#025 Memories
#025 Memories
Clang, clang, clang.
Fergus hammered with all her might.
"Damn it, they just had to pick out the best ones and take them..."
Yesterday afternoon.
The man and woman who had stopped by Fergus's smithy had, with an incredibly discerning eye, purchased some of the finest swords in her shop.
They had paid full price, but Fergus somehow felt like she'd taken a loss.
A financial loss?
No, even after the sale, she wasn't happy at all.
-Well, I guess I'll have to make do with this... Still, it seems like the best one here.
Her pride had been cracked.
Fergus took such pride in her blacksmithing that people said she should have been born a dwarf instead of an elf.
But the woman who had come to buy a sword had dismissed and looked down on her so thoroughly while making her purchase.
-Fine, so among the ones here, this is the best, right? I'll take this. Let's go with this one.
-Is that acceptable, Master?
-This will be enough. There's nothing better than what's here in this village.
She had repeated essentially the same thing three times!
The nuance was as if, had there been something better, she wouldn't have bought something like this at all.
Naturally, Fergus was fully capable of forging a sword far superior to the one she'd sold, so she was now diligently hammering away before the flames.
"Huff, huff, just you wait... Red-haired witch...!"
The fact that the woman was acquainted with Elder Iyeluna didn't matter.
All Fergus had left was her pride.
If she'd been the type of elf to care about the Elders, she wouldn't have come to the human world to settle down in the first place.
Creeeak.
The sound of the door opening came from outside.
At first, she intended to keep hammering regardless of whether it was a customer, but at the familiar scent of fruit, Fergus set down her hammer.
"Apple?"
"It's been a while, Cherry."
"Call me Fergus."
Fergus—the elf once called Cherry—pointed at her license.
Apple, a blonde elf, casually handed Fergus a piece of parchment.
"Orders have come down from the Elders. You know all the forest Elders have gathered, right?"
"They did?"
"Yes. I don't know the details either, but the human world might be in danger. So... please come back to the forest."
"Come back to the forest... Pfft. That's the least fitting thing anyone's ever said to me."
Fergus kept hammering.
"The smithy suits me perfectly. Don't waste your time and go back."
"Cherry!"
"It's Fergus. I'm satisfied with my life in the human world, and I'm making good money too. Just yesterday alone, I earned a whole gold coin."
"Even so."
"If you're really that worried, how about looking for someone else?"
"Someone else?"
"Yeah."
When Fergus changed the subject, Apple seemed intrigued.
"I've been seeing a little elf around here near Normance. I don't know which forest she belongs to, but she's so reckless I can't tell where she'll bounce off to next."
"......Wait. A little elf?"
Apple went pale in an instant.
"It wouldn't happen to be an elf with silver hair and violet eyes, would it?"
"That's right. Why? What's wrong?"
"Oh my god..."
Apple covered her mouth with her hand.
"The princess..."
"What?"
"She's a princess of the royal family."
"......."
Fergus rubbed her face with her hand for a moment.
"I never heard anything about that?"
"She was born after you left."
"...Why is a royal princess here?"
"I understand she came to the area for Spirit Arts training..."
"Uh, hey, wait, wait."
Fergus went pale.
"A few days ago, there was a quest at the Adventurers' Guild to find a missing elf..."
* * *
We subdued the Taramra Orc.
It looked completely different from the orcs I knew, and I attempted a rational conversation with the creature.
"Which tribe do you belong to?"
"T-tribe? We don't have anything like that."
"...Ugh."
A rotten stench wafted from its mouth.
Not just any rotten smell, but a rotten smell that made my entire body recoil.
'This bastard, don't tell me?'
Since I couldn't keep inhaling that stench head-on, I moved over to Lucius, who was aiming at the back of the orc's neck, and asked from behind the orc.
"Where are your comrades?"
"I-I won't betray my comrades!"
"You could die."
"Rather than betray my comrades, squeal, I'll die...!!"
It really seemed that orcs had changed from the species I remembered.
'First, marking.'
Whoosh.
I secretly sprinkled mana onto the creature's back.
In the shape of [1++], I attached mana to it without it noticing.
Now the creature was bait.
If I could use it to find out where its fellow orcs were, then the elf aside, the orcs...
-I'd rather die! Gurk!
-Demon King! He slit his own throat on the sword!
-...I see. So he refuses to betray his comrades.
That might not work.
Their appearance had changed a lot, but cherishing comrades and throwing away one's life for them was a racial trait of orcs.
If it were an orc, it would surely die alone or fight to the death until the end.
What stood before my eyes was probably a different species using the name "orc."
"Then I'll ask you this. Have you seen an elf recently?"
"Elf...?"
"Yes. Elf. We're looking for a missing elf."
As a bonus, the extermination of the orcs too.
I pressed my index finger to my lips to signal Lucius to stay quiet, and Lucius silently threatened the creature by holding his sword at an angle against the orc's neck.
"Answer. Have you seen an elf?"
"Y-yes...! A little while ago, slurp, we caught one."
As expected.
When there's an orc subjugation and a missing elf, nine times out of ten the two incidents are connected.
I had thought the missing elf was surely taken by the orcs, and that hunch was confirmed in an instant.
"If you guide us, I'll spare your life."
"R-really...?"
"Of course. I swear on the honor of a warrior."
"......."
If it were a true orc, it would understand honor better than anyone.
"I, the Crimson Mage—"
"Squeal!!"
PFFFFT!
The sound of something like gas exploding rang out.
I hurriedly shoved Lucius aside and turned my body, and the orc sprang forward as if sliding and fled.
"Squeal!!"
"C-cough, ugh, blegh...!"
Lucius grimaced and dry-heaved.
I quickly unleashed flames toward whatever had burst from the orc's body.
FWOOSH.
Flames for purification enveloped us.
"Lucius!"
"I-I'm sorry. What is this..."
"It's something like mushroom spores. Calm down. It only stings for a moment."
The Holy Sword's protection reliably guarded against external wounds, but it couldn't completely block biological reactions like this.
"Can you chase it?"
"Y-yes!"
The orc had already fled far away.
It dashed through the forest with an orc's agile and swift body, and I gripped my staff and infused enhancement magic into my legs.
"Run!"
"Master, let me carry that!"
"Just run, you idiot!"
"...Yes!"
Lucius grabbed his iron sword and stuck close to my side.
I ran forward with him, tracking the orc and pointing at its back.
"I don't know what kind of behavior it'll show, but I've already placed a tracking spell on it. We just have to chase it while pretending to lose it."
"When did you...?"
"You should always be prepared for every situation."
When I didn't know how a hulking orc would react, the safest course was to rely on the habits of the orcs I knew.
An orc fleeing from pursuers.
If it thought it was outnumbered, it would surely call for help from its allies.
Orcs preferred one-on-one combat, but they weren't a species that considered it shameful to fight together against a strong enemy.
Therefore, the orc would surely flee toward its comrades.
"It doesn't know honor, but it seems to know its life is precious."
Just like right now.
"D-danger! Monster! Help!"
"Grrr, grrr..."
Before us, there appeared to be at least thirty orcs.
They all looked like they didn't know the first thing about honor, like they were nothing but blubber, and I was disgusted.
'Still, I had a small hope.'
Maybe the first orc I had seen had just been an odd one?
Maybe the other orcs were normal muscular warriors like the ones I remembered?
I had chased after the orc holding onto that hope, but what stood before my eyes was nothing but blubber, fat, and flesh.
"You really know how to shatter hope completely..."
"Pardon?"
"...Ah, still, I did have a small hope."
I pulled down my hat and aimed my staff forward.
"Those orcs are cannibals."
"......!!"
I had noticed from the moment I smelled its breath, but seeing the state of the orcs' dwelling made it even more certain.
Skulls staked into the ground everywhere.
Bones piled up in one place.
They were clearly human remains.
Some demi-humans were mixed in, but most looked human.
And then...
"Grrr, what are you bastards?"
A massive orc that looked twice as large as the other orcs.
Its exposed belly fat looked not like three layers but five, a sight that inspired terror and horror in anyone who beheld it, and I wanted to burn it with fire right then and there.
"I am Gess, captain of the Red Blood Orcs. Who are you bastards?"
"......."
That thing wasn't an orc!!
Still, just in case...?
"Rokta?"
"Gahaha! To think there'd be someone who knows the ancient orc tongue!"
"Knows... it...?"
"No! I don't know anything else, but I know that word. It's this, isn't it?"
Smack, smack.
The orc called Gess struck a clenched fist against the open palm of his other hand.
"...The world has changed a lot, Lucius. In my time, orcs weren't like that."
"Master..."
"Squeal. Anyway, not content with threatening my comrade, you even interrupted our ritual."
Captain Gess pointed at an iron cage that looked like a ritual altar.
"Ah, aah...!!"
There, inside the iron cage, was a silver-haired elf, and beneath her, firewood was burning.
As if they intended to roast meat on a grill.
"Lucius."
"Yes...!"
"Release it."
"...Pardon?"
Lucius turned to me in confusion.
"When you say release... um... if others see it, it would be troublesome..."
"Because there's an elf? It's hard to be seen? You're worried about being found out?"
Smack.
"Think about that later, you idiot!"
I struck Lucius's thigh with my staff.
"When someone's about to die, what are you hesitating for?!"
"!!!"
Lucius stepped forward with a face as if he'd been struck by a great shock.
And then.
"O wind—!!"