My Eldritch Horror Wife Followed Me To Another World
Chapter 86: Orovir Tunnels

Chapter 86: Orovir Tunnels

In another part of the forest, Malak sat by Sosora’s side and held her hand, trying hopelessly to get his mind to stop spinning. He didn’t need a thousand thoughts running through it right now, especially when most of them were negative.

But his efforts were futile. He looked at Sosora and the bandage across her eyes, but the only thing he saw was the tunnel and the hundred things he could have done differently to change the outcome.

However, if there was one good thing about his mind working overtime, it was that he could quickly realize that most of the things he could have done differently could have led to a worse outcome.

He might be a member of the Bawin tribe, but he was no better at fighting than Issa. If he had tried to help Sosora and Tilo, he would have only made the situation worse, much like Issa did.

The only two things he should have done differently were to bring reinforcements at once and realize his and Issa’s uselessness in combat sooner. He should have stopped Issa from charging at the Lowat warrior.

But he had been too surprised when she did it. She was an anxiety-riddled scaredy-cat. What was she charging at the powerful and very dangerous Lowat warrior for?

Malak sighed.

He couldn’t blame her.

If he had been braver, he would have done the same. The only one directly responsible for Sosora’s injuries was the Lowat warrior. And the one indirectly responsible was Basla.

Malak finally managed to steer his thoughts into something more productive.

This wasn’t over.

Basla wouldn’t stop at just kidnapping Tair. And he certainly wouldn’t stop now that one of his warriors was dead.

Malak wasn’t sure what Basla had planned with these aggressive acts, and he had no idea what he was planning to do next. But Sosora was injured and Tair was still missing. The Aer tribe wouldn’t sit still.

He could expect some friction between the two tribes. He wouldn’t be able to do much on that front. He had a feeling that his elders would want him to stay clear of all that. The Bawin tribe advocated neutrality in matters like these, after all.

However, he had already assumed responsibility for Tair’s kidnapping. Technically, it was still a mystery who had done it, so he was free to continue investigating it until the Lowat tribe admitted to it or his elders finally took a stance.

Here it was.

Malak’s mind spun.

He had uncovered the route that the Lowat tribe used to get away from Tair’s crash site. But the Orovir entrance led to three separate tunnels, which they would no longer be able to investigate. They had found the next lead that would have taken them to Tair, but the Lowat warrior had put more than one stick in their wheels.

The tunnels had collapsed, and the Orovir tribe would not let Malak take a look at their maps.

However, Malak didn’t need that. He had all the information he needed.

They had seen which tunnel the Lowat warrior came from.

He had the clues right in front of him. He had the answer.

He just needed to piece it together.

Malak wasn’t sure if he imagined it since Sosora still seemed to be sleeping when he glanced at her, but it felt like she squeezed his hand to give him the strength he needed.

The tunnel...

The Lowat warrior had turned around a corner, so the tunnel wasn’t straight. But that direction...

Malak’s eyes widened.

That direction combined with the tunnel’s suspicious instability.

The tunnel was made to collapse easily. It was no accident that it had crashed after just a few hits.

He was familiar with those kinds of tunnels. The Orovir tribe had filled the forest’s underground with them during wartime.

During the first few years of wars with the humans outside the forest, the Orovir tunnels had been a great safety and help to the tribes. They helped the tribes move civilians and warriors around the forest with ease. They could save people and ambush invaders.

That was why they were large enough that any member of the different tribes could fit inside despite the Orovir tribe’s small stature.

The tunnels almost single-handedly changed the tide of war.

However, the humans weren’t stupid. It didn’t take them too long to figure out what was going on.

They turned the tables on the tribes of Tiabe. They invaded the tunnels and used them against the tribes. After all, the tunnels led straight to their homes and where they gathered their food, supplies, and people.

Armies marched through the forest’s underground.

If not for the genius idea to make tunnels that would collapse and bury the armies alive, the tribes could have been struck from history.

The humans learned even quicker about that and stopped invading the tunnels. But that didn’t stop them from finding the tunnels and pouring burning oil, water, or poison into them or just straight up collapsing them.

The tunnels became deathtraps for both sides. Gradually, they were left alone. Some forgot about them.

Others remembered them and used them to move through the forest undetected.

But some tunnels didn’t extend just through the forest’s inner parts.

During the tribes’ ambitious times, they had launched attacks outside of the forest.

The Orovir tunnels had been a great help during such missions. And if the humans tried to follow the tribes back into the forest through the tunnels, the tunnels would come down on them and bury them alive.

Malak’s eyes widened in realization.

They could enlist an army to search every nook and cranny of Tiabe, and they still wouldn’t find Tair because Tair was no longer inside the forest.

The Lowat tribe had kidnapped him and shipped him off outside the forest.

Malak couldn’t be sure what they had done to him. But if they were acting outside the forest, the Lowat tribe had to be cooperating with humans.

Malak wasn’t sure there was a worse crime a member of the tribes could commit.

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