The Good Orc
The Good Orc
Returning to the village to relay additional news, and then helping to hurriedly reinforce the palisade first with the remaining lumber—just that alone ate up the entire day, yet there was no time to rest.
While the entire village including Siel, the mercenary band, and the adventurers gathered in the assembly hall, raising their voices to decide on a policy, I headed back to the orc village once more with Asilie. In the meantime, even the starlight was veiled by clouds, and the settled darkness made it hard to distinguish even an inch ahead, so I had to leave Laika at home, worried the little dog might get kicked by a stray foot.
The darkness in the forest was so deep it was hard to even see my own feet, so I followed behind Asilie, channeling my Magic Power to the utmost to strengthen my eyesight.
I had received plenty of training in moving at night while living in the hut, but I had never moved through a night this pitch-black, so it was not an easy trek.
Still, by following Asilie who was leading the way, we were able to reach the target location before it was too late. Fortunately, because the orc bastards had fires blazing as if they were having a campfire, things became much easier once we got within a certain distance.
After that, it was just a matter of picking a sturdy-looking tree and climbing it. We couldn't do it in the morning because you could see people dangling from bare tree branches in every direction, but now, just as they were invisible to us, we were invisible to them.
Once we climbed a reasonably thick tree and properly surveyed beyond their palisade, it was Asilie who broke our short silence first.
"That's an absurd scale."
"You said it."
It was abnormal. Even by eyeball estimate, there were over 200 orcs just outside, which was an impossible situation unless someone was intentionally helping the orcs or they truly had sprouted from the ground.
"A massive orc village perfectly positioned outside the reconnaissance range of all the cities, no less. Blatantly artificial."
"Mm, never thought I'd see this many orcs gathered in Itisel instead of the western kingdom region..."
Could it be that the Demonfolk really did use a gate to spread chaos in Itisel? They had a track record of trying something like a magic bomb and getting utterly fucked, so it wouldn't be weird if they were aiming to profit indirectly using monsters.
"Eldi, you see something like a cave over there in the back? Opposite the bonfire."
"Oh, found it."
"Just now, a group of orcs dressed like shamans went inside. Seeing as they were carrying a bunch of stuff, maybe some kind of ritual... Could the reason that many orcs can be here be inside there?"
"Hmm... plausible."
I didn't like that there were at least three shamans, but I decided to find significance in that at least we'd gained a chance to guess in advance what was where. Because if those bastards didn't attack us, we would be the ones attacking that place.
The more time I spent observing, the more certain I became that someone had clearly meddled.
Those bastards hadn't fully accepted this situation either. Unlike the bonfires blazing like a festival, around them there were plenty of orcs fighting and hitting each other over food, and those quarrels also looked very familiar. But there was no other information to glean. Even more so because the monster known as an orc was inherently a simple existence far removed from secrecy or organization.
Having spent an extra thirty or so minutes observing just in case, only to end up watching the primitive monsters fight one-on-one to our hearts' content, we carefully climbed down the tree and returned a bit hastily. Whatever else, since they weren't sending scouts through the dark forest either, at least the return path was smooth.
Having finished the brief reconnaissance and returned to the village like that, I stood before the people who were still gathered in the assembly hall, debating with voices that had grown a bit louder than when I first departed, and told them what we had seen and reported.
The reactions were varied. The future residents, while groaning, conversed earnestly among themselves with infinitely grave faces, the mercenaries tilted their cups with indifferent expressions, and the adventurers, their pupils shaking, clustered together and began blathering about something. Hmm, looking at them while standing up front like this, it truly was a colorful sight.
After a brief commotion, the residents' murmuring died down, and Siel, representing them, declared their position.
"We cannot give up this place."
It was a reaction I had expected to some degree, but the adventurers immediately made faces like they were chewing shit, their voices rising. They were mostly negative opinions—it's a dog's death, it's dangerous, it's crazy, etc.
It wasn't an easy reaction to understand. They were, after all, hired adventurers, and a force of over 200 orcs was enough of an unforeseen contractual variable to justify adjusting the request without penalty. Unless Raviel took some special measure, even if they gave up the request and went home now, they likely wouldn't suffer any penalty for breaking the contract. There was no reason for them to keep pushing back so negatively against the residents who wanted to stay.
If they were trying to prevent the residents from doing something stupid out of an overflowing love for humanity, I might understand, but the reaction was too negative to see it that way.
"Look here. Aren't you thinking too lightly of this because it's not you doing the fighting?"
"We don't think of it lightly at all. We will fight as well."
"Ha... even if you fight, how much can you possibly fight?"
Meaning, there was no reason to try to overturn opinions with such a sour expression in a situation where they could just leave if they didn't feel like it.
No, thinking about it, there wasn't no reason at all. Because if they went back like this, they'd earn less money than they had expected.
That thought suddenly struck me, and feeling disgusted, I poured the heated wine I was drinking to warm myself onto the floor and then hurled the wooden cup straight at the adventurer who had just been blathering.
With a thwack! and a direct hit to the head from the cup, the adventurer spat out a rough curse, and a brief silence fell over the assembly hall. Within it, the adventurer, who had been rolling his eyes to figure out who had thrown a cup at him, flinched and stopped moving the moment his gaze met mine.
Since I was glaring at the bastard in the exact posture I had thrown the cup, there was no way he wouldn't know it was me. It was just that, like a bastard who knows how to show the attitude of crushing the weak and bowing to the strong, he couldn't muster any curse or disgusted expression. That sight was as pathetic as the dumbass orcs.
"If you're pissed, pack your shit and fuck off to Raviel. You think you've got the skills to be spouting that crap here? Even the red-ranks are all keeping their mouths shut, so where do you get off having a fit?"
Maybe if it were one of the red-ranks, but some bastard who I couldn't even tell if he was blue or yellow rank was taking his anger out on random people, it was so dumbfounding even to watch. And on top of that, a guy who was no different from just having tagged along on an opportunity he lucked into?
That son of a bitch was a top-grade son of a bitch, even by that standard. I made up my mind to clarify my position by sweeping my gaze across even the bastards who had shown a nuance of agreement when he was blathering.
"I won't say anything about you trembling and making a fuss because of your lacking skills, but you'd better look carefully at where you're trying to lay your ass down and judge. Those orc bastards are a threat on a level that qualifies for contract adjustment, but it's not confirmed yet. Since we finished reconnaissance quickly and came back, now you're acting like they're right on top of you, close enough to bump your nose if you fall over. But at your level, even if you ran yourself to death, it'd take a good half a day of non-stop running to get there, you know?"
The orcs, would they run here from there? Far from running, they'd probably walk here at a pace that feels like a leisurely stroll. Even if a new raiding party was dispatched tomorrow, considering those lazy pigs' life patterns, they'd move late enough that the sun would already be high in the sky, and in that case, they'd arrive here the next day at the earliest.
What if the whole lot of them moved? Like bastards with clearly limited intelligence, they were dead serious about superstition and sorcery. If there were no shamans, I wouldn't know, but there were a whopping three of them, so whatever else, it was safe to say the possibility of the chieftain suddenly snapping and ordering an immediate departure had disappeared.
At the absolute fastest, they'd set out only after the shamans wasted a day claiming they had to check the will of their great gods, then another day performing a ritual for victory or whatever. Even if they were a fucking nightmare in combat, in that aspect, they were a complete pushover.
I deliberately didn't voice the facts and the conjectures based on that information. Those who should know would normally be able to guess it anyway, and those who didn't know were just at that level, so there was no reason to explain it to them.
"Some of you may have already caught on, but the orcs are still merely a 'potential threat.' The reason we hurriedly sent a person to Raviel is because we have no intention of just staring blankly like morons while that potential threat turns into a real threat. And the reason we convened this meeting isn't to provide a place for a bastard like you to run your mouth off, but to gather you to present the evidence and data for the residents who are the subject of the request to use when making the judgment that will determine their future."
The mercenaries knew this, so they were indifferent from start to finish. That was the normal reaction.
If they were confident, they stayed and fought. If not, at the same moment the grounds for request cancellation became clear, they could take the money for the work they'd done so far and leave.
There was no room for emotion to intervene. If the residents branded them as cowards, the story might be different, but that seemed unlikely to happen.
"I can overlook being anxious, but acting like the world's already ended and behaving like a bastard who can break the contract anytime without issue is clearly a contract violation. If you understand, then shut your trap and don't embarrass your fellow adventurers."
Even conversation has a level. No matter how long you talk to a ten-year-old kid as if they were someone you had a professional relationship with, children won't understand what you're saying. If you want to properly converse with the other party, you have to continue the conversation at the other party's level.
Likewise, for bastards who only perceive reality and feel intimidation through violence and harsh cursing, treating them that way is the right thing. Because even if you speak politely, they won't understand, and rather, it only wastes my emotions and energy on the vain belief that they are right and that's why I'm taking that stance.
Just look. The wretched sight of a guy who was acting all high and mighty in front of Siel just moments ago, now bowing his head and shrinking back. It was so pathetic I clicked my tongue, and beside me, Asilie quietly pinched my arm and whispered.
"Eldi! You're doing it again! What is with that undignified language!"
"My dignity doesn't disappear just because I swear at a lowlife like that."
Yet this was also not a place where I needed to pretend to be a noble knight raising morale. Because the residents who held decision-making power were shining their resolve more steadfastly than those pathetic excuse for adventurers.
While I prayed to Lady Epaga that their resolve might be rewarded, the late-night meeting came to an end, concluding with the deciding and assigning of tasks that had to be hastily dealt with first thing tomorrow.
It was a night where I missed the Gaendal Party fiercely.