Chapter 494: Ende's Spring - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 494: Ende's Spring - 2
Like any other city, Ende had a garbage dump.
And in Ende, a city of beastkin, there was a residential district primarily inhabited by pig beastkin.
The two were one and the same.
The cities built by humans resembled the bodies of their creators. They greedily devoured food, and the undigested waste was collected in one place to be expelled from the body. The garbage dump was the final place where one might rummage through the refuse, just in case there was anything left to be gained.
This place was both the main residence and the workplace of the pig beastkin.
“Oink. Oink oink.”
The foul stench made his nose run. Even for a pig beastkin, whose resistance was stronger than that of other beastkin, the piercing odor was unbearable. From his stuffy, congested nose came a sound not unlike that of a pig.
The pig beastkin made pig noises as he rummaged through the trash.
“Oink?”
While digging through the garbage, a young pig beastkin found something amidst the stench. His keen sense of smell led him to focus his search on one particular spot. A moment later, the boy’s face lit up with joy.
“Oink! I found it!”
A large sack was filled to the brim with meat bones. They had been boiled for so long that they were stark white, without a trace of blood, and nothing that even resembled meat was visible on them.
But even this was a precious source of food. If you split them in half and sucked on them, you could get a sweet broth. If you scraped the fascia clinging to the ends with a knife, it felt like thinly sliced raw meat. It was a rare windfall in this garbage dump.
“Oink. Who in the world wrapped this up so tightly? It was hard to even tell what it was.”
Anyone could see they were pork bones… but for those desperate to survive another day, what did the type of meat matter? The young pig beastkin was as delighted as if he had discovered treasure in the middle of the dump.
There were dozens, hundreds of such pig beastkin. Pigs in a sty, living their lives by digging through the city’s excrement.
“Still living like this.”
Someone who had been watching them approached with a sigh. Startled by the sudden appearance, the young pig beastkin quickly hid the bones beneath his body.
“Wh-who…”
When he turned his head, he saw a pig beastkin of immense stature standing before him.
Countless scars were carved across his bursting muscles, most of them marks from being torn by beasts. Yet, the scars etched on his body seemed less like signs of defeat and more like proof of his strength.
Two curved swords resembling molars were tucked into his waist. The being who looked down at him with eyes holding both contempt and pity was… none other than a pig beastkin.
Finally noticing the figure’s folded ears, the young pig beastkin clutched the bones tightly and shouted.
“These are mine! Don’t even think about it, get lost!”
“Relax. I’m not trying to take them. I’m not interested.”
“Then why!”
“My name is Grul. I am a man of the wilds, living on the Enger Plains.”
Grul’s name was widely known among the pig beastkin. A master who had reached the Axiom, a great figure who protected the wilderness outside of Ende.
The aura he exuded was too extraordinary for him to be an imposter. A strange light flickered in the young pig beastkin’s eyes.
“Are you really Grul?”
“I’ll show you.”
Grul raised a hand and thrust it into a pile of garbage. Then, he forcefully lifted his arm.
Rustle. Dozens, hundreds of pieces of trash rose into the air at once, without scattering or falling.
It was a feat possible only through Qi Art, a trick that required immense power and the ability to infuse Qi into each different piece of garbage. The chance that someone with this level of Qi Art would dare to impersonate Grul was far lower than the chance that he was, in fact, Grul himself.
And he was indeed Grul.
“Why would Grul come to a place like this…?”
Facing the glory of the orcs, the boy suddenly felt a sense of dissonance. The glory of the orcs approaching him as he rejoiced over discarded bones in a garbage dump felt like some grand, absurd play. The pile of bones he had been so happy to find just moments ago now felt like a source of profound shame. He wanted to throw them away immediately.
As the boy’s face flushed red, Grul knelt on one knee before him and asked.
“How long will you live like this?”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“This life of rummaging through a garbage dump. Enduring the stench, digging through trash, treating the scraps of food others have thrown away as if they were treasure. This miserable life.”
It was neither criticism nor insult, but a statement that faced the truth head-on. The young pig beastkin clamped his mouth shut, feeling that another word would only deepen his misery.
Grul spoke as if he understood the boy.
“Rather than live like this, you should follow me. It’s not too late for you. If you receive my teachings, you too can become the master of your own life.”
A master who had reached the Axiom was offering to teach him personally. To miss this opportunity would be a regret he would carry for the rest of his life. The boy responded to the unexpected offer.
“No.”
It was a sudden answer, but it was also sincere. Instead of throwing the pile of bones away, the boy hugged it even tighter. A muscle in Grul’s eye twitched.
“Snort. You want to keep living like this?”
“What’s wrong with living like this? Everyone lives like this! Me, my parents, my friends, all of us!”
The boy spat on the ground. Once he started, it felt as if all the dark emotions he had bottled up inside were pouring out.
“How else are we supposed to live? As delivery men? The horses do all that. Make clothes? The sheep do that. Should we earn a living by waiting on humans? The dogs do that too! Digging through the trash is all we can do!”
“There is another way.”
“You mean I should be like you, risking my life in that harsh wilderness, fighting and honing my Qi Art? In a place where I’ll get hurt, injured, and if I’m unlucky, die?”
Though young, the boy was still a pig beastkin. He knew how Grul had reached the Axiom.
And he knew what happened outside of Ende.
The wild lands. A place where predators with sharp teeth stalked their prey. A wilderness outside of civilization where hierarchy was determined by strength, and the weak became food.
Even if he was ashamed of this life of digging through trash, he had no desire to die out there. He wanted to live, even if it meant rolling in filth.
“Oink. No. I want to live.”
“So miserably?”
The young pig beastkin hugged the pile of bones tightly and looked up at Grul with resentful eyes.
“The one making me feel miserable… isn’t this place. It’s you, Grul.”
The two stared at each other for a long time. The frailest of young pig beastkin and Grul, who had reached the Axiom. The one who broke the standoff first was Grul.
“…I’m sorry.”
Forcing out the single phrase, Grul turned his body. As he walked away slowly, he heard someone sniffing behind him. He didn’t know if it was because of the stench or because of the boy himself, but Grul decided to try his best not to think about it.
As he walked listlessly past the garbage dump, someone approached him. It was a bull beastkin wearing leather armor and a necklace of bones. There were many bull beastkin in Ende, but this water buffalo with his curved horns looked much rougher and fiercer—even without the bone necklace around his neck.
The water buffalo beastkin snorted and asked.
“Chief. We found you. Where have you been?”
“Since I was here after so long, I paid a visit to my hometown.”
The bull beastkin fell silent for a moment at the word ‘hometown,’ then spoke as if nothing was wrong.
“Obelisk is waiting. Because you suddenly disappeared, we’re in a standoff, unable to do anything.”
“I see. Let’s go.”
“Aren’t you sorry?”
“Me? To you all? Why?”
He had left without a word during their visit to Ende. Because of that, the fierce warriors of the Savage Faction were in an uncomfortable standoff with Obelisk, desperately trying to prevent a conflict from breaking out. It was a situation that should have been troubling for any normal commander.
But Grul was no normal commander.
“Snort. If you don’t like it, then charge. At me, or at Obelisk! You all have the strength and will for that, don’t you?”
“No, well, that’s a bit much.”
“Then there’s nothing to be sorry for. It’s something you all couldn’t handle! I don’t feel sorry for things like that.”
Grul walked past the bull beastkin with long strides. Dumbfounded by the shameless reply, the bull beastkin let out a hollow laugh and followed him.
*
That day was noisier than usual. Despite the mansion being in a secluded area, there were an unusual number of people coming and going, all of them rushing about as if being chased by something.
The sound of hurried footsteps approached the door and then quickly faded away. Puzzled by the frequent presence of people, I asked.
“There are a lot of people coming and going. Shei-ssi, is something happening today?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“You frequent Obeli, don’t you? I thought you might know something.”
Perhaps because of all the people milling about, the Regressor, who was on edge, answered irritably.
“Something is happening, but it has nothing to do with them.”
“What is that something?”
“It’s nothing big. Just that Grul is coming.”
“Grul, as in Grul the Orc Champion? The one who lives on the plains outside Ende?”
Grul, the pig beastkin who had reached the Axiom. Even though I hadn’t been in Ende for long, I had heard stories about him. A prodigy who, despite being a pig beastkin, had reached the Axiom through Qi Art.
It was a quietly impressive feat. Qi Art was difficult for beastkin to learn. It was a human technique developed over thousands of years of history, and beastkin, with their different senses, struggled to master it.
For example, imagine a training exercise where you lower your stance, maintain your balance, and try not to drop plates placed on your head and knees. A human would have to tense all their muscles and concentrate, but a beastkin would instinctively use their tail to maintain balance.
You might think they could just not use it, but consciously refraining from using it was a huge penalty in itself. And using it meant straying far from the path of Qi training. Ears and tails were certainly advantages, but they were also hindrances to training, especially when Qi Art was involved.
It wasn’t for nothing that Lieutenant General Ebon of the Military State had cut off his own ears and tail. Apparently, in the old days, many beastkin cut them off to overcome discrimination and learn Qi Art.
“Then that is a pretty big deal.”
“That big deal hasn’t been communicated to the people of Ende. It’s classified. So it can’t be the reason they’re all running around.”
“Maybe it was leaked.”
“Who would leak it? Who from Obeli would come all the way down to Ende to spread that information?”
“Wasn’t it you, Shei-ssi? You’re the best when it comes to speaking carelessly.”
“You’re the only person I even talk to here!”
“That’s a little sad.”
Don’t just tell me to go out and work; you should get out and make some friends, too. All you do is work, with no social life whatsoever.
In any case, my curiosity piqued, I got up and said.
“Shall we go out and check?”
“Let’s. I’m curious too.”
“Grul is coming, but you’re not going, Shei-ssi?”
“There’s no need. It’s a matter between the city and the Savage Faction. I’m not going to be in Ende forever, so it would be strange for me to get involved.”
‘It’s going to be a political discussion, which is a pain, and it’s not an area I can do anything about anyway.’
Of course. I should have known you’d thought that far ahead.
I put on my coat and prepared to leave. Azzy’s ears perked up in response.
“Woof? Are we going for a walk?”
“No, you stay here and guard the house.”
“Grrrrrr!”
“Aaaah! Fine!”
She just won’t let me be. I took a shabby robe from the coat rack and handed it to Azzy.
“Here. Wear this.”
“Woof? It’s stuffy!”
“Ahem. If you don’t wear it, you can’t go for a walk.”
I couldn’t have her drawing the attention of every dog beastkin on the street. After putting the robe on a now-docile Azzy, I headed out to the streets with the Regressor.
The mansion was certainly in a secluded area. The closer we got to the center of Ende, the more the commotion intensified. People were forming a wall as if blocked by something, and beyond them, shouts and cheers filled the streets.
All sorts of emotions echoed. A strong wind was blowing—the wind blowing in people’s hearts.
Hmm. So this is how it’s going to be. Well… this is troublesome.
The Regressor, who was shorter than me, hadn’t yet grasped the situation.
“What is it? Is there some kind of spectacle?”
“No. That is…”
“I’ll fly up and take a look.”
The Regressor shot up into the air in an instant and was shocked by the sight that unfolded below.
“Ende! Hear our voice!”
“We are all equal beastkin!”
“Stop the discrimination!”
“Pigs are not food!”
There were many beastkin in Ende, but among them, the pig beastkin were by far the most numerous. Out of their population of over thirty thousand, even if only ten percent gathered, that would be three thousand—a number greater than a sizable army.
The number of beastkin filling the streets, marching, was at least that many, if not more.