Ch.12Contact

Crunch! Crunch!

“Agh!”

“What is it?! Are we under attack?!”

“N-no, sir! Just stepped on a thorn…!”

“…Is that all?”

The area that Jihak could protect extended precisely to the plains where Amurtat city stood. From the entrance of the Western Forest onward, it was territory that had to be pioneered by pure human strength.

Workers with tools were dispatched today to clear land and lay basic foundations for an outpost for forest wardens who would manage the entire Western Forest. Several soldiers were also assigned to escort them against potential threats.

Swish! Swish!

“What kind of forest doesn’t let in even a single ray of sunlight? I’d like to cut down all those leaves.”

The senior soldier at the front grumbled as he slashed through the densely grown underbrush with a thick dagger.

Unlike forests on varied terrain, the Western Forest on the plains was characterized by thick foliage that blocked sunlight, making the ground level quite dark. While not dark enough to require torches, many things that would be visible in daylight went unnoticed, and in those gaps, lives could be lost.

Moreover, forests were hardly friendly places for humans.

The branches alone could easily pierce human skin, not to mention various ticks and poisonous insects. Puddles of water mixed with decomposing corpses and dead branches falling without warning. And forests were places teeming with powerful beasts ready to kill humans at any moment.

Setting all that aside, until recently this forest had housed quite a large group of bandits, though they had since been eliminated.

The forest had claimed forty soldiers, and with that memory still fresh, the soldiers’ boots stomped the ground with particular heaviness.

“It’s here.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m telling you it is. What do you take my ten years of field experience for…”

“If you’re certain, let’s begin.”

“Keep it down as much as possible; beasts might appear.”

The soldiers admonished the workers to work quietly, then silently took up their spears and stood guard.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Once they fell silent, only the sounds of cutting down dead trees and pulling up ground vegetation continued in the forest. Predators, detecting the smell of potential food, approached a couple of times, but when the soldiers brandished their sharp-edged spears, the beasts could only salivate and retreat.

Rustle… rustle…

Suddenly, the atmosphere of the forest changed.

Quietly but unmistakably—enough for everyone from soldiers to workers to notice.

“Something’s there!”

Swish!

The senior soldier shouted and lifted his spear from the ground with both hands.

Soon other soldiers began to assume combat positions one by one, and their spear tips pointed toward the source of a faint bloody scent.

“!”

“Elves!”

There was an elf there.

No, to be more precise…

Rustle…

“There are too many…”

There were ‘elves.’

*

“Elves appeared?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. They made contact while building the forest wardens’ outpost deep in the forest.”

“Hmm….”

Elves.

A female race born from trees inhabited by spirits, with long ears.

Naturally, they were a hunting race living in forests, and their civilization level was at best Bronze Age. But as a race that liked to claim entire forests as their territory, they were formidable opponents in guerrilla warfare, capable of reducing enemies to tears once properly engaged.

“So? What did they demand?”

“Nothing, actually.”

“Nothing?”

“Yes. In fact…”

The aide gave me a detailed explanation.

Workers and soldiers escorting them had gone deep into the forest to build the forest wardens’ outpost at the location I had specified. While clearing the area to construct the building, the workers encountered an elven scout party.

Momentarily, a hostile atmosphere formed, but it was the elven scouts who fled first. Our side hurriedly finished the basic work and hastily withdrew.

“I see… They encountered a scout party… Any distinguishing features?”

“They were all armed with bows, and there was a slight smell of blood, as if they had been hunting.”

“No game visible?”

“No. Perhaps they had already stored it away?”

“That’s possible, but more likely they had wounded among them.”

“Ah…!”

Just as humans can walk on their own after being stabbed if they receive proper first aid, elves, sharing many traits with humans, could certainly walk on their own with some injuries as long as they weren’t fatal.

“They probably avoided engagement because they had wounded. Those pointy-eared ones are notorious for shooting arrows without warning, yet they retreated on their own, didn’t they?”

“Then what should we do going forward? We can’t keep attaching troops to the forest wardens indefinitely…”

“Hmm….”

While forest wardens might sound peaceful, in this world even beasts were formidable, so wardens necessarily had to learn to use swords and bows.

They didn’t have systematic battle formations or a rigid command structure like the army, but they were capable of delaying intruders and alerting others to invasions.

But elves were entirely different beings.

How different? It’s somewhat difficult to explain, but let me give an example.

Imagine Mongolian horsemen selling their horses to buy bows and arrows in bulk, then practicing archery constantly during the time they would have spent riding.

Naturally, their arrows rarely missed unless there was extreme bad luck, and they aimed for the gaps in plate armor or joint vulnerabilities, dropping opponents with precision. Unless you sent over ten thousand troops in a mad rush, no one could defeat them in the forest.

“For now, continue with the construction. Given that they sent scouts, they probably don’t have their main base nearby. They likely came along treacherous mountain paths at the forest’s edge—paths that humans can’t cross but elves can.”

“I see….”

“Still, we need to prepare for contingencies, so the army will have to endure some hardship for a while. Can you manage that, Lord Ignatz?”

“Of course, Your Majesty. Leave it to me.”

Ignatz, who had been listening with a serious expression, responded heartily.

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely convinced, but for now, I had no choice but to trust the word of this knight of Amurtat.

“Make sure they always carry medical supplies. Absolutely no solo actions. And have them bring sweet things like honey and preserved meats in case an opportunity arises.”

“But that will significantly increase costs and time…”

The aide said with a worried face.

Although the warehouses were reportedly filling up due to increased trade volume, such thorough preparation for this kind of situation seemed excessive, bordering on extravagance.

However, I possessed the proud art of bullshitting.

“No, this is a form of investment.”

“Investment… you say?”

The aide asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, their main living area is the forest. But forests are surprisingly boring places. They get damp when it rains… there are more inedible things than edible ones, and one wrong move could mean death from poisonous mushrooms. What would a race living in such a dangerous place want?”

“Well….”

The aide gradually fell silent.

Given his age and experience, he was beginning to catch on to what I was implying.

Blank stare.

Except for Ignatz, of course. That muscle-brain.

“Elves have no pastures or apiaries. But we have both.”

“Ah! You mean to tempt them with what they don’t have!”

“Exactly, Lord Ignatz. Their sweetness is limited to wild berries from bushes or a bit of honey from flower petals. Once they taste human-made honey, other confections, and meat, they won’t easily let go.”

Eating tender, well-roasted meat to one’s fill, then crunching on honey confections for dessert was something even the poor of Amurtat could do if they set their minds to it—because they had the income to purchase it and a market where it was available.

But not elves.

Historically, agricultural peoples displaced nomadic ones thanks to the development of systems that could distribute surplus production throughout society without conflict, and the gradual improvement of productivity using those distributed surpluses.

Although Amurtat was a box-like city without walls or moats, it wasn’t so desperate that it couldn’t cater to the tastes of some pointy-eared folk.

I would bet that in just a few years, elves would start bribing their elders to be selected for scout parties.

The forest might guarantee survival, but it didn’t guarantee prosperity.