“Do you really plan on heading there without an escort?”

When Eugene told him that he was planning on heading south, instead of asking for Eugene’s reasons, Genos couldn’t help but first question his lack of an escort.

This was the Samar Rainforest they were talking about. The largest jungle in all of the continent. In size alone, it could compete with the entire territory of the Kiehl Empire, and there were countless tribes living in their own individual nations within that vast forest.

The tribes living there were not receptive toward outside attempts to civilize them. Located deep within the forest, these tribes had strong enduring traits that helped to maintain their own cultures.

For hundreds of years, Kiehl had been attempting to negotiate with these natives, and, when necessary, had even threatened the use of force in order to secure Samar as part of its territory.

However, these attempts hadn’t gone very well. Samar was far too large and there were too many natives for them to succeed. The indigenous people, who had lived in the forest since times immemorial, had developed their own unique forms of civilization. It was only natural that they would preserve their own customs instead of adopting the civilization of those from outside of the forest.

The culture of the jungle mainly focused on witchcraft and spirits, as well as methods of fighting within the rainforest. Not only that, but the indigineous people of the Samar Rainforest were even able to raise monsters like livestock.

Samar was indeed divided into dozens of tribal states, but when confronted by the Kiehl Empire, they would join together in order to form a huge tribal coalition known simply as ‘the Samar’, and shoot down any attempts to place them under Kiehl’s rule.

However, Kiehl was an empire. Had it truly wanted to, it would have been able to conquer the Samar Rainforest at any time. What really prevented them from doing so was the fact that Helmuth supported the freedom of the Samar tribes. Although Helmuth claimed that they were defending the cause of freedom, considering the circumstances, there were a lot of factors motivating their intervention.

For the past three hundred years, Helmuth had been attempting to recover their reputation in the eyes of the continent. They supported the countries that had been most affected by the war and accepted human immigrants. They allowed the Holy Empire to establish a diocese in their own territory, and they even closed their eyes to the fact that the Holy Empire and the Anti-Demon Alliance continued to deploy their troops on their shared borders with Helmuth.

Nevertheless, most of the countries on the continent still had yet to recognize Helmuth’s peaceful intentions. Wasn’t...