Overlord (Light Novel)

The Dark Elf Village in the Great Sea of Trees.

It was no different from the Elf Village.

For example, the race called the Wild Elves were once ordinary Elves. Shifting their sphere of living to the grassland produced changes not only in the form of the culture but also physically, to the extent that at present they had been recognized as a new species.

So the reason that physical or magical changes had not occurred in Dark Elves, was because on top of being the same race as Elves from the start, they were living in the same environment. There were also hardly any differences in culture, and their way of life was centered on the Elf Trees. Hence, the classes they gained were, just like with the Elves, mainly Ranger and Druid.

The differences were just skin color, forms of animal repellent, and other trivial customs at best.

In Dark Elf villages, they used an animal repellent that produced its avoidance effect by using scents. The Dark Elves were taught this precious bit of wisdom by the Treants and other inhabitants of the forest where they were living before moving to the Great Sea of Trees. Potent smelling herbs were planted around the village, created and spread around a special drug that repelled animals, and—although their powers had to be considerably divided between duration and area of effect—used Druidic magic.

This method was also effective in the Great Sea of Trees, and compared to other elf villages—excluding the Royal Capital— the Dark Elf villages were safe.

However, the Elves did not know of this method. If it were to spread, the avoidance effect produced by scents would drop. Magical beasts as well as other animals may seem stupid, but that was not so. On the contrary, if they learned that food was at the other end of that smell, the danger level would rise. For those reasons, then even if they were taken in by their kinfolk, they couldn’t readily teach them this method.

However, on that day, the Dark Elves, believing in their own “safety”, would learn they were on thin ice.

The violent roar could be heard from far away.

This was a regular occurrence in the Great Sea of Trees. Whether it be in the glow of sunrise or late at night, there were no days when the voices of the animals could not be heard.

Moreover, there were species that, despite being small in body, had howls that would surprise you. Hearing a single roar didn’t mean that something was happening.

The howls were certainly frightening. There were various species of magical beasts that could put special powers into their roars. Those who heard them would become frightened, confused, lose the will to fight, and occasionally, there were some that could even cause exhaustion.

But if it were heard from a distance, then even that special ability wouldn’t manifest. A single, distant roar had no connection to danger and should have been a very typical occurrence in the landscape.

However, that day, one dark elf man called for everyone to be on guard. The man’s height wasn’t outside of the average range for a dark elf. However, his long, slender and supple limbs, whose lively, yet efficient movements made you feel like there was a power hidden inside them, easily made the man appear bigger than his actual height.

His refreshing looks were well-proportioned and even within the village, he was very popular with the ladies.

There was no one among the Dark Elves living in the Great Sea of Trees who didn’t know this man. A first-rate Ranger who had accumulated vast amounts of experience, bearing the ancient and honorable surname of House Blueberry—one of the 13 families of the beginning —that became the central figures during the Great Migration.

In his hands, the man—Blueberry Egnia—held a Dark Elf-style compound bow, of which there were only a handful even in this village.

It was a bow one would not be permitted to use unless they had earned an extremely good score at the Archery Tournament held in the season when the Becoa flowers bloomed—once every three years.

Obeying Egnia’s call, the dark elves’ soldiers assembled immediately. Although they were called soldiers, they were Rangers that had not gone out to hunt, not full-time soldiers.

The village where Engia lived was the largest Dark Elf village in the vicinity. And yet, there were only about 200 residents, and they had no leeway to put full-time warriors in place.

In front of his friends who had assembled with puzzled looks appearing on their faces, Egnia moved his ears slightly—while focusing on the distant sounds, he announced in a stiff voice,

“There’s no other reason I deliberately had you all assemble. That roar just now. I have heard it once before. That is the roar of an adult, a fully matured one at that, ’Ursus.”

Egnia sensed all those assembled immediately became tense.

It was obvious as to why. If you were a Dark Elf living in this forest, even if it were a child, there would be none who did not know the name of the one magical beast that should be feared the most—Ankyloursus.

In the area around this village, there were a number of species of monsters whose danger level was high, but the Ankyloursus was the one at the top of that list.

Maybe it would be possible if it were an ’ursus cub, but it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that attacking an adult—a fully grown adult at that—meant death. It had armor that repelled even arrows, and physical strength that could easily bisect a Dark Elf. Furthermore, due to all of its physical abilities being high, running away from them was considerably difficult; it was a truly terrifying monster.

“...I certainly did hear some kind of roar, but did it really belong to an ’ursus? Are you sure you didn’t mishear it?”

One dark elf woman asked doubtfully.

One of the 3 vice-masters of the hunt, and a skilled Ranger who held a composite bow just like Egnia’s in her hands.

It seemed that even she couldn’t tell just from that roar whether or not it was an ’ursus.

Moreover—a cute bird called the Howling Bird, for example, could imitate the roars of various species of monsters. And there were other animals in this forest with abilities similar to this.

With those kinds of animals inhabiting the forest, identifying the owner from a single, distant howl was extremely difficult. Her question was a reasonable one. However, Egnia was the greatest Ranger in this forest. He surpassed everyone not just in his skill with a bow, but also in the sharpness of his senses, and even in his ability to analyze the information those senses picked up. Her question was not out of any distrust of Egnia, it came from her more than half-wishing for this to “please be a mistake.”

“It’s very unfortunate, but there’s no doubt. No matter how much time passes, it’s impossible for me to forget that roar that makes your hair stand on end—that makes you feel the overwhelming difference in strength. Even now it’s still stuck in my ears. It’s not something that I could mishear.”

The next to speak was the Master of the Hunt.

The pillars of authority in the village were the Master of the Hunt, the Council of Elders, the Chief Pharmacist, and the Rite Master. The Council of Elders was composed of three people, so altogether there were six people. Meaning he was one of them.

There wasn’t a composite bow in his hands. His specialty, if anything, was trapping, but even if you took that out of the equation, his abilities were far behind those of Egnia. Be that as it may, as a Ranger there was no doubt that he was influential, and though he was younger than Egnia he had a cool and collected personality, a person with nothing to criticize as Master of the Hunt.

“A mature ’ursus howling...so we can confirm that something has entered its territory?”

In most cases, it would roar when fighting a strong enemy or a hostile member of its own kind. Otherwise, it was when it was announcing a victory, or declaring its territory. Or also, when it was breeding. However, whichever of those it was, it was highly likely that someone had entered the ’ursus' territory.

Because once an Ankyloursus established its territory— the territory expanded as its body grew—it would very rarely try to change it. And it was also very rare for it to go hunting outside of it.

Therefore, it was reasonable to think that someone had entered its territory.

“Haa... What a nuisance. I don’t know just what monster went inside it, I hope that the careless fools who disturbed the peace end up as the ’ursus' prey.”

The dark elves all around him agreed with the Master of the Hunt’s complaint. Egnia gave a wry smile to those friends.

Given the Ankyloursus' disposition, as long as they didn’t thoughtlessly provoke it, it was a well-known fact that it could become the neighborhood balancer, in a sense.

“I will agree with that opinion, but we don’t know whether or not it’s even entered the territory yet, yes? When I heard the ’ursus' roar before, it was when two of them were fighting. And the fight that time was being held outside of its territory.

“Um, excuse me, Egnia-san, I have a question... I hardly heard it at all, but since you mentioned it, I do think it’s true that an ’ursus roared. But, its territory is fairly separated from here, right? So why did you call us all here?”

“Yes, I don’t know if something happened to the ’ursus, but it’s a fact that some situation is occurring that is making it roar. Maybe it’s changing its territory, or maybe the ruler of that territory is changing. Or maybe something even more different is occurring. For example...that’s right,”

After taking a breath, Egnia continued and said,

“Such as a powerful magical beast that is able to escape from the ’ursus even though it lost, and is heading this way. So, we should simultaneously put the village on guard for anything that could happen, and even if it’s tomorrow, we head in the direction of the roar and get a glimpse of the state of the forest.

Everyone present agreed.

It would be problematic if they did not quickly sense changes in the forest and share information. It was extremely important to those who lived by receiving the blessings of the forest.

“—Today’s hunt is canceled. Maybe it would be safer to stop anyone from going into the forest altogether, let alone for hunting. We still have food, right?”

“We’re fine. We bagged some huge game lately. But even so, we should still tell the Rite Master what is going on right away, so we can have him start making fruit. We don’t know how many days it’ll take until we finish confirming if everything’s safe, after all.”

“After that...right. We should also talk to the Elders about that. We’ll have the Elders devise a way to disseminate the information to everyone so that someone who doesn’t know what’s going on doesn’t go into the forest.”

Prompted by Egnia’s call for attention, everyone exchanged opinions. Nobody said, “You’re overthinking it.” The forest brought blessings, but it also suddenly threw misfortune your way. Stacking precaution on top of precaution without overlooking the slightest ill omen was crucial to living in the Sea of Trees.

They should quickly make it known that there was a possibility the order of the forest was deteriorating.

“What should we do about the other villages? Should we contact them once we’ve gotten some grasp on the situation? Or should we quickly tell them that we’re facing this kind of situation?

“I can sense that both of those are correct, but I also think they might be wrong...Why don’t we leave just all the decisions about that up to the Elders?”

“Hey, just hold on a minute, we should consolidate our opinions. If we present it as the opinion from the majority, it’ll come in handy in winning the argument when those hard-headed old farts start proposing we do something weird.”

“...Calling them old farts is going too far, Ganen. Certainly, they can be inflexible at times, but in their own way, the Elders have abundant experience. We’re just choosing a path that can be considered even safer by benefiting from their wisdom.”

One of the Vice-Masters-of-the-Hunt—Plum Ganen—was rebuked by the Master-of-the-Hunt.

“Tha—“

Ganen, red-faced, tried to start loudly talking, but his mouth was covered by Egnia’s hand.

“—That’s about enough out of you. Considering what I called everyone together for, talk about what we need to do right now. You know well enough the threat an ’ursus poses, don’t you?”

Knowing that Ganen had shut his mouth, Egnia removed his hand.

Egnia let out an internal sigh.

We’ve confirmed that it’s not unconditionally wrong to oppose the Elders, but I wish you would consider the time and place.

“That’s right. What we should be prioritizing is what we are going to do about vigilance in the village, so let’s leave the talk about the old farts for later, okay? That’s a lot of people after all, right?”

“If we’re going to be on guard all day today, we should do it in three shifts. Thinking about tomorrow, even more so. “

They were more or less used to keeping watch all day long, and if they had magic that removed fatigue cast on them, it would have any effect on the next day’s activities.

But if they were going on an investigation until they were close to the ’ursus' territory, they would want to avoid their senses growing even the slightest bit dull.

“You're right. That’s—“

They heard a roar. With a tense expression on the faces of everyone present, they stared intensely in the direction it came from.

“Didn’t that sound really close?”

One person put into words the unease they all harbored. Egnia nodded simply once in agreement.

“Just like Egnia said just a little while ago, isn’t it chasing after something that went into its territory and then escaped?”

Ankyloursi had a tendency to stick to their prey. If an animal they regarded as their prey escaped, they would pursue it even outside of their territory. Chasing after it while roaring was a little different than the image they had in their minds, but it was more comprehensible than it being beaten and driven out of its territory.

“If that’s the case then as long as the ’ursus catches its prey, that might even fill its belly, then this village might be safe...If there’s fleeing prey, then do we lead it away from here and shoot it to death?”

“Stop it! That would just result in pointlessly provoking it further. First, there’s a good chance the prey has the ability to run away from the ’ursus as much as it can. If the prey comes this way, we should at least drive it away.”

“No, wait. It would be troublesome if the ’ursus came within the vicinity of the village. It would be a nuisance if it considered this place to be a feeding ground. We should have a few people go outside the village, and if the ’ursus or the prey look like they're heading this way, lead them in a different direction.”

It was fine for various opinions to be flying past each other, but it wasn’t as if they could spend too much time on it. He didn’t really want to butt in, but he couldn’t say such a thing. Egnia clapped his hand once and drew everyone’s attention to him.

“Whatever the situation is, the fact remains that this is an abnormal state of affairs. We should get to work immediately. If the ’ursus returns to its territory, then fine. But if it doesn’t...if it loses sight of prey even after leaving its territory—” Egnia looked out over everyone, “—and in addition to that, if it lets the prey get away in the vicinity of the village, it would make for a very long, awful day. “

The faces of everyone imaging just what would happen frowned.

“First, what is important is calling for the aid of everyone in the village, not just those of us here. The power of the Druids will become absolutely necessary. Then, the Chief Pharmacist probably has a poison that will even affect an ’ursus.”

For beast-type magical beasts like the ’ursus, rather than trying to defeat them with physical attacks, magic that manipulated its mind was more effective. Even against an opponent that was protected by a thick hide, fat, and bulky muscles, it was possible to deal damage above that of bows and arrows by using magic—for example, it would be damaged just from touching the flames of the fire elementals that the Druids could summon—and other such methods.

They probably wouldn’t win if they fought it directly, but if they used magic and other such methods, then even in the past they had somehow or other won against a magical beast that rivaled an ’ursus.

“But, gathering here just discussing things is only adding to our wasted time. We should seize the initiative, but—“ Egnia looked at the Master-of-the-Hunt. “—could we leave it to you?”

“Haa—” The Master-of-the-Hunt reluctantly shook his head. “...I guess it can’t be helped at this point. Alright, you lot. Starting from all the ones with outstanding skills on down, solidify the village’s defenses. The other half goes around warning everyone in the village. Those that have finished warning people will next guard those unable to fight. Beniri, I leave the division of personnel to you. Next, Ganen goes to the Chief Pharmacist, and Ovei to the Rite Master, and tells them about this. I will go to the Council of Elders. Come on, MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!”

When Egnia tried to move out, the Master-Of-the-Hunt sent him a signal, so he ran over to him.

“I’ve been thinking this for a long time, but shouldn’t you, the person with the most outstanding skills in the whole village, take the role of leader?”

“Wouldn’t it just make everything more troublesome if we did that? My name, though it’s also due to who my family is, is also somewhat known in the other villages.” “It’s not just somewhat,” ignoring the Master-of-the-Hunt’s words, Egnia continued. “If it comes to that, the conflict will spread to the other villages more than it already has.”

“...Gah, my head hurts...Do you think things would change if the Elders pulled back a little, really just a tiny, little bit?”

“That’s probably never going to happen. After all, what would probably happen is, if they pull back now, the more they’ll want to pull back later. Even if all the Elders retired, the problem would just spread to other villages. We can also say that things will go better for us if the Elders are still being hard-headed about things.”

“What can we do to solve this problem?”

“There’s no way of solving this problem.

“Until the moment when there’s a major failure at some point, right?”

The Master-of-the-Hunt went silent.

“I’m going to defend the village.”

“Yeah, I’m counting on you, too.”

Parting with the Master-of-the-Hunt, Egnia took up his position and while he continued his vigil in the direction of the roar, it seemed that information was rapidly spreading within the village. This wasn’t just because Rangers were spreading the news, it was thanks to a well-developed system of information delivery they used on a daily basis, as a consequence of being a village with dangerous monsters living right next door.

After not even ten minutes had passed, the Rite Master had started producing food. The Chief Pharmacist had also already sent Egnia the potent poison and its antidote, just in case.

Time passed with them on alert for now.

They hadn’t heard the ’ursus roar since then. The tension Rangers that had assembled because of that, began to recede. It was the same for Egnia; he relaxed his shoulders and massaged out the stiffness of the hands that held his bow.

Had the ’ursus caught its prey? Or it might have returned to its territory because its prey got away. At that time the Master-of-the-Hunt was standing next to him.

“...Just to be safe it’s probably necessary for us to quickly go and investigate its territory. Can I count on you for that?”

“—I thought this would happen. Leave it to me.”

He was already thinking about his movements when he entered its territory in his head.

Egnia stared intensely in the direction of its territory, as if he could perceive the figure of the ’ursus that should have been there in his line of sight, when he had a feeling that he had seen some large thing behind the trees of the forest.

“Chichii!”

Egnia vibrated his lips and made a sound that was like the cry of a bird. This was no mere sound. This was a special sound Egnia could emit through the mastery of his class, it would tell his friends that heard it to be on guard. By doing this, allies that heard this sound wouldn’t be hit by a surprise attack and be unable to move.

The mood of starting to let their guard down instantly tensed back up.

While feeling everyone’s attention was on him, Egnia pointed in the direction where he had just seen the shadow using his chin and without taking his eyes off it.

Please just let it be my imagination.

Please just let it be me mistaking it for something else.

Please just let it be a misunderstanding.

He had only caught sight of that shadow for just a moment. It just happened to be behind the shadow of many huge trees for just a single blink of the eye as far as his line of sight extended. It was more than possible that he had mistaken it for something else. However, as a Ranger who possessed high competency, Egnia’s excellent vision easily betrayed even his own expectations.

“...It’s the Ankyloursus...”

In spite of the volume of the words that someone had reflexively let slip—that voice was frighteningly and clearly audible to the ears of everyone there.

Yes. It was already obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

A huge shadow was sluggishly approaching them from between the trees.

What was there was the Destroyer of the Great Sea of Trees—the Ankyloursus.

However—

“He, hey, Blueberry-san. Isn’t...that...thing...huge? Are ’ursi really that big?

A young Ranger swallowed his spit and asked.

Because it was at a distance and hidden by the trees, they couldn’t definitively confirm what that body was. By comparing it with the surrounding trees they could get a rough approximation. It was far too big. No, it was too gigantic.

“...Sumomo. The ’ursus I saw before wasn’t that big. It couldn’t have gotten any bigger. Its growth rate is abnormally fast, an abnormal specimen...if we’re unlucky, what we’re dealing with here is...” Egnia said as if the words were being squeezed out of him. “...a Lord.”

The air shivered with a chill.

Those deviating from the usual size, having different colored fur, or other peculiar changes, and possessing unique powers, were called abnormal specimens in this village. However, even among them there were those that soared above all others, tenaciously evolving, reigning as the pinnacle of their species, and occasionally possessing an enormous influence over an extensive area through their combat abilities. Therefore, such individuals were given the title of Lord.

In other words, if the one before their eyes were really that, it meant that it would be far stronger than the normal ones

Even an ordinary Ankyloursus was a worrisome opponent, but if the whole village fought together, they would probably be able to drive it back. However, if the magical beast before their eyes were indeed an ’ursus Lord, it was utterly unimaginable that there would be any survivors.

“Impossible! I’ve heard there’s a Lord, but it should be much farther north!” one of the Rangers was excitedly talking, the spit flying from their mouth. However, they controlled the volume of their voice so as not to provoke the ’ursus. “What the hell happened to the Village of Aju?”

A village of the same dark elves—they had learned through hearsay that a Lord existed in the vicinity of the Village of Aju. Lords weren’t something that appeared frequently. That being the case, they could consider this to be the same specimen as the Lord in the vicinity of the Village of Aju.

“—Were they all wiped out?”

If the Lord were to change its territory, or if it were starting to move in the direction of this village, someone from the Village of Aju should have come to warn them. But no one had come. Despite that, the Lord was right over there.

Silence dominated this place. If you just kept going in the direction from which they first heard the roar, there’d lie the Village of Aju.

...The Village of Aju turned into a feeding ground, the ’ursus learned about the food called Dark Elves and relied on scents or something else to head this way.

Nobody wanted to say it, but everyone had arrived at the same conclusion.

The color of despair mixed with the tense atmosphere.

Even if it had acquired a taste for Dark Elves at the Village of Aju, it shouldn’t have known that fresh food was here.

There were many gourmets among the Ankyloursus. They were omnivorous, but they had particular foods they preferred to eat. If Dark Elves satisfied its discerning tastes, they had to abandon this village, and even if they did that, it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t pursue them. Therefore, they should lead it away and separate it from the village.

However, there was a problem.

“No, we can’t declare that the Village of Aju was wiped-out,“ all eyes were on Egnia. “As I originally witnessed, there was an ’ursus building its territory in this vicinity. If the Lord came straight here from the Village of Aju, it would have entered that ’ursus' territory. It would be strange not to hear two roars if that happened. In other words...the ’ursus that originally marked out its territory in this vicinity, probably grew up and became a Lord.”

There was still a chance that it was the Lord from the Village of Aju. If the Lord and the ’ursus that marked out its territory in this vicinity were different sexes, there probably wouldn’t be a fight. It was also possible that if the two of them bumped into each other again one of the ’ursi—most likely the Lord—wouldn’t roar.

However, whether or not the Village of Aju survived was, in these circumstances, not important. What they should be thinking about right now was, if there were no changing the fact that the Lord was heading for this village, what should they do, what would be the best move to make?

If that was the case—

“—Fighting the Lord is suicide. There is no other way than to summon elementals and flee while they’re buying us some time.”

“You think that’s something we can just do?! There’s no question we’ll be attacked by that thing in the forest! More importantly, we can just give it all the stored meat and other food it wants, and let it fill its belly.”

“That’s right! ’ursi have a disposition similar to a bear’s. They probably like honey, too! We’ll smear it on the meat too and hand it—“

At that moment, a roar reverberated that seemed like it made the earth, the air, the forest, and the cores of their bodies tremble. It could no longer hide in the shadows of the trees.

The slowly walking Ankyloursus Lord was there.

The breaths of the dark elves became quick and shallow. The minds of everyone in that place went blank. Whatever ideas that had just a moment ago were blown away.

They could taste the difference in power with bodies, and they shriveled up. It wasn’t as if that roar just now had a special effect that induced fear or other mental effects.

This was just simply, and fatally, their reaction because the dark elves understood the difference in their positions as living things. In other words, it meant that the difference in strength was so big and to such an extent, that the dark elves were merely powerless beings that would be trampled underfoot.

—This is bad.

Nearly all the dark elves were convinced of the tragedy befalling them and were under the control of resignation. However, it was still too early to accept that.

“—MOVE!!”

It was a shout to scold and rouse himself.

“Muh, muh, move, you say? And just what the hell can we do!”

“How the hell should I know!”

Egnia replied to the female dark elf’s shrieking question with a few brief words that hung heavy in the air like a machete.

“Ho, how the hell should you know?”

“You’re just lashing out...”

“You can cou—No! How is there any way that even I would understand or know anything about what to do in this kind of situation! Even so, we have to move! What can we do all huddled together like this! At least those ideas just now were—”

Was its objective to also make them terrified? The ’Ursus Lord’s pace was surprisingly slow.

Its head was lowered trying to catch the scent of the Dark Elves from among the flowers that were planted around the village. For some reason, the word “plodding” suited that figure, and it gave an impression that it was truly miserable. Was it wounded? If not, was it sick or even being affected by some kind of poison? They jumped at those hopeful observations, but that was no doubt just a kind of escapism while they were descending into a sort of extreme situation.

Do we shoot it? There’s no need to think about provoking its wrath, not anymore. It’s certain that it’s coming this way. Then we should make the first move...bows can reach it. Besides, everyone has probably prepared themselves for the worst. If I can draw its attention, and then move so that I can separate it from the village...hold on? There is also a more alternative way to do it …

“...it's oil.”

When Egnia muttered that, puzzled looks appeared on the Rangers around him for a moment, but they instantly grasped his intentions.

“That’s it! We can douse it with oil and set it on fire using a fire elemental!

“It’s got that huge body. It’ll be difficult for it to avoid the oil!”

“We’ll summon water elementals at the same time to make sure the flames don’t spread!”

There wasn’t much oil in the village. It’s not as if it was difficult to come by. Because its uses were limited, it was one of the goods they didn’t purposefully store.

Shouting, “I’ll go,” one of the dark elves ran off, heading for the center of the village. He probably intended to tell one of the Druids that should be in the storehouse. It would be bad if they were converting all their magic power into food, without knowing about the current state of affairs.

At that moment, the ’ursus Lord’s roar made the air tremble. The same one from just before that made them feel the overwhelming difference in power, but dark elves right now had resolved themselves and would no longer be shaken.

“What is it doing?”

One of the dark elves shouted curiously. It wasn’t just Egnia, all the Rangers there held the same question.

Because of the nature of Ankyloursi, it should have immediately charged them the moment they were seen, but there was no sign of that. It was as if it had no motivation— no, when it came to a Lord, it probably had more alternative objectives.

When they were examining the situation, this time the ’Ursus Lord stood up and roared.

Making oneself look big, and intimidating your opponent, was an action that wild beasts often did. However, what they didn’t understand was, why wasn’t it attacking?

Not being a mere beast, but a magical beast, the ’Ursus Lord was a fairly intelligent being. Even though it had visually confirmed that they were there and definitely weak, why was it threatening them, in spite of all that?

First, did those repeated roars just a short while ago have some sort of meaning?