Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Kin of the Teeth 3
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“That, that’s our emergency funds. Give it back! How can you commit such outrages? Didn’t you say you were searching for the New King Scripture?”
“No! Magic grimoires can take any form and appear in any shape! Who knows, maybe this is one? It could be a gem-shaped magic grimoire!”
“We’ll take it and investigate thoroughly. Once we confirm it’s not the New King Scripture, we’ll return it.”
They said that, but there was no way the mercenaries would return anything they’d taken.
‘They’re stripping them down to their underwear. This could be trouble.’
Azadin realized that the copy of the New King Scripture he carried would inevitably be discovered by them. He clicked his tongue.
What should he do? Reveal himself here and now and take them out?
But he’d already harmed Kozel’s son. If he took out these mercenaries too, his movements would become too obvious.
As Azadin hesitated, Ismail and Midiam approached him.
“What do we do?”
“Should we fight?”
“Wait a minute. Hold on.”
Azadin held back the two boy and girl. He had spotted a herald arriving among the mercenaries, and they were talking among themselves.
The mercenaries panicked greatly and began gathering their weapons and loot.
“Oh, that’s it for today.”
They allowed only those whose belongings they had searched to pass through, ordering the rest to stay in the lodgings outside the gate, then entered the gate themselves.
“What’s going on?”
The merchants frowned in confusion.
“An ogre has been spotted nearby.”
Azadin informed the merchants.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I have sharp ears and clearly heard what they said.”
“What?”
The merchants and travelers who had to remain outside the gate were horrified by his words.
“No way, what...”
“Huh?”
As soon as Azadin mentioned the ogre, the mercenaries clicked their tongues and hurried inside the gate. The merchants and travelers watched the scene closely.
“Wait!”
“Let’s talk!”
The merchants banged on the small door and window of the gate, but the soldiers ignored them.
“What the...”
“I-It must be real!”
Judging by the mercenaries’ reaction, an ogre really had appeared nearby. The merchants and travelers all turned pale.
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In the eastern inland regions, adjacent to the Anukia Desert, lay a highland basin area. Thanks to the sand winds blowing from the desert, it was relatively fertile, and rains came frequently during the wet season.
However, ogres descending from the Black Tooth Mountains had seized control of the highland basin and made it their home, forcing people out.
Ogres were muscular giants twice the height of a grown man and weighing more than ten times as much. They possessed inhuman strength incomparable to humans, had poor intellect, but were ferocious and enjoyed cannibalism.
One of the primary duties of the Margrave of Salasma, Count Kazel, was to serve as a bulwark preventing those ogres from entering human territories.
Fortunately, monsters lacked the unified organization to march long distances. Moreover, the ogres of the highland basin were more prone to attacking and devouring each other in endless infighting than invading humans.
Taking advantage of those gaps, successive Margraves of Salasma had gradually pioneered and established frontier villages east of the gate. But recently, prolonged droughts had begun to afflict the ogres as well.
Though ogres were too dim-witted for long-range expeditions, water shortages provided motivation for the clans driven out by infighting to turn their gaze beyond the eastern inland regions.
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“An ogre? How many?”
Tarqi, the bastard son of the Margrave of Salasma, Count Kazel, asked the scout who had come to him.
“We’ve confirmed one for now. But it has a force of hobgoblins and goblins under it. Numbers unknown, but from what the scout saw, there were at least over ten goblins...”
“This is bad. Over ten means it’s not just a lone one—it’s a full squad.”
Proper ogres kept goblins and hobgoblins as underlings. In other words, this one wasn’t a fugitive who had escaped cannibalism within its clan; it was a scout or raider leading a proper force.
An ogre alone was a formidable opponent, and with a goblin squad to boot, it was already more than humans could handle.
Of course, this was a gate fortress, so utilizing the walls and terrain, it wasn’t impossible to hold them off.
But Tarqi had no reason to expend his private soldiers fighting them here. It wouldn’t earn him any money; on the contrary, combat would only increase the bonuses he owed the mercenaries. The principle was to pay double the usual wages for real battles.
“No choice. Gather the loot and withdraw.”
Tarqi decided to quickly pack up the plundered goods and leave.
At that moment, a man entered the village hall—the acting village head, a hunter.
“Sir Tarqi, big trouble.”
“Big trouble? What kind? Has the ogre already arrived?”
“No, the people outside the gate are rioting. They seem to have caught on that the ogre is approaching.”
“What? What are you talking about? Who told them?”
Tarqi panicked. The ogre was coming down from the north, while the pioneer lands beyond the gate lay to the southeast. In other words, the refugees and merchants outside the gate were from the southeast and had no way of knowing about the ogre’s approach.
“No one told them.”
“Someone must have overheard the herald’s words.”
“Hmm, these idiots...”
“What do we do?”
“What do you mean? What can they do? Lock the gate! Cheeky bastards.”
“Yes?”
The hunter blankly repeated his order to lock the gate. If ogres approached, the people outside would be the first exposed defenselessly to them.
It was tantamount to saying he’d use them as bait.
“We’ve confirmed there’s no New King Scripture copy in this village, so we’re pulling back. Have the militia hold off the approaching ogre and monsters.”
“What...”
The hunter man was flustered. He’d known from the plundering that this young pup wasn’t some knight from old tales, but he hadn’t expected him to so brazenly abandon the common folk.
“Didn’t you conscript all the able-bodied young men?”
“Of course, we’ll leave them behind. Hmm, since we trained them as soldiers for a day, they should be useful enough.”
“......”
Conscripting them for just one day as soldiers and then bragging about training them. Brazen words, but as a hunter, he couldn’t dare resist this guy.
“Then at least let the people outside in. I’ll take command of the defense here.”
When the hunter said that, Tarqi snorted.
“What can a non-knight like you do?”
Isn’t that rich coming from a knight like you who’s running away?
The hunter thought that but didn’t voice it.
“Fine. I’ll leave the defense here to you!”
With that, Tarqi called his mercenaries. They began requisitioning the village’s horses, oxen, and wagons to load their loot.
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The travelers and merchants outside the gate were aghast at the rumor of an approaching ogre.
“Oh no, we’re all dead.”
“What do we do? Should we leave the road and flee now?”
“But the sun’s about to set...”
Traveling mountain paths at dusk was as good as offering up your life. Beasts and monsters could emerge from anywhere along the road, and even tripping on a rock could cause serious injury or death.
Walking roads at night was only feasible on well-paved imperial highways—or if you had night vision as keen as dwarves or elves.
As they despaired, the gate suddenly began to open before them.
Those opening it were the village militia—mostly elderly middle-aged men, with few young ones in sight.
“Wh-What’s happening?”
“Where are the knights?”
“The knights and mercenaries have left.”
“What?”
“So please come inside.”
A man who looked like a hunter permitted entry to those outside the village.
Azadin, still pretending to be blind, entered the village tapping his cane and leading his goat. A tense atmosphere hung over the village.
It seemed the young men had been conscripted, and the village’s wealth entirely plundered. The remaining people—stripped of property and members—had gathered what few they had to prepare defenses.
“As you see, we’re in dire straits right now. So, would you help with the village’s defense?”
The hunter asked politely. But surrounding him were militia members with spears and grim expressions.
“Help how?”
“Those who can fight should fight, and those who can’t should provide support.”
“Eek?!”
The merchants panicked at his words.
“No, that’s...”
“Normally, helping means becoming camp merchants or something...”
When merchants were conscripted in war, they usually became camp followers—trailing battlefields to buy and sell needed goods, not fighting themselves.
Even for combatants, that was more beneficial. The merchants effectively became quartermasters handling their own logistics.
But that applied to prolonged wars. In a desperate last stand like defending the gate from a dangerous foe, camp merchants were useless.
“What about us?”
Then a blind man asked. He was a young man with a long horizontal scar across his face.
Behind him were a boy and girl in dust-covered cloaks. Both were early teens—adults by southern custom of child marriages, but still children here.
“A blind man and children... Retreat with the elderly and weak.”
The hunter said that and began devising defense strategies.
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An ogre bearing the banner of the Broken Tooth Clan was descending the mountain path.
The roads of the ‘Spine of the Desert’ mountains, marking the border between the eastern inland regions and the Kingdom of Corasar, were extremely rugged. Detouring impassable peaks inevitably led to the gate village.
As the ogres descended one of those paths, they luckily captured some humans with burst eyeballs and broken legs.
“You lot, portable rations. Mine now, Gordu’s.”
They caught fleeing humans and stuffed them into massive meat boxes carried on their backs. The huge boxes were filled with chunks of human, goblin, and wild beast corpses. Those who fell in screamed.
“Sp-Spare me!”
“Damn it! That cursed herald clan bastard!”
“Uwaaa... New Kings! Please save us!”
Sucked into the piles of corpses, they screamed for salvation.
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