After talking with Ihk for a while, Seth went through several changes of expression, pointing out various problems to his companions who didn't know what he was talking about.
Seth wasn't much of a strategist, but he had a good sense calibrated enough to notice troubles when he interacted with something.
He might not see all the implications of something at first glance, but he certainly wasn't a fool who wouldn't notice the big things relevant to the group.
Everyone in his tribe trusted him, so even if they didn't understand, they knew that Seth had heard a lot from the elder, and it wouldn't be easy for them to digest whatever it was.
But it wasn't just those 19 tribe members who realized this. The locals of the village they had arrived at had heard the contents of Seth and Ihk's conversation and couldn't help but be surprised.
Seth's knowledge of this world was even less than the village children's knowledge of this world, even though the village was an extremely remote and peaceful place!
At least the village kids knew where they lived!
But no one showed contempt or negative feelings toward Seth because of his ignorance. Whether he was a fool or not, he was a member of the Sky People and a powerful one at that.
"So that's it..." Seth commented to Ihk after more than an hour of active conversation.
"I'm sorry, Seth. That is reality, don't blame your elders, they probably had good reasons to hide everything." Ihk said before gently touching one of the young man's shoulders.
Part of their conversation had been about the fact that the elders of the Misty Woods Tribe had hidden the truth about this world.
Seth had always faithfully believed in the First Elder, but from what Ihk had told him, and in conjunction with that man's last command, he seemed to know about this vast world...
So why didn't anyone in the village know about all this reality?
That was one of the questions that broke Seth's heart!
Ihk soon left him, indicating that the villagers should return to their homes and give these people space to talk.
"So, Seth? What did you find out?" Dax asked as he approached his rival.
"Where are our enemies? Will we free these people for telling us about them?" An ignorant young man asked, but several thought everyone they had met before them was related to their enemies.
For people who had lived isolated on an island for so long, everyone in the world was a foreigner without distinction.
But Seth immediately corrected their mentality.
"The people of this village and the one who attacked us are not related to each other. They are just ordinary, powerless people living in a remote place.
In a way, to say that they are to blame would be like saying that the ants on the ground are to blame for the actions of the snake that kills and devours a mouse..." Seth said in a firm tone. "From what the elder told me, this is a large world with several levels of organization.
It's not an island like the Giant Island. It's a continent, a place many times larger than our island.
Here, there are human and non-human races scattered irregularly, with villages similar to ours but also places where many more people live near each other."
Everyone looked at Seth strangely after hearing these words.
"Wait a minute." A young man said. "What exactly does that mean?"
Seth looked down at the dirt path and saw a fallen stick. He bent down and picked it up.
He drew a small circle and explained. "This is the Giant Island." Then he drew a circle more than 50 times larger and said. "And this is Ihaes, the continent we're on.
Think of the continent as many islands like ours joined together. So there are many tribes, many animals, in short, much more than we had on the Giant Island."
He made a few strokes between the drawing of the Giant Island and Ihaes and said. "Now we're on this piece of land that belongs to the Vridor Dynasty."
"Vridor Dynasty? What's that?" Emery asked.
He looked at them. "Vridor Dynasty is a state. In a way, a state is a collection of territories, a collection of small islands together, for example. But these people don't call these parts islands. They call them provinces.
A province is another division of territory where there are cities and towns. But the most important thing to know is that everyone here understands that different people exist in this place.
Each state, like Vridor Dynasty, has its own groups that may or may not be enemies of other states like it. But within a state, some groups may or may not be enemies of each other.
Imagine that there is another village like this one not far from here. They are not necessarily the same group, and they may even have a hostile relationship with each other.
That's the way this world is. There are several different groups that don't necessarily mix with each other just because they're on the same 'island.'
That is similar to what we had on our island with the animals. Some were our friends, but others we hunted for food." Seth explained in a way that everyone there could understand.
When he stopped talking, all 19 survivors of the Misty Woods Tribe fell silent, wondering how big this world was.
"But..." A young man was the first to speak, stating the obvious: "Why didn't we know about any of this? And how can we be sure these people aren't really connected to our enemies?"
"I don't know why we didn't know. But I can tell you that the old man was telling the truth." Seth said.
One of his abilities, derived from a power he had imitated from a deceased member of his tribe, allowed him to read emotions and thus judge the truth of people's words.
He had used this to learn the local language, but there were many other ways to use this ability.
"And it makes sense, doesn't it? Would we be so united if our numbers were 10, 100, or 1,000 times larger? Maybe we'd have a chance if everyone lived on the island, but what about an area 10, 100, or 1,000 times larger?
I don't know about you, but I think we can only connect with a small number of people. Beyond a certain number, we can't care as much about others."
Seth spoke up, not surprising the older group members but confronting the young hopefuls with a hard truth.
"If we don't care about others, we can still protect them for the good of the group. A united group can benefit those we care about... But a group has its limits.
A village in a tribe can still hold together, but I doubt that will work in gatherings of people that are double or triple our numbers on the Giant Island.
So it's not reasonable for a place as large as the continent to be completely united against us."
Even those who did not like Seth agreed with his words.
'It really is like that... So we have an enemy that could be anywhere.' Dax clenched his fists, not knowing how to start investigating.
They thought following the First Elder's orders would lead them to their enemies. But now, it seemed that Elijah's words were not so simple.
What should they do in this vast, unknown world?