"Is this the place?"
A brown-haired little girl who looked to be around 12-13 years old with short hair and a valiant aura asked an old man, not much taller than her and walking alongside her.
"Yes, don't roam around here. Your only duty is to serve the 'Sacred Spirit'. Don't overstep your bounds."
The little old man spoke with a frown, his words laden with tension. His eyes darted towards the clothes this captured handmaiden of the Conta tribe was wearing - Simple white wolfskin with medium fur, the clothing for the leader and elder class of the tribe, not something a handmaiden was qualified to.
'Heh, but it was her who asked, cocky bastard.' Sephalia thought as she turned around and walked away, simply without a care and respect for the leader.
'Hmph, overly ambitious.' Milo concluded in his head as he remembered the vain attempts of this girl to acquaint herself with all kinds of people and her zealous attempts to learn anything that would prove useful to her.
When they had found her, they had believed that it was due to divine intervention that this handmaiden for the Sacred Spirit of his tribe was found.
But he found himself growing increasingly annoyed with this little girl as she soon became a bridge that connected the Sacred Spirit and their tribe. Instead of improving the communication, the bridge soon felt like a wall but to the leadership of the Conta tribe, it wasn't a problem, since they were still able to 'use' the Sacred Spirit to their fullest potential.
Milo gradually came to a halt as he looked ahead at the people coming to welcome him, a pudgy old man and two gargantuan warriors well over 2 meters in height.
"Elder Lumien, Elder Gumin, Elder Gutin, How have you all been over these years?" Milo looked towards the three one by one as he gave them each a nod and started talking pleasantries.
The squad that came along with him included his own son, Kshama, the fire elemental mage and the handmaiden of the Sacred Spirit, the ambitious Sephalia, ten elite guards, that included 5 Grade-3 warriors and 5 Grade-3 mages and...
the mage of the extremely rare variant 'Life Element' they made the Sacred Spirit of their tribe,
the little girl that made Ryne feel at peace years ago in the palace of the Duke of the far-eastern Leer Kingdom,
the white-haired little fairy that made others instinctively wish to give their all to protect her,
situated in the middle of the mage guards, Cecilia.
....
"...and this.. is Kharrum, my childhood sparring partner." Daney patted the back of another swaggering teen, around 14-15 years old, and introduced him to Ryne.
Ryne's brows were twitching at the mention of another 'childhood sparring partner', as Daney had already introduced a lot of them to him already.
All of the said 'partners' gave him an odd look before greeting him awkwardly or not greeting him at all but this one also had another identity, the same as Daney, as the son of the tribal elder currently welcoming the Conta tribe, Elder Gutin.
Frowning openly, Kharrum didn't bother greeting Ryne at all as he grabbed Daney by the shoulders and took him to a side, telling him something in a low voice in an aggressive manner, occasionally pointing his finger at Ryne.
Trying to avoid confrontation with the tribesmen of this tribe with whom he had a complicated relationship, Ryne walked off alone to the side as he gazed at the hollow night sky, which looked as if it were the mouth of a gargantuan beast, waiting to swallow entire heaven and earth.
'I wonder if there's a sky full of stars in Ro-han city or the Countries and Kingdoms, west of this forest, where people usually enter. It's been 4 years already, and I still haven't seen a single adventurer from the outside, perhaps the hunters roaming around the tribe make sure this doesn't happen. How strange.'
His internal monologue was broken off when he spotted a party of a dozen people with a strong aura coming from the entrance of the village.
It was headed by the three Elders of the Zaputa tribe that he had a slight knowledge of and an old man so short that he only reached the chests of the people walking around him. He appeared to be a distinguished guest though, as he was escorted by three Elders of the mighty tribe.
He was about to lose interest and walk back when he spotted a little silhouette walking amidst the crowd. White hair, round face, and the aura of a little fairy, troubled in the mortal lands. There was no mistaking it.
'Cecilia! It was really her!!' Ryne was stunned at the same spot, feeling an urge to rush up and ask her all sorts of questions that have been plaguing his mind since the years he had been here.
But just as he was about to move, Daney's voice reached his ears,
"Oh, so that's the life elemental mage the cowardly idiots have trapped all these years. She doesn't look as drained as I thought, perhaps her affinity is also quite high."
"Trapped? What?" Ryne forced himself to calm his furiously beating heart as he asked Daney.
"You've been out most of the time so you wouldn't know, but this little girl isn't as well-off as she seems. They gave her the title of their 'Sacred Spirit' or goddess something but actually, they're just trying to use her life elemental affinity to make potions for their injured hunters." Daney replied in a bored voice but when he noticed how seriously this guy, who was usually disinterested in everything, was listening he continued, "Apparently, they're trying to use the fact that she has nowhere to go to tie her down with that status, otherwise our tribe would've just taken her in forcefully. Life elemental mages are very useful, you know, they can snatch a dying warrior from the grasp of a near-death state and give him a new life. Do you know her?"
Ryne slowly unclenched his fist as he sorted out the information he just got as he walked towards an even more obscure location so that the coming group wouldn't notice them. Without even turning back, he replied Daney,
"She comes from the same place as I do, the Leer Kingdom I told you about. I need to meet her, but not now."
"Interesting."