From atop my horse, I drew back an arrow and let it loose. The arrow cut through the air, embedding itself deep in the armored soldier’s forehead. If it had been human, such a blow would have destroyed the brain and been instantly fatal. The impact made the approaching soldier stumble, but it didn’t stop its advance. Though my target was a soldier clad in armor, it was not human. Or perhaps more accurately, it was no longer human.
“I really don’t like revenants.”
Revenants were monsters born from the corpses of people. Though they were supposed to be rather rare, there were currently three coming toward us.
I loosed another arrow. Being already dead, there wasn’t much value in targeting their vitals. The only way to defeat revenants was to inflict as much damage to their flesh as possible. This arrow took a revenant in the leg, causing it to fall to the ground.
As far as monsters went, they were pretty weak. Though they were physically strong and hard to kill, they were quite slow and had no intelligence at all. As long as you didn’t let your guard down or get close to them, dealing with them wasn’t especially challenging. Even an ordinary human could just run away.
That said, fighting against them was distinctly unpleasant. Their existence itself was off-putting, and being forced to do so much damage to their bodies felt disrespectful to the dead. The other elves in the caravan loosed a barrage of arrows, bringing the remaining revenants to the ground. Though they weren’t especially threatening, no one said a word.
They might have been taken down, but they would soon be back on their feet, so we still needed to finish them off. I supposed I should at least finish off the one I knocked over.
Three months had passed since I joined up with the elven caravan again.
We were currently traveling through southern Zieden, land which had once been part of Kirkoim. During my time here, I had learned that as powerful as Zieden was, they had pushed themselves quite hard to accomplish their wartime feats. Things were better near the towns and villages, but monsters were becoming extremely prevalent out in the open country. We encountered plenty even as we traveled down the roads in carriages, so I imagined things would be even worse if we were to leave the roads and travel the fields and forests.
The emergence of more monsters was likely due to Zieden focusing its military on wartime efforts. While a few soldiers had been left in each settlement to protect them, with their numbers depleted, they could barely keep those towns and cities safe. Heading out to proactively hunt monsters was out of the question. Or perhaps adventurers had been pressed into wartime service.
Either way, the number of wild monsters was gradually growing. That would inevitably lead to a stagnation in travel and trade, thus causing a decline in quality of life for everyone. This would leave Zieden with even fewer countries willing to trade with them. I’d even heard of kingdoms that had fallen because of excessive proliferation of monsters within their borders. I had no idea why Zieden had devoted so much of its resources to waging war.
When something like that happened, the surrounding nations needed to band together to exterminate the monsters. Otherwise, the number of monsters would continue to grow until those nations, too, would become overrun. I really wanted to believe that Zieden’s rulers weren’t foolish enough to let that happen.
What had spurred them on to war with no regard for the consequences? There had to be a reason. And what could we do to stop them? I didn’t like the thought of leaving it to someone else, but I was sure Airena would be able to find out.
We were about halfway through our journey across the elven forests in Zieden. After another three months, we would turn from the northern forests to the capital of Zieden, to the city of Jingar whose gates I had sealed shut. Apparently, they had yet to clear out the mountains I had created. I guessed it would fall upon me to get rid of them. The other elves in the caravan might be able to manage if they all worked together, but if Zieden saw how long it would take them to do so, they might start to look down on them. By clearing them away in an instant, I could maintain the threatening image the elves held in Zieden’s eyes, all while making another huge display of my own power.
However, once that was done, I would have no place at the negotiating table. Besides, the negotiations wouldn’t be concluded after a single meeting. The caravan would continue to travel around, making numerous trips back to the capital to continue talks, all while gathering the opinions of Ludoria, Vilestorika, and the Azueda Alliance.
How many years would it take to resolve the conflict? After the first round of talks, the caravan would head back to Ludoria, where I would probably part ways with them. I hadn’t put much thought into what I would do after visiting Kaeha’s grave, but I at least wanted to spend a little time with the Yosogi dojo.
The true ending to my long journey was finally close at hand.