In less than half a day, the ears hunters were all led to Mr. Dryad, who was waiting for them in the World Tree Square.

The elven garrison, which began to organize itself, won the expected victory against the ear hunters.

There were some injuries in the process, but most of them were minor injuries and no deaths occurred.

At this rate, the elves must have the power to protect themselves until the power of the World Tree returns.

The hunters who were subdued by the elves were largely divided into two categories.

The first type is those who adapt to defeat as quickly as possible as soon as they are overpowered and obey their disposition.

It has been known since ancient times that it is better to obey rather than resist if captured by an elf.

Of course, if even an ordinary prisoner of war didn’t want a blade stuck in his throat, it would be a common response to obey, but when he was captured by the elves in the forest of the World Tree, the only way to survive was to leave other things and not resist.

Because, most of the elves’ trials are based on the words and judgment of the World Tree.

Except for when the World Tree stopped functioning for some reason as before, elves usually had a habit of asking and answering all their judgments to the World Tree.

And there is only one factor that the World Tree that the elves trust and follow take into consideration when making a trial.

To distinguish whether the target is a harmful target that will threaten your forest in the future. That was the only reason she was considering at trial.

So the only way to live is to walk quietly without even thinking about resisting.

If you think about the trial process of the world tree, you will have to forcefully blow away all the bad thoughts, even if you deliberately think differently.

Of course, not all ear hunters knew such obvious knowledge, so there was a second kind that showed the will to resist even in the midst of captivity.

Rather, it was even more so for those with some vague knowledge who knew that elves did not kill in the forest.

He knows that no matter how wild he is, he can’t kill him, so he must be trying to resist as much as possible.

It was a shallow plan that he did not think of as an act that would end up poisoning him. With a little thought, you should be able to understand why the elves don’t kill in the forest.

Those guys watched the situation until they were exhausted, and then only those who seemed to be in trouble were awakened with burning magic.

Because there was no magic that only inflicted pain without hurting anyone as effective as this.

Most of them lost their will to resist and walked quietly after seeing one or two being beaten as an example. The last one, who resisted until the end, eventually fainted in pain and was carried away on a stretcher.

After completely subduing the group of twenty-six ear hunters and clearing their camps.

Temporary peace returned to the tumultuous forest of the World Tree.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Twenty-six ear hunters brought to the garden of the world tree, Mr. Dryad’s realm, each awaited their disposal with different emotions.

Most expressed complex emotions, such as fear, resignation, or regret.

So, when working as a mercenary, you should have chosen carefully what to do and what not to do.

“… it’s you guys The guys who invaded my peaceful forest, dared to kill, and disturbed the forest.”

Standing in front of the Ear Hunters, Mr. Dryad met their eyes as if declaring.

After Mr. Dryad muttered in a low voice, the roots of the World Tree were wrapped around the hunters’ ankles.

“Aww!”

“Sah, save me… !!”

Even though they were only holding on by the ankle, each of the terrified hunters, you and I, began to spit out a word or two to Mr. Dryad.

“Oh, misunderstanding, World Tree!”

“I had no intention of committing suicide! Really!”

“I was against entering this forest from the beginning… !”

“noisy. From now on, if you spit something out of your mouth even for one more word, I will personally shut up that snout, so go ahead and say it one more time.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

The guys who tried to spit out one or two more words shut their mouths one by one at the pressure she showed.

“Your purpose or reason is not important. The important thing is that only killing has taken place in my forest, and the cause of it is because of you.”

“… … .”

“So I will ask you first. Who dared to kill fearlessly in my forest?”

The eyes of the tied-ear hunters, whose hands and feet were tied, turned to one side.

A young mercenary, presumably a rookie archer, was standing beyond the gathered gaze.

“Oh, it wasn’t intentional! An accident that occurred in the process of threatening to the end… town!!”

The entire root wrapped around the archer’s body as he hurriedly spewed out excuses.

The young archer who had committed the killing stood as stiff as if he had become a piece of wood.

“One hundred years.”

Even without any other explanation, it was not difficult to grasp the meaning of her words.

Upon seeing the sight, the frightened ear hunters spoke out in confusion.

“I-I didn’t kill anyone! Please have mercy!”

“I clearly saw this guy next to me swinging his sword with the determination to kill it! Of course I didn’t even think of that!”

“I didn’t even hold a bladed weapon in my hand! I’m just a guide!!”

“noisy. I will decide the punishment for you guys, so don’t be offended and wait for the treatment.”

Eventually, the root prison that climbed the body of the ear hunters fixed their bodies, and just like when I read my memory, I started to punish each hunter by checking their memories.

I left Mr. Dryad and the Elves behind and went to the leader of the guys who left the last disposition.

The captain of the men, who had been watching his subordinates being punished with their hands and feet tied inside the wooden prison, urgently called me to stop.

“Hey, hey, hey!”

It was not difficult to infer the reason for calling me urgently.

At least, he must have thought that if he was the only human in this group who had not committed any crimes, and if the other elves followed him, he would be able to free himself.

In order to hear information related to the Dark Church anyway, we had to talk at least once, so I deliberately pretended to be indifferent and spoke as if I wasn’t interested.

“Why?”

“Mo, how much do you need as a ransom? I will give you what you call!”

“ransom?”

“Yeah, yes! It’s the ransom! Seeing that you deliberately left me out as an example without punishing me first, the purpose must be to get a ransom from me, right?!”

As expected, the slave trader, who had organized a group of elven hunters, seemed to realize that the reason why he was imprisoned separately was for a different purpose.

Although it was absurd to think that it was to free himself, shamelessly.

There is no need to teach it over and over again. A guy in this state would rather spit out the information I want on his own.

Read at noblemtl.com

Just a little bit, pretending to be interested, I walked over to the guy in prison.

“If I were to free you, would you be sure to pay the ransom?”

“Of course not! I’ll give it to you as long as you get me out of this hell!”

“How can I trust you?”

“Eh, magic contract! There’s a package of slave contracts in that pack! I just need to make a small correction to the bottom sheet, so hurry up!”

As expected, slaves were mainly bought and sold, so it seemed that they were trying to use slave contracts when negotiating their own ransom.

Anyway, if you just get out of here, you think there’s a way to solve it somehow, so it’s a word that jumps out.

“How do I know you’ve been playing a joke on the contract?”

“W-Where is that nonsense?! You can’t even believe in a magic contract?!”

“Well, I don’t know. Because I am careful not to enter into contracts with people who do not have mutual trust.”

“Of course, it can’t be helped that you think I’m not trustworthy! Judging by their appearance, they seem to be from the Empire, but they must know about the cutting of arrows and crowns, right?”

I never thought I would spit out such large-scale information even before I properly questioned something.

A smile naturally formed on my lips because I thought I had caught my senses properly.

“Yes, because it is the 4th Grand Chamber of the Empire.”

“I’m a pretty high figure in the tailoring of arrows and crowns! Have you ever heard of the name Bingo, the water ghost?”

“… No, that’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”

“Mo, if you don’t know, you better know! It will be a name that will spread beyond kingdoms and empires to the whole world in the future!”

The negotiating table hadn’t even been opened yet, but the guy who claimed to be Bingo, the ghost, started talking casually as if he had already been released.

“therefore?”

“uh… yes?”

“I don’t know what the hell is important whether you’re bingo the ghost or the bingo the fire.”

“Wh, what do you mean?! Although it is true that I make money in ways that are objectionable in the eyes of the Empire, I have never cheated on credit, at least not once! In the name of Hermes, the god of peddlers!”

“No, it’s not that I can’t believe in Bingo the Water Ghost, it just means I can’t believe that Bingo the Water Ghost is real. Are we meeting for the first time today? is not it?”

“Ah, that, that’s what you meant… .”

I had no idea who the real Bingo was, but I deliberately pretended to know it and dug into his psychology a little more.

The guy inside the prison started answering every word I said to prove that he was Bingo.

“If you really are that ‘Ghost of Bingo,’ then you probably know about the secret pact you had with the Sepia store a while ago.”

“A secret pact with Sepia Co., what do you mean?”

“Looking at the pretension, it must have been someone I didn’t know. The story ends here.”

“No, I was kidding! Se, of course I know about the secret agreement with the Sepia Company! Aren’t you asking about the process of resolving the Sepia Company’s worker reduction case!”

For now, let’s leave it to talk a little more.

“As the worker reduction case was revealed on the surface, the workers of Sepia Co. went on a collective strike, and in the process, if it was the contract that our foundation absorbed the strikers, of course we know!”

“absorption? It seems a little different from what I know.”

“Oh, isn’t that what you say! Do I have to tell you frankly that I pretended to hire union members and cooperated with Sepia Trading Co., Ltd.?!”

As expected. It seems that the Arrow and Crown Foundation intervened in the death of the head of the sepia trade union, which he learned about while solving the Seneran kidnapping case.

According to this content, perhaps the last faction that Johnny vaguely pursued also means the cutting of arrows and crowns.

In fact, since he was spitting out information that he would not have known if he had not intervened in the case, the reliability of the information was quite reliable, even if people were second.

Since he knew that he was definitely a person related to the Dark Church, the next process proceeded in an instant.

He didn’t know exactly what he was dealing with with the Dark Church, but he was able to find out how the Dark Church contacted Elder Endril anyway.

In addition to that, I was able to figure out to some extent what kind of relationship the Dark Church had with the Sepia Company.

Having reaped unexpected profits, I thanked Bingo one last time.

“After hearing it, it seems that you are right for the water ghost bingo.”

“Didn’t you keep saying that from earlier! Now, quickly! I don’t care about the other guys, get me out of this prison quickly… .”

“Thanks to that, it saved me the trouble of wandering around gathering information. Good work, water ghost bingo.”

“… … uh?”

As if he had no regrets, Bingo, who had been watching me in a daze as I woke up, exclaimed in an excited voice as soon as I turned my back.

“You tricked me, you mean child!”

“You cheated, you cheated, you just spit it out on your own.”

“Isn’t that what happened because you said you couldn’t trust me and asked me about this and that!!”

“So, who wants to be excited and chatter around? I’ve finished my business, so I’m going.”

The rest of the disposal was now Mr. Dryad’s role, so while I was about to leave, I heard Bingo’s blind accusations against me from behind.

“Damn you hypocrite! What the hell do you get out of pretending to be so noble and moral?! Do you feel any sense of moral superiority if you protect the safety of elves who have nothing to do with you?!”

a sense of moral superiority

Since I had never moved with such a thought in mind, I turned my head to answer the last question.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t really act like a hero, I just do what I want to do.”

“What?”

“Because there is an elf among my acquaintances, and that elf is a precious person, and I just didn’t like you fooling around in this person’s hometown forest.”

“… … .”

“Anyway, you who think of elves as commodities were going to deal with them at least once. It just came a little faster.”

“What, like that… .”

Mr. Dryad, who had returned after all the other ear hunters had been sentenced to ‘appropriate punishment’, was approaching to judge the final ringleader, so I left Bingo, who was looking at me with a futile expression, and walked away.

Before long, the sound of dozens of roots rising from the ground and the sound of them squeezing a human body was heard.