Chapter 6: Relief (part 3)

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This time, there were close to fifty (hundreds once you considered the units to

follow) humans coming to provide relief, and we would be entering the forest, but

this was by request of the chief's daughter, Aisha, so it would be treated as a special

case, apparently. The dark elves lived in the forest, defended their independence,

and hated outsiders.

As a matter of fact, despite the catastrophic landslide they had suffered, they

apparently hadn't sent a request for aid to the capital. If Aisha hadn't been contacted,

we might never have known the disaster had happened at all. It was admirable of

them to try to solve their problems on their own, but it was stupid for them to let the

number of deaths shoot up because of it.

"They've become hardheaded because they don't even try to look at the outside

world," Aisha spoke sadly as we walked through the God-Protected Forest. "Because

I made contact with you, sire, and you listened to my opinions, there were signs of

that beginning to change, but..."

Her voice became indignant.

"This isn't an era where we can live in the forest alone. With the threat of the

Demon Lord's Domain, we never know when they'll begin to move south! If we shut

ourselves away in our forest, do they believe the god-beast will really save us when

the time comes?! The god-beast is the protector of the forest, it's not the protector of

the dark elf race!"

"Y-Yeah..." I said, taken aback.

"That's why we dark elves should study and learn about the wider world!" Aisha

was impassioned. It felt like the first time she'd looked so respectable in a while.

"Besides, if I stay in the forest, how would I eat Your Majesty's delicious foods?!"

she added.

...I take that back. Aisha was still Aisha.

Well, it's better that she's like this than to have her be tense and anxious, I thought.

Soon after we arrived in the dark elf village, we were met by a handsome man

who looked to be in his twenties.

"Oh, Your Majesty!" he cried. "How good of you to come."

His handsome face bore a certain resemblance to Aisha's. Could he be her big

brother?

He was tall, probably at least 190 cm. I could tell from the accessories he wore on

his head and arms that he was of a high rank, but the fine-looking robe he wore was

covered in dirt. He looked a little tired, as well.

As she stood before that young elf, Aisha thumped her hand on her chest once.

"Father, I have brought His Majesty here with me."

"Well done," he said. "Your friendship with His Majesty must have come about

through the guidance of our god-beast."

"Father?!" I exclaimed.

My surprise brought a smile to the young elf's exhausted face.

"My king, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am the chief of the dark elves and Aisha's

father, Wodan Udgard. Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter."

"Oh, sure. Um... You're awfully young."

"Pure-blooded elves stop aging once their bodies mature to a certain point," he

explained. "We live three times longer than humans, too, so while I may look young,

I've still lived 80 years."

I see, I thought. That's about the same as the elves and dark elves you see in stories,

huh? Those say that elves're long-lived, stay youthful for a long time, and that they're

all beautiful. Though, my chamberlain, the half-elf Marx, was an old dude, wasn't he?

Do half-elves age differently, I wonder?

Setting that aside, I whispered to Aisha, "He seems welcoming. I thought dark

elves were supposed to be xenophobic?"

"My father is the head of the cultural liberalization faction, so he's understanding

of cultural exchange with the outside. Father was also the only one who approved of

me going to make an appeal to you."

"I see. The reason you don't worry about the rules is because of his influence,

huh?" I said. I shook hands with Wodan. "I am the (acting) king, Souma Kazuya. I am

here by the request of Aisha to provide relief."

"It's good of you to come," he said. "Also, you're the king, so please, you don't

need to be so formal with me."

"...Righty-o. Is this better?"

"Yes. Still, I never expected the king himself to come here."

"I happened to be doing an inspection at the time," I explained. "I've brought the

fifty members of the Forbidden Army who were at hand as an advance party. A few

days from now, a second group with relief supplies should arrive."

"I'm grateful. The truth is, I'd love to have the whole village come to welcome

you, but given the circumstances, I hope you'll understand."

"I know," I said. "It really is an awful situation."

The dark elf village was in the center of a thick circle of warding trees. There

were villages like this dotted around the forest, and the dark elves lived in them. If

you were to look at the God-Protected Forest as a country, this village would be the

capital, and there was an order of magnitude more dark elves living here than

anywhere else.

The eastern third or so of that village had been carved away by the landslide. It

looked like a slightly elevated slope on the eastern side had collapsed. Perhaps due

to the long spell of rain, there was a large amount of water flowing over the exposed

surface. The ground might have loosened a fair bit. Our one salvation was that it was

sunny now. If it had been raining, we would have had to worry about another

collapse while we worked.

"What are the damages like?" I asked.

"We've recorded nearly one hundred casualties already. There are still more than

forty missing, as well."

That's a lot, I thought. It's going to be a battle against time to see how many we can

rescue.

"Let's begin the relief operation immediately," I said. "However, there's a risk of

secondary disasters, so it would be a good idea to have the women evacuate. Also,

have some people keep an eye on the mountain, please. If the mountain moves in the

slightest, or there are any weird noises, have them report it. If it were to collapse

again while we're carrying out relief operations, that would be a serious issue."

"I will do that at once," he agreed. "Is there anything else you would like to ask of

me?"

"Please compile a list of the missing. We'll erase them from it as we manage to

ascertain their safety."

"Understood."

Once I worked things out with Wodan, I gave orders to Aisha and the Forbidden

Army.

"Aisha."

"Yes, sir!"

"Have the women evacuate to a place that doesn't look like it will collapse.

Consult with Wodan to decide where is best. You will escort them and ensure they're

delivered there safely."

"Yes, sir! Understood!"

"Good," I said. "Starting now, the Forbidden Army will begin operations to search

for those whose safety is unconfirmed. You guys have a lot of skill at digging, I'm

sure. Listen closely, and if you hear voices calling for help in the dirt, carefully rescue

them!"

"""Yes, sir!"""

"However, be absolutely sure that you don't do anything you can't handle. If it

looks like there may be another collapse, retreat even if you're in the middle of

saving someone. The rescuers cannot be allowed to take even a single loss.

Understood?"

"""Yes, sir!"""

Nodding at the Forbidden Army soldiers' response, I shouted an order. "We will

now commence relief operations!"

The relief effort was an all-out battle.

Everyone came together, doing everything they could. They called the names of

the missing, listened closely, and if there was even the slightest response, they

would carefully move the dirt and sand aside.

It didn't matter who was a soldier and who was a man from the village, they

worked together moving the earth and cutting apart fallen trees, then pulling out the

people trapped underneath. Kaede was using her magic to move huge rocks, too,

while the women from the village were feeding the displaced and tending to the

wounded.

As for me, I had teamed up with Hal, and we were carrying out search operations.

"Hal, under that thick tree! Someone's still breathing!" I called.

"Huh?! I don't hear any voice," he said.

"Well, they're there! Just dig!"

Hal had a doubtful look on his face, but when he dug where I told him to, he

found a little girl's hand. "Seriously...? Just you wait, we'll have you safe soon!"

Hal moved the earth aside, pulling the dark elf girl out.

She already had brown skin, so it was hard to tell, but her complexion was

looking bad. After being trapped in the moist earth for all this time, that was to be

expected.

It was a good thing that the summer heat was still lingering. Were it a little later

in autumn, she might have died from the cold while she'd been buried.

When I came back with a blanket, Hal was holding the girl and patting her on the

back. "You did well. You're going to be okay now."

"...Wah... Wahhhhhhhhhh!"

"It's okay! You're okay now!" Hal desperately tried to calm the wailing girl.

If you ask me, men are useless at times like this. Hal and I were both at a loss for

what to do, just repeating "It's okay," over and over.

I wrapped the girl in a blanket, waiting for her to calm down before calling over a

nearby Forbidden Army soldier. "Take this girl to a safe place."

"Yes, sir! As you command!" the soldier said.

Once we had seen the girl off, Hal said to me, "I'm amazed you knew she was

there. I couldn't hear her voice at all."

"Even while we're talking, I'm searching," I said.

"Do you know some sort of searching spell?" he asked.

"Not quite... This is what I'm using." When I stretched my palm out to Hal, a little

thing burrowed out of the ground and jumped up onto it.

Hal looked at it, blinking. "Is that... a mouse?"

"A wooden one, yeah."

It was a mouse carved out of wood, about 10 cm long. I had been manipulating it

with my Living Poltergeists ability to search for survivors under the rubble. My

ability was able to operate at long distances if I used dolls, but it seemed they only

needed to be shaped like a living creature, not necessarily a humanoid one. Even as I

was showing this one off to Hal, there were another four wooden mice moving

around almost like real mice and looking for those in need of rescue.

"It's a wonder that you were carrying around something like that," he said.

"I found them in a shop while I was on my date with Liscia," I said. "I thought I

might use them for something, so I put them in the rolling bag with my other selfdefense items."

By the way, that bag had also held two small-sized Little Musashibo dolls which I

now had on patrol in the area. Even in places where the landslide had damaged the

roads, those lightweight little guys could jump around easily enough.

"Your ability is more amazing than I'd ever have thought," he said.

"Yeah. I feel like this is the first time outside of administrative tasks that I've

gotten some use out of... Urkh!" I crouched over and started vomiting.

"Whoa, what's this, out of nowhere?!" Hal called out to me, sounding concerned.

"H-Hey, Souma."

"Blech..." I managed, then coughed violently.

"A-Are you all right? Why'd you suddenly start puking?"

"...S-Sorry. While it was searching, one of my wooden mice... it suddenly found a

really badly damaged body..."

"Damaged...?"

"The eyeballs were—"

"No, stop! I don't want to hear it!" Hal looked away and plugged his ears.

I looked at the dirt in front of us.

When the news covers disaster areas, they focus on the tragedies of the affected

and the hopes of the survivors. However, now that I was actually experiencing it

firsthand, it was a hell greater than I had imagined. This reality was too harsh for a

general audience. It would break their hearts.

Still, I didn't have time to be thinking about that.

"Hal! I've found two people in need of rescue, in the shadow of a rock 50 meters

ahead of us and to the left."

"On it!"

—For now, I just had to kill my emotions.

We diligently continued with our relief efforts. We managed to dig a great many

dark elves from the earth and rubble.

All of them were injured in one way or another, and many had serious injuries

that couldn't be taken lightly even once they had been rescued. Often, by the time we

managed to dig them out, they had already expired.

At first, the ratio of living to dead among the rescued was half and half, but now it

was leaning more heavily towards the dead. When I considered that, of the close-toone-hundred casualties Wodan had mentioned when we had first arrived in the

village, only two-tenths had been dead, it was clear that things were getting worse as

time passed.

The searchers were showing signs of heavy exhaustion, as well. They had been

resting in shifts, but it had now been three days since the disaster had occurred.