Then without waiting for a response from Moon, I headed up into the tree house.
She was just left there standing in a daze.
She knew that these words weren't actually mine, but rather they came from Aisha.
These were the words that she had famously said when she had left the elven capital on her journey. These were words that almost every elf knew by heart because they perfectly embodied the concept of freedom that the elves loved.
But it had a deeper meaning here.
When Moon heard these words, she couldn't help falling into deep thought over them.
Then when she thought it through, she couldn't help feeling a ripple in her heart.
This was a ripple that she had never felt before, but she never thought that it would come because of a human…
…
Inside of the tree house, the elders were all waiting for us.
When they saw us, the green haired elder greeted us in a friendly tone just like yesterday.
There was a bit of small talk that was exchanged before they all suddenly became serious.
I also put away my smile and waited for the green haired elder to speak.
After a long silence, the green haired elder said with a sigh, "You asked us what happened to our forest yesterday…I'll tell you now."
Hearing this, I looked at Cecilia and Haley who were also here with me and they both gave nods before getting ready to stand. However, before that, the green haired elder raised her hand and said, "No, it's fine. We want to hear your opinion on this matter as well."
The way that she looked at Cecilia and Haley was different from the way that she looked at them yesterday.
There seemed to be a trace of admiration in them.
But after that feast, it was understandable.
There was another reason why the elders had held that feast, it was so they could secretly observe their guests.
With Haley and Cecilia's performances yesterday, the elders had clearly been impressed.
The two of them looked at me and I gave a nod in response before they sat down again.
With all three of us sitting there, the green haired elder said, "As you suspected, there is a problem with the forest. The amount of magic in the forest is draining, which is why we can't allow you to take more magic wood. If it keeps draining…"
She didn't finish her words, but it was clear what she meant by this.
All three of us knitted our brows when we heard this.
After a pause, I asked, "Do you have any ideas why the magic in the forest is being drained?"
The green haired elder shook her head when she heard this before saying, "We've already sent scouts deep into the forest, but we haven't noticed anything unusual."
I knitted my brows even deeper when I heard this.
I had expected some kind of problem like wandering monsters or something like that, but I never expected something like this. After all, it wasn't as if I even knew how magic really worked in this world.
Even if I had played the game this world was based on, it wasn't as if magic was explained in that game. All that you needed to use magic in that game world was the help of the system. It was one simple click of the button to use magic.
There was no real explanation to how it worked unless one read the endless piles of lore.
Even if I was a completionist, that wasn't something that I did.
So I had no idea how I would even start figuring out why the magic was being drained.
Or at least, I knew that it would be impossible for me to figure out anything as long as I was still in this village.
After thinking for a bit, I asked the green haired elder, "Can we head into the forest and have a look? I can't promise you anything, but it would be better than sitting here and doing nothing."
Then to my surprise, the green haired elder said, "Sure, I'll arrange some people to take you there now."
I really couldn't help being surprised by this since I had completely expected this request to be denied. After all, even if I did come with the approval of a high elf and the Song of Friendship, showing me their home like this seemed like a very bad idea.
If I were to ever use what I had seen against them one day…
I couldn't tell if it was because I had the 'favour' of Aisha, the high elf, or if it was because they were desperate to solve the problems in their forest.
However, when I looked at the elders closely, I realized that it was most likely the latter.
There really did seem to be something serious happening in these woods.
The elders didn't waste any time on this matter and soon there was a group of elves who were gathered at the bottom of the tree. These were different elves from the ones that followed Apollo, but they were definitely still strong warriors.
It seemed that Apollo wasn't in charge of every warrior in this village. There were still some that reported to the elders and followed their orders.
That was good to see since it made my future much easier.
The leader of this group was, to my surprise, Moon.
She was with the two blonde elves that had been assigned to show us around at the head of this group of elves.
After we had all gathered, the green haired elder said, "We wish you luck and we hope that you will be able to find the cause."
Though she said this, there wasn't actually any real hope in her voice. She just said this for the sake of saying it.
That was a bad sign since this meant that the situation was even worse than I had expected.
This meant that the reason they were allowing us to go in the first place was…because they were grasping at straws…
Just what was happening in this forest?