful staff officer, meticulous about details.
"Well done."
"Pardon?"
"It was something you had to say even if I wouldn't listen. Keep doing that."
At the rare praise from Jiha, Uben looked awkward.
"You're a bit drunk."
"Yeah."
"You'd better stop drinking. I'll tell the others, so go back to your quarters and rest."
"I'll do that."
The decisive fight was the day after tomorrow; drinking any more would be too much.
As Jiha readily agreed and walked off, a voice came from behind.
"I have always believed you would be victorious, sir. I'll believe again this time."
"Yeah."
Jiha answered shortly and headed toward his quarters.
Entering the residence building, Jiha sensed a presence in the lounge and drew up his Mana.
He'd wanted to stay a little drunk, but you never knew.
"......You're back?"
The blonde elf seated on the sofa spoke petulantly.
Uncharacteristically, she wore a green mini dress. It was a subtly glamorous outfit, as if she'd been out somewhere.
The hem of the dress, lightly covering her knees, emphasized her sleek long legs.
Jiha normally had little interest in fashion, but he was freshly impressed.
"What are you doing just standing there? Sit."
She clearly had something to say. Jiha sat across from her.
The alcohol had faded enough that moving was no trouble.
Leticia poured tea from a pot she'd prepared in advance and handed the cup to Jiha.
"It's hyangyak tea. It'll sober you up, and when you wake tomorrow morning you won't have a hangover. Good for blood circulation too."
"Where'd you get it?"
"I made it. I never studied pharmacology, but I do know how to handle simple medicinal herbs."
An unexpected skill.
Jiha drank the warm tea and was a little impressed. It went down well.
"For an elf, you make something drinkable."
"What's that supposed to mean, you jerk. Someone goes to the trouble and that's the arrogant thing you say."
Leticia snapped at him, but Jiha held out his empty cup.
Still sulky-faced, Leticia silently poured him more.
As Jiha drank a second cup, Leticia stared at him without a word.
Her hands were on her knees, fingers fidgeting. Jiha stared openly at her chest area.
Mostly covered, the fabric was absent only along her cleavage, revealing it furtively.
Breasts just the size to fit in one hand. Impossibly satisfying breasts to touch and suck, but they were on the small side compared to Enril or Yura.
Yet shown off subtly like this, they looked more alluring than any tits in the world.
An urge suddenly rose to bite hard into the tantalizingly exposed, appetizing hidden flesh of a fruit kept tightly under wraps.
'What's with me?'
Jiha questioned his own thought.
"That stuff I just drank, is it an aphrodisiac?"
"......Did you catch something from Taigirl?"
Leticia looked dumbfounded.
"What kind of guy just comes out with that? No sense of mood at all."
"I'm just pulling moves, trying to create a mood where there isn't one."
Jiha grinned and looked at Leticia.
'Good for blood circulation, so it ought to help with getting hard too....... Is that the effect?'
Lust was rising oddly.
Come to think of it, it had been a long while since he'd sucked Leticia's blood. Drawing her blood now in preparation for the decisive battle against Lungtao wouldn't be a bad idea.
Thinking that, Jiha gazed quietly at Leticia.
Under his stare, Leticia self-consciously tucked her hair behind her ear.
"......What kind of moves now? You're not actually going to do anything."
"Is there something you wanted to say?"
Leticia, still wearing a sulky expression, got to the point.
"......I'm merchandise, right?"
"Yeah."
What was wagered on the Summoning War between Jiha and Lungtao was Leticia's custody.
Jiha has kidnapped Leticia, the pitiable elf maiden!
At the request of Guason, a young elf, Lungtao steps forward out of chivalrous spirit to rescue her.
If Lungtao wins, Leticia returns to the elves.
What will be the outcome of the fight?
That was the story of this Summoning War as known to the citizens of Waris.
In truth, it made no sense if you thought about it even a little.
Leticia is a Unique.
Getting kidnapped by Jiha, who's nothing but a common, was impossible, and even if it happened, would she just meekly stay captured?
But only a tiny minority really raised these rational objections.
A fight over a woman—a wicked human kidnapping a beautiful elf maiden, a tiger beastman blazing with righteous spirit, a young man's pure devotion, and more—all tangled together, the anticipation was swelling.
"I hear I have three of those things dangling and about twelve balls. My breakfast is boiled dwarf, and after meals I exercise by making heads fly."
"Are you happy hearing stuff like that?"
When Leticia looked at him like he was ridiculous, Jiha replied evenly.
"You know I don't have three."
Leticia's cheeks flushed red.
Thanks to the Mana lamp softly glowing on the table, he could see it clearly.
"That's not it......."
Leticia hesitated, then looked at Jiha fixedly.
Eyes full of deep reluctance, a face trying hard to summon courage.
"Are you...... fooling around on the side?"
He'd handled the matter of Narsha in front of Leticia, so had she noticed? Or from somewhere else?
No, she'd have found out sooner or later anyway.
"Will you...... tell me honestly?"
Leticia made her voice soft with effort, but couldn't hide the trembling hands resting on her knees.
Jiha narrowed his eyes.
"I'm unmarried."
"......I don't want an answer like that."
As moisture gathered in Leticia's voice, Jiha closed his eyes.
What Iroha had said suddenly echoed in his ears.
That elf women who bonded with other species were cast out of elf society and lived miserably.
Would Leticia not know that?
Yet she'd followed Jiha here all the same.
Sincerity.
Jiha opened his mouth.
"I have no intention of getting married right now. That goes not only for you, but for any woman."
"......."
"It's not a matter of like or dislike. It's my situation."
Leticia lowered her head, looking ready to cry at any moment.
Straining to suppress her emotions, she asked.
"......You won't marry me?"
"Not until everything is over."
"That 'everything'...... what is it?"
Leticia's face showed she'd only just connected the thought.
She was dim when it came to this side of things, and apparently still didn't know just what Jiha was aiming for.
Leticia looked at him with tear-beaded eyes.
Her fierce manner was nowhere to be seen; she'd laid down her pride and was begging.
"Tell me......."
A woman's tears make a man go soft.
More so when they're not fake.
Jiha had expected Leticia would come to him like this eventually. That was part of why he'd attached Lijin to her.
'Anyway, asking her to be deceived for a lifetime is unreasonable.......'
The Uniques Jiha had taken in already numbered four, he'd bedded all of them, and including Lijin made five.
If he took in Narsha that'd grow, and it would keep growing in the future.
With women like that gathered in one place, expecting her to know absolutely nothing about his other relationships was absurd.
'I'll have to make her accept it.......'
She had to reach a point where even knowing about Jiha's relationships, she at least wouldn't raise an issue.
Fortunately, polygyny wasn't a strange culture in Warsland.
It was a female-superior male-inferior age, but among Normal Grades or depending on species, you could find examples.
Toward the elf who held back her tears by effort and waited only for an answer, Jiha extended his hand.
"Come here."
At the uncharacteristically gentle voice, Leticia hesitated.
"Leticia, come here."
Firm this time.
At the urging, Leticia reflexively rose from her seat. Jiha motioned to her quietly.
He'd made his decision.
He couldn't let her go now.
And he had no intention of letting her go.
He'd make her accept it with her whole body and heart, and make her follow him for the rest of her life.
As a ruler.
As a man.