The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

So there really are soldiers stationed here.

After receiving the GPS coordinates of the treants' settlement from Lilith, Alice quickly took a teleportation array to the Rhine Kingdom's border. Then, she entered the Kalu Forest that connected the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom and found the treants' settlement.

However, surrounding her destination was a protective fence made using a special magic stone. Many soldiers also patrolled the perimeter of this fenced area. Based on her secret observation, Alice found that these soldiers were divided into two groups, and the way she divided them was based on the design differences of their weapons and armor.

Evidently, some of these soldiers were from the Rhine Kingdom, while the other rest were from the Ymir Kingdom. The two kingdoms must have agreed to share the responsibility of keeping people out of the treants' settlement.

The soldiers of the two kingdoms looked like they got along quite well. They also didn't look tense, which probably meant they didn't expect to see any combat while on duty. It made sense, though, since they only needed to warn others to stay away from the fenced area.

The treants should be aware that humans had set up a cordon outside their settlement. However, it didn't seem like they had any intentions of provoking a fight and would only react aggressively if outsiders trespassed on their territory. With how small the treant population was, it definitely wouldn't end well for the treants if they provoked the Rhine Kingdom and the Ymir Kingdom. Although the treants had become hostile to other races, they still knew how to protect themselves.

Alice had to thank the treants for ignoring the soldiers stationed outside their settlement. Because of the lack of action, the soldiers had grown lazy over time, making it much easier for Alice to execute her infiltration plan.

Although Alice could conceal her appearance and presence with her magic robe, her physical body remained in existence. If she were to try and climb across the magic fence, she would most likely trigger some sort of alarm. To avoid such a situation, she would have to rely on psychic power to fly across the fence. So, had the soldiers been serious about their job, they would have noticed something was amiss with the flow of wind and mana around Alice.

The existence of treants was somewhat similar to elves. Both races were the favored children of nature, possessing incredible mana sensitivity. The two races also had a small population. However, there were also significant differences between the two races. Unlike elves, treants had very little resemblance to humans. This could be seen from how treants were born.

Shortly after flying past the cordon, Alice quickly realized that she should be close to the treants' settlement.

So, this is a treant?

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Alice curiously thought as she walked up to a large tree and scrutinized the protrusion on its trunk. It naturally wouldn't have caught Alice's attention if it were only an ordinary protrusion. The reason the protrusion caught Alice's attention was because it was somewhat in the shape of a human face. Upon closer inspection, she could also see the vague outline of a torso and limbs growing out of the trunk.

Evidently, this tree was a treant in its fetal stage. However, unlike human fetuses, treant fetuses did not grow up in a mother's womb. Instead, they appeared from a grown tree and had to weather the elements from the moment they were "conceived." If they were unlucky, they might even die before they could complete their fetal stage and enter their infancy stage.

Treants originally had a low birthrate already. Adding the high possibility of death due to natural elements, it was no wonder the treants had such a small population.

Alice couldn't help but find this situation perplexing. The treant race had existed for well over ten thousand years. Logically, they should have thought of trying to protect newly-conceived treants already. Yet, for some reason, they either chose not to do so or gave up on this idea after trying.

Unlike the elves and their half-baked photosynthesis, it seems the treants are fully capable of surviving on just sunlight.

Alice sighed. Although she couldn't understand why the treants were letting their young fend for themselves, since there was a treant fetus here, the treant settlement shouldn't be far away. Even if the treants didn't find it necessary to protect their young, she doubted they would let their kin grow on a tree far away from their settlement.

As Alice expected, after she continued walking for a few minutes, she came across the treants' settlement. However, compared to the elves' settlement which looked like an ordinary village, the treants' settlement was incredibly primitive. Apart from the treants, the only things Alice could see in the settlement were some simple chairs and tables. There weren't even houses in the settlement.

However, after thinking it over, Alice found that this scene made sense. Treants were made up mostly of wood. They had also grown up while facing nature's various elements directly. So, an environment that looked harsh to humans might not be a problem for the treants. Apart from natural disasters such as typhoons and droughts, they should have no trouble surviving in such a natural environment.

Meanwhile, near the tables and chairs were roughly a dozen or so treants. Although treants and elves were both the favored children of nature, Mother Nature had evidently been slacking off when giving the treants faces. If Alice hadn't seen these treants moving, she would have thought she was looking at a bunch of small trees planted in an open clearing.

The treants had dry tree bark for skin and roots growing from their feet that they used to dig into the soil. Growing above their head was dark-green hair that resembled grass. At first glance, these treants looked very much like trees with strange human faces carved onto them.

However, Alice couldn't help but feel a little perplexed when she saw the treants. Originally, she thought that since the treants were the favored children of nature, they should be brimming with vitality. Yet, these dozen or so treants gave Alice a very terrible feeling. It felt as if these treants had all of their vitality sapped out of them. Not only did they not exude any mana, but it also felt like they were shrouded in an aura of death.

This situation was strange, no matter how she looked at it.