27. Putting on a Shell to Pretend to be King
The punishment delivered personally by the Great Chieftain of the Austro-Hungarian tribe was enough to ensure that the Grand Sorcerer would never again deceive the innocent and kind-hearted orcs, nor would he ever rise again within the tribe.
Days later, although I didn’t want to pry too much into how the orcs dealt with the situation, I still needed to find some results to report back to the elves. So, I managed to gather a bit of information from my buddy, Kael Bloodhooves, the Minotaur.
On the second day after the incident, the Grand Sorcerer and several of his lackey orcs were driven out of the Austro-Hungarian tribe by the furious high orcs. There was no resistance whatsoever; in fact, the Grand Sorcerer not being killed by those orcs who felt “deceived” was already a sign of their kindness.
Temporarily taking the Grand Sorcerer’s place was Gu Erdan, who was considered clever among the high orc warriors, chosen from the shorter ones. This is why I hadn’t seen those two brothers around lately. Although Gu Erdan still wanted to seek the Great Chieftain’s approval for this matter, the Great Chieftain hadn’t appeared since that night, so Gu Erdan had no choice but to take on the role.
As for the truth about the “Shadow,” it had all been buried beneath the Grand Sorcerer’s conspiracy, allowing him to take the blame. Once the simple-minded orcs punished the Grand Sorcerer, they basically forgot the whole affair. While I was a bit worried about the orcs’ naive and straightforward nature, at least they no longer troubled the elves, so I secretly felt relieved.
After telling me all this, my Minotaur buddy suddenly remembered something and hoisted me onto his shoulder with a thump of his head.
“Ah! I almost forgot! We need to thank you humans for your help! You are the heroes who dealt with the bad guys in the tribe, our good friends! Come, let’s celebrate together!”
Then, I was forcibly dragged into the orcs’ celebration, watching a bunch of fierce-looking orcs gather around a fire, eating and dancing. No wonder the elves were terrified of orcs; this scene truly resembled a hellish depiction of demons dancing wildly.
However strange the scene was, after this incident, the original high orc warriors treated me much better than before, completely like a distinguished guest.
Geloram pulled me over and, in front of the other orcs, suggested, “Speaking of which, it seems our human guest only has one wife. That must be quite inconvenient sometimes! I know human aesthetics differ from ours, but our subhumans in the Austro-Hungarian tribe seem to be quite similar to the opposite s*x you humans like.”
The topic… seemed to be getting increasingly dangerous.
“He is the great benefactor who helped our Austro-Hungarian tribe. How about we gift him some beautiful female subhumans from our clan to serve as slaves?”
I knew this was coming! Geloram! I’ve already had enough troubles; can you not add to
—
“Then I’ll just give away a few of the foxes here. They’re no good for work, but they eat a lot. If you like them, just take them.”
Ha… Hahaha… I’m doomed. If they really take me up on that, I fear I’ll have the life to grab them, but not the life to bring them back!
To escape this situation, I had no choice but to pull out my trump card.
“Um… I’m just going to the restroom for a moment…”
“Oh! Take your time! Afterward, we’ll send the prepared demi-humans over for you to choose from!”
Send them over to me? Do you really want me dead!?
I immediately fled the scene; I had to quickly distance myself from this group of beastmen! After all, I didn’t come here today to ask these beastmen for beast-eared girls as slaves.
Taking a deep breath, I calmed down and headed to the temple of the chieftain of the Austro-Hungarian tribe! After casually giving a reason, the beastman warriors here didn’t stop me, and just like that, I was allowed in.
Moonlight streamed through the windows as I walked through the temple, which was so silent that only the sound of my footsteps remained, shaking off the earlier mess. Finally, I reached the end and pushed the door open with force…
【Creeeak】
Accompanied by a harsh scraping sound, a small figure came into view—a little fox named Zelus. This bear fox was currently hiding in the darkest corner of the temple, “serving the chieftain,” while wagging a big tail and munching on some biscuits.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
“Can’t you tell I’m eating, human?”
The little fox didn’t seem surprised by my appearance; her furry ears had probably heard my footsteps outside long ago, so her response was unusually lazy and dismissive.
“This is the chieftain’s temple! If you’re not related to the beastmen, hurry up and get out! Ignoring the celebration prepared for you to come to a place like this, the chieftain might bring down divine punishment!”
This little brat’s attitude was so arrogant that it made me laugh in anger, hands on my hips.
“Hey? Then I want to see what kind of divine punishment the ‘chieftain’ will bring down. If you have the guts, strike me with lightning right now!”
“!”
The little fox’s ears perked up in annoyance, and she tossed aside the biscuit in her hand, turning to glare at me with a displeased expression.
“Hah? A mere human comes to a place like this just to argue!?”
“Not at all~”
“Then what are you doing here? So annoying! Even if you stare at me like that, I won’t let you touch me, you man!”
I wouldn’t touch you! I’m not Kephiel; I have no resistance to fluffy little animals. Besides, if I touched you, I’d be more afraid of getting my hand bitten off!
I left the beastmen’s celebration not only to dodge the dangerous topic of “sending me demi-humans,” but also… specifically to resolve some of the doubts and conflicts in my heart. Of course, before that, there was something I had to say.
“I came here just to receive a word of thanks. Speaking of which… I’ve already resolved this level of trouble for the Austro-Hungarian tribe. Can’t even a little bit of gratitude be expressed, Chieftain?”
“Eh…”
The little fox took a step back in a hurry, forcing out a disdainful smile. “W-What do you mean? Don’t talk to me like that! If you want to see the chieftain, go set up an altar and worship the heavens!”
“Sigh, that’s unnecessary. After all, the real deal is right in front of me. Why go through all that trouble?”
Steadying myself, I looked at the little fox before me.
Tonight, I came to find the “chieftain” to resolve a certain doubt in my heart.
—
“That ‘Great Chieftain’ of the Austro-Hungarian tribe, who is completely elusive… is actually you, isn’t it, Zelus?”