3 – Breadbasket
There was one small but important rule when tying up prisoners.
It was to ‘tie them up without hurting them, out of respect for their human rights’.
This rule, according to the Geneva Convention, was common sense to me, who had been a reservist in the Republic of Korea for six years.
“Ow, it hurts.”
That’s why I was in a very annoyed state right now.
It was because all the elves in this world seemed to be draft dodgers.
“Hey, guys, my neck keeps rubbing against the rope. Isn’t this prisoner treatment too shoddy?”
“Shut up, human. Before we kill you.”
“And can’t I rest a little? You guys took turns resting in the middle. I’ve been walking all day without eating.”
“It’s all your fault.”
The elf who finished speaking roughly grabbed the wooden vine tied to my wrist.
As a result, my skin rubbed and a sharp pain was transmitted.
I glanced down at my wrist and it was already reddened.
It felt so itchy that I was going crazy. Maybe it was poisoned by the plant.
“Sigh. I should have just died fighting.”
“……”
I let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky.
Far away, the giant World Tree came into view.
It seemed a little closer than the first time, thanks to walking for two days straight.
Is that so?
The World Tree was so huge that it was hard to estimate the distance.
‘I wonder how long I have to walk.’
The elves had decided not to kill me, but to capture me alive.
They might have planned to execute me publicly, but from what I had seen so far, they seemed to be willing to spare me.
They didn’t kill me even though I tried to escape twice, so there must have been some kind of order to prevent my immediate execution.
Well, I almost died when I tried to run away when the monster attacked.
Not by the elves, but by the monster.
‘I didn’t know the monster that attacked was a dinosaur.’
I mean, there were dinosaurs in the forest?
The monster’s name was ‘Lindtbrum’, right?
That was clearly a Tyrannosaurus Rex to anyone’s eyes.
I almost died when I tried to escape in the chaos.
‘Thanks to the elves, I saved my life.’
It was a truly terrifying experience that made me realize the danger of the Great Forest.
After that incident, I completely gave up on escaping from the elves.
-That was the impression I wanted to give, so I pretended to be a person who had lost his appetite and his mind.
Then I took advantage of the lax surveillance and ran away again.
‘It was a shame.’
The beginning of the escape was surprisingly successful.
The elves quickly formed a dragnet and chased after me as soon as I disappeared.
But the bottom of the lamp is always dark.
When the elves were searching the forest, I was hiding in a nearby clump of trees, holding my breath.
If I could endure until the elves gave up, it would be my victory.
It was a fairly decent plan that utilized my survival knowledge and patience.
But as they say, you don’t realize until you try it, right? There was one thing I overlooked in the escape process.
That was, the fact that all the natural elements of this world were on the elves’ side.
‘I didn’t know the trees could move.’
Tree giants, ‘Ents’ were they called?
When the tree I hid in suddenly got up, I really thought my heart was dropping.
I had no choice but to run around the forest, screaming for the elves, like a child who saw a ghost and looked for their parents.
When I saw the elves’ incredulous expressions, I honestly felt a bit embarrassed.
That was also the decisive reason why the elves broke the Geneva Convention.
‘I’d rather die. I won’t run away anymore.’
But people learn something from their mistakes.
I was able to realize some information while attempting a great escape.
They were very important information that I needed to make plans for the future.
‘They didn’t find out I was a woodcutter.’
First of all, the elves didn’t seem to know that I was a woodcutter.
The humans I met in this world told me.
They say woodcutters are the enemies of elves.
But the elves I encountered didn’t seem to regard me as their enemy, even though they hated or feared me.
Maybe it was their instinctive sense that made them feel I was ‘a particularly unpleasant human’?
I thought I could act like a normal human if I was careful with my words.
It was a useful piece of information that gave me some hope.
‘Running away was impossible from the start.’
And the elves seemed to know my existence and location from the beginning.
The fact that they came from such a far distance. The fact that they killed all humans except me. The fact that they didn’t know about the elf girl. The fact that they didn’t kill me right away.
All the results pointed to the same thing when I combined various pieces of information.
These bastards had targeted me from the start when they attacked.
“By the name of nature, I summon you.
Come here, you who devoured the forest.
It’s time to pay for your sins.”
Suddenly, I remembered the hallucination I heard before I died.
That harsh voice wasn’t just a simple hallucination either.
From Noble mtl dot com
The reason why I fell into this world and why the elves were after me.
I had enough clues, but I had nothing to confirm yet.
I had to find out the evidence and the solution for that reason from now on.
I lifted my head with a firm determination in my eyes.
Before I knew it, the elf who was dragging me had stopped.
“We have arrived, human.”
What I saw was a fairly large village.
Except for the fact that the whole village was built on top of trees, the only surprising thing was that all the members were elves.
Well, in a word, I was stunned.
I gaped at the elf village.
“Wow.”
Is this what an elf village is like?
All the structures were made of wood and grass, but there was not a single cut log in sight. It was an amazing village.
It felt like the trees themselves had offered their bodies to the elves, like a perfect harmony of nature and elf.
The stubborn and beautiful architecture seemed to speak to me.
‘There is no place for woodcutters here.’ It said.
I felt a sudden surge of nausea.
“Follow me.”
I clenched my mouth and followed the elves into the village.
The elves in the village looked down at me with sour expressions.
I guess people can make that face when they feel extreme disgust.
I didn’t want to know that fact. My lips curled up.
I felt like I was being discriminated against because of my race. I didn’t like it.
“Go in.”
A moment later, the place I was dragged to was a dome-shaped structure.
A sturdy-looking thorn bush that was about the size of a small room.
That was clearly a prison to anyone who saw it.
Wow. They live on the trees while they lock me up on the ground?
‘Well. This is actually fair.’
It was a completely justified and deserved treatment.
Since I was not in a position to argue, I obediently moved and entered the thorn bush.
The elves’ prison was magical in itself, as the entrance disappeared and gave me the oppressive feeling unique to prisons as soon as I stepped in.
I fell into another world and finally ended up in jail.
I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head.
That’s when it happened.
[Ha ha ha! Welcome, is this your first time in prison?]
A cute voice that sounded like it was squeaking came from somewhere.
A mysterious voice that seemed to reach not only my ears but my whole body.
I was startled and turned my head to look.
[Hey! Where are you looking? I’m here!]
The voice was coming from below.
I slowly lowered my head and looked for the source of the voice.
Then, a tiny fairy who greeted me with a cute hand wave came into my sight.
[Bee! Hi!]
“……”
It was a fairy with a tiny height of barely two fingers.
Light green hair with leaves attached. Sparkling green eyes. And a brown skin that glowed with moisture.
It was a shocking visual that seemed to have transferred cuteness as it was.
Could such a cute creature exist in this world?
I wondered if I was seeing things and rubbed my eyes.
[Hey! Stop it, stop it! Don’t rub it!]
As I rubbed my eyes with my dirty hands, the fairy clung to my foot and tried to stop me.
The voice I heard and the touch I felt were all real.
How could this be? Such a creature actually existed.
I picked up the fairy with my hand and started to look at it carefully.
[Heehee! Ticklish!]
“Wow….”
[Heehee! Hee! Stop it!]
“Ooh….”
[Hey, you jerk! It’s ticklish!]
“Ouch!”
As I looked around like an uncle who found his nephew’s doll, the fairy who was giggling and laughing kicked my nose with its foot.
Is this what they say, small peppers are spicy? The little thing was quite feisty.
I put the fairy down on the ground and rubbed my sore nose.
Fortunately, there was no nosebleed.
[I’m not a doll, I’m a dignified wood spirit! And I’m much more senior than you! You have to respect me! Got it?!]
“Senior?”
[Yes! I came here five years earlier than you! If you’re a newbie, bow your head and greet me first!]
“……”
The fairy who spoke with confidence and pride. No, the spirit.
I looked around naturally at the spirit’s words.
Wherever I looked, sturdy thorns blocked my sight.
This place was undoubtedly a prison no matter how I looked at it.
“You’re a senior here?”
[Of course!]
I asked again just in case, but the spirit’s claim did not change.
He said he was a five-year senior of the elf prison.
I guess I,
“What, are you some kind of boss here?”
It seemed like I had met a rather peculiar boss.