This time, even Fae became scared of Kio's ruthlessness. She started to regret her decision to bring him here.
Eldritz and the injured elf had already carried away the dead body and left a few minutes ago. However, before leaving, Eldritz gave Kio a warning. "You'll regret doing this..."
Since Kio couldn't just kill anyone that verbally threatened him, he decided to keep his guard up and stay cautious of Eldritz.
"Fae-"
"Y-yes?"
"I'm sorry for everything. Even though you went through the trouble of inviting us, I guess we're better off going back to the Omni Empire where the other guys headed before."
Fae shivered the moment she heard him call her name, as she was scared that he was going to do something to her too.
Normally she wouldn't have such a huge reaction, but since she was unable to understand how he killed that elf, she became scared.
She couldn't even see the bullet, as it traveled too fast. A mysterious death is a lot more frightening compared to seeing people die from an arrow or sword wound, because she would at least know the reason for it.
Even a few days ago, when she saw her comrades being eaten alive by zombies, she felt a bit fearful, but there was also disgust and anger.
"Hey, elf girl," Dan spoke up as he knew the situation was pretty bad right now.
"Do you know of a guy named Eldun?"
"How do you know my father's name?"
"Oh? So you're the little girl he used to always boast about. Can you bring us to him? I used to be his party leader."
"B-but…"
"Don't worry about Kio, he just wants to protect his girls. As long as nobody else tries anything, I promise you that nothing is going to happen."
"..."
"Kio, why don't you put away your weapon for now?"
"Fine."
"Well? Is this fine now?"
"...Okay then."
Although she was slightly hesitant, Fae eventually decided to lead them to her father after hearing Dan's confident tone. She had an escape plan in case they tried to do something to her.
As Kio felt somewhat guilty for causing problems the minute they arrived here, he decided to let Dan lead the way for now.
Fae's home was slightly larger than some of the other ones that they passed by. Inside the living room, all sorts of wooden furniture could be seen.
"Father! I think your old party leader came to visit you!"
*Crash*
Loud noises could be heard from a room further back, as it was apparent that Eldun was excited to meet his old party leader.
"L-leader! Is it really you?!"
"Haha. It's nice to see you're still alive. Why don't you call me Dan now, since our party already disbanded."
"That's going to be hard to do, as I got too used to calling you leader back then. Anyways, could this little girl be…?"
"Yea. She's Helen and my daughter, Mary."
"Wow. Has it already been that long? I'm surprised your daughter is already so big."
"Hahaha. It's been 15 years."
"By the way, where's Helen?"
"..."
As Dan told Eldun what happened, the mood turned somber since they were all pretty close to each other back then.
Eldun formally introduced his daughter to them, whose full name is Faelis Misrae. However, most of the elves here call her by her nickname, Fae.
At the age of 25, her long golden hair and bright emerald eyes have attracted many male elves.
Her moderate chest and lean body were a huge plus to them, however, her personality had scared away many of her suitors.
Eldun had tried for quite some time to find a husband for his daughter, yet only Eldritz, the son of the chief elder was interested in her. Although Eldritz was only interested in marrying Fae to get more political support, Eldun could only compromise.
While Dan and Eldun were busy catching up, Kio turned towards his girls.
"Kaori, Miyu, I'm sorry for showing you such a scene earlier."
"It's fine. I know you did it to protect us."
"Yea, I'd rather not see you get hurt."
"However, I don't want to see you become a bloodthirsty murderer, big brother."
"Thanks for understanding. I promise I will only do it if I feel we're in danger."
Kio knew Luna didn't have any issues with it, so he only patted her head as he talked with Kaori and Miyu.
As it was already dark outside, they quickly ate dinner at Fae's house and spent the night there after Eldun offered them to use the guest rooms.
***
*Knock Knock*
In the morning, a sound came from the door as someone was looking for Eldun.
"Morning Eldun, the rest of the elders have scheduled an emergency meeting, and I was tasked with inviting you to the meeting room."
"Alright. I'll be there shortly."
After the messenger left, Eldun informed everyone that he had to leave for a moment.
"I'm surprised you managed to work your way up to become an elder. I guess they must've finally noticed your talent after you left my party, hahaha."
"It's because there's not many people here with the ability to read the ancient language, so I was nominated to become an elder after I translated some important ancestral documents here."
"I see. Well, you don't have to entertain us, so go ahead to your meeting."
"Alright. Fae, you don't have to be so wary of them. If Dan can trust them, we can do the same."
"..."
An hour after Eldun left, another knocking sound came from the door.
"Hello, Faelis. The elders are requesting you to bring those humans to the meeting."
"Huh? Why are they looking for us?"
"Big brother, maybe it has something to do with the conflict yesterday. You did kill somebody, after all."
"Fuck. Those guys started it, and now I'm getting involved in more trouble because of them."
Kio had already reloaded his gun yesterday night, so he was ready to fight if he was in danger. Dan also gave each of them a Return Stone, with its location saved to the capital of the Omni Empire if things really turned bad.
"Kio, I'll do my best to defend the girls if a fight breaks out. However, make sure all of you use the Return Stone if there's no other choice."
"Girls, you heard him. Make sure all of you stay together and use the stone if we tell you to."
"Got it."
"Kay~"
Kio and the rest quietly whispered to each other, to prevent Fae and the messenger from overhearing them.
As they finished planning their escape route, they followed the messenger to the meeting room.
The meeting room was located in one of the biggest trees in this village. There was a huge circular wooden table in the center, where 7 elves sat around it.
They could see Eldun sitting there with a stern expression on his face.
"Wait here," The attendant stopped them as soon as they entered the room.
The elders immediately paused their talk and stared at Kio's group.
"Ahem. We heard about your actions over the last few days from Eldun over here. Even though we would've thanked you for saving the captured elves, your merit has been nulled from killing one of my son's friends."
"..."
"We will not pursue any responsibility from any of you, however, we will not permit you guys to stay here any longer. Please leave our village as soon as possible."
"That's fine with us. However, I just want to say, it was your son and his friends who drew their bow first to threaten us. If you don't want anything to happen to your people, then you better tell them to control their hostility."
"... I understand."
"Well then, we'll leave now."
As they turned around and were about to leave, a bright light flashed around one of them.
As Kio was in full alert ever since they entered, he quickly saw who was within the light. He immediately used his shadow step to dash towards that direction, however, the light disappeared along with the girl who was inside it.
"No!!! Miyu!!! Fuckers, what did you guys to do her?!"
*Clamor*
Noise erupted around the table as the elders began whispering to each other.
"We don't have anything to do with this. We only called your group here to inform you guys on our decision regarding your actions over the last few days."
"Like I will believe you! Tell me, where did she go?!"
As Kio was getting infuriated at the sudden disappearance of Miyu, laughter resounded behind one of the doors to the meeting room.
"Ahahahahahaha."
"?!"
"It would've been best if you were the one sent away, but this is fine as well."
As the culprit opened the door and showed himself, as expected, it turned out to be Eldritz. Even though most of the elves don't have a good impression of them, Eldritz and his friends were the only ones that were extremely hostile towards them for some reason.
"Ahahaha. I told you to watch your back. I knew the elders would summon you guys here after I was informed that you stayed in the village."
"What the fuck did you do to Miyu!"
"Oh, nothing much. I'd rather not spoil the fun by telling you where she was sent to."
As Kio looked at his screen from [Minimap], he could see a dot in the direction of the Tree of Life. Although he didn't know why she was sent there specifically, he knew it wasn't for a good reason.
With only 13 bullets left in his possession, he quickly took out his gun and fired at Eldritz.
*Ding*
"Ahahaha. I wouldn't have appeared here if I didn't have some sort of protection against your weapon."
As Kio was looking around the place to analyze all the shadows on the floor, a notification rang in his mind.
[Miyu would like to teleport you to her location. Do you accept?]
Hearing the message, he turned to the rest of his group.
"Dan. Can I count on you to keep the girls safe?"
"Yea. What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to find Miyu. Kaori, Luna, make sure you two stay with Dan. I'll come back to find you as soon as I rescue Miyu."
"Okay."
"Mkay... Stay safe, big brother."
As Kio accepted the teleportation, his body quickly faded away and disappeared from the spot.
Not even a minute after Kio left, somebody ran into the meeting room.
"Elders! There's trouble! A whole horde of wounded wolves, goblins, orcs, and humans have been spotted running in this direction!"