Chapter 10: Ch. 9 – Unwelcome

The evacuation is about to start, everyone is distributed over several horse-drawn carriages. I got lucky and can sit in the middle under the cover where the sun won’t reach.

During the ride, I ask the man sitting next to me what the deal with the crying soldier at the gate earlier was.
“Oh, Evan. He is... was the mentor of the kids you accompanied. They were really close. Have been for almost 5 years.”

Great. Flag raised for pissed of foster father coming to hunt me down later. I should probably have checked his status earlier so I at least know what monster will come for me...

“Sorry, there was nothing I could do... I did all I could but it was not good enough”, I try to make an excuse.

Just keep kicking me while I’m already down, will you? What was I supposed to do? Cure refused to be used and the two would have bled out anyway... At most, by not being there I might have spared Ted and Eila if they never went back.

...fuck, what’s done is done. Even if they didn’t like it, their blood was put to some good use.

“Say, since I’m not from around here I’m curious. What exactly were the signs that the flood appears earlier than normal?”
“You’d have to ask Evan that once he’s calmed down a bit. He’s the most experienced of our hunters.”

As if I’d voluntarily step on that landmine.
“Sure, I’ll keep it in mind when I get the opportunity.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what brought you to these lands? I was always under the impression Silver Elves went extinct during the reign of the previous demon lord.”
“They... missed a few. We’ve got decent stealth skills after all. But you have to understand that I’m quite hesitant to tell just anyone where the rest are hanging out.”
“Oh, certainly. And your personal reason for leaving home?”
“Ah, that’s the funny part. I don’t really have a proper reason. One day I just had a strange dream about this place and then curiosity got the better of me, now I’m here.”
“A vision is as good a reason as any other.”

I continue to have meaningless small-talk with other passengers but don’t really learn anything of note.

You are reading story Deteoh – A Glitched World’s Isekai Story at novel35.com

The carriage ride takes a bit over 2 days. The drivers just take turns so we don’t have to stop; one sits at the reigns while another sleeps in the back.

We take a couple of quick stops to distribute food, eat and answer nature’s call, or in my case pretend to. I... just force the food down, it tastes absolutely awful and provides no nutrition to me but I have a cover to keep up.

And sleeping? I’ve no idea how anyone can close their eyes with all the shaking of the carriages.
As much as I hate wasting the time I can’t see the menu stuff with my eyes closed so I can’t even start on Jeff’s notes. No sleep, no reading, just the maddening noises of snoring refugees and the carriages.

During the ride, the caravan is attacked a few times by low-level monsters, well low level compared to the hunters. They get dispatched without issue and suffer no major injuries which means less threat to expose me for being unable to heal.

(Elly, couldn’t you have reminded me to also change my hair color so I’m not recognizable as a silver elf?)
(I don’t know when I should’ve done that. Before our little accident, I was convinced that you would be able to heal so it’d be fine. Afterwards... people had already seen you so changing it would probably have made everything worse. Sorry.)
(Right, makes sense.)

A bit later a fortress gets finally into view. I’ve no words for how wide the whole thing looks, by my estimate about twice as big as my history teacher said the biggest one in our history was. But considering the constant threat of monsters and what all has to fit into it, it makes sense for it to be so massive.

Thinking about it, (why are there even mostly unprotected settlements out there? Especially with the annual floods this makes little sense to me.)
(From your talk with the villagers I got the impression that they flee the villages each year during the flood and return when it is over.)
(So commute on a big scale?)
(Pretty much.)
(I don't feel like this is a good way of living. But it's probably just a cultural thing.)

There are a lot of soldiers standing at the entrance checking the caravan in front of us. They have only a quick look into the wagons and then wave them through.

I [appraise] some of the soldiers, mostly 35-70 levels total each, but two in particular stand out to me.

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