After Eris chanted "Recovery" on me and Sasha, we started our journey. Our destination is the central part of the forest where the elves live. We passed through thickets, thick trees and finally we arrived at the village where the elves lived. We were immediately greeted by some elven women.
Little information about this village, all of them are women and children. The men mostly fought on the front lines and never returned.
Just how strong the Demon King's army was, was he the type to slaughter all of them without leaving a single one on the battlefield. Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.
For now let's forget about the demon lord and return to the woman sitting in front of me. She has white bangs, claims to be the village head, her name is Sherin. It is more than 500 years old.
"It's a shame it happened... we've never heard of a snake entering this area."
"Maybe he's after you, Sasha." I said then drank the tea given by the elves. Iris beside me also did the same, she looked calm as if she was indifferent, as a goddess she should have paid more attention to her surroundings or maybe she already knew nothing would happen in this place, so she acted normal.
Sherin took a deep breath.
"In two days the orcs will arrive, what should we do?"
"Don't worry, Naoto is here, 10,000 orcs isn't a problem for him." Eris suddenly said that which surprised me.
"Yeah, don't worry, I'll take a thousand steps."
"What kind of Skill is that, I've never heard of it before," Sasha asked in a serious tone.
"When that monster gets close, I'll run away with that skill."
"Oh, that's a very useless move."
Sherin smiled mockingly, beyond my expectations he was a serious person.
I drank the tea into my mouth while thinking about something.
there's a saying 'don't fight something you can't win' otherwise running away from the situation is the best thing.
"How about we just leave this village," hearing my opinion everyone was pensive.
"We can leave here, but we don't know where to go, especially in this village there is no man who can be our leader."
Sherin sighed softly, I could see the weight on her hips. After all she was a woman, being the village head was not her will.
Besides that.
Sasha was an elf noble somewhere, at least he would have a plot or two to live in.
"I think you are a noble, at least you can give the land that is managed by your family. What do you think Sasha?"
Sasha put her finger to her lips as if thinking of something.
hearing Sasha's answer, everyone present couldn't hide their happiness.
"It's been decided, we will get ready now and will leave tomorrow morning." I told everyone and they nodded in agreement.
That night while gazing at the brightly shining moon. Iris appeared and sat next to me.
"You chose to save everyone, instead of fighting for something you couldn't win... people would think you're a coward."
"Are you making fun of me?" I asked Eris who smiled at me.
"I commend you."
"it's a mockery."
Iris smiled mischievously.
"Earlier you kept putting me in danger, what exactly are you planning?"
"I just wanted to show Naoto that we didn't come here to play games, we came to save the world."
"I know," I answered simply.
"It's good that you understand...let's sleep."
"Is this an invitation?"
"No, I sleep in my room and you sleep in yours. Get rid of your dirty thoughts."
I only watched Iris leave whose face was red before I looked back at the moon.
The moon shone so brightly as if it was near but far away, it was like I saw iris, she was always beside me but I couldn't reach her.
The next morning all the horse-drawn carriages were ready to take us off. There are 6 carriages with me, Iris and Sasha in the front horse carriage.
The city we are going to is a city called Eldia which is managed by a duke named Regina Alisria Leonhart or Mother Sasha to be precise.
I don't know what kind of person he is, but from his name he must be a great person, just to be sure, I asked sasha.
"What was your mother like?" instead of responding quickly, Sasha looked disgusted and backed away from me.
"Don't tell me you want to marry my mother?"
"What kind of person do you think I am."
"Fool, Crazy for treasure, women and thrones." who answered it was Iris while Sasha nodded his head a few times.
"Since when did you guys get along and also stop spreading weird rumors about me… you know? All the elven women are looking at me warily, like they're going to stab me if they get close."
"Fufu, you finally can't do anything like that," Iris said triumphantly.
"I'm just going to do stuff with just Iris."
"Look at that Sasha, it's not like he just exposed his evil intentions all along."
Iris hid on Sasha's back.
As we teased each other, the horse-drawn carriage suddenly stopped, the coachman turned his head towards us.
"Miss Sasha, there is a huge snake blocking our way."
I think I knew the snake, the three of us got off the carriage and found the snake staring at us. He stuck out his forked tongue.
"Finally I found you."
Unexpectedly these animals can talk like humans. The three of us drew closer to him so the carriage wouldn't be in danger.
"What do you want from me? I have absolutely no grudge against you."
The snake laughed at Sasha's statement.
"Don't get me wrong, I came looking for you because my master wants to take the sword,"
"excalibur," I said.
"Who is your master?"
"My master is very shy so he doesn't want to be known by the public, just give me your sword and I will leave here in peace."
The master must be a coward who told his snake to steal.
"I refuse."
"I see, then let me kill you guys especially this guy."
"Me? why me?"
"You drop me into the abyss, I will eat you alive."
Ah, I remember that incident.
It turned out that he was a snake that had fallen into the abyss.
Suddenly the snake lunged at me, luckily Sasha was already in front of me while blocking the attack with her shield.
"I won't let... your opponent is me."
this is my chance to escape, I immediately embraced Iris in my lap and brought her back to the carriage.
"Kyaa... what are you doing?!"
"Stay here, I will help Sasha."
I stared at Iris for a long time.
"... especially?"
"You don't want to say something like cheer me on?"
"No, but don't die."
"oke."
I took an ordinary sword in the carriage and dashed forward, taking the opportunity of sasha who was fighting from the front, I slipped behind the snake and then shook the sword at the tip of the snake's tail.
"Aarrgghh, Damn you..." He screamed in pain as he chased after me, so annoyed he forgot Sasha's whereabouts.
I jumped when the snake's head tried to bite me.
"How does it feel to eat soil?" I said provokingly.
"I'll kill you."
"If you can, give it a try."
I turned around at high speed, this is my first time running this fast, does this have anything to do with the special effects when changing worlds? Not wanting to think about it any longer, I ran past Sasha.
"I leave the rest to you."
"Okay, what is the so-called Thousand-step Skill, quite interesting."
While praising my abilities, Sasha stomped her shield on the ground, at the same time a chain came out of her shield that was able to bind the entire body of the snake that was aimed at her.
"WHAAT!!"
and then
Sasha shouted.
"IRON MAIDEN."
In front of the shield a giant chest popped out from the ground. The chest was like an open gate featuring sharp swords on both sides.
The chain kept pulling the snake into the crate.
"NOOO!"
The chest went back into the ground after swallowing the snake's existence forever.
'Just so cool, I should ask him to teach me' I thought then approached Sasha who again raised her shield.
"You're so great."
"It's not much, let's continue our journey."
I followed Sasha from behind to the carriage and the journey continued.