As the light from the lanterns below them drew closer, at least two fully armed Elf squads, like bloodhounds catching a scent, rushed across the crisscrossing vine bridges of the Elven Forest, moving at double time to encircle the treetop where they were hiding.
“…Over there! That intruder’s aura is very close! Hurry, chase after them!”
The patrol squad leader’s voice echoed through the silent night sky, like a series of death warrants.
“Alright, don’t just stand there.”
Looking at the shrinking encirclement around them, Amir kept her voice extremely low, but her tone was still unquestionable—
“These Elves are much quicker to react than I imagined. We have to move now, Histori. Get ready.”
Before she finished speaking, Amir grabbed Histori’s fingers, which had grown stiff from tension.
Without giving her any time to prepare, she pulled hard, lifting Histori’s feet off the ground.
Then, like a weightless swift, the former assassin leaped without hesitation from the branch suspended high in the air, dragging Histori along with her, heading straight for the bottom of the Elven Forest—that dark, chaotic area that exuded a faint, decaying smell.
“Mmph—!”
The familiar sensation of weightlessness flooded Histori’s mind again, but this time she was a bit more accustomed to it, not as panicked as before.
‘Okay, relax, no big deal. Amir always catches me. Just make sure to keep my teeth tightly closed so the last half-leaf doesn’t slip out of my mouth.’
‘…Damn it, Amir, you bastard. Can’t you at least give me three seconds for some mental preparation before every move? Jumping down with zero frame start every time—when you get old, I’ll see if you need a wheelchair…’
Rustle…
As if to refute Histori’s thoughts, Amir’s landing technique was practically an art form.
Even though they fell like two cannonballs under the force of gravity, at the moment they were about to hit the ground, Amir’s toes nimbly stepped onto a branch of a giant fern.
Using that momentum, Amir rolled with Histori across the ground covered in rotting leaves, making about as much noise as a wildcat.
However, even though Amir had taken stealth to its extreme, the familiar sound of footsteps came from the drawbridges above them.
“They’re below! The intruders ran down the Elven Forest! Change direction!”
“…Sigh.”
Amir shook her head gently, then gestured to Histori, and pulled her along toward the path ahead, which was almost impossible to see.
But before they had taken two steps, strange arguing voices suddenly came from the corner ahead.
Listening carefully, it seemed to be two female voices, deliberately lowered but clearly quite agitated.
“…Boo hoo, it’s all your fault! I told you we shouldn’t have gone to that place! Now look what’s happened.”
A very young, timid female Elf’s voice, suppressing her sobs, was accusing in a whisper—
“Look at those crazy patrols up there! This isn’t something we can just pretend we know nothing about and get through safely, is it?!”
“Shut up! Cry? What’s the use of crying?! Can tears solve anything?”
Another female Elf, sounding slightly more mature but equally flustered, with a hint of exasperation, lowered her voice and retorted angrily—
“But who would have thought that just… ahem, just accidentally doing that kind of thing would lead to such serious consequences…”
“…What do we do now? If this continues, the entire Elven Forest will be in chaos within a few days!”
The young Elf, sounding somewhat broken, said hesitantly—
“Maybe we should turn ourselves in to Her Majesty the Queen? Maybe… maybe she’ll be lenient with us…”
“Shh! You… you’re not thinking of snitching, are you?! Let me warn you, even though I suggested this, you’re the one who actually did it! If it comes down to it, neither of us can escape blame! We’ll both be thrown into the swamp as fertilizer!”
“…”
Hearing this quarrel with quite explosive information, Histori and Amir both stopped lightly in their tracks.
—Huh? What’s going on?
It seemed that the current state of emergency and constant arrests in the Elf tribe had something to do with these two idiot Elves.
Even though Histori’s gossip soul was blazing, there was no time for her to continue indulging in this juicy drama.
“They’re right around here! Second squad, flank from the left! Third squad, block all routes upward!”
Judging by the increasingly clear and dense footsteps, the relentless Elf patrols had caught up to them from behind.
The bright lantern light pierced through the layers of tree branches and leaves, rushing toward the secluded path where they were at visible speed.
“Tch, annoying bastards.”
Amir glanced back at the scattered lights and let out an impatient tsk.
After that, weighing the options for less than a second, she tightened her grip on Histori’s wrist and took a small step forward.
Then, after spotting two unfamiliar figures, Amir’s legs suddenly exploded with power!
At that moment, her body shot forward like a cannonball from a barrel, with brutal force, dragging Histori along as she crashed headfirst into the two bewildered female Elves.
“…Ehhh?!”
“Oh no, it wasn’t us, let me explain…”
Before the two Elves could react, in this pitch-dark corner where even moonlight couldn’t reach, two black figures under wide cloaks, like a dump truck, plowed into them and both groups tumbled into a dense thicket deeper in the forest.
Clomp, clomp, clomp.
“Where are they? Where did they go?!”
After a burst of hurried footsteps, a dazzling light illuminated the corner where the two female Elves had been hiding.
The Elf guards looked around, then seeing the footprints on the ground, pointed into the distance—
“Charge! Follow these footprints and continue the search. The intruders have nowhere to run!”