Chapter 97: The Village

After Emery had laid down the girl covered with his mantle, he approached the old man with head held high and said, "I am hoping you can keep your part of the deal, please let them go."

The old man nodded with a smile. He turned to the Chrutin warriors and said in a foreign language, "Engle canne gelaefa!(They can leave!)" 

Without any hesitations, all the warriors near the river retreated to the Forbidden Forest's treeline except for the huge bald man with a great number of dark markings on his body. He didn't move until the old man repeated his order with greater force. The huge bald man clenched his axe one last time before walking with gritted teeth, stepping near the treeline. 

The second instance the old man had spoken in the foreign language, Emery belatedly noticed he could understand the language of the forest people. He had never heard or learned this foreign language before, but he guessed it was because of the symbol on his hands similar to how he had suddenly understood the language of all people from the Magus Academy despite coming from different planets and cultural backgrounds. Emery initially opened his mouth wanting to speak, however, he withhold himself back feeling it wasn't necessary to say anything since this could be handy in certain situations.

Once the Chrutin warriors were at a distance, Luna and her faithful bodyguard Kastan stepped forward to speak with the old man. First, she looked over the bag that contained for a good few seconds before hesitantly handing it over. She said, "With this, our deal has come to a conclusion."

"Yes," said the old man, taking back the silver furred rabbit. "You may leave now and keep your promise to never return."

Luna, however, didn't leave. 

"Is there something else?" asked the old man.

She said, "Could you please, allow us to look for survivors."

The old man gave her a look from head to toe before saying, "I'll allow it, but you only have until dawn to leave. Also, I'll have some of my warriors accompany you."

"Thank you," answered Luna. Her eyes kept glancing on the hide bag and mutteringly said, "A-about the silver rabbit…" 

"No, Stone-dweller. You should go now," the old man said. The tone he used though wasn't angry, instead he sounded like the figure of authority that he was. 

Luna let out a big sigh and said, "Merlin, let's leave."

The old man stomped his wooden staff on the ground and said, "This young man is not leaving."

Luna looked as if she wanted to raise an objection. However, Emery gave her glance and shook his head. With that, she backed down and said, "Merlin… if you want, we can still—"

"I'll be fine, don't worry. Also, I would like to talk with them as well. I don't think they have any malicious intent," said Emery, striking a glance at the old man and Morgana still keeping quiet on the ground.

"I… very well. When you're done, come find me Merlin," said Luna, walking away with Kastan in tow.

Again, the old man tapped the ground with his staff, turned at Emery and said, "Merlin isn't it? My name is Brennus, The High Priestess would like to meet you. Let it be known that we are honored to welcome you into our village."

After that, the two opposing groups parted ways. The old man Brennus delegated some of his warriors to watch the expedition group from the distance and a single warrior to go with the expedition group and search for any other survivors who might still be alive.

At first, the Chrutin warriors and Luna's expedition group seemed as if they were about to clash again, however, with the authority of the head figures, Luna and the old man, the hostility was dispelled.

Luna's expedition group took the path in which they had come from while Emery took a different path following the old man. 

As they walked through the dark forest guided by the light of heavenly bodies in silence, Emery's gaze fell on the girl with the red hair whom he had fought earlier. She hadn't spoken a word nor made any small noises as she just simply tightly wrapped his mantle around her body. And now that he had thought about it, he had no idea where they were taking him, so Emery took this opportunity to break the cold silence by making small talk.

"Morgana, that's your name right?"

She didn't reply and continued walking.

"My name by the way is Emery—" Emery placed a hand in his mouth. His moment of weird familiarity with these forest people made him slip out his actual name. He stopped fixating on his careless blunder, which still didn't issue any response from the girl called Morgana. He then looked straight and said, "I guess you don't understand a word I'm saying."

In the corner of his eyes, the girl looked at him for a moment then said, "I do…"

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"Oh, so you can speak and understand me. That's good, so where are we heading?" Emery replied.

The girl was silent again, however.

"you don't speak much do you?," said Emery.

"I do," answered Morgana.

"..."

From the looks of it, Emery felt like this girl was a bit weird. She walked in confidence, but didn't seem to talk much. Or maybe just because she doesnt like him much.

He was about to say something when his eyes took notice of what looked like the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He stood frozen in place. Brennus and Morgana led the way and stepped on log, which emitted a glow of light; the leaves of various shaped plants seemed glowed with wondrous bluish and green lights, providing a warm atmosphere.

He tested if the log would also do the same if stepped on it and indeed it did, a light rippled underneath him. Moving his other feet forward, it repeated the same thing, sending waves of joy at the spectacular sight.

Not being able to hold his curiosity any longer, he went up to what appeared to be a vine that was emitting a violet glow and used a spell from his plant spirit to inspect what kind of plant it was.

[Universal Flora - activated - analyzing flora ...]

[Analyzation complete]

[Level 2 - Unidentified medicinal herb]

[Unknown properties]

[Register to database for ten contribution points?]

"Yes!" exclaimed to himself. The first plant he checked was already a level two unique plant. And looking at the plant next to the vine, the one he had checked was just one of the many variations it had. It seemed that the forbidden forest was a great place for him to find unique plants. So, he couldn't wait to want to use fragmentation on these plants one by one and know more about their properties. 

He became caught up in his world but immediately got pulled out of it as he noticed the stares of the villagers as well as Morgana and the old man. Letting out a great heave of air from his lungs, he took control of his excitement and proceeded to walk behind them.

Brennus continued walking as the rest of the other warriors that had accompanied them disbanded except for the huge bald one and Morgana still walking beside him as they went deeper into the forest area. Eventually, they arrived in front of a cave that had two tall men holding spears and had a lot of black markings plastered on their bodies, which seemed to be no less than the amount of markings of the bald man beside Emery.

"Greetings, Honored Chief. The High Priestess is conducting the ritual as of the moment," respectfully said one of the guards.

"I am aware. The High Priestess is expecting us," answered the old man who was apparently their chief.

"Understood," said one of the two tall men as they let the party through.

Based on this interaction, although this chief seemed to be the acting leader of the forest people or at least the warriors, the high priestess' position appeared to command more authority and respect than him. And before they went in, Old man Brennus asked Emery to leave his weapon as they were about to enter a sacred place. The bald one had already handed over his weapon, so Emery didn't have an issue in doing the same.

The cave was also filled with glowing mushrooms and moss, and Emery noticed that it was a bit damp. The tunnel wasn't long as well, and when they neared the exit, Emery noticed the interior of the upcoming chamber was lit with a bright light and a faint singing entered his ears.

When they exited, that was where Emery saw a giant tree standing in the land at the center of the cave's chamber surrounded by a lake. The roots on the ground and the hanging roots of the giant tree glowed beautifully, including the grasses around it. There were a couple of rootlike-bridges on top of the lake and beneath the towering tree were dozens of women sitting in a circle formation touching the backs of each one with one hand as they sang in uniform. 

In the middle of the circle were two people; a young girl with long white hair and a beautiful fair-skinned, half-naked woman covered only by what appeared to be leaves. 

The beautiful woman said, "Geita unc nu bearnlest, Gaia."

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