blueteamnovel Chapter 20 - Turns Out There Were Traitors (1/5)
Chapter 20 - Turns Out There Were Traitors (1/5)
When the
“Eh?” Laina said this, turned her head, and looked in Arati’s direction.
Indeed, Arati was leaning against the wall and looked unwell.
Laina quickly ran towards Arati.
“Grandpa Arati, what’s wrong?! ” She looked at Arati with concern. The latter just shook his head, signaling her not to worry.
“It’s alright, Grandpa just strained his back.” He concealed the fact that the beastmen had laid hands on him. He was afraid that if Laina knew about this, she would be so angry that she would rush out and fight the beastmen to the death.
“On the contrary, Laina, didn’t I tell you not to go out? Why did you still follow the search and rescue team?”
“I... didn’t I prove useful! I also did my part in looking for people, but...”
“Sigh, there’s nothing we can do,” Arati had already learned about this from Molent. He nodded. “I should have known earlier. After being missing in the desert for so many days, even if nothing went wrong, it would be difficult to survive. I shouldn’t have had any illusions.”
He said this, his tone full of self-blame.
Indeed, if he hadn’t held onto illusions and had the tribe move earlier, this wouldn’t have happened today.
There wasn’t much grain in the warehouse. The beastmen quickly loaded the grain onto the carts.
“Alright, we won’t come looking for you again after this. You’re on your own.” The beastman chieftain said this and left the tribe with his group.
Upon returning to the tribe, Arati convened a general assembly.
Orson also sat on the side, listening.
As a small tribe with only a few hundred people in total, this kind of direct democracy was quite easy to implement.
“Everyone, today, Molent’s search and rescue team has returned. They found the missing members of our tribe, but, unfortunately...” Arati said this, sighing.
“They sacrificed themselves while searching for a new settlement for the tribe. We will forever remember their contributions to the tribe.”
As these words were spoken, several people in the tribe began to cry.
It seemed the missing people were their relatives.
And the expressions on the faces of many others were not good either.
After all, the tribe had waited until today precisely to find these people.
Otherwise, they would have relocated long ago.
But now, the people were gone, and the grain was also gone.
Although they could understand Arati’s good intentions, this sense of frustration was very hurtful.
“I bear full responsibility for this incident. There was a problem with my decision. I shouldn’t have put the entire tribe at risk of starvation for the sake of a few individuals,” Arati said this, sighing. “However, the tribe must still relocate. The fertility of this land is nearly depleted, and the groundwater is also running low. If we don’t relocate soon, it will be very detrimental to the tribe’s development.”
“But, Chieftain, we have no more grain,” a demi-human said, raising his hand. “Relocation is originally physically demanding work. We have nothing to eat. Won’t we starve to death on the way?”
“Yes, in the end, if we had moved earlier, this wouldn’t have happened.”
At this moment, there was a clamor of voices from below. Some people had even started complaining about Arati’s decision.