22 – Kidnapper
West Root Tribe.
I stuck close to Shiz to avoid any misunderstanding.
But Shiz pushed me away and shouted sharply at the elves.
“Everyone, stop.”
The elves, who were noisy under the pressure of the hunting captain, quieted down at once.
It was a scene that reminded me of when I first met Shiz.
I swallowed my saliva and quietly watched Shiz’s overwhelming charisma.
Then, a young man ran out from among the quiet elves and came running toward us.
He had a tattoo on his shoulder, which meant he was a high elf stationed in this village.
“Shiz-nim! You’re here!”
“Yes. What’s going on?”
The high elf, who ran up with dust, bowed his waist at a 90-degree angle and greeted us loudly.
He heard Shiz’s question and immediately started to report the current situation.
“Two children from the village were kidnapped by humans.”
“What? What’s your evidence for that?”
“One of the spirit trees was cut down, and several elves who were patrolling were found dead. The circumstances only point to human deeds.”
Shiz’s expression twisted grimly as she heard the situation.
She bit her lip and pondered deeply, then asked her subordinate for more information.
“How did the human bastards manage to infiltrate this far?”
This place was on the west side of the great forest, but it was closer to Eldenore than the human village.
There were more elf villages beyond this, so how did the humans sneak in without being noticed?
“`text
The subordinate answered with a calm expression to Shiz’s question.
“Judging by the fact that the patrol team’s corpses were found near the river, it seems that they infiltrated along the western stream.”
“…They took advantage of the weak border along the water.”
“Yes. And since the season is like this, they probably came up without encountering any monsters.”
He didn’t know the details, but he guessed from the conversation that the cunning humans had found a gap and sneaked in.
It would be a huge incident that would make the elves’ eyes turn red with rage.
Shiz looked around the elves in the village and frowned.
“What are you doing without pursuing them right away?”
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The elves who met Shiz’s eyes flinched and lowered their heads.
They looked as if they had no face to say, which made Shiz’s expression more distorted.
Golden mana rose around Shiz like a mirage.
At the sight of the furious hunting leader, the subordinate who was reporting trembled and opened his mouth.
“T-that’s. We tried to pursue them, but we couldn’t find any traces of them. The tree spirits also hid, so we had no witness information to know where to start chasing them…”
“No traces?”
“Yes. We couldn’t even find footprints.”
The subordinate clenched his fist and shook his body quietly as he finished speaking.
He could clearly see how angry and frustrated he was.
Everyone was equally angry, so there was no point in scolding the elves in front of him right now.
Shiz realized that fact quickly and retracted the mana that was leaking out of anger and shouted at the elves.
“Do you think you can just sit still? They have spirit trees and children with them, so they must be slow! They couldn’t have gone far, so search the area thoroughly!”
“`
As soon as the hunting captain gave the order, the elves started to move in a rush.
They had no clues, but they couldn’t just stay still, so they decided to search the forest as best as they could.
It was so inefficient.
I suddenly had that thought and began to piece together the given information.
“Shiz. Wait a minute.”
The humans had invaded along the river. They were transporting the spirit wood and the children. But they had disappeared without leaving any traces.
Without thinking or hesitating, the answer came to my mind in an instant.
Why can’t the elves figure out something like this?
I put my hand on Shiz’s shoulder and asked the high elf subordinate.
Seeing that I had something in mind, Shiz raised his hand and drew everyone’s attention to me.
“Is the river flow fast?”
The subordinate who heard my question hesitated to answer, looking back and forth between me and Shiz.
He seemed to be unsure whether to treat me as a human or a druid candidate.
Shiz frowned and snapped at him, and then the subordinate finally gave me an answer.
“No. The amount of water is low because it hasn’t rained recently. The flow must be slow.”
The subordinate looked at me with an expression that said, why are you asking such a thing?
I nodded my head in gratitude and said to Shiz.
“The humans are probably escaping through the river.”
“Yeah. That’s why I ordered to search the surroundings. We have to go quickly―”
“―They’re not moving along the riverbank. They’re riding the river.”
“What?”
“You guys must have forgotten because you’re elves. Wood is a material that floats well on water.”
Everyone, including Siz, looked at me with an expression of ‘what crazy nonsense are you talking about?’
Judging by the fact that Pii, who was sitting on my shoulder, pulled my hair, it seemed that it was a rather provocative statement for a druid candidate to make.
But I didn’t back down and spoke more firmly.
“They must have made rafts and are going down the river.”
“Rafts?”
“Yeah. A vehicle that floats on water by tying wood together. You should know that.”
“Rafts… Yeah. I didn’t think of that. If they’re human, they could do that.”
“Fortunately, they couldn’t have moved far. The flow is slow, you said.”
I knew that from my days as a lumberjack, when I moved wood with rafts.
Because I was human, I could infer their actions from a human perspective.
That’s why I was confident to propose a strategy to everyone.
“Let’s move to the downstream of the river in advance and wait. Then we can block their escape route.”
All the elves looked at Siz hesitantly, as they heard my plan.
The plan seemed plausible, but they were reluctant to follow me, even though I was a druid candidate, because I was human.
Then Siz, who got everyone’s attention, snapped his tongue and shouted.
“What are you doing? Move quickly!”
At Siz’s final command, all the elves of the West Root Tribe rushed out.
Their destination was the downstream area of the western river.
The task was to rescue the kidnapped elf and kill the intruders.
* * *
“Druid candidate, please wear this.”
As I arrived at the lower stream of the river and waited, one of the high elves came over and handed me something.
It was a dark green cloak made of leather.
Why are they giving me this all of a sudden?
“You are a human, aren’t you? If you don’t wear that, you might get an arrow in the back of your head.”
“Oh.”
It seemed that they wanted me to wear it for identification.
I needed a cloak to stop the bleeding anyway, so it worked out well.
I scratched the back of my head and put on the cloak.
Then, Shiz, who had been standing quietly behind me, fixed the hood of the cloak and asked me.
“What are the chances that the human bastards won’t come here?”
I stiffened my body at Shiz’s touch and answered.
“There’s probably no chance of that. This is the only place where all the streams converge. I don’t know where they started from, but they have to pass through here, so don’t worry.”
“Are you sure the human bastards made a raft?”
“Yeah. I may look like this, but I’m human. I don’t like it much, but I can guess that much.”
The truth was, the elves were so hostile to woodworking that I stood out.
If the elves had treated the trees as materials rather than personalities, they would have easily deduced this much.
And that was because, it was almost impossible to move heavy wood and kidnapped people through the dense forest.
So the humans who had invaded had no choice but to use the current of the river.
It was not a prediction but an inevitability that they would pass through here.
‘But I’m a bit shocked that they can’t think of rafts.’
I looked at the elves, including Siz, with a bitter smile.
They hated the idea of logging, and they couldn’t even think of processing the spirit wood.
Seeing this, I could clearly feel how different the races of elves and humans were.
What was natural for humans was unfamiliar for elves, and what was natural for elves was incomprehensible for humans.
In this situation, could I give up being human and settle as a druid? Wouldn’t I just be discriminated against by the races and die without a trace?
As I was sighing deeply and suppressing my complaints, Siz crouched down next to me and asked quietly.
“But can you kill them?”
“…What?”
“Humans.”
It was a question that pierced through the dilemma I had been having.
I felt a bitter taste in my mouth and pinched the cheek of the innocent Pi.
Siz didn’t pressure me for an answer.
But that felt even scarier.
I sighed and confessed my true feelings.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’d rather solve this peacefully if I can.”
“Peace has already been ruined by them.”
“I know. Even if we save the kidnapped elves, the logged spirit wood won’t come back.”
“Yeah. Even if we recover the spirit stone safely, it will be hard to take root again.”
I sighed deeply as I lifted Pii onto my lap.
I was a woodcutter, so I had no right to say anything, but I wondered why they had to cut down such cute tree spirits.
If there was something that could replace the spirit wood, wouldn’t it be possible to peacefully resolve the conflict with the humans?
Then I had to find out why the humans were cutting down the spirit wood.
I looked at Shiz to ask him where the humans used the spirit wood.
Then, Shiz opened his mouth with a grim expression.
“They’re here.”
I turned my creaking head to look ahead.
“They actually made rafts out of spirit wood….”
Slowly flowing over the river, a huge raft was gently approaching.