Chapter 158: A Deep Rabbit Hole

Chapter 158: A Deep Rabbit Hole

Mid Evening - Early Spring : Syashara, Siratha

"How about I start with a few questions." I turned back to the elf in my grasp with a slightly crazed smile.

Her face simply paled as I tightened my grip.

"OI!" A deep man's voice rang out through the night. "GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF HER!"

Looking up towards the voice I saw a large man falling towards me with a long glaive.

"DON-"

Interrupting the elven woman's scream, I used wind magic to smack the man across the forest.

*CRACK*

The elven woman watched with tear filled eyes as the man was launched hundreds of meters away.

*Fw-Fw-Fwip*

The instant I turned my head away to watch the man fly off, another 3 archers shot at my chest.

-Still?!- Getting more agitated, I swung the elf in my hands around and used her body like a shield instead of dodging.

*Sh-Sh-Shink*

Piercing cleanly through her armor, the arrows got lodged in her abdomen.

"Ack.." She gritted her teeth as she looked down to see metal arrowheads poking out of her stomach.

"It seems like some of you didn't get the message.." But the instant I created 3 steel beads in my palm, the older elf finally figured out the situation.

"EVERYONE DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" She wore an ashamed look.

"B..but, E..elder.." The woman in my hands struggled to voice her objection.

Almost immediately, the elder gave her a threatening look. "No objections."

*Clank-thump-thud*

The noise of weapons falling to the ground filled the air.

-Took you long enough..- At this point, I was more annoyed than anything else.

Giving a deep bow towards me, the elder held her head low. "Oh mighty being. We apologize for our prior impudence, if there is any way we can earn your forgiveness, we are willing to do anything."

-She's a fast thinker..- "About damn time.." Casually releasing the elven woman in my hands, she fell to her knees and gasped for air. "Let's start with some questions."

After that, things finally started deescalating and I ended up asking several questions to figure out where exactly this town was.

As it turned out, this was a 'suspended town' known as Syashara in the far northern part of Siratha. [1]

According to the elder, this was a fairly average town for Siratha, but the town still had around 10,000 residents with the weakest of them being around D rank and the average being B rank.

Compared to human nations, this was an astonishing difference in strength, but when considering the environment, it wasn't too shocking.

Later on, I asked what the structure of Siratha was like, but it turned out to be the one theory I figured was just a blind assumption in the texts I read.

The entire country turned out to actually be composed of a bunch of towns that all operated independently with only the big cities sharing the same management, laws, and rules as the capital.

It still sounded outlandish to me, but according to the elder, most of the towns still shared similar rules since they all participated in mass pilgrimages to the capital.

-How big must the capital be to hold that many people though..- By now, the situation had calmed quite a bit, and the elder had escorted me to a private room. (Her office) "What is the pilgrimage for?"

She gave me a shocked look as I asked. "It used to be for simple prayer for the revival of our gods, but.." Her face quickly lightened up as a wide smile crept onto her face. "At the last pilgrimage, 12 years ago, instead of a prayer for revival, it was a prayer for return."

"Wow, you're more tenacious than I thought." I gave a provoking smile that she didn't seem to like.

Gritting her teeth and tightening her grip, she tried to cut through my neck.

*DING*

With a heavy flick, the sword was launched out of her hands and lodged in the building on the branch over from us.

Not quite realizing what happened, she just stood there, stunned and speechless.

As I walked past her, I sheathed my sword and set my hand on her shoulder. "Let me know when we're leaving, I'll be at the top of the tree."

She collapsed to her knees the instant I pulled my hand off her shoulder.

-Maybe you'll learn to be more respectful next time..-

Quickly making my way back to the top of the tree where it was nice and quiet, I laid back down to take a nap.

When I woke up, around a day had passed and I sensed a muscular demihuman man climbing up to me. "What do you need?"

"You are Sir Whyte, correct?" He wore a surprisingly polite and formal smile.

"Yes? Are you in the group that's guiding me to the city?"

"To Morva Asari, yes." He gave a shallow but polite bow.

-I quite like him so far..- Being put into a slightly better mood, I patted Ilios to make sure he was up. "Are we leaving now?"

"Within a few minutes, Sir."

"Alrighty, then." Casually rolling off the branch I was on, I fell past the man and onto a larger, lower branch.

*thud*

With a quick look around, I found Thyra talking to two other elves that were all geared up. -There they are..-

Nonchalantly walking up to them, I could overhear their conversation.

"So we're bringing that guy, and that foreigner kid?"

"It was a direct order from the elder, but how are we going to deal with him if two people are around?"

"Cap said she’d explain through sound magic as we ran. We should at least keep him comfortable to not raise any worries at first."

"Right, I don't have a problem with that but.."

Both the elves glanced over at Thyra who was oozing bloodlust.

"Please just put up with it until the time arises, Captain."

"Neither of you understand.." She wore the face of someone ready to kill.

Neither of the other elves seemed to pay it mind though.

As they were staring at her, I walked up without them noticing. "Yo. Are you the guide team?"

Immediately jolting from my unexpected appearance, the elves looked at me like I was a ghost.

"Yes!" Lightly pushing the other two out of the way, Thyra walked up to me and gave an extremely deep bow. "I'm sorry for my prior disrespect, Sir Whyte!"

The other two in the group watched the scene in awe at her seemingly fear driven apology.

Although it’d usually feel good seeing someone bow so deeply, this time it just left a bad taste in my mouth. -She's quite a good actor..-