Lewd Dungeon Master: This Orc Is Too Damn OP!

Chapter 375: Suppressing a Smirk

The walls were smashed.

The enemy could enter at any time, and the hostages we held could escape just as easily. Even if we rebuilt the walls, they’d be breached in no time. We were essentially facing the enemy from a position only slightly better than theirs.

"Ras Vegas really isn’t a good place for a defensive siege."

"An unexpected enemy showed up, that’s all."

Eila insisted it was an overwhelmingly powerful variable. But the fundamental problem with Ras Vegas couldn’t be solved.

"Even if the Stone Golems hadn’t crumbled so easily, the walls would have been breached eventually. It’s not like the adventurers don’t have mages among them."

"What the hell even is that human? No, is she even human to begin with?"

Luna seethed at the woman who had dropped a lance of light from the sky.

Levis Ann.

Holy Knight Commander, yet the wielder of a power whose nature remained unknown. Her condescending attitude, her overwhelming strength, and those vertically slit pupils...

"Could she be a dragon?"

"No way."

Lune floated the possibility of "dragon." If she were a dragon, she would certainly possess the ability to cast high-tier magic on the level of a meteor. Some of those ranked in the top seven among dungeon lords were even said to bear the title of "Demon Dragon."

’But a dragon at only level 92?’

If that were the case, either the system had an error, or Levis Ann’s magical ability was great enough to fool the system. But Levis Ann was a 5-star combatant at level 92.

"Let’s just say she had a hidden trump card. If she were a dragon, she could have fired that blast in rapid succession with power to spare."

"Then..."

"She stockpiled a massive amount and unleashed it all in one shot. Yeah. Let’s think of it as having forced the enemy to burn her ultimate."

Hours had passed since the subjugation force withdrew with the hostages, yet Ras Vegas was still standing. It had to be a skill with an enormous cooldown.

Thinking of it that way was easier on the nerves.

"Maybe I underestimated her because I was thinking about how she floundered in the dungeon. She’s clearly got the field experience to hold her own on a battlefield. Tch. If not for you all, things could have gone very badly."

"We’re sorry. We rearranged your troop deployments on our own..."

"No. A crisis like this is exactly when Luna should step up. You did well. I need to rethink my approach too."

There were times when you had to accept some risk and commit forces decisively. I reflected on my own military strategy while surveying the subjugation force’s camp across from us.

"Think the prisoners blended in all right?"

"They’re all veteran adventurers. Even if there are former colleagues among them... they can just say they were captured during the battle of Ras Vegas."

All the preparations were already in place. The subjugation force had taken the hostages they "rescued" back to their main camp without the slightest idea who those people really were.

"Right. Levis Ann aside... the soldiers will certainly be drunk on victory."

At the very least, they’d be satisfied with having brought down the walls.

At the very least, they’d be relieved at having saved so many people.

Judging by the lack of any commotion, word of the situation at Spica Castle hadn’t reached them yet.

"When the news arrives, it’ll be quite the spectacle. Heh heh. ...Oh, you’re back."

"Master, I’ve returned from scouting."

An Andras who had surveyed the skies above the enemy camp landed before us. The other harpies kept getting intercepted, making the Andras effectively our only scout.

"The enemy is keeping the human prisoners under tight control. It’s like they’re quarantining someone with a disease. They even set up a separate camp next to the main one."

"Well, they’re people who were violated by monsters and considered tainted, so that makes sense."

Whatever the reality, those people were, at face value, victims violated by monsters. On top of that, if any had not only been used as breeding stock for monsters but were actually carrying children, the hostages were destined to be burned at the stake by the Church. The soldiers certainly wouldn’t want to lay a finger on them.

"Heh heh. Then it’s our victory. We can win this very comfortably."

If Levis Ann had caught on, she probably would have killed the human adventurers without mercy. But if they were merely being quarantined, our odds of winning skyrocketed.

"What do humans fear most? Death, obviously. Heh heh. No matter how strong Levis Ann is... she won’t be able to overcome the terror of the masses."

I had baited Levis Ann hard in the opening battle with the lure of hope.

"The stronger you are, the less you understand: the misery of the weak, who drop at the slightest cold."

Levis Ann might survive. But my enemy was the subjugation force as a whole, not Levis Ann alone.

"If you can’t take out the enemy commander, you have no choice but to deal with every last one of her subordinates."

I sowed the terror of death into the enemy camp.

"Now then, let’s make control itself impossible."

I. Spread. A plague. Into the enemy camp.

***

The adventurer Rot Lircon was assigned to manage the rescued prisoners. "Manage" was a generous word; every last one of them lay silently in the field, filthy and disheveled.

"...Tch."

Every one of them sat there in a daze, as if they’d lost all will to live. No matter how hard they tried to keep going, all that awaited them was being branded as witches and burned at the stake.

"Poor souls."

"What’s so pitiful about them?"

A fellow adventurer on guard and management duty asked.

"It’s not like they wanted to be violated by monsters, yet they’ll be burned at the stake indiscriminately just for carrying a monster’s child. That’s what I find heartbreaking."

Rot felt genuinely sorry for them.

"To determine whether they’re carrying a child or not, someone high up in the Church will have to come and make the judgment. Until then, they’ll be alive but not really living. Think they have the money to buy an indulgence? Their property was probably all confiscated while they were held captive."

"That may be true, but... doesn’t the Knight Commander count as someone high up?"

"Friend, you don’t know how this works."

Rot lowered his voice to a whisper.

"The Goddess Church has people known as inquisitors. Serving under the cardinal, they oversee the purification rites for burning witches at the stake. To be precise, their job is to burn those who’ve committed taboos. Things like raping a child, or raping one’s own daughter."

"...Good lord, there are people who commit such abominations?"

"Humans worse than beasts exist everywhere. Anyway... even the Holy Knight Commander can’t kill those people on a whim."

In the end, to hold a witch trial, they had to keep all of them alive and gathered in one place until the inquisitors arrived. If even one escaped, it would cause enormous chaos.

"But how do you know so much about this?"

"...I happened to overhear things. Someone in my family was taken by monsters."

"I’m sorry."

The conversation died down for a moment. But the man beside him soon opened his mouth again.

"By the way, is it true? That you’ll turn into a demon if you touch a woman who’s been violated by a monster?"

"...As if."

"Someone I know told me to never, ever do it with a woman carrying a monster’s seed. Said if you did, you’d be devoured into her womb."

"What utter nonsense. If you’re going to spout gibberish, go fetch the meals."

Lunchtime was approaching. The subjugation force needed rest, and they’d ended up with nearly a hundred extra mouths to feed. The rescued prisoners looked to be in terrible condition.

"No matter how hard the fighting, you’ve got to eat before you fight."

Shortly after, the meals arrived. Some of the mess duty soldiers who had laboriously hauled over wooden barrels of soup realized where they were supposed to go and set the barrels down.

"W-wait a moment! You’re telling us to serve food to those people directly?!"

"Yes. These are people who’ve been through terrible ordeals. For them, we’ve prepared liquid meals..."

"Father! This isn’t right! I only got stuck on duty this rotation, so why does it have to be here of all places?! It’s not like you’re going to stand beside me and perform a purification!"

"P-please, keep your voice down. People can hear...!"

...There was no way the rescued prisoners would receive proper meals. Those who should have been feeding them didn’t even want to go near them.

"Wh-what if I come into contact with them for no reason and get tainted too?! I don’t have the money for an indulgence!"

"Damn it! Are you kidding me?!"

A man nearby who’d been tearing into jerky jumped to his feet and charged over.

"Those people were all ordinary people! Would you do this even if your own mother were over there in their place?!"

"My mother would understand even if I did, you bastard!!"

"What’d you say, bastard?!"

A fierce dispute erupted within the subjugation force. Priests scrambled to mediate, and adventurers and conscripts hurled insults at each other.

"...Heh heh."

The women who had been brought in as hostages clutched their bellies, every one of them struggling to suppress a smirk.

"...Tch tch. Enough to drive you crazy."

Rot looked up at the sky and sighed.

***

"Commander. The soldiers’ condition is alarming."

"So is mine."

"I’m not joking. If things go wrong, there could be a riot."

"I’m one step from exploding myself. ...Phew. Hard to stay calm. Tch."

Inside the tent, behind a curtain drawn over her bed, Levis Ann ground her teeth as she gave the priest his orders.

"Now what’s the problem? It’s not as though we cut the soldiers’ rations. The prisoners were given meals on humanitarian grounds. What kind of lunatics are making an issue of that? Are they saying women violated by monsters aren’t even worth feeding?"

"N-no, that’s not it. Some of the adventurers assigned to mess duty are refusing to serve food to the prisoners. They claim that just breathing near them will spread demonic energy..."

"What a load of crap."

Levis Ann muttered derisively and scraped the sheets with her nails. The grating sound was anything but ordinary.

"If demonic energy spread that easily, the prisoners themselves would have turned into demons already. Idiots."

Thud! Levis Ann clicked her tongue and slammed the bed. The irritable noise made the priest flinch and back away.

"Still no word from the Holy Knights?"

"...Word should have properly reached them through the Marquisate by now."

"Has the scout we sent to Spica Castle not returned yet?"

"Assuming a full-speed round trip, they should arrive within the hour at least."

"...I’m going to lose my mind."

Rrrip. Fabric tore as something sharp scraped through it. Levis Ann’s agitation was on full display.

"We haven’t achieved a single proper result. We damaged the walls and rescued hostages, but we may have to hold out here indefinitely. The war situation keeps deteriorating, and everyone around me is nothing but idiots. The humans are even fighting among themselves... The demons probably work together better than this lot."

"Pardon?"

"I’m saying it’s maddening. If the Baron had gathered proper intelligence from the start, I wouldn’t have suffered this humiliation. If I’d known the enemy’s strength was at this level, I would have kept the Saintess here!"

Levis Ann tore at her hair and began thrashing on the bed. She thrashed so violently the entire tent shook.

"What in the world is this about?! That we trespassed into the Elven Forest?!"

The elves were the single biggest factor driving Levis Ann mad. The priest immediately bowed and answered.

"W-we’ve confirmed it. We definitely went around the Elven Forest."

"But the queen said we did!!"

The priest had no answer for Levis Ann’s sharp shriek. Her irritability had an edge sharper than a woman suffering menstrual cramps.

"The elves have sided with the Demon King’s Army! They’ve drawn their bows against humans! Do you understand what that means?!"

"F-foolish people who refuse to follow the Goddess have increa..."

"You imbecile!"

Bang! Levis Ann threw back the curtain and rushed at the priest. Beneath her robe, something like silver scales glinted on her wrists. Her pupils were slit vertically.

"It means every demi-human race claiming neutrality could side with the Demon King’s Army! Or even the elves hiding elsewhere! They’ll obviously be swayed by the elves’ choice. Especially since it was the Elf Queen’s decision...!"

"B-but those are foolish people who’ve conspired with the Demon King’s Army..."

"Did you not see her use divine power?! That elf used divine power denser than mine! And she didn’t store it up over months; she did it right there, on the spot! With an orc backing her up!"

The priest fell silent. A glint of madness flickered in Levis Ann’s eyes.

"There will absolutely be more heretics!"

The appearance of an elf wielding divine power. And the fact that the Goddess had neither revoked that power nor sent divine retribution, even though the Demon King’s Army was using it.

[Why does the Goddess sit idle while the Demon King’s Army, which threatens humanity, uses divine power?]

[Was the war against the Demon King’s Army truly commanded by the Goddess? Could the Saintess and the cardinal be deceiving the masses?]

[Could it be... that the being called the Goddess doesn’t exist at all?]

"The entire Goddess Church could be shaken to its foundations...!"

Levis Ann released the priest’s collar and bit down on her teeth, visibly anxious.

"This can’t go on. I need to charge in right now and run both the orc and the elf through..."

"We have an emergency!!"

A soldier burst in, throwing the tent flap open.