Young and old, men and women, whoever was in the Druid Village, had lined up, waiting for the food taken from large cauldrons with ladles to be put into the containers in their hands.
"What the hell is this! I got up because there was food, but look what they put in front of me!"
This was the last straw,Nafız said to herself; after she had knocked down the pine tree, Alyon had now entered with an axe to chop it up.
"What's wrong, what happened!"
When the female orc first looked at the line, she was sure Alyon wasn't there; currently, her friend had not only cut in line but was also causing a disturbance.
"They poured something like snot into the container; it's slimy!"
Nafız couldn't control her laughter after the answer she received; the situation her friend was put in by the food, which she guessed was some sort of grain porridge, was truly funny.
"Oh man, it's just druid food; apparently, there's okra with olive oil in the evening!"
While Alyon couldn't make sense of the words she squeezed between her laughter, this situation dragged her to laugh even harder.
"You keep laughing; I'm going to the dwarf master's house to eat!"
The hulking orc had no intention of eating the healthy-life-themed breakfast; he started walking toward the beginning of the road that brought them here last night.
Just as he was stepping onto the path paved with small stones, dozens of druids suddenly leaped in front of him; some were looking at him with astonished expressions, others with angry ones.
"You cannot leave here without permission!"
"Are you crazy, who told you that you could go to the others!"
A bitter smile would come and settle on Nafız's lips; the proof that what she guessed was a reality stood right in front of her.
"Move aside, or I'll crush you all under my feet!"
Due to the wind created by the grey-haired orc waving his hand furiously, accompanied by the slogan "You're not you when you're hungry," half of those blocking his way were thrown around. Despite this, new ones immediately filled their places; the druids, who should have been cowardly by nature, were defending the path with a courage they didn't show in defending their Main Settlement.
"Enough, Alyon!"
The speaker was the only person in the environment capable of stopping the hulking orc; Nafız, along with Ainle breathing excitedly beside her, had intervened to prevent Alyon from going any further.
A few minutes later, the trio was inside the hut allocated to them; Alyon, angry that a few incompetent people managed to stop him, was sitting in a corner throwing a tantrum.
"Everything you want is on the table; won't you eat?"
Although Nafız laid out the provisions she took from her inter-spatial ring before him, the grey-haired orc wouldn't budge; he had taken the event he couldn't make sense of as an insult directed at himself.
"Sir, the druids have no fault!"
Ainle, entering the conversation in such a tense environment, couldn't continue speaking after the feeling given by the hand gripping his neck like a vise.
"Alyon!"
The female orc intervened once more; it was clearly evident from the tone of her voice that she was angry this time.
"Sir, there are very strict rules here. If anyone goes outside this village without permission, they are all thrown out of the city!"
The fever of the grey-haired orc, experiencing a nervous breakdown by himself, would drop instantly after what he heard; it wouldn't even cross his mind that such a thing could happen after the care Leonardo showed them.
"What do you mean, are we prisoners here!"
This was the first conclusion Alyon drew from what he heard; according to him, this was the equivalent of being held in a place where you couldn't wander freely as you wished.
"You could say that in a way; it's a price they have to pay to live together with the people of the Empire of Machines here."
"That dwarf was striking poses at the invitation; 'oh, they are our guests,' 'oh, it was like this before me,' he was telling us, the clown!"
Alyon had started defending the rights of the druids whose heads he wanted to rip off just a moment ago; although it seemed strange at first glance, this change wouldn't surprise those who knew his past at all. How could a person leading those who tossed a whole continent around like cotton for the sake of freedom not take a side in the face of this situation?
"I wish things were as easy as you say, Alyon; I suspect that although Leonardo manages this place, he is not the real person holding the authority!"
"Ainle, go and bring the person with the highest authority in this village here!"
Leonardo was a good man, nice and all, but no one would be eager to communicate with them without a problem, especially if this person was a man of science and art like the Master.
Within a short time, two druids in white were in Nafız's presence; it was evident from every aspect that the duo, having a dissatisfied expression on their faces, didn't know where they were.
"Welcome, I will have a few questions for you!"
Despite everything, the female orc hadn't lost her smiling face; she was trying to empathize with those opposite her, but unfortunately, sometimes things weren't this easy.
"Who are you to interrogate us?"
The people Ainle brought were a woman and a man; among them, the man, whose cynical look in his slanted eyes was making love with the hidden arrogance in the curl of his lip, had spoken insolently.
"F*ck you!"
"Sir, please!"
Just as Alyon waiting on the side was leaping forward to lynch, and the scrawny druid to save his kinsmen's lives, they saw a red light pass in front of them. A breath later, when the inside of the hut groaned with the sound of a slap, the same light was seen once more.
Meanwhile, the druid speaking unconsciously was not in his place either; like a leaf floating in autumn winds, he hit the side wall first, then the ceiling, and returned to the place where he spoke just a moment ago.
Although no one other than Nafız could realize it, the events had occurred in perfect coordination with each other; the moment the female orc slapped him and returned to her place, the druid bouncing off the walls like a ball was also in the position where he took the blow.
"Does anyone else have a question?"
This was Nafız's second address to the druids; it was understood from her tone of voice that if the same rudeness were repeated, it would be the last.
"No, mistress!"
While the slapped druid lay unconscious beside her, answering wasn't easy at all for the other one; the trembling of her hands and feet constantly hindered her.
"My name is Nafız; I am neither Leonardo giving ridiculous concessions just to feed you, nor the other engineers trying to use your existence to seize the administration!"
"Now, you will tell me whatever you know!"
The number of druids, slowly starting to gather around the hut after Ainle took two people from among them with him, had suddenly increased following the sound of the slap.
The aim of these people, who entered a psychology of passive conservatism because they lived constantly together, was to take action against the orcs whose presence they were displeased with.
However, Nafız, releasing her aura throughout the entire village with her last word, would show them the most important truth in this world in the roughest way.
The druids, falling to their knees as their hands and feet lost strength, were like puppets whose strings were cut; no matter how much they struggled, they couldn't move an inch from where they were.
"Look well, Master Ainle; this is the state of the druid race you praise so much after being isolated for a few decades. They have turned out to be copies of the people imprisoning themselves in this palm-sized place; they are even willing to expend us just to live comfortably in a golden cage!"
Even without Nafız's scorching words, Ainle had already faced the bitter truth; he felt obliged to accept, albeit slowly, that conditions and the place lived in could change people to this extent.
"Please cooperate with us; we have no aim other than your well-being. These two orc warriors want to accomplish for the druids, their old friends, the same thing they did after saving their own people from captivity!"
"The Druid Council, of which my mother is also a member, is in full cooperation with the hero orcs; apart from this, based on my personal experiences, I would like to say that if you want to live, you had better start doing what you are told!"