Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 8===

It was morning. For a day not ruled by the clock, morning began with the sunrise.

“Gh.”

Sleeping out here was nothing like his home in the royal capital. His joints were aching after spending the night on the mossy ground with only his cloak around him.

…''Oh, my muscles!

Moving a single finger made him grimace, but he still grabbed the stick lying next to him. He marked the beginning of a new day using the earring’s pin. He prayed he wouldn’t have to figure out how to mark the passage of months.

He had left himself defenselessly unconscious out in the wild and survived. He hadn’t even been tied up and taken away by the dark elves who could move silently through the darkness. Why was that?

“This worked better than I thought.”

The skinny boy glanced over at the three round stones he had placed a short distance away.

That was the dark elf sign for a nearby trap.

Once he knew that sign, he could use it to avoid traps and to trick the dark elves.

He checked to see if the real trap he had collected along with the stones had caught anything, but he hadn’t expected it to be that easy. He had only borrowed a few poison arrows sticking up at the bottom of a pitfall and set them up in the bushes around him, but they had failed to accomplish anything. Was there a trick to setting them up? Leaving an unmarked trap was a risk to him as well, so he collected the poison arrows, counted them to make sure, and then tossed them down the original pitfall.

…''That trap they always use in plays is pretty funny, but how do you even make one of those? You know, the rope that yanks you up by the ankle when you step in it. With one of those, I could have some fun with- ahem, perform some research on an upside-down miniskirt dark elf.

He pondered that again in the mottled morning sunlight, but he couldn’t imagine the details of how that thing worked.

So what to do now?

He needed to get food and water while he could still move, but he would never make any progress if that was all he ever did. His primary goal was getting to know Slender better. If he could stop the resurrection of Brashgain and save humanity while he was at it, so much the better. If he had Slender on his side, she might even introduce him to the local cuisine. And if he stopped the dragon’s resurrection, he could leave the forest with his wife and return to the royal capital. Then he could princess carry that brown girl into the chapel and marry her without a care in the world. ''Ah ha ha! The future is bright!!

A rustling sound dragged Klaus Knockburn’s thoughts back to reality.

He slowly crouched down. When caught by surprise, it was better to hide your presence than to noisily run around and shout. He was amazed to find he had picked up that weird bit of forest etiquette.

…''So who is this!? I doubt my hunter of a wife would be making all this noise!!

While he was panicking on the inside, something burst from the bushes. It was a red-eyed rabbit.

But why? That question made him gasp. Changes did not happen for no reason. Aphids would gather on the plants and ants would gather to feast on the sweet juices produced by the aphids. The distribution of life was highly organized, like a collection of gears. If that organization was falling apart, like water overflowing from the bath, then there was trouble afoot.

In other words…

…''Someone’s here. I don’t know who, but there’s a hunter nearby!

This was the infamous Forest of No Return, so it would not be a human. That meant a dark elf hunter. He did his best to be as silent as possible while he slowly turned his head toward the direction the rabbit had fled from. Fortunately, he was downwind of them. They might have noticed his scent if he was upwind.

If this was anyone other than Slender, he needed to run.

If they were armed and resentfully trying to resurrect Brashgain, there was no room for conversation. If he did hope to reach an understanding, he would need Slender to act as an intermediary. His future wife came first. He could not forget that.

But when he silently peeked out from behind a thick tree trunk, he relaxed.

“Oh, it’s only Slender. Damn, all that anxiety for nothing.”

“?”

He doubted she could have heard him, but her long ears twitched and she casually looked back his way. To hide, he slowly pulled back behind the tree. After observing the animals, he had concluded that moving too quickly would only make noises that gave you away.

…''We sure do run across each other a lot in such a large forest. My wife, could it be that your body desires me?

Was this area where she usually hunted? He was curious, but that was not the main issue.

Slender was about 20m away, so what now? He was safer than he would be at their village, but she was still armed with a powerful composite bow and Archdragon Magic. He did not speak her language and her customs were unknown. Even if she was on his side for now, she might eventually get fed up with his mistakes and try to kill him.

What did he need if he was going to risk his life to interact with her?

…''When in doubt, start with observations.

Slender detected the smallest signs to hunt down wild animals, so trying to follow her around undetected seemed like a bad idea, but he could not put together a plan without first gathering information. When she moved to the side, he snuck from behind the tree to some bushes.

This was far better than pursuing a deer or an eccentric old geezer.

His future wife really was beautiful. If he had to chase after anything, her ass in that tight skirt was a good choice.