Sabatsday, 9th of Juno, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

Josias and his companions had continued to talk and tease the recovering Silua along with Ruth. They said laughter was a great medicine and Josias intended to administer it liberally. Though, granted, it was the visitors who were laughing more than the patient. Silua eventually decided to play along with the teasing as he then talked about Ruth.

"You don't understand, lae Josias, when those Saorma fuckers stabbed me, I thought I could take it." Silua explained as he was still sitting on his bed "But who would've thought they'd lace the damned blade with poison? Next thing I know, I was sprawled on the ground feeling like the ancestors were rearing to take me to whatever next realm there is. And I really did thought I passed on because the first thing I saw was this beautiful lady sitting beside me."

Silua pointed towards Ruth with his thumb as everyone laughed and made noise to tease them. Ruth pouted but her face was flushed red.

"It looks like the Prince of Nabolga isn't only smart with his battle strategy, but also quite the sly one in the art of seducing women." Sadrach laughed as he saw his ito (sister, but in this case it's used for his cousin Ruth) glaring at him with widened eyes. "Don't give me that look, Ruth. Lord knows those slanted eyes of yours aren't going to get any bigger."

Ruth feigned offense as the others laughed. Sadrach laughed too until a wooden sandal flew into his face courtesy of Ruth.

"Abang, you should know better than to tease me like that, especially with all the stunts you used to pull on the ladies!" Ruth protested.

"Oy, oy, those stories were vastly exaggerated." Sadrach responded but Ruth rolled her eyes.

"No they weren't and even if they were – which they're not – that's still no excuse for you grandstanding over me. Besides, even if there were talks of marriage between me and the Pri-.." Ruth was about to say something but quickly changed it when she noticed Silua looking at her "Ahem. With whomever it may be, he would have to either be a christian or be willing to give himself over to be baptised!"

"I'll be honest with you, lady Ruth. I don't particularly care for religion. And I don't mean this in offense to my Gorian friends here." Silua started to say before he saw the Gorians looking at him rather interestedly. "What I mean also is that I don't care about those stories of the ancestors and Mula Jadi or Batara Guru, Soripada, and all that nonsense. If marrying a most divine beauty like yourself was the prize, I'd even turn moslem! You see there's only one thing I'm not too sure of here."

"Oh? And what would that be, prince Silua?" Serena was the one who asked this time "My friend here is one of the most beautiful women I know. Many of the young men in Goria had even gotten into fights over her!"

"Kak Sere, not you too…" Ruth could only cover her embarrassed face with both her hands.

"You see, Lady Serena, it is a matter of one of the few principles in life I personally hold to." Silua began his explanation. "There are three clans of whom I'd hesitate to take a lady from as my wife. They are the Rumaparau, the Sinaria, and lastly the Hutabaru…"

"Wait but why? Because we're all christian?" Sadrach had a confused expression as it seemed he couldn't think of another reason behind Silua's statement.

Josias pondered for a little as Silua had let the question sink in. Eventually though, Josias understood what the prince meant as he laughed. Silua caught onto this but eventually decided to explain himself.

"You see, taking any daughter from the three clans known as the richest in all the Halaklands would cost me an arm and a leg for the sinamot (bride-price)." Silua said "Now the Nabolga aren't paupers, but for those clans who've had decades longer to trade and profit from the westerners, we can't even be compared."

Josias could see where the Prince was coming from but he smirked as he gave a counterargument. "You see, that's where you're thinking it wrong, lord Silua. Instead of looking at it like you're losing money, you should look at it like an investment. Converting to our faith would make Nabolga more palatable to trade with the western powers and marrying the Hutabaru would open for you access to a multitude more markets than what you might currently have. Soon enough, people will be speaking the name of Nabolga in the same vein as Rumaparau, Hutabaru, and Sinaria."

"Josias, if I didn't know you as a great warrior prince, I would have thought you a scheming merchant!" Silua laughed "That sounds like a brilliant idea, though of course some hardliners of the old ways within Nabolga might raise an objection or two. But as it is, there are already many among our people who have adopted your faith, especially those of the more coastal villages. Well what do you say, Lady Ruth? I wouldn't mind this 'baptism' you speak of now that I'm thinking about it."

"Truly, the prince of the Nabolga is not only a brilliant strategist but also something of a joker it would seem." Ruth tried her best to remain calm despite her eyes not smiling along with her mouth at the teasing. "All these matters – if they were to be considered seriously – should be discussed with the clan elders and our parents. Also, baptism isn't something one should take lightly. Proper study and understanding is required before one can properly partake of the blessed sacrament and be born anew. Isn't that right, kak Sere?"

"I can't say anything against that, Ruth." Serena smiled as she nodded. "Besides, we tease prince Silua like this but I've heard the younger prince of Rumaparau, Lord Bungaran Rumaparau, is interested in Ruth."

"Really? I heard it was Prince Hasianta of Hutangali." Safira chimed in to Josias' surprise. It was the first time in a while that he saw the two women directly interacting with one another on somewhat friendly terms.

"Lord help me, why is it the one time I see you two agreeing on something it's to annoy me?" Ruth rolled her eyes. Safira and Serena could only smile sheepishly as what she said was technically true. However, before the air could become awkward once more, Silua had continued to speak.

"Oh well I'll be. A beautiful flower does indeed attract many bees to its nectar." Silua rubbed his chin for a bit as he appeared to be in deep thought. He eventually turned his gaze to look seriously towards Ruth. "Alright, consider me also a competitor here. I'll take a look at your christian holy texts and see what all this commotion is about. At the very least the prize of winning the lady who saved my life's hand in marriage is far better than the nothing I'll get out of this competition."

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"I don't know how I'm supposed to reply to that one, Prince Silua." Ruth said "On the one hand, I think it too much for you to consider what little I did to be saving your life. On the other hand, I am a person and not some 'prize' to be won by anyone."

"Ah, I misspoke, milady. My apologies." Silua clasped his hands together towards Ruth as he seemed to acknowledge the offense he might have caused. "I meant more so that your value is priceless, milady. Also that any man who you would grace with your affections is truly lucky indeed. Luck that would take seven generations to accumulate."

"That was a nice save." Sadrach whispered to Josias as he smiled. It indeed was a beautiful save made by the prince of Nabolga. Even Ruth herself seemed to be somewhat appreciative of the comment.

"Well, matters of faith aside, It also wouldn't be a stretch to consider yourself a valuable catch as well, Prince Silua." Ruth cleared her throat as she finally acknowledged it. Josias could only nod his head in approval.

Objectively speaking, the prince of Nabolga was no slouch in terms of appearances. His build was athletic – as is common with most aura warriors – and his face wasn't bad either. At least that's what Josias heard from some women who had observed Silua from their first match during the first round.

Hearing Ruth give the compliment to him, Prince Silua also couldn't help but smile awkwardly. For a moment it seemed that the wall of confidence around the prince had faltered a little. But that didn't last long as Silua gave a performative bow to Ruth.

"But, anyways, if you're still fixated on matters of prizes, you should focus on recovering fully and facing us within the finals!" Josias said to encourage the Nabolga prince. "Lord knows the Matanitao elders couldn't possibly have given Saorma a pass for such a blatant infraction upon the rules."

"Well, you'd be surprised, Josias. Those Saorma are crafty bastards, we all know that. Also, even if my team were to be considered the victors and pass to the finals, I gave up on any hope of victory ever since I saw your performance against the Sinaria."

Josias raised an eyebrow as he heard Silua say that. He didn't expect a young warrior of the Halaklands like Silua to be so openly honest about such thoughts. Silua seemed to have caught notice of Josias and his other companions' looks of confusion to his perceived lack of struggle. Silua chuckled before he explained it himself.

"Well, look at it this way, gentlemen. You're me and you're a newly ascended third star aura warrior leading a team of second star warriors." Prince Silua began. "Alright. So I had thought I could use some on-the-nose tactics and what not for this tournament. Skirting the line between the abysmally flawed and incomplete rules of the tournament and my own outlook on the battlefield. I was somewhat confident in a good fight, at least I thought I was until I saw your victory over the Hutaraja."

"It was a little showy, I admit." Josias said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Prince Josias, I assure you, that was more than 'a bit' showy." Silua chuckled "If you weren't betrothed to the lovely lady Serena here, you would have your pick on the most beautiful ladies of the realms. Well, if you weren't a christian at least. Many among the practitioners of the old ways still practice taking more than one wife. Even some converted christians still do it, as I've heard the King of Hutangali having two wives."

"Prince Silua, it would be best if you don't give Josi any ideas." Serena had promptly cut into Silua's train of thought. "Anyways, you were talking about the competition?"

"Right, of course. I got sidetracked because the screams of my sisters and cousins were quite something to behold when Lord Josias won that match singlehandedly."

"His sisters are very beautiful as well, I may add." Ruth chimed in happily, purposefully trying to annoy her cousin and Serena. Serena shot her a less than friendly glare before she purposefully cleared her throat.

"Anyways, I had lost a bit of confidence after that admittedly stellar performance during the quarterfinals." Silua continued "But, not all hope was lost. I had begun thinking of strategies that I might have been able to deploy to try and contain the juggernaut that is Josias. It all banked on the hope that the other warriors were no more than second star warriors. Or at least only another warrior was at the third star. Perhaps Lae Sigompul or Sinatua. But imagine my shock when I watched your match in the semifinals."

"I don't know whether I should be offended or not by the prince not even considering me to perhaps be a third star warrior." Sadrach pouted.

"Lae Hutabaru, I assure you it was out of hopeful optimism that I was thinking like that and not at all because I don't recognise your potential." Silua said "Dealing with two three star warriors would be bad enough, especially with one of them being a monster like Prince Josias. But when I saw that match with the Sinaria and all five of you being a third star warrior before the age of twenty? It doesn't matter how smart or resourceful one is, you can't make a square a circle, my friends."

"I just wanted to teach those Sinaria a lesson for being so damned arrogant." Josias said as he scratched the back of his head. "And while it didn't hurt to intimidate our potential foes a little, we didn't mean to demoralise you completely."

"Ah no, it's fine. While I would commend anyone for trying to take on such a daring task, I just personally abhor taking part in things to which I know the ending in certainty. And I don't want to embarrass myself or any of my companions in front of the entirety of the Halak realms. I'm sure the Sinaria are still reeling from their shock of being beaten in less time than it would take for one to bathe."

"Regardless, the Saorma seemed very determined to get to the finals though." Josias chuckled as he recounted the numerous mind-boggling things they did throughout their matches to get to where they were.

"That's what I was thinking as well. There's 'being resourceful' and then there's the Saorma."

"Outright disregarding the rules shouldn't be thought of as resourceful, Prince Silua." Sadrach said as he looked like he was still appalled by the actions of the Saorma. Josias nodded in agreement with that assessment. However, Silua shook his head.

"Of course, for the sake of honour, I would be in agreement with you all, but in real war… we all know there aren't such things as proper rules or regulations. In a situation where anything goes, we can't afford to bound ourselves to concepts such as honour and all those formal rigidities. At the end of the day, what most people see is whether you win or you lose."

Josias nodded once more as he couldn't deny Silua's statement. It was as good an observation as any and Josias had to admit that in a real battle, he wouldn't be adhering to many strict rules either. Though in a real war, Josias could only shudder at the thought of what the Saorma were capable of. Perhaps if they weren't capable of an outright win on an open battle, they would resort to bandit-like raiding tactics and burning farms and supply and all sorts of atrocities to achieve their goal.

"But regardless, I'm sure I speak for all of us Gorians that besides a speedy recovery, we're praying that Nabolga makes it to the finals." Josias said to close off his thoughts "Even if you would resign or withdraw on the spot, I'd rather take that than having to deal with… whatever the Saorma manages to pull out of their asses next."

"Hahahahah, I won't disagree with you on that one, Prince Josias. For all we know they might all of a sudden grow wings and shoot fire out of their asses."

The young men laughed at Silua's crass joke while the women shook their heads. They all continued to talk and joke for quite a bit after that until eventually King Poda and the queen showed up to check on their son.

After giving their greetings to the king and his wife, Josias led his companions to get up and take their leave. This included Ruth who also politely asked permission to leave with the rest of them. Josias laughed as he saw Silua's mother taking a clear interest in the young lady, treating her like another daughter already.

The king gave them his leave and they soon exited the Nabolga encampment. It was always good to foster new relations. One can never have too many friends. As the saying went, 'A thousand friends is too few and a single enemy is too much.'

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