My Eldritch Horror Wife Followed Me To Another World
Chapter 92: Just A Hunch

Chapter 92: Just A Hunch

Nick put down his spoon and pushed his bowl of ice cream to the side. He clasped his hands and rested his forearms on the table as he looked at Nuir.

"Those two. Squawks and Lily. They wanted payment for their help. I didn’t have anything else to give them. That’s why I had to give them your arrows."

Nick could tell that Nuir wanted to ask what they could possibly do to help.

"The other day, the same day that you came here, a friend of a friend was kidnapped and smuggled out of the forest."

For some reason, Nick’s serious attitude had Nuir’s thoughts running through sludge. But Nuir could still figure out what that meant. Outside the forest meant humans. Humans were involved in the kidnapping.

"Those two told us where to find Tair in exchange for the arrows. If possible, they are also going to help us get him back."

Nuir nodded. That was a good enough reason for him to agree to give away the arrows.

However, Nick wasn’t done yet.

"That brings me to what I actually wanted to talk to you about. I suspected it before, but I didn’t want to say anything. But now, I feel like you deserve to be aware of this possibility as well. And as I said, this is just my suspicion. As of now, it’s impossible to confirm it."

"..." Nuir waited patiently for Nick to stop beating around the bush.

"The tribe that kidnapped Tair was the Lowat tribe."

Nuir didn’t connect the dots on his own, at least not consciously. But as if his mind could tell where this was going and didn’t like it, it slowed down his thoughts even more.

"The Lowat tribe smuggled Tair out of the forest into the hands of the humans that were waiting for him. I know this isn’t easy to hear, Nuir, but I didn’t want to keep it from you." Nick felt a lump in his throat. Nuir was just a kid. He shouldn’t have to bear with this. He should be playing with his friends and finding cool sticks to show to his parents.

Unfortunately, the world could be a cruel place, regardless of whether it was Earth or this one.

It wouldn’t be right to keep this from Nuir, so Nick continued, even if he struggled to find the right words. He wanted to soften the blow as much as possible. But some blows will hit just as hard regardless of how they hit.

"The Lowat tribe worked together with humans. And I don’t think it’s the first time they’ve done it. I...I don’t know how your mother died. I only know that she died at the hands of humans a few years ago.

"But from what I’ve heard from the others, humans haven’t made any large movements into Tiabe for decades. At most, it’s been poachers or people like Squawks who are just here to take a look around.

"Your mother was the Chief’s successor, right?"

Nuir nodded, that lone question piercing through the mud in his mind.

"She wouldn’t lose to a couple of poachers. I doubt she ventured outside the forest, either. And as long as she was close to the territories controlled by the tribes, she wouldn’t have been alone or in a vulnerable position if she was alone.

"Of course, she could have been, but..."

Nick took a break and inhaled twice.

Nuir slowly raised his dark and hollow gaze from Nick’s fiddling fingers and looked Nick straight in the eyes for the third time since he arrived at Nick’s house.

"I think your uncle cooperated with humans to have your mother killed, Nuir." Nick came right out and said it. It did not lift a weight from his chest.

It was just a suspicion, and one that had first appeared because he had watched movies and because he had been so removed from the violence that he could look at it like a play. He was sitting in the middle of the forest.

He had seen violence when the tentacle squeezed the life out of the Roaring Boar.

But he hadn’t seen murder.

It was like when he heard about atrocities and accidents on the news. A momentary pang of pity and empathy. Maybe a silent prayer to the lost and those who had lost loved ones.

Of course, Nick had still been worried about Nuir, but that was because he saw Nuir with his own eyes. He was also almost killed by the crying Nuir. How could he move on from that?

But it wasn’t until Nuir appeared during the sausage party with blood and dirt covering his body that Nick’s mind finally snapped into place.

This was reality. The death of Nuir’s mother wasn’t some distant event or the prologue to some tragedy.

It was a tragedy.

That was why he couldn’t be saying these things to Nuir with a light heart. He meant every word he said.

He didn’t have any proof. Everything he knew was circumstantial and second-hand. He could have entirely misunderstood the situation.

Maybe Nuir’s mother had been weak and out on a stroll when she was caught off guard and murdered in cold blood by the humans who snuck into Tiabe looking for wealth or prey.

But would Basla mistreat Nuir like that if that were the case? Would the Lowat tribe chief’s let it happen? Would Basla celebrate the death of his sister and do all he could to expand his influence and seize control of the tribe?

Would the Lowat tribe work together with humans to sow discord with the other tribes if humans had been the ones to kill Nasam?

Wouldn’t the Lowat tribe be similar to Nuir if humans had killed the warm, loving, and lovable successor?

Nick could be wrong.

He didn’t think he was. It wasn’t that difficult to see it.

But at the same time, he understood why no one else had seen it so far.

He remembered the history lessons and the way ’explorers’ and ’conquerors’ treated natives of the places they discovered. Even in modern times, natives were a targeted group.

He could imagine how the humans of the surrounding kingdoms had treated the tribes.

Of course, it wouldn’t be that black and white, but he could imagine the tribes’ resentment and anger toward humans.

It was easier to believe that humans had killed Nasam without any help than to believe that the Lowat tribe had helped humans kill Nasam so that Basla could become the next successor.