Chapter 109 - Sabotage?

Cecil's group took it easy on their way to the quest location. The group used a whole day to learn from Cecil while on the road.

He was explaining some physic concepts that he learned from Earth. Although it was only middle school level material, it was enough to fascinate everyone on the carriage. Of course with the exception of Lucia since she was at the high school level now.

"Hey, Cecil... where in the world did you learn all this?"

"Well... I guess you could say that my parents were something like... explorers I guess?"

"...Explorers?"

"Well, from what I know. My parents were traveling all around the world before they had me. When they settled down nearby Fauxe Village, my house was filled with incomprehensible books and notes taken by my parents."

Cecil had activated his hyper-sensitivity and accelerated his brain's thought process.

'Crap... this is why I'd rather not have to teach these classes...'

Cecil quickly spun a story in his head and lied to his friends with a straight face. On the side, Lucia was turned around and holding back the urge to laugh at Cecil' nonsensical story.

'Pfft...Kukuku, Cel you should become a story teller instead of a mage!'

By the time this session's lesson was over, Cecil was mentally drained. He didn't want to lie to his friends, but it was better if lesser people knew about his origins.

It was early the next day when they finally arrived at the Elf's Forest Village, Calum. Just like the village's name that was situated inside the forest, the forest's name was also Calum.

When their group arrived, Cecil exclaimed when he took in the sights of the elves' unique houses. The village wasn't located on the forest's floor, but high up in the tall tree tops. Every tree was interconnected in the vicinity of the village.

Of course, they weren't connected naturally, but the elves had used nature magic to manipulate the branches of the trees to intertwine with one another and create a footing that acted as the roads in between each tree.

The large tree tops were also hollowed out in the middle and that's where the elves built their residences and facilities.

Obviously there was no smithy located in this village. The 'plazas' of the village were entirely made up of intertwined tree branches and vines. It was a village of trees in a literal sense.

Cecil and the rest were welcomed into the tree tops. The mode of transport to relocate to the top of the trees lied in a special 2-way gateway that was located inside a hollowed tree.

"...are all elf villages like this?" Cecil asked incredulously. Even in a small village there was actually a fixed spatial gateway.

"This is nothing, if you've been to Elfheim or Sunchaser city, then you'll see just how 'amazing' the elven country is." Eli replied.

"I wanna visit an elf city soon." Cecil said with an expectant smile.

"We may visit one soon enough... did you hear about the changes the academy's doing to this year's tournament?"

"Changes? What changes?" Cecil asked the lizardkin girl next to him.

"I'll answer that!" Ainz interrupted from the side. "At the third segment, the Magic race, the academy has decided to do a collaboration on this year's tournament with the Elves' Urrug Academy, the Beastman's Royal Beast Academy, and the Seafolk's Oceanic Azure Academy."

"...so it's going to be a joint tournament?"

"Yes, the first 2 segments are the qualifiers and the tournament will straight on jump into the 5th segment."

"They're skipping the 3rd and 4th segments?"

"No, the 5th segment became the 3rd segment. While a new joint 4th segment was created, I'm not sure about the details yet, but it has something to do with exploring an ancient ruin?"

"As for the last segment, I hear it's related to beast hunting."

"So... in conclusion... this year's academy is going to be fun, right?" Lucia smiled; clearly she was anticipating this year's joint tournament.

"There's going to be a lot of competition..." Fina said worriedly.

"Oh, by the way. Fina, since there's a Seafolk's academy... why didn't you enroll there? Why come all the way out to the Anglaria Kingdom to enroll in Arks Royal?"

"Uhhh... well, you could say I'm an exchange student?" Fina replied, with an unsure tone.

"I see! Well, don't hold back on your own people when we meet them later in the tournament! Just so you know, I plan to blast away everyone that stand in our way!" Lucia raised a fist and confidently said.

"Y-yeah... of course!" Fina also followed suit and raised a fist.

"Me too, me too!" Velicia joined in on them.

"...we have to make it past the qualifiers first..." Eli added.

"It's in the bag! So don't worry so much Eli!"

Lucia grabbed her friends hand and also raised it up into the air. Only the boys were inching away from the girls at the moment. Cecil quickly pulled Ainz to the side of the carriage.

"Shouldn't we join them?" Ainz asked hesitantly.

"She just declared that she'd blast away all the competition, that includes the elves... where are we right now?"

"At an.... Ohhhh!!!"

"Okay, enough with the jokes. Should be safe now." Cecil said while he kept his eyes on Lucia's group. "Listen, Ainz. I've been feeling a strange gaze directed at us ever since we crossed the gate into the village..."

"Really? Where's it from?"

"I don't know... I can't even find the source using my Mana Sense... this has never happened before and it's a little annoying." Cecil said with a frown. "Don't tell the girls. Let them stay like that so we don't draw suspicion from whoever's spying on us."

"Okay... what'll you do Cecil?"

"I'll keep my Mana Sense spread out to find the source. Just act normally."

"What we're doing isn't exactly normal by the way."

"Don't worry about that, Lucia's already noticed as well and she's casted an illusion spell. So, to whoever's spying on us, we're still with the group."

"Okay..."

"Let's head back, just make sure you keep an eye out."

"Alright."

"Don't make it too obvious though." Cecil reminded again. The two made their way back to the group and when Lucia saw this she dispelled her illusion.

"Okay, let's have breakfast first and then we'll go report to the village chief. After we've reported to him, we'll immediately head out and find the monsters."

Everyone gave their affirmation and the group had a quick breakfast. They made their way to the village chief and reported their quest.

"Ah, so it's you kids who are going to be doing this quest?"

"Yes."

"I can't believe how young you are?! Kids your age... already at the platinum rank...my gosh."

"Well, we have the ability, so you can leave the rest to us, chief. The reward is the tree sap, so we'll present you the head of the pride's leader and you'll give us the sap."

"Yes, of course... but, there's a slight problem..."

"Hm?"

"Last night, some group broke in and stole all the remaining sap."

"..."

"We could create more, but the pride of lions had decided to make our White Wood tree plantation their nesting grounds..."

"Don't worry... like I said, we'll take care of the monsters. As for the sap... I guess we can collect our reward another time?"

"...I deeply apologize." The elf chief bowed.

"Don't worry about it chief! But... let's say we find these thieves... can we keep all the sap if we catch them?"

"Of course! The sap was originally meant to be your reward, so it's alright if you keep it if you do find those abominable thieves!"

Cecil smirked and stood up to exit the house. His party followed suit and they made their way to the village's spatial gate.

"I feel like someone's deliberately sabotaging our quest." Lucia said annoyed.

"This isn't the first time someone's tried... except this time they arrived ahead of us." Ainz said.

"Despicable."

"You said it, Eli... but how'd they get our quest location? Could they have known of the quest we'd take beforehand?" Velicia asked with her hand on her chin.

"The messenger... he leaked the info." Fina said quietly.

"Yeah, it's definitely him." Cecil affirmed.

"Then... was Luc in on it too?" Velicia paled, her eyes colored in disbelief.

"Nah, he's clean. Don't worry Veli. Hey, guys. How about we go snatch Lucius away and have him join our party?" Cecil suggested with a sly smile.

"Hoho, I like the idea." Ainz said in agreement.

"How 'bout you girls?"

"No complaints here~"

"Better than having our info leaked."

"Luc in our party? I totally agree!"

"An alchemist that can also act as our tank... he's welcome."

Lucia, Elizabeth, Velicia, and Fina agreed.

"Well, we'll do that when we get back. Those factions... they're starting to get annoying." Cecil said while walking through the gate.