Chapter 153: Multi-Race Alliance 3
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Wed-Sun
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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In a world where one can enhance their physical abilities through mana, civilians who can't harness such power feel incredibly weak.
Their flesh feels like the soft clay played with by children, and their bones are as brittle as the cornstarch trinkets from an elementary art class.
With just a slight exertion of strength, a person's wrist can be twisted and their skin ruptures.
The bones beneath the bleeding skin would also lose their shape and crumble.
When arms and legs are manipulated like so, they turn limp, like those of a broken toy.
P-Please, I'll talk, just... please!
It only takes five minutes for someone to go from being a person to being nothing more than a pile of flesh.
And that's even when being careful not to completely tear them apart.
They say the human body is 70% water, and in such cases, the victim starts to resemble a writhing puddle more than a person.
This is a technique I learned from the members of the Information Guild.
My overwhelming power isn't suited for delicate torture methods, so it was recommended that I simply perfect one method and stick to it.
After all, the bandits I encounter aren't brainwashed assassins from some secret organization.
So why bother with delicate torture techniques?
I'll speak, I really will
It's impossible to maintain silence when faced with the excruciating pain of limbs contorting and the body being torn apart.
And even if they spoke without enduring any pain, they're probably lying.
Now, out of the five bandits, four have become my informants.
They are individuals who join forces with monsters in order to survive, and they lack the mental fortitude and loyalty to keep secrets when they witness a person being turned into pulp right in front of their eyes.
...
Ah, right, I had a question.
The body, barely retaining its human form, had turned into a semi-liquid state, unable to maintain any posture.
Only after witnessing this horror did the remaining bandits, be they robbers or whatever, hurriedly bow their heads to the ground.
Daring not to meet my eyes, yet desperately wanting to live, they began to shout, their voices verging on desperate screams.
Pl-Please!
I know more than these guys!
Th-This bastard! No! He knows nothing, he just followed us around!
And so, the fourfold explanation begins.
The western region of the kingdom is more barren than the east.
It's less icy than the north but the very concept of the west is that of a wasteland.
There are neither plants to forage nor fruits to pick, and even animals like deer, which can occasionally offer some sustenance, are hard to come by.
As a result, the impoverished residents of the eastern territories clear forests and become farmers, in the west, most of them turn into bandits and robbers.
After all, there are more groups of defenseless merchants passing through than rabbits and deer living in small forests.
The four in front of me are no different.
Unable to pay taxes, they escaped from the nobles' territories, but they couldn't even establish their own village or be accepted by other villages.
Naturally, they became a group of bandits to avoid starving to death.
We, we've never killed anyone! We only ever took a little food from the merchants as a toll fee...
Yes, yes, that's right! We're just five guys! It's impossible for just the five of us to target every merchant. We only took some food and a few coins from a handful of merchants to avoid trouble. But then, suddenly, the orcs!
The ensuing story was somewhat predictable.
Since the routes that merchants frequently used were well-known, these bandits set up temporary shelters near those routes.
They would camp out, extorting tolls from easy targets.
But suddenly, dozens of orcs came and not only abducted the residents but also kidnapped the bandits.
The difference was that while the villagers and traders were tightly bound and imprisoned in dungeons or wooden cages, the bandits became the orcs' lackeys and were made to do the tasks around their tent village.
They bathed the growling wolves, restrained and fed the unconscious people to keep them alive, and organized the loot the orcs had brought back.
Uh, Roland?
What is it?
Well, we found the people who were captured. They show signs of abuse, but Grace says it wasn't the orcs...
Of course, they must have taken their stress out on the captured people.
While the orcs didn't harm people, it seems humans harmed other humans.
Although they call it abuse, is it really possible that there isn't a single woman among the captured traders and village residents?
It's obvious just by seeing Irene, whose voice is trembling with anger.
When they saw Irene in her nun's robes, their expressions twisted, but as soon as they received her sharp gaze, they quickly lowered their heads to the ground.
They didn't dare to look up.
Before I could step forward, Lily handled it swiftly.
"There's nothing more to hear, right? It gets too messy when you use your hands."
What can I do? It's all I've been taught.
Isn't it because you refused to learn anything else?
With their heads still bowed, their four severed heads rolled away, bidding farewell to their bodies.
As the red blood moistened the arid wasteland, I turned away with the trembling Irene and we headed towards where she came from.
Among the people there are those who were captured today and those who were already captured before.
There were merchants heading from west to east, village residents going to other villages for barter, and cheap mercenaries traveling to remote villages to earn some money.
... The orcs just kept them captive?
Yes, sir. And for some unknown reason, they sent a few hostages to the west at regular intervals.
These were people who, apart from being tied up, hadn't suffered any harm at the hands of the orcs.
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Raei Translations
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The orcs were establishing a forward base.
"What on earth is going on?"
They kidnapped humans, used them to increase their numbers, and gradually built the base.
They created tent villages in the wasteland, expanding their control over a wide area and solving the issue of limited manpower by kidnapping nearby bandits and the like.
Even if the area they had to manage expanded, it didn't matter because they would ride on wolves that were brought from who knows where.
Humans, who became bandits due to hunger, served under the orcs without complaints.
In return, they were fed and the orcs didn't mind them bothering the kidnapped women.
Thus, these humans naturally became loyal servants of the orcs.
It was a clever strategy typical of orcs: mobility with wolves and increasing numbers with the bandits.
"Never thought we'd see something like orc worshipers."
"What on earth is happening..."
The group muttered one by one, astonished by the absurd situation.
A world where the land was filled with the grace of the Goddess, blessed forests lay thickly in the heart of the kingdom, and priests occasionally heard divine revelations.
How unthinkable it was for humans to serve orcs in such a world, completely defying common sense.
Sure, there were orphans, a disparity between rich and poor, and people suffering from the nobility system, but it was not a world where humans had to submit to monsters.
-Why are these orcs so persistent?
-This linked quest is expanding the story quite a bit.
-It looks like the orcs will summon demons and start a war with the celestial beings.
-A thousand-year war between celestial beings and demons, please save the world, brave knight.
-Why are we climbing this amazing tower only to deal with orcs?
"Hey, we should complete the quest regardless. If it's a linked quest, it has to involve orcs. It's a linked quest for a quest about orcs. And weren't you guys bragging about it being a world-first? Should I just mute the chat?"
While the party was taking it seriously, it seems the viewers were starting to get bored.
Maybe because they just saw a pilotable golem which seemed to overshadow what's happening right now.
I mean, given a choice between piloting a 6-meter robot and a story about pig-headed orcs kidnapping people, I'd pick the robot too.
But public sentiment is what it is.
As a gamer, you can't overlook a linked quest, but as a streamer, you can't completely ignore viewer opinions either.
"Well, since we've killed all the orcs and bandits, there shouldn't be any more danger. We need to head west."
"The weapons are still there, so grab them. Once you cross three hills to the southwest, you'll reach a village."
While I wished we could call in a subjugation team through our connections, we still hadn't found Lily's companions, so we had to keep moving.
With the inventory stocked with tents and food, the decision was made to head toward the wastelands.
Though captured by orcs, most of the prisoners were merchants.
In other words, they were travelers in this rugged fantasy world with but a single backpack.
With about twenty of them, each armed with a knife, mediocre bandits wouldn't think to mess with them.
Watching the group of captured merchants gather the goods left in the tents, and set out with the women and villagers to escape the wastelands, we too set our steps deep into the wilderness again.
[Orcs and humans joined hands, or rather, orcs started to command humans.]
[From what the kidnapped people said, a few seemed to have been dragged deep into the wastelands.]
[Why are they capturing and caring for the humans instead of eating or torturing them...?]
-So, where is mecha bro?*
-Huh, the orc enthusiasts are gathering.
-Die Atmosphre in der Wildnis ist gut, aber ich mchte Roboter sehen.*
-Guys use a translator. Han Se-ah doesn't speak any other languages!!
Hmm, maybe I should help sway public opinion a little.
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Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om