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nCh. 86: Encounter after Discovering

nAlthough Feuille had told them that his village was two hours away, it seemed that it was indeed in elven standards, as around double that time had passed until they arrived at something like a village.

nThe way there wasn’t an easy one, where they continued to see things fight each other, with the winner eating the loser. As they continued to see such bloody sights, Feuille’s face had gone from blue to pure white, while Loren and Lapis had disgusted looks on their faces.

n“These animals keep attacking us too. Who knows what would’ve happened if Shayna wasn’t with us.”

nIf Shayna hadn’t been using her energy drain around them, they might’ve been attacked by many more things.

nIf some of them were bugs, both Loren and Lapis had no way of dealing with them, so they might’ve had to retreat.

nIf they were unlucky, they would’ve fell right then and there.

n‘Onii-san, I can keep going so leave it to me.’

nShayna, who was floating in the corner of Loren’s sight, said as she puffed out her chest, but Loren was very thankful to her.

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n“So, is that the village you live in Feuille?”

nAcross the trees and shrubbery was an open space.

nThere were fences as tall as a person, and on the other side was a few buildings made of logs.

nThey were still in the undergrowth so it was slightly dark, but they could see sunlight pouring in on that spot.

n“Yes! This is my…”

n“I see. This is, huh…”

nFeuille started to answer in a light hearted voice, but stopped when he heard Loren mutter over him, and looked up at him, looking towards the village from the shadow of a tree.

nNot having the time to notice Feuille’s reaction, Loren, who was looking over at the village, asked Lapis, who was looking at the village as well, in a small voice.

n“How is it?”

n“The question is so vague I can’t specify an answer.”

nHearing Lapis’ response, Loren gave her a hard look.

nNoticing it, Lapis shrugged.

n“What do you mean by how it is?”

n“How the village looks. What do you think about it?”

n“It’s too quiet and I don’t see anyone.”

nHearing her words, Feuille looked back at his village.

nUsually there would be armed adults at the entrance, as well as adults that patrolled the fence, and on the other side would be children and their parents.

nBut right now, he couldn’t see a trace of anyone.

nWorry started to build up inside, as he thought maybe something had happened to the village, and he wanted to run in there as fast as he could, but both Loren and Lapis continued to stay within the shadows and didn’t show any signs of moving out.

n“Umm…Loren? Lapis?”

n“I know what you want to say. I know that, but…”

nAs Feuille tried to ask them until when they were going to be hiding there, Loren answered him, scratching his head.

nFeuille’s eyes widened in surprise, as he felt a refusal to go any closer if he could in his words.

n“This is obviously strange. It’s still the middle of the day, but we can’t see anyone. It’s like screaming that something happened.”

n“I agree…Loren! Above you!”

nLapis, who agreed with Loren’s muttering, suddenly let out a cry of warning, as if she had seen something.

nLoren, immediately reacting by swinging the great sword he had been holding in his right hand, drawn, but when he discerned the thing that was the cause of Lapis’ warning, he released his left hand from the grip of the sword and blocked his face.

nFrom above his covered head, the thing that attacked bit into his arm, and at the same time, wrapped its arms and legs onto Loren’s body.

n“You’re kidding, right…”

nTaking a good look at what bit him, Loren couldn’t help but let out a mutter of disbelief.

nWhat had attacked him from above silently, without him noticing until Lapis had warned him of it, was an elf with disheveled hair.

nThe elf which bared its teeth and was biting onto his arm was male, and from its physique, he could see that it was still a boy.

nThe elf boy breathed heavily, let out a growl like a beast, and started putting more strength into his jaws, trying to bite off Loren’s flesh, but his bites were shallow, as his teeth couldn’t get through Loren’s well-built muscles.

nBut blood still flowed from the places where his teeth tore through his skin.

n“Did elves eat people?”

nBeing hesitant about punching or crushing the elf boy away as he did with the forest wolves in front of Feuille, Loren stuck his great sword into the ground, and started peeling him from his left arm.

nBut although Loren should’ve been stronger, the elf boy was a lot stronger than he expected, and wasn’t able to peel him off, and both struggled to do what they were doing.

n“For crying out loud. What are you doing to Loren?”

nLapis grabbed the collar of the boy with her right hand and pulled.

nShe thought it would get him off, but even though she pulled with enough strength to rip his clothes, she couldn’t peel the elf boy off Loren.

nLapis, holding the piece of ripped clothing with an annoyed look on her face, grabbed the boy’s neck from behind and forcefully pulled him off.

nOn top of that, to keep him from biting her or Loren again, she threw him towards the village with quite a bit of strength, and the boy flew in an arc and landed on the ground.

nEven after landing, the momentum sent him rolling.

n“Loren, are you okay?”

n“It’s nothing, but…”

nThe place where he was bit had teeth marks on it, and he was bleeding from a few places.

nThe injury wasn’t a big deal, but he couldn’t help but feel an eeriness from it.

nLoren was afraid that something bad had entered his body from the wound and he would become like the elf boy, but the wound immediately stopped bleeding and the teeth marks disappeared.

n‘Leave the treatment to me Onii-san. No matter what happens, Shayna will do something about it.’

n“That’s very reliable of you…”

n“Does your body feel any different?”

nAs Lapis looked at him with a worried look, Loren took a moment to check himself, and shook his head slightly.

n“I’m fine. The problem is that.”

nThe elf boy that Lapis had thrown hit the fence, which stopped its rolling.

nHe didn’t feel like being merciful to someone who had suddenly bit him, but he didn’t feel like killing an elf in front of Feuille, who was looking with his eyes wide open, not being able to comprehend what was going on.

nPulling out the great sword that he stuck into the ground, Loren emerged from the tree he was hiding behind and started walking towards the village, hoping that the impact from Lapis’ throw had got the boy back to his senses.

nHe looked down at the elf boy, who was groaning from being thrown.

n“Be careful Loren.”

n“Well, with how he was thrown, I doubt he’ll be able to stand for a while.”

nFrom what he had seen, even a human would need quite a bit of time to recover from being thrown like the boy had been.

nSince elves were thinner and more delicate than humans, they were less resistant to physical damage, so Loren guessed that there was a possibility that the boy could be injured so bad that he couldn’t move.

n“Hey, have you come to your senses?”

nAll that came back was a low, meaningless growl.

nAs Loren started to think it was hopeless, the growl suddenly got louder.

nAs Loren backed off, bracing himself, the elf boy’s growling slowly turned into screams, his body started convulsing, and he started scratching his chest and stomach.

n“What is this?”

n“Maybe it’s some sort of disease?”

nWhile Lapis was saying, looking at the situation from behind Loren.

nFeuille cried out and tried to run to the elf writhing in agony, but Loren held him back by grabbing the base of his neck.

n“Sarion! It’s me! Feuille! Don’t you recognize me!?”

nAs Feuille desperately called out to the boy writhing on the ground, even as he was being held back, a small light of sanity returned to his eyes.

nRight when Loren thought ‘could it be’, The boy named Sarion let out a gurgled scream that he hadn’t let out before and threw up a large amount of blood from his mouth.

nWhen Loren looked at him closely, he saw that there was blood oozing here and there on his clothes, and it was slowly dying his clothes in red.

n“Wounds?”

n“I don’t think it’s something that simple.”

nLapis pointed to a part of the boy’s clothes dyed in blood.

nWhen he looked closely, he could see something wriggling under the clothes, and seeing that every time it moved, the boy’s screams became louder, he backed away from the boy named Sarion, still holding Feuille by his neck.

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n“Sarion! Get a hold of yourself Sarion!”

nThe boy stretched his arm out towards Feuille’s voice.

nThe boy who reached out knowing that it wasn’t going to reach, as if asking for help, dropped his hand to the ground as if someone had cut the strings of a puppet, and the screams stopped as well.

n“What did this to him…”

nLeaving Feuille, who was stunned in shock, with Lapis, Loren walked up to Sarion’s dead body.

nThe boy was already dead, but there were several lumps under his clothes in several places, squirming.

nHe couldn’t decide whether investigating what was under there would help them avoid ending up like the boy, and he knew it was going to be a disgusting sight, but he eventually made up his mind and turned over the clothes where a lump was.

n“Ugh!?”

nIt couldn’t be helped that Loren let out a cry of disgust.

nBeneath the clothes was a small being with a single pair of wings on its back, single-mindedly biting into the boy’s body, tearing his flesh, and eating it.

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