After passing through the forests of the Alliance, I made it into Zieden...and well, since I had crossed what was supposed to be a closed border, going into any towns I came across was rather risky. I didn’t have good information about how Zieden took to travelers, or even how they felt about elves at this point. I had heard some rumors here and there, but they all came from the Alliance, so none of them were in Zieden’s favor.
To the people of the Alliance, Zieden was the culprit responsible for throwing the whole center of the continent into chaos. There was no telling when they might attack, so it went without saying they were treated with hostility. But negative rumors mixed with fearful and uneasy conjecture wasn’t exactly reliable information. Whether I was going to intervene or let things develop on their own, I would need to look at things from a few more angles.
Zieden very well might have had compelling reasons or circumstances behind their behavior, though I couldn’t imagine what they might be. Of course, from the perspective of those being invaded and hurt in the process, nothing could justify their actions.
The destruction and danger they had brought to the people’s daily lives were causing resentment to spread among their neighbors, but I had no reason to let that dictate my actions. If I was going to act, it needed to be because of my own feelings or principles, for example, to protect the people who were close to me.
That being said, I did want to alleviate the threat to Ludoria and Janpemon. I obviously wasn’t thinking of anything as extreme as wiping out Zieden...at least not yet. I really wanted to do something, but I had no idea what that should be. In the past, I’d felt I was much quicker to use force to resolve the problems in front of me. It seemed I had changed a bit after my journey to the East.
As I pondered these things, I continued to the elven settlement within the forest. Judging by the forest’s size, it was probably a small village with no Spirit Tree to protect it. Elves typically had little interest in what went on outside their own forest, but the degree to which they were able to maintain that isolation varied based on the scope of the forest they lived in. For larger forests, it wasn’t even really possible for humans to wander in by accident, and those who came looking for the elves would be turned aside by the Spirit Tree’s barrier.
However, for smaller forests that couldn’t support a Spirit Tree, it was much more plausible for human hunters to accidentally stumble into the heart of the forest, or for human armies to challenge the elven village just as those nobles from Ludoria had attacked an elven settlement decades ago. So even if they didn’t actively interact with the world outside their forest, the elves living in a forest of this size would still need to be on guard. For example, they would have to turn hunters away from the heart of the forest before they discovered where the elves lived.
As such, it was possible the elves living here had some idea of what had happened here in Zieden. I kept my expectations low, but it seemed likely I’d at least be able to figure out how recently the elven caravan had visited, either from this forest or others in the area. The caravan was in the business of buying fruit from the different elven forests, so if they had come to Zieden at all, they should have visited a number of elven settlements here.
If those visits had been at all recent, it would be proof that the country’s attitude toward elves hadn’t changed much, meaning I would be relatively safe to visit towns across the kingdom. But if they hadn’t been here recently, I would need to avoid any human settlements. If I was truly desperate, I could sneak in at night to accomplish what I needed to, but that was really just a last resort.
As I approached the heart of the forest, I asked the wind spirits to carry a message forward for me. Getting any closer without warning would be too much of a shock for them. In human terms, it would be about as rude as entering someone’s home without even knocking on the door.
The wind blew through the forest, rustling the leaves around me.
The elves here would probably...no, they would almost certainly treat me as a guest of honor. The more I’d insist that they treat me normally, the more intense their hospitality would become. That was why I felt the need to warn them of my arrival in advance.
Yes, the forest here wasn’t that large, but that was only from elven standards, as far as what kind of forest could support a Spirit Tree. In human terms, it was plenty large. The scent of plant life hung heavy in the air, and it was teeming with wild animals.
It was a peaceful, prospering forest. Any forest that flourished to this degree would obviously have its fair share of monsters, but there weren’t any nearby for the time being.
In no time at all, the wind spirits returned with a word of welcome from the village. With a nod, I started walking again. I figured the mystic peaches I carried would be a sufficient gift. It was the fruit of a spirit tree, one that could only be found in the Ancient Gold Empire. As long as they were elves, there was no way they wouldn’t be thrilled to see them.