The southwestern border of the kingdom of the Greylion

The grasslands, which were replaced here by woods, were densely packed with trees that made it completely impossible for the nomads' proud war horses. In the mouths of these herders, this forest standing in the southern part of the steppe is called the Endless Forest Sea. It is said that even the most courageous warrior will lose his way when he steps into this forest. The dense foliage obscures the sky, and those who get lost in the deep forest do not get the help of the ancestral spirits from the sky, and eventually can only turn into nutrients for the tall trees.

Of course, this is just a legend born out of the fear of the birth of unfamiliar forests among the steppe people. For the people of the Grey Lion, they knew very well that the forest was not endless, and that it was only about the size of half a kingdom at best. However, this does not mean that the forest is safe, and all the countries adjacent to it prohibit hunters from entering the forest. At the same time, any form of logging is strictly prohibited, and violators will not be pardoned.

The reason for this is known only to a small number of people, who may be medicine pickers who have lived on the edge of the forest for generations, or adventurers who have ventured into the forest and left by chance, but more often than not, people who have interacted with the true owners of the forest. They all know that while the forest doesn't belong to any country on the map, it's not a borderland. Here, it's the territory of the elves.

Elves, this is one of the few intelligent races recognized by humans as equal to humans. Their humanoid appearance and serene personality are at least much easier to accept than orcs or other creatures. In fact, however, the reason why humans are happy to recognize the status of elves may simply be because compared to the dwarves who compete with them for minerals and the orcs who compete for food, the elven living area has the least intersection with humans.

Interestingly, these long-eared people don't like humans, compared to humans, who can face elves as equals. Or rather, they are very misogynistic. This disgust is not due to the appearance of humans or the friction between the two races, for the elves, the short-lived and warlike humans are a completely unreasonable species. Compared with the children of the forest, who value the future more, human beings are urgently transforming, destroying the original appearance of this world and forcing nature to become more obedient to itself.

So, to sum up, a human spirit is a very incredible existence. But Leon happened to have one in front of him.

"I said, your wound has been bandaged. And with your healing powers, it's not like that eye can't grow back, is it necessary for you to cry like this?" said the blood lion to the elf beside him who kept pouting. After a brief introduction to himself, he already knew that the long ear who had saved him with a double knife was called Bakham, and as he had guessed, he was a forest ranger who had just come of age.

Facing Leon's somewhat disdainful face, Buckham pulled the hood down from his head, although he also knew that he was a little embarrassed because of his appearance, but the pain he had never experienced and the fear of losing an eye made him unable to face the human in front of him calmly. The elf sullenly swung his knife and slashed the vines in front of him, and there was no trace of the composure of the longevity race from him.

The Blood Lion tilted his head, as the rescued, although he felt that Bakham's state was very problematic, he didn't want to say anything. If nothing else, you still need the help of the other party to leave this forest now, and it would be too unjust to be left in the depths of the woods to die because of the wrong words.

Leon's injuries were not very serious, and the main reasons affecting the Blood Lion's activities were hunger and fatigue. The problem of hunger has been greatly alleviated by the food supply provided by Bakem, and for the elves, the forest is full of food. Although whether or not to swallow those strange-tasting tree fruits did make Leon hesitate. As for fatigue, I'm afraid we have to wait until we find a place to rest.

The two of them walked a little further in silence, and in the process, the Blood Lion noticed something that made him quite uneasy.

"Are we really going out of the woods? Why do I feel like we're going deeper and deeper?" said the chief knight, frowning as he looked at the thicker canopy above him.

"I said I'd send you out of the forest, but that would have to happen after I brought this to the old men. Bakham raised his hand, dragging the nezumi's corpse in his hand. That was his job, and as a ranger, it was their duty to keep the unclean out of the woods.

"What?" Leon immediately became anxious when he heard this, "Do you know how many grey lion people were being harmed by this monster you dragged while I followed you to meet the old man in your mouth!"

Who knew that after hearing the words of the blood lion, the elf turned around and put the long knife in his hand on the former's neck.

"Shut up, human. I don't care what has become of your country! Besides, even if I send you out, what can you do alone?"

Facing the elven knife that flashed with cold light around his neck, the knight chief was silent. He was silent not because he was afraid that the other party would actually kill him, but because he knew that what Bakham said was right. With his strength alone, it is really a drop in the ocean for this rat-man plague. Thinking of this, Leon began to look at the elf in front of him again.

It's not the first time the Blood Lion has seen an elf. In fact, the relationship between humans and elves is like that between humans and humans, with skirmishes, firefights under the table, and that kind of thing comes every few years. As the most elite knight of the Greylion Empire, Leon naturally had a lot of elven blood on his hands. Therefore, he still has some knowledge of these long-eared neighbors.

"Why, I just want to kill me?" Presumably sensing the knight's gaze, Buckham said as he withdrew the knife from his neck, "I advise you to save some effort." I don't want to kill someone I just saved. ”

"Listen to your tone, as if you don't like me?" Leon was not a good observer, but even he could understand the sarcasm of the elves' words.

"Hmph. Bakham snorted coldly, turned his head and continued to walk deeper into the forest. After a few steps, he said, "There's a scar on the back of your right hand, which is the mark of our arrows. ”

Leon looked down at his right hand, there were so many scars on his body that sometimes he couldn't remember when a certain scar was left by whom. Now that the memories were evoked by the elves, the chief knight did find a different mark on the back of his hand than the scar left by the iron weapon.

"If that makes you feel better, the elf who left me with this wound is a worthy opponent. The Blood Lion said.

"But you still killed him, didn't you?"

“...... That's war, Bakham. ”