On the way back, Shell Girl had returned to her usual liveliness.
She chattered excitedly nonstop in his ear.
One moment, she was talking about how many giants had died; the next, she was telling him how many hidden Nature Spirits she had discovered. She even had to mention every big tree and pretty little flower she'd seen.
She had lived on a deserted island since she was little, so an experience like this was undoubtedly exciting and novel for her.
Chen Shouyi paddled the dugout canoe, towing the other one they had captured behind it.
He said nothing.
He glanced back at the distant Small Island, his expression somber.
The operation had, for the most part, been a success. Apart from the dugout canoe that had escaped, the barbarians' ability to cross the sea had suffered a devastating blow.
They could deal with the remaining canoe the next time they came.
Before long, the passage's safety problem would be completely resolved.
Yet he felt no joy. If anything, he felt weighed down.
Chen Shouyi couldn't say what had caused it.
Was it the terrifying Mysterious Power on the island, or the reckless slaughter of the barbarians?
Perhaps it was both.
Fortunately, he wasn't the sort of person who mourned the suffering of the world, and people living in this world could hardly be expected to feel sympathy for the barbarians.
Once he returned to the island, his pent-up feelings immediately swept away.
Ever since Earth and the Otherworld began to merge twenty years ago,
the killing between humans and barbarians had never let up for a moment.
According to released figures, around two million people worldwide were killed by barbarians each year. If deaths caused by invasions from other Otherworld Creatures were included, the number approached three million.
That