The roots took hold, they wrapped themselves on every inch of the furbeasts' bodies, leaving only a few gaps on the face to allow the animals to see and breathe. I didn't bother casting a spell with this by the way, simply using the natural abilities of a dryad was enough to bring down an army of giants.

  Something like this is already miraculous in my eyes, so imagine what the villagers must be feeling right now.

  Dread? Are they scared that they've messed with someone they shouldn't have? Awe? Are they impressed by the fact that I managed to stop this army all on my own, and without much effort at that? Or are they feeling regret? Do they wish they never pushed me away and are now thinking that things would have been better if I was on their side?

  Maybe it's all three? That feels like the most reasonable outcome and honestly, I'm more than willing to believe that this is actually the case, regardless if it's true or not.

  Still, with how things have developed, I am now free to do whatever I want: the next step now is to show myself and tell everyone that they can go fuck themselves, or I can step away and let the villagers think they have some kind hidden protector and reveal myself to be that person in the end.

  Obviously, I'll go through with the first plan, that's a given.

  Going through with the first plan makes things quick and easy, and I should be able to solve the problems I'm facing by doing it but the second plan will give my reputation more weight.

  Basically, either I can reap the benefits now or let it grow some more and harvest it only when it's incredibly ripe.

  Since I don't need to ripen the metaphorical fruit any further— I mean, what use would solidifying my reputation even further be? I already stopped an army of giants. — I went out of the shadows and revealed myself to the villagers.

  First, it was only a single pair of eyes that followed me, but that one person nudged the guy beside him and they too started looking at me, repeating the process, the following chain of look-then-nudge soon led to the entirety of Flotol's population to follow my movements with their eyes.

  Chances are, these guys already knew what happened has something to do with me, and if they hadn't come to that conclusion then they're either biased or incredibly stupid.

  "Rontress, I should have known it was you!" Accusations immediately came my way the moment I revealed myself. "You dare lead these giants towards Flotol?! Have you lost your mind?!"

  "Did she lead them here? What was she doing with furbeasts?"

  "Probably doing her usual witchery, you know how she is."

  "She's touching furbeasts now? Does she think can fight the entire horde on her own?" Okay, wow, where did that assumption come from? Do they think I'm that stupid? I'm not trying that even if I'm at the max level!

  "Shhh, what if she hears you? You've just seen her bring down a thousand furbeasts and they can't even do anything about it. Just shut up!"

  "Lost my mind? Do you think I'm stupid enough to attract the attention of these things?" I scoff, I'm gonna have to apologize but pinning the blame on me wouldn't work here buddy. "I'm not so stupid that I'll drag furbeasts here."

  "Are you—"

  "You know who is though?" I cut him off, my smirk smug and full of arrogance. "People like you."

  "What are you trying to say?" Earlier, the accusations thrown at me by the villagers and their gossip was loud, but I'm guessing that to the head priest, the ensuing silence when I accused him must have been louder.

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  "What I'm trying to say is that you failed as a leader, I mean, people here came to me for food!" Those I pointed at looked away from me in guilt whenever the tip of my finger faced them. "All because you couldn't feed them, so, of course, to satiate your ego, you decided to ask the adventurers you hired to attack my family to hunt for food."

  There are two lies to what I just said: one is that Folsan genuinely tried to search for food, it wasn't about his ego— well, it was, but he also wanted food. — but is a genuine attempt to hunt, the second lie would be me accusing Folsan of hiring the adventurers, he didn't do it, the one responsible would be Nogjaf.

  One accusation was meant to piss him off and the other is going to confuse him. What will he think after he gets mad from me saying an unprompted lie that hurts his reputation followed by a lie with a scapegoat inside of it?

  And then what happens when both those lies are wrong?

  Also, what if I add a distraction to momentarily get his mind off the accusation?

  "And hello to you too, Folsan. Funny how you argue with me the moment we see each other, and this is despite I just saved you, didn't I?" I say with a taunting smirk as I near the frozen, shaking head priest. Nogjaf is nowhere to be seen, I wonder where he is? Should I check?

  Oh? That's an interesting development.

  My senses picked up what happened to Flotol's leader through the potted plants he placed in his room, and what the man has been doing is rather simple.

  He's preparing to leave Flotol, his house is currently a mess and everything that isn't nailed to the floor has been taken and moved to a waiting carriage, hell, even things nailed to the floor got relocated.

  Now would be here perfect time for someone leaving here to move out, the ice is still thick so carriages wouldn't sink into the swamp even with the weight of the load they're carrying and there's still a few weeks before winter ends, making the road safe from the influence of banditry and monsters, the latter of which should be hibernating.

  Most of them at least, winter monsters exist and they are not fun to deal with, especially since a good portion of them can use ice to immobilize their targets.

  Out of all the creatures I was wary of while staying in the forest, winter monsters were the most dangerous.

  They still posed no threat to me of course, the only thing that did was the Warped and the things inside of Humus dungeon.

  "You think I'm the one who hired those adventurers?! I am not so evil that I am willing to kill a family!" But you are willing to encourage someone to do it and then stand by once it happens. "It was Nogjaf who did that!"

  I can almost hear the shock in the crowd, you know, I expected someone to gasp, instead they're all staring at the exchange intently. Or in other words, paying attention.

  Nogjaf's reputation has taken a blow, now he's going to actually leave, if he was hesitating before, he would be certain now. There would be no thinking twice anymore, Folsan has accused him, and now the whole village will believe the head priest's words, Nogjaf himself knows this.

  All that's left to do now is to make him rush, I don't want him to stay here any longer collecting items that might as well be useless, I want him to leave.

  "Nogjaf is the one who did it?" I tried feigning a look of hurt, I hope I succeeded in doing so. "How could he?!" Screaming and raising my voice, sounding angry, all of that is simple. "I'm gonna kill him! You all better bring him to this exact spot tomorrow morning or I will kill you all!"

  All this time, I was tightening my hold on the furbeasts, they've been choking while I argued with Folsan, and by this point, with how they have struggled for the past half hour? I think it's less than that, anyway, the furbeasts should be fearing for their lives now.

  "[Wind Blast]." I whisper as I take out my wand, the dagger vibrates as my spell fuels it. I raise it high into the sky, then I bring it down.

  My target was one of the downed furbeasts, which with my stats, should easily get shredded by [Gale Blade].

  It was like the animal was put inside an open blender, the way blood splashed onto everything, including the other furbeasts, must've been mortifying for everyone present and I can only assume the kind of trauma that will be come from this but I know it will be the type to make these animals stay away from Flotol from now on.

  They are continuing to struggle as well, and I know that by this point they are well aware of the power disparity between us, of the chasm that divides me and them.

  As for how the people of Flotol feel about this, I'm not sure, and I can't be bothered to care. Once the gore stopped, I slowly loosened my hold on the struggling giants.

  Releasing the furbeasts didn't continue the stampede, instead they ran away, back to the herd, I'm guessing.

  "You better get Nogjaf here." I glare at Folsan, making him flinch. Huh, is my acting becoming much better? Neat!

  "I'm going, but I'll be back tomorrow." I wave as I leave.