?”Wait! Excuse me… What did you just say… The Yordles are starving to death?” Lathel frowned; He looked like he was hearing?something both strange and confusing.
“That’s right.” Yorder nodded, his expression serious.
Lathel also said in confusion: “But… this place has a lake, which means there is seafood underneath the lake. You live in the forest, surely there will be small animals, or fruit, in the forest.”
“Even if there is no seafood or small animals here, at least there is still fruit. Can’t you find fruit?”
Yorder sighed and said: “Listen to my explanation first. Perhaps you don’t know, I… no, the Yordles worship the Goddess of Nature; that’s why we can’t kill any animals.”
“What about fruit?” Lathel nodded and said. He felt like the Yordles were vegetarians.
After all, they worshipped the goddess of nature, so all creatures in nature were followers of the goddess of nature.
Therefore, slaughtering any animal means slaughtering the goddess’s followers.
Lathel could easily see that too.
“This…” Yorder said, a little embarrassed: “Actually, we can eat fruit, however, the fruits in this place… are all poisonous.”
Lathel: “…”
“All… are poisonous?” He asked doubtfully again.
Yorder nodded with difficulty: “That’s right… everything… is poisonous.”
Lathel: ( ￢ _ ￢ 😉
He felt sorry for the Yordles. It was a misfortune for them to be hunted by humans as natural energy stones, and now they were hiding in a forest where all the fruits were poisonous.
“But… can’t you move to another place to live?” Lathel frowned and asked.
Yorder also sighed. At this time, Nina spoke up: “At first, we also wanted to move to another place to live.”
“However, after leaving this forest, the rest of the Yordles were killed by monsters.”
“To be more precise, besides this place, other places are dangerous for us.”
“Besides, there is extremely favourable terrain here to place illusion magic, that will not allow anyone to enter our village.”
Lathel opened his mouth, he felt that this was ‘the closed-door policy’, a common form in the feudal period that he had read about in books.
There are many countries that do not want to communicate with other countries to avoid enemies harming them, so they decide to implement ‘the closed-door policy’.
This has an advantage and a disadvantage.
The benefit is that outside enemies or spies cannot enter that country, nor can outside traders or missionaries disrupt that country.
However, the benefits are few, but the disadvantages are many. Countries that take these negative measures cannot survive for long.
The current situation of the Yordle clan is similar. They cannot go out, but outsiders cannot find or enter their territory either.
Although they were safe inside their territory, they lacked food and many resources to develop.
In the end, this caused them to go extinct from starvation.
Lathel held his forehead and asked in confusion: “So… even if you’re about to starve to death, you don’t want to kill animals to create a new food source?”
Nina and Yorder looked at each other, then Yorder said: “Impossible. The Goddess of Nature is watching over us, I fear that if we go against tradition, the Goddess will destroy the entire Yordle race.”
Hearing that, Lathel could only force a smile, he felt that these Yordles were a bit… stupid.
‘If you hunt, you still have a chance of survival. If you don’t hunt, you will definitely die. Is the traditional concept that heavy?’
He shook his head and sighed, deciding to speak his mind: “Hunting will be punished, but it is unlikely that the Yordle clan will be destroyed by the Goddess of Nature. But if you do not accept hunting, I am afraid that without the Goddess destroying you, you will die on your own.”
Yorder sighed: “I also know that, that’s why I hope you can help us and give us a bright path to continue to exist.”
Lathel looked at Nina, frowned, and said: “She knows magic, why not let her create food.”
“I… I don’t know how to do that.” Nina said embarrassedly.
“So…?can’t you grow any fruit trees?” Lathel continued to ask.
“We can’t get out of this place, so we can’t find the seeds.”
Lathel held his forehead, he was truly desperate for the Yordle clan. It seemed that this race had only survived by luck.
“How do you want me to save you?”
“We don’t know either.” Yorder and Nina said in unison.
Lathel: “…”
He shook his head, as he did not know what to do or what to say.
Everything was a dead end, there is no way out, and there is no way to continue moving forward.
Suddenly, he looked at the Yordles hiding in shabby tents, their already small bodies now even more skinny due to a lack of nutrition.
Their eyes no longer had any life left as they looked towards him. It seemed he also realised that Yorder brought him to their village to find a way to save them.
In those eyes, there was a bit of hope. That look made Lathel feel uncomfortable, making him feel like he was cold-blooded and indifferent to the suffering of others.
Everyone was silent,as they waited for Lathel’s decision, including Claire.
Finally, he sighed and said: “Call everyone to gather in front of me. I will try once, but… I am not sure that it will succeed.”
Yorder and Nina were extremely happy to hear that, and they immediately responded. Of course, Nina went to round up the Yordles, while Yorder stood in front of Lathel, and happily bowed his head.
“Thank you, Lathel.”
“Don’t thank me yet, I don’t know if this method will be successful or not.” Lathel shook his head and said.
“No matter what the result is, I want to thank you.” Yorder smiled and said: “At least, among all humans, you are the best.”
Lathel wanted to say something, but he felt tired. He felt that there was no need to say much, as later they would realise that humanity has many better people than him.
A moment later, everyone gathered in front of him. They were more than 200 Yordles; however, they were all very thin, weak, and their faces seemed to have no life energy left.
He looked around, then said loudly: “What is your belief?”
Hearing that, the Yordles frowned, and small sounds rang out.
“The Goddess of Nature.”
“The goddess will protect us.”
“Nature goddess.”
“Nature goddess…”
Lathel reached out, signalling them to be quiet. He continued: “So… have you ever met the goddess?”
The Yordles looked at each other silently, even Yorder frowned in confusion and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Ah! So you’ve never met the goddess of nature. So… Do you know what she looks like?”
Everyone continued to be silent.
“Just word of mouth is fine, have you ever heard what the Goddess of Nature looks like?”
“Have you?”
They remained silent, only Nina said softly: “I… I don’t know.”
“Hahaha…” Lathel suddenly laughed loudly, startling everyone.
“So… where did the laws you are implementing come from?”
Yorder rubbed his chin. He frowned and said: “Of course it comes from the Goddess of Nature.”
“Nonsense, bullshit.” Lathel shouted, and everyone jumped back in surprise, their eyes filled with panic.
Lathel looked at everyone and said firmly: “I want to ask you… You have never met the Goddess of Nature, you do not know what she looks like, and you have not heard her voice. How do you know these laws were promulgated by her?”
Everyone was silent, but there was a little more light in their eyes, and with it, a little confusion.
“Faith and tradition are good things, but superstition is bad.”
“You don’t know who the Goddess of Nature is, but you know the laws she promulgated, so… that means those laws were made by you, not by her.”
“That means you are defaming the Goddess of Nature, right?”
Hearing Lathel’s words, everyone took a breath and felt a chill down their spines.
They immediately knelt on the ground, clasped their hands, and muttered as if they were praying.
“Shut up!” Lathel shouted: “Are you praying properly? Or is what you are doing an imitation of other people?”
Everyone began to be confused, and Yorder also began to feel that his faith was a bit shaken.
Lathel sat cross-legged on the ground, his hands on her knees, as he began to speak: “The goddess of nature is a god, right?”
Everyone was silent.
“Answer me, she is a god, right?”
“That’s right…”
“She is a goddess…”
A few weak voices rang out.
“Good! Would a god from above care about a few small things?” Lathel said, smiling.
“What do you mean…” Yorder was a little confused, he turned to Lathel and asked sincerely.
“What I mean is, if the Goddess of Nature were a god, she certainly wouldn’t make the laws you all follow.” Lathel replied.
“What is nature? It is an infinite cycle. A seed grows into a tree, the tree produces chestnuts.”
“A squirrel eats a nut, which means that a tree feeds the squirrel.”
“The squirrel dies, becoming nutrients for the tree, which means that the squirrel feeds the tree.”
“The tree produces chestnuts, which feed many other squirrels.”
“What I’m talking about is just an extremely small cycle in the forest. This is nature.”
“Nature is about growing together, helping each other survive in an infinite cycle.”
“The goddess of nature governs that infinite cycle, but you guys are following nonsense, thereby breaking that cycle.”
“What you are doing is defaming the goddess. Think for yourself… Is what I said true?.𝒎
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