Chapter 6–Sense of Danger

A civilization enclosed by stone walls, with a bed of water flowing towards it; a dreadful atmosphere engulfed it as it stood alone with not a single tree to be seen... that was Konami Village, which despite the name (Our “Tree” village), has not one tree.

“This place looks way too different from the last time I visited here...”, Iris mumbled as she stared at the village which looked like a ghost town... I wonder what happened here, I thought as Iris cautiously opened the door to the vehicle.

“Let’s try going in.” Iris said as we nodded... can’t we just drive the vehicle inside, that should be better right... I thought as we exited the vehicle before walking towards the gate where a single guard stood up with a metal spear; the guard had a tired face, with reddened eyes as well... an iron armor that was full of scratches, not to mention a spear with a scraped blade... what happened here, I thought as we soon approached the guard as Iris asked... “Can we enter the village?”

A few seconds passed by, a minute passed by but there was no response from the guard, all he did was stood there silently, without moving... is he dead, I thought as Iris waved her hand in front of the guard and still got no response.

“I’ll take that as a yes”, Iris said as we nodded before entering the village with caution, immediately after we got past the gate, a gloomy village greeted us; there were no signs of human life on the streets... the stone pavements were filled with dust, the buildings which were also made out of stone had moss everywhere... it was as if everyone had suddenly disappeared out of nowhere.

“What happened here?” Iris muttered to herself as she looked around at the deserted village before noticing stains of bloods on a wall... what is this place, this definitely doesn’t look normal at all, I thought as we slowly moved further into the village before noticing a single building with its lights on... “Should we go there?” Alisha asked as her eyes frowned... I wonder if it is safe to go there, there might some zombie there...

“It’s best we try to go there, but with caution”, Iris said as she took out her handy magic gun which looked like something out from a science fiction movie... Ah... I am scared of zombies, whatever! I thought as I took out my gray scythe with golden accents as if responding to my call, the crystals on the pole shone its brightest blue yet as we slowly moved towards the building which had its lights flickering... a minute passed by as we took a peek from the window before we saw a wrinkled old man, with brown dirty shirt, crying on his table as a young girl dressed in white, pale in color slept peacefully on her bed.

The old man kept crying... “Why..?”, he kept repeating the same words over and over again as he slammed his weakly fist on his table as it bled from a wound... seeing the weakly old man slowly fall from his chair, Alisha couldn’t hold back her urge and kicked the door open as she rushed to the old man, with Iris and I following.

“Are you okay?” Alisha asked as she tried to stabilize the old man before looking at me with her eyes asking for help... What should I do, I thought as I looked around the tiny room that looked more like a workshop... before realizing something, food; I immediately took out some cookies and tried to give it to the old man who looked surprised to see us.

“Thank you, young ladies?” the wrinkled old man said as he stood up only to fall back to his wooden chair... What happened here, I thought as Iris suddenly shouted while looking at the pale young girl on the bed... “Laienuvos, the curse of the Namiyans... what happened here?!”

“Namiyans, those exist?” Alisha asked as Iris nodded... Namiyans, similar to elves in my fantasy with the height of a dwarf... these beings love to live in the forests and despise those who hurt their beloved trees, in a way, you could say they are the protectors of the forests... that is there is plenty of forests untouched in the kingdom.

During the early days when the kingdom was still an empire, the first Emperor apparently made a pact with the leader of the Namiyans... the pact was, they will not touch specific forests in exchange we are able to trade with them... their trade usually consists of fruits and vegetables, and ironically, logs from trees but these logs didn’t come from real trees but instead were produced through an ancient spell according to the history books... the consequences of breaking the pact was a curse called Laienuvous, which translates to “The Curse of the Forest”...

“Can you tell us what happened here?” Iris asked as she sat down beside the pale young girl and combed her hair... I am interested as well. What could have caused the pact to be broken...

“It all started five days ago...” the old man started explaining... a whole hour passed by as the old man explained everything in detail, in short, the whole situation happened because of typical nobleman greed... the village chief who was born as a third child from a Baron family, was starting to descend into poverty because of the reformation that Celeste had done... and to counter this, he decided to cut a sacred tree and sell it to a mysterious merchant for almost a thousand gold coins.

“Ha... I can’t believe it, why is that person still the village chief... didn’t Mom exiled him two years ago?” Iris muttered as the old man’s face twisted as he asked... “Are you the young girl from the Alverost, if that is so then you can help us right?”

“In a way, I can try negotiating with the Namiyans but first, answer my first question...” Iris said as the old man nodded before he explained the reason why that person was still the village chief... it was a single word explanation, “Force.”... the “former” village chief had pressured everyone in the village to keep quiet with his personal army like a typical corrupt noble would, ten people were executed during that time, apparently, apparently...

“Ah... whatever, I’ll try to negotiate with the Namiyans... what will you two do?” Iris asked as Alisha and I stared at each other before nodding... “We will come with you, if that is fine”

“It’s fine, well then, please wait for us here”, Iris said to the old man, who nodded as we soon left the village and moved towards a nearby forest.