The title of the previous chapter has been changed since it ended up being longer than expected.
The next day, I was led by the teacher to a certain location within the elf village, with Kathia in tow.
Normally, it wouldn't be ideal for me to be separated from Ana in our current state, but Heilins had said "leave it to me," so I decided to take him up on that offer.
If I could help it, I would have preferred going to where we were headed with just Kathia and me.
Where we were headed was the place where the reincarnators were being kept.
Because the same kind of trees grew thick all around, the scenery was monotonous and repetitive.
"This is quite the walk."
"Yes. The elf village is quite vast, after all. This forest is called the Garam Great Forest, and the central area alone is roughly the same size as Tokyo's twenty-three wards."
"That big!?"
"Mm. Of course, there are agricultural zones and the like too, so the population density isn't terribly high."
"It's less a village and more a nation."
"Indeed. This place has long boasted unassailable defenses thanks to the dual protection of the Great Forest—a natural fortress—and the barrier. Aside from the elves being a touch exclusionary, I'd say it's the safest and most livable place in the world. Or so I used to think."
The teacher let out a sigh.
"If the barrier truly were to be destroyed, that safety could no longer be guaranteed. There's a considerable distance from the outer edge of the barrier to the village itself, so it's not as though the barrier breaking would mean the village was in immediate peril. But it would still be a brutal fight."
"You think the barrier is going to break?"
"I'm speaking in terms of possibility. Just because it has never been broken before doesn't mean it never will be. Complacency is dangerous."
"The barrier's never been broken, huh? By the way, how long has the barrier been up?"
"I don't know. Even the oldest elf aside from
"And her age was...?"
"Four hundred and eighty, I believe."
"The scale of things here is something else."
As we talked, we arrived at our destination.
Small plots of farmland and livestock pens, with people tending the fields and caring for the animals.
One of them noticed us.
"Teacher, welcome back."
"Yes, I've just returned."
A curt greeting.
The teacher's expression seemed stiff, too.
The one who approached us was a single girl.
She was probably about my age.
That much was clear from the fact that she spoke Japanese.
She was a reincarnator.
"So? Are those two the new sacrifices?"
"They're not sacrifices."
"That's a matter of perspective, I suppose. At least I consider you a perpetrator. But never mind. So, what are your names? Oh, not your current names—your old ones."
The girl turned her gaze toward us, the hostile atmosphere around her unchanged.
"I'm Yamada Shunsuke."
"Oshima Kanata."
"Huh? Oshima-kun?"
"That's right."
"Wow."
"What's with that reaction? Who are you, then?"
"I'm Kudou
Kudou Sachi.
She was the girl who'd been class representative.
We weren't particularly close, but she was someone who spoke her mind clearly, which meant she had plenty of enemies—but also plenty of allies. That personality of hers had also led to a few clashes with
But what caught my attention was Ms. Kudou's attitude toward the teacher and all the unsettling words she'd been using.
As class rep, Ms. Kudou had many opportunities to interact with the teacher, and they should have gotten along reasonably well.
Yet here she was, glaring at the teacher as if looking at the enemy of her parents.
The reason was probably that word she'd brought up—kidnapping.
"Teacher, what do you mean by kidnapping?"
"Weren't you and Yamada-kun brought here by the teacher?"
"We came here to stop Natsume."
"Natsume-kun? Is he here too?"
Ms. Kudou furrowed her brows.
Seeing that, I furrowed my own.
Based on this, did Ms. Kudou not know that Hugo was trying to invade the elf village?
I looked to the teacher for an explanation.
The teacher silently shook her head.
Don't say anything unnecessary—that was the message?
"Ms. Kudou, Natsume is right now leading an army to attack this place."
"Huh?"
Kathia delivered the truth.
Ignoring the teacher's gaze.
"Teacher, I'm sorry. But after seeing how things are here, I can't bring myself to trust you."
Kathia crossed her arms and muttered that with a sigh.
"From what Ms. Kudou's saying, everyone here was basically kidnapped and brought here, right? And then they were just left to fend for themselves."
"That's not true!"
"Yes, it is. I was torn away from my parents in this world when I was still a child and brought here, and everyone else has pretty much the same story."
"But—"
"And they kept everyone isolated so information wouldn't spread, right? Life here is essentially self-sufficient. If you're short on anything, the elves will bring it if you ask, but only the bare minimum. You wake up, till the fields, harvest, tend the livestock, cook, and eat. Then the day's over. The elves are watching, so you can't escape, and they don't tell you anything about the outside world, so you have no idea what's going on."
"Th—that self-sufficiency is meant to cultivate independence!"
"We can't even leave this place. What's the point of cultivating independence when we're being kept like livestock?"
"That's..."
The teacher faltered.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch.
"Yamada-kun, Oshima-kun—come with me. I have a lot of questions."
Leaving the silent teacher behind, Ms. Kudou started walking.
Kathia followed without hesitation.
I, too, glanced once at the teacher, then immediately followed after her.
The teacher stood there with a face on the verge of tears, her head bowed.