Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

As Zach looked around, he realized that the barbarian woman who had invited him to the ritual wasn't the only one with their hair let down and in a flowy dress. All of the barbarians wore similar clothes and had similar hairstyles. Even the warriors who usually had their hair in braids had let it loose.

The unfortunate bald ones had headdresses of feathers or fur instead of just hair.

'Interesting ceremonial garb, I suppose,'

Zach hadn't been to any funerals before since he refused to attend Julius's, but he could still tell that the barbarians' outfits were very different from the Empire's.

Before he could comment on it to the woman, a soft, booming drum rang out around the bonfire. It was a slow beat. After a couple of thumps, a choir of women began singing in a low and sorrowful tone.

Their voices harmonized and pierced the hearts of those around the bonfire. It was a song that carried the grief of mothers who had lost their children, wives who had lost their husbands, and children who had lost their parents.

Zach felt his heart stir. But he didn't admire the singing for long before the woman grabbed him by the hand and dragged him forward.

At first, he thought she was planning on throwing him into the fire to have him accompany the departed, but he was mistaken.

They weren't the only ones moving forward.

All of the barbarians slowly started circling around the bonfire in tact with the music. The loose hair and fluttering clothes swayed gently with their movements, casting unstable shadows with the fire's light.

The barbarians turned into a gentle vortex with the body-burning bonfire in the center.

With every lap around the bonfire, the intensity of the music rose. The drum beats grew more frequent, and the voices of the singers rose. Gradually, the theme of the music changed.

It was no longer melancholic, mournful music tugging at the heartstrings of those who heard. It first turned into music with hope. Lighter voices chimed in and fought for a place in the choir, singing of the brightness of the future instead of the darkness of the past.

The drumming was no longer monotonous. Different sounds from the same drums mixed into the ocean of music.

Zach didn't even realize it, but the music got his blood flowing, and just like that, the barbarians were no longer slowly trudging around the bonfire. They were running, jumping, and leaping. They were filled with emotion that they did not know what to do with. The only outlet was through physical expression. The only way to release all that was inside their hearts was to run, cheer, and jump, letting all the emotion within them carry them through the air.

It was suddenly more of a festival than a funeral.

Zach stopped thinking and lost himself in the dance.

***

In Rittel, the revelation that Zach was a traitor had put the troops in a somber mood. It wasn't just that someone who had been so kind and helpful had suddenly turned on them. Zach posed a serious threat. He hadn't managed to gain access to any military secrets or the details of the supply routes or anything like that.

But in the few days he had been in the city, he had shown how capable he was. He was good at tactics, and his familiars were strong enough to roll the barbarians' strong warriors into the ground. If he became an enemy as Yan had said, Rittel would be in trouble. Continue reading stories on My Virtual Library Empire

That was why Yan had laid into the messengers even harder. He used as much of his status and authority as an imperial prince as he could to pressure the cities and army into providing more troops and supplies.

He was not going to let the barbarians have Rittel if it was the last thing he did. He was going to shove Zach's betrayal in his face and show him that joining the barbarians was the wrong move.

The only way to end this war was to root out all the barbarians who had entered the Empire and stamp them into the ground to make sure they would never even think of doing such a thing again.

Yan knew he was getting ahead of himself, but maybe even turning the tables on them and expanding the Empire's borders was a possibility. For that ambitious purpose, Yan had taken it upon himself to study military tactics, strategy, and warfare.

Cramming right in the middle of the war probably wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing, especially when Lahso himself had told him he didn't have much talent for the sword. It didn't come as a surprise.

Unlike his siblings, who had golden hair and were above average in most things and exceptionally talented in at least one thing, Yan wasn't anything special. He was the black sheep of the imperial family.

His mother had been a commoner maid lucky enough to become the Emperor's concubine. As if that hadn't been enough to put him in a disadvantageous position, she had died during childbirth.

That had turned the Emperor away from taking any further concubines. The common belief was that the imperial blood was too powerful for a commoner to bear. That was why Yan's mother died.

It led to the other imperial children sharing the same mother, the Empress. She still treated Yan well, but the rest of the imperial court didn't care about that. They only cared about the lack of imperial physical features and Yan's bloodline. There were even some who didn't treat him as a son of the Emperor since he hadn't inherited the imperial features.

His mother had been unfaithful or deceived the Emperor into accepting Yan as his child. That was the only possible explanation for Yan not inheriting the golden hair of the imperial family.

But the Emperor didn't say anything, and Yan was still the second prince, so no one doubted his identity, at least not in the open.

Still, Yan felt it.

And now, he had to prove himself with this war.