Chapter 27: Im Weak (1/2)
As the night grew closer, the colder the wind got, many of the residents in the settlement had lost their homes in the fight earlier. The entire town was in shambles, there were very few buildings still standing and even those weren't left intact. The residents had all gathered in front of the chiefs mansion after spending some time in what remained of their burnt down houses, salvaging any personal items they could find.
The chief then announced their next destination, it had been exactly five years today since they moved here, they survived all the monster raids that happened in that time frame with little to no casualties, after spending their entire lives in Blzaberg, the region that was ones ruled by the Cronoff's, a relatively safe place with very few monster raids due to the systematic sweeps of any monster nest by the knights of the Cronoff family.
They had thought life in Darknar would be hell, but untill now they had been doing fine. The monster raids here had only occured about ones or twice a week and because they had set up their settlement a distance away from both the Darknar forest and the Darkin mountain range, they had been able to handle any monster that came as they had ample time to prepare.
Even though the monsters were stronger here than Blzaberg, and the frequency was higher, they still managed to survive with zero casualties so far and had planned to celebrate the anniversary of the day they move here, five years ago today. In the end, this had reminded them of how dangerous it was in Darknar.
The chief then explained the plan to head toward the demon king's castle, the crowd immediately broke into a murmur, they were all shocked and terrified by this statement. Being ogres they had no right to approach the castle with so many high level demons, including the five families being interested in it.
Many had voiced their concerns and some had suggested one of the barren lands in the vast Darknar forest, but Azar had shut that down, with their current fighting prowess they would all be eliminated before they even got close, even with their formal strength they still had less than a 40 percent chance of making it, this was the main reason they had settled here and not done that five years ago.
There was a reason only scouts from the Five Great families were able to live there, although the place was void of monsters, it was also void of food and anyone living there would have no choice but to venture into the forest to survive. That brought them to the biggest problem, the safe zones were located in the most dangerous parts of the forest and was only meant as a resting point when exploring. It couldn't sustain the lives of over 400 people.
Trying to live there would be the same thing as slowly commiting suicide. They would either stave themselves or get annihilated by one of the four kings the moment they left the zone to find food.
The chief managed to calm everyone down, he was able to get them on his side with just a few words, he didn't go into too much details and suddenly ordered a feast. ”The time of mourning has past, it's time we celebrate the lives of our loved ones, tomorrow we leave our home in search of a new one, but tonight, we celebrate life!” They all cheered loudly, a large bonfire was built in no time at all, and Jarret and his group retrieved the prey they had dropped earlier in the day.
Tyler watched this scene as he couldn't help but pity and admire the ogres, even though they were hurting, they still had the strength to think and act rationally, even the kids looked strong willed. He couldn't help but remember their reaction earlier when they found out both him and Liz were from the demon king's castle.
••••••
The wave of emotions came like a storm, both Albert and Erin were more shocked by this information, they had a better understanding of the situation within the Darknar region than anyone here. It was one thing for a man like Albert, a demon noble that one's ruled his own region to say he had offered his life to a strange man he didn't even know his name, but to find out that man came from the demon king's castle was next level.
To enter the demon king's castle one had to have adept knowledge on seals and concealment magic, and even then, they would only be able to break the first layer of the sealing spell around the castle, granting them access to very limited areas of the castle. The Five Great demon families had sent several spirit magic casters to study and break the barrier surrounding the castle, but, every single one of them had failed. With only an handful managing to bypass the first layer of the intricate and complicated five layer barrier around the castle.
The barrier was a combination of both sealing and concealment spells, layered upon each other, it was unknown what was powering the spell for more than a thousand years now but whatever it was it was surely more valuable than any of the treasure the formal demon generals of the demon King had taken away from the castle when they had abandoned it, this had now become one of the goals in the race to become the next demon King, another way to show their strength, proving themselves worthy of the tittle Demon King.
This meant a few things for Tyler and Liz, either they were outcast with no choice but to hide in such a risky place, somewhere if found could bring the wrath of the entire Five families raining down upon them, or they were part of a small Noble family that wanted the secrets of the castle and had come upon an unfortunate situation, having no choice but to seek out a healer.
Judging by their strengths the latter was most likely the case, no family would want to make an enemy out of one of the strongest members in their ranks, otherwise they would just be handing their competition more ammunition against them. After arriving at this conclusion, they felt a little relieved, it would be unwise of them to make an enemy out of the Great Five families by escorting outcasts.