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.

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."

I wasn't quite following what she meant. "So does that mean the gods you worship, revived?"

"Correct! Our great gods have revived!" She seemed to be quite ecstatic about it.

-How do they know they've been revived though..- But even though I was skeptical, I decided to roll with it. "So what gods do you worship?" I casually stroked Ilios's head as we talked.

Her bright mood darkened slightly once again. "You know, we usually aren't too fond of telling outsiders that.."

Her slightly judgmental look pinched a nerve. 

As I started pressuring her with my aura, I gave her a threatening look. "It seems my generosity has made you forget the situation you were in."

Her face quickly paled as she broke into a cold sweat and hung her head low towards the ground. "I'm very sorry! Please forgive my impudence!" Her terrified look from earlier quickly returned.

Although things deescalated when I started asking questions and making lackluster demands, things between us were still far from peaceful.

It was a shame that even though I wanted to try and be nice, the town's seemingly innate hatred of outsiders made it impossible.

-If you guys would just relax, I wouldn't try to force it on you..- "So let me ask again. What gods do you worship?"

"W..we worship the gods Dagr and Nótt.. The gods of Day and Night." She had to take a deep breath to relax as I eased up the pressure.

"What makes you such a devout follower of them?"

"T..they are the gods responsible for elven longevity and demihuman strength.." Her face showed a bit of hesitation as she spoke.

"Haah.." Deciding not to question it further for now, I changed the topic. "So how often are the pilgrimages?"

"Once every 15 years.. the next one is coming up soon."

A slight smile crept onto my face hearing the good news. -Great timing..-

After that, we continued to chat for a while until I left and moved up to a quiet spot at the top of the tree.

I spent practically all my time practicing magic and exploring the town, but there honestly wasn't too much to see besides admiring the general beauty of the area.

After a few days of practicing magic and loitering around, I ended up getting bored and asking the elder for directions to the nearest city, but, since the route was too 'dangerous and complicated', I was provided a guide.

The issue was that this so-called 'guide' wasn't in town and wasn't going to be back for a bit.

Thankfully though, they didn't take too long.

"Are you Vasilias?" A crude woman's voice with a clear hostility rang out from behind me.

She was blatantly impolite but thankfully for her, my irritation from a few days ago had calmed down. "Yeah. Who would you be."

Giving an angry and disgusted look, she skipped the formalities. "My name is Thyra Haraldson. You can call me Captain.."

-What an unfitting name..- "Well then, Miss Haraldson. When are we leaving?"

As I casually stood up, she pulled out her sword and held it to my neck. "Keep my family name out of your mouth." She wore a furious look, like she had to hold back to not kill me.

It was a look I wasn't too fond of. "Have you ever experienced death?" I glanced back at her as I brushed dust off my sleeves.

"What are you-"

*Shing*

With only the noise to signal anything happening, my greatsword appeared just over the top of her head.

Her face quickly paled, but her aggressive look didn't fade. -She's still holding up that facade?-

It was clear that she was practically sh*tting herself, but instead of running away, she further pressed the blade of her sword against my neck.

"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..-