Watching the scene, Damon took Yuliana with him toward a nearby tree stump.
“I’d like to send you along with them, but I’m holding back. You’d obviously only be a burden…”
As he had expected, Yuliana flared up.
“Has the old geezer seen whether I’d be a burden or not?”
“Come to think of it, if the orcs had to deal with you, they’d probably get so enraged that they’d kill themselves.”
At Damon’s jest, the members chuckled as they hurried to prepare for departure. Yuliana shot him a venomous glare, but Damon paid it no mind.
“So that’s the orc tribe.”
Kasim’s eyes gleamed as he glared at the palisade. A fairly large wooden wall had been built all the way around the orc village. Judging by how similar the construction was, it seemed to have been built using slave labor. Kasim quietly turned his head. The members were glaring at the palisade with tense expressions. Patterson looked at Kasim and cautiously spoke up.
“What should we do? Take out the sentries first?”
It was a suggestion born from his experience as a mercenary. Kasim glared at Patterson as though he found him pathetic.
“Do you think we can approach them wearing clanking heavy armor? I’ve heard that orcs have far more advanced hearing and sense of smell than we do. So we’ll simply charge in head-on, beat down whoever comes out to meet us, and then retreat.”
After speaking, Kasim called for Krancia.
“Is there anything we should be careful of when fighting orc warriors? As you know, none of us have ever fought orcs before.”
Krancia nodded and began to explain.
“When fighting them, you must be careful not to get surrounded. They aren’t anything special in terms of strength or skill, but they’re remarkably good at chaotic melee combat. They’ll stab you in the back without hesitation, so you must watch each other’s backs.”
“Understood.”
After hearing the explanation, Kasim rose to his feet.
“All right. Attack.”
The seven heavily armored members of the death squad(?) charged into the orc tribe with a thunderous war cry. The orc sentry who spotted them hurriedly began blowing a horn.
“How did it go?”
Kasim began his report with a tired expression.
“Combining the reports from the members, it seems we took down roughly a hundred of them. There were no casualties. But those orcs could really fight. They were practically berserkers. If not for Lord Krancia’s advice, we would have been in serious trouble.”
“Impressive. More than ten per man…”
Kasim smiled faintly.
“Well, someone like Patterson would struggle against three or four orcs, but the others fought well. Mitchell and Gerald in particular performed brilliantly. I think they each took down about twenty.”
“Good work, all of you.”
Damon slowly turned his head toward Patterson, whose face was flushed bright red.
“We’ll camp here tonight. We’ll visit the village tomorrow, so everyone get plenty of rest.”
“Y-yes, understood.”
Kasim turned away, grumbling inwardly that he could not fathom what Damon was thinking. The members still had no idea why they had attacked the orc tribe.
“Chik. So you’re saying it’s certain that the humans from Arcadia were the ones who attacked the Thor Tribe?”
“Yes. The warriors were away from the village, so we failed to capture them.”
“Damn it all…”
The one trembling with uncontrollable fury was a massive orc commander.
Dispatched to the Thor Tribe under Gedenhide’s orders and placed in charge of escorting the supply unit, the orc commander was named Krukh.
Krukh was large enough to stand a full head taller than an ordinary orc. He possessed enough strength to match his size. Since strength was law in the orc world, a commander could only earn recognition if he possessed enough power to crush his subordinates.
In that regard, Krukh fulfilled every requirement of a commander. He glared at the chief of the Thor Tribe with madness in his eyes.
“Chik. Are you certain they approached from the direction of the village where the slaves live?”
The foolish chief did not give the slightest thought to the consequences his answer might bring.
“Chik. Yes. Judging by that, they must have visited the slaves’ village. But do not worry. Chik. The slaves have already learned their lesson several times. They will never dare oppose the humans from Arcadia.”
“Chik. I’ll be the one to judge that.”
Krukh had already made his decision. Gedenhide, the commander, had ordered that not a single slave who had come into contact with the humans of Arcadia was to be left alive. They were all to be taken away and used as food for the coastal defense forces. There was no need to think any further.
“I am closing the slave village. This is the commander’s order.”
“Chik? What do you mean?”
“We will take every slave with us. We intend to drag them to the coast and use them as food. And we will take all the warriors of the Thor Tribe as well.”
The shocked chief sprang to his feet.
“Chik. You can’t. If you do that, we’ll starve immediately.”
“If you refuse to obey, I will wipe out the entire Thor Tribe. Does the whole Thor Tribe wish to die instead of the slaves?”
The chief did not know what to do. The force Krukh had brought as commander of the supply unit totaled one thousand men. Every one of them was a well-trained warrior, and they were from the Kantar Tribe, renowned for their fighting ability.
The Thor Tribe, on the other hand, possessed only about four hundred warriors.
More importantly, the Thor Tribe was not skilled in combat. There was no way a tribe that used humans as slaves could be proficient in battle. Following the principle of the survival of the fittest, the chief meekly accepted Krukh’s order.
“We will obey your command.”
“Chik. You made the right choice.”
After tossing out those words as though he were doing them a favor, Krukh rose. The thought of tasting human flesh for the first time in a long while made him impatient. With the thousand soldiers he had brought and the four hundred warriors conscripted from the Thor Tribe, wiping out the human village would be as easy as eating cold porridge.
Ding, ding, ding.
As a horde of heavily armed orc warriors approached, the village went on alert. However, the villagers’ response was entirely different from when the Arcadian knights had approached.
The gate in the palisade swung wide open, and the villagers rushed out in orderly fashion. Most of them were men. Each carried one of the livestock they had raised.
The village chief came running out without even having time to straighten his clothes. But when he saw the chief of the Thor Tribe walking beside Krukh, he immediately prostrated himself, as though there were no need to think about it. Fluent orc speech flowed from his mouth.
“Welcome, Chief.”
A look of sorrow briefly crossed the grim face of the Thor Tribe’s chief. His tribe had been able to live in abundance solely because of the slaves. Now those loyal slaves were about to be taken away right before his eyes.
“There’s nothing I can do. I’ll have to bring a few human children from another tribe, raise them, and use them as slaves…”
Having settled his thoughts, the chief glared at the village head and snarled viciously.
“Chik. I heard that the humans of Arcadia visited the village yesterday. Is that true?”
The chief’s face instantly turned pale. Now that the truth had been exposed, it did not seem likely that they would escape unscathed. Surely three or four villagers would be taken away as an outlet for their anger, and the village chief felt a chill run down his spine.
“Y-yes, that’s true. But we drove them away. I swear, we never let them inside the village.”
“Chik. Don’t make excuses.”
The villagers’ complexions were turning white as well. Most of them understood the orc language, and thus realized how serious the situation was.
‘A few more will be taken away.’
‘Please… Let me be excluded.’
The chief swept his angry gaze over the slaves. The villagers who caught his eye began sweating coldly without even realizing it. Anyone selected and taken to an orc tribe never returned to the village. There was no way they could avoid being terrified. Unable to bear it any longer, the village chief stepped forward.
“Please, forgive us. Instead, we will offer you all the livestock we have raised.”
“Chik. That won’t be enough.”
The village chief’s expression stiffened. They wanted the villagers themselves. With an expression of resignation, he looked over the terrified villagers. It was better for him to choose than to let the chief pick them himself.
The method of selection was to choose, from among the adults excluding women and children, beginning with the oldest. That was the only way to preserve the village’s labor force. The village chief’s gaze landed on a gaunt middle-aged man who appeared to be around forty. An apologetic expression appeared on the chief’s face.
“Levin, step forward.”
The face of the middle-aged man called Levin turned white. But he soon staggered forward, as though resigned to his fate. This time, it was his turn to be sacrificed. There was nothing he could do if he wanted to save the villagers. Just as the chief was searching for the next sacrifice, a shout suddenly rang out from behind him.
“Chik. There’s no need to choose. We intend to take everyone.”
It was the voice of the menacing orc commander who had come with the chief. The startled village chief turned around.
“W-what do you mean?”
The chief’s eyes widened until they nearly split. The heavily armed orc warriors had already begun surrounding the villagers. They were far larger and more ferocious-looking than the orc warriors of the Thor Tribe they served.
The villagers gathered there were surrounded by the orc warriors in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, the remaining four hundred orc warriors poured into the palisade. They were warriors conscripted from the Thor Tribe. Since the women and children were hiding inside the houses, the village chief cried out desperately.
“I-I’ll go. So please, show mercy…”
“Chik. Of course you’ll go. Every slave living in this village will come with us, without exception. But before that, there is something we must take care of.”
A group of orc warriors rushed forward and dragged out more than twenty villagers. Every one of them was a young, strong man. Taking care of the young men who still had the strength to resist was the obvious next step. Krukh intended to make an example of them.
Of course, he also intended to fill his empty stomach. The village chief watched with a bewildered expression.
“W-what are you planning to do…”
Before he could finish speaking, a single scream rang out.
“Aaaagh!”
One of the orc warriors had buried an axe directly into the back of the young man’s head. Blood and brain matter gushed grotesquely from the split skull. As that scream became the starting signal, young men began dying here and there.
Their friends were being killed right beside them, yet the young men could only tremble and did not even dare to resist. The twenty young men became lifeless corpses in an instant.
The faces of the villagers watching turned deathly pale. Their fellow villagers were being slaughtered in heaps right before their eyes. The village chief trembled violently and barely managed to force out a few words.
“W-we haven’t done anything wrong…”
Krukh seized the village chief by the collar and growled.
“Chik. It doesn’t matter whether you did anything wrong or not. You are nothing more than slaves.”
Surrounded without the slightest gap by the orc warriors, the villagers trembled. They could do nothing but shiver in fear, not knowing who would be next.
In the meantime, the orc warriors who had entered the village dragged out the children and women. They seized them roughly by the hair and dragged them along. When the women saw the mangled corpses sprawled on the ground, they screamed.
“Eeeek!”
Some fainted on the spot. Krukh looked over the women and issued an order.
“Set fire to the village.”
“D-do you really have to go that far? Leave the village intact.”
The flustered chief stepped forward, but Krukh glared at him viciously.
“Chik. Are you thinking of stopping me?”
“We need the village if we are to raise slaves again. So…”
Without even twitching an eyebrow, Krukh swung his axe.
“Kreeeek!”
Blood spurted like a fountain. The tribal chief, whose neck had been nearly severed in half, twisted convulsively before collapsing where he stood. Even though their tribal chief had lost his life, the warriors from the Thor Tribe offered no resistance whatsoever.
It was a scene that revealed one aspect of orc society, where the law of the strong prevailed absolutely. Two orc warriors rushed forward and carried the tribal chief’s corpse over to where the dead villagers lay.
Keureuheu smacked his lips as he gazed at the pile of corpses. The pitiful humans could do nothing but tremble in fear.
“Now it’s time for a feast.”
Keureuheu summoned all the squad leaders. It was time to devour the flesh of the dead humans—including the flesh of the tribal chief they had killed moments ago. Only orcs of squad-leader rank or higher were permitted to taste the savory meat of humans.
Under the envious gazes of the lower-ranking warriors surrounding the villagers, they leisurely began their meal. Keureuheu cut off a section of thigh from one of the sprawled corpses, making it easier to eat, and greedily stuffed it into his mouth.
“My God.”
The villagers shuddered as they watched the spectacle. Most of the women, in particular, had fainted. Seeing someone being eaten right before their eyes was simply too horrifying to bear.
The village chief was half out of his mind as well. He had known perfectly well that those who were taken away would be eaten, but this was the first time he had witnessed it right before his eyes.
At least the tribal chief who had died moments ago had never shown the people such a sight. He had at least been considerate of the slaves’ feelings. These orcs, however, were different. The sight they displayed without the slightest hesitation made it easy to guess that they, too, would soon be in the same situation.
But not one of them entertained the thought of resisting. They had been tamed by life as slaves to that extent.
The corpses of twenty humans and one orc soon disappeared, leaving behind nothing but bones. The orc squad leaders who had taken part in the feast stuffed even the tough muscle and hide into their stomachs. The humans now looked utterly resigned. Being swallowed into an orc’s stomach was an established fact that could not change even if the heavens turned upside down. Gazing around at them, Keureuheu patted his full belly and smiled in satisfaction.
“Chik. Human meat really does have a savory flavor. Should I eat a few more while I’m at it?”
The villagers whose eyes he turned toward could not help but tremble faintly. Keureuheu, however, did not seem to have much intention of doing so. He rose to his feet and gave an order to the squad leaders who had finished eating.
“Prepare to transport the slaves. We don’t have time to waste if we’re going all the way to the distant east.”
Just then, a thick voice came from directly behind him.
“Have you finished your meal?”
The words had been spoken in fluent Orcish.