"Did you feed it on the way here."
"No. It fought too hard for us to think of feeding it. Why."
"Good. That was the right call."
With the monster between them.
Two humans were talking.
Watching those humans.
‘How did it come to this.’
The old shaman of the Green Manes.
Borjin thought.
‘Time is urgent. There is no room to be sitting here like this.’
Right now.
The tribe he belonged to was facing a very great crisis.
So great a crisis the tribe might be destroyed.
When the crisis of destruction came to the tribe.
To resolve it.
Borjin had been moving in great haste.
But.
There was one thing he had not expected.
‘Who would have thought there would be insane natives wandering inside our own territory.’
What caught his feet.
Was an enemy he had not anticipated at all.
The natives’ force.
‘That there would be those who enter the territory of a force at war and operate so brazenly. They are clearly not in their right minds.’
And.
That fact made Borjin’s heart heavier.
‘To think we did not even know such people were operating within the territory.’
He felt in his bones all the more.
How great the crisis that had come to the tribe was.
He had to respond to this issue at once.
He could only lament being stuck here.
‘Even so, I will never betray my kin.’
He had already endured harsh torture.
He had not opened his mouth.
Whatever he went through.
He would never do anything that could harm the tribe.
He had work left to do, so he had not thrown away his life.
If not for that.
He would sooner have taken his own life than do something that would harm the tribe.
‘I am not like that High Shaman.’
Unlike the traitor who betrayed the tribe and drove it to the brink of destruction.
Borjin vowed he would never betray the tribe.
Yet.
"Now. Say ah."
-Kk. Krrrrrk.
It did not take long.
For that vow to break.
****
[War Chef’s Wholehearted Honmar Jerky of Candid Feelings]
[When consumed, you become very honest.]
Clap.
"All right. You ate well. Let’s start again."
After a bout of forced feeding.
I clapped and stepped up to the thing and spoke.
"Name."
-Borjin. That is. My name.
Only a few hours ago the thing had spat in my face and shown defiance.
Now that attitude was gone without a trace and it answered meekly.
Only.
Perhaps he was deeply resentful of the fact he was opening his mouth.
He gnashed his teeth and glared at me.
‘Uh-huh. I am not scared.’
It is a dish I have used many times.
Even while showing that hostility, if you ask anything it answers faithfully.
Anyway.
After feeding him a heap of ‘honesty,’ he was answering smoothly in Korean.
And answering in Korean means one thing.
"You. So you are one of those who handled humans as slaves."
-Krrk. That. Is so.
"Ha."
He could not bring himself to refute it.
He turned his head.
It is not like these ones are overflowing with scholarly zeal.
What other reason would there be to learn another race’s language.
‘To use usable humans as slaves.’
We had already heard from humans rescued from them.
That there were shamans who could use Korean.
‘I would love to cook you on the spot.’
I had to hold back for now.
First I had to ask what I wanted to know.
The thing I was most curious about right now.
"You. How did you end up getting caught."
The circumstances under which he was taken so easily.
That itself.
No matter how much you lose a battle.
Not only did they leave hostile forces roaming their territory.
They let things get to the point of a kidnapping like this.
It is strange.
-Right now our tribe is very weakened.
"No. I know that."
We did smash them in the fight.
The one called Great Warrior and the one called High Shaman were dealt with in that process.
It would be strange if they had not weakened.
-No. What I mean is a little different.
"Huh?"
But.
What I thought and what he meant were a little different.
-Our tribe is more specialized for war than anyone. We have gone through innumerable wars over long years. And not every single battle ended in victory.
He seemed to have considerable pride in his race.
Even though he had been forced to open his mouth, confidence tinged his manner of speaking.
-We certainly suffered heavy damage in the last battle. But in our tribe’s history, defeats of this degree have happened more than once or twice.
"Is that something to be proud of."
-If those defeats had destroyed us, it would be shameful. But despite countless defeats our tribe always rose again.
"Hm."
In that case.
He might have grounds for pride.
-The damage we suffered from you lot is no exception. We could have recovered the troops lost then in three months.
How many died then.
And to say they could make that up in three months.
"Those ones called Great Warrior and High Shaman died."
-That part pains us, but there are any number of people who can take those places, if a little inferior. I myself could fill that place if need be.
"You are High Shaman class."
-Of course. My mana is a little lower, but in wisdom I am not behind at all.
"Uh-huh. Sure. If you say so."
Even if the last bit is bluster.
The fact that his race has tremendous production capacity.
Is something I also confirmed through Ingredient Appraisal.
In that case something nags at me.
‘When I asked Taejun, there was nothing like that.’
Right after the battle with these ones.
Winter came.
We chose to reduce external operations and go into internal refit.
But even if winter came.
If we set our minds to it, it was not impossible to go out and mop up their remnants.
Through Ariella we had some internal information on them.
We could have pressed on, even with some losses.
The reason we did not.
‘Because Taejun’s astrology said there was no need to hurry.’
In fact.
Even though we pulled many forces from the front with the Green Manes.
There has been no big problem to this point.
If they could have recovered that loss so quickly.
There would already have been some problem.
So what was the reason.
-The reason I say the tribe is weakened is not because we lost that battle.
"...?"
-Because something dreadful that must never happen happened in the tribe.
Just a moment ago the old shaman had been showing pride in his race.
He could not hold back his anger and spoke through clenched teeth.
-A civil war broke out.
"...A civil war."
A civil war.
Those monsters who banded together so tightly to attack us.
A civil war.
"A civil war out of nowhere. What is the reason."
-The reason.
When I asked that.
He did not answer. He stared into my face.
"What. Do I have something on my face."
-No. I was only thinking it is a little strange that you are the one asking that.
"Huh."
-You asked the reason a civil war broke out.
Even as he answered.
He could not take his eyes off my face.
-Half of it is because of you.
"...Huh?"
-To be more exact.
The creature let out a deep sigh, as if stifled.
-Because of the Spirit of Darkness the High Shaman summoned to kill you.
...What.
Why is that coming up here.
****
[Green Manes Tribe]
A branch of the orc race, this tribe worships the god of the steppe like most other orcs.
They communed with the spirit of the earth, a herald of the steppe god, to gain strength.
There was a degree of the earth spirit’s influence.
In how they became a tribe for war.
The more land they came to possess.
The deeper their communion with their spirit grew.
All tribespeople could gain greater strength.
‘More land.’
‘More strength.’
The tribe spent its days in unending wars of conquest.
Their course was similar even after arriving on Earth.
Their attempt to expand their territory as quickly as possible.
Was to increase communion with the spirit of the earth.
But.
Among the orcs, very rarely.
They communed not with the spirit of the earth but with something else.
No.
There were cases where they made a [Contract].
That being is very sly and powerful.
Its greed is said to be bottomless.
Fiend, wraith, wicked spirit, evil ghost.
Or.
The being called a demon.
Some time ago, the war between the Legion and the Green Manes.
On the last battlefield.
Krrk.
The aged shaman.
Borjin was there as well.
Watching the flow of the battle being fought.
Borjin thought to himself.
‘The color of defeat grows dark.’
It was a war they had begun with confidence.
But the natives who were their enemy possessed very strong power.
A shaman powerful enough to warp their astrology.
A lofty fortress that could hold back their numbers.
Mysterious guardians who protected that fortress.
And even iron weapons of fire that the natives possessed.
A formidable foe in themselves.
If it had ended there, there would have been no problem.
But a fatal misfortune overlapped with it.
‘A powerful demon that appeared in the tribe’s rear.’
How unfortunate they were.
By chance, in the rear of the tribe there appeared a monster that began to dominate the tribe’s warriors.
To suppress that monster, forces were scattered in all directions.
The tide of war.
Began to turn overwhelmingly against the tribe.
And.
After that misfortune overlapped, a great pitched battle unfolded.
There Borjin saw a sight he could not believe.
Kwooooom.
-Keuuuugh.
Kargara, the Great Warrior, the tribe’s strongest fighter.
That man.
Was being driven back in a fight against a native warrior.
-A warrior who could rout even the Great Warrior.
Even if the Great Warrior had been weakened by the seals of this land.
Even if the land they had conquered was narrow and the spirit’s blessing was lacking.
‘A berserker of legend has manifested.’
The Great Warrior’s defeat.
Was something that must never happen.
‘We must retreat.’
Something that must never happen had happened.
There was no meaning in continuing this battle.
-Krrk. Borjin.
-I know. Brothers. Retreat as quickly as possible.
Judging from the looks of the other shamans.
They seemed to think the same as he did.
He saw the shamans begin edging back step by step.
‘We lost this fight, but there is no need to rush.’
It is no exaggeration to say the Green Manes were born for war.
They had gone through war countless times.
And in all wars you cannot take only victory.
Defeat was not unfamiliar to the Green Manes.
‘First priority is to retreat while preserving as much of the force as possible. We can replenish power any time.’
Though defeated today.
If they revived their strength and raised war again.
‘If we bide our time for the next chance, then we can easily.’
This loss now.
They could overturn it as much as they wished.
So the shamans thought.
[It is a contract.]
A voice came from far away.
At that voice the shamans could only be aghast.
The first reason.
Was that the voice belonged to someone very familiar.
And the second.
Was the word carried in that voice.
Contract.
-T. The High Shaman.
-What did you just say.
A race born for war.
And in war, unity among members is essential.
From the tribe’s beginning to its fall.
There had been only one time.
When the unity among the tribespeople broke.
That one and only split.
Not only cost even their Great Chieftain his life.
It was the trigger that made them refugees between dimensions.
-Ku. Kurdan.
-High Shaman. Why would you.
A contract with a demon.
That horrific contract.
Was reenacted before the tribespeople’s eyes.
[The Spirit of Darkness descends.]
A demon’s servitor exuding a dreadful presence descended on the battlefield.
It rushed to slay a native.
-Ah. Aaah.
When Borjin saw that.
He had no interest in what that demon’s servitor did.
Or whether it accomplished its aim.
His wavering gaze.
Swept his surroundings.
-The High Shaman has made a contract with a demon.
The leader of the shamans.
The High Shaman made a contract with a demon.
Even.
He summoned the demon’s servitor at the cost of the Great Warrior’s body.
One thing above all.
-Betrayal. Betrayal.
-The shamans have betrayed the tribe.
That sight.
Was witnessed by every tribesperson on the field.
An old and seasoned shaman.
Borjin knew at once.
‘A great crisis is coming to the tribe.’
The spark of that crisis would not be those external natives.
It would arise within them.
