When they returned, they saw everyone was awake already. Since Dan was already preparing food, Kio and Miyu joined in and ate breakfast.
Fae arrived shortly after they finished eating and were already packing up their belongings.
"Did you guys reach a consensus?"
"Yea. We decided to accept the invitation and go to your home."
"Great. Let's not waste any time and go now."
"Alright."
Saotome and Ren noticed what was going on, since they weren't too far away from each other.
"Oi, where are you guys going?"
"Hm? We're gonna go with Fae."
"Great. I'd rather go with you guys instead of those men."
"Heh, you could try, but I don't think that's gonna happen."
"Do I need your permission now to travel with all of you?"
As Ren walked a few steps, Fae and the other elves glared at him.
"Halt! Who said you were invited to our home!"
"Hah?"
"Humans are normally not allowed to enter our village. Aside from a few exceptions, we will attack anyone who tries to forcefully enter."
"Then why are they allowed to enter?"
"They are the benefactors of our people. Kio and Riko had been the ones to free the elves."
"Bullshit. We were also there when everybody was freeing the slaves."
"I heard about your intention toward the slaves from my brother. A scumbag like you isn't invited."
"Heh. But doesn't that mean only Kio is invited, since the other girl is dead now. Aren't you elves ashamed of yourselves for being unable to help your so-called benefactor?"
As he mentioned Riko's death, everyone glared at him. Kio held himself back, as Ren would be gone from their lives after they split up .
"Since they're the party members of Kio, I have extended my invitation to all of them."
"Tch. Oi, Kio. Shouldn't we stick together, as fellow humans from the same world?"
"Hahaha… after what you tried to do to me and the girls, I can't believe you still have the audacity to say that."
"Are you sure you can trust those elves? I'm sure they must be plotting something."
"Heh, really? Did you really think I didn't notice your stares on Luna this whole time? You're the one that's plotting to do something to my girls, that's why you don't want us to leave."
"Tch. Believe whatever you want. Don't come crying to me when you regret it later."
"…"
As soon as Ren turned around and left, Kaori stuck out her tongue at him.
*Bleeh*
"Good riddance! That scumbag had been watching us closely all this time! He's always staring at us whenever we leave to use the washroom."
"Yea, I've noticed. That's also the reason why I wanted to stay nearby when you girls went to bathe."
"Oh? And here I thought my big brother wanted to take a peek at our bodies."
"Do you really think of me as a pervert…"
"Hmm… I wonder who's the guy enjoying Luna's naked body in the morning. Kissing and touching her all over."
"..."
Kio didn't have any words to refute it, since that did happen.
"Hehe, it's not like there's anything wrong with him being a little perverted. Aren't you just jealous that your brother is paying more attention to Luna?"
"Miyu, you… when did you take his side?!"
"What do you mean?"
"You used to always support me."
"Well… I feel like he didn't do anything wrong this time."
"Wha!? And how come you look like a different person from yesterday."
"Hehe, I had a nice chat with Kio."
"W-when did you two get so close!? You're even leaning on his arm!"
"Well… it's a secret."
"Kuu…"
***
As they followed Fae and the other elves, they crossed the mountains and entered the Endless Forest after a few days of walking.
Kio had taught Kaori and Miyu how to use their Inventory, as well as the [Inspect] and [Minimap] skills.
Meanwhile, Dan had patiently taught them how to fight.
With all sorts of monsters and wild animals around them, Kio and the girls managed to reach level 10 the day before arriving at Fae's home.
Kio unlocked [Threat Detection] at level 10, which he immediately inspected.
[Threat Detection] - User is able to passively detect the hostility of living creatures and objects. Limited to 1 meter radius.
Since he thought 1 meter was way too short for it to be useful, he decided to use some skill points, which increased it to 5, 10, then 25 meters at level 4.
Next, he used his two remaining skill points on [Shadow Walk], increasing the maximum number of charges to 4. He already tested this skill during their travel, which allowed him to move from shadow to shadow within a second.
In Fae's hometown, Kio could feel slight hostility from most of the elves around him, especially when they discovered his race.
There was a huge tree in the center of the village, reaching hundreds of meters into the sky, and none of them were able to see the top of it.
"Isn't it amazing? That's the Tree of Life, and you can't even see it until you enter the forest, as there is something that blocks it from view."
Fae wanted to impress her guests, so she immediately walked beside Kio and introduced the village.
All around the Tree of Life were hundreds of wooden houses, which had been built into the regular-sized trees.
Suspended wooden bridges connected the houses, which gave them an alternative to moving from tree to tree.
As they were admiring the design of this village, Kio sensed a high level of hostility from three elves heading their way.
"Cheh, what do we have here? A bunch of humans dare intrude into our home?"
"Hey Eldritz, look at how close your fiancée is acting with that man over there. Aren't you going to do anything about it?"
"..."
Although the other two elves were the ones who were voicing out their displeasure, it was Eldritz who directed the most hostility towards him.
'Fuck, ever since I received [Threat Detection], it feels so uncomfortable to be able to sense hostility.'
Kio could feel all the hate and anger from the elf known as Eldritz, even if that guy appeared calm on the surface.
"Hey! Don't be so rude towards my guests. They saved the life of our captured elves. Besides, I never agreed on marrying him."
"Hah? Faelis, even if you're capable enough to lead a squad of elves, that doesn't mean you can do as you like."
"If they weren't kind enough to save them, our captured friends would've died back in the human city!"
"Oh? I thought there were more than just 4 who had been captured. Where are the rest of them? And what happened to the rest of your squad?
"We ran into some unforeseen circumstances. There were hundreds of crazy humans who attacked everyone in sight, and the rest of my squad members were either eaten alive or became infected.
"Hah? What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Even if you are Eldritz's fiancée, you can't just say whatever you want to defend those humans."
"No! It's the truth!"
"Enough! I bet these humans are plotting to kidnap more elves after they managed to trick you."
"No, these guys are-"
"Wait, are those slave crests on their bodies? Faelis, get away from them right now!"
One of the elves beside Eldritz yelled as he took out his bow and was about to notch an arrow.
*Bang*
"Kyaah!"
"Argghh!!"
Kio had taken out his gun and fired a shot at the elf who was threatening them.
Although he didn't aim for the head, he shot his shoulder, causing the elf to drop his bow and arrow while holding his shoulder in pain.
"B-big brother, you…"
"Relax, Kaori. I didn't kill him. If I didn't shoot him, he might've killed one of us with his arrow."
Since the elf was more than 10 meters away, Kio could only use his gun to incapacitate him.
Kaori didn't want to see her brother become a murderer, but if he had to do it to protect everyone, she would try to accept it.
Miyu had already lost too many of her family members, so she just decided to trust him. She would rather see other people hurt than to lose him.
For everyone else in the group, aside from Mary, they were already used to seeing death around them, so they had no qualms about Kio's actions.
Dan had quickly covered Mary's eyes when he sensed Kio's intention.
In front of them, the wounded elf was rolling around on the floor, screaming from the pain.
"Ahhhh!! It hurts!"
Fae was shocked from the sudden change in Kio, since her impression of him was a rational, kind human.
"Kio, how could you just hurt him like this?"
"Hm? I could sense his hostility, which was directed at us. Besides, he even drew his weapon, which gave me a reason to defend myself."
"You weren't like this during the last few days we were together."
"That was because I didn't feel threatened back then. When we were still in the city, I couldn't use the gun, otherwise I would attract more zombies."
"Then what about that other human from a few days ago?"
"You mean Ren? Even he knew when to hold back, especially after he got scared off by Dan. As long as Ren didn't cross the line, I wasn't willing to deal with him."
Although another reason why Kio didn't take any actions against Ren was because he only had 15 bullets in total, but he definitely wouldn't tell her about it.
"But…"
"Fae. I won't harm any of them if they don't try anything on us first."
"..."
"Hey, you three over there. That shot intentionally missed his head. However, if any of you try to do this again, I won't be so kind anymore."
With all the hostility around him, Kio knew he had to give an example of what would happen if they try to harm him or the girls.
Since Eldritz still remained silent all this time, Kio kept his guard up just in case.
However, it was the other elf who reacted first.
"Y-y-y-you, how dare you injure my friend!"
As he was in a state of panic and disbelief, he had ignored Kio's warning from earlier.
Taking out his bow, he felt like he needed to remove this threat before anything happens.
As his arm reached backwards towards his quiver, Kio had already reacted.
*Bang*
This time, the elf didn't even have a chance to regret his action as the bullet lodged in his forehead.
Since they were standing within 20 meters of each other, Kio didn't have a problem aiming for the head.
"Don't say I didn't warn him. He would've killed me if I didn't kill him first."
Everyone was stupefied by the scene in front of them. Within mere minutes after they entered Fae's hometown, a dispute broke out and Kio had even killed one of the elves.