Piache muttered worriedly.

“Enya wasn’t even born in the forest. How could she be recognized as the Daughter of the Forest?”

Kiyan, who was also concerned, murmured.

“It’s not like there’s no way, but…”

It was not impossible for a new Daughter of the Forest to be recognized by the skull spider in scenarios where the lineage had been broken or during pregnancy.

“The giant creature and the Daughter of the Forest are bonded by blood. For example, when the first Daughter of the Forest introduced her successor, she drew a little blood from the baby’s finger to show to the skull spider.”

Kiyan added.

“If Enya were to show a significant amount of her blood, it would undoubtedly make the skull spider hesitate.”

“It’s a complicated path ahead.”

Piache sighed in frustration.

“How are we to communicate this method to Enya in Nervana forest, and how is she supposed to shed that much blood?”

Inaken murmured.

“Fiarca is with her, isn’t he?”

“What does that always sleepy kid during Kiyan’s lectures know?!”

Yaru exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

“And to think Aquilea would be devastated to this extent.”

As Yaru said, Aquilea’s situation was indeed dire. After Servia and the core elders departed for Garganta, only the incapacitated and the elderly were left on the plains.

Piache clenched her teeth.

“Elders are always irresponsible.”

“Ah, but what about that bastard?”

Inaken asked.

“Which bastard?”

Yaru asked back.

Kiyan’s expression darkened. Piache, beside her, grinded her teeth.

“That b*stard.”

She said, pointing somewhere.

Yaru narrowed her eyes.

In a dark, shadowy corner of Piache’s herb shop, someone was detained. Yaru’s eyes widened after spotting the face. It was the supreme elder Haraibo. The once dignified figure was now just an old man cowering in a corner, who stiffened under Yaru’s gaze.

“Caught him right after Servia’s forces left.”

Kiyan said confidently, baring her teeth.

Looking closely into the shadows, Yaru realized it wasn’t just Haraibo who was detained there. She recognized Ruhan’s face and gasped. Ruhan was huddled next to Haraibo, alongside Ashika and Suya.

‘The girl who had openly bullied Enya…’

Yaru contemplated the face of the woman in front of her from the past commotion. The women looked terrified, and children who appeared to be their offspring were exhausted, sleeping beside them.

“Servia took only her father, Haron.”

Piache explained, then pointed coldly at Ruhan.

“That woman lost her newborn and her second child in the chaos caused by Servia’s troops.”

Indeed, only the eldest child was in Ruhan’s arms. Compared to Ashka and Suya, who were shivering beside her, Ruhan looked utterly shell-shocked from losing two of her children at once.

Piache cast a frosty glance at them.

Being of foreign descent herself, Piache had always taken it upon herself to care for the people of the plains.

Thus, she harbored deep resentment towards certain privileged groups in Aquilea who had shunned her despite her being a caregiver. Had it not been for her medicinal skills acquired from her original tribe, Piache knew she, too, would have been ostracized.

“Can we take them with us?”

Piache asked through gritted teeth, looking at Kiyan.

“Nervana will not take responsibility for them.”

As Kiyan replied flatly, Piache snorted.

“Of course. Don’t even think about it. I plan to drag them along, bound hand and foot, just like they once did to helpless foreigners.”

Piache’s eyes were full of repressed rage as she glared at Haraibo, who flinched under her resentful gaze. She was unrelenting. In the first place, she thought of Enya and Tarhan, almost like her own children, and a deep, indescribable emotion welled up within her.

“I knew something like this would happen someday. I just knew it.”

Piache sharply instructed the pharmacy women with a sharp gaze.

“Gather up all the medicine and healing tools we’ve been collecting for the Allied Forces! Everything we’ve been keeping back, we’re taking it all to Nervana!”

With Piache’s command, the women in the pharmacy began to move with remarkable efficiency.

Realizing they had gained robust support, Yaru and Kiyan exchanged glances. Lehijin nodded, and Inaken watched the herb shop women with an impressed look. Only Haraibo’s face looked as though it were rotting away.

Suddenly, Inaken, who had been guarding the door, turned sharply.

“Someone is coming.”

His words sent a wave of tension throughout the room. Yaru got up, readying herself for combat. Inaken looked to Kiyan, seeking permission to open the door.

Kiyan solemnly nodded.

Creak.

The door opened. From the darkness, several pairs of white figures appeared before them. Inaken immediately drew his sword and blocked their path.

“Identify yourselves!”

“Wait!”

Yaru quickly intervened, stopping Inaken.

Squinting into the darkness, Yaru scrutinized the figures. They were numerous, shrouded in white bandages, giving them an almost ghostly appearance. She recognized them instantly. They looked just like the group from the leper den that she had seen with Enya.

She quickly explained to the others in the pharmacy.

“They are the people I know. They seem to be companions of the group that was with Enya.”

Kiyan and Piache stepped forward to meet them, and one of the sudden visitors stepped forward.

“We apologize for startling you. We are followers of Senu from the leper colony.”

It was a woman’s voice. Everyone in the pharmacy seemed slightly taken aback by the unexpected introduction.

“I’m Lomba. This is Ines, and that’s Caleb. We don’t mean any harm. We hope you weren’t too frightened by our appearance.”

Everyone remained speechless, caught off guard when the woman who introduced herself as Lomba stepped forward.

“You’re headed to Nervana Forest, aren’t you? We have something we’d like to entrust to you. It’s something that will surely be of help.”

Lombar turned slightly.

There was a cart piled with items behind her.

Yaru’s eyes widened when she recognized it. Piache and Kiyan, along with the others in the herb shop, were also stunned.

A cart full of weapons that Senu’s group hadn’t managed to take with them was piled high like a mountain.

* * *

Five men were climbing a steep cliffside path. Despite having climbed for several days without rest, they showed no signs of fatigue. All of them were men with bodies honed to the extreme, accustomed to not even breathing hard.

Four of the men had bulging tattoos on their arms. They were young warriors from Nervana.

The man leading them had no tattoos, but his presence was stronger and more imposing than any of the others. It seemed as though the other Nervana forest warriors were moving in sync with his pace. The scars on the man’s neck, chest, arms, and legs became more pronounced as a gentle rain began to fall.

Tarhan’s sharp gaze shot towards the sky. It was as if he was blaming the rain-soaked sky for conjuring a specific memory.

“Are we really going to find the molt of the skull spider at the end of this path?”

“Yes, that’s correct. The water that flows from the waterfall, where the skull spiders appear most frequently, runs down through this valley.”

Cugnac responded promptly.

He, who followed right behind Tarhan, was careful not to ruffle the front man’s mood.

“Of course, it will take us several more days and nights of continuous climbing to reach that waterfall.”

“This forest seems to stretch on endlessly.”

Tarhan’s face briefly contorted as if he was tired of the vast wilderness. Beside him, Zechariah spoke up.

“At least this path is a shortcut to the last molt we found.”

They were currently searching the area around where the skull spider’s molt was found. The initiative came from Reyhald’s discovery of traces of intruders in the forest.

“There are definitely signs that others have intruded into the forest besides us, and not just one or two.”

Following Reyhald, Leroi added his observation.

“Honestly, it’s surprising that a reclusive skull spider has shown this much activity…”

He cautiously continued, watching Tarhan, who was leading the way forward.

“The only explanation is that it sensed the presence of the Daughter of the Forest. This is unusual behavior we have never seen before.”

At the mention of the Daughter of the Forest, Tarhan twitched slightly, though none of his companions noticed. Reyhald yawned and wiped the raindrops off his face roughly.

“I’m tired of circling around like this, doing the same thing over and over.”

Cugnac retorted sharply.

“You agreed to this, remember? It’s not easy to find someone in this vast forest,”

Zechariah, who had been listening silently, cut off a branch as they passed and spoke up.

“That’s why we’re marking our path. Piache and Yaru will recognize it soon enough. Reyhald, you need to be patient.”

At the mention of Piache, Leroy instinctively looked up at the sky and wiped the rain from his face.

“I still miss Aquilea. I crave warm rice. I guess I’m really a settler at heart. Nomad life just doesn’t suit me anymore.”

Reyhald grumbled.

“Stop your whining.”

Leroy glared at Reyhald, annoyed at the broken sentiment.

“You’d hardly stay put in one place.”

He teased Reyhald, who was known for his free spirit.

“Why not! It’s not like I can’t do it.”

Reyhald snapped back, instantly getting defensive.

“Zechariah, the ever-naive, talking about taking six wives.”

The serious and quiet Zechariah, compared to the other three, gently scolded Leroi.

“Why bring me into this?”

The young Nervana men never seemed to stop talking.

Ignoring them, Tarhan lifted his head in the rain and gauged their direction. Water droplets from his sharp nose fell onto his tense shoulders and chest.

“There’s no rest for us, so prepare to march through the night.”

He commanded naturally to the young warriors of Nervana.

A collective sigh broke out among them, yet they prepared to continue marching without objection to Tarhan’s stern order.

 
______

Translator’s Note:

From chapter 111 onwards, the translation of ‘Savage Forest’will be continued under a different group on another site. However, don’t worry! I’m still the translator of the novel, only that the novel will be hosted on a different site, that’s all!

You can go to the website directly through this link or novel updates!