Answer Me, Please

1. The Swapped Bride

Rosetta was just frozen at first. She didn’t even realize what had happened to her. Then she felt the man’s hard chest pressed close to her face. Along with that, an unfamiliar body odor mixed with the smell of blood and sweat.

Only then did she come to her senses, and little by little, her mind began to return to reality.

“Ah……”

She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t. The speed of the horse was too fast. A strong wind slapped her in the face without mercy. On the running horse, everything was unstable, and above all, the man’s arm gripping her waist was so strong that it took her breath away. If Rosie rode a horse bareback, this man was riding the horse at the same speed as the others with only one hand.

“Le- Let go of me!” Rosetta barely uttered a few words.

However, the man did not seem to have any intention of loosening his strength, perhaps because he did not hear her. Eventually, a cold voice rang out as Rosetta began to struggle all over.

[Do you want to fall?]

She really couldn’t understand. Hearing a foreign language in the midst of strong winds made Rosetta even more afraid.

“What are you saying now, I don’t know what you mean……”

Instantly, the man’s eyebrows rose. The man stared at Rosetta with dry eyes and said, “It seems that you haven’t even learned Ardennes at all. Don’t move unless you want to fall and break your neck.”

Her body shuddered at his cold voice. Rosetta remembered a moment before, when he cut down the men of the tribe without any mercy—maybe he will do the same to her. Then she had no intention of rebelling against this man.

As Rosetta lost the will to resist, the man turned to the man next to him.

“Who’s chasing?”

“None yet.”

“……that’s surprising. I thought they’d try to get the bride back somehow.”

“Many of the men of the tribe were absent. Could it be because of that?”

“What happened to the groom?”

“I did as you ordered.”

“Very well. We should be in our territory in three days.”

“Yes!”

When the conversation was over, the horse’s running speed slowed down a bit. Rosetta suddenly realized that now was not the time for her to sit still. It was clear that they had kidnapped her thinking she was Rosie. It must be a deliberate attempt to block the marriage alliance. So she had to tell him first, that she is not Rosie.

“I- I am not the bride who’s getting married today!” Rosetta exclaimed urgently. “You guys, you have chosen the wrong person. I am not the real bride!”

At that moment, all the men around her started laughing out loud. Only the man holding her had no expression or reaction. 

“You’re not a bride while wearing a bridal dress like this? It would be more credible to say that I am a virgin.” One of the men threw out words full of ridicule.

“Hey, that’s definitely bullshit. I’ve seen everything you do with who you’ve been in bed with.”

“That bastard rolled around with a whore yesterday, too!”

The loud laughter of men grew louder along with low-quality jokes.

“Then shouldn’t we check if she’s the bride or not?”

“How are you going to check that?”

“Well, if she’s a virgin, she’s the bride, and vice versa.”

“What a fool. Are you seriously saying that?”

Rosetta’s face quickly turned red in embarrassment. No one had ever dared to speak words like that in front of her. Any man would always lower himself in front of Rosetta and treat her with the utmost courtesy and refined language they could have.

Now, this was nothing short of an insult to her. 

“I became a substitute for a reason and that’s why I’m wearing a bridal dress!” Rosetta shouted loudly.

“Substitute? You use a substitute in an important marriage where the future of your tribe is at stake? If so, then that old man in Basque is already senile!”

Laughter rang out again. Rosetta’s anger really rose at the attitude of the men not listening to her.

“The- there is a reason……”

[Riga, give this woman to me.]

One of the men looked at Rosetta, changing his language abruptly. He is a man with striking bright red hair. His overall impression and his eyes are not very good. In particular, his gaze, as if looking at a delicious piece of meat, was truly unpleasant.

Instead of raising her voice again, Rosetta scanned the atmosphere around her. She couldn’t understand what he meant, but it was clear that what he had just said was never good for her.

[After all, Riga is not interested in women. So can I taste her first?]

The other men clicked their tongues.

[No wonder you’ve been looking at her since before.]

[Anyway, Krell is quick at this kind of thing.]

[Isn’t that too hasty? Riga still hasn’t decided what to do with that woman.]

Then the red-haired man responded coldly to everyone. “Don’t be ridiculous. Isn’t that obvious? Considering what that woman’s father did to our tribe in the past, there is only one punishment for her. It’s our rule to repay an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, isn’t it?”

The face of the man, who had been laughing at a joke until a while ago, hardened. Not only him, but all the men around looked at Rosetta coldly.

Rosetta shuddered. Their gazes all turned into sharp blades that were thrown at her countless times. She doesn’t know what happened between the tribes in the past, but it was clear that they had a big grudge against the Basque. And the anger was clearly directed at Rosetta.

Are they going to kill me?

When she thought of such a possibility, cold sweat began to flow down her spine. All sorts of terrifying images flashed through her mind; buried alive in the ground, stabbed many times with a knife and lying covered in blood, etc.

As the fear grew more and more, unexpected words rang from above.

“This woman will be my wife.”

Rosetta raised her head and looked at the man holding her. The words spoken by the man who had been silent and not involved in the conversation were immediately followed by other men’s protests before Rosetta could react.

“Riga, are you going to marry this woman?”

“Not another woman, but the daughter of the Basque chieftain?”

The red-haired man groaned in anger. “What a nonsensical thing to say. You don’t have to get married, you just have to get revenge for the past. She’s a Basque girl!”

He suddenly reached out to Rosetta but the man on the horse with Rosetta blocked it, and his hand fell off again before reaching her.

“Krell, who gave you the authority to refute my opinion?”

The red-haired man immediately shut his mouth at the man’s question.

“The kingdom of Lisa is behind the Basque. Do you think we have the power to deal with them now?”

This time, the other men also became silent at the same time, as if they were dead rats.

“If you are ready to wage an all-out war against the Lisa Kingdom right now, you can do whatever you want.”

Surprisingly, they no longer objected to the man’s words. A man named Krell still seems to have a lot of complaints, but he couldn’t raise any further objections.

But among them, Rosetta alone could never understand.

“What do you mean, married? This is kidnapping and a crime, not a marriage!” Rosetta protested fiercely. “Besides, why do you decide to marry me without listening to my opinion?”

Then the man’s eyes turned to Rosetta. He asked, “Then, was the original marriage completely your will?”

Rosetta was speechless at the sudden question. This man was referring to the wedding that Rosie, the real bride, should have had, but Rosetta naturally recalled the wedding she was going to have.

“Rosetta, don’t you want to marry me?”

On the day that the marriage had already been decided by the family, Isell followed Rosetta and asked such a question carefully. Rosetta sat in the garden and plucked prickly grass.

Rosetta said nothing, and his handsome face was filled with worry.

“You don’t have to worry. Even after getting married, I will never force you to do something you don’t want. I’ll wait until you’re ready. Whatever time it is.”

He patted Rosetta’s head and spoke sweetly, and Rosetta nodded quietly.

It wasn’t that she hated him. Rather, when she was a child, whenever he returned to his estate after staying in the capital, Rosetta would hold him and cry until her tears dried. With her small head, she didn’t understand why he couldn’t continue to live here like her sister and brother.

Actually, that was the problem. It was just awkward for Rosetta that Issel—her brother’s friend who was like her own family—would suddenly become her husband.

She might have accepted him naturally as a man and as her husband if he had given her a little more time. Aside from her family, he was Rosetta’s favorite person and there were no other men in Rosetta’s narrow world anyway.

At that time, Rosetta was angry because her opinion was completely excluded from all decisions, no matter how good it was for her. Isell also said that he would not force anything on her, but he never said that he would cancel the marriage.

If you really don’t want to get married, you can strongly protest or refuse it. But Rosetta didn’t have the guts to do that. Moreover, she, who had no skills, had no choice but to marry and help the kingdom. So, all Rosetta did was complain that if she was allowed to go on the trip, she would marry Isell.

Perhaps Rosetta’s expression told everything, the man didn’t bother to hear her answer. From then on, no conversation was heard and everyone focused only on running horses.

“Riga, the chase seems to be completely out of the way now.”

After a while, someone said so. Hearing this, the man nodded his head lightly and gave orders to his companions,

“We camp here.”

All the horses running were stopped. All the other men got off their horses and started preparing for the camp. Rosetta couldn’t help but be greatly surprised once more.

What do you mean camping? You’re going to spend the night outside without a roof?

The men moved in unison, leveling the ground and setting up tents in an instant. Meanwhile, the man held Rosetta’s waist without getting off his horse. Rosetta twisted her body at the fact that she was too close to the man.

“Let go of me now.”