Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Deal or No Deal

"Oh… I think we haven't thanked you properly for that. Thank you—"

"It was definitely not because of the benevolence in our hearts."

Aegroth cut of Leonze as the elder elf stared intently at him.

"I s-see… Then, why did you save us?"

Leonze clasped his hands together on top of the table while looking back at Aegroth.

"You humans have been coming to this island for more than a century now, even though it has been forbidden for your kind to step foot in this place. Is that correct?"

The elder elf kept his gaze on Leonze.

"I think you already know the answer to that one…"

Leonze also didn't break off his stare from the elder elf.

"It seems you are indeed aware of it. That makes it easier to explain… Let's start from the beginning, then."

Aegroth closed his eyes.

"Our clan… the elves, we live long lifespans, about twice or so longer than humans. That would seem like a blessing, but the trade off is that it is very rare for new offspring to be born in our clan. Only a few dozen in a century or so."

The elder elf drank again from his cup.

"Even so, elves were freely able to leave the island and humans were allowed to enter the island as well, like it was the most normal thing to do. Then, a rumor spread about elves' blood being special and brought eternal youth to whoever drank it. It was due to our prolonged lifespans that humans may have thought of this. As you may imagine, the elves outside of our island and even those still inside it were hunted… and killed."

"I didn't know about this…"

Leonze swallowed hard when he heard the story.

"And so, the clan leader of that time decreed that no elf was to leave the island ever again. It also meant that we were to never show ourselves to humans from that point onward."

Aegroth kept his eyes closed.

"Wait… it wasn't the kingdom that ordered the island to be off-limits first?"

Leonze furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the elder elf.

"As we found out, that law of the humans only came after a few decades the elven leader imposed his law. But I believe that was inevitable. As there was already bad blood between the two races."

"Meaning that, you really had no obligation to help and save humans who enter this island. And that includes us… Which is now the crux of our current situation, correct?"

Leonze clasped his hands tighter. Aegroth let out a weak laugh.

"I'm glad there is someone quick-witted among you. Yes. There was no reason for us to save you from… that monster. Although, make no mistake, we do not kill humans indiscriminately. We are not as brutish as your kind, if I may say so."

Aegroth smirked as he made the remark. Leonze just forced a smile.

"When humans do trespass in our island, we just typically scare them so they wouldn't venture deeper into the forests. We never show ourselves, and just let them think it was other adventurers attacking them. But… this all changed more than half a century ago. It was at that time the minotaur first showed itself…"

The elder closed his eyes again and shook his head.

"What? So, the island wasn't closed off because of the monster? I guess I had the events all mixed up since I didn't have all the details…"

Leonze talked under his breath as he stared at the table but it seemed that Aegroth still heard him.

"The monster appeared out of nowhere. As if it spawned from thin air. Up to this point, it's still a mystery to us how it got here. But that was just the start of our problems…"

"W-what do you mean…?"

Leonze then looked up at Aegroth.

"One of your questions was about the Diamede, wasn't it?"

Elwyrn spoke up as he took out something from his pocket. He placed a piece of clear mineral on top of the table. It was long with five sides and pointed at both ends.

"Hey… isn't that D-diamede?!"

Leonze leaned closer toward the mineral and placed his face up close to it.

"Indeed. And based on where we saved you, you guys saw that there was no Diamede to be found in that barren area."

Elwyrn stared blankly at the piece of Diamede.

"You see… this monster, when it first showed up, immediately started to eat up the Diamede."

Aegroth stared directly into Leonze's eyes.

"W-what did you say…? The monster ate… the Diamede…?"

Leonze's mouth gaped wide open.

"Yes. And by doing so, it got stronger. At first, our arrows could pierce its skin. Although not fatal, we were able to deal it damage. We were never able to slay it due to its inherent vitality. But then, as it continued to eat the Diamede, its body became harder to pierce, until eventually it was invulnerable. We are just fortunate that it does not wander around close to our village."

Aegroth tightly gripped his wooden cup.

"And that's the reason why Diamede has been never seen in the past fifty years… Not because people couldn't reach it due to the monster's presence, but because there was nothing to get at all… What is with this absurd scenario…"

Leonze grabbed his hair with both his hands and stared blankly into space.

"That night when you first arrived. We tried to scare you off by shooting our arrows toward you. It wouldn't have hit anyway, but you guys were able to stop our 'attack'. It was the first time that someone was able to ward off our arrows like that... When I reported it to the elder, he made us follow and observe you."

Elwyrn then took back the Diamede and hid it inside his pocket again.

"Wait… Are you saying…?"

Leonze looked up at Elwyrn while slightly smiling but had his brows furrowed.

"You were the first people to ever survive that monster's initial attacks. In fact, you were able to fight back. I honestly thought that you had a chance to beat it. But… you know what happened after that."

Elwyrn averted Leonze's gaze.

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"Y-you want us… to fight that thing again… That's why you saved us in the first place…?"

Leonze started to lightly laugh as he stared at Elwyrn.

"Yes. It is as you say."

Aegroth interjected with a stern look on his face.

"Are you kidding me?!"

Leonze got up from his chair and slammed the table with both his hands. He then looked at Kryllo beside him, who had been quiet all this time. Leonze saw that Kryllo had his eyes closed and had drool coming out of his mouth.

"And how can you sleep at a time like this?!"

Leonze grabbed Kryllo by the collar with two hands and slightly lifted him up.

"H-huh… good… morning…"

Kryllo struggled to open his eyes.

"There's nothing good about the morning! They want us to fight that monster again and get ourselves killed?! We're already down our two best fighters! What can the two of us do?!"

Leonze shook Kryllo vigorously.

"We'll… kill that monster! I'll make sure of it…"

A voice came from the door of the house. The four of them looked at who it was. Barely standing there and grabbing the wall was Jaegar.

"What are you doing? You should still be resting!"

Elwyrn got up from his chair and went to Jaegar, who fell to the floor on his knees.

"I'm sorry Elwyrn! I tried to stop him but he just wouldn't keep still…"

One of the female elves showed up behind Jaegar.

"It's okay. Just help me carry him back"

Elwyrn placed one of Jaegar's arms over his shoulder. The female elf did the same with Jaegar's other arm.

"I need to… get rid of that monster…"

Jaegar was half unconscious yet he was able to mutter those words.

Kryllo watched intently as Elwyrn and the female elf took Jaegar away. Leonze still had Kryllo by the collar.

"We will… do it…"

Kryllo closed his eyes.

"What do you mean by 'do it'?"

Leonze stared at Kryllo while still grabbing him with two hands.

"Kill the… monster…"

Kryllo kept his eyes closed.

"Uh huh… And who did you mean by 'we', to be exact?"

"The two… of us…"

Kryllo opened his eyes and stared at Leonze.

"You've got to be messing with me?! There's no way the two of us can do anything! I'm not a fighter! And what can a single archer do when a literal clan of elven archers couldn't kill that thing, even before it ate all the Diamede?!"

Leonze glared as he brought Kryllo's face closer to him.

"When did… that happen…?"

Kryllo stared blankly at Leonze.

"You weren't listening earlier?!"

"I was… asleep—"

"Forget it! If you do this, you'll really be sleeping forever!"

Leonze let go of Kryllo while slightly pushing him away.

"You can wait for the others to recuperate from their injuries before you try again."

Aegroth closed his eyes as he faced downward.

"You still think we're doing it? There's nothing in it for us—"

"You want Diamede, correct?"

Aegroth then opened his eyes and stared directly at Leonze.

"Huh...? Yeah, that's one of the reasons we came here. But that's not enough to risk—"

"We'll give you all the remaining Diamede we managed to salvage. It could still make you a fortune outside of this island, I assume."

Aegroth continued to intensely stare at Leonze. His sudden intimidating aura was demanding an answer out of Leonze.

"We accept…"

Kryllo stood up while looking down at Aegroth.

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