Chapter 73: Obvious Answer
As steadily as their gazes turned to Nuir, they once again turned to Nick. The question on everyone’s minds was the same. Surprisingly, the answer was also the same.
Nuir couldn’t go with any of the others. It would only invite trouble and lead to misunderstandings and rumors working against them. But they couldn’t leave him in the forest or hand him back to the Lowat tribe.
He needed a safe place free from the politics of the different tribes, a place where the Lowat tribe wouldn’t come looking for him, or a place where he would be safe even if they did come looking for him. He needed a place that didn’t have to worry about the Lowat tribe accusing them of anything.
Nick did have to be a little worried. The Lowat tribe could accuse him of kidnapping Nuir and any other heinous crimes.
But unlike the other tribes, he didn’t have any reason to do that. If he just said that he was harboring an injured and traumatized kid until they recovered enough to make a decision for themselves, there was no reason to doubt him. The Gezercher tribe was still keeping their eyes on him, at least officially.
And if the Lowat tribe didn’t trust the Gezercher tribe for whatever reason, they were free to watch the Outsider on their own. It was just...
There were apparently rumors going around that the monster kings had fought close to the Outsider’s home. The Gezercher tribe was pulling out because of that. They didn’t want to get caught up in it when the monster kings fought each other or the Outsider.
If the Lowat tribe insisted, they were free to do so.
But they had already gotten a bad reputation for throwing away the lives of their members when testing the monster kings and trying to understand how Nick lived in the center of the forest without them attacking him.