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The forest West of Krassel.

A long highway ran between the trees.

It had been built back during the war to improve the movement of troops and supplies from the Fortress City towards the frontlines and was named the “Brixus Highway” after the general who ordered its construction.

Further Westward, it split in two, one path leading to the Elf Nation and the other towards the Orc Country.

It was a relatively narrow path, barely wide enough for two carriages rolling abreast, but as it was rarely used, it had never necessitated an expansion.

Not many people ever had business in the Orc Country, and if anyone wanted to go to the Elf Nation, there were better, faster routes.

Incidentally, Orcs generally didn’t make use of roads and other similar transportation infrastructure, which is why Bash didn’t go through this highway on his way to Krassel.

Their sharp senses allowed them to retain their bearing even without clear landmarks, and their sturdy constitution allowed them to traverse rough terrain.

Why would they need roads if they could navigate straight through the woods just as quickly?

It was here, on the Brixus Highway that the first incident had occurred.

A wagon was attacked by bugbears, and the merchant on board was killed.

Getting assaulted by wild creatures was a common enough occurrence that it could be overlooked.

Even though the war was over, it didn’t mean that the creatures that attacked people had disappeared.

Low-intelligence magical beasts still roamed around and occasionally targeted travelers and merchants.

However, the frequency of the attacks in this area was strangely high.

Which is why Houston, the Knight Commander of Krassel, had asked hunters to cull the local bugbear populace.

Most of the time, these incidents occurred when the forest’ magical beast population got too high and could no longer be sustained by natural food sources. Out of hunger, they would attack passersby to hopefully feed themselves.

In which case, the solution was to simply bring the population back down to manageable levels.

The hunters had gone out and eradicated a decent number of bugbears.

It wasn’t feasible to completely exterminate them from the Western forest but taking out several large herds would help in decreasing the intensity of the raiding.

Usually, the matter would end right then and there.

The assaults wouldn’t disappear entirely, but they would happen less frequently.

However, that wasn’t the case.

The attacks continued at the same pace even after the bugbears were culled.

This was awfully irregular.

Houston thought something was fishy about the whole thing, and sent Judith, a relatively new knight, to investigate.

Although she was a newcomer, she had been knighted nearly a year prior.

The Knight Commander thought she was ready to be entrusted with some real work.

Judith was eager to start her investigation.

He made some decent headway into the case, even though she was going in blind, and had gathered some rather interesting information.

First, there weren’t that many bugbears inhabiting the western forest.

Even if the bugbears that were subjugated by the hunters were added to the total, there weren’t enough of them to justify such a high frequency of attacks.

Second, some of the freight belonging to the trader who had been attacked had vanished.

The amount was small enough that the major merchant associations with whom the merchants were affiliated had to check their inventory lists to figure out that something was missing.

Bugbears and other wildlife might steal goods out of curiosity, but in this case, it had happened too frequently to be a coincidence.

From these two facts, Houston inferred that this was a man-made attack.

Someone was raiding the merchants, making it appear as if bugbears were the perpetrators, and then making off with the merchandise.

However, the culprit was never caught.

The raids kept happening.

But no matter how they looked at it, the trail kept leading straight back to the bugbears.

Bugbears were intelligent and usually wouldn’t approach caravans and carriages that had armed escorts, but it’s been three years since the war ended, and there were now many new up-and-coming merchants traveling the land, not all of whom can afford guards.

The only thing anyone could gather from the clues was that the robberies were caused by bugbears.

With human lives at stake, the were no way she could use her men as bait in order to observe the attacks in real-time.

Judith’s investigation was at a standstill.

Information she couldn’t gather, a truth she couldn’t see, a culprit she couldn’t catch… these were all making her feel troubled and frustrated.

The fact that this was her first mission only added to her impatience.

While Judith was racking her brains, pouring over the case, a report came in.

A merchant had been attacked by an Orc in the forest.

She narrowly escaped, but if she hadn’t, she would have been raped.

Judith pounced on the only lead she has had for days, yelling out, “This is it!” and began looking into it.

She discovered Orcish footprints at the scene, followed the trail and found that they led back to Krassel.

After asking around for witnesses, she received intel that an Orc had entered the Fortress City.

Further investigation revealed that the Orc was staying at an inn.

At this point, she should have realized it was highly unlikely that this Orc was the criminal she was looking for, but she was blinded by her mounting frustrations.

How she interpreted it was, “What the hell, the highway bandits were in town this whole time! No wonder I didn’t notice! It’s always darkest under the lighthouse! Alright, I’ll use this opportunity to round up all the thieves in town!”

And so, she gathered up her men and went too to the inn, which led to Bash’s mistaken arrest.

“So that’s it. What do you think, Mister Bash?

Bash was observing the scene of the crime.

What he saw was a broken-down carriage and a dead draft horse, harness still attached, whose decomposing carcass was covered in flies and maggots.

Going to-and-fro the area were various footprints, clearly indented in the dirt.

There were three different types of footprints: the merchant’s, Bash’s…and countless bugbear tracks.

“…It’s a bugbear attack.”

Bash concluded after taking a look at the site.

During the war, this happened often.

Most of the time, the perpetrators were enemy soldiers, but occasionally, supply lines would get struck by wild creatures.

Orcs, who were nearly all warriors, usually had no trouble fighting them off, but even then, if the monsters were numerous enough, they could be caught with their pants down.

The scene in front of him looked just like that.

“Hmm, yeah, you’re just an Orc after all. Are you still looking?”

“Ugh…”

Judith snorted goadingly.

Bash was a warrior. He was good at making things more deader, not… this.

All he could do was say it as he saw it.

Still, he wanted to prove to himself and Judith – mostly Judith, that he could find a lead.

“Yes, well… First, there were no traces of any civilized races left behind except for the merchant’s. The cargo was almost completely untouched. Even if the enemy was trying to cover this up, it’s unlikely that they would take so little of the merchandise… They also left the food and water behind. Were we still at war, we’d dismiss this as a bugbear attack.”

“Right. So?”

Bash kicked his brain into high gear.

The only time he had used his noggin this much was when he had nearly been buried alive by the Dwarven army in the Alyosha Cavern.

Back then, he had to use every resource, every scrap of knowledge and information at his disposal to get out of there alive.

“…If Humans did this, then they must have a purpose.”

“I’m telling you; the whole point is to rob the merchants without leaving any traces that it was done by Human hands. If the authorities don’t figure it out, then the perpetrators can prolong their banditry career. Gosh, Orcs are so stupid…”

“Hmm…”

Bash glanced over at his Faerie partner.

Back in the war, it was commonplace for Orcs to ask for advice from their Faerie allies, who usually had a wider worldview.

Zell, who had been floating around the scene and taking in the clues, shook his head when he noticed Bash’s gaze.

“Well, from this, all I can say is that it’s a bugbear attack.”

“Really? That’s it? Of course, that’s it. Even a child could have figured that much just by looking. Listen, no matter how much we looked into it, we couldn’t find anything else.”

Judith was proud that the pair couldn’t figure out more than she had, but also slightly disappointed.

If a Faerie like Zell of all people couldn’t reach a different conclusion, surely Bash wouldn’t be able to.

“Alright, let’s track it down.”

“Yeah! Good idea! Let’s go!”

“Let’s go? What are you talking about?”

Still pridefully puffing her chest out with her hands on her hips, Judith looked at them quizzically.

“What do you mean, tracking down? Track down what? The bugbears?”

Judith asked, confused, a question mark hovering over her pretty head.

“Track them? What are you going on about? Bugbears are cunning, conniving creatures. Even our best hunters can’t track them down.”

Bugbears couldn’t be tracked.

That was the consensus among Humans.

The beasts would cleverly cover their tracks and only defecate when they return to their nests.

And when travelling to and from their homes, they would cross rivers and even through the treetops to hide their footprints.

When Human hunters needed to kill bugbears, they would first need to lure them in with a special incense.

The incense was made from bugbear blood and entrails, and when burned, it made them believe that their territory was being invaded, and they would swarm over to repel the intruder.

Of course, you had to spread the scent in bugbear territory in the first place.

“…Huh? What do Humans do?”

But that was just Human common sense.

It didn’t necessarily apply to the other races.

“What? Do Faeries do things differently?”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Why would we Faeries do something as barbaric as tracking and hunting? Really? Bugbears? We don’t even have those in Faerie Country. I mean, sure maybe some of us might chase after them for fun, but I don’t personally know anyone who does…”

Bugbears were magical beasts that did not originally inhabit Human controlled lands.

They only began appearing here after the war.

Why? Did the bugbears migrate? Even though they were fiercely territorial, and usually settled in a single area?

No, no.

It was because the Humans had seized a certain race’s territory.

Bugbears were only naturally occurring in that specific area.

So, in which race’s territory could the bugbears originally be found?

“If you’re going after bugbears, you should go see an Orc. We’ve been doing this for hundreds of years.”

Yes, they were native to Orcish lands.