Book 4-2.2
“Grace, isn’t it amazing?”
Yulian slowly pointed forward with his sword as he asked Grace. The place his sword was pointing toward was the the Storm Castle that was being built at Runa’s strong urging.
It was only in the beginning stages, but they had already finished constructing the base to build the castle on, and the boulders to be used as headstones were laying around the base.
The fact that once the castle walls and the pillars start to go up it will become an enormous castle automatically entered your head when you saw the size of the base.
“How long did you say the construction was going to last?”
“Until it gets to a basic level, five years. To finish the complete castle following the blueprint after that will take another five years, so a total of ten years was what they said.”
“He really is an amazing person. I didn’t expect him to push for this so passionately.”
Grace looked around in awe as she started to speak to Yulian.
Truthfully speaking, this construction had a lot of opposition from the chiefs and the heads of the tribe. It was because a castle did not make sense in the desert and had no use.
Yulian felt the same way as well, but he still strongly advocated for Runa’s idea.
They wouldn’t need it if they only planned on staying in the desert, however, in order to achieve the basic goal of contending against the continent, a castle was a necessary item.
The fortification of a castle and development of infantry was common in the continent, but in the desert, that was not the case. Runa emphasized that doing something fresh like this would be better for the tribe than defending the oasis. In the aspect of aiming for the continent, a castle was definitely needed to provide rest and rations for a lot of warriors.
Yulian agreed with that statement and eventually, the chiefs started to agree one by one to get the construction started.
“He is similar to you in regards to getting the things he starts to the end.”
As Grace brought up the similarities between Yulian and Runa, Yulian happily answered.
“If a genius like that had been born in Pareia instead, we could have shortened the time for all of this by a few years more.”
“Pii~, don’t be so greedy. If we are being honest, if Runa-nim was born in our Pareia and pushed for such a thing, how many people would have recognized his abilities? It was because he was the enemy and you knew of his abilities that you have so much faith in him, wasn’t it?”
Yulian shook his head.
“To be honest, it was not because of his abilities at first.”
“Then?”
Grace opened her eyes widely at the unexpected answer and asked.
“I felt chills the first time I saw him. A thrilling feeling. I felt something like that. His boldness to not even blink when I was in front of him; the willingness to make bold decisions for the Greatest Warrior he served. All of those things left quite a shock on me.”
“Hmm, I was the same way when I first met you.”
“Hahaha.”
After hearing what Grace had to say, Yulian lifted Grace high up into the sky and sat her on his shoulder as he secured her by holding onto her legs.
“Please let me down. What if someone sees this?”
As Grace tickled Yulian’s hands and asked, Yulian just laughed out loudly without any intentions of letting her down.
“Who will say anything about a husband hugging his big wife? [1] I know that you are tired from taking care of the oasis and dealing with the issues of the people. I am always thankful to you.”
“Darling……”
Grace cautiously caressed Yulian’s face while she continued to sit on his shoulders. And then came the thought in her mind.
‘I guess I should tell him now.”
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
He used the other hand that was not holding Grace up and patted Grace’s leg to get her attention as he asked.
“Honey.”
“Hmm? Go ahead.”
“That… you see……”
Why are you beating around the bush so much? This isn’t like you. They told me they call you the Iron Woman. I’ve also heard people say you are the true ruler of Pareia.”
Yulian smiled to show that he was proud of his wife as he lightly pinched Grace’s cheeks.
“So, honey, don’t you think you need to get a second wife?”
“......”
Yulian stopped moving side to side as he looked toward Grace.
“Didn’t we decide not to talk about that? We are still young. I have no plans of taking in a second wife until we have our first child together.”
“Sigh~”
Grace let out a small sigh.
It would make more sense for her to like her husband to say something like this. But that was just a dream and not the mentality that the first wife of Pareia’s Glow, the Mother of Pareia, should have.
Pere was there but it did not matter for the successor. They needed someone who had the Glow’s blood flowing inside of them. This was especially important because Yulian was a special type of Glow who stood as the vanguard during war.
This was something that she needed to convince him to accept as the wife.
“Honey.”
“If you are planning to keep talking about that, stop.”
Yulian sternly answered as he turned his head away.
He could feel Grace shaking through his shoulder.
His shoulder was starting to get wet. Grace had lowered her head and started to cry.
“Why are you crying.”
Yulian’s heart was breaking seeing her crying like that. That was why he could only oppose taking in a second wife even harder. It was because although Grace was strong, she was also weak.
‘My wife, who, at the young age of twenty, had to take on the heavy burden of being the Mother of Pareia.’
“Don’t cry.”
Yulian let her down and hugged her as he started to pat her back. She just quietly cried in his arms.
“Do not feel pressured. This is what my master said. This type of issue is the will of heaven. Neither you nor I have any problems, so the fact that we still do not have a child is the will of heaven. Do not get anxious.”
“Sob~”
Grace finally let out a noise as she continued to cry. She then pushed Yulian away as she started to speak.
“What do you know? The other people … I’m sure the other people are pointing their fingers at me. I am the first wife of none other than the hope of Pareia, the Glow of Pareia. I am the Mother of Pareia.”
Grace continued to speak in a teary voice. Yulian even felt like everything he thought he was doing because he knew Grace and thought he was doing for Grace might have been wrong.
“Do you know how many people are waiting for the Glow’s bloodline to continue? Pere-nim and Orca-nim already have kids. But why me...just why not me?”
“Grace!”
Yulian called her name but did not know what ot say. All he could do was call her name out and hug her.
“If you do not have any girls you like, I will bring one. Do not say anything about it. This is an important problem where my opinion as the Mother of Pareia is more important than yours as the Glow.”
Grace, who had stopped crying at some point, urged Yulian once more in a emotionless, stoic voice.
Yulian still did not know what to say to her.
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[1] The term for the first wife. The rest of the wives are the little wives.