CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER 17: DEAL

Silence filled the tavern for several seconds, then it quickly turned into sudden movement.

Everyone stood up from their seats, men and women and elders without exception.

The masked man placed his hands inside the pockets of his coat.

"We move in fifteen minutes. Gather everything important you have. Anyone who is late will be left behind."

There was no argument. Once he spoke, he turned and left the tavern without waiting for words of gratitude or exchanged doubts.

He left behind harsh whispers spreading through the corners of the place. The whispers carried both gratitude and suspicion. They exchanged glances, then steadied themselves and began preparing.

Even though many of them did not truly trust the masked man after the recent doubts that had surfaced.

They had no real choice. They lost the protection of the great Spirit of Autumn.

That guardian they had considered the protector of the village for centuries had suddenly become their source of fear and suffering.

In the end, trust is not a desire as much as it is a necessity. Either they trust him, or they all die here together.

The sage left the tavern with Oliver, sharp looks following them from the people inside.

Those looks were a mix of gratitude and accusation, but they did not seem to shake the sage.

His expression did not change as he received them, while Oliver barely gave those looks any attention.

His mind was occupied with one thing, Elinor.

His face was extremely calm, yet that sadness was not something that appeared easily on him. Deep inside, he carried a profound sorrow.

He was unable to express his feelings with words or by crying loudly.

This was not the first time this happened. When the previous village sage died, who had been very close to him, he could not show much grief no matter how hard he tried.

The current sage, who tried to appear cold and indifferent in front of everyone at the time, clearly grieved for his father as well.

And when he broke down at Elinor’s grave and his tears fell, Oliver kept his face more composed than both of them and tried to comfort them.

Sadness covered the villagers’ faces in different degrees.

Even that girl who was a little younger than him, who did not cry, was clearly in shock.

But Oliver was not in shock, and yet he still could not express his emotions the way the others did, even though he felt the same sadness they felt.

This made Tell’s words about spirits being unable to express emotions the same way humans do echo strangely in his mind.

These thoughts dragged him into a spiral of doubt, but he shook his head firmly.

"I am a normal human."

After the masked man left the tavern, he walked straight toward the tree where Tell was sitting.

Tell was sitting on a branch, staring at the rows of graves they had just dug.

The masked man approached and leaned quietly against the trunk.

"I settled things with the villagers. I will carry out the agreement soon."

Tell did not turn. Her eyes remained fixed on the graves.

"After you take them out of the forest safely, I will help you enter the City of the Autumn Spirits and find the Grand Sage."

The masked man looked at the graves for a moment, his hand still inside his pocket, his eyes following the muddy marks on the ground.

He did not say anything at first, he only exhaled.

"You are betraying your people now, you know that?"

Tell did not move. She kept staring at the graves, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"I know."

"As I said earlier, any delay will make things worse. Are you ready to place the humans’ safety above the forest and your people?"

She nodded.

"We are the reason this happened, so I must at least guarantee their escape from here."

He showed no emotion.

"Do you think they can leave the forest safely?"

"As long as you are with them, I do not think they will face any problem. Am I wrong?"

He turned his face away from her.

"I think you are right in a way."

Once he said that, he turned completely and prepared to leave.

Despite the clear irritation he felt because of delaying the pursuit of the great Spirit of Autumn, he had no other choice but to accept her terms.

He wanted to move immediately. Getting the survivors out of the forest as quickly as possible became a temporary priority even though he hated it.

Any delay would worsen the situation more than it already was.

He did not know when the Spirit of Autumn would lose control completely under the corruption’s influence.

And if that happened, even ordinary creatures in the forest could become a threat to him, making his movement far more difficult.

All his goals and plans had been disrupted because of what happened to the great Spirit of Autumn.

After he found that black liquid and heard that spirit speaking to the mysterious man, he knew something was about to happen.

But he never imagined they would dare corrupt the Spirit of Autumn in this way.

This was the first time he saw a mythical creature of that level corrupted so violently.

Even though he had not seen how the corruption happened, he found no explanation except that the liquid had a direct connection to it.

And now this made him seriously question the identity of the one who gave that liquid to the spirit.

Throughout all his previous interactions with mythical beings, he had never seen anything similar.

He never expected to witness a great mythical being like the Spirit of Autumn fall so quickly under the corruption’s effect.

When he reached the tavern entrance, he looked at the villagers gathered in front of it.

They were only about ten people. These were all the survivors in the village.

Each one of them carried a tightly tied cloth bundle containing whatever they managed to gather during the fifteen minutes.

The masked man raised his hand in a brief signal.

"Let us move."