coobybook Chapter 181 : Chapter 181
Chapter 181 : Chapter 181
Chapter 181
The Dark Elves, a race despised as ominous and dirty.
The value they hold most important, having written their history with desperate struggles for survival, is survival itself.
Because for a long history, this entire world was their enemy and hell.
Because their god abandoned them.
Before they could even lead a life, they abandoned their names and hid in the forest, giving up their kin and remaining silent to survive.
When they heard Moner was in crisis, it was a natural choice for the High Elves leading them to refuse participation.
“If everything we heard so far is true, it is too dangerous.”
Certainly, the Dark Elves owed an unrepayable debt to Moner.
If it weren’t for the Young Duke, they wouldn’t have known even now that the World Tree had abandoned them.
However, it isn’t a grace worth risking war for.
“We have gone through countless wars. Sometimes because we were driven to it, sometimes to prove our own worth, sometimes to correct false rumors, sometimes just to live.”
How many wars had they fought just to prove they were no different from the elves of the continent, only having a different skin color.
“There were kingdoms and royal families that promised to acknowledge us once the war ended. However, no one kept their promise.”
It was a history of betrayal.
Humans who promised to accept the Dark Elf clan once the war ended turned their bows on them before the embers of war even died out, capturing the Dark Elves they fought alongside until the day before and enslaving them.
It wasn’t because they didn’t know how to fight that Dark Elves came to value survival over struggle as their primary value.
It was just that after long struggles, only a few elves survived, enough to worry about survival.
“Therefore, we no longer involve ourselves in human wars.”
At the High Elf’s declaration, Akasha shouted with venom.
“Next after Moner falls is us! Do you think the Orcs or humans who will take Moner’s place will understand us like Moner did?!”
“…It is a war with no chance of victory.”
“The human leading Moner now is the one who warned us about the god deceiving us. Also, he is the only human who embraced us when we were pointed at by all races of the continent.”
In the long history of Dark Elves, only Moner embraced them.
“Too many sisters might die.”
“If Moner disappears, slave hunters targeting our sisters will enter this forest again, and we will fall back to being fugitives. Even if we know that false god doesn’t protect us, nothing will change.”
Akasha asked.
“Is a life of running from slave hunters and being humiliated really different from being dead? Do you truly think we can run away again?”
“…….”
They were already pushed to the end of the continent.
Where else could they run from the forest of demonic beasts?
“Therefore, we must fight. We must protect Moner.”
Akasha spoke in a cold voice to the High Elves leading her.
“Not just to save Moner, but for us to survive.”
Thus.
The participation of the Dark Elf Rangers was decided.
* * *
“E, Elf……?”
A soldier, seeing a Dark Elf who threw off her robe, muttered in a dazed voice and then shouted.
“Elf, it’s an Elf!”
The one flustered by that shout was the Dark Elf Ranger.
‘……?’
No one calls a Dark Elf an Elf.
Maybe ‘cursed thing’ or ‘servant of the devil’.
“E, Elf!”
“Ooooooh! The Silent Hunters have come!”
The Dark Elf Ranger had fought to prove Dark Elves were different from Elves, but seeing humans actually calling her an Elf felt significantly wrong.
‘Are they really not avoiding me……?’
She took off her robe and revealed her black skin.
But no one cursed at her, no one attacked her.
‘Why……?’
While she stood on the wall feeling dazed, a soldier approached her.
“The Silent Hunters really existed. When our old man talked about it, I thought he finally went crazy!”
The shouting soldier continued towards the blankly standing Dark Elf.
“What are you doing? Without catching those damn Orcs.”
* * *
“Really, no one cares.”
At the words of Akasha leading the Dark Elf Rangers, Hoodwock chuckled.
“Not care? Those guys probably feel like they saw an angel.”
“Angel……?”
At Akasha’s question, Hoodwock began to explain.
“Moner and Dark Elves officially interacting is recent, but the Rangers of the fortress have known about the existence of Dark Elves for quite a long time.”
It was natural for Rangers roaming the forest to notice the existence of Dark Elves.
“Since it’s a rumor passed down from my grandfather’s grandfather, they must have known for a very long time.”
The Rangers of the fortress didn’t are hostile to Dark Elves, and Dark Elves found such Rangers fascinating.
“It seems they often helped out if something dangerous happened during missions while observing from afar.”
As acts like throwing meat to a Ranger lost in the forest or saving a Ranger in danger repeated, rumors spread among Rangers and soldiers.
That angels with black skin live in the forest.
“And that’s the first thing seniors teach: if you see a Silent Hunter, treat them as politely as possible.”
Because Dark Elves are the lifeline that will save them from the darkness of the forest.
‘Ah…….’
Akasha, hearing the explanation, looked around at the soldiers of the fortress with a curious face.
‘There were adults who stepped up worrying when humans usually seen weren’t seen, but…….’
It wasn’t because they liked humans, but for a strictly realistic reason.
Because if humans died near the western forest where they were located, naturally they, the Dark Elves, would be suspected.
When Akasha explained that, Hoodwock smirked and said.
“Well, does the reason matter to those who survived? What’s important is that a race looking like angels saved them.”
Hoodwock, giggling that among the surviving idiots, there were some who went into the forest saying they would marry an angel and never returned, said with a calm face.
“So, please help us once again, Moner will not forget the help.”
It is a natural thing to say.
That one will repay the help.
But because she hadn’t felt that naturalness for too long a time.
Akasha answered with a bright smile.
“I will spare you specially this time too.”
* * *
Blood flowed along the bowstring from fingers burst open by pulling the string repeatedly.
Her voice didn’t come out properly because she shouted until her throat was hoarse.
She didn’t hope for a sweet victory.
No idiot hoping for that remains in the fortress.
She only hoped to hold out.
The supplies prepared over the last few months ran out one by one.
Arrows, oil, even stones are insufficient.
The Legion, ordered to advance, climbed the fortress walls day and night, so the fortress soldiers also had to fight on the walls day and night.
Into that gloomy battlefield, one hundred Dark Elves joined.
Merely one hundred.
A number small enough to be meaningless considering the still tens of thousands of enemies, but they were warriors who had fought to survive for a distant time.
“Spirit of Wind—!”
The Spirit of Wind appearing with a giggle is contained in the bow.
Kwaduduk!
The Dark Elf’s bow containing the spirit’s power pierces the shield of the Orc standing at the lead.
“Deserved anger to those who trample the forest!”
Fire and lightning storm from that arrow.
Kwarrrung!
A race blessed by the forest and spirits.
They are never weak.
“Deserved blessing to those who protect the forest!”
They merely endured according to the will of the World Tree leading them.
And now that the World Tree’s restraint is lifted.
“Annihilate the enemy—!”
The angry Dark Elf’s shout echoed through the forest.
* * *
“Kuhahahaha! Those frustrating things finally moved their butts!”
Teheki, watching the scene, burst into happy laughter.
“How did Moner’s master move those frustratingly stuffy grass-heads……?”
In Teheki’s view, Dark Elves were frustrating to the point of annoyance.
Monsters who lived hundreds of years running away into the forest chased by mere human threats.
“When I told them, it didn’t work at all.”
For him, who had approached Dark Elves to escape the forest, it was an incomprehensible change.
He informed them of the unfairness of the World Tree commanding them to run and endure, and warned several times about the duplicity of a god not protecting believers, but.
Those fanatics had no intention of listening to other races.
“By the way, even with them, it’s insufficient.”
Dark Elves are strong.
Enough to temporarily overturn the war situation of the cornered fortress.
But they cannot bring overwhelming change.
As a result of the World Tree consistently sacrificing Dark Elves who exceeded their class (level), not a single existence among them exceeded their class.
“It seems the fortress’s Count isn’t present either.”
They are just barely holding out.
Eventually, Elves and the fortress humans are bound to get tired.
“I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
The Ogre’s participation.
The Elf’s participation.
Certainly, they are unbelievable achievements.
However, with the troops remaining in the fortress, they cannot deal with the Legion’s remaining large army.
Just as he was wondering what card the Young Duke prepared to overturn this war situation.
Teheki’s head moved towards the forest.
“Dead……?”
The Tyrant.
Died.
* * *
- Kuaaaack!
Orcs are violent beasts.
A primitive race that doesn’t hesitate to swing weapons at their own kind and thrusts knives at parents for their own desires.
Because they worship only power, they gather under a great warrior and follow orders when one appears.
But when the great warrior dies, they listen to no one’s orders.
- Krararak!
“Wh, What?!”
An Orc who was climbing the wall just a moment ago jumped off the wall.
- Hu, hungry!
Now that the Tyrant is dead, his orders mean nothing.
- This place is dangerous!
The moment the Tyrant died, the Orcs surrounding the fortress thought simultaneously.
- Elves and Ogres are dangerous!
Is there a need to clutch starving bellies and climb that high wall— they thought.
- Grrrrrk!
Running away from battle was an act dirtying honor, but the pile of Orc corpses accumulated enough to reach the top of the wall was sufficient to make the remaining Orcs lose their will to fight.
- Run away!
High walls guarded by Ogres and Elves.
Why on earth touch such dangerous things.
When there is so much to eat in this forest.
- South! It’s the South! A delicious smell is coming from the south!
Following the faint smell wafting from the south just in time, the Royal Guard moved.
* * *
The Royal Army surrounding Obsol released food generously.
It was essential to feed the soldiers fully and let them sleep enough to prepare for the upcoming war.
Moreover, since they were scheduled to get nearly ten times the food once they captured Lier, from the Royal Army’s perspective, there was no need to save.
“But I don’t know why I feel so uneasy.”
The moment Ked frowned watching the soldiers grinning broadly holding overflowing supplies.
“General, urgent report!”
A scout running in pale-faced shouted.
“The Orc bastards are marching south!”
It was a report akin to a bolt from the blue.