Thanks to Makui’s statement, Alex was at least able to have something resembling a proper conversation.
Now that he was standing face-to-face with Makui, the man looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties at most.
Having relaxed a little, Alex cleared his throat and finally spoke.
“It’s an honor to meet the Dark Elves I’ve only ever heard about, but this is a pretty rough welcome.”
Once Alex began speaking, the elders who had been whispering among themselves quieted down somewhat.
Makui, who had been silently watching him, spoke.
“As you can see, we are hardly in a position to welcome an inlander gladly. I ask that you understand.”
Makui continued in a rather solemn tone.
The warriors standing beside him all looked visibly unwell.
Having fought them as enemies before, Alex knew their weaknesses extremely well.
In particular, he was well aware that the disease eating away at them was scurvy caused by a nutritional deficiency.
“Moreover, judging by your attitude, I find you somewhat suspicious.”
At Makui’s words, Alex fixed his gaze on him and fell silent.
In truth, the treatment for scurvy was common knowledge to a modern person.
It was a simple illness that would quickly improve with vitamins. That was also why the bag he had deliberately carried here was packed with fruit.
‘…Even if I tell them now, would they believe me?’
The problem was that there was still no trust between him and the Dark Elves.
And even setting that aside, Alex had not come here to hand out charity.
He had come to negotiate a deal for an alliance.
The longer you kept a card in reserve, the more valuable it could become.
Having organized his thoughts, Alex spoke as casually as possible.
“You’re the ones who hauled off someone who suddenly fell into a pit. What’s there to be suspicious about?”
Makui replied evenly as he looked at Alex.
“Ordinarily, in a situation such as this, would it not be common sense to first ask that you be safely returned?”
But Alex had said nothing of the sort.
Makui stared intently at him, as if trying to see straight through him.
Looking away now would make it seem as though he were the first to back down, so Alex stared right back.
“Even if our meeting was by chance, I’ve wanted to meet you at least once.”
Of course, there was not the slightest bit of chance involved in this meeting.
It had all been planned.
But only Alex knew that.
Makui frowned slightly at the unexpected remark.
However, Alex did not have the time to slowly build trust step by step.
He believed the greatest problem was the possibility that the Black Star would appear in the direction indicated by the Ominous Compass, but that was not the only problem.
Some event that would completely alter the disposition and fate of these Barbarians was clearly going to occur in the near future as well.
“I am Alex Goldenwood, Lord of Carcosa. I want to propose an alliance with you.”
At the blunt declaration, murmurs once again spread among the Dark Elves.
Makui struck the ground with the spear he had been using like a staff, and the crowd quieted somewhat.
Still, even Makui seemed surprised that Alex was a more important figure than he had expected.
“…I do not understand.”
It was an ambiguous response, impossible to tell whether it was favorable or negative.
The choices and conversation ahead were unlikely to be easy, so Alex answered with the most serious expression he could manage.
“The Magical Beasts have been behaving strangely lately. I’m sure it’s the same at sea. We’ve each survived in different ways until now, so if we join forces… couldn’t we overcome this?”
The most important thing when forming an alliance was reminding the other side that they shared the same enemy.
At Alex’s words, Makui once again sank into thought.
“We can’t spend our entire lives living in fear and danger. I just want everyone to have a better life… That’s all.”
And they shared the same goal.
Alex conveyed the meaning without making it sound grandiose.
It was easy enough to understand, and Makui replied with some of the sharpness in his gaze softened.
However, his eyes were still filled with wariness.
“Is that all?”
“We have more information than you do, isolated as you are. I’ll help you, and you help us. That’s all I want from an alliance.”
Having said everything he needed to say for now, Alex drew a calm breath.
Makui’s attitude was not particularly friendly, but neither was it strongly hostile.
Since they were at least managing to communicate, Alex wanted to consider the situation positive enough.
This was fundamentally an attempt to break the rules established by the system.
He had never expected it to be easy.
Just as Alex was convincing himself of that, another excessive reaction erupted among the elders.
“Chieftain! There is no reason for us to sit here listening to such absurd words…!”
“If he truly is Goldenwood himself, we should seize him and kill him immediately!”
Once again, Alex felt that same inexplicable sense that something was off.
Why were the elders this afraid of him?
Alex had deliberately come here alone despite the danger because he did not want to provoke any unnecessary hostility.
Yet from the moment they heard the name Goldenwood, the elders seemed even more frightened.
Several of them had even begun visibly trembling in their hands and feet.
If these old people truly had experienced the conflict between Carcosa and the Dark Elves firsthand, that only made it stranger.
Had the Dark Elves not been the ones doing the raiding, with Carcosa as the victim?
‘Don’t inlanders control Magical Beasts?’
‘I heard they drove us onto the sandy island and offered us as living sacrifices….’
Alex suddenly remembered what the young warriors who captured him had whispered among themselves.
What if those stories had not been exaggerations meant to frighten the younger generation… but were actually true?
Just as Alex was considering how to respond to the elder, hurried footsteps suddenly approached along with a shout.
“W-We have a problem!”
“Chieftain! A Magical Beast… appeared at the fish farm!”
At the two boys’ urgent voices, there were no further questions.
Makui immediately rose first, and the elders, Aroha, and the other young warriors followed in perfect order.
“What about me?”
Alex instinctively stood with them and asked, but Makui answered firmly.
“Lock him in the prison! We will continue this discussion later.”
At Makui’s solemn command, even the elders shut their mouths without adding another word.
Alex had no choice but to let two sturdy Dark Elf warriors simply pick him up and carry him away.
Amid the confusion, Alex watched the backs of the young Dark Elves and Aroha.
“Uh… stay safe! Everyone, be careful!”
Aroha especially can’t die…!
He swallowed the last part, but after shouting the rest, Alex continued thinking as he was carried toward the deepest part of the village.
‘Should I shake them off and escape halfway there? Or is it better to just go along with this?’
The warriors were well built, but after sparring with Elizabeth and improving his body’s adaptability, Alex was no longer at a level where he could not escape this situation through hand-to-hand combat.
This body had originally belonged to a swordsman skilled enough to become a Paladin.
The more Alex adapted to it, the more extraordinary its capabilities became.
Even so, the reason he could not easily decide was his lack of information about a situation he had never experienced before.
“Hey, isn’t this getting dangerous? I should at least go help—”
“Shut your mouth and stay quiet. This is no business of an inlander.”
The warrior who replied coldly had a distinctly seasoned look in his eyes.
Keeping a wary gaze on Alex, he shoved him into a prison woven from tough vines.
THUD!
At that moment, a tremendous noise and shouts rang out from somewhere not particularly far away.
They sounded more like the cries of people fighting than screams.
Alex expected the warriors who had imprisoned him to rush into the battle as well, but instead, they simply stood in front of the prison like guards.
They had lived this way for decades.
Perhaps things like this were simply part of their everyday lives.
‘They wouldn’t accept my help favorably in the first place.’
The prison was too close to the center of the village.
If he tried to break out, there was a high chance they would attack him before he even had an opportunity to help them.
After all, they still saw him as nothing more than the heir of House Goldenwood.
An inlander.
That was all.
‘Then how do I break through this distrust…?’
There was at least one weakness Alex had identified within the tribe.
The neutral younger generation and the elders who were practically desperate to kill him.
That subtle difference in their opinions.
That was all.
He did not particularly want to cause internal conflict, but….
‘In the end, I only need part of their fighting strength.’
Widening that gap and taking only the manpower he needed.
It was not a direction he particularly liked, but it was not necessarily the wrong method either.
Even if Alex did something worthy of their trust here, it did not look as though the elders would be swayed by anything ordinary.
How much time would it take to convince even them?
He could not even guess.
With every moment precious, that made the option all the more attractive.
“….”
But was that really the only way?
If possible, he wanted some proper opportunity to earn their trust decisively….
‘There is exactly one incident like that….’
[The Barbarians were unable to leave these waters because of the Kraken. After the Kraken destroyed all of their ships while they were sailing the open ocean long ago, they could no longer venture into distant waters and were forced to settle here.]
Alex recalled a script he had once seen in the game.
The Kraken probably held a particularly deep significance for them.
If he killed it for them, would that not at least free him from the suspicion that inlanders controlled Magical Beasts or offered living sacrifices?
CRASH—!
Just as he was thinking that far, the commotion continued growing louder and louder.
His thoughts interrupted by the sudden noise, Alex frowned irritably.
But then he realized something and abruptly raised his head.
“No, wait….”
The sound was not getting louder.
It was getting closer.
The warriors guarding the entrance seemed to notice the same abnormality, their expressions turning grave.
The shouts that had sounded like battle cries had now completely transformed into screams.
THUD, THUD THUD, THUD!
The sounds of something being smashed apart came closer and closer without stopping.
“Gasp…!”
A Magical Beast covered head to toe in scales suddenly leapt into Alex’s view.
A Fishman.
It was a Magical Beast resembling a mutated fish, its fins transformed into shapes similar to human arms and legs.
But the two warriors guarding Alex’s prison immediately impaled the Fishman with their spears.
Their skill certainly lived up to the name of Dark Elves.
“Damn it! What the hell is happening?”
“How did one crawl all the way in here?”
The prison stood in the middle of the village.
Just as Alex began wondering the same thing, lightning flashed overhead and crashed down from the sky.
“The fish farm’s defensive line has collapsed! Everyone, evacuate to the underground cave!”
Aroha appeared together with the lightning.
Electricity still crackled and scattered from the palm gripping her spear like a staff.
There was not even time to be surprised that Aroha was a mage.
At that moment, a crimson system window suddenly appeared before Alex.
[Hidden Enemy Appeared!]
[A desire awakened from its long slumber reveals its presence.]
It was a warning window Alex knew all too well.
If the situation had deteriorated far enough for this to appear, there was no longer any time or reason to simply watch what happened.
[Apostle of Sloth, ‘Kraken’]
Alex might never have formed an alliance with the Dark Elves before, but he had killed the Kraken countless times.
From this point forward, Alex was actually the person among them who knew better than anyone else how to navigate the situation.
Alex immediately kicked the prison door apart and ran toward Aroha.
“Look out above you!”
The shadow of something enormous was already falling over her from overhead.
No further explanation was necessary.
Alex hurriedly snatched up a spear that someone seemed to have dropped while fleeing, rushed forward, and planted himself in front of Aroha.
As he drew upon his divine power, blue light gathered at the tip of the spear.
Alex hurled it toward the object hurtling toward them at tremendous speed.
[Will takes root in the synchronized body.]
[You confront a presence the mind cannot withstand.]
[Divine Counterattack (Lv.1) acquired.]
[Returns an opponent’s attack in full with a single strike. Twice as effective against cursed beings. (Cooldown 160 hours)]
With a violent shriek of displaced air, the shadow that had been descending over them vanished.
After confirming it was gone, Aroha collapsed to the ground without realizing it.
And it was not only Aroha.
Countless Dark Elves who had been evacuating nearby were now staring solely at Alex.
“You… just now. What did you….”
Aroha stammered.
That attack would undoubtedly have been enough to kill not only Aroha, but countless Dark Elves along with her.
Yet Alex had stopped it.
Everyone had witnessed the moment themselves.
“This isn’t over. It’ll attack again soon. Can you still use more magic?”
“You… how… What did you… what did you do?”
As Aroha stammered with a dumbfounded expression, Alex rubbed his tingling arm.
This was originally a Skill one could acquire during the first encounter with the Kraken if the timing was just right.
Its performance was excellent, but it had two drawbacks.
He could only build proficiency by confronting beings with an overwhelming presence like this, and the damn cooldown was incredibly long.
Which meant that for the next attack, rather than relying on his own strength, he needed to make use of all the high-level fighters gathered here.
“If I tell you how to fight it, can you do exactly as I say?”
This was his chance to prove why they needed an alliance.