Ghelreis was right. It would be best for us to take it upon ourselves to interfere and help for our own reasons.
“So,” Menel said, “what do proud and noble elves do when the people who helped them go wandering into dangerous territory all by themselves?”
Dine groaned in frustration. “Oh… boo!” It wouldn’t make sense for them to stop us, and they would find it physically impossible to do so in the first place.
“Wait there a minute. I’ll go and call some skilled people who can get moving right away. Don’t you dare go on your own! Understand?!” Dine went running off.
Menel, Ghelreis, and I looked at each other and laughed out loud.
All across the land, forests home to elves were held to be inviolable territory.
I could give all kinds of reasons, but the simplest and most powerful one was that most elves who kept guard over a forest were excellent hunter-warriors or elementalists. Opposing the race of elves within a forest meant a brutal death.
Specifically, you would be chased around like a hunter’s prey, unable to get any real sleep, and after being toyed with by the fairies, you would become food for the animals. Therefore, elven forests were off-limits, sacred territory feared and respected by all races.
The elven settlement in Lothdor, however, didn’t have very many strong warriors or elementalists. This made sense; the main hunter-warriors and elementalists among them had apparently died in battle, boldly fighting the demons during the collapse of the Union Age. In elven society, that was a severe loss, because elves typically lived long lives and didn’t bear many children.
Things got even worse after that, when the forest was cursed by a Taboo Word and the fall of the Iron Country left it isolated. Due to the roaming monsters and the poison, even food was difficult to come by and the fairies’ power was weakened. There was no way they could raise any new warriors or elementalists under those circumstances. And from what I heard, the few talented elves who survived the Great Collapse attempted contact with the outside, only to fail and never return.
Now that I thought about it, some of the corpses in that murky river were only partially rotten. If those remains had been two hundred years old, they would surely have all been bones by now… which could only mean one thing.
Furthermore, due to the fall of the Iron Country, the supply of weapons had dried up, so metal products seemed to be very precious. There were even people using stone arrowheads or spears with stone blades, as if it were the Stone Age.
I could see that if beasts had claimed the Lord of the Woods’ domain in circumstances like this, there was no way that the elves could reclaim it very easily. In fact, I thought it was impressive enough that despite being put in such a stressful situation, they had still managed to keep things under control and continue sending people out without giving up on contacting the outside. It felt as though they had already stepped some distance over the line where a human settlement would have long since collapsed.
“So, the beasts that have taken over the domain are bug-type beasts… devil- bugs, I think they’re called…” We were walking through a forest of dead trees under a cloudy sky. Dine had accompanied us in the end, joined by four elven hunters. “The defensive strength of the giant earwigs with their hard shells is hard to deal with…”
“Ah! These, right?! I’ll do my best!”
“Mm. This will be good training, young master.”
Al smashed them with his Immense halberd as they appeared. The ones he missed were crushed by Ghelreis’s Sword-smasher mace.
“Then there are the purple poison moths that come down from the sky…”
“Right.” Telperion’s silver string sang a high-pitched, beautiful note in Menel’s hand as it was pulled back and then released. The approaching poison moth was shot perfectly through its weakest point and fell to earth.
“Ah, watch out, poison scales…”
“Sure, sure.”
Without even an incantation from Menel, the wind scattered the scales according to his will.
They were hardly having any difficulty. As the three of them cleared away the giant bugs, Dine stood there dumbfounded. The other elves were equally surprised. But there was nothing particularly surprising about it. This threat wasn’t significant enough to destroy an already seriously weakened elven village. These three hadn’t trained themselves so weakly that this would give them a hard time.
“There’s nothing for us to do, is there?” I said, smiling wryly.
“Standing by’s important,” Reystov admonished me.
He was right; the reason Al, Menel, and Ghelreis could focus on what was in front of them and go all out was because we were standing on alert behind them.
This was an important role in itself. But ultimately, I remained in that role all the way into the domain, where we were confronted with the sight of so many cocoons and larvae that it almost got a “blergh” out of me.
Menel cleared it up. He poured some strength back into the Lord of the Woods. The noxious air began to clear. Power returned to the forest. The elves cheered. And still I hadn’t gotten anything at all to do.
It made me feel kind of… itchy.
“Maybe I should have gotten in on the action…”
“You know, for how calm you look, you can be real bloodthirsty sometimes.”
I looked away.
The large trees, which had been covered in revolting bugs and started to die, regained a little of their vitality. The elves were openly displaying their joy, but gradually their beaming expressions began to fade, and before I realized it, looks of shame had taken their place.
“William, are you sure this was okay?” Dine asked the question that seemed to be on all of their minds.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“If the dragon or the demons notice you because you’ve done this…”
“We’ll be in big trouble.” I nodded. That would definitely be bad. We were already at the western foot of the mountain range. Now that we had drawn so close, it would be difficult for them to immediately move all their forces positioned on the east side over to the west, but even so, what we had done was still risky.
“Then you—”
“However—” I put a hand up and stopped Dine as she tried to argue further.
“Abandoning this village at this stage would be even more unthinkable. Who knows how many of you could die by the time we get back.”
Poison, monsters, food, resources — the factors that could lead to someone dying in this place were too numerous to list. Furthermore, it was possible that we wouldn’t be able to return at all. As long as we were going to be fighting, we intended to win, but only a fool wouldn’t give any consideration to what might happen should he lose.
“So this is fine.”
Just as I’d declared to the god of undeath, I had no intention of abandoning anyone in order to win. I’d made an oath to that effect, and I intended to keep it.
And that was why my god was providing me with such extraordinary protection.
It was far too late to contemplate breaking that oath.
“Are you sure?”
“I swear on the flame of the goddess, I don’t regret it.”
That’s right. I didn’t regret it. Judging by the prickling feeling on the back of my neck, things probably hadn’t turned out very well, but I was prepared for that, and I had been ever since the day I chose this way of living. Only…
“Al, Reystov, and Ghelreis… I’m sorry for getting you involved in my personal business.”
Menel aside, this hadn’t had much to do with the other three. I bowed my head to them, thinking that they might not have a very good opinion of me.
“I knew you would do this, so please don’t let it play on your mind, sir,” Al said. “Without you, Sir Will, I wouldn’t even have reached this place to begin with. I’d probably have died on the way.” He smiled.