5. Bread and dagger (59)
Old Pope was staying in a small cabin.
Although he is a respected hunter in the village, his life was not much different from that of most elves. He also lived in a shabby cabin, worrying about the day’s meal.
Lately it’s not necessary, though.
The height of a snow leopard far exceeds that of an average elf. Even the skin, meat, and bones were nothing to throw away, and the snow leopard was the game.
It was enough to hold a party with just one.
However, the number of snow leopards he had recently hunted reached a whopping 15. Even if the villagers ate their fill, there was no need to worry about food for a while.
The northern cold was favorable for making preserved food.
The meat of the snow leopard grew leaner with each blow of the cold, dry wind. Instead, it can be stored for a long time.
It should be enough to eat for at least two months.
This was truly a revolutionary event for the elven village. It was a village where most of the elves lived on ‘tree porridge’, let alone one meal a day.
Residents seemed bewildered that they did not have to go hungry. Even old Pope was no exception.
Old Pope, who greeted me, had a rather distraught expression.
Those green eyes that silently turned to me revealed a complex state of mind.
At first glance, he seemed shy, thankful, and annoyed.
Either way, there was only one thing that was certain.
That old Pope doesn’t hate me as much as before.
It was worth hunting the snow leopard. In addition, the reward of helping the village as if a rat died.
I held out my hand with a friendly smile.
“It’s been a while, old Pope.”
“What’s your business?”
Although the attitude towards me was still cold.
It was me that I didn’t even expect anyway.
I immediately decided to tune in to old Pope’s tune. As he requested, my mouth immediately began to recite the main point.
“There was a fire last night. I was wondering if you could tell me the way there.”
Old Pope snorted at my request.
His perverse questions followed.
“What are you going there for? Are you sure you want to pick up burnt animal corpses?”
“That wouldn’t be bad either. But I am a little anxious.”
At this point, I pondered for a while.
He wanted to know how to get old Pope’s cooperation.
Eventually, the conclusion I came to was clear.
After all, I wasn’t a talker like Leto. I’m just an ignorant swordsmanship student.
If that was the case, there was no reason to be rude. I have no choice but to honestly push the truth.
My tongue spilled out the truth.
“Isn’t that the place where human traces were found last time?”
Old Pope’s mouth fell shut.
The coniferous forest was all trees. So the moment I entered, I often lost my sense of direction. Most of the time, when they entered an unfamiliar road, they could not even get a general direction.
Only someone who had been accustomed to the geography of the forest for a long time could point out the exact location.
The man who took on that role in the elven village was the old man Pope in front of me.
He was silent for a while, then stood out of the door without saying a word.
Then he turned around and started to walk slowly. Although there were no words, I felt that it was an unspoken invitation.
I carefully shut the door and stepped into old Pope’s cabin.
Maybe because I live alone, the interior is simple. There was only the bare minimum necessary furniture, giving it a desolate feeling.
Old Pope put out two glasses on a small table.
I consciously sat down in what was supposed to be the seat across from Old Man Pope. Old Pope snorted, but did not dissuade me.
With a sigh, hot water was poured into the glass.
It meant acknowledging them as guests.
Until recently, it was old man Pope who started a game just by hearing the sound of ‘human’. Just treating me as a guest was an amazing development.
He sat across from me and glared at me with cold eyes.
“How can you believe that?”
“Yeah?”
It was a pretty random question.
No, wasn’t it about to pass into an atmosphere of trusting me?
At my bewildered voice, old Pope pressed me again.
“Are you a human? There must be an option to visit those humans, tell them the location of the town, and get back together… But how could I trust you?”
It was a tricky question.
Trust was usually unconditional. No matter how much a guarantee was made and a price bet, trust basically came from trust.
When I started doubting, there was no answer.
How can I ask you to believe in me? Even I lost my memory, so I couldn’t use my fame or wealth.
However, I also thought that the question was strange.
If you don’t believe it, you don’t believe it, so why bother dragging it all the way to the hut for interrogation? After taking a sip of hot water, the brain began to spin tight.
Suddenly, Veneta came to mind.
He was the first elf I interrogated. And he was the first elf I killed.
I didn’t know it then, but now I believed her sincerity.
Veneta had given me a piece of unfeigned advice.
Because that was the rule of the elves.
Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.
It was then that my tongue moved on its own.
“Shouldn’t bread be repaid with bread?”
There was no answer coming back.
Old Pope silently drank from the steaming glass. Like it or not, I just put together what I had to say.
“It was the elves who accepted me, who even lost my memory. At least I have no intention of betraying that grace. As we’ve shown you… … .”
“You are not an elf.”
Again, it was a key question.
My lips stuck together again and showed no sign of coming off. It was as old Pope pointed out.
Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.
This was the rule of the elves. There was no guarantee that I would follow through.
However, after thinking about it for a while, I suddenly remembered a certain fact.
Come to think of it, old man Pope said he was ‘blessed’.
If so, it must have a deep connection with the cult.
“I heard that Leoric is also human.”
Old Pope’s eyes went wild at once.
Religion and belief were the weakest points of the psyche. It was hard to avoid anger if you carelessly touched it.
However, this was the only material I could pull out right now.
“Is the distinction between humans and elves important? I knew when I came here. The fact that if I live like an elf, other villagers will treat me like an elf.”
It was close to a confession.
This was the conclusion I came to after spending a short, long time in the elven village.
The line between humans and elves was surprisingly blurry.
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Just the fact that I had pointy ears couldn’t tell me apart from the elf. Why did I just realize that fact?
I only found out after killing too many people.
I continued to speak as if I were confessing.
“So trust me just once. Old Man Pope is the last one.”
The only elf in this town who doesn’t believe in me is old Pope.
The old man, who had the appearance of a boy, closed his eyes and pondered. By the time the steam rising from the water cup faded.
Old Pope sighed and got up.
Then, with arms crossed, he stared at the bow and arrow hanging on the wall in silence.
He let out a painful tone.
“… … I don’t trust humans.”
At first glance, it seemed that my persuasion did not work, but old Pope’s words left a strange aftertaste.
As if hiding something inside.
Soon after, he confided in me about his past.
“My wife and daughter starved to death. It was because the humans burned down the food storage… I can still vividly see him with his mouth wide open in vain. Do you know how painful that is? Life, you know, was hell.”
It was a story I had heard before.
The saying that life is rather hell was the doctrine of a cult.
But to Pope, that empty slogan was reality.
“You know that’s all? My only surviving son was killed by human hands… I swore after that. I will live the rest of my life thinking that it is the punishment for failing to protect my family.”
The old man sighed and stroked the bow and arrow hanging on the wall.
At that moment, his hand fumbled and untied one of the knots tied to the bow.
Looking at it now, it was an unusual vine.
At least it wasn’t a creature native to the North.
My puzzled eyes turned to old Pope. He looked down at the vine with sunken eyes.
“But now I am so tired… Life is still so painful. That’s when you came. I wanted to deny it at one time, but now I get it. That the village needs you.”
Old Pope walked helplessly and held out his vines to me.
As I groaned and accepted the vine, his explanation continued.
“It is something that has been handed down from the ancestors. Ever since we lived in the Great Grove… The village hunters wore these vines around their ankles. Then you can avoid getting lost.”
“By what principle?”
“I don’t know anymore. The technology at the time has been lost for a long time.”
After that blunt remark, he quietly turned his back.
It was an unspoken celebration.
“Now you are the village hunter. Take good care of Isha, there are still many immature things.”
village hunter.
It was a short time, but I realized the weight of it while living in the elven village.
The hunter was a scout of the village and responsible for food. In addition, they had to perform the role of protecting the village with that force.
It was too heavy a burden for me.
Above all, am I not a stranger who will have to leave someday?
I was startled before I could even say a word.
“You only have to do it while you’re in town.”
Pope’s green eyes glanced at me. My mouth, which I was trying to make an excuse for, was shut tight.
“I might leave someday, so until then… Think of today as your first day as a hunter.”
Looking back, the search for the missing person was also the job of the hunter.
I grabbed the vine with a wry smile.
If he had been given such a treasure, he had to take on a role appropriate to it. The old adage of the elves came to mind again.
Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.
It was unknown how long he would stay in the elven village. But I made a promise to myself.
For that short amount of time, he promised to stay as the town’s hunter.
That’s how I became a member of the village recognized by everyone in name and reality.
I had only one worry left.
I wonder how worried my companions in Yurdina City must be.
I had to go back as soon as possible. Even so, I couldn’t just leave the elven village unattended, so I agonized over and over again.
It didn’t take long for the problem to be resolved.
In a way I never expected, my agony came to an end.
The cause was simple.
The day I came back after leaving the village and finishing the search for the missing person.
I was dumbfounded and had no choice but to stop.
The village was burning.
Weapons collided, and screams rang in my ears.
It was a human attack.
Yeah thought so. His dumbass should have thought about his companions long ago.
Aww man….