I, the Villain, Want to Save Myself, But the Yandere Heroines Disagree-Chapter 20 - Turns Out There Were Traitors (1/5)

When the search and rescue team returned to the tribe, they happened to see the beastmen carrying bags of grain out of the tribe’s warehouse one by one.

Although the climate in the desert was harsh, it didn’t mean nothing could grow. Although the grain wasn’t abundant, if they were frugal, a tribe could still barely survive.

The demi-humans, whose physiological cycles were similar to humans’, didn’t face the problem of a population explosion like the beastman tribes. Therefore, much of the time, just hunting and gathering was enough to maintain the basic survival of the tribe.

Molent’s expression changed when he saw Arati standing at the entrance of the tribe, leaning against the wall.

“Chieftain, what is this situation?!” He pointed at the beastmen, asking in confusion.

“Sigh, I don’t know what’s gotten into that group of beastmen. They insisted on coming to collect grain today,” Arati’s voice was very low, only Molent could hear it.

After all, if these words were heard by the beastmen who were carrying grain, he would inevitably be beaten again.

Although there were only a few dozen beastmen who came to collect grain this time, even with all the demi-humans in the tribe combined, they couldn’t defeat these few dozen.

Although demi-humans and beastmen only differed by “demi,” their physiques and combat abilities were not on the same level at all.

Demi-humans were more like humans than beasts.

Looking at those beastmen outside, each one large and sturdy, any randomly chosen one could defeat several adult males in the tribe.

Not to mention that there were even more beastmen from their tribe who hadn’t arrived yet.

“But, they’ve taken the grain, so what will we eat?”

“Sigh, we’ll just have to take it one step at a time.”

They had thought about resisting, but the bloody examples of other demi-human tribes being massacred were right before them. Even for the sake of the people in the tribe, they didn’t dare to act rashly.

Orson followed behind the demi-human column.

Everyone at the moment silently watched as the beastmen carried away what originally belonged to them.

Laina stood beside Orson, pursed her lips, preparing to rush out and demand an explanation from those beastmen. Fortunately, Orson had seen Laina’s action in advance. He grabbed Laina and held her in front of him.

“Don’t be impulsive now, otherwise the entire tribe will be buried with you.” Orson’s tone became unusually serious.

“But... but they’re taking my things.”

“Don’t worry,” Orson whispered into Laina’s ear, “They will return these things later.”

“Really? But they never returned things before...”

“They will this time. Trust me, I will persuade them.”

Saying this, Orson patted Laina’s shoulder.

“You go back and check on Chieftain Arati now. He looks like he’s not in a good state.”

“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.