After much thought, Ainar decided to serve Lucian.
This was, by nature, a land where the means to fulfill one’s desires were limited.
If one was born a man here and had aspirations worth pursuing, everything boiled down to power, strength, and name.
But power had already passed into other hands, strength was at a level beyond comparison, and if he wanted to leave behind his name, there was no other option but to follow Lucian.
“If my lord keeps his promise, I will serve him with my life.”
“I promise.”
Lucian gladly accepted Ainar’s pledge of loyalty.
Although he had been defeated, Ainar was someone capable enough to become chief.
He was a rare talent, able to gather the will of the tribe and minimize friction during the integration process.
“From now on, I entrust you with all matters related to this land. If there’s anything I should pay attention to or any advice to give, report it immediately. And if complaints arise among the tribe members, collect them and bring them to me.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“My lord!? Why are you leaving me out and using this man instead!?”
Gunstein cried out in horror at Lucian’s words. Calling it responsibility for the steppes sounded nice, but in practice, it meant placing all affairs of the tribes to be conquered in Ainar’s hands.
The moment another tribe was subjugated, Ainar would hold even more authority than his father Ivar once had.
And yet, instead of choosing Gunstein, who had already been there, Lucian entrusted everything to someone who had just arrived.
“Even if it was only for a few days, I was the first to serve you, my lord! If you entrusted it to me—”
“Do you have the confidence to do better than Ainar? You said you couldn’t even form your own faction.”
“……”
The blunt words hit their mark, and Gunstein fell silent.
Ruling and managing always go better in the hands of someone with experience.
Gunstein, who hadn’t even been able to form a force to rival his brothers, lacked that experience.
Lucian smiled at the sight of Gunstein hanging his head and gave him a pat on the back.
“Don’t take it so personally. Everything has its time and place.”
“But…”
“In return, when we go back, I’ll give you a gift. One much better than the dragon’s power your brother absorbed so clumsily.”
“…!”
At those words, not only Gunstein but even Ainar opened their eyes wide in surprise.
Even though it had been useless against Lucian, it was still the power of a dragon. Just by absorbing it, one gained strength incomparable to before.
And yet—there was a gift better than that?
“Does something like that really exist?”
“Of course. Look forward to it.”
The gift Lucian referred to, of course, was the nectar.
Strictly speaking, the dragon’s heart was an even greater treasure than the nectar, but that was only viable if a human could withstand it.
For someone like Ivar and his sons, who had only absorbed small amounts of power, it was better to amplify their strength with nectar.
Increasing one’s internal mana was several times easier to manage than absorbing mana from the outside.
‘Even with a cheat-like ability called authority, without an immense amount of mana to support it, it can only be used for an instant.’
Unless one could supply mana constantly like Lucian, the duration of authority would be barely a blink.
To reach a higher level, it would be better to consume nectar and then learn a proper sword technique.
After deciding Ainar’s position, Lucian summoned the attendants to the chief’s residence.
“Now that we have the Blue Dragon Tribe in our hands, it’s time to decide the next course of action.”
“Course of action? Isn’t it enough to return just like this?”
“If the Blue Dragon Tribe were the only one in these steppes, that would suffice. But the problem is that there are still five tribes I’ve yet to meet.”
Out of the original thirty-five tribes, only twenty-four remained after nine departed, and even those had mostly vanished over time.
At present, only six tribes remained, including the Blue Dragon Tribe.
“To begin with, the Blue Dragon Tribe is the most powerful and the most numerous. They say the other five tribes would have to unite just to face them.”
“That’s right. Though the population difference isn’t that large. The reason for our strength is the high proportion of warriors and the great power of the prophet’s magic.”
“Exactly. That’s the issue. That the numbers are similar. Letting this slide would be a waste.”
With Ainar’s additional explanation, Lucian got to the main point.
At that moment, Lucian possessed both the dragon’s heart and the artifact that regulated the cold.
He could use the artifact to open a path through the steppes, return with an army, and come back.
“If we return leading the Blue Dragon Tribe, everyone will know that what I said was true. The rest could be conquered with the army alone. But would the tribes conquered by force follow me the same way the Blue Dragon Tribe does?”
“I doubt it.”
This time, Marius answered. As someone who knew both the Empire and the steppes well, he could clearly see the consequences that decision would bring.
“Unlike the Empire, people here aren’t used to the concept of conquest. Even if you subjugate them by invasion, they’ll see you as a foreign invader—not offer genuine loyalty.”
“But we also can’t afford to spend time with each tribe the way we did with the Blue Dragon Tribe. If we leave Asagrim unattended too long, problems will arise there too.”
Currently, Hans was managing Asagrim.
Though Lucian had trained him intensively for half a year, it was clear he lacked experience in territorial administration.
Just because he was a close ally of Lucian’s, opportunists wouldn’t move—for now. But that wouldn’t last long.
With time, fear would fade, so it was necessary to resolve everything quickly and return.
As the group reflected, Ainar, who had been silent until then, spoke up.
“I don’t know much about what lies beyond the steppes, but I don’t think it would be difficult for my lord to bring the five tribes under his rule.”
“What? Why?”
At Lucian’s question, Ainar responded with a smile.
“Because to them, my lord won’t just be a foreign invader—he’ll be practically a savior who delivers them from this land.”
***
The Blue Dragon Tribe boasted of being the most powerful force among all the tribes, but that didn’t mean it could act without restrictions.
The other five tribes were rivals, but they were also nearly the only ones with whom they maintained exchanges—and the only route for obtaining special products from the outside.
For that reason, the five neighboring tribes praised the Blue Dragon Tribe as the strongest, while maintaining a strange peace in which they didn’t interfere with one another.
‘Unstable, and it could break at any moment but at least until I die, this peace will hold.’
The chief of the Black Hawk Tribe, Otar, was completely satisfied with this structure of the tundra. He had nothing else to wish for—and nothing else he could wish for.
‘In the end, the children of the tundra will be buried beneath the snow and disappear.’
It wasn’t just Otar who thought this way. Anyone with a shred of awareness foresaw the same future.
Fewer children were born each year, and those who fell ill rarely recovered.
No matter how much bloodshed was avoided, stupidity and pride always ended up spilling it again.
And with plants and animals growing ever scarcer, what future could there be aside from extinction?
‘If we’re destined to disappear without a trace, then let’s at least live in peace until the day we die.’
Some would call that a loser’s mindset. Others would look down on it with contempt.
But what more could Otar do?
No matter how powerful a warrior might be, in the face of these merciless snowstorms, he was just a hunk of meat.
Resisting fate would only bring greater despair; accepting it and choosing how to spend the remaining time was, in the end, the wisest choice.
That way of thinking shattered in less than a day.
“…What did you just say?”
Otar stared at the messenger from the Blue Dragon Tribe in disbelief. Despite Otar’s sharp gaze, the messenger continued speaking without blinking.
“We have been ordered to kneel immediately before the new king and serve him. If we refuse, only death awaits us—so you’d best think carefully before answering.”
“You damned lunatic…!”
At the messenger’s haughty tone, Otar clenched his fist. He wasn’t just angry—there were so many absurdities in what he’d heard, he didn’t even know where to begin.
“Has the new chief of the Blue Dragon Tribe lost his mind? It’s not enough for him to crown himself king—he’s threatening war on top of that!?”
Otar knew the title of king existed—the supreme ruler of a “nation” formed by dozens of tribes, the chief of all chiefs.
However, no one had ever possessed the real authority to claim that title, so it remained nothing more than a legend.
And now someone openly declared himself king and even announced a war?
“Does he expect us all to die!? He can’t ignore what would happen if war broke out in this tundra!”
“The only ones who will die are you.”
“What did you say?”
“That king comes from the land beyond the tundra. When the war ends, we’ll move to the land of salvation beyond the snow. Even if the Black Hawk Tribe disappears, it won’t be a problem.”
“…!?”
Otar froze in place.
Move the entire tribe to the land beyond the tundra?
To a land of salvation where everyone could survive, rather than this place doomed to death?
“No… don’t speak nonsense.”
“It’s not a lie. You know yourself that our prophet came from the land beyond the tundra.”
“One or two crossing back and forth isn’t the same as moving an entire tribe!”
Otar had heard that the prophet of the Blue Dragon Tribe came from outside the tundra.
But that had always been something exceptional, only possible under very specific conditions—and for a very small number of people.
Moving an entire tribe would mean traveling much more slowly, and it wouldn’t be strange if many died during the migration.
“So that’s it—you’re mocking me! Trying to conquer the five tribes with a scam as pathetic as this…!”
“The king can stop the snowstorms of the tundra.”
“…”
“Not temporarily, but permanently. Do you still think it’s impossible to migrate beyond the tundra?”
Despite the messenger’s mocking tone, Otar couldn’t bring himself to get angry.
If that was true, then the Black Hawk Tribe might also have the chance to reach the land of salvation.
Even though he had accepted extinction as fate, that didn’t mean he welcomed it. He had simply resigned himself because there had been no other choice.
But now, someone from a foreign land claimed to possess the power to save an entire tribe.
“…I can’t trust only your words. I’ll have to see with my own eyes if that man really possesses such power.”
“If the king proves his authority, will you kneel before him then?”
“I swear it. If he truly possesses that power, I, Otar, chief of the Black Hawk Tribe, will be the first to kneel.”
Otar answered without hesitation.
The power to stop the snowstorms and the strength of a warrior were different things—but did that matter now?
If it meant saving his tribe, he was willing to kneel even before the weakest creature.
At those words, the messenger smiled in satisfaction.
“Don’t ever forget the oath you just made.”
____
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