Chapter 43
The eting with the Lion Tribe was arranged quickly.
The day after the regular territory eting.
A warrior of the Lion Tribe knocked on the northern gate and announced that the Lion Tribe Chieftain was coming.
The fact that they had at least inford us in advance gave the impression they were more reasonable than the Black Lions.
The Black Lions had once dispatched warriors without even contacting Leisha first.
“So, in the end, they’re coming for at, right?”
“There can be no other reason. I already sent plenty of dried Horned Rabbit at to the village, so the chieftain must know of it.”
“True. That makes sense.”
Horned Rabbits, huh.
It seed like we would be trading with the north before the south.
-The terms shouldn’t be bad. If it’s the Lion Tribe, they’re rather straightforward.
‘Is that so? Well, just look at the Black Lions….’
I hadn’t traded with beastn before, but sohow it felt like it would be a little different from humans.
They probably wouldn’t use tricks or play mind gas.
With that in mind, the Lion Tribe seed like a decent trading partner.
‘Given the Monster Mountains between us, continuous trade might be difficult, but even one-ti trades wouldn’t be bad.’
It did feel like I was constantly dealing with beastn these days, but if it was for the sake of the territory, there was no reason to be picky.
“They’re coming.”
In the distance, a group of people was approaching the castle of the territory.
At the lead was a large lion beastman with golden ears.
Just by his presence, it wasn’t hard to guess he was the Lion Tribe Chieftain.
‘So that’s the Golden Mane Tribe. Fits the description.’
“But that fellow’s… head….”
“Being a leader is a position with much stress. The chieftain used to have a full head of hair. The better the leader, the faster he goes bald.”
“He doesn’t even look that old yet. What a sha.”
The Lion Tribe Chieftain was a strikingly handso man whom anyone would call good-looking, but he had no hair left on his head.
Apparently, he disliked watching it fall out little by little from stress, so he shaved it all off.
Bald already, even at his young age.
The position of Lion Tribe Chieftain really didn’t seem easy.
“Heh, so many Horned Rabbits… did you truly succeed in breeding them?”
Even as Leisha and I approached the delegation, the Lion Tribe Chieftain was marveling at the Horned Rabbits running across the wide fields.
He must have doubted the Black Lions’ reports.
Well, of course.
That’s why he ca all the way here to confirm it himself.
“Pleased to et you. I am Iron Johnson, lord of Johnson.”
“Indeed. I am Rudelrof, Chieftain of the Lion Tribe. A pleasure to et you.”
“You’re fluent in our language despite being a beastman?”
“Haha, I had no choice but to learn it to deal with rchants. They are insufferably difficult. Through an interpreter, I could never properly grasp the subtle nuances they use.”
Rudelrof seed even more impressive than I had expected.
Judging by the mana I could sense, he was about Master-class.
Not quite on Leisha’s level, but still formidable.
‘Roughly on par with as I am now.’
And not only fluent in human language, but his bearing carried an air of refinent, which ant he was certainly intelligent.
Since he was a chieftain, I had expected soone more like Limond or Leisha, but instead, he felt closer to Leon.
With good looks as well, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had it all.
‘The fact that he looks this good without any hair at all is truly sothing.’
At this point, I was starting to suspect baldness was the gods’ way of balancing things out.
“Let’s not waste words. First, let us complete our trade. We need at. As much as possible. So we have brought ample goods. Rudrick, present to Lord Johnson what we brought.”
“Yes, Chieftain.”
Whether by nature or habit, he was direct. They needed a lot of at.
Even calm Rudelrof seed sowhat impatient—perhaps that was just a lion beastman’s nature.
‘So they really love Horned Rabbits that much, huh.’
Even during our conversation, his eyes kept darting toward the rabbit ranch.
It seed leading a at-loving tribe like the Lions was even more exhausting than I thought.
“Heh, this much?”
The twenty or so beastn Rudelrof brought each carried a large bag.
Inside were not only gold ingots but also high-quality iron ingots.
Just how much at would it take to match this amount?
It was so much that I struggled to even calculate the price.
“Are you truly giving all this?”
“This much is needed to make a proper trade. If you knew the costs of obtaining at from the Levelium rchants, you wouldn’t ask that.”
“Is that so?”
“Sotis I wonder whether they are rchants or pigs.”
The Boar Tribe, the sworn enemies of many beastn.
The fact that he compared rchants to them ant the rchant guilds’ tyranny was quite severe.
‘Well, rchant guilds have always specialized in exploiting others.’
Exploiting beastn rather than humans probably didn’t bother them at all.
‘Ah, I should tell him about this too. They seem to deal with the Levelium guilds as well.’
-What are you talking about?
‘The Rabbit Tribe’s Great Escape. Leisha helped us, rember? So rcenaries survived, so they might suspect the Lion Tribe.’
Even though she wore rabbit ears, I couldn’t guarantee no rcenaries recognized Leisha’s face.
“Oh, that happened?”
“Yeah. The guild might lodge a complaint.”
Since it felt wrong to just stay silent, I explained the situation to Rudelrof.
Depending on how he saw it, he could have taken it badly.
But Rudelrof didn’t seem bothered at all.
“What could they possibly do? In trade between the Lion Tribe and the guilds, they are the ones who profit overwhelmingly.”
“Really?”
“No matter what they say, if we threaten to cut ties, they’ll have no choice.”
“That much?”
Well, if they were willing to haul over piles of gold and iron ingots just to buy at, then they clearly weren’t normal either.
‘Now that I think about it, Leon didn’t seem particularly worried either, did he?’
-That young male seed to know sothing about it as well.
Interesting.
The Levelium rchant Group.
Hard to see the bottom of their dealings.
And this lion beastman before wasn’t ordinary either.
He clearly knew his own worth and had the boldness to match.
‘The common belief is that beastn rely more on instinct than reason.’
But Rudelrof seed wiser than most. I wanted to converse with him a little more.
* * *
After finalizing the trade, we continued chatting with a more relaxed mood.
The paynt for the iron and gold ingots was settled by filling the bags they had brought with Horned Rabbit jerky.
By my standards, it still felt lacking, but Rudelrof seed genuinely pleased.
It looked like they had been ripped off pretty badly before.
“I want the children of the tribe to eat this as well. The taste is truly incredible.”
“Is that so?”
To a guest who had co from a place close yet far, crossing the Monster Mountains, I served Johnson Territory’s specialty sausages.
True to their love of at, the Lion Tribe relished the sausages with imnse satisfaction.
The way his eyes sparkled looked absolutely sincere.
Seeing them enjoy it made feel rather good too.
‘He is wise, but not very skilled at hiding his true feelings. A straightforward friend.’
Well, perhaps that was just a beastman’s trait.
Which, if anything, made like him more.
“The Black Lions have migrated to our territory. Is that alright?”
“What do you an, alright?”
“I thought there might have been so talk within the tribe.”
“Ah, it’s fine. Things are complicated on our end too.”
The first topic I brought up was the migration of the Black Lions.
It was sothing that had to be ntioned at least once.
Since it was a direct point of contact between Rotsy and Johnson Territory, it was a sensitive issue that could beco a source of conflict.
And above all, I was personally curious.
Why had the seemingly wise Rudelrof let the Black Lions leave?
The departure of the Black Lions ant, in so way, a weakening of the Lion Tribe’s power.
But it seed they too had their own burdens.
“The Black Lions were always out of place. Should I say they had their own distinct domain? They never blended well with the other lions.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course, I can’t say we were completely blaless either.”
“If things got that bad, why not try marriage policies? If they mixed and ford families, things might have improved little by little, don’t you think?”
“Ah, that. You know the Black Lions have lived with us for a long ti. Naturally, we tried. But it failed.”
“Failed?”
“The Black Lions’ mindset is a little different.”
“Different how?”
It had been over a hundred years since the Black Lions rejoined the Lion Tribe, yet they still felt out of place.
There had to be a reason.
Even the first ti I had heard about the Black Lions, I got the impression they were being treated differently.
So I probed a little, but the response wasn’t very pleasant.
And when I heard the explanation, I found myself speechless for a mont.
“You must know if you’ve seen lion beastn. Males hold imnse authority here. Of course, exceptions exist, like remarkable figures such as Leisha.”
“Ah, yes. That much was clear.”
There were more female warriors, yet all the leaders were male.
And despite Leisha’s presence, Limond still carried significant authority.
It must have had sothing to do with the tribe’s unique traits—more won, but male leadership.
In that case, soone like Leisha was the rare exception.
“Our marriage customs are similar. Lionesses observe the males for a long ti before proposing, but in the end, it’s the male who decides. If he isn’t interested, he rejects them.”
“Of course. Marriage isn’t sothing one person decides alone.”
“Then the lioness usually withdraws. But the Black Lions are different.”
“How so?”
“They cling until the very end. In the worst cases, they’ll even beat up a male to make him their husband. And their strength is so great that most can’t resist them.”
“That’s… horrifying. Forced marriage?”
“There are many other things too. Perhaps small things on their own, but together they disrupt unity. These days, they’ve practically split apart—Black Lions and Lion Tribe. At tis, I think it might be better for the Black Lions to form their own tribe.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
I could understand other issues, but forcing n into marriage…
To think that the beautiful Black Lion female warriors were that violent gave a strange feeling.
-Maybe it’s a side effect of their biological modifications. An obsession with reproduction.
‘Perhaps. We’d better be cautious about this.’
Though Rudelrof seed relieved about their independence, I could feel traces of genuine effort to integrate them.
At least in his ti, it didn’t seem like the Black Lions were being outright mistreated.
“Now that they’ve gone independent, I hope they live well. Just because they’re independent doesn’t an they’re no longer lions. Of course, from what I’ve seen, they’ll probably manage fine.”
Despite their independence, Rudelrof didn’t seem to harbor bad feelings.
In this regard, he felt refreshingly cool-headed.
Yet, seeing them still recognized as lions suggested that a tribe’s existence ant more to beastn than I could comprehend.
Co to think of it, even Leisha never showed hatred toward other lions.
If anything, she only sighed when it ca to the Black Lions.
“Rotsy and Johnson aren’t that far apart. It wouldn’t be bad to exchange visits from ti to ti.”
“With the mountains in between, isn’t that difficult?”
“True. The monsters are one thing, but the gnolls are especially troubleso.”
At the ntion of gnolls, Rudelrof’s expression twisted, as though even he was fed up with them.
“Seems your side has gnoll problems as well.”
“No matter how many we kill, they never end.”
Another shared struggle: the Monster Mountains.
Especially swarm-type monsters like gnolls, who moved in large groups, were troubleso for both sides.
“What do you think of forming an allied front against the gnolls?”
“Not a bad idea. Honestly, if you and Leisha just ca to help, it would already make fighting gnolls much easier.”
“And if the Lion Tribe warriors were dispatched here in tis of crisis, we could make up for our lack of numbers.”
This wasn’t a bad deal from the Lion Tribe’s perspective either.
After all, if Leisha—whom even the Lion Tribe admitted none could match—were to help, it would be a great boon to their side too.
Leisha wasn’t soone I could easily command, but I doubted she would refuse to help her own tribe.
No matter that she had left, Leisha was still a lion beastman.
‘Leisha also spoke well of Rudelrof.’
Saying that the better the chieftain, the faster they lost their hair was, in fact, high praise for Rudelrof.
“One day, I hope there cos a ti when we can freely interact with Johnson Territory.”
“I agree wholeheartedly.”
Rudelrof truly seed to want genuine exchanges with our territory.
And of course, the piles of Horned Rabbits were an imnsely attractive factor for the Lion Tribe.
‘He wants to open a trade route outside of the Levelium rchants.’
Since the rchants were apparently charging absurd prices for at, it was natural he’d want an alternative.
And he was wise enough to consider that possibility.
‘Truly, a man who has everything… except hair.’
It seed clear that maintaining good relations with the Lion Tribe was in our best interest.
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