Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===


Within the sanctuary of Tei Tahra, 'time', which had moved steadily and unfalteringly forward ever since the days of the distant past right up until the present, suddenly seemed to grind to a halt.

That was how great the shock of Warrior Raga's defeat was to the mountain people.

However... time could not stop. That was, after all, no more than an illusion. The one who shattered that moment that held them all spellbound was Sarah, the outsider to the mountains.

“You did it!”

As she shouted with joy, Mist, who was next to her, called out to the village chief who was at the top of the cliff.

“Suo.”

Whereupon, Suo, repeatedly blinking his eyes in astonishment, raised his arm.

“The contest has been decided,” he announced in sonorous voice.

In that moment, a violent tremor seemed to jolt the 'time' which clung to the ravine's surroundings, and they were suddenly enveloped in noise and commotion the like of which had never yet been seen there. Almost none of those present were able to wrap their heads around what they had just seen, and around how the fight had ended.

And that was why some of them started to speculate:

“Did Kuon use the wiles of evil spirits?”

Others, however, objected, still half dumb with amazement.

“No, if he'd done that, there's no way Raga would have been defeated. Since he's a being who devours evil spirits.”

While the winner, Kuon, crouched down, breathing raggedly, several shaman, along with some of the guards who protected the priestesses, moved towards the loser, Raga.

He was only unconscious for a few minutes. The soldiers were carrying him away to receive medical treatment, but he shook them off and got down to stand on his own two feet.

“Kill me.”

Raga – the one who had once been Diu Wei – spoke with a hate-filled glare directed at Kuon.

“Raga cannot be defeated as long as he still lives. Kill me, Kuon. If you don't, then I haven't lost yet. Come me at me again. I'll even free both your arms. Well fight until one of us dies. Well, come on!”

Raga continued to howl, but since Suo had already spoken, the match had already been decided. Although he was staggering and swaying, he would have continued to move towards Kuon, except that the heads of unit, who had been there to monitor the fight, blocked his way and removed him from the ravine.

Meanwhile, Suo repeatedly hurled his voice – “Quiet, quiet!” – at the crowd which was still making a commotion. But the shock was so great that he was not having much success. However, the elder priestess, Mist, who had appeared next to him at some point, spoke:

“Warrior Raga has lost.”

Although her voice was by no means loud, it held enough pressure to make everyone there swallow their breath and stop moving. As the crowd looked towards her, Priestess Mist spread out her arms on either side of her, like a withered tree.

“The warrior who should never have lost, has been defeated. You all know what that means. God has handed down His verdict. He has granted victory to the side in the right. That it is to say that, yes, our Lord, Divine Tei Tahra, desired Kuon's victory. Or, more accurately, rather than Kuon's victory, what He desired was that Kuon would overturn the chief's decision.”

Thereupon, Chief Suo knelt at her feet.

“In light of this verdict, I acknowledge that I misunderstood the voice of God that the priestesses relayed to me. Although I have been granted the title of 'chief', I am, after all, no more than a insignificant existence, brought to life by Tei Tahra's divine protection. How about you all?”

“We too,” one of the heads of unit struck his sword into the ground. “We too are those who exist within the mountain god, Tei Tahra's divine protection.”

As the heads knelt one after another, the crowd too, amazed and bewildered, dropped to their knees and offered prayers to Tei Tahra.

Each had their own thoughts and feelings – including the heads and the priestesses – but for those of the tribe living in the great mountains, these were easily swallowed up by the deity, the spells, and the inumerable customs rooted in their religious beliefs. At the climax of the duel, they had encouraged Raga and booed angrily at Kuon, but it was a fact that their god had granted his judgement.

They all of them fell silent.

Amidst them, Kuon remained crouching on the ground. For a while, he couldn't even move, and didn't feel like doing anything except breathing.

How much time went by?

By the time he realised it, the row of torches had left from around the ravine, and the human figures had also vanished. Kuon was taken to a house, and was given treatment by a shaman. Close to his ear, Sarah never stopped scolding him, but he barely registered it. At most, all he heard were things like, “you... a guy like you,” or “honestly... honestly...” and nothing else. Yet sometimes, she sniffled and sobbed, and her strained voice made him feel strangely embarrassed.

Eventually, both Sarah and the shaman left, and Mist appeared in their place.

“All has unfolded according to God's guidance.” After praising the winner with those words, she then asked, “...But, what about that? Kuon, your victory was certainly in accordance with God's will, but leaving Raga alive was not. That looked like something you decided on for yourself. Why was that?”

“Well...” said Kuon, gazing down at the bowl at his feet. There were still some faint traces of mashed up medicinal plants inside it.

There was one question which had always remained with him. When he had been shut away in that prison in the rock, just after Datta Wei had died, and just before the priestesses were going to ask the god's voice to judge Kuon, somebody had saved him. For a long time, he hadn't been able to figure out who that could have been, but then he had wondered if it hadn't been Aqua.

He had no proof. It was just that, among those of his age, she was pretty much the only one he had ever spoken to outside of during fights. Yet when he thought of that girl, with whom he had only had the slightest of connections, actually breaking the rules of the mountain to save him, he couldn't help but reject the idea. For the people of the tribe, the rules were absolute. If you didn't uphold them, you couldn't hope to live. And this wasn't something that they gritted their teeth and endured; for those who were going to live their lives in the mountains, this was as natural as the air they breathed.

Those who, just a short while earlier, had hurled jeers at Kuon, but who had, in the end, devoutly accepted the results of the match, were also kith and kin, in whom the customs and the way of life of the mountains were rooted just as firmly as they were in Kuon. It was because of that, because of a longing for home that made it hard to part from it, or perhaps because of an obsessive love that prevented parting, that he had set out to return to this land.

Under normal circumstances, it should be absolutely impossible for someone to help another escape when they had been locked in the rocky prison, and were awaiting God's judgement. And yet, among Kuon's acquaintances, there was already someone who had broken the rules of the great mountains.

That person had spoken lies to lay a trap for a man from the same household, and because of that, the head of the family had lost his life. Yet far from acknowledging his own duplicity, he had spun more lies and had pushed the blame onto the one he had tried to ensnare earlier.

Needless to say, it was Diu Wei.

Kuon had been trapped, blamed, and locked away in the rocky prison. That night, having lost his freedom, he had struggled, screamed, pleaded, then, finally, wept.

Then how about Diu? How had he spent that night? Had been satisfied, now that the 'unwanted child' he had always hated had finally been brought down? While Kuon was crying and screaming, did Diu lie in his own bed, gloating?

No.

Kuon knew. At this point in time, he understood it so well, it hurt.

Diu was anything but impious. Just like Kuon and the others in this land, he was a warrior living within Tei Tahra's divine protection. He spoke words of joy and celebration when Tei Tahra granted them a good hunt, and if an enemy invaded, he would fight with courage and to the death, offering his soul to their god. That was the kind of man he was.
And because of that...

Diu Wei must have been in a similar state to Kuon. Although he lay down, he could not sleep. He had done something that meant he could no longer face Tei Tahra. On top of that, because of it, he had caused the death of his own father. He must have been in pain. He must have been caught in sorrow and regrets. And also... again like Kuon, he must have been afraid. And that was why, just before night turned to dawn, he might have helped Kuon escape.

He had laid the blame of his own crimes on Kuon, so perhaps, by releasing him, he had hoped to lighten the guilt and terror weighing on his heart.

Freeing Kuon was an act that also broke the rules. In order to save himself, Diu had broken another taboo.

''After you left, it was almost frightening how Diu continued practising day and night, as though  he was possessed by the Spirits of battle'' – Aqua had said.

He had probably had no choice but to do so.

He had no choice but to throw himself entirely into something that would help shake off the ever-present fear that held him in its coils. And he had no choice but to prove that he was someone who would offer his very blood and  flesh to Tei Tahra. That was why he had been so desperate to earn the position as Raga. Just like how, even after he had left them, Kuon had yearned to fulfil the prophesy that he would one day “bring gold to the mountains.”

...All of this was nothing more than Kuon's own speculation.

But when he thought about it that way, his feelings of hatred and blame towards Diu had already vanished from within him. In their place, he felt a sort of sympathy, a certain feeling of closeness. There was someone else who tasted the same sense of alienation and fear that Kuon had experienced for so long.

“I had to prove it.” When Kuon answered Mist, it was not with his real thoughts. “I had to show everyone that unlike Raga, my determination went beyond fighting to the death. Otherwise, even if I'd killed him, I probably couldn't have convinced everyone, deep down.”

“Oh, it looks like you've started thinking about some complicated things,” Mist slurped some wheat porridge through a wooden tube that hung at her waist. She held it out to Kuon.

While holding up his hand to refuse it, Kuon said,

“Granny Mist, there's something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Why did you bring Sarah to the prison?”

“Wasn't that topic already discussed ''in'' the prison?”

“You heard the story from Sarah, and because it got you interested, you decided to go together with her. But Granny, even though you said that, Atall doesn't have anything to do with these mountains. And yet...”

“Kuon, we are small beings caught in the embrace of great plans. God is beside us, but His voice does not whisper to us about every little thing. I do not base my every thought on the voice of our Lord, the mountain god. I have my own eyes, my own ears, and my own head to think.”

Kuon had no idea what that meant, or if that even answered his question in the first place. Seeing his sullen expression as he stayed silent, Mist cackled shrilly with laughter.

“And here I only just praised you a minute ago, but that's all you've got? Kuon, I'll reveal just a bit of the answer to you. Not all of us have clouded eyes. Take me in particular: there are things that I see simply because the light barely reaches these eyes of mine.”

Did that mean that Mist had things she divined for herself? Kuon stared at the wooden tube at her waist. If she offered it to him again, he intended to accept it, but it remained hanging on her belt the entire time.



After that, time passed in the blink of an eye.

First of all, the day after the duel, another judgement was performed over whether Kuon had 'led Datta Wei into a trap.'

The result was his complete acquittal. No doubt, in the confusion of the battlefield, Diu Wei had misunderstood what had happened.

Although from Kuon's point of view, this was the correct and obvious ruling, if he looked at things from a slightly wiser standpoint, he definitely believed that if he had waited for a judgement immediately after Datta's death – if he had not fled from the mountains – his fate would have been to end up condemned to burn at the stake.

Here was the true meaning of Mist's words. The voice of God was not omnipotent. The divine voice, which should have been able to quieten and to lead the people, was sometimes controlled by the will of the people.

Afterwards, in the village, the men hurried about making preparations for going into battle, while the women had their hands full getting provisions ready.

About five hundred of the men would be leaving.

This was more than half the active soldiers from the units. On average, there were about fifty soldiers to a household in the mountains, although a household like the Wei included about two hundred warriors. But even if they were called that, most of the men in the settlement were engaged in work as hunters or fishermen, and those who specialised exclusively in warfare were only Raga, and the special guards who protected the priesthood.

Which meant that nearly half of the male working force would be leaving, but in these mountains, it had always been normal for the elderly who had retired from the forefront, and the women who kept the homes, to pick up bows and guns whenever intruders broke into their sacred mountain land.

Besides which, the heads of unit did not all join the reinforcements. Instead, most of them actually stayed in the village, having selected those who ranked next after them to act as the leaders of their platoons. The heads would need to draw up plans for hunting and fishing in the village, which was about to become short-handed, and that would be a burden far greater than heading into battle.

One after another, the men had put their names forward in order to make up the five hundred. This was, after all, a holy fight, sanctioned by Tei Tahra's divine will.

Achievements earned in this battle would surely be equal to that of defending the great mountains against foreign enemies, or perhaps the glory achieved would be even greater. It wasn't as though the mountains were continuously under attack, and the young men who had not yet had an opportunity to offer their blood and flesh to Tei Tahra were especially eager to volunteer, and among those whose application was rejected, there were many who wept tears of bitter regret.

The problem was horses.

There were horses within the great mountains, but not that many. If they gathered all the ones from the village at the foot of the mountains, they would have no more than two hundred. Yet crossing the Kesmai Plains without horses would take several times more days that Kuon and Sarah had needed. There was no way of knowing what the current situation was for Lord Leo, but from the point it had been at when they had left, it was obvious that they could not afford to leisurely take their time.

Which was why Kuon had the horses which had already been gathered be brought together, and decided to lead an advance party of two hundred riders. The remaining three hundred men would travel on foot. Sarah offered to guide them.

Apart from the meetings at which this plan was proposed, Kuon at first barely spoke to anyone in the village of his birth. To start with, there was no one for him to get closer to.

There were still some, even now, who looked at him with hostility, or who loathed him for being 'unwanted spawn' with mixed and foreign blood, but Kuon now held the position of one who had proven Tei Tahra's judgement with his own body. As I have mentioned repeatedly, the voice of God was all that was righteous on the mountain, and so the ill will and animosity towards Kuon had already considerably softened. Simply put, they were probably puzzled as to how best to approach him now.

Within all that, it was the village's children who were the first to draw up to him.

They simply felt admiration for someone strong, and when Kuon defeated Raga, their interest in himwas unparalleled. On the first day, they watched his every move from a distance, but on the next day, they shyly came up to him with the swords and spears that were used during training.

“Can you teach us to fight?” they begged him.

While Kuon was wondering what to do, Aqua Holo, who just happened to be passing by, called out to him teasingly,
“Why don't you do it? Weren't you good at training the children from the Wei?”

“I'm busy.”

“Oh, really? After the meeting yesterday, you seemed to be completely free though.”

With the children as a point of contact, their parents and older brothers – not their actual family members, but their elders within the same unit – also shortened the distance with Kuon and, on the third day, the senior brothers of the Wei, with whom he had once stood shoulder-to-shoulder, invited him to go hunting. Since a large amount of provisions needed to be prepared, a large number of households were currently heading out to bring down prey.

Aqua, who had earlier made fun of Kuon, was also one of the hunters.

'She' would also be joining the fighting as a member of the Holo. From Kuon had heard, nowadays, 'her' skill at archery was inferior to none of the men in the village. Which was only to be expected, since 'she' had been chosen to join the ashinaga hunt.

“That guy is already an excellent hunter. It'll be 'his' first time in battle, but given that it's 'him', I wouldn't be surprised even if 'he' took three enemy heads with 'his' bow.”

On the one hand, there were voices which sung 'her' praises.  

“Is 'her' heart and soul already that of a man? What a shame.”

On the other, there was also a scene in which a husband murmured absentmindedly as he gazed at Aqua's firm waist, only to shut his mouth after receiving a terrifying glare from his wife.

Since the person 'herself' had decided to live as a man, since the priestesses had recognised this, and given that 'she' also joined in with hunting and combat, within the great mountains, Aqua was no longer a 'woman'. Having 'her' own family was of course out of the question, but 'she' could not have relations with a man either. These too were the 'rules'. If, for example, Aqua tempted a man with 'her' womanly features, an order might be given to 'her' from the priestesses or the chief to cut off 'her' breasts.

“What a waste.”

It wasn't only men who held that thought; Sarah also shared it.

“Even though she's such a beauty. If she showed herself in a town, she could lead any rich man or noble by the nose. But in spite of that, to have to cut off her breasts...”

“Not right this second. And anyway, looking at it, it doesn't seem like it's going to come up for a while... Oww!”

Kuon, who had been casting repeated glances at Aqua's figure in the distance, had his foot firmly trod on by Sarah.

“What was that for!”

“A man was watching a 'man' with strange eyes.”

As the two of them embarked on one of their usual quarrels, the people of the tribe watched them curiously for a while. Apart from in his childhood, it was a new sight for them to see Kuon with his face flushed beet-red, and his emotions laid bare.

The day of departure finally arrived.

Early in the morning, the young priestesses performed a dance in prayer for victory. The elder priestess, Mist, placed portions of armour in the fire and observed the cracks that formed.

“A good omen,” she announced.

When the armoured warriors, with their faces daubed bright red from their war patterns, heard this, their excitement rose in crescendo.

When Kuon was saddling his horse, Mist and one of the shamans approached from behind him.

“Take this,” the shaman held out a small bottle. The liquid that shook within it was the colour of dark dye dissolved in honey.

The shaman explained that it was horned snake poison in which a decoction of several medicinal herbs had been added. It was poisonous to humans but, at the same time, it was also used to neutralise the poison of the ashinagas that lived on the outskirts of the great mountains. It was this medicine which had saved Sarah's life when she fell unconscious after being attacked by an ashinaga.

By rights, only a shaman could handle those kinds of poisons and medicine. Since even carrying it around was said to be unadvisable, even the ashinaga hunters like Aqua's group had not had any. Kuon had no idea why he was being made an exception.

“It is tribute to the warrior who defeated Raga,” the shaman, half of whose face was covered with a cloth, spoke calmly. “We cannot leave the great mountains. You should use this if you are attacked on the way by ashinaga. Although there is no guarantee that it will work perfectly.”

Since Mist nodded at him to “take it,” Kuon decided to accept it with gratitude.

When everyone had finally finished with their preparations,

“This fight had been decided by our lord, the mountain god. Do not be concerned with your lives; the souls of those who fought bravely will be called to God's side.”

Most of the men who now had Mist's voice at their back, and who had been raised in the cradle of the mountains, would be leaving them for the first time in their lives. According to the plan, five hundred soldiers would leave the mountains at the same time, but the two hundred on horseback would go north across the Kesmai Plains without waiting for the for those on foot.

Kuon descended the mountains while bathed in the light of the early morning sun, and urged his horse towards the entrance to the sun-baked Kesmai Plains.

Yet a mere five days after leaving the mountains, his group was caught in an unexpected ambush.



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