I Became a Barbarian's Bride - Chapter 162
Seeing Ulbach’s eyes widen at her words, Kagan reached out and smacked the back of his head again.
“Quit staring.”
“…I’m not staring. Kagan, please, stop hitting me.”
“Then stop gawking.”
“…Sheesh, it’s like you’re constantly on edge.”
“Oh, really.”
When Kagan raised one eyebrow at that, Ulbach quickly retreated, his shoulders drooping.
Kagan pulled Nisha close and spoke.
“She’s my princess.”
“I know. Not just me, the whole country knows it.”
Kagan immediately scooped Nisha up into his arms.
Finding herself once again cradled in the middle of someone else’s hallway, Nisha hid her face in her palm.
“Why… again…”
“I’m just scared someone might steal you away. I’d better hold on tight.”
Who would even want to steal someone like her…
Nisha took a deep breath again and again, trying to hide her face that was red even to her earlobes.
Kagan let out a low chuckle and kissed her neck softly before following after Ulbach.
“Ah, there’s something I’m curious about. Can I ask?”
“Anything.”
Kagan nodded readily.
Her face still a bit red, Nisha began to speak.
“They say that the King of Xieman, the Kagan, is always the strongest person in Xieman, right?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
“Then how do they decide that? Do you fight everyone in Xieman?”
At her question, Kagan tilted his head slightly, then gave a small nod.
“It’s something like that.”
“Something like that?”
“Around that time, each territory holds an official tournament, you could say. A little roughly put, it’s like a coliseum that opens up.”
“A coliseum…”
“They pick the strongest person from each territory. Then, on an agreed date, all the tribal leaders and their chosen fighters head up to the capital.”
At his words, Nisha kept nodding.
Seeing her eyes sparkling with curiosity, Kagan lightly kissed her lips, then continued speaking.
“And then they fight against the Kagan candidate.”
“Candidate?”
“That’s right. The strongest of each territory fights against the heir chosen by the Kagan at that time.”
“In the coliseum?”
“It’s like a coliseum, but technically it’s a grand arena.”
Nisha nodded as Kagan shrugged his shoulders.
He continued speaking.
“If the Kagan’s heir defeats all the champions from the territories, then at the end, they fight the Kagan himself.”
At his words, Nisha blinked slowly.
He pulled his robe open a bit further, revealing a long scar running across his chest.
“This is from the final battle against the previous Kagan… my father.”
“Ah…”
Nisha let out a low sigh as she lightly touched the scar on Kagan’s chest with her fingertips.
She wondered how deep that wound had been when it was fresh.
“That must have hurt.”
“Did it? I’m not sure. I was so focused that I barely remember. When I finally came to, the old Kagan was already down on one knee.”
The idea that family had to kill or be killed like that was somehow sad to her.
Kagan looked down at his partner, who was frowning slightly, and then pressed a soft smile to her lips.
“Every time you make that worried face for me, I get chills.”
“Wha…?”
Nisha’s brow furrowed, as if to ask what sort of nonsense that was.
“Probably, you’re the only one in this world who worries about me at all.”
She was pretty sure that wasn’t true.
Nisha blinked and shifted her gaze slightly, looking at Ulbach. Ulbach, sensing her glance, briefly looked at Kagan before speaking.
“Even if he were alone and trapped in enemy territory, I wouldn’t be too worried. He’d find his way out somehow.”
“…He’s the king, though?”
Nisha, flustered, instinctively switched to a more formal tone as she responded.
Ulbach just smiled and opened a door for them as he spoke.
“If he were the kind of king to die that easily, he would have died before becoming the king.”
