NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: Storytelling
The sun touches the horizon, and we have our dinner against the ruby radiance of its dying light with falling snow.
In our hands, we hold bowls of thick stew flavoured with venison bits, as well as dried figs, walnuts, and other nuts. These are today’s dinner.
I look at the bowl of stew in my hands. It appears to be very salty. Judging from the way everyone else is digging into it with big mouthfuls and not blowing on it to cool it down, it should have been just the right temperature.
I swallow some venison bits and they are very tasty. I never taste venison in my nearly 40 years of living in my previous world.
We enjoy our dinner for a while but I leer at the girls while eating. Clementine sit in reclined position, leaning back on her arm and her back against a tree. Her thighs, cleavage and six packs abdomen are exposed. Sekrit abandons her military uniform, now wearing revealing attire that expose her navel and cleavage. The chest area only cover half of her big boobs. Unlike the other 2 girls, Sekrit's stomach has no 6 packs, but still very slim. She wears pant that cover the whole legs. She is sitting sidesaddle, sitting with her knees to the side, while knees and chest point toward me.
Ivanna is eating while kneeling, reflecting how stuck up she is.
Ivanna's rounded collar cloth covers her whole body except hands and her pants cover until knees. We all wear cloaks to protect us from cold weather.
"Clementine, how do learn to fight like that?" As they finish their dinner, I cut in from aside.
Clementine is pondering my question while her sitting changes to cross-legged. I could even see her black G-string panty.
"My brother and dad are generals.... top fighters in Negara. I train every day so as not to be left behind by them."
Then, she yawns. No one speaks for another 3 minutes. She just stare to the sky.
"Is that all !!!" Ivanna yells.
"I am too lazy to tell story."
"How about you?" I turn to Ivanna.
She nervously change her sitting position. This time she leans against a tree while her legs are straight on the ground.
"My late father was a marquis, leader of our clan. I train hard since 6 years old to gain his favour. I follow my family to many battles and I gain accomplishments from there."
"That useless pride... Do you inherit it from your old man?" Ivanna glares at Sekrit for her insensitive question.
"Shut up!!!!"
We then become silent for a while but I have been staring at Sekrit.
"What?" She approaches me when she notice my gaze.
"I want to hear your story first."
"Huh?"
Sekrit’s eyes widen. What a cute face she’s making.
"Tell me what led you to this point. Tell me where you were born, how you lived, how you fought. I want to learn everything about you."
"What good is telling you all that?" She turns her face away.
"Can’t you give me a chance to know more about you?"
She pushes on my head down, lies spread-eagle on the ground in a manly manner and starts to talk while staring up at the sky.
"Let me tell you a little fairytale. It’s an unpleasant one. Prepare yourself."
That was easier than I thought. But from the looks of things, it doesn’t seem like a happy story.
"There once was a young girl who was born in a poor village in the eastern part of Olga Federation. Both the name of the region and the name of the village have been forgotten."
I never thought Sekrit would be born in the Federation. It’s surprising but I don’t want to interrupt her.
"The young girl lived together with her mother. Her father was never there to begin with…… there was only a male who impregnated her mother."
She looks at me with empty gaze before resuming.
"The village was often raided by savages. The mother was late to escape and got raped, resulting in her being pregnant with the girl"
"A child born out of rape and raised without a father, not to mention it was a result of a savage. You can guess how the other people in village would think about the mother and child, right? The hindrance of a child could have been dealt with right then and everything would have been fine."
As she seems sad, I gently rub her hand.
"It was around the time the young girl turned ten years old. It was because of a trivial…… a dispute so trivial that the details can’t even be remembered now that she was chased out of the village with her mother. It was during the period when snow was dancing outside, like tonight."
They threw out a mother and a ten year old child in the cold winter of the eastern Federation? Ivanna is giving intense gaze towards her.
"The only thing they could do was try and find somewhere warm by heading south to where the cities are. However their travel expenses didn’t last very long. And without any outstanding talents, the somewhat good-looking mother had only job available to her, to be a prostitute."
The mother probably slept with other men and earned money so she could head south with her daughter, Sekrit.
"But she was only doing her best to imitate the work of a prostitute. She wasn’t aware of the difference between good or bad customers. One day she caught the attention of a man, who was wearing fine clothes, but seemed to have a boorish attitude, probably a knight or lower class noble now that I think about it."
I have a bad feeling.
"She was miserably tormented and violated so roughly that she shed blood…… and finally strangled to death in front of her daughter’s eyes. The young girl could probably still remember clearly the feeling of her mother’s outstretched hand."
My hand wrapped around her shoulder unconsciously tightens.
She holds a sword in her hand.
"The young girl approached the man who killed her mother. Using a knife similar to this one, she pierced the man’s throat and murdered the man."
She stabs the sword into the nearby tree.
"The lone girl was already close to the river. That was where she wanted to go, but nobody was going to let some penniless brat on a boat. So she snuck into the cargo hold of a passenger ship during the night."
I’m impressed how far she got right after her mother was killed.
I guess she was already fierce from a young age.
"But that girl was quickly discovered and surrounded by the crew members."
Ivanna moves closer to Sekrit as she listens passionately.
"It was then that her savior appeared. Three nobles brought her on the boat with them. They saw the troubled girl and said they would provide her with hot food and a special bed to sleep in."
I have a bad feeling about this.
"The young girl was grateful. The Federation wasn’t only home to the person who killed her mother. There were also good nobles like them."
Ivanna is biting a maple leaf. How passionate can she be?
"That thought lasted until night when she was violated by them and their noble friends."
"Whaaaaat!" Ivanna nearly stand up but then sit back in straight position.
"That was pretty terrible for her. She was still just a child, plus she had those chubby middle-aged men pressing down on her thin, malnourished body."
Ivanna squeezes a nut strongly until it is crushed.
"The young girl’s virginity was immediately torn apart, as all her holes were completely violated. Her lower half was left bloodied. By the time she thought her entire body was covered in their dirty seed, their followers were next in line. They continued until the next day."
I look at her eyes and urge her to continue.
"They threw me in the river without any clothes. I’ve never swam in my life and the water was cold enough to make your skin feel like it’s being cut. The girl quickly drowned. Which made the nobles laugh happily."
"She was swept by the river while drowning and reached the shore. It may have been in the south, but she was naked, wet, and in the cold of winter. The young girl shivered and froze…… and then there was one man. He was an underling of a slave trader. He chooses the children and women to sell as slaves. His eyes lit up when he saw me and grabbed my arm."
Sekrit takes a peek at my face after she finishes her sentence and smiles happily when she sees me get irritated.
"He raped me but I severe his dick. I grabbed a rock from the riverbed, climbed atop the man and swung it down countless times. That was how the naked me got hold of clothes, the money in his pocket, and a knife for self-defense."
Ivanna seems to be crying a bit.
"With that money and knife, I lowered myself into the river, head out into the sea…… and entered the Negara, which borders Federation. I would steal or pillage when the money was used up. Even though I haven’t done any sort of training, I cut off the heads of numerous men."
Sekrit had a natural talent for battle.
It might have been better that she didn’t realize it.
"I offered myself to Negara's top military men. Let them enjoy my body and they let me be promoted. As I am very good in fighting plus sex with geezer at the top, finally I become a general."
I put my palm on her mouth.
"No need to tell further. Let's relax for tonight."
I stop the story telling until there as Ivanna's tears fall uncontrollably.
We just stay like that for the night.