Chapter 106 – How They Live (1)
“Dammit, what on earth is this…”
Despite the fierce wind that made it hard to even open their eyes, they approached slowly as if completely unaffected by it.
The warriors raised their bows, ready to shoot at any moment, but they cleanly ignored the arrows as if they were utterly useless.
And finally, the violent gust of wind that surrounded them stopped the moment a small figure atop a pure white horse raised their hand.
“Ch-Chief! What on earth is happening? Are they youkai?”
“Shut up. Focus and get ready to fight!”
Everyone had already focused on her. In such a situation, her single act made it clear who had summoned the wind.
As her subordinates began to slip from vigilance into fear, the desperate leader, Mantai, mustered up courage and approached them.
“Who are you?”
That shout was the peak of courage he could squeeze out. However, the subordinates looked at their commander with trust as he boldly questioned the mysterious beings.
“Are you warriors of the plains following Chief Gallun? Or are you just a band of thieves?”
At that, they slowly removed the hoods they wore on their heads.
Mantai’s eyes widened at their beautiful features, complemented by radiant golden and silver hair. The long, pointed ears that protruded from their hair belonged to a race he had never seen before.
But one thing was certain. They were definitely not human.
“Elves! Elves!”
It was not the warriors who recognized the two’s identities, but one of the captives they had taken.
A man from the south, who had never seen them directly but had heard rumors about the appearance of elves, knew.
“El, Elves? What on earth does that mean?”
Neither the other warriors nor Mantai knew about elves. They hurried to pressure the captive who pretended to know, but in any case, the captive didn’t really know much either.
All they could confirm was that these beings were the very embodiment of mystery.
“Answer me. Where do you belong?”
“How dare this little thing speak…”
In the meantime, the silver-haired girl on the white horse approached them and glared coldly.
Overwhelmed by her presence, Mantai, however, didn’t like the attitude of a girl who looked younger than his niece.
“Hey, I may not know much, but I’ve lived longer than you. You look like you aren’t even thirty.”
“Uwah!”
At that, the girl who let out a hollow laugh snapped her fingers, and immediately the ground shook violently, causing a minor earthquake.
The horses panicked and struggled, causing the startled Garahan warriors to fall one by one from their steeds. For them, who considered falling from a horse a disgrace, this was quite the realization.
Mantai also couldn’t endure it and crashed to the ground, staggering on the trembling earth.
*
“I-I have disrespectfully failed to recognize your greatness. Please forgive me.”
“Are you now inclined to answer my question?”
The Garahan warriors knew nothing about me, or rather, anything about elves.
When I manipulated the elements of nature like wind and earth, they were aghast as if they had seen something they should not have, and eventually started to lay flat on the ground begging.
At that point, it seemed they had decided to believe everything I said. Even the somewhat incredulous fact that I was a High Elf from the mythical era a whopping ten thousand years ago seemed to be accepted. Since they originally didn’t even know what elves were, it made it easier for them to accept.
“We are indeed a tribe following Chief Gallun. We uphold the territory and pay tribute as per his orders…”
“Including these people in your tribute? That’s unlikely. I know exactly what negotiations your chief has made with the king of the Narian Kingdom.”
“T-That…”
They could only look at me cautiously, unable to answer easily. While they vaguely understood the situation, there was no way to brush it off having caught my attention.
I intended to use this as a pretext to request proper guidance and a messenger role from them.
“Coming here to plunder people and resources is a violation of the treaty and an act of disregarding the chief who made that treaty. Are you challenging the chief?”
“Hieek! That can’t be true!”
Mentioning Chief Gallun’s name had considerable effect. Even though there was quite a distance to where he was, it showed that his influence extended this far.
“These scoundrels are runaways from their land, and those who would be punished if they returned! We only targeted those types!”
“They should be punished on their own land. Do you think it’s right for you, a third party, to take advantage of that?”
While some were timidly trying to explain themselves, I easily countered them. Now seeming to run out of arguments, the warriors could only keep silent and glance at me.
“Release the captives, Arisa. And some of you go to the chief and tell him that High Elf Irilia is on her way to prepare for the impending doom.”
After instructing Arisa to release the captives, I had some of the surrendered warriors send news of my arrival to the chief.
The warriors were bewildered, but they couldn’t resist. They likely thought that they could be sucked into the ground in an instant if they even dared oppose me.
“And Mantai, I would like you to answer my questions.”
“Are you talking about that horse?”
Mantai, their leader, was particularly eager to learn about the situation on the plains that he had been unaware of.
For example, whether any erosion had happened in this area.
Being a place almost cut off from any other forces like the elves, he needed to hear about it directly from the locals.
“By the way, I heard one thing. It’s just a rumor, but a tribe has fled from the east, even further east, because monsters have appeared from lands tainted by dark energy…”
“I see. That erosion is a sign of the doom I mentioned. Just leaving it be isn’t enough; it must be stopped.”
Just as I suspected, if Mantai’s words were true, erosion was already starting in their territory.
Since they were nomadic people with excellent combat capabilities and mobility, they likely managed to escape with little damage, but that also meant the neglected erosion would continue to progress from there.
“I’m traveling around to meet the leaders of each faction to prevent that erosion. With a wicked will aiming to destroy the entire world in action, isn’t it time for those who have long been at odds with each other to join hands?”
“Ooh…”
Despite his rough appearance with bulging muscles and a scruffy beard, Mantai had a surprisingly innocent side.
As I briefly explained the current situation to him, he listened with genuine admiration, his eyes gleaming.
“Is that why a being like you is wandering in the south and now has come to the north?”
“Just the south and north? I’ve been to even farther places.”
Seeing their positive reaction, my mood naturally lifted.
Mantai and the other warriors quickly became engrossed in my tale, and since they were listening so well, I entered lecture mode, implanting essential knowledge and the current situation into them.
They were potential key players who could join the Grand Coalition. If they understood the situation we were in, as long as they were not corrupted by the curse of degeneration, they would never disregard my words.
“H-Have I one request? If you truly are a High Elf who has lived since the mythical era ten thousand years ago, please tell us. Is the legend of Khan that is passed down to all tribes of the plains true?!”
As a result, someone mustered the courage to ask me a question.
I looked at the person’s face and had an instinctive realization. The moment of squeezing my brain to tell old stories had arrived.
But these actions also presented an opportunity to break down their wariness and become familiar.
“The elders said that a being called Khan unified the continent and became the ruler of the world in very ancient times.”
“…That may not be wrong. It’s indeed a tale from older times than the era I lived in.”
At least this much might not be too distorted. I wondered who the ancestor who passed down the story of Genghis Khan to the ancestors of these nomads could be.
Old people likely lived with thoughts of even older ones, so it’s not strange for such stories to be passed down.
“Then is it true that he was a great warrior who made significant contributions to purifying the world and protecting the environment?”
“…”
Of course, the processes of distortion and transformation were ultimately an inevitable fate.
