Evade The Hero and Flee!

Evade the Hero and Flee! 185 #21. The Stories of Others (4)>

#5 Their circumstance: A certain religious order’s circumstance

“Hah-ah… To think it’s the empire…”

An old man kitted out in a pure-white priest robe was racking his brain while staring at a letter.

“It’s not exactly a problem, but…”

“That, in itself, is the problem, isn’t it…”

In the world where gods presided, men and women of cloth exercised undeniable influence on all people. Even kings and queens would find it rather tough to reject a religious temple’s request.

However, the ‘opponent’ this time happened to be too powerful.

Not to mention…

“It’s impossible to predict what the empire might or might not do, so…”

“Indeed, we can’t carelessly step in front of them.”

Before they earned the label of the strongest nation on the continent, the Karuan Empire was known as that one nation that loved to stir up trouble. And the current problem was related to that trouble-loving empire.

“There are plenty of nations possessing great military might and not much else. And there are many wise nations, too.”

“However, Karuan is both powerful in its military and wise in its tactic. Yet no one can even remotely predict what they will do next from their erratic behaviour…”

The empire oh-so nonchalantly did many acts that most normal people would’ve said, ‘No way, they wouldn’t do that!’. Such decisiveness and swiftness would’ve been evaluated as ‘terrifying’ if it was done by a ‘regular’ nation, but the empire also possessed actual military might and abundant wealth to support their actions!

Besides, the Order of Nature didn’t even have a pretext to complain regarding this matter either. The letter stated that the ‘guests’ were being treated royally under the careful ‘protection’ of the empire. With the way the letter was worded, what exactly could the Order do now?

“One of the hero’s comrades was an Elf, wasn’t she? How are the Elves responding to this?”

“It seems that they are also waiting, watching what will happen next. The empire is the most trusted ally of all the non-human races, after all.”

“Uh-huh…”

Plenty of nations existed on the continent, and more than a few of them treated other humanoid races very poorly, with the justifications of them not being actual humans.

Things were especially terrible during the last great war; the entire continent was embroiled in warfare back then. Human treated their fellow humans horribly during then, so it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the treatment of non-human races would be even worse. Countless many people from those races were forcibly enslaved or thrown into various war zones.

The two races that had it worst were the beastmen possessing excellent physical specs and regenerative abilities, and dwarves, reputedly blessed by the God of Blacksmithing.

A handful of kingdoms actually focused more of their attention on capturing slaves instead of fighting in the war – so much so that it became difficult to distinguish whether they were participating in the war to capture slaves, or were capturing slaves to fight better in the war.

While the whole world was mired in confusion and chaos, only the Karuan Empire acted differently from the other kingdoms by starting a slave emancipation campaign.

The empire’s forces quickly mobilised to dismantle all the hidden slave markets found throughout its territory. After successfully conquering enemy nations, the empire freed all the slaves regardless of their races, and they even pressured their allied nations to do the same.

Quite literally, the empire was the saviour to all non-human races!

Of course, their actions did raise a few heated complaints. Those complaints mostly consisted of, “Why are you butting in the domestic affairs of other kingdoms?!”

#6 Their circumstance: Certain Elves’ circumstances

Elves.

Known as the people of the forest and a member of the fairy species. A race charged with protecting the World Tree.

Their patron god, the Goddess of Benevolence and Commitment, sacrificed herself to stop the evil god from driving the world to a deadly crisis. To follow the will of such a god, the Elves did their best for the sake of this world.

Unfortunately, not everyone acknowledged all the efforts put in by the Elves. Actually, several evil humans exploited this point and turned Elves into their personal slaves or as cash cows.

Even if Elves followed the will of their Goddess of Benevolence and Commitment, they were still living beings capable of emotions. Several Elves who willingly went against the will of the great Goddess began emerging from their ranks, their purpose in life to help out their families or friends.

But things were different now. The best possible ally one could have, the Karuan Empire, was currently protecting the Elves, after all. With this protection, the Elves were finally able to put down the weapons always gripped tightly in their hands.

The strongest, most affluent nation on the continent was protecting them, and it seemed that no humans were ballsy enough to try something with the Elves these days.

Sometimes, Elves were forced to pick up their weapons again when a small number of humans chose to do something inexplicably moronic. However, most of such incidents were swiftly resolved by the empire’s forces. As such, it was safe to say that Elves had no reason to fight lately.

That demonstrated the empire’s seemingly-endless goodwill towards the Elves. In return, Elves worked hard to reward such goodwill with something even better as per the will of their Goddess of Benevolence and Commitment.

The relationship of trust between the two was sturdy and unbreakable, in other words.

Such a view was widespread throughout the continent. And this view was responsible for the Order of Nature’s guess on why the Elves hadn’t made a move yet.

However, the reality… was somewhat different.

“Goddammit! Selena is no longer with the hero?! In that case, what about the hero’s teacher, then?!”

“What about our plans, then?! The one about Selena secretly sending us information, then we pounce on that man as soon as he steps foot in our forest!”

Elves were currently mired in confusion.

“Goddammit! I knew it, that dam empire! That stinking, evil, vile empire!”

“Damn it all to hell! This is exactly like the bloody empire we all know, isn’t it!”

While using the worst insults they could think of to slander the empire, the Elves glared at the letter sent by the currently-imprisoned Selena asking for help.