Chapter 129
“If you don’t like it, shoot.”
“…!”
Crackle!
Sparks flickered.
The tip of the Elensia root sizzled and burned.
The elf woman Muirah’s eyes widened.
Lloyd’s lips curved.
“How much would you like it cooked? Medium? Well-done?”
“S-Stop that!”
“Shouldn’t you lower that deadly bow of yours first?”
“……”
Muirah’s throat bobbed.
The tree mustn’t be harmed any further.
Better her own body be burned than that.
In the end, she eased the drawn string.
She lowered the bow.
“There. I gave in, so stop tormenting the tree.”
“Of course.”
Lloyd slightly pulled back the torch.
Peace returned to the sizzling tip of the root.
‘Hostage act success, for now.’
Lloyd looked around the cave.
It was a narrow passage just freshly dug.
Tight enough that even one person barely fit through.
He was trapped at the very end of that narrow cave.
And on the exit side, five armed elf women had their weapons trained on him.
‘Completely cornered.’
A bitter smile crept up.
He had already predicted they’d catch him.
You couldn’t fool an elf’s senses in an elven forest.
‘That’s why I planned everything assuming this exact situation.’
The novel ‘Iron-Blooded Knight.’
He had referenced the traits of elves described there. Studied them. Dug deep and devised methods.
He had come up with a multi-step operation.
Step 1: Throw Javier in as bait.
Step 2: Tunnel underground to reach the roots.
Step 3: Threaten with a hostage situation by scorching the Elensia root.
‘And step 4: Swap the hostage.’
Lloyd’s hand moved inside his coat.
He pulled out what he had carefully stashed before starting to dig.
A wildflower.
One he had uprooted ahead of time, preserving even the roots.
“…!”
The moment he pulled out the wildflower, the elf women’s expressions shifted again.
Seeing that, Lloyd brought the torch close to the flower.
“Back off. Unless you want to see this flower burn.”
“W-What kind of monster…!”
“Now.”
The pupils of the elves quaked.
To an outsider, their reaction would seem bizarre.
It was just a single flower.
Not rare, not precious.
Just an ordinary, nameless wildflower.
‘But that’s the secret of elves—this actually works.’
Lloyd’s lips curled.
Yes.
‘Iron-Blooded Knight.’
The novel described the elves’ defining trait:
Their ‘fanatical love for plants.’
‘Not just love. Fanatical is the key word.’
A race that loved plants with obsessive passion.
Think ‘Misery’ levels of obsession.
Step on a single acorn by accident? They’d spiral into depression.
Snap a leaf while jumping between branches? They’d sob all day in despair.
That’s who elves were.
And now, right in front of them, he threatened to set a wildflower on fire.
Their reaction was obvious.
“……”
They clenched their jaws and stepped back.
Lloyd narrowed his eyes even more.
“Keep going. Further.”
“……”
The elf women slowly retreated.
And Lloyd advanced in turn.
Muirah glared at Lloyd with clenched teeth.
“That little threat won’t get you out of this forest.”
“That’s my problem, not yours.”
“……”
“Keep backing up. Keep going. Shoo.”
“What if I say no?”
“Then this flower burns.”
“If that flower burns, you’ll die by our hands too.”
“Then I guess I live just one more day.”
“……”
“What’s life, anyway.”
He stared straight into the elf woman’s eyes.
This was a battle of nerves.
Whoever backed down first would lose.
He had to plant the idea that he had nothing to lose.
Luckily, the psychological warfare seemed to work.
The elf woman bit her lip and stepped back again.
“Smart choice.”
From every angle, he looked like the villain here.
As he soaked in the shame(?), the elf women retreated to the cave’s end.
Lloyd motioned with a jerk of his chin.
“Out. Get out there.”
“……”
He forced the elf women out of the cave.
But he himself didn’t step outside.
‘Of course not. I’m not about to take an arrow to the back of the head.’
The area outside the cave was open space.
He had no idea where a shot might come from.
Knowing that, Lloyd hunkered down inside the cave entrance.
And he waited.
‘Javier should be returning soon.’
He had told him before sending him off.
Come back in 30 minutes, no matter what.
So when Javier returns—
He planned to launch a counterattack with him. In the confusion, they would escape the forest.
He was confident he could pull that off.
‘The goal isn’t to fight the elves or conquer the forest. The goal is just to get out. With Javier, a Swordmaster, on my side, that’s totally doable.’
A midnight escape.
That was the final stage of today’s plan.
‘Still, these elves really ‘are’ elves.’
While waiting for Javier, Lloyd kept close watch on the elf women.
He was on alert in case they suddenly raised their bows and fired.
Naturally, he ended up observing them closely.
‘White skin. Pointed ears. And everyone who came to capture the intruder is a woman. Guess it’s true what they say—elf men stay at home while the women run around with bows.’
The men did the housework.
The women roamed the forest as sentries.
That was the elven custom described in ‘Iron-Blooded Knight.’
There wasn’t any grand reason.
‘Elf men tend to be larger and heavier than the women. So they damage more grass when walking through the forest.’
That’s why elf women practiced a special gait that protected plants. They had to master it to be recognized as adults and allowed to leave the village.
It sounded silly from a human perspective.
But considering their fanatical love for plants?
It made a strange kind of sense.
‘Anyway, that aside—why do they all look so gaunt?’
After the long standoff, Lloyd noticed something else.
The elf women were unnaturally thin.
‘It’s not just that they’re slender.’
It was a dark night.
Only the moonlight and the flicker of torches illuminated the place.
Even so, it was clear as day.
‘They’re not slim. They’re emaciated.’
Lloyd looked at their faces.
All had protruding cheekbones.
And sunken eyes with dark circles.
Their complexions looked pale, and the hands holding their bows trembled slightly.
It was strange.
‘Wait a second. Something’s going on here.’
His instincts flared.
That’s when Lloyd’s eyes began scanning rapidly.
He studied the elves’ faces. Observed the surrounding forest.
And things he hadn’t noticed earlier—perhaps due to the tension of sneaking in—began to come into focus.
‘There aren’t any animals in this forest.’
A forest.
One untouched by human hands.
Perpetually basking in springtime.
But in such a forest, there were barely any animals.
No squirrels or chipmunks darting through branches. No birdsong that should’ve been audible with just a moment of silence.
This forest was wrapped in eerie stillness.
‘Is this even possible?’
He was puzzled.
Then his eyes returned to the elves.
Plant-loving elves.
Now looking like they hadn’t eaten in ages.
A forest with no animals in sight.
‘No way…’
Lloyd’s mind went into overdrive.
He connected the dots from what he had seen.
A theory formed, shining in his mind.
At last, he came up with a hypothesis.
And from that, a new plan took shape.
The signal for the plan began with a question from his mouth.
“Excuse me, but… do you like meat?”
“…!”
The elf women’s eyes trembled.
Bullseye.
Lloyd smiled in satisfaction.
‘Bingo. They’ve been starving for meat.’
Elves love plants.
Fanatically, obsessively.
So much so they’d never harm a plant.
Which meant—they’d never eat one.
No fruit, no seeds, no leaves, no stems, no roots.
‘So they’re all hardcore carnivores.’
Meat.
Only meat.
Yet now they looked so malnourished.
‘Which means they haven’t had meat in a while.’
Why?
The answer came quickly.
‘The monster domino effect must’ve reached here too.’
Everglow Forest was within the eastern mountain range.
It couldn’t have escaped the monster domino entirely.
The result?
‘Obvious. A horde of monsters probably rampaged through here. Sure, the elves repelled them—but the damage was done. The disruption caused the local animals to flee their habitats.’
No birds chirping.
No small animals.
That alone told the story.
The small animals had fled. The predators that hunted them followed.
‘So the forest’s animal population plummeted. Which means for the elves? A sudden scarcity of game.’
Hunting must’ve become difficult.
Even with effort, the amount of meat they could get was insufficient for everyone.
And Lloyd’s theory was correct.
Muirah and the elf women were truly famished.
They couldn’t even remember the last time they succeeded in a hunt.
Or the last time they chewed on dried jerky.
They were hungry.
Their bodies felt weak.
And it wasn’t just them.
The entire tribe.
Women, men, even the children.
The situation was more severe and desperate than expected.
But they had no solutions.
Everglow Forest and all nearby forests had seen a steep decline in wildlife. Game was scarce everywhere.
Sure, nature would recover with time. Animals would return. The forest would regain its vitality someday.
But how long would that take?
Could they endure hunger until then?
That was the problem.
‘And on top of all that—’
Now humans had brazenly trespassed into the forest.
They damaged the sacred Elensia tree’s root.
They even held a beautiful flower hostage and made threats without hesitation.
Her head throbbed.
“You. What exactly are you up to?”
The moment he slipped, she would put an arrow in his forehead.
So Muirah demanded, glaring.
Lloyd played it cool.
“Nothing in particular. I just—”
“Just?”
“Would like to negotiate.”
“Negotiate?”
“Yes.”
“We don’t negotiate with humans. You should know that.”
“But we’re negotiating right now, aren’t we?”
“……”
“And earlier, you gave in to my threats. If you think about it, that was a form of negotiation too.”
“Don’t twist logic. We have no intention of negotiating.”
“Then when the torch dies out, you’ll kill me?”
“Are you afraid of death?”
“Well, obviously.”
Despite his words, Lloyd grinned.
Then he casually dropped the ultimate word.
“I can grill some pork belly for you.”
“…What?”
“Sizzle sizzle. The rich, savory pork belly cooking on a hot grill. Flip it over when one side is golden and crisp. Then snip it into bite-sized pieces. Dip it in sesame oil sauce and… oof.”
“……”
The elf women’s eyes grew hazy.
Lloyd’s tongue kept moving.
“If you don’t like pork, how about chicken? Because chicken is truth and light. First, clean the chicken thoroughly and season it with salt. Soak it in milk overnight, then fry it at 165°C for 7 minutes, and again at 175°C for 3 minutes. Imagine biting into that crispy leg—how the juices coat your tongue. The aroma from the bursting breast meat…”
“……”
“Ah, or maybe you prefer beef? Then how about steak? Start by draining the blood from a cut of flank steak. Lightly salt it. Then sear it on a hot pan for one minute per side. The sizzling oil bursts as you flip it—shhha! Lower the heat to medium, cook to taste, and while it rests, your mouth waters…”
“……”
“So, what do you say?”
‘Gulp.’
The elf women answered with drool instead of words.
At last, Lloyd had opened the negotiation table.