Chapter 227: Chapter 227 - To the Elven Forest
PoV: Aurea
"Shalia, your network is impressive... to think that she would have managed to plant an anchor here, so close to the front lines."
"I agree that she is awesome, Aurea. But I have to point out that it’s actually the dragonkin who advanced so much that it reached this place."
We are on a forested hill not too far away from one of the biggest cities of Castro, the fortified town of Kranata.
And, now that Lovelace pointed it out, it is indeed quite weird that the front lines of the war are so close to this city. They are usually further south. I don’t remember the dragonkin ever crossing the Tesho River before.
In any case, this is where we are, our westernmost portal anchor. The closest to the dragonkin’s army that we could teleport to.
"Aurea, Lovelace, your praise is appreciated, but this is not the right time. We need to get moving fast."
"Shalia is right, you two. Let’s go."
"Oh, of course. Sorry, Shalia and Yawarete."
We hurry up to the northwest, putting distance behind us and our portal anchor.
It would be sad if the Castro army spotted us right away and learned about this teleport spot, after all. I don’t want to render Shalia’s subordinates’ work to waste.
"Do you think that the elves will accept receiving us?"
That’s the million-dollar question, Lovelace. Shalia knows that, so she shakes her head as she answers.
"We have no way of knowing. I don’t know how much they know about the state of affairs in human society."
"As normally the only interactions they have with humans are adventurers seeking to kidnap the young ones to sell as slaves, I doubt that they will be friendly right away. We can expect to be attacked on sight."
I had to butt in and say it in clear terms. The elves will have no reason to trust us. And a lot of rightful reasons to hate us.
Yet, we’ll have to reach their hearts, somehow.
It was only last week that I escaped from being killed by Lovelace in that damned subspace, and we’re already facing an impossible mission.
To establish friendly relations with the elves that live deep within the woods that lie between the human realms to the east and the dragon mountains to the west.
That forest is situated north of the historic battlefield of the Dragon Wars. Which means northwest from where we are now.
The beastkin have a history of amiable relations with both dragonkin and elves. That’s the main reason Yawarete is with us, as the head elder of the cat tribe.
Shalia is an elf, but she was born in human lands. The daughter of a slave, like myself. She learned their language and a bit of their culture but never lived the culture.
Still, there’s no point in worrying about that right now. We have to cross the land of Castro without being noticed first.
:::
"I think that we can stay in an inn in that town. We’ve been walking all day, and even if someone recognizes us, we can simply portal away. We’re far enough from our arrival point, after all."
"I agree. Camping outside in this moment of war would only be more conspicuous."
As I state my agreement with Yawarete’s proposal, Shalia takes a thing from one of her pockets and walks to a tree nearby.
"Okay. I’ll just put this little wax thing in... oh, here. A good little hole at ground level. Nobody would search here."
I nod repeatedly... increasing our network’s range is always a good thing.
And anyway, I don’t expect to be recognized in this place. We’re too far away from any place of decision-making. And I doubt that anyone here will know my face.
And I’ll use the illusion on my hair. That is the feature that stands out the most, besides the two non-human members of our group...
And we have the perfect thing for them. Fake slave collars. Nobody will look at them twice.
The best way to hide something is to show it in a natural manner. As long as people take for granted that all beastkin and elves are slaves, if they have a marker of slavery, they are as good as invisible.
:::
It’s been some time since I last walked so much... Space magic is very useful, but it’s too useful sometimes. I think I might have become a sedentary person again.
Not that I’m actually fatigued or anything. It’s more like... I just got too complacent lately, taking portals for granted.
And now, we’ve been walking for five days, always stopping in towns to sleep before resuming the march the next day.
All the while, the war lines are at our left, sometimes within view.
"This war is weird... it looks more like modern wars of my old world than medieval wars..."
I mutter so only Lovelace picks up what I’m saying. With what she saw in my memories, she would be able to understand what I mean.
"Yes, it is very different from normal warfare between human nations. And also different from the war I witnessed all those centuries ago."
"Different from that time? So it wasn’t like this?"
"No... and I think that this is the result of the Adventuring System."
"Huh? How so?"
Lovelace takes a deep breath before explaining. There comes a rant. Yay, lore!
"Remember that the System has a limited range? It works similarly to the power of a deity. Well, the dragonkin don’t have faith in the System nor the goddess, have they?"
"I think not..."
"Exactly. That means that the deeper you go into territory they control, the weaker the effects of the System and the goddess’ blessings will be."
"Oh, so if an army advances too much into their territory, they will get weaker and be wiped out."
"Exactly, again. So the only safe way to advance is by strengthening the ground as you go, thus extending the range of the goddess and the system. You can’t have wedges; the whole line has to move in sync."
"And that makes it easier for the dragonkin to build up defenses, thus creating that state of trench warfare."
"My girlfriend is as perceptive as always..."
"No, no... you’re the one who pointed it all out to me."
"Hey you two... would you mind stopping all that flirting? You’re making Shalia jealous, as she is single."
"Hey! I’m not jealous! You were the one muttering right now..."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about..."
Hehehe.
"Okay, okay, don’t fight, you two... We’ll stop. Anyway, how much longer until we reach the forest?"
"From what I remember from the maps, three more days."
Ugh, an eight-day march. Yeah, all that office work leading the army and moving around almost exclusively through portals is biting me back.
:::
Finally...
A line of trees extends on the horizon. We reached the Elven Forest at last!
"Don’t go celebrating too much, Aurea. We don’t know how many days of walking inside the forest we’ll take until we find the elves."
Ugh.
"Yeah, you’re right, Shalia. But please, let a girl have hope, would you?"
We all need hope, after all.
"Okay, okay. Well, there is one thing we have to commemorate. We didn’t get caught. Eight days within Castro’s territory, and not a single confrontation."
"Shalia’s right. That’s a huge victory for us."
Yawarete chimed in with her own evaluation of the situation, but I have to tune down the excitement.
"They are fighting a huge war against dragonkin, and it isn’t going well. Of course they would be too focused on that to pay attention to a pair of humans with their slaves walking around."
:::
As we enter the forest, our happy banter is suddenly interrupted.
"So pretty..."
"And it’s all so quiet... it feels like a sanctuary."
I nod silently at Yawarete and Shalia’s words. It’s not like it’s absolute silence. We can hear the chirp of birds and the buzz of insects. Yet, the place feels sacred and quiet.
I can’t say what specifically is so beautiful in this place, as there’s nothing out of the ordinary. But at the same time, everything has some sort of sacred aura.
After an hour walking inside that forest, Lovelace is the first to feel the change within the two of us.
"The System..."
"Yes, I feel it too. It disappeared, right?"
"Yeah. Too abruptly. Which means that we just crossed into official elven territory."
It has been slowly weakening since we entered the forest. But, right now, it was just cut off.
The weakening was probably just us getting too far from the areas with a strong presence of the goddess. The cutting off means we entered an area where another faith reigns.
"You are right. Stay where you are, the four of you, if you don’t want to die."
I’ve gotten too used to the traits of the System. I wasn’t even able to detect their presence without it. Well, they also eluded Yawarete and Shalia, so they must have good stealth skills. Actual skills, not the ones of the System.