Reincarnated to the Past 20: Due Payment 1 (Patreon)

Reincarnated to the Past
Chapter 20: Due Payment 1

-VB-

Our wedding was a small affair. Only a few people were invited, but that wasn’t because of me but rather because of what the tribe thought of Ureya. 

Unfortunately, even in modernity, certain people would have blamed Ureya for her damages regardless of the fact that it was not her fault she was assaulted. 

We spent a week together to get to know each other better than we did before. I learned that Ureya liked strawberries while she hated duck meat. She liked their eggs just fine. 

I told her about how I used to live, and she refused to believe that I had been nothing more than a low/middle class person. I laughed at her denial and shrugged. 

I ended up talking far more than Ureya when we were together, and most of it was about … just people in general. While they would not exist for another several thousand years, I talked about the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte, Yi Sun-Shin, Qin Shi Huang, Caeser, Thomas Edison, Genghis Khan ,and more. 

It was … honestly, I wanted to awe her with what a single individual could be. The thought I had at the time was that if she heard all of those stories, she would strive to do more with herself than just wallowing in self-pity about her supposed place in the tribe. 

Well, that was two weeks ago. Ever since I told her about such great - and sometimes terrible - people, she’s been contemplative. Her face frowned cutely, and while she didn’t full-on pout over whatever disturbed her, it was a close thing.

And a contemplative Ureya was actually a very quiet Ureya. 

I, on the other hand, was preparing myself for my fourth power. Namely, I thought about the work I and my slaves have been doing - farming innovation experimentation and teaching. From there, I wondered about my own life back home in the modernity of the 21st Century. 

It was here that I decided that I might need a better method to quantify and manipulate information. 

Human civilization in the 21st Century developed as it had in part thanks to huge quantities of information widely available to people. While I didn’t want to spread information about the Kettin tribe to others freely and willy-nilly, I did need to understand exactly what I was working with.

But then I recalled that I had Memory Recall, which gave me a good substitute for data gathering and manipulation; since my memory “data” did not corrupt itself like most human memories did over time, I could manipulate it - observing, quantifying, etc. 

So okay, information quantification wasn’t what I needed because I had a good substitute.

Then I thought about my life now and wondered how I could improve it. 

While I could simply leave the Kettin tribe even at this stage, I wouldn’t feel good. I put work here. I made friends, sort of. I have a wife now. I was invested with this tribe. While I didn’t know how long I would live, I knew that I could change this tribe into something great with the likes of Ghigari and his family supporting me. To leave now would be … irresponsible not just to the tribe and what it could become but also to myself. 

With that in mind, I thought about what kind of power would give me more political and social power beyond its own immediate benefit. 

Maybe something that could be used for attacking but also make me look bigger or better than I really was? 

Or why not the other way around? Something that would be stupid to use in the modernity but have such a big impact now. 

Like…

Like …

Faster feces fermentation?

…

…

*Snort.*

“You’re thinking about something weird again, aren’t you?”

I looked to the side and saw Ureya looking at me from the other side of the bed. 

It was a spring morning, so the breeze was pleasant. Normally, I would be up by now, but I hadn’t. And I also kept Ureya in bed, hugging her. 

“I guess I am,” I replied. 

“Hmm, by the way, father wanted to talk to you this morning.”

I blinked. “Uh, when did he say that?”

“Yesterday. But I ‘forgot’ to tell you.”

She winked, something she’s learned from me.

I felt my cheeks twitch in irritation. 

“You just ‘happened’ to ‘forget,’ huh?”

“Yup.”

Did I mention that Ureya became snarky and playful after we had our wedding? 

No. Maybe I haven’t. I saw this as Ureya getting familiar and comfortable with me, or at least I hoped that they were such signs that we were getting closer.

I was quick to throw the cover off myself, dress up, and run out of the house.

-VB-

When I came to Ghigari’s house, I was met with many others. Johaken was there, some of the other more important elders and leaders were there, the medicine woman was there… 

This was a full-on tribal meeting.

There were few formalities the tribe went through. And then Ghigari dropped the bomb right off the bat.

“You want me to come with you to the confederation meeting?” I repeated in shock.

While I knew that the Kettin tribe was part of the Greater Kettin Confederation, the latter was a pseudo-political entity that was supposed to ensure safety in numbers. They should, in the event of an invasion, send help to other members in need of warriors.

Well, such warriors did not show up to help us before, during, and after the Scythian attack.

“The promise of aid was broken,” Ghigari said gravely. “I hope to get concessions out of the confederation for this broken promise.”

“How big is the confederation?” I asked him.

He looked at me in the eyes for a moment before he answered. “There are roughly seventeen tribes that are part of it. On average, each tribe has about two thousand people, but the smallest has only five hundred while the largest has nearly eight thousand.”

“That makes us just above average, doesn’t it? We have around three thousand and five hundred.”

“Yes.” Then he sighed. “Our tribe is unfortunately the most to gain from this confederation, and there have been bigger tribes who opposed this from the start.”

“And they are part of this?”

“Yes, they are part of the confederation, and I suspect that it was their influence that kept the others from helping us.”

I frowned.

“So they are enemies.”

“No,” Ghigari clamped down on that immediately. “I have no wish to go to war with far-kin. It will only end in our tribe suffering more than they do. I simply wish to take you with me so that we can impress upon them that we are not a tribe to be filched from. We will get our aid, one way or another.”

So he wanted me as a display piece. 

I supposed that made sense. I was a super strong, enemy commander killer, and full of new ideas. By having me at his side, anyone who wanted to benefit from what I knew would have to be friendly with the Kettin tribe. This would mean choosing a side, and considering that Ghigari was obviously going to get me to show off my martial strength as well - why wouldn’t he? - and also leveraging new products like soap for trade and consumption, many would join Ghigari’s side.

“Very well. I shall follow you.”

Ghigari grinned victoriously.

Why did this feel like a prelude to civil war?

“But you would have to explain to Ureya why her husband has to leave her for a trip.”

Ghigari no longer smiled.