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Book 3-7. 4
A little less than 50 warriors were gathered under the blistering heat of the sun.
If anybody who knew about them were to look at them right now, they would have found it to be interesting. The warriors faces were very cloudy and they all looked like they had no energy, almost as if they were old men who were about to die. The people would be surprised to know that this was actually the members of the Red Storm, whose name was known throughout the entire desert.
"Did you go visit them?"
As Haisha asked all of them a question, they could only shake their heads no.
They were afraid to go visit them.
Since the Red Storm was such a small brigade, all of them knew about each other's family situations.
They were afraid to visit the families of the nine comrades who died in the last war.
They felt like the families would ask something along the lines of 'You came back alive after killing your friend?' They knew that none of the families would actually say something like that, but the pressure in their hearts was too much.
There are many difficult things in life if the family does not have a warrior.
The other warriors of the family would take care of them, but would anybody take care of them as much as a warrior of their household? [1]
None of the nine dead warriors were without a wife. It was obvious. They were already famous warriors in Pareia, and there were no single ladies who would just let them be alone.
In the middle of the gloomy atmosphere, Thrint started to speak.
"What is there to think about? My friend's wife is my wife, and my friend's children is my children. All we have to do is take them in as our wives and adopt their children as our children. We can take care of them."
Since the tribe had about 5 women for each man, it was normal for a single warrior to have multiple wives.
However, because everyone married single women and nobody married a widow, it was almost impossible for their friends' wives to marry again. That was why Thrint was suggesting that they marry the wives of the dead warriors.
None of the warriors objected to what Thrint had said.
"Then I will take it as everyone agreeing to it. Go find them yourselves. I don't think anyone will be tactless about it."
Everybody nodded at what Thrint had said.
Haisha started to speak.
"In addition, let us all get stronger. Let's make sure that there is no chance of any of us dying again in battle. Unless you want to make your friends feel this way again. Or make your family feel sorrow like this."
"Leader, go ask the Glow for a vacation. Also ask for some time for the warriors to train alone. We will use the vacation to go bring the families of our lost friends and then use that training time to get stronger."
One of the Red Storm warriors responded to Shubeon's statement.
"We will no longer get stronger from any normal training."
"The only place fit for us to train is the Monster's Field. If we split into even smaller groups, the difficulty will be higher, and shouldn't we try to catch that Sand Dragon we couldn't catch last time?"
Shubeon responded to a third warrior's suggestion.
"Right. How long will we just run away from it? I want my own mount like Shopping!"
The atmosphere became a little lighter at Shubeon's statement.
Triquel was the original mood maker for Red Storm, but it looked like Shubeon was planning on taking on that mission for himself.
"Let's work hard. We are the Red Storm. We just make sure none of us kick the bucket from here on."
Everybody regained their strength at Haisha's last words.
'We are the Red Storm. We will not lose to anybody. We can get even stronger. '
The Red Storm thought that way and believed that it will happen.
Pareia was starting to become chaotic. It was because Runa's plan had changed the daily lives of Pareia's tribe members.
Yulian and the many chiefs, as well as Runa were controlling it as much as they could, but it was hard to control everything that was changing. The majority of the changes did not happen to the warriors, but actually to the women of the tribe.
The long-instilled warriors' mentality of protecting the tribe and getting stronger helped make them to be not very affected by the change, but it was different for the women of the households.
These women wanted to give as much as they could for their children and their husband. Their daily lives changed once they learned that the pina's fur could be exchanged for food, clothes, and all sorts of items as well as the fact that even a monster's skin and teeth could be traded for precious items.
As time went by, the warriors started to react to it as well. The majority of them were affected because they could not win over the nagging of their wives, but once they put it in the perspective that working a little bit harder would make their lives even better, it pushed them to work harder at catching monsters, hunting wild animals, and gathering black water.
The warriors who used to only gather Monster's Souls started to bring the corpses of monsters and wild animals to their wives, and they worked hard to catch even more than before.
In regards to the black water, since the Glow and the chiefs gave them rations in proportion to the amount of black water they gathered, it managed to push the warriors to work a little harder as well.
The fact that the oases were safer was a positive side effect of the situation. As the warriors hunted more monsters and wild animals, the amount that roamed around the oasis started to decrease.
However, there were some negative effects as well.
The warriors were okay thanks to the strict control from the lead warriors as well as their distinct pride as warriors, but it was a different story for the women of the tribe. The women were starting to distinguish what was yours and what was mine, and there were multiple instances of verbal arguments as well.
Starting then, Grace's influence started to shine.
Grace, who was respected as the Mother of Pareia, ordered them to bring all arguments to her, and punished anyone who went against that order without leniency.
Runa had already anticipated the type of issues that would arise at the beginning of introducing private property and had asked Grace for help.
As Grace got angry and fiercely came at them, the women of Pareia did not dare to cause any disturbance, and in the times they felt wronged, they brought it in front of Grace to resolve.
Runa was also strict about the items brought in from the continent. He had given stern warnings to the merchants of the continent. They were only approved to trade the items that were previously approved. It was because of Yulian's order that allowing anything and everything to start will make the desert go crazy.
Since the fact that the continent was more developed proved to show that this cultural change was for the better, it was the only thing they could do to prevent total anarchy.
The biggest problem was that once this economic lifestyle became the norm, the warriors would have to earn something for the family. It would be separate from what the women earned for the family.
Right now, all of the men still needed to be warriors. It was great for the tribe to become rich, but the truth was that they needed to strengthen the tribe first.
That was why until there was an increase in the number of men, they needed to pay the warriors equally. Thankfully, since all of them pretty much took turns hunting monsters or wild animals, gathering black water, etc, there wouldn't be many issues for a while.
A giant marketplace was created in Pareia in just half a year, and people from Edwin's merchant guild started to reside in the tribe to run the market.
These merchants figured out the needs of the continent and the desert before creating sensible prices for items, and they were in charge of trading with the guild whenever they came by.
The people of Pareia started to get used to this restricted capitalistic society without much issue.
Yulian, who could see Pareia slowly starting to change, decided to share this market with the Rivolde as well.
It was the promise he had made in the past with Glow Dejaine Nellisi of the Rivolde tribe.
Although Dejaine had not specifically asked for anything for his past assistance, Yulian had continued to keep that promise in his mind.
Thanks to that, the Rivolde were able to find a consistent trading partner for their Monster's Souls and black water.
Pareia and the Rivolde started to get wealthier and wealthier as time went by.
End of chapter 7.
Next up:
Just five more years
After hearing Runa's story, his heart was thumping.
There could be no other response.
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[1] Family here is discussing the extended family and not the family they have with the warrior (so think cousins, in-laws, siblings, etc)
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| ← Ch. 111 | Ch. 113 → |