A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"Ah..." She instinctively wanted to scream, but Bray quickly covered her mouth.

Although people on the street seem indifferent to what's happening around them, screaming will still attract attention no matter what.

Bray wanted to keep a low profile and didn't want to be targeted.

“Calm down a little, okay?” Bray said softly.

The elf nodded quickly, and Bray released his hand from hers, not wanting to make things difficult for her.

“I really didn’t expect you to react so strongly,” Bray sighed.

"I just wanted to ask you something."

To show his stance, Bray took the initiative to speak first.

He confessed everything honestly, including who he was and how he got to this safe zone.

However, the more the elf listened, the more he felt that Bray was a madman.

Especially when she heard Bray say that he came from the Middle Continent to the North Continent, she was even more convinced that Bray was a madman.

He's at least a delusional person; he's definitely not a normal person.

Knowing that Bray was a madman, the elf's tense body relaxed considerably.

Ironically, to her, madmen were more "normal" than the people outside.

She collapsed to the ground as if all her strength had left her, scattering the food she was holding.

Seeing this, Bray kindly picked up the food from the ground.

"Thank you," the elf said to Bray, no longer showing the fear he had shown before.

She carefully examined Bray, adjusting her disheveled posture.

"I want to know why you and some of the elves are so depressed. Can you tell me now?"

"Is there anything particularly strange about this...? Living in a place like this, everyone would feel so down," the elf said with a wry smile.

After learning that Bray was an outsider, there were some things she didn't want to say.

Or perhaps it would be meaningless.

"It's not the kind of depression you're describing... Let me be blunt."

“You look like you want to die, and everyone’s a bit… secretive, not saying much about you guys,” Bray said.

The sharp words completely revealed his thoughts, like a knife cutting into his heart.

Such remarks not only fail to make people feel "you actually know what I'm thinking," but also create resistance.

Even if you're right, the elf will normally say you're wrong.

"Want to die... How could I?" The elf, struck by the overly blunt words, almost instinctively denied it.

After denying it, she remained silent for a long time, glancing at Bray's eyes while she was silent.

He's a strange person, and his eyes are strange too.

It's like a stagnant pool, but it doesn't make you feel that despair is buried in the stagnant water.

“You’re an outsider, you know nothing.” The elf sighed deeply.

“I really don’t know anything,” Bray said honestly.

“Every so often, someone has to die here,” the elf said abruptly.

“My child is the one who died last time… ha, all to please Lord Troon…” She said this while tightly hugging her arms, her sharp nails digging deeply into her flesh.

"Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice... Why do we have to do this..."

"..." Bray didn't speak.

The information was limited, but that one sentence was enough for him to grasp the whole picture.

Admittedly, Bray isn't a particularly intelligent person, but if you give him clues, he can still piece them together.

The person who gave him a place to sleep didn't mention what the "protection fee" for Bai Yinzhong was.

Now Bray knows what protection money is.

As expected, Bray wasn't surprised at all.

Therefore, all the Pokémon in this safe zone were raised by Silver-tier Pokémon, and they can choose their food from here whenever they want.

"Why can others be so indifferent? Those who are chosen will die..." The female elf, who originally didn't intend to say much, became increasingly uncontrollable after she started speaking.

She clung tightly to Bray's clothes, tears streaming down her face.

Perhaps he was crying for his family members who were being eaten, or perhaps he was crying out of fear and uncertainty about when it would be his turn to lose control.

"Maybe I'll be next... Everyone I know is dead." Her voice trembled, and her pupils shrank to pinpoints.

She gripped Bray tightly, as if that would make her feel more at ease.

Bray had no choice but to let the elf hold onto his clothes and listen to what the elf was saying.

While some of her words were helpful, most of them were simply an expression of her emotions.

She forgot that before her family members were sacrificed, she felt just as calm as everyone else in the safe zone.

Before the flames reach them, everyone adopts an attitude of indifference and detachment.

As if they would never be unlucky enough to be sacrificed, they lived normal lives and were taken for granted as pets.

Even though the Silver Race treated them as food, they never thought of resisting.

Only when the flames reached him did he realize... it was all too late. "Are you feeling better?" Bray asked the elf who was already sitting on a stool drinking hot water.

Her body was covered in bloody scratches from her own efforts, and she looked terrible, but at this moment her emotions had calmed down.

She looked down at her blood-covered arm, not even knowing why she had hurt herself so badly.

By the time she came to her senses, it was already like this; it seemed like an unconscious act.

"Much better, thank you." The elf still thought Bray was delusional, but was much more polite.

Aside from his paranoia, Bray is a fine person.

“Everyone gets excited every time they see someone they have no relation to being sacrificed,” she said, holding up her cup.

"Because Tron was satisfied, the days that followed were peaceful."

From the moment she spoke, she stopped addressing Troon as "sir".

Before her own family members were sacrificed, she was one of those who called the Silver Seers "Lord Troon".

"Everyone believes that the sacrifice is necessary."

“Even without sacrifices, if Tron wanted to, he could capture people in the safe zone and eat them anytime,” she said softly.

"So sacrificing one person to gain stability is seen as a worthwhile deal by everyone."

This is simply the difference between catching sheep and raising sheep; all the elves are sheep.

"Are all of you thinking so negatively?" Bray said helplessly.

"Negative?...maybe."

“I am a messenger, responsible for informing others about what is happening in other places. By the way, I come from the Middle Continent,” Bray said.

The elf's expression changed slightly, and he looked at Bray strangely.

"The people of the Central Continent and the Eastern Continent are living well, even if they are not kept by the Silver Seeds."

“There’s absolutely no need for this,” Bray said seriously.

"Yeah..."

The elves did not believe in the "messenger," nor did they think Bray came from anywhere else.

But upon hearing Bray's words, she couldn't help but smile slightly, a genuine smile without any hint of contempt.

As for why she laughed like that, she herself didn't quite understand.

Perhaps they felt that if it were true, it would be a wonderful thing.

"And what's going on with the safe zone next door?" Bray asked, ignoring her disbelief.

"It's basically the same situation as ours."

"Then Norsenkamen and Troon enjoyed watching us fight, so everyone satisfied their needs and became hostile to each other."

"Looking back now, it seems a bit ridiculous." After her heart died, she saw things more clearly.

However, after seeing it clearly, she had no mood to do anything and did not intend to say anything to anyone.

Since things have come to this, let it all be.

How should I put it? It's really like raising chickens. Not only do you have to eat their meat, but you also have to eat their eggs, and you even need them to fight.

"What are you thinking about?" The elf couldn't help but ask when he saw Bray lost in thought.

“Think of something funny,” Bray said, shaking his head.

When mortals fight monsters, they say that they are all emotionless beasts.

When the Silver Race slaughters mortals, they also say that the mortals are too weak to have any meaning.

When one side tries to eliminate the other, there will always be a seemingly legitimate reason.

It just so happens that the lower species are at a disadvantage, so Bray never took the various pronouncements of the "alliance of the gods" to heart.

But after actually seeing ordinary people being kept in captivity, he couldn't feel any better no matter what.

"Do you know Dorothea? You know, the empress?" Bray asked abruptly.

“Your Majesty Dorothea? Of course I know.” The elf nodded.

The Empress of Baiting Kingdom is known to everyone in the Northern Continent.

"Initially, Her Majesty the Queen led everyone in rebellion..."

"But later everyone thought it was impossible to resist successfully, so they gradually dispersed."

"Besides... to be honest, we in remote areas didn't receive any real help on the day of the disaster."

"Only powerful people would dare to talk about resistance," the female elf said pessimistically.

"..." Bray didn't refute her, but focused on other things.

What happened to Dorothea afterward?

"I don't know, they might still be in Snowwind Fortress... or they might have been killed by a group of demigods."

Dorothea's combat power was truly awe-inspiring; no one could believe that someone could single-handedly drag the Northern Continent along.

However, no one knows what happened after that.

Because they can't even leave this small safe zone, let alone learn about what's happening outside.

In many people's minds, Dorothea is probably long dead; after all, there is always a limit to an individual's strength.

There were simply too many demigods, so many that they couldn't even muster the will to resist.

“Thank you for telling me so much,” Bray said solemnly, extending his hand.

The female elf stared blankly at Bray, her lifeless eyes looking at him over and over again.

After hesitating for a moment, she finally reached out her hand and shook hands with Bray.

"There's nothing to thank me for. Everyone knows about this kind of thing." She wasn't referring to any secret, but rather something that everyone in the safe zone knew about.

The sacrifice is also implicitly accepted; it doesn't need to be explicitly stated, everyone understands.

It's just that Bray has just arrived here, so he looks completely bewildered.

“But normally, no one would tell me that,” Bray said.

“They might use me as a sacrifice.” He finished speaking and shrugged.

"It can't be that bad...you're just an outsider," the female elf said, shaking her head.

The people to be sacrificed were chosen by lottery; the temporary recruits in Bray haven't been included so quickly.

It's really hard to say after some time.

But at least for now, Bray doesn't have to worry about those things.