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When he was near the World Tree, he noticed a single tree house at its base. There, an Elven Lady with long green hair was looking at him with a solemn expression on her face.

The young man descended and hovered a dozen meters away from the Elf, looking at her calmly.

The two stared at each other for a while before the Elf bowed her head respectfully.

"My name is Helewynn Llamiryl," Helewynn said softly. "I\'m pleased to make your acquaintance, Ethan."

"I am Ethan Gremory," Ethan properly introduced himself. "I hope that we can get along well."

After they exchanged their greetings, the dark clouds in the sky slowly dispersed, allowing light to once again shine down on the forest.

Helewynn sighed in relief. She didn\'t want to experience a repeat of the events that happened hundreds of years ago when the Elves tried to mess with someone whom they shouldn\'t have messed with.

"Please come inside, Ethan," Helewynn smiled. "I\'m sure that you\'re tired from your journey, so relax for a while before we talk about the Pestis Empire, which is slowly but surely corrupting the lands around the Cloudwall Mountains."

Ethan nodded and followed the Elven Lady inside her Tree House.

The Tree House wasn\'t Helewynn\'s home. It was a house customly constructed to receive guests, especially esteemed guests like the Tidebringer.

It was quite spacious and three stories high.

As Ethan sat on a wooden couch, he was served tea made from the leaves of the World Tree.

\'Before you return, make sure to get some leaves from this tree,\' Ethan\'s Other Half said. \'It has healing properties, and it can get rid of most poisons in the body. It would be a shame if we don\'t take some of it back to the present as a souvenir.\'

The young man nodded because he thought that this was also a good idea.

As soon as he took a sip of the tea, he immediately felt revitalized, and all his fatigue from his two-day journey to Margrave Forest disappeared.

The Lands of Alastor was an entire continent, so its lands were very vast.

If he wasn\'t in a hurry to return to the Magdar Kingdom, Ethan would have done some sightseeing with Joanne and Princess Ramona.

Although he missed them, he knew that he should focus on the Elf Lady in front of him, who was also sipping the tea to calm her nerves.

"Well, then. Let\'s talk about the Pestis Empire," Helewynn placed her teacup on the table in front of her. "Their former home wasn\'t the Cloudwall Mountains, but the Ostre Hills located in the Northeastern part of the Slarka Swamp.

"The Lizard Men didn\'t want the Ratmen to share their turf, so they hunted them down, forcing them to head south of the Dutchy of Morgau. The Humans, who have been suffering from countless monster raids in the past, didn\'t like the idea of letting a bunch of Ratmen build their nest near their homes.

"They attacked their Colony, forcing the Ratmen to once again head Southward until they found their safe haven in the Cloudwall Mountains.

"After suffering for many years, being hunted down by the Lizardmen and Humans, they were finally given some breathing room to increase their numbers. When the size of their colony increased, they soon remembered all of their old grudges and decided that it was time to take revenge on those who made them suffer."

Helewynn raised her head to look at the young man in front of her, who was listening silently to her story.

"At first, it started as a few skirmishes on the borders of the Dutchy of Morgau. But soon, it escalated into full-blown raids, with hundreds of Ratmen descending from the mountain and pillaging the surrounding lands.

"At first, they only stole many forms of livestock. But, as their confidence and boldness grew, they started targeting Humans, bringing them back to their colony as food and as playthings.

"A year later, they sent an army to the territory of the Lizardmen and started to infest their swamps with pestilence. This was their revenge for almost being driven to extinction.

"Originally, Ratmen wasn\'t a smart race. But it seems that a leader was born among them, now leading them to wage war on their neighbors. We\'ve also had skirmishes with them in the past. Now, the border of the Forest and the Cloudwall Mountains has become an infected land, destroying the land around it.

"The majority of our forces are stationed on the border, preventing the Ratmen from further defiling our land.

"Unfortunately, their numbers are quickly increasing, and they also like using wave tactics to further push the pestilence that they created into our Sacred Forest.

"I\'m afraid that within a decade or two, the entirety of the Mangrave Forest will be turned into a wasteland. Once that happens, we will be forced to migrate somewhere to escape the plague that the Ratmen bring."

After Helewynn finished her story, Ethan closed his eyes to think of a way to handle this situation.

The Ratmen might have started this war for revenge, but soon, it would spin out of control until the surrounding lands had turned into a wasteland, with not a single plant or lifeform growing in sight.

After careful consideration, Ethan decided to stay the night in the Tree House to think things through.

He was still on the fence about whether he should eliminate the Ratmen or find a compromise that would prevent them from wantonly attacking their neighbors.

***

Inside the Underground City within the Cloudwall Mountains…

"The Humansss are amassing their forcesss yesss yess…," a Ratman Shaman said. "They come in great numbers to kill ussss."

"Foolish Humansss, it isss not us who will get killed. It will be their corpsesss which would be forever buried in these mountainsss. Yesss yesss!"

A Ratman, who sat on a throne made of rocks, slowly opened its eyes and smirked.

"If itsss killing they wantssss, killing they will getsss!" the Ratman King declared, making the entire Colony cheer.

They were no longer the small and weak Ratmen who could be bullied by the Lizard Men and the Humans.

The Ratmen had finally gained the power to fight back, and with it, they would make sure that those who had hunted them down in the past, would now become the hunted.