When we arrived back in the village, we took the same passage as before.
We came back out through the secret passage and found that everyone who had been there was still waiting for us in that room.
The moment that they saw us, they all revealed different expressions.
Cecilia and Haley immediately came forward and surrounded me.
They went around me, looking over my body, seeing if anything had happened to me.
When they saw that there was nothing, they finally gave a satisfied look and sat down again.
During this time, Moon had also moved closer and it seemed like she was observing me as well.
Once they were satisfied, the green haired elder finally moved the meeting forward.
The green haired elder gave a simple summary of what happened when we went to the Tree of Life sapling, but she left out one part of that narrative.
But it wasn't as if she wasn't going to tell them, she was just waiting for the end to make a bigger impact.
After she finished her story, she said, "There's something else that I need to announce."
When her voice fell, she turned to look at me and I knew what she was asking for.
When we came back, I had hid the Mark of Life on my forehead so that it wouldn't cause a scene. But now she was planning on telling them about it, so I had no choice but to reveal it.
With a thought, the Mark of Life appeared on my forehead.
The elders had been staring at me since they saw the green haired elder look in my direction.
The moment that they saw the Mark of Life appear, all of them revealed shocked looks.
They looked at each other as if they were confirming what they were seeing and then turned back to look at me.
There were many of them that suddenly stood up and came forward to surround me, but the green haired elder raised her hand to stop them. She used her hand to draw an invisible line that they couldn't pass and they all gathered there.
They knew that if they all came closer like this, it would scare me off, so they followed the instructions of the green haired elder.
But the way that they surrounded me like this, it was almost like I was an animal that was locked in the zoo…or a beautiful woman that was surrounded by men who wanted to ravage her…
It really was a strange kind of feeling…
However, there was one person that went past that line that the green haired elder created.
This person was Moon who had a shocked look on her face the moment that she saw this Mark of Life.
She couldn't help herself as she came right up to me and looked at my forehead, lost in the mark that was there. With the way that she was looking at me, I was even scared that she would come right up to my face to stare at it.
But she remained at a decent distance in the end.
After a long silence, she finally said, "It's the real mark, it really is the Mark of Life."
I didn't know what to say in response to this and it didn't seem like she wanted me to say anything in the first place, so I just sat there in silence.
After another long silence, Moon finally looked away from the mark and looked at me. The way that she was looking at me was very strange and I couldn't put my finger on what kind of emotions she had.
After letting them stare at me for a bit, the green haired elder said, "I'm sure that all of you know what this means…"
She let her voice drift off and she didn't finish this thought, but the look on the faces of the elders made it very clear what they were thinking.
She then turned to Moon and said, "We'll make the announcement tonight and then you'll be able to do what you want."
Moon had been staring at me the whole time and didn't look away as she gave a nod in response to this.
Everything that they said just confused me even more.
It was clear that what they were saying was related to me, but I had no idea what they were planning to do at all.
It didn't seem bad, but it also didn't seem good…
So I couldn't help feeling a bit worried.
But before I could say anything, the green haired elder said, "We will host a banquet tonight to thank you for everything that you've done and we will announce our intentions to open up trade with you there."
The way that she said this almost seemed like everything had been set.
At the same time, the things that she said weren't bad.
She had basically confirmed that they were going to accept our offer of opening up trade between our two sides, which was something that made Haley's eyes light up.
But for some reason, I couldn't help feeling that there was something off about this.
In the end, she didn't let me ask anything as she called the two blonde elves in.
The two blonde elves also couldn't help being surprised the moment that they saw the mark on my forehead, but that reminded me that I still had it out.
So with a thought, the mark disappeared.
All of the elves were shocked by this, but the green haired elder assured them that this was a normal thing.
The green haired elder then had the two blonde elves escort us back to the place we were staying.
Moon didn't hesitate to stand up and come with us.
The green haired elder was about to say something to stop her, but then she revealed a smile that had a deeper meaning and said, "Go on."
I couldn't help feeling that there was something very strange about all of this…