Chapter 99: Visitors from the Wilds

Before leaving Isenborough, Urian took Leo and Ivan for a stroll through the market, buying some gifts for the villagers.

At present, small trading caravans came to Riverbend every week, and many essential daily goods were no longer scarce. However, many luxury items were considered beyond the means of the small mountain village, so merchants didn’t bother stocking them.

Before setting off, worried that Leo might be timid and cautious due to poverty when away from home, Olivia secretly slipped him a gold sulet, along with a handful of silver coins and copper pennies, encouraging him to spend freely.

In her view, Leo, who had hardly ever been to the city, couldn’t possibly blow all his money recklessly—at most, he’d buy a few tasty pastries.

She believed that a man she cared for shouldn’t behave like a poor, inexperienced country bumpkin just arrived in town; he needed to be generous and confident.

Leo gladly obeyed, buying a full set of clothes for Olivia and the little mouse, a pair of warm calfskin boots, several jars of expensive honey and butter to bring back, and a large assortment of strange experimental materials for himself.

He spent the money cleanly and completely!

The nightgown Olivia often wore had been handmade by her mother before she passed away and had accompanied her for three or four years.

Setting aside the poor fit, the gauzy nightgown had long since become thin and translucent, full of holes.

While it was alluring when worn in bed, sometimes after dinner and a bath, Olivia would walk around the main room in it, inadvertently exposing herself to anyone who came in.

To the villagers, this was nothing unusual. Country folk wore whatever they had; those with means patched their clothes with needle and thread, while those without simply wrapped themselves in whatever rags they had.

When women in the village did heavy labor, they would even bare their upper bodies like the men, fearing their clothes might tear.

All notions of propriety and decorum were built on a material foundation and the spiritual cultivation that comes with wealth—something Riverbend’s villagers had never experienced.

Compared to the rough villagers, Leo appeared more civilized and reserved in this respect and naturally did not want his beloved to be like everyone else. So, having finally come to Isenborough, he made sure to buy her several new outfits.

When Olivia learned that a single silk nightgown cost twenty silver sulets, her eyes went dark and she immediately slipped into the role of a scolding wife, tugging on Leo’s ear, accusing him of wasting money, and swearing never to give him a single penny again.

Twenty silver sulets could buy four sacks of wheat, which could be baked into four hundred wheat cakes—enough to feed a child in the village for an entire year!

Or it could buy two large bundles of coarse cloth, enough for the village’s able-bodied men to make twenty lined, double-layered rough cloth coats.

Just thinking about it filled Olivia with guilt.

Yet in the next moment, she would don her new clothes and happily show them off to Leo.

Throughout the day, Olivia seamlessly switched between being a money-conscious scold and a joyful young woman, while Leo endured her alternating complaints and praises.

The little mouse was much better off; like Leo, she had no real concept of money’s value and simply clutched her new clothes, shaking her little hips joyfully—a form of expression she had learned from the dog, only missing a flexible tail.

Sitting by the hearth in the main room, Leo placed a piece of limestone in front of several little dog-headed men and encouraged them, “Shiny! Give it a sniff!”

One curious dog-headed man sniffed, curled his tongue, and put it in his mouth.

Then he spat it out onto the ground, clearly finding it unpleasant.

Leo asked hopefully, “Can you find it?”

The little dog-headed men stared blankly at Leo, saying nothing.

“We haven’t even left the Riverbend Peninsula. Where would we find ore for you?”

“Is our human dad a fool?”

Seeing their cluelessness, Leo’s expression instantly darkened as he barked, “Go train! You useless lot!”

The dog-headed one who had tasted the limestone quickly picked it up and ran off with his brothers.

At that moment, Ivan came in to report, “Bjorn is here.”

Olivia sighed in frustration upon seeing Ivan, shaking her head regretfully. “You, you…”

Ivan offered his hundredth feeble explanation, “She’s a noble lady. Offending her could get you beheaded, right?”

But Olivia, like everyone else, wasn’t interested in hearing Ivan’s excuses.

Leo, however, saw the possibility as well. As he went out to greet Bjorn, he advised Ivan earnestly, “Next time something like this happens, come to me first. These matters are too dangerous; you can’t handle them.”

Bjorn, closely resembling a brown bear in stature and attire, stood at the gate of the Riverbend camp with several wild hunters who looked just like him.

Although the two tribes were very familiar with each other by now, the wild folk still maintained the decorum of guests and showed respect to their neighbors.

Bjorn refused to enter someone else’s home fully armed without an invitation.

Leo invited Bjorn through the gate and led him toward the main house.

As they walked, Bjorn introduced someone to Leo: “This is Magna, the great hunter of the northern Wolf Fang tribe.”

The great hunter was the leader among the Basaka hunters, captain of the hunting party—Bjorn himself was one such great hunter.

Typically, smaller wild tribes had only one great hunter, while larger tribes had several, depending on the size of their hunting grounds and the number of hunting teams.

Though Leo had already learned from Bjorn and Zulvan that the Basaka wild folk tribes still lived in the Wolfbane Plains, this was his first time meeting any of them in person.

To Leo, these furry hunters all looked the same; he had never even seen Bjorn’s true face, recognizing him only by his beard.

Magna, the great hunter who silently followed Bjorn all this while, was so unfamiliar that Leo hadn’t detected he was a stranger.

According to Bjorn, the Basaka had lived for generations in the Wolfbane Plains, with tribes scattered across the forests, their numbers seemingly endless, enough hunters gathered to hunt dragons.

Yet Leo suspected the Basaka were not so numerous; otherwise, Count Frolov and the imperial army would not have driven them into the Wolfbane Plains nor allowed them to be bullied by the wild tribes.

Welcoming the wild folk who had traveled far, Leo showed great hospitality, quickly inviting Magna and the others into the main house, urging Olivia to serve the best wine and meat.

Magna behaved even more aloof than Bjorn, quietly drinking and eating while letting Bjorn and Leo talk, continuously scrutinizing Leo and whispering in the wild folk’s rough dialect.

But since the wild folk dialect had evolved from the Imperial language, and Leo had long contact with the Great Waterfall wild folk, he could understand some of it.

“Why is a child hosting us? Can he make decisions?”

“Leo Mondo, captain of Riverbend’s militia, second leader, he can make decisions.”

“Will they accept us?”

“That depends on your sincerity.”