Defected Dark Healer’s Rise to Wealth
With the precise distance between us and other elven groups marked by Anemone, Calendula, and Rose’s Holy Staff’s Positioning Sacred Art, we advance along the only route not densely populated by elves.
Leading the way is Urklow .
He claims that “he can smell traps.”
“Traps, like what, for example… like a pitfall?”
Shes whispers next to me, clearly deep in thought after hearing Urklow and the others discuss their plans.
“In my time, we used pitfalls, rockfall traps, and caltrops against demons and monsters. Of course, we were sometimes caught in such traps too,” she explains.
“Monsters used traps too?”
“Yes, especially pitfalls. They can be set up anywhere,” she replies.
“I see. So how did you deal with them back then?”
“Well, dealing with a pitfall is simple. You just have to escape from it before your foot sinks. It’s like running on water.”
“…I see, but that’s not very helpful.”
After all, the average person can’t run on water, so there’s not much to learn from that.
“Besides, I don’t think the traps here are that simple. The Western Elf Kingdom and the Kingdom consider the Demon Kingdom to be a common enemy. It’s possible that modern traps from the Kingdom have been provided to the Western Elves as well.”
“…Are you talking about the land mines?”
“Yeah. If there are land mines around, they could be a huge threat to the Beastman forces. We might need to reconsider our whole strategy.”
When we successfully dealt with the land mines during the Elden Recapture battle, it was thanks to the open terrain and the preparation of five hundred zombies that could be easily controlled.
In the deep forest, especially at night, having to watch out for both land mines and elves is a situation where survival would become the primary concern, and that would almost be a lost cause.
“—Hey, Kiwi. I smell something.”
Urklow , leading the front, stopped suddenly. He moved his face back and forth, sniffing.
“There’s a scent of something scheming.”
“Scheming?”
“I’m not sure what it is… It doesn’t smell like gunpowder or poison. But something feels off.”
“…Let’s trust that instinct.”
Urklow , a magical wolf, has an almost infallible sixth sense when it comes to hunting. Despite being described as having “little intelligence for coordinated operations” by the large Hipopotamus monster Hipopo earlier, there are few species better than the magical wolf when it comes to solo hunting and combat.
“What’s bothering you?”
“It’s the smell itself.”
Urklow sniffs once sharply.
“It smells like freshly dug soil, but there’s no trap smell. Strange.”
“…Ah, I see. So that’s what’s going on.”
After a moment of consideration, I understand what he means.
“If there’s no trap set up, then why has the ground been dug up? If we don’t figure that out…”
“Exactly. It’s unnatural. What is this all about?”
Urklow scans the area, then freezes.
He’s spotted something, and it’s a patch of ground covered in moss, looking like just ordinary earth.
“Ah, so that’s it. No wonder the smell didn’t clue us in…!”
Urklow slashes with his sharp black claws, cutting through the moss-covered earth. While we are stunned, Urklow pulls up a small elf that was hiding beneath the earth, seemingly just waiting to be found.
“In a forest that already smells like elves, there’s no way we could’ve noticed if one was hidden. But what kind of trap is this?”
“Ahh!”
The small elf lets out a small scream when Urklow throws it aside. It looks at Urklow and then at us, trembling, but doesn’t attack.
“…!”
It seems confused but is unable to do anything.
That’s because—this elf is not holding a holy staff.
And more importantly,
“This is no ‘small elf.’ This is a ‘child’ elf…”
This is likely a child who cannot even use basic holy magic, probably still too young to be much of a threat. Why is such a child on the battlefield?
Where are their parents?
“This child is from the World Tree village,” Anemone says, having quietly approached my side.
“The child shows very few emotional expressions. They must have been separated from their parents soon after birth and raised in isolation.”
As she says this, Anemone raises her glowing holy staff to illuminate the spot where the child had been hidden. Beneath the moss-covered ground is a bamboo basket, its top slashed by Urklow ’s claws. Inside, there’s a broken piece of wood carved with holy scriptures.
“Was it buried alive? That’s cruel.”
“They were probably left to wait as disposable tools for us.”
“…I see.”
The child’s box contains a piece of wood, half-broken, with carved holy words. The way it’s designed, when holy power is poured into one piece, the other reacts, making it a tool that even a child could use to activate holy magic.
“I knew it. This is bad.”
Anemone speaks in a calm tone.
“The wood used to make this was originally one piece. The other piece must be in the possession of Marrow or someone close to him.”
So this trap was aimed at gathering information.
“Urklow , let’s retreat. Marrow or one of his vessels will be here soon.”
“What? We’re really running?”
“You know that the only reason we were able to defeat him last time was because we caught him off guard, right?”
“Humph… Yeah. That guy’s not normal.”
Urklow snorts discontentedly but then shouts,
“Everyone, retreat at full speed! Go back the way we came!”
With that, he leads the Beastman forces into a sprint. As he grabs my and Anemone’s necks to pull us along, we hear a sound above us.
—Giiiiiiin!
The sky lights up, and something resembling a white comet falls to the ground where the trap was set.
The impact causes an earthquake-like tremor that lifts our feet off the ground, followed by a deafening explosion that makes the air shake and strikes us with a shockwave.
“Duck down!!”
“Wha—?!”
Urklow presses our heads to the ground as the shockwave and dust rush overhead.
The shockwave spreads in a ring from the impact, tearing up the ground and blowing everything away with incredible force.
“Thanks to Urklow , we’re safe.”
“Don’t mention it. I wouldn’t have gotten out of there without Kiwi’s advice.”
We rise and take cover under a large tree, having gained a decent distance. It seems unlikely we’ll be found now, considering we’re about fifty meters away from the explosion site.
“Kiwi-sama, are you okay?”
Shes and a zombie soldier rush to my side, looking relieved.
“Yes. What about Swan and the others?”
“They were ahead of us in retreat, so I believe they’re fine.”
“Good. That’s a relief.”
Now, it’s time to focus on the disaster. I peek through the trees toward the spot where the object fell.
“I can’t see anything.”
“It seems there’s a crater about ten meters in radius from the center of the impact. The force is incredible.”
Shes, who likely has a better vantage point thanks to some form of holy magic, informs me.
“Then what was that thing that fell?”
“It’s a white elf.”
“A white elf?”
“Yes. Completely white.”
…Exciting.
“If it’s unnaturally white, could it be… an albino?”
“Yeah, it’s unnaturally white.”
If that’s true, it would be incredibly rare. I’d love to observe them closely, but…
“Where are you, you lowly creature in a white coat! You can’t have died from that strike!”
The voice of the albino elf echoes through the forest.
Could the “lowly creature in a white coat” be referring to me?
If so, it seems the albino elf might be Marrow’s vessel. This is troublesome; being so heavily monitored makes observation difficult.
