Most of the activities I did at the elders’ meetings with Elder Aldor were information gathering.

In order to deal with the ear hunters who invaded the forest of the world tree, it was necessary to figure out what kind of organization they were.

That part was the first thing I secured during the meeting with the elders.

To do so, as soon as I joined the meeting, I asked the elders for information about the ear hunter organization that I had found so far.

“What is the scale of the ear hunters invading the forest of the World Tree?”

Excluding Elder Endril, who passed away as the main culprit in the previous World Tree contamination incident, the four elders are holding a meeting in their respective seats.

And one empty seat is a state that I am temporarily occupying.

Since they are elders, everyone should be old, but Elder Gorgon, who seemed to be the oldest among them, spoke first.

“… As far as we know, the number is not small.”

If you simply look at the numbers, at least around 20 people.

The observation returned that this was only the extent of what had been identified so far, and that the possibility of an organization of more than 30 people was sufficient.

I haven’t fully figured it out yet, but depending on the type of member, there is a possibility that the level of suppression will be extremely difficult.

I’m sure the expert class isn’t mixed in.

Once they gathered all the revealed information, they figured out that they had thoroughly prepared for the elf hunt.

“… Sorcerers are mixed. At least three of them.”

“… Are you sure?”

“Yeah, sure. It probably must be.”

What Elder Gorgon told me was enough to create tension, so I asked again to clarify.

“May I ask what the reason is?”

“It’s because I personally sensed the sign. We encountered two wizards about a week ago, and we were able to find one more presence three days ago.”

“Is there any chance that the newly found person will be the same as the one previously found?”

“It was clearly a different sign. At least that’s how I feel after living for over a thousand years.”

Seeing the elder Gorgon speaking confidently, this information must have been credible.

There are at least three wizards.

Of course, there would be no one among them who could use higher level magic than me, the 7th circle, but anyway, the fact that there were wizards mixed in was bad news for us.

The fact that there are sorcerers means that people with the ability to sense magical powers are mixed in an organization.

Even the elves, who could move without stepping in the forest, were meaningless the moment they were caught in the mage’s magic detection.

Operations like mass raids are probably difficult to use.

“Can you gather as many elves without magical powers as possible? Except for children and the elderly, we need someone who can use electricity right away.”

“It won’t be too much, but I’ll tell you that for now.”

The mage’s role within their organization is to seek out the elves.

In other words, if there is even a little bit of an elf they can’t search for, they can create it as another variable.

First of all, we should figure out that there is little chance of them entering the village.

An organization of about 30 people could not raid an elven village with a population of about 300 people.

Since the center of the forest where the elven village is located is the realm of the world tree, there is no way Mr. Dryad will let go of the ear hunters who have invaded there.

Perhaps instead of attacking the base, they would use the method of capturing one or two elves coming out of the village to work or work.

Conversely, it meant that it was possible to send ear hunters out just by having all the elves live inside the village.

Considering the lifespan of elves, it wouldn’t be too difficult to live without moving in the village for about ten years.

The question was, who would be the first to be attacked when such a method was used?

During this summer vacation, I had to go around at least two more places besides the World Tree Forest, so I had to leave the forest a little faster than Cyan-senpai, Wipe, and Eldrika.

That meant that when returning from the forest to the academy, the three people, including senior Xian, were the most likely to be the next targets of the ear hunters.

To stop it, the ear hunters must be completely eradicated before I leave the forest.

It was something that had to be done even if the transaction related to the seed of the World Tree was excluded.

After thinking about how to deal with the Ear Hunters, I asked the elders about the other classes in the organization.

“Aside from the wizard, did the other members of the organization understand anything?”

“According to the testimony of those who returned safely from the raid, most of the members seemed to be swordsmen and thieves. I’ve also heard that there are several archers hiding there. … It seems that the child who lost his life was also killed by the archer’s blind arrow.”

“… Is that so.”

Elder Gorgon saw my expression of regret and continued.

“Originally, the moment the killing takes place, the ear hunters cannot remain in the forest. Either they were driven out of the forest by Mother’s power, or they would have been sentenced in a prison created by Mother’s roots. That has been the rule of this forest for over a thousand years. Even if we managed only the mother of the world tree properly, we would have been able to protect the village and the forest at the sacrifice of her child… .”

“Can’t we just protect it from now on?”

“Yes, it should be.”

Because even protecting this forest is a responsibility that falls on us, who have been negligent in the meantime.

Having said that, Elder Gorgon let out a long sigh and continued the elders’ meeting that lasted for over two hours.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

When I came out of the meeting, it was after I roughly organized my plans for the future.

First of all, the information obtained through additional questions is the extent of the damage so far and the dynamics of the guys.

For once, Mr. Dryad somehow managed to figure out that they were still there somewhere in the forest. Although it was impossible as I needed to recover a bit more strength for exactly where it was in the woods.

And until I arrived at the forest of the world tree, I even confirmed that the confirmed damage was a total of four elves.

One elf was killed and three elves were captured.

Even though it’s been almost three days since the elves were captured, the reason they can be at least relieved is that they are professional slave traders of the kind called ear hunters.

They are guys who treat the elves themselves as a commodity rather than simply raping or possessing things.

In other words, it also meant that they didn’t do anything that would damage the product themselves. There was no way they would try to undercut the value of the things they dealt with.

Of course, that didn’t mean it wasn’t urgent, so it was necessary to rescue it as quickly as possible.

The elder Gorgon said that the dead elf was killed by a blind arrow, but I didn’t fully agree with that idea.

Because, ear hunters had a history of raiding the forest of the world tree at a similar time in their previous lives, not just this one.

However, at that time, unlike now, it was after it was known to the outside world that the world tree had completely rotted away.

That’s why I expected that if the World Tree wasn’t in trouble now, the ghost hunters wouldn’t attack as well.

It seemed that these guys were much more reckless than I thought.

Perhaps the attack in the previous life didn’t move after seeing that the World Tree had collapsed, but it could have been just a coincidence that made it look that way.

If so, we can understand to some extent why he recklessly killed himself in this forest, the realm of the World Tree.

Those who would invade the forest of the world tree without a plan would not think much of murder.

The original purpose was to open a magic circle and go back, but because of the uninvited guests, it was a little troublesome errand.

No, rather, it was fortunate that they came when I visited the forest of the world tree.

No matter how much the forest was the territory of the elves, there was no way the elves could win without sacrifice against the ear hunters, whose purpose was to hunt the elves themselves.

It must have been even more difficult since it was impossible to kill unilaterally according to the rules of the World Tree, and the damage might have been greater than in previous lifetimes.

Fortunately, I’m in a situation where I can participate in battle now, so that problem will be solved to some extent.

For full-fledged defense, after gathering elves capable of combat, they were divided into three categories according to their roles.

The first is stealth.

A group of elves who have significantly less magic in their bodies than other elves, regardless of the weapons or tools they handle well.

Knowing that wizards were mixed among ear hunters, it was a group created to attack those who were not noticed by magic detection.

Of course, since they were basically elves with a lot of magic inside, it was quite difficult to pick only elves without magic.

I might have to consider it fortunate that even 10 people were able to act freely.

It was concluded that Wif Rieder was in charge of commanding the group of hiders thus gathered.

“For now, just do the operation. If there are any changes, I will contact you by signal.”

“I understand, wise man.”

As a result of checking at the academy, they had already figured out that Wip’s skills weren’t bad in their own way, so if it were her, she would be able to carry out her role properly with the stealth crew.

Second, archery. It was a unit that would take charge of ranged attacks through bows and arrows.

Since swordsmen and thieves are a force of many ear hunters, the long range, which is an advantage of elves, can take advantage in battle.

Of course, as Mr. Dryad warned him not to kill, he could simply shoot an arrow. Not with enough skill.

An elf who can hit arrows enough to subdue opponents, but can control the power and location of arrows so that they do not cause fatal wounds.

It was such a careful mission, so I had to make sure to check the personnel selection and build a team.

A total of four elven archers gathered like that.

It was a small scale to be called an archery team, but each one was definitely usable, so that was enough.

Of course, the leader is Cian Rudflicka, and the crew is three, including Eldrica Luna.

I don’t know about Xian-senpai, but Eldrica felt a little uneasy, but I decided to trust her since she had the skills she had honed at the academy.

“If possible, please prioritize suppressing the mage. Even if we subdue all the wizards, there will be no way to find the elves over there.”

“Maybe it’s because Conrad’s juniors are wizards, he knows the importance of wizards well.”

“Other than that, I’ll leave it to senior Xian to figure out the situation. You don’t have to move according to a set strategy.”

“Leave it to me. Conrad’s juniors are behind him, so what’s there to be afraid of?”

“I-I will work hard too… !!”

“Yes, please.”

And the last remaining group was a manned group that I temporarily took over as commander.

In fact, rather than a group, it was a group of all members who did not enter the hiding group and the archery group, but anyway, the members of this group were scheduled to perform the most important task in their own way.

It is to perform the mission of ‘bait’ to attract ear hunters.

It was difficult to act in hiding due to the large amount of magical energy in the body, and it was not possible to attack from a distance so far that it could not be detected at all, so it was an inevitable choice.

It was not possible to release and manage multiple baits at once, so if this was the case, the actual fighting force would be around 20 people, including the manned group.

Even if it was a one-on-one match in an emergency, it would have been a risky move, but since each and every one of the elves had excellent abilities, I didn’t think they would lose due to lack of strength.

According to my instructions, the hiding group infiltrated into the forest, and the luring team and the archery team also moved to find their respective positions.

Now, it was time to hunt the hunters.