Chapter 409: Departing the Manticore Tribe
The Manticore tribe civil war was over. It should have been the happiest day of Ahn Rit Kulha's life - all the factions led by his enemies were dead, Feida's faction was cooperating with him, and he was one of the most prominent Earth Souls in the entire tribe. They had taken back their territory and the patriarch's estate, so they had all the legitimacy he'd ever dreamed of.
And sometimes he was happy. There had been dozens of toasts in his honor, factions were clamoring for his support, and he practically had women lining up by his tent. Since the foreign barbarian was going to leave, Kulha's prestige in the tribe could only increase.
That barbarian was the rot in the wood, undermining everything else.
What was baffling was that Kai could have taken everything: all the honors Kulha wanted and things he hadn't dared to dream. The man could be the patriarch of the entire clan, he could live in comfort for the rest of his days, he could have had a different woman in his bed every night. And he just didn't seem to want any of it.
Sometimes, when Kulha was being toasted as a new hero of the tribe, he told himself that the foreigner was just an idiot. Too stupid or weak of will to seize what all men should want. That was what he told himself, over and over, as he approached the isolated tent.
As he walked up to the flap, he was startled when Kai stepped out. Bared to the waist, with only the strange cloth he always wore, the manticore of the tribe emblazoned across his chest. That should have meant his loyalty, yet he seemed larger than it, as if the tribe was nothing more than a piece of clothing he'd chosen to wear for a while.
The tent flap fluttered closed, giving him just a tantalizing glimpse of the space beyond: the barbarian's women were lying in bed, the seductive one lying like a temptress and the cultivator wrapped in silk sheets that only accentuated her curves. Utterly beyond any of the women in the Manticore tribe, in beauty or strength, and completely beyond his reach. That was another frustration... but Kai was stepping into his path now, cutting off the vision of heaven.
"Everything alright?" Kai asked. He actually sounded like he meant it, like he would come help if anything had gone wrong.
"You really should come give a speech or something." Kulha shifted his weight and glanced back toward the main tent. "This should be your moment of glory."