The Unification of the Tribes
I had been reading a romance fantasy novel when I reincarnated into it.
To be precise, I only remembered about half of it, so I knew more about the unknown parts than the known ones.
“…Insane.”
It was even weirder that I hadn’t reincarnated into the male lead or one of the male supporting characters.
Not into a steadfast grand duke from the north, not a southern admiral or western tycoon, or a eastern border count.
I had reincarnated into the body of a young nomadic man who had just become an adult at the very western edge of the continent, a place that seemed so distant from the empire.
That was why, at first, I had even doubted whether I had really reincarnated into this romance fantasy world.
After roughly a month had passed, the first familiar name I came across was this damn letter that refused to leave me alone.
The Iteon Kingdom Alliance.
In the original story, it was the land that had included the Harnea Kingdom, which had been home to the villain prince who had fallen in love with the heroine.
The group of trash that would be wiped out by the empire’s hand in the biggest episode of the middle part.
“Ugh…”
“Temur, when it comes to times like this, you have to face the situation with a clear head.”
The supporting character named Beike, who had delivered the letter from the Kingdom Alliance, grabbed my shaking shoulder.
“Those damn Kingdom Alliance bastards are invading our three thousand tents and leather shelters again this time, demanding women. Last month they raided the eastern tribes, and now they’re openly targeting the Irin tribe. Our turn is coming for sure.”
“Absolutely! Messengers came from the lords of the surrounding territories as well!!”
When Orhan, who was sitting in the corner of the tent sharpening arrowheads, suddenly jumped in and shouted at the conversation.
“If we don’t hand over the women and food on time, they threatened to erase the entire Ibin tribe and all sixteen tribes at the western edge of the continent from the map of the continent. Damn it, we should be turning our heads and fighting together at a time like this…”
Orhan ground his teeth and slammed his fist into the floor.
After that, as if he had calmed down a little, he let out a long sigh and roughly swept his long hair, which fell past his shoulders, over his shoulder.
“Haa… Because of those bastards’ backstabbing, everyone’s too busy guarding their fronts. I’m sick of seeing the tribe chiefs who say they’re going to live on their own because they don’t have enough food for tomorrow.”
“Same here. We could fight back if we all stuck together… No, that’s probably why they’re doing this dirty backstabbing, knowing we’re capable of it.”
“…”
I listened to my two friends’ voices and quietly stared at the Iteon Kingdom Alliance letter in my hand.
And I thought.
It was an amateur romance fantasy novel I had only half-read.
Everyone else was sipping tea elegantly in grand palaces or grand ducal mansions, being praised by ladies.
But I had come into the body of a nomadic man who had to smell horse dung every single day, having lost all the modern civilization I could have had.
In this desolate environment with no smartphones, no internet, no hot water, I was suffocating because I didn’t even know half of the original story.
All that was flying at me were slave demands and the threat of tribe annihilation.
When that thought reached me, something hot surged in my chest.
My teeth clenched involuntarily as the rage spread to the ends of my head.
“Damn…”
I couldn’t swallow the anger any longer and crumpled the letter in my hand.
My grip was so strong that it was incomparable to my strength in my previous life.
In the end, I tossed the arrogant, crumpled summons from the noble bastards onto the floor and slowly stood up.
Beike and Orhan’s gazes naturally turned to me as my body suddenly moved.
“Alright… If that’s how you’re going to act, I’ve got my own thoughts too, you flower-bed full of romance-fantasy noble bastards.”
“T-Temur?”
“Why are you suddenly…”
Beike and Orhan exchanged glances, clearly taken aback by my sudden reaction.
Well, from the way I was reacting, it seemed like they had always just ignored these situations… I couldn’t do that.
No, I wouldn’t.
The anxiety and longing for modern civilization that had been filling my head vanished in an instant.
In any case, the ending of the original novel was none of my business.
Whether the heroine fell in love with the crown prince or the arrogant northern grand duke saved the empire, those glamorous stages were stories that happened on the other side of the world from here.
If they were the ones smashing my fence and dragging my people, I would just smash their heads first.
“I thought they were going to have elegant sword fights while waving orer on this main stage, but the delusions are pretty severe.”
I stomped the crumpled letter from the Kingdom Alliance into the floor with my bare foot.
“Anyway, I don’t even know the original story. I’ll establish the real empire here and set up proper order to my liking.”
“Main stage? Original story? What are you even talking about, Temur!”
Beike called me with a voice noticeably louder than before, now that he was sure I was different from usual.
‘You’re no different.’
A guy who looked like he could crush an adult man’s head with one punch having a clear head? That was impossible.
So before it was too late, I was going to put the guy back in his proper place myself.
“Beike.”
“H-Huh? What is it, Temur.”
Beike’s eyes shook violently.
The guy was frozen in place because he had been overwhelmed by my momentum and couldn’t shoulder-punch or joke like usual.
“At once, deliver the letters to all the tribe chiefs of our Ibin tribe and the tribes we’re closest with.”
“Letters to the tribe chiefs? Why all of a sudden…”
“I, Temur, the next chief of the Ibin tribe, want to say something directly. Tell them to gather without a single one missing. Anyone who refuses will have their head cut off before it reaches the Kingdom Alliance.”
“What do you mean by…?”
A strange air filled the tent for a moment.
The young man who had always worried about the safety of the tribe and watched the lords’ eyes.
Now, he was issuing commands with the eyes of the leader of a starving wolf pack.
Orhan fiddled with the fallen arrow shaft and secretly checked my eyes.
“No, I understand. I’ll tell the chief first and send out messengers.”
Beike, who had been silently staring only at my face for a moment, nodded and answered.
There was still doubt in his voice, but he seemed to be willing to trust his friend for now.
Orhan, who looked bewildered, stood up and followed behind Beike.
Before they lifted the thick leather curtain at the tent entrance, they glanced back at me one last time.
It was a look as if they were checking whether I had gone crazy.
But when I idly touched the handle of the sword at my waist, they couldn’t ask anymore and hurriedly left the tent.
In the end, inside the tent by myself.
I looked down at the crushed arrogance of the Kingdom Alliance and muttered quietly.
“I’ll step on this letter first with my horse hooves as a special favor.”
***
Four days later.
The highest-grade silk tent, which was originally only for the Ibin tribe chief and his family.
Inside it, the arrogant summons from a kid who called himself the next chief of the Ibin tribe.
The chiefs of as many as five of the eight western tribes who had been in close contact with us.
Kasar of the Irin tribe, Bars of the Iyan tribe, Beit of the Irun tribe, Nayan of the Ichen tribe, and Jebe of the Ikan tribe.
They were all showing the tip of their hard work in coming to a young guy’s call, but my eyes couldn’t be fooled.
‘Everyone is more desperate than I expected.’
Well, that was natural, wasn’t it?
I sat on the leather chair placed in the upper seat and swept my gaze over their faces, which had gathered in a circle.
They all showed various emotions and thoughts on their faces, but if I were to summarize them all in one word.
They were cornered.
Yes, that could be said.
It was a word that meant the importance of a clear, certain statement over a nice-sounding one.
And fortunately, the memory of the western continent that the original owner of this body, Temur, had possessed, plus the knowledge from my high school days in the previous life.
I had been diving deep into the charm of world history, digging through the histories of countless conquering monarchs.
I had scribbled military maneuvers and various tactics in my notebook and even written essays.
That knowledge was quite intact.
“I am grateful that you have taken the trouble to come despite your busy schedules.”
Bars of the Iyan tribe was the first to react when I finally spoke.
“Greetings are done. I came because I saw your father’s face, but Temur, I’ve seen you since you were a kid. Your arrogance has grown quite a bit. You’re saying your head is going to be cut off before the Kingdom Alliance’s even if it’s you.”
Some chiefs answered Bars’ bone-dry joke with bitter smiles.
I showed no particular reaction to their responses and tossed a dry piece of firewood into the stove in the center of the tent.
And I spoke in the most serious and low voice possible.
“It’s not arrogance. The Kingdom Alliance’s tax collectors will come knocking in two days at most. Have you all prepared the women and wheat to bring?”
“…”
The relaxed expressions of the chiefs cracked the moment my direct question was asked.
And the first one to recover and respond was Kasar of the Irin tribe.
He threw the teacup he had brought for hospitality straight onto the tent floor and shouted.
“Temur! Are you in a position to sneer at us like that now? Isn’t your Ibin tribe also a target of those bastards just the same?!”
“That’s right. And that’s why I’m asking. Until when are we supposed to keep getting devoured like this?”
“Wha—”
“The Iyan tribe handed over three hundred horses and twenty young girls last month. I heard your youngest nephew was among them, Bars chief.”
“…”
Bars, who had been quietly watching the situation from beside me, couldn’t hide his displeasure at the sudden spark.
I turned my gaze to Nayan of the Ichen tribe.
“Nayan chief. Last winter, when you sent the young men of your tribe as beaters to the lords’ hunting grounds, half of them froze to death, didn’t they. The compensation the lord threw at you back then was nothing but two bags of moldy wheat flour.”
“T-That’s…”
Nayan’s wrinkled eyes trembled.
The old chief closed his lips tightly and turned his head to avoid my gaze.
“And… Beit chief.”
“Enough! Don’t say it!!”
“It was last summer, right? When the knights of the western border count raided our tribe as entertainment… The first daughter of chief Beit suffered something beneath the knights’ boots after resisting, and we all remember it clearly.”
“You were told not to say it!!!”
Before my words had even finished, Beit’s arm and fist muscles stood out as he prepared to charge at any moment.
But I kept my expression unchanged as if I wasn’t scared in the slightest.
I mercilessly dragged out the grievances that had festered in each of them one by one.
I didn’t offer any fake comfort or pity.
I simply kept digging into the bare, cruel reality they had tried to turn away.
After confirming that all their masks had been stripped, I continued.
“That’s the peace you get after bowing your heads, sacrificing your families, and being treated like animals. The life of a mayfly that would be no different from putting slave shackles on your necks tomorrow.”
“…”
Apart from the rough breathing that rasped in the tent, there was no sound.
Someone’s fist was clenched so tightly that their fingers might be broken, and someone else was pressing their thighs so hard that blood wouldn’t flow.
The sound of a rage that had been numbed by reason and suppressed from reaching its limit came through clearly.
Nevertheless, I had said everything I needed to.
“It’s time to teach those arrogant noble bastards that we are not prey but starving packs of wolves.”
That was when.
KRA—!!
Beit, who had been spewing killing intent and was about to tear me apart, slammed the table hard and shot to his feet.
His eyes were bloodshot and red.
“Yeah, good. I know what you want to say. Even while reminding us of the truth we’ve all been turning a blind eye to.”
“Are you really sure? Can you be certain that you know everything?”
“Either way, if we keep going like this, we’ll suffer while alive and resent the next generation after death. So if there’s nowhere else to retreat and we can’t turn a blind eye anymore, we have to fight, don’t we?”
Beit looked straight at me with bloodshot eyes and gripped the curved blade at his waist tightly.
“If it’s only a little bit of forgiveness for my daughter who still has those horrible nightmares… We of the Irun tribe will gladly lend you our strength.”