Elf Village 2
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Julius was led to a large oak treehouse. The guards were left outside while only two of Elder Saria’s personal guards escorted them inside. Arlayna was also led inside as she was the one who vouched for Julius.
It was rather spacious inside the oak tree since there was only one room there. This tree wasn’t as big as all the other trees he saw as he passed through the elven town. Elder Saria had explained to him that this was the home of a dryas and was used for the official meetings of the elven council.
Julius didn’t know what a dryas was exactly but he was given a rough explanation by the system.
[A nature spirit given form. Most dryas are female with little to none being male. They can also be categorized as an elemental since they are the embodiment of nature.]
Like most elementals, the dryas didn’t readily show themselves to others not of their race so Julius couldn’t see what the dryas looked like when he entered the oak treehouse.
However, what he did see were the other elders of the elven town. Naturally, most of them had rather youthful looks with only one of them being slightly more elderly.
“Is this the guest Arlayna brought here? Looks like a human to me,” One of the elders said.
He seemed a bit spiteful but after remembering what Arlayna had explained to him earlier, he could understand where he was coming from. With the humans wantonly encroaching on their lands, it was only natural that the elves be a little more critical towards the humans.
They used to have a rather neutral alignment but now things had soured so the elves were hostile towards the humans and those that looked like them.
“That’s enough, Elder Aegyr. Despite his appearance, this guest is not a human.”
“Hmph!”
He felt a little unwelcomed so Julius quickly got to the point of why he was here.
“I’ve come to offer my services to your people. I mean no harm,” Julius spoke up using his basic mastery of the elven language.
The elves were surprised to hear him speak their language but it did give them a better impression of him. No human would bother to learn their language since the elves were deemed lesser by the humans.
“You know of our language. Where did you come to learn it?”
It was hard to learn elvish and this was because an elf was needed to teach the learner. Only those who have befriended an elf were capable of this.
Julius had a hard time answering this question. The system had granted him the ability but he couldn’t just say that because it was unbelievable. His mind spun and the system helped him come up with a story.
“I lived amongst humans before and I’ve traveled here and there. My wife and I saved a few people from slave traders and one of those people happened to be an elf.”
The lie was already spun so he kept going.
“We nursed everyone back to health before letting them go. During that time, the elf we saved taught us a little bit of elvish, enough for a conversation like this.”
Julius’s elvish was rather shoddy but the elves were able to understand what he was saying.
“So what? You’re some kind of hero?” One of the ‘right-side’ elven elders derisively said.
“Hero? No, I’m not that kind,” Julius scoffed. “I’m not here to cause trouble or demand anything. I’m here only to offer my services to you in exchange for being able to trade with your village.”
“...And what kind of services are you referring to?”
“Protection. I can help you keep those humans out of your forests. In exchange, I’d like to have free passage through the forest for my people, and most importantly, I’d like to establish friendly relations with you and trade with your people.”
“We don’t need protection, but it’s not entirely impossible to establish friendly relations and trade if you can give us something back,” Elder Saria said. “However, what do you mean by ‘your people’?”
“Us Fiends are currently residing in the Shifting Hallows.”
Saria already knew that Julius was living in the hallows, but she thought it was only him and his wife. He never mentioned anything about his ‘people’ earlier. Arlayna and her team actually forgot about this detail since they thought the homunculi were just Julius’s pets or something.
Arlayna thought for a moment before remembering those faceless monsters. She quickly stepped forward and said, “I can vouch for this. I’ve already seen his ‘people’ before.”
“You have?” An elder asked.
“Yes, when we were helped by Mr. Julius earlier, his ‘people’ were patrolling the area.”
“So just like the humans, they came into our forest without permission?”
“...”
Julius quickly spoke up when he heard this.
“Forgive me, but I did not have any idea that this was an elf forest. My wife and I, along with our people, were banished by the humans using their strange magic. We were sent to the Shifting Hallows after they found out about our race. Previously, we were living in a remote corner of the Ephalerith Empire’s lands.”
When they heard about the Empire, the elves soon became quiet. None of the elves have personally gone to the Empire because it was located so far away from where they were but they have heard about it.
“Hmph, humans...so discriminative and petty. Well, if you aren’t a human then we welcome you. As for trade, we’ll have to discuss things at a later time and as for permission to move about in our forest, we’ll give you a map and allow you to move only through specific areas,” The elderly elf of the group said.
He seemed to be the leader of everyone here and after his words, the derisive and protesting elves from before didn’t say anything in response. He was their grand elder and the wisest of them all.
Grand Elder Hyacinth thought that it was better to not make an enemy of Julius and his people because he knew next to nothing about a race called the Fiends. He could feel through his connection with nature that although what he physically saw was just one Julius present but it felt like there were many of ‘him’ standing there.
Hyacinth couldn’t quite explain this feeling but it was the first time he felt a single creature radiate such a chaotic aura. He wanted to learn more about Julius and his race before officially declaring their stance.
The elves still needed to deal with the humans so having another ally was better than having another enemy.
“About your proposal of offering your services―”
The doors to the oak house were swung open abruptly as an elf quickly rushed in and reported.
“Elders, those humans. They’re attacking again. They got Ysolte!”
“Quickly prepare for a sortie!”
“We have no time for this. Grand Elder, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Yes, me too, elder.”
While the elves got busy and began excusing themselves, Julius immediately asked the Grand Elder, “Sir, shall I show you how we can be of service?”
“...”
Hyacinth was just about to tell Julius that he’d have to wait another day since the elder thought that it was best if their town’s problems were resolved by themselves, but now that the human threat was knocking on their front door and had even captured one of their own people, Hyacinth couldn’t sit back and tell him that they’d take care of the problems themselves.
The humans were numerous and although the elves had an advantage in terrain, they needed to rescue someone, not force them away. It wasn’t that they lacked any fine warriors, but the losses that they would take in trying to rescue the captured elf...he didn’t even want to think about it.
They already lost some fine soldiers during the past few months. Killed, crippled, or captured, if this continued, they’d lose all of their warriors and without anyone defending their town, they’d be meat on the chopping block once the humans launched a full-scale invasion.
The humans’ motives were still unknown but it was clear as day that they were trying to capture the elves and not kill them. If it were slave traders, then the elves didn’t have to worry, but the humans who had come were all knights.
A formal power was trying to capture their lands or capture their people. Either one of the two wasn’t good at all.
After a long time was spent contemplating, Grand Elder Hyacinth finally relented. “Fine, if you can successfully rescue and aid my fellow elves in repelling the humans, we can immediately talk about establishing trade between our two races.”
Julius smirked and immediately transmitted his thoughts to Eisha through the collective consciousness that connected them.
“My Love, it looks like we have some work to do.”
“What is it, Honey~?”
“Man-hunting…” Julius transmitted, a smile slowly creeping onto his face.
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