Marriage…?

[“Looks like you’re feeling well enough. You’ve even got the energy to climb on top of me.”]

Just then, the tent flap was pulled aside, and someone else stepped inside.

[“Lord Shuhar.”]

The two soldiers who had arrived earlier lowered their heads.

[“What is it, Kadin? Did something happen to the prin…”]

The moment Shuhar spotted Rose, and Kadin lying beneath her, bewilderment flashed across his blue eyes.

Until they reached the territory, Kadin’s tent had been the only suitable place for the princess to rest while she hovered between life and death. But no one had expected to learn that the princess had awakened in quite this way.

[“Kadin. Call the healer immediately.”]

Shuhar’s expression turned grave as he studied Rose, trying to grasp the situation.

[“The wound on the princess’s neck—”]

His stride quickened as he headed toward Rose.

Just before he reached her side—

[“Stop.”]

A short, heavy voice rooted his feet to the ground.

[“Don’t move, Shuhar.”]

The short, weighty command brought him to an abrupt halt.

As silence settled once more, Kadin looked up at Rose, whose face showed nothing but confusion. With the torches now illuminating the tent, he could now see her clearly as well.

Perhaps displeased by his unblinking stare, she furrowed her elegant brows.

He kept looking.

Into those clear eyes where not a trace of fear could still be found.

Born as the heir to the Kingdom of Paradsus and the Populak tribe, Kadin had always stood above others, whether people or land. Never once since birth had he looked up at anyone from beneath.

From the very first moment he’d seen her, she had done nothing but defy his expectations.

Hardly the behavior one would expect of a princess.

At length, Kadin’s gaze shifted to the trail of blood running down Rose’s pale neck.

‘What? Why is he staring at my neck like that?’

Following his gaze, Rose looked down at herself.

A thick strip of white cloth, wrapped around her neck like the trace of treatment, had been stained crimson. Soon her eyes caught sight of the blood dripping onto his chest.

‘That’s my blood.’

Wondering if it was real, Rose brushed her hand across his chest.

Only then did she inadvertently feel the texture of his skin.

She froze.

Though his reddish-brown skin looked rough, covered in scars, it was surprisingly smooth.

‘What am I even doing?’

Rose hurriedly snatched her hand away from his chest.

She also quickly accepted that continuing to ask who he was would accomplish nothing.

Because she already felt as though she knew who this barbarian before her truly was.

Rose gripped both of his shoulders tightly.

His sharp, hawk-like eyes remained as calm and unmoving as ever.

She hated that composure.

It made her feel as though he regarded her as nothing more than a helpless kitten.

But for the moment, she couldn’t deny it.

More and more blood was seeping from the wound in her neck.

[“That’s enough struggling.”]

Kadin finally spoke, his tone somewhere between a warning and an order.

Whether she understood him or not didn’t matter.

He had already figured out one thing for certain.

For a princess who had been raised in luxury, she had quite the vicious streak.

[“I’ll have to carry her over myself, Shuhar.”]

One of Shuhar’s brows lifted, unable to understand what Kadin meant.

[“At this rate, one of us will be dead before the healer arrives.”]

The instant he finished speaking, Kadin wrapped his arms around her and abruptly sat upright.

As though mocking every attempt she’d made to overpower him.

“Ugh!”

Rose let out a groan at the sudden movement.

His thick forearms wrapped securely around her, supporting her weakened body.

“Ah…”

As a result, her injured neck came to rest over his shoulder, while his solid chest pressed tightly against hers.

In an instant, it was like being caught in a trap.

Locked firmly within his embrace, there was no room to escape.

Instead, she had been effortlessly subdued, the situation completely reversed.

To anyone looking at them through a scandalous lens, they looked almost like an engaged couple exchanging breathless moans before their wedding.

* * *

Just what was this man?

Everything seemed absurdly easy for him.

Even with her in his arms, Kadin stepped off the bed without the slightest struggle.

Then, he strode forward, cradling Rose, quite literally giving her a ‘princess carry’.

Trying to thrash and fight back in her current battered state would have been a completely futile battle.

Instead, Rose issued a sharp, icy warning.

“Put me down this instant.”

The only response was the sound of his feet treading calmly across the bare ground.

He kept walking.

He didn’t answer.

‘Right. Talking won’t get me anywhere.’

She decided to abandon words entirely.

Without hesitation, Rose sank her teeth hard into his forearm.

“…”

He stopped walking.

So physical communication worked after all.

Looking straight into his face as he gazed silently down at her, Rose said,

“If words don’t work, then I have no choice but to make myself understood physically.”

The atmosphere turned razor-sharp in an instant.

Shuhar closed his eyes.

Watching the remarkably fierce princess Kadin had described, he truly felt that before long, someone was going to end up covered in blood.

Besides, Kadin was the absolute ruler of this tribe.

Anyone who harmed him would never survive.

The problem was that the person who had bitten him was the woman destined to become his lord’s wife and mate.

As the strange tension lingered, Kadin finally spoke.

[“Shuhar. Explain.”]

Shuhar looked at Kadin.

Kadin was the type to act before speaking.

For him, asking someone to ‘explain’ was an exceptionally gentle approach.

Considering how much he preferred harsher methods, it was astonishingly considerate by his standards.

Though somewhat puzzled, Shuhar, who preferred to respect both peace and Kadin’s decisions whenever possible, found the situation rather fortunate.

At last, he spoke.

“We’re taking you to receive treatment. We’re not trying to harm you.”

“…What?”

Rose paused at Shuhar’s words.

‘He speaks our language?’

The barbarian with striking blue eyes, more precisely, aquamarine, second only to Kadin in peculiarity, was speaking the language of Verotten, Rose’s homeland.

“You’re trying to treat me?”

Thinking she had misheard, Rose asked again.

Shuhar answered in an even quieter but unmistakably clear voice.

“It would be wise for you to stop struggling and cooperate. Kadin’s patience with you is already extraordinary treatment in itself.”

Once again, his words came as a translation in flawless Verotten.

Which meant…

There was someone she could communicate with.

Countless words surged to the tip of her tongue all at once.

Just as Rose drew a breath to speak—

The moment Shuhar finished, Kadin simply pulled open the tent flap.

So much for all that talk about extraordinary patience!

Her face burning with anger, Rose spat out the first curse that came to mind.

“You bastard.”

* * *

The wound on her neck was being stitched once again, one careful stitch after another.

Rose quietly thought it over before letting out a hollow laugh.

It had been a reckless choice.

But since she had believed she was already dead anyway, she hadn’t thought much about it.

Yet she had suffered wounds just like any living person, lost a great deal of blood, and was even receiving treatment.

Most of all…

Even after opening her eyes again, time had continued to flow in the very same world.

A world that, no matter where she looked, was filled with barbarians.

‘The first time I woke up half-naked in a bathhouse. This time, I woke up in a barbarian’s bed.’

It wasn’t a dream.

It was reality.

Sitting on the edge of the bed while her wound was being stitched, Rose looked down at her slender arms and legs with unfamiliar eyes.

Then she glanced around the interior of the different tent she had been brought into.

The woman stitching her wound pursed her lips in disapproval and shook her head, as though scolding her.

There was no need to look around further anyway.

Inside the tent were only three people.

Herself.

The foreign healer treating her.

And Shuhar, the man standing guard by the entrance.

“Don’t move.”

The voice came from the man standing there silently.

In this unfamiliar place she had suddenly found herself in, he was the only person she could communicate with.

Unlike most of the barbarians, who had black eyes, his eye color was different.

His light brown hair, adorned with the tribe’s distinctive ornaments and slightly wavy, also set him apart from the others.

As far as Rose could tell, he seemed even more out of place among the tribe than Kadin with his golden eyes.

Most striking of all, however, was that among every barbarian she’d met so far, he alone possessed a calm and composed voice.

Perhaps the contrast felt even sharper because the first barbarian she had encountered had thrust a sword at her while speaking in such an aggressively overbearing manner.

Since the one who had dumped her here like baggage was absent, this was finally her chance to ask the questions she’d been unable to ask earlier.

“Excuse me—”

The moment Rose turned toward him, the healer’s hands paused.

The woman frowned deeply and snapped,

[“Shuhar. Tell the princess that if she keeps moving, I’ll cauterize her with a red-hot blade. Kadin isn’t here, so it’ll be fine.”]

At the healer’s words, Shuhar let out a deep sigh before quietly translating.

“She says that if you move one more time, she’ll cauterize the wound with a hot blade instead of stitching it.”

Only after she had spent what felt like an eternity clenching her teeth did she finally hear the soft snip of the thread being cut.

Fresh cloth was wrapped neatly around her neck, and the treatment was at last finished.

[“For the next few days, you should avoid speaking as much as—”]

Before the woman who had finished treating her could even finish her advice, Rose immediately got to her feet and asked,

“I’m alive… aren’t I?”

It was an absurd question to ask out of the blue.

But now that Rose realized this was no longer a dream, it was the single most important thing she needed to know.

Standing a short distance away, Shuhar found the first proper question she asked somewhat bitter.

“Do you hate Kadin that much?”

He wondered if she truly hated him that deeply.

Had she done something so reckless because she would rather die than marry his lord?

“What?”

But to Rose, Syuhar’s response made absolutely no sense; it was completely out of left field.

“I asked whether you hate the idea of marrying Kadin so much that you’d rather die.”

Because we’re the barbarians your people call us?

She thought she heard Shuhar mutter those last words under his breath.

Marriage…?

That single, decisive word left Rose speechless for a moment.

Her scrambled mind had only just managed to process the fact that she was actually alive.

So, Where on earth had this sudden talk of marriage come from?

She needed more information to understand what was happening.

“Why am I getting married… and to whom?”

As though answering that ridiculous question, the large shadow of someone fell across the tent entrance.

[“You really can’t stay still for even a moment.”]

Seeing Rose standing upright, Kadin remarked coldly.

‘Don’t tell me… that barbarian?’

Rose’s lips slowly fell open in stunned disbelief.