"So? What happened to the two of you?"
Since they were stuck in a cell anyway, Damien thought he might as well ask.
"Well, um…"
Darius spoke first.
"I fell…into a hole…?"
Frankly, when he was barely aware of what happened. He was just walking through the jungle like normal and looking at everything around him in wonder when he suddenly found himself at the bottom of a hole.
It wasn't even a deep hole. Darius had more than enough strength to jump out and continue on, but somehow, he couldn't do anything he thought.
He was caught off guard. In those few seconds he spent in the hole, he'd been tranquilized by an extremely powerful substance.
He passed out, and when he woke up again, he was here.
It was similar for Tiamat.
She didn't get caught so easily, of course, but after a series of events that involved several primitive traps that were strangely powerful, she was also tranquilized and brought here.
The two of them weren't weak just because they'd been suppressed. Damien was surprised to find that they'd been genuinely captured, and with such regular means at that.
"I guess this tribe is really something special," he said after hearing their explanations.
Damien didn't admonish the two or doubt their abilities. Since he knew what he could do, he instead opted to change his perception of the tribal village.
And, the question arose.
'Why wasn't I tranquilized?'
There wasn't really an answer, but it was a question that had to be asked.
"Anyway, what's the plan?"
Tiamat and Darius looked to Damien for structure, but he didn't have anything to give them.
"I think there's something interesting in this jungle. I want to investigate it. We might be delayed in our main goals for a bit, but I don't think it's a useless endeavor."
Damien didn't get much of a chance to survey their current whereabouts, but he was certain about his assumptions.
There was something here.
And this tribe was heavily related to it.
He wanted to know more about them after seeing the woman from before.
Their language, their culture, their ways of using power, he wanted to study it and see how it differed from the conventions he knew.
And, with the jungle's dense mana activity, this was a great place for him to familiarize himself with the laws of the foreign cosmos.
"I'll follow whatever you want to do," Tiamat said.
"Same here. You're the leader. I don't think I can make decisions better than yours anyway," Darius added.
Damien nodded with a smile.
"For now, we should lay low. Keep your strength contained, and don't thoughtlessly provoke the villagers. We need to get on their good side before anything else."
The villagers currently viewed them as a threat of some sort, different from what they usually faced. This much could be ascertained from their imprisonment.
However, as Damien's group represented the unknown, the villagers didn't immediately bare their fangs.
Instead, it looked like they'd chosen a more mindful route.
Damien, Tiamat, and Darius remained in their cell for several days.
Every few hours, a villager would enter the prison and bring them food. Said villagers wouldn't interact with them or even look at them, but it was obvious how curious the people were about the group of travelers they'd found.
Damien's group didn't look like them.
Their skin was white, their bodies were taller and wider, and they gave off a scent like something exotic, something the villagers had never faced before.
With the villagers' natural greyish complexion and smaller bodies optimized for rapid movement and hunting in the jungle, Damien's group practically appeared like aliens to them.
Even Tiamat, whose skin bore some resemblance to theirs.
They kept the trio imprisoned for over three days not as a show of power or something similar, but because they had to decide what they wanted to do with them.
Naturally, a conclusion didn't come easily.
There were several arguments among the people.
Some conservative tribe members wanted them killed, while some more pacifist ones wanted to send them away and pretend they were never here.
Some wanted to test if they were prey, and some others wanted to get to know them and satisfy their curiosity.
The village was only home to a few hundred people, but they were a tight-knit family. A decision on matters this important couldn't be reached easily.
After all, the consequences had to be considered.
Nevertheless, after three days of debate with no sign of compromise, Damien's group was hauled out of the jail cell and brought in front of the people.
They were stood on a raised platform on the ground, surrounded by the village.
People stood on balconies and treetops everywhere, gazing at them with a myriad of expressions.
Damien caught the woman who captured him in the crowd as well.
She was standing behind an old woman with a crown of feathers on her head, evidently an important figure in the tribe.
The old woman was one of ten elderly figures who sat like a council in front of Damien's group, judging them.
By the way the rest of the tribesmen showed them respect and gave them space, it was clear that they were the main decision-makers of this group.
"Umbak tarik! Eria teesha ka ni Kurang-ha!"
"Geh! Harash topan golang. Pen ni-ha no Kurang-ha di Gehenna!"
"Lopar ni. Kolahar kuramba ra boni. Gehenna ni pola tarade, esra polak di neti?!"
"HERET!"
The elders went back and forth, arguing in their own language.
Of the ten of them, nine were participating in the fierce argument that got louder and louder with time. Arms were flung, several gestures being made towards Damien's group, none seemingly friendly.
It was a chaotic scene.
Judging from the expressions of those observing, this kind of conflict didn't happen often.
But the tribe was split.
There was a clear divide between them on how to deal with the group of sentient beings they'd captured.
The only one who remained involved was the elderly woman with the feather crown.
She didn't speak.
Her eyes remained on Damien.
And sensing her gaze, Damien looked back up at her.
Something mysterious happened when their eyes connected.
Zip!
It was the sound of an object moving incredibly fast, but nothing moved at all.
It was a sound only Damien and the crowned elder heard, a sound like electricity arcing back and forth between their gazes.
They hadn't formed some sort of connection or anything like that.
But, there was something there.
It was as if they both realized that their purposes could be fulfilled through the other.
Or…maybe it was something deeper?
Damien couldn't quite explain it. This wasn't similar to anything he'd experienced before, but he knew it was a good thing.
Because the second he felt that feeling, the crowned elder banged the staff in her hands against the ground.
THUD!
The sound silenced everyone.
Whether it be the other elders or the gossiping crowd that had gathered, none of them dared to speak.
The Saintess had come to a decision.
"Haa…"
The crowned elder, the Saintess, slowly stood up.
"Ton Kurung-ha ga resz ni Gehenna."
She said those words, and immediately, the crowd went into an uproar.
THUD!
Her staff struck the ground again.
"SIEN!"
She shouted, her voice resounding through the entire village.
Even with the language barrier, Damien could understand that she'd just told them all to shut up.
Dirty looks came at him from one side, while fervent curiosity struck from the other.
These looks made the verdict evident to Damien as well.
It was good that these people were quite expressive.
"They will be allowed to stay."
What the Saintess said was something along those lines.
And that was the end of it.
Damien and the rest were taken back to their cell, but the treatment they received on the way was far removed from the rough pushing and pulling from when they were first brought out.
Within the day, as they waited in their cell, they were once again escorted out.
To a nearby hut that had clearly been recently built, exclusively for them to reside in.
It was that easy.
Perhaps trust wasn't gained and hostility was still rampant, but Damien and his group had been given permission to stay in the village.
For a conclusion that came without them having to do anything at all, it was quite welcomed.
As for what came next…?
None of the three could've expected what their lives would turn into.
