Chapter 42 : Entering the Forest of Truth (2) A strong-looking knight, wearing an entire set of heavy plate armor covered in blood and scratch marks, was carefully advancing through dense vegetation. Despite his imposing size and weight, he was trying his best to not make any sound, and apparently, he was experienced enough to succeed. He had his sword in hand, and kept an eye on everything around him. His senses were sharpened to the extreme and although he was moving rather quickly, he did not fail to remain cautious and to stop at the slightest suspicious sound or movement. Despite all his precautions, he ended up getting spotted and an arrow shot from afar got stuck a few inches in front of his feet, without him having time to react or even being able to guess the position of those who attacked him. "Advance one more feet, and the next arrow will hung your head on the tree behind you." A cold voice warned him. "I do not want to fight. Please, identify yourself." The courageous knight was surrounded by hidden enemies he couldn't see, and yet, he was not afraid. He kept his head high, proudly. "You are the one that needs to identify yourself. This is a sacred ground no dirty humans should trespass. Who are you, and where do you come from ?" The knight instantly guessed who he was talking to after this response. If they were not humans, they were probably the elves that lived in the forest as his King had previously explained. "My name is Ron, I am a humble knight serving Sa Majesté Charles le Sage, eternal guardian of the Lyssandra Kingdom." After a few moments, the voice hidden in the shadow of the forest talked again. "What are you doing here, human ? How did you bypass the Oracle surveillance and trespass so far on his domain ?" "Oracle ?..." The knight didn't know who was this Oracle, but if the elves considered these lands as his domain, they were probably talking about the Protector Spirit. "I know no Oracle, but... Did you mean the Protector Spirit ?" Once again, the knight had to wait before an answer came. It seemed that the elf talking was not alone, and from the time it took for them to answer they were probably not expecting anyone to enter this 'Oracle's domain' they talked about. "The name we use may not be the same, but we surely think about the same being. Explain yourself ! What are you doing here, alone, armed and covered in blood ?" The voice sounded a bit more hostile than a few moments ago. It seemed that these elves considered everyone that enter this forest as hostile, and the knight was no exception. "As I said earlier, I am a knight of Sa Majesté. We have been fighting ferocious beasts day and night for a whole month to cross the river and reach this place. Our King knew a renegade clan of elves was living around here, and because he didn't want to cause unnecessary bloodshed, he sent me there first to establish a peaceful first contact." "Who told you that we are elves ? We may as well be humans, orcs or even demons for that you couldn't know." "With all due respect, I sincerely doubt any of those races would have shot an arrow as a warning before engaging in discussion, still hidden in the thick forest foliage. If you were humans, you would have tried to negotiate before shooting an arrow at me. If you were orcs, you would have aimed for my head first before asking any question, and if you were demons... I do not think the Protector Spirit would have allowed any demon to reside inside his domain in the first place." Seeing how quick-witted was this human knight called Ron, the elves understood why he was the one that has been chosen by his King to initiate discussion. "What is your objective by coming here, and how did your King invaded the forest without being repelled by the Oracle ?" "I can not discuss any of those matters with you, as these are not pieces of information a mere knight like me has access to. What I can tell you, however, is that our King went through such a pain to reach this place solely because of this supernatural being you call 'Oracle'. I do not know the details, but I know how important is our mission. I have been sent here to convince you to let us pass through your territory peacefully as well as to ask you to show us the way to the Protector Spirit. However..." In just a few seconds, the air around the knight started to change and the pressure he suddenly exerted became suffocating for the elves surrounding him. A golden aura slowly enveloped the knight's whole body, and under the thin visor of his helmet, his sharp gaze fell upon the elf that he finally located under his camouflage. "Do not test our patience. We did not come here to battle you. In fact, if you really are a renegade clan of our long-time enemy the kingdom of Aliomeri, our King might even consider you as potential allies. But if you decide to face us, we will have no mercy killing each of your people, from your bravest warriors to your youngest children, without forgetting to behead every one of your elders and burning each of your villages until nothing but ashes remain." This quick-witted knight who was casually talking to the elves a few minutes ago was now threatening them without any ounce of respect, as if these weak elves were nothing but a small pebble on the way of his King to the Protector Spirit. In reality, Ron was not the kind of guy to willingly threaten someone's child and commit cruel deeds, even during war times. His King ordered him to be flexible when meeting the elves, but he also told him to not forget being a Royal Guard of the Lyssandra kingdom. Ron could be open to discussion, but never could he yield to those elves' arrogance, and put a shame on his glorious King's name. After this sudden show of strength, the elves' camouflage withered and Ron heard them discuss among themselves. 'He is a Sword-master ! I almost choked up because of his aura pressure !' 'We need to report it to the chief as soon as possible.' 'I felt like my breath was cut off and my legs were shaking without control, this human is frightening...' 'We should not let him pass ! Did you hear what he said about killing everyone in the villages ?' 'But what else can we do ? If he said the truth and such a powerful Sword-master is nothing but a mere knight in his kingdom, who knows the size of the forces his King brought with him ?..' 'Marten, what do you think we should do ?' Ron internally laughed at this discussion. In reality, he was not just a mere knight, but the second in command of the Lyssandra Royal Guards. Only the largest empires and oldest kingdoms in the continent had legions of Sword-masters at disposal. Only those superpowers had the resources to form whole regiments of hundreds of Sword-masters. The kingdom of Lyssandra was not comparable to these powerhouses ; those huge empires and kingdoms that control the Central Continent. While the Lyssandra Kingdom was a power to be reckoned with, it was only on a small regional scale. The Lunaris continent was so wide and there were so many different types of regimes and countries that Lyssandra could only be considered at the bottom of the list, bottom-high at best. Actually, a ranking system does exist between the different countries of the Central part of Lunaris, this insane place where these major powers are constantly fighting for supremacy. Lyssandra is closer to the Central continent than the sea, but it is still too far from it to be considered an insider country. Thus, Lyssandra does not receive any kind of support from the Central continent and is not eligible for this ranking system. While being excluded from the Central continent and not receiving precious resources may look like a disadvantage and a brake for development, Ron always considered his kingdom lucky for not being a part of the Central power struggle. It is an informal truth that the closer you get to the Central part of the continent, the more likely you are to be vassalized or absorbed by a stronger country. While a few of the small countries in the Central continent gained from being vassalized, most of them are just used as giant human-reservoir that can be squeezed out during wartime. In the eyes of the major power, they are nothing else than canon fodders factory. Those small countries still surviving were only meant to be slaves for the major powers surrounding them, this was how the Central continent worked. Adding to this the constant wars being waged, the destruction of numerous kingdoms and empires every year, the powerful beings roaming the lands…Unless you were born in an already well-established family inside a strong country that has the power to stand on its own, nobody would hope to be born in the Central continent. The weak get trampled on by the strong. This was the only rule that everyone agreed on in the Central continent. Ron even heard a rumor about two of the strongest and oldest kingdoms of the Central continent that started a war two thousand years ago, but still didn't find a way to end it up to this day. This was the state the Central continent was in, as if it was a completely different world compared to the Outer continent. Great-scale battles, all-out wars, slaughters, massacres, rulers assassinations, poisoning of whole regions, pillages, rapes, demons summoning, betrayals... all of these are common occurrences in the Central continent. Despite being closer to this continuous madness than the calm Outer continent, Ron was still glad to be born in a relatively peaceful kingdom ruled by such a wise King. While Ron was lost in thoughts, waiting for the elves' response, someone finally decided to answer. "Human knight, my name is Marten. I am residing in the closest village from the Death River you crossed. While we do not seek to fight your people either, we do not plan to open our territory to the forces of an unknown King who didn't have a better idea for a first contact than sending a knight to threaten our children and elders." The elf called Marten took a brief pause to observe the knight, before continuing. "However, if the reason of your venue today is really because of the Oracle's call... Things are different." "So, what is your answer elf ?" "We can not give you an answer nor let you and your men pass before we confirmed that what you said is the truth. Tell your King to wait for our village chief's arrival. If you really look for a peaceful outcome without shedding blood, we can arrange a meeting between our respective leaders. The location will be this same place, and each of our sides can bring no more than ten armed guards." If the elves evaluated Ron as a quick-witted but powerful knight, Ron evaluated this Marten as a smart and cunning elf. While his words didn't seem suspicious, this proposition was favoring their side by a large margin. Marten put the limit at no more than 10 armed people, but Ron wasn't naive and he knew very well that more elves will be hiding in the surroundings. If a fight breaks down, the elves will be able to respond almost immediately, but the humans will be in a difficult position where they would need to escort their king out while protecting him and opposing resistance to a hidden enemy. Bringing only 10 people will seriously affect the human side and their capacity to fight on equal ground, even more against elves for whom this kind of dense forest was their natural environment. If Ron really had the right to negotiate, he would have done so and changed the conditions. However, his king only asked him to initiate the first contact without shedding blood if possible. "Very well, I will convey your words to my King. If he agrees, let us meet here six hours from now." "Six hours might be too short for the chiefs of all villages to come in time, what about three days ?" "No, elf. Six hours." Ron radiated his aura once again, before adding. "I accepted your multiple biased and disadvantageous conditions, but you have trouble accepting my only request ? My King already wasted enough of his precious time to come here. If my King accept to meet your leaders, it will be six hours from now, not even a minute later. That is all." While Ron had no right to change the conditions the elf fixed in the stead of his King, he at least imposed when the meeting will be held. The camp has been established just next to the river shore, he needed less than an hour to come to this place, which means that it wouldn't take more than two hours for a round trip. This will let four hours to inform his King and prepare for the meeting, which is far from enough. On the other hand, Ron estimated that the elves' villages were spread through the forest, and they were not all close to the river. From what he could guess, the elves that ambushed him today come from the same village, which was the closest one to this place. Six hours will probably be enough for one or two villages to mobilize, but not enough for the others villages' chiefs to join in time. Despite having to accept the biased elf's terms for the meeting, at least the condition he imposed would assure him that if a battle breaks out, his King would have to face the forces of only a single village, or two if his predictions were inaccurate. After lessening his aura and sheathing his sword still covered in dried monster blood in its scabbard, Ron turned his back and left, leaving behind those frightened elves. 'Run as fast as you can to the village, inform the chief and bring the whole vigilante corp here. Be sure to alert the other chiefs as well, we only have 6 hours left.' '...' 'What are you waiting for ?? Run idiot !!' 'Y-yes !' ___ "And this is what happened, My King." "Hmm...I see. You did good Ron. Go rest for now, it's well deserved." "Thank you, Your Highness."