Chapter 69: Nice

Nice. My skill didn't pop up even after I swallowed it. So this girl didn't put poison in here, after all.

"It's good, general. Try some." I offered the canned tuna to general Emilio, who looked at me questioningly. It was actually my way of saying 'this food is safe'.

He hesitated for a bit, before finally looking at the girl and saying, "thank you."

"I'm glad you won't starve." Firiell said, beaming with happiness. What an odd choice of words. Not a lot of people would mention such extremes as starving, right after offering some food.

"Why are you here, Firiell?" I asked, trying to probe some information out of her.

"I live here... I don't have a home inside the town." She looked down, fidgeting with the hem of her worn-out jacket.

"I see... Do you live here alone?" I questioned further. I didn't really want to ask why, since most people who didn't have a home tend to have unpleasant reasons, and I respected their privacy... Though, I could use some useful info for this raid. A little bit of probing should be fine, right?

"Yes. Dad isn't from here, so he went back to his hometown sometime after I was born. And mom, she..." Firiell paused and bit her lips, "let's just say she didn't want me anymore."

I opened my mouth, and then closed it again. I wanted to comfort her since I knew what it felt like to be abandoned by our parents, but should I console our hostage? Wouldn't it be very hypocritical of me?

"But it's okay! Dad sends people to give me canned tuna and water every week! Sometimes he even brought clothes and other food, too," Firiell started smiling again, although timidly, "and mom said that I'll find some friends and be okay, so..."

Ah. So that's why she was so fixated on making friends. Oh gosh, what have we done? We were getting her hopes up, just to reveal to her that she was our hostage all this time! No!

"Ahem. I see your condition is not very good. But according to your story, you seem to know this place very well, right? Do you perhaps know of a way to get to the rooftop without going through the staircase?" Jeanne quickly steered the topic away. She probably had the same thought as me.

"Yes. Firiell knows. You guys want to go up?" She asked with her big, dolly eyes that still glimmered even though her face looked worn-out. I guess elves weren't known for their beauty for nothing.

"Can you please guide us there?" Jeanne said as she offered a 'corporational smile', as I would like to call it.

"Sure. Follow me!" She exclaimed excitedly.

"Wait, wait." I interrupted.

I really felt bad that we just kept using her even though she was just an innocent victim of our war against the elves. Wait, if we really managed to make the elves surrender, didn't that mean that we would get innocent elves involved, too? Were we the baddies, though?

"Uh, here. We actually have some food," I said as I quickly rummaged through my supply backpack and took out a few bread rolls we packed up earlier, alongside a can of energy drink, "these are for you."

"I thought you guys were hungry?" Firiell questioned while I piled up the goods onto her arms. Although confused, she looked visibly elated.

"We... Just like to share and trade food with others, yeah..." I scratched my cheek nervously. Ah man, why must war be this mean? I couldn't even properly care for an innocent child, just because she was on the 'opposing side'. It didn't matter whether I was fighting against fellow humans like back in my days, or if I was fighting against monsters here.

War was always the meanest to those most innocent, no matter where or when.

"Thank you, friend!" She happily piped up, stored them inside her jacket pockets, and started to lead us towards the rooftop.

We stayed silent while we marched slowly towards the back of the house, up a tree, through a second-floor window, another tree, another window, and finally, the rooftop.

"Gosh, I hope I won't fall through... It'd be like respawning at my latest save point because I died after trying so hard to get through a level. Such a bother." I sighed as I very carefully threaded on the roof tiles that were already full of holes.

"What do you want to do here?" Firiell asked.

"We want to go inside the town, but um, through somewhere else than the gate." I tried to explain it as best as I could so she wouldn't suspect us, even though it probably wasn't needed anyway.

If she wanted to suspect us, she would've already suspected us way earlier. After all, who wouldn't suspect three strangers who came barging into their house? Something was wrong with her head, man.

"Oh, the guards won't let you in? Don't worry, me too," she giggled happily, "here, follow me. I do know a route inside."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Jeanne and general Emilio, who seemed to catch the same thing as I did. 'Me too'? She wasn't even allowed to go in? But why? Ah, so many questions, so little answers...

Even though we all wore a confused expression, we still followed the little girl, regardless. She went to the edge of the rooftop, and extended her hand towards a faraway tree near a house in the town area.

"Grow." She uttered one word, and the tree suddenly spawned a new branch. And then another. And another one, until the branches were long enough to reach us.

"Jeanne, is that--"

"That's magic. Elves aren't supposed to have magic, they just receive nature's blessing that strengthens their mana. But how could she...?" Jeanne's eyes were wide, and she looked like she couldn't believe what was happening before her eyes, either.

"...Am I weird?" Firiell looked at us as she looked down, slightly hiding her eyes under her bangs, but not hidden enough for us to not see the sadness in her gaze.

"Yeah, weird. But nothing's wrong with that," I quickly answered, "I mean, I'm also considered 'weird' and 'different', but so what, right?" I sighed.

"Huh? It's okay?" She looked up.

"Yeah. What's the problem? Weird is kinda subjective anyway, you'd always be weird to someone," I shrugged, "anyway, thanks for helping us. Let's go, then."

I gave her head a single pat and hopped on the huge, thick branch. A little wonky, but it would probably be okay to cross.

"You. Come." General Emilio said to the little girl.

"I can come? You want me to come?" Her eyes widened, and joy could be seen on her face.

Instead of answering, general Emilio just lightly shoved the girl onto the branch and followed behind her. Jeanne soon followed and we started to carefully tread on the branch to cross over.

I looked over at Firiell, who was fidgeting with her hands, cheeks slightly flushed and a smile was apparent on her face. Ah, she was probably excited that general Emilio invited her over, but actually, he probably meant something like 'you're a hostage, so you're coming with us'. Man, I wish the situation could be handled without the need for hostages. But life usually wouldn't be that kind.

Once I've crossed over to the tree, I slowly climbed down, making sure that I didn't make loud noises to not alert any townsfolk here.

"Here, Firiell." I extended my hands towards her, who was still on the tree, motioning for her to jump at me.

"C-can I?" She hesitated for a bit, but her eyes looked so eager to jump.

"Yeah. Why not?" I smiled at her, and she finally jumped at me. I successfully caught her and let her down. She really didn't wanna trouble others, huh? Didn't know elves could be so polite.

"What's next, general Emilio?" Jeanne muttered as they both jumped down from the tree.

"We'll wait for a bit here, let's wait until they start to panic over the forest fire. And then we'll sneak into their castle," he answered, "kid, do you know a way to the castle?"

"Yes! I do--"

'THWAP!'

"Ah...?" Jeanne gasped when she saw an arrow pierced general Emilio's left shoulder, right beside his shoulder plate.

I immediately turned around and aimed my rifle towards the direction where the arrow came from, but all I saw were just bushes. Not wanting to risk a second surprise arrow, I opened fire and showered the bushes with bullets. Didn't really matter who or why. If it was a threat, it was a threat.

Although the silencer worked effectively, the sound couldn't completely be dismissed, making me nervous if somebody was going to find us.

"General Emilio!" Jeanne exclaimed and immediately rummaged through her bag to take out a first-aid kit.

"Ugh... Is this poisoned?" General Emilio winced a bit, but he remained stoic and endured the pain.

'SWOOSH!'

"This--!" General Emilio quickly dodged to his left, narrowly missing another arrow.

"Still alive!?" I exclaimed in surprise, and readied myself to fire another round.

"What's your business here?" The perpetrator's voice surprised us, but that didn't stop me from firing, regardless.

'Thwang!'

"Barriers?" I stopped firing when I saw my bullets just got flicked off by a round, yellow-greenish barrier.

"I shall ask again, intruders. What is your business here?"

The figure emerged from the bushes, and revealed a beautiful, long-haired male elf who was wielding a bow and arrows. Before we could answer, more rustles were heard around us and in a matter of seconds, elves of various weapons emerged from behind the trees, houses, bushes, and surrounded us.

"Is this a trap?" I muttered under my breath. Damn.