Chapter 86
Chapter 86
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 86
Chapter Title: Decoy Operation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(86) Decoy Operation
"There's a crack in your arm."
Sage touched Jade's arm and knew right away.
"No wonder it hurt so much... Lately, I feel like an egg that shatters the moment you touch it."
Jade said gloomily.
"Bones can break just from falling off a chair. Ending up with just a crack after a situation like that earlier means you got off lucky.
Just splint it up. Leave the rest to Saph for healing." Sage applied a splint to Jade's broken arm using a straight branch and tied it with leaves from the ground. Even in situations like this, she never cut or broke a healthy tree to use.
Merald, who had been scouting from the tree above, came down to the ground and spoke.
"Taragon's army has mobilized."
Orc expressions were still hard to read, but his didn't look pleasant.
"Didn't you say Teimon's elf soldiers were afraid to fight the Komora?"
Sage asked while tying the knots on the leaves.
"Who knows. Maybe seeing Heldra fall gave them courage. The way they're capturing them with nets and traps instead of killing them outright suggests Taragon's using his head." Merald replied halfheartedly, lost in his own thoughts.
Jade touched the firmly secured splint and asked.
"Anything bothering you?"
"Buffalord's nowhere to be seen." Even as he spoke, Merald kept scanning the surroundings.
"He probably retreated to safety after his ace in the hole got destroyed."
Sage said matter-of-factly.
"That's too quick, even for him."
Merald continued, deep in thought.
"Up until Heldra's first head was about to vanish, he kept getting in my way, but after that, he vanished. Attacking you would've been a good move too. If I'd had to protect you while fighting, it wouldn't have been easy to keep knocking Heldra's heads to the ground."
"What's strange about that? Buffalord's always been scared of you. That's why he stuck to hit-and-run tactics, right? Probably the same now."
Sage said. Jade thought she was right. But on the other hand, she started feeling uneasy like Merald.
At that moment, a group of elf soldiers burst through the underbrush, heading toward where Jade was.
"Why's the Teimon Dora coming here?"
Merald spotted them first and backpedaled behind a tree to hide.
"Teimon Dora?"
When Jade asked, Sage explained.
"Elves call the leaders of each city 'Dora.'"
"I thought it was a faith that rejects authority."
"Still need someone to lead the citizens. They elect them by vote, and terms are only 40 years. The current Teimon Dora is a young elf named Ologran."
"The part about 40-year terms is where human common sense breaks down. How old is this young Ologran?"
"Two hundred."
"Why's Merald hiding?"
"He's not on good terms with Ologran."
"Why?"
"Ologran hates the fact that an orc guards the Dark Forest. He even tried to vote to replace the guardian before."
"And the result?"
"The result? The vote didn't even pass. Guardianship isn't an assigned position. But Ologran's still reviewing laws to find some way around it, apparently."
While Sage was explaining, Ologran arrived riding a campion.
Jade wasn't used to elf faces yet, but he was definitely younger than Taragon, whom she'd met at Teimon's gates. His features were sharper, his limbs slimmer, and he was shorter. But broad shoulder armor and a large helm hid his smaller frame.
Beside him, young female elves in white robes lined up on campions with small pink fur.
Ologran only dismounted after positioning the five female elves to his sides.
"What's that, some custom?"
Jade whispered.
"Not a custom. A preference."
Sage whispered back.
Ologran approached with arms spread wide, beaming.
"You protected us, wise one of the Dark Forest. And I heard from General Taragon that the mage of light helped too? Teimon survives today thanks to you two. I'd like to repay you—will you accept my invitation? I'd love to throw a party for you both!"
"The battle isn't over yet. Too soon for such talk, Teimon Dora Ologran."
Sage said.
Jade could hear Komora's roars and the elves' shouts from afar in her ears. With those big elf ears, he had to hear it too.
"Don't worry about that. I hear..."
Ologran started to speak, then gestured. A young, slender elf woman with gem-like shimmering makeup on her face approached from behind and whispered to him. Only then did he continue.
"...that most of them are disoriented from your magical attack, wise one, so they're being mopped up without much issue or loss. You cooked the meal, wise one—no need for you to do the dishes too. The battle's over."
"It's not over, Dora Ologran."
Merald said from behind the tree.
Ologran immediately scowled.
"Still too cowardly to show yourself before speaking, orc guardian. Give me a convincing reason."
"Buffalord's still out there."
"That monster's always been a headache. But with the greater terror Heldra gone, dealing with him is just a matter of time, isn't it?"
"'Matter of time' means time resolves it on its own. Someone has to risk their life fighting Buffalord—it's not something that just gets handled. Seeing you talk like that, I can guess how much your Teimon workers suffer without even seeing it."
"What nonsense is that!"
"When you say 'deal with it,' your workers bust their asses to do it, and once it's done, you say 'it got handled on its own.'"
A few elf women behind him let out short, stifled laughs.
Ologran turned to look at the women, but they'd already composed themselves, so he couldn't tell who it was.
"Then I suppose I should ask the guardian to go deal with Buffalord for me. Since the only ones I'm inviting to the party are these two anyway."
Ologran said smoothly, turning to Jade.
"What do you say? If it's your first time in Elforest, I'd love to insist you visit the party I'm hosting."
Jade politely declined.
"My companion's injured right now, so I'm too worried to enjoy a party. Can I take a rain check on the invitation?"
The moment Jade said that, something occurred to her, and her eyes widened. Ologran tilted his head, thinking she was reacting to him.
Jade quickly turned toward the tree where Merald was hiding and said.
"Buffalord only attacked Teimon after seeing you arrive."
Merald replied curtly.
"Yeah."
"He knows Saph and I use light magic. That's why he kidnapped Saph first."
"That he did."
"He knows Ruby was gravely poisoned by Dukuboa's venom too. He must've seen you rescue us and take us away. You said you two have always hunted each other."
"Buffalord must think I took you to old Sage."
"But Sage is here. Ruby and Saph are nowhere to be seen..."
"So he went after Saph?"
Merald asked, then reached his own conclusion.
"Yeah. That makes sense. He'd think that."
Sage asked, surprised.
"Why would he go after Saph?"
Jade answered.
"Saph revealed she used the Light of Annihilation to keep me from becoming a target. But now I've shown up and obliterated Heldra right in front of Buffalord. So in his mind, there are now two light mages. Wouldn't he think to take out at least one while he has the chance?"
"Could be. But Saph's at my hut. And he's never once breached the magic barriers I set around it!"
Sage said firmly, but Merald replied negatively.
"Maybe he couldn't—or maybe he didn't try. If he forced his way in sloppily, you'd just reinforce the barriers or change them up, right?"
Sage asked, looking offended.
"You're saying he held back on purpose?"
"I want to believe he couldn't. But part of me thinks he pretended not to so he could break through at a critical moment."
Merald whistled.
Soon, two campions appeared. Merald hopped atop one, and Jade said.
"I'll come too."
"Follow behind with old lady. You're not expecting me to slow down for you, are you?"
Merald rode off into the forest like the wind.
Jade stared blankly at his retreating figure.
After a long daze, Ologran spoke.
"Well, the guardian's gone, so shall we head to Teimon?"
Jade deliberately spoke in Rom's language.
"If I had a vote, I wouldn't vote for you in a million years."
She swiftly mounted a campion.
It automatically followed Merald's trail.
After Jade left too, Ologran asked Sage.
"What did that human just say?"
Sage summoned a forest bird, mounted it, and translated.
"May the inner light quietly burn to grant unshakable enlightenment, and may you find eternal soul's rest, liberated from worldly suffering..."
"Ooh, a human who truly understands our culture."
Ologran said admiringly, then tilted his head.
"...But it didn't seem that long."
"Human language is poetic and concise."
Sage hurried off after Jade before he could press further.
♦
Saph sat beside the bed where Ruby lay.
Ruby's body was stuck full of needles, with reed-like stems dangling from their ends. It was a device slowly infusing her with antidotes and fluids to restore her strength.
The stems twitched now and then. It looked like living parasites burrowing into Ruby's skin to suck her blood.
The shackles and chains Ruby had been bound in—freed by Jade's light magic—lay on the table. Cleansed of poison, blood, and grime, they now gleamed like silverware.
Out of curiosity, Saph gingerly lifted the chains with just her thumb and index finger.
They'd held Ruby for five hundred years, smashing anything from boulders to demons in their path, yet they weighed no more than Saph could lift with two handfuls.
After the detox treatment, Sage had declared Ruby wouldn't wake for about a week. Factoring in her sturdy body, maybe three days if lucky. She'd emphasized multiple times that surviving being doused in Dukuboa's venom was a miracle in itself.
Saph spoke to Ruby as if she were awake.
"Why doesn't Sage say anything about my horns?"
Saph fiddled with the blunt tips of her horns. It was the first time in her life she'd gone this long without hiding them.
"Merald didn't say much either. In his case, probably just being polite."
Ruby slept soundly.
She looked so cute when she wasn't talking.
"Maybe having a horned girl in a group with orcs, humans, and elves isn't anything special. That's probably a good thing. Right?"
She was hungry. But there was nothing to eat in the hut.
The cookies Sage had left were so tasteless they were hard to stomach. They looked like charcoal too. They seemed simply burnt, but Sage insisted she'd colored them on purpose.
They were definitely burnt, even on second taste.
She wanted honey candies more than cookies. As if possessed, Saph pulled out the candy pouch Merald had hidden away in case he got hungry. She immediately regretted it.
"The priestess is probably risking her life fighting right now, and here I am, what am I thinking?"
Saph put the candy pouch back.
"...Let's just have some water."
She opened the lid of the kettle in the kitchen and found pitch-black water inside. By smell alone, she couldn't tell if it was rinse water from a rag, boiled herbs, or something drinkable.
She checked a few other kettles, but none had anything proper to drink. One had frogs floating in it—she nearly hurled it away.
After that, Saph couldn't bring herself to touch anything in the hut.
"I heard alchemy requires lots of water. She can't be drawing it from the creek every time, bucket by bucket, right?"
Just in case, she went outside and, sure enough, found a well in the backyard. Same structure as the convent's, so she figured out how to use it quickly. But the bucket was heavy.
She'd only hauled it up halfway, grunting, when her arms and legs trembled so much she had to hook the rope on the peg and rest. It wasn't a weight for a woman with arms as thin as Sage's.
"This must be Merald's personal well."
She nearly gave up, but hated wasting the halfway effort and tried again. Finally, the bucket came into view.
No wonder it was so heavy—it was nearly bathtub-sized.
A little more, just a bit more, she pulled—when a distant thud echoed, and the ground faintly shook.
She startled and let go of the rope. The bucket plummeted back down.
Splash!
Saph wondered if it was an earthquake and looked around.
Birds burst from the distant treetops. Her anxiety worsened her thirst.
Saph grabbed the rope again.
Another thud.
Saph knew nothing of magic, but instinctively recognized this as the sound of 'some spell' breaking.
'This house is protected by my magic. So no ordinary beast or evil force can intrude. Don't worry and stay put.'
She tried to calm herself by recalling Sage's words, but it didn't work.
No more loud noises came. Instead, she heard faint rustling footsteps through the grass.
Saph let go of the bucket rope and backed away.
A black cow walked upright into the backyard on two legs, parting the bushes where Saph stood.
It was Buffalord.