Chapter 116
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 116
“Stop stalling and speak your mind, Hexabel.”
“Surely you don’t intend to destroy the Empire with Nilkumbal alone?”
Her tone was low, but there was no hostility in her words. It was a question laced with a reasonable amount of curiosity and doubt.
“Ah, of course, I’m not looking down on Nilkumbal. I quite like spirited Orcs myself. I’m speaking objectively about our comparative military strength, putting our shared hatred for humans aside.”
A few gurgling sounds emanated from deep within her before she spoke again, her voice now smoother and less raspy.
“How many of Nilkumbal’s combat Orcs can actually be deployed to the front lines? Two hundred thousand? Three hundred thousand? The human population in the Empire numbers in the tens of millions. Even at their lowest estimate, their combat forces must number in the millions.”
“…”
“Besides, most of the Empire’s strategic locations are likely fortified with massive walls. To face them head-on, you’d need at least two or three times their numbers. You won’t even make it to the gates of the imperial capital, Riaze, unless you add another zero to your troop count.”
“Mother of Insects, war isn’t decided by numbers alone. The Empire is currently in unprecedented chaos due to the Hero’s death, the raid on Riaze, and the monster attacks destroying the surrounding villages. Their morale must be at rock bottom.”
“Yes. And I’m telling you, even with all that, you cannot win.”
Hexabel and Kurak stared each other down. The tension was so thick it felt as though their locked gazes alone might be enough for one to devour the other.
“...I cast my vote with Hexabel.”
This time, it was Azi Dahaka, who had been watching silently, who spoke up.
Her earlier rambling demeanor had vanished. Despite being in her half-human, half-dragon form, she now exuded an immense aura befitting her true self.
“I dislike humans as well. Every time I see them crawling about, ignorant of their place, I feel the urge to wipe them from existence, but…”
Pausing, Azi Dahaka swept her gaze across everyone seated at the table.
From that point on, she spoke not with her mouth, but with her eyes.
Just look at us.
Every one of us from the Great Evil Caves despises humans, yet the Empire still stands. History itself is proof of the Empire’s strength.
“Even our Margar cannot make a move so easily. The strongest humans far surpass us.”
“...You don’t have to defeat every single human to bring down the Empire. And you two, Azi Dahaka, Hexabel—you speak as if you’ve personally witnessed the Empire’s full might.”
“Of course we have,” Hexabel replied instantly.
Her voice was so controlled and cold that it caught Kurak off guard.
“Around this time last year, I fought the Empire’s Hero. She was quite young for a Hero. A female with striking, sky-blue hair.”
“...Are you talking about ‘Iron Fist’?”
“She was a human capable of shattering the front lines of a massive army all by herself. It’s embarrassing to admit, but to be perfectly honest, if I had fought her head-on back then, I would have died.”
“…”
“Mr. Kurak, it would be no different for you. Three hits at most, but realistically, two. If you let her land that many clean shots, the fight would be over.”
“...I see. Must I explain myself, then?”
An immediate answer didn’t follow. Kurak seemed lost in thought.
Perhaps finding the wait tedious, Bathory recalled her bat familiar from where it clung to a stalactite on the ceiling. She had her glass refilled and began to savor the blood.
“I have an ally who shares my goal.”
Bathory, Hexabel, and Azi Dahaka all reacted as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
Given Kurak’s cautious nature as a legion commander, he would have analyzed the power gap between the Empire and Nilkumbal more thoroughly than anyone. They had all suspected he was hiding something.
…After a brief pause, Kurak continued.
“They are high-ranking officials who can destroy the Empire from within.”
The moment he finished speaking, the sharp crack of a shattering cup echoed through the cavern.
Swallow, who had been observing the situation with a low groan, snapped his eyes open, his movements betraying a hint of agitation.
Rene and Patrick, who had been chatting at the far end of the room, whipped their heads around as an unstable wave of energy pulsed through the chamber.
Bathory, who had dropped her cup, was trembling.
Her face, which usually held a composure entirely different from Swallow’s, began to twist as her patience finally snapped. Her fiercely glowing eyes glared at Kurak with utter contempt.
Rising from her seat, Bathory looked down at Kurak and asked sharply, “You.”
Her usual elegance was gone, replaced by the sound of grinding teeth audible in her voice.
“Did you join hands with humans?”
Kurak glared back at Bathory in silence. His eyes blazed with Touki, and he looked ready to leap from his seat at any moment.
In the distance, Rene and Patrick could be seen drawing their weapons and rushing over.
Sensing the shift, a bizarre sound began to emanate from Hexabel’s mouth. Azi Dahaka, too, was slowly shedding her half-human, half-dragon form, beginning to reveal her true shape.
Amidst the escalating tension, Swallow, who had been sitting there with an indifferent expression, spoke, his voice laced with annoyance.
“If you’re going to fight, take it outside. Don’t throw a tantrum in my home.”
“…”
“Or would you rather fight me?”
Only after Swallow personally intervened did the razor-sharp tension begin to subside.
He wore his usual expression, as if everything in the world were a tedious chore. Even his casual, teasing manner of speaking was the same—but his tone was a pitch lower than usual. That was the only difference.
Yet that alone was enough to quell the situation.
“I won’t say it twice. Sit down,” Swallow said again.
A chilling silence fell over the room, as if the atmosphere had never boiled over in the first place.
The expressions on Bathory’s and Kurak’s faces hardened.
It was Bathory who spoke first.
“I have nothing more to say to a loathsome bastard who’s sold the last shred of his pride.”
With that, she stormed out of her seat and strode from the room.
Flustered by Bathory’s uncharacteristic behavior, Rene quickly hurried after her.
Though there was one less person at the table, the oppressive weight hanging over everyone grew even heavier.
In the heavy atmosphere, no one dared to make the first move.
As they warily eyed one another, the focus naturally shifted to Swallow.
“I had a feeling it would turn out like this.”
Swallow’s expression wasn’t particularly bright, either. With all the troublesome matters he had anticipated erupting at once, there was no way he could be in a good mood.
“Well? Do you have anything to say?”
When Swallow asked, Kurak gave a slight bow of his head. He wasn’t foolish enough to press his luck in an atmosphere like this. As things stood, no matter what he asked for, he wouldn’t get a favorable response. There was no need to rush.
“...We shall meet again another time.”
Only after a considerable pause did Kurak stand. Since two of the masters of the Great Evil Caves had departed, there was little point in continuing the meeting. Deciding she had no reason to remain either, Hexabel soon slithered across the floor and left.
After Azi Dahaka finally stood up and departed, Swallow, now completely alone, trudged back to his usual spot.
And with that, the meeting was over. Having begun in silence, it concluded in silence.
* * *
“Sister, I don’t think he was as unreasonable as we thought.”
Emerging from the Primordial Core, Fafnir took a deep breath.
Even deep in the forest, the wind was strong, whipping Fafnir’s light-green hair in all directions.
Azi Dahaka, following her out, also took a breath. The scent of the forest, so different from the freezing air of the snowy mountains, seemed to cleanse her lungs of the gloomy atmosphere from the meeting.
“It’s a valuable victory, Sister. You even got Swallow to promise he wouldn’t harm the White Mountains!”
“...Though he only said he would ‘try to make an effort.’”
Mulling over the vague, half-hearted, and unsettling response, Azi Dahaka let out a sigh. She swept her hair back, recalling the situation from moments before.
She had summoned her courage, but she had still stuttered terribly. She felt like she had rambled incoherently, too. What must the other bosses have thought of her? Ugh, just imagining it made her want to die of embarrassment.
She turned her gaze to look blankly at the cave entrance, recalling how she had felt just before entering. Had she been resolved to die? Had she been incredibly tense? It had all been for nothing. Now, she didn’t have a single drop of energy left.
“I’m exhausted. I never want to get involved with them again,” Azi Dahaka confessed candidly.
Not a single thing had gone as she expected.
…The meeting of the Great Evil Caves she had envisioned was nothing like this. She had imagined it would be more solemn, sacred, productive, and forward-looking. The other bosses of the Great Evil Caves should have been joining forces to keep Swallow in check, maintain the world’s balance, and devise systematic countermeasures against the humans.
She hadn’t expected a complete circus, a meeting worse than one held in a third-rate dungeon, featuring an ancient monster rolling on the floor, a Great Worm acting like she was on a neighborhood stroll, a hot-tempered vampire, and an Orc legion commander dropping a bombshell out of nowhere.
“…”
It was over now. She wouldn’t have to endure anything like that again.
“Let’s go back.”
Azi Dahaka thought to herself that while the Primordial Core, Swallow, and the other bosses had all been disappointing, Fafnir was right about the outcome. Since she had achieved her primary goal of conveying her intentions to Swallow, she had to consider the meeting a success.
“Then, Sister, what are you going to do about Kurak’s invasion of the Empire?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Azi Dahaka wasn’t particularly concerned about Kurak’s declaration, which had been the meeting’s main controversy. Of course, since the White Mountains bordered the Empire, it would have a significant impact if Kurak’s Orc forces actually destroyed it—but by Azi Dahaka’s reckoning, that would never happen.
He said he had allies?
War was a battlefield where you had to believe in your own victory and the victory of your forces. An ally was little different from a potential enemy. The more you trusted them, the more you exposed your back.
…And Kurak’s circumstances were different from those of Erebos, who shared the same ambition. The reason Erebos could so passionately proclaim the Empire’s destruction with only his own forces was that his army consisted of the Undead.
An undead army moved day and night, never tired, and never suffered from low morale. Above all, the Undead Legion grew by the thousands every time it conquered human territory. No matter how fast Orcs reproduced, could they possibly birth enough children to make up for their losses after every battle?
“It will be a futile effort.”
Still, a minimum level of vigilance was necessary. Azi Dahaka planned to hold a meeting upon returning to Margar and send scouts to Nilkumbal. That alone would be more than enough to track any suspicious movements.
“We should hurry back, then.”
Having spoken, Azi Dahaka glanced at Fafnir beside her. There was a distinct lack of energy in Fafnir’s steps. After flying continuously for a full day and spending so long tensed up inside the Primordial Core, it would have been stranger if she weren’t exhausted.
“…Let’s set off tomorrow.”
“Yes!”
Touched by the consideration, Fafnir’s eyes sparkled.
“Rest here while I set up a shelter and find some food.”
“Huh? Sister, can’t we just hunt some of the beasts in this forest?”
“There’s nothing to be gained by messing with the forest of an old spirit. Especially not Graphenia’s forest.”
Though she didn’t quite understand, Fafnir nodded as if she did. Azi Dahaka walked over to a secluded clearing and instantly unfurled a pair of dark-gray wings.
Revealing her true draconic form, Azi Dahaka soared into the sky. When it came to flying, she knew how to conceal her presence and appearance even from hundreds of meters in the air.
From a distance, she could see a small area clearly separate from Graphenia’s forest. There were bound to be some beasts among the dense trees.
Fafnir has been through a lot. I should feed her well.
With that in mind, she began to quietly descend—
‘Huh?’
Something caught the edge of her vision. Turning her head, she momentarily stopped flapping her wings. In the distance, she saw Hexabel.
The problem was that Kurak was right beside her.
“…”
Azi Dahaka slowly approached the two. While she could disrupt their senses and perception, she couldn’t hide minor things like the beating of her wings, so the best she could do was observe from hundreds of meters above.
Even when she squinted, she could see it was undoubtedly Kurak and Hexabel. The problem was, she couldn’t sense any hostility between them.
…In short, they weren’t fighting. That was incredibly bizarre.
Didn’t Hexabel just corner Kurak back in the Primordial Core? She certainly had. So why was there no animosity as she conversed with him now? No, why were the two of them even talking privately in the first place?
—Fafnir had called Hexabel a ‘monster mimicking kindness.’ In other words, she was an entity shrouded in hypocrisy. She couldn’t be trusted. If one were to trust her…
“Could it be?”
Azi Dahaka’s eyes trembled.