The Vegan Troll's Cabin, Part 11
"No, but seriously, what the fuck? If you're that strong, why the hell have you been living like a total loser all this time?" Yohan demanded, glaring at Jack. To think someone with that kind of skill had been keeping his head down for so long. It was completely beyond Yohan's comprehension.
"Honestly, I'm curious too," Falco chimed in.
"I had no idea Mr. Jack was such a master either," Billy added, following closely behind.
"Hmm. The reason I lived like a coward, you say..." Jack stroked his chin, mulling over Yohan's question. "I am not as strong as you think."
"What?" Yohan tilted his head in confusion. Jack gave a sheepish shrug.
"If I catch them off guard like just now, I can take down a single troll. But charging into a place crawling with a hundred of those monsters is literal suicide."
"Mmm." Jack's answer certainly made sense. Even so, Yohan couldn't fully wrap his head around it.
"And... even if I did go to fight them, do you think they would just line up to face me one-on-one? Besides, what if I failed?"
"Ah." Hearing Jack's next words, Yohan finally realized why the man had grit his teeth and remained silent for so long. The man-eating trolls weren't just strong, brutal monsters. They were as clever as they were cruel. If Jack had recklessly stood up to fight them, the trolls would have undoubtedly taken other villagers hostage in the meantime. Just as they had threatened Billy, Jack had been trapped in a situation where he couldn't move a finger. Furthermore, even if Jack fought them alone and died, it wouldn't have ended there. The trolls would have used Jack's 'rebellion' as an excuse to inflict an even more horrific price on the remaining villagers.
"But now, things are different. Because you all came." As Jack spoke, his face showed a mixture of joy and lingering regret. Meeting Yohan only now, after having lost his entire family, was undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow. Yet, at the same time, he must have felt a surge of joy at finally having a chance to exact his revenge.
"Then let us keep moving. We are truly close now." With those final words, Jack quickened his pace once more. Yohan briefly exchanged looks with Falco before quickly following behind him. They walked along the forest path for some time, until Yohan noticed a distinct shift in the air.
"The smell..."
"It smells of blood." The others seemed to have noticed the anomaly as well. Perhaps because her sense of smell was exceptionally keen, Falco scowled deeply—a rare sight for her—and covered her nose and mouth with the collar of her cloak. *Thump—* At that moment, the heavy, distinctive footsteps of a troll echoed. It meant they had almost reached the man-eating Troll Village.
"Two, three. No..." Falco murmured, peering through the thicket.
"I don't care how many of them show up. I'm beating every single one of them to death as they come." Yohan replied, thrusting his Light Sword forward. "Got it? Let's sweep them all away."
The Goddess also commanded, her voice chillingly cold as she ordered the absolute eradication of the monsters.
"You got it." Now that their Goddess had handed down her decree, all that was left was to throw down. "Let's go!"
"Hahaha! Where do you think you're going?!" The moment he charged forward with high spirits, Yohan came face-to-face with a pure-blood troll grinning with yellowed teeth. There were four trolls in sight. Their appearance, looking as if they could swallow a human whole, almost made his heart drop, but Yohan had already faced things far more terrifying than this.
"Where else? I'm going to slice off your boss's head!" *Slash!* Yohan swung his Light Sword in a wide arc, cleaving the troll in front of him in half. A pure-blood troll's hide was tough enough to shrug off ordinary blades, but before the Apostle's authority, it was nothing more than wet paper.
"Hup—!" Jack also dispatched another one with the same Swift Sword technique he had shown earlier.
Damn, that is seriously badass. Yohan thought to himself, stealing a glance at Jack's swordsmanship. Maybe I should ask him to teach me if I get the chance.
The Goddess's scolding immediately echoed in his mind.
"One more!" Wondering if the others were doing alright, Yohan cut down a second troll and glanced over toward Falco and Billy.
"It hurts! That hurts!" Surprisingly, the two of them were working together to hunt down a pure-blood troll. Since the one they were fighting was the last, Yohan and Jack decided to watch for a moment instead of intervening.
"Nghhh!" Even though they were practically strangers, the two fought the troll as if they were long-time partners. Billy grappled the pure-blood troll with his bare hands to pin it down, while Falco seized the opening to repeatedly plunge her dagger into its back. No matter how resilient a pure-blood troll was, it had no choice but to collapse, bleeding profusely.
"Ugh..." Despite being stabbed in the torso multiple times, the pure-blood troll didn't die immediately, even as it lay collapsed on the ground.
"You half-breed brat... betraying your own kind after all... *cough!*" The troll struggled to lift its head, spitting out resentful curses at Billy.
"Shut up." Falco retorted coldly, driving her blade into the back of its neck. With a final, choked shriek, the troll went limp. The battle was over. There was no sign of any reinforcements nearby.
"Even if you're only half, a troll is still a troll. Your body is basically a weapon in itself," Falco remarked.
"I felt like I was going to die, you know. It felt like every tendon in my body was being ripped out," Billy replied. The two of them exchanged brief remarks after successfully taking down the pure-blood troll. Yohan watched them with a pleased expression for a moment, but then his eyes suddenly went wide in realization.
"Wait a minute. Have you been tagging along this whole time without a single weapon?"
"Huh? Oh, a weapon?" This green guy had insisted on coming along to hunt man-eating trolls, yet he hadn't even brought a fire poker to swing, let alone a blade.
"His limbs are basically weapons anyway, so shouldn't it be fine?" Falco offered.
"Whatever." Yohan brushed off the self-proclaimed beautiful elf's comment. Since he could summon weapons using his authority anyway, he decided to hand over the sword at his waist. He unbuckled the sheathed sword from his belt. "Here. Use this at least." Yohan tried to hand the sword to Billy, but Billy shook his head, declining the offer.
"Swords made for normal humans are too small and light for me."
"What?"
"So..." Billy pried a massive club from the hand of the fallen pure-blood troll. He swung it through the air a few times, nodding in satisfaction. "I planned on doing this from the start." Calling what Billy had scavenged a "club" was an understatement; by human standards, it was more like a support pillar.
"Seeing you do that makes me a little scared to face this chief guy." If Billy, who was only a quarter troll, possessed that kind of raw strength, then the strength of the chief—who had slaughtered Billy's family and beaten Billy half to death with his bare hands—must be...
"Yohan. Are you scared?" Who, me? "Are you out of your mind?" Falco's teasing remark instantly hardened Yohan's resolve.
"Haha. You two are quite the pair." Jack let out a dry chuckle, while Billy desperately tried to stifle his laughter.
"Shut up. Let's just get moving." Damn it, I'm going to swing a big, beautiful sword of my own someday, Yohan resolved internally as he marched forward.
As they drew closer to the Troll Village, the faint scent of blood grew increasingly thick. Though they had cut down several pure-blood trolls along the way, this sickening stench was definitely not from the blood of those they had just slain.
"What in the world..." The group soon discovered the reason. Scattered all over the entrance of the village were bleached bones, presumably belonging to both beasts and humans. The horrific sight looked less like a village where living beings resided and more like a demonic den where a devil had coiled itself. That wasn't all. Stakes adorned with human skulls were driven into the ground along the paths. Some of them appeared relatively recent, with decaying flesh and dried blood still clinging to them. They were likely unfortunate travelers who had wandered into the area. Yohan bit his lip, inhaling the pungent, metallic stench of rotting corpses.
"Horrific. Not only do they eat humans, but..." Those hadn't been eaten. They were corpses that had been tortured in every imaginable way before being 'executed.' Even Jack, who had surely seen his share of horrors in his youth, felt a deep, genuine rage as he surveyed the gruesome surroundings.
"No. It wasn't like this before." Yet, for some reason, Billy denied the reality before him, staring at the scattered bones.
"What do you mean, 'no'? They're man-eating monsters who devour humans as a custom. This scenery fits them perfectly, doesn't it?" Yohan retorted. But Billy shook his head repeatedly, as if Yohan was mistaken.
"It really wasn't. At least, when I stayed here briefly, it was just a normal village." He meant that in the past, they hadn't carelessly discarded human remains like this. "What on earth happened in the meantime..." Billy had always maintained a gentle demeanor, except when bickering with Falco. Seeing him so deeply shaken and confused made it impossible for Yohan not to worry.
*Thump—* Just as Yohan was about to offer some words of comfort, a heavy footstep echoed from behind them.
"Got it." Right. This was enemy territory. Comforting a panicked kid could wait until after they cleared the area.
*Crunch—* A green giant stepped forward, carelessly crushing the bones scattered on the ground. The overwhelming presence radiating from him made the other three, excluding Billy, gulp involuntarily. Though several other pure-blood trolls accompanied him, Yohan didn't even register their presence at first.
He was a massive behemoth, standing at least a full head taller than any of the pure-blood trolls they had slain so far. His bursting, muscular body was covered in patterns painted with what looked like the blood of his victims, and the skulls hung as ornaments rattled and clacked with every step he took.
The distance between the troll pack and Yohan's group was barely ten meters. The giant troll surveyed Yohan and his companions with a lazy, indifferent gaze.
"I wondered what had happened when the one who went out in the night failed to return, and it seems you have finally gone and done it." He spoke in a soft, gentle voice that was completely at odds with his hideous, monstrous appearance. Of course, only his voice and tone were soft. Everything else about him screamed of a man-eating monster. If anything, the near-melodic voice made him sound even more repulsive.
That was him. The troll Billy had mentioned when recounting his past—the one who had slaughtered innocent people under the guise of a Coming-of-Age Ceremony before returning to the village. He was undoubtedly the chief of the man-eating Troll Village.
"Billy," the chief called out, his bizarrely beautiful voice sounding downright uncanny. Billy, who had been frozen in panic, snapped his head up in surprise.
"And the others... are they your new friends?" Billy remained silent at the chief's question, but the chief seemed to take his silence as confirmation.
"My child. Since you have failed to learn your lesson and dared to challenge me once more, your friends will have to pay the price." The chief said, offering Yohan a bright, chilling smile.