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“There’s an intruder! Come on guys!”

Grasping his steel mace, Boggs ran off towards the cave entrance.

The bugbears and bandits followed behind him.

As individuals that had gone through years of war, they were quick to act.

Moments later, the lights went out.

Only the dim glow emanating from Zell illuminated the surroundings.

She had been left utterly alone – this was her chance to escape.

However, the fact that the brigands had referred to an “intruder” bothered the Faerie.

There was something… off about the way Bash had decided to rush in.

“Damn it! Where the hell did that come from?”

“Hey, there’s a woman here! There’s a girl!”

“Somebody get some light over here! Gahhh!”

“Who’s down! Hey!”

“I don’t know, it’s so dark! Aah!”

“So get some light over here!”

For a while, the cacophony of battle echoed out through the cave.

But there was no clashing of metal on metal, only dull thuds and shouting.

People were fighting.

But Bash wasn’t there.

If it were him, the sounds coming from the combat would have been much louder and flashier.

Sensing that something was up, Zell decided to stay put.

This had happened before during the war.

In cases like these, it was often better for her to stay still than to immediately look to escape.

“Okay…”

Zell took off with a flick of her wings.

When things were uncertain, reconnaissance became the priority.

She couldn’t see that well in the dark, but at least it would be something.

This was her line of thought as she darted through the stone corridors, but when she had finally arrived, the battle was already over, and the lights had been restored.

The dim glow of the torches revealed wounded soldiers, crawling on the dirt floor.

At their center was Judith, rolling painfully on the ground, her head bleeding and her hands tied.

“…What’s this?”

“Oh, Zell… well, I think you can figure it out. Looks like the local knights are here to take us down.”

“Ah…”

Judith looked towards Zell.

For a second, the Faerie was worried Judith would reveal her identity as a scout. Zell was masquerading as a “bad guy”, and anything the knight said might have blown her cover.

The female knight looked surprised for a moment, but then quickly shot a hateful glance at Zell.

The meaning behind her change in expression wasn’t clear to Zell.

But she was the female that Bash has his eyes on.

Whatever it was, she couldn’t let her die.

“Hehehe… Hey, Boss, can I get the woman?”

“Dumbass, she’s for all of us.”

“Yeah, you can’t keep her to yourself.”

“All right, put the girl in jail, kill the men and throw their corpses outside.”

Judith’s face went pale as she heard this.

“Kuh… urgh… just… kill me…”

She spoke brave words, yet her face was distraught with fear.

Her eyes were wet with tears, and her teeth were clattering.

A quiet sob occasionally escaped from the back of her throat, as if she was about to break down and cry.

[Whoa, this is good.]

Zell thought this was the perfect opportunity.

A female knight in desperate straits.

If Bash could save her, his stock would go up exponentially.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Judith’s heart was already in the bag.

“Hey! You can’t kill her right now you know! You’ve been incognito this whole time, do you want to ruin it? Listen, if anyone finds the body, the knights will swarm over this place. They’ll come in droves!”

The bandits shot disdainful looks at Zell. Who was this little Faerie to tell them what to do?

But she didn’t even flinch.

Mostly because this particular Faerie had a knack for being absolutely incapable to read the atmosphere.

“Yeah, that’s right! Let’s execute these guys outside, tomorrow morning! Then, we’ll set it up to make it look like the bugbears did it! We’ll find a nice little clearing in the woods, and spray blood everywhere. Then we set up a couple of bugbear corpses around and pretend that it was a hard-fought battle that the knights unfortunately lost. Whew, like, if I put myself in Human shoes, even I would be fooled! And Humans are smart! Listen, guys, you got a nice thing going on here, right? Nice little business venture, robbing people, right? It’d be a shame to let it all go to waste. Oh! And tomorrow, it’ll be nice and bright, and you’ll kill them while being able to clearly see their faces, right! They’ll be in despair and fear and all. Yeah, killing them like that would definitely feel nice, right?”

Zell’s words came out like the bolts of a repeating crossbow and fell on the bandits like a hail of arrows, gradually changing their attitude towards the whole thing.

[Huh, I guess that’s true.]

[We can always kill them, right? No need to do it right away.]

[Yeah, I guess we can afford to do that.]

Zell’s words had enough charm within them to make them think over their potential actions.

In some corners of Vastonia, she was also known as “Zell the Flatterer”.

There’s no one who wouldn’t be tempted by this faerie’s coaxing.

“Ah, that sounds good. Alright, take all the men and lock them up… And you, my dear knight, I’ll take you to cloud nine right in front of your subordinates, hehe…”

Finally, Boggs made his decision.

He grabbed Judith by her hair and dragged her into the depths of the cave.

As she was being pulled away, the knight glared at Zell with despair and the pain of treason in her eyes.

[Yes! Alright Mister, I’ve got this all set up. I’ve done all I could. If this doesn’t work, nothing will! All you gotta do now is show up at the right time and save this poor damsel in distress!”

Though Zell’s perspective was… slightly different.

When Bash woke up, he found Houston nervously holding his own head and pulling at his hair.

“Seriously… this can’t be true… no way…”

And there was no sign of Judith and the others.

“What happened to the other men?”

Hearing Bash, Houston looked towards him, his eyes hollow and sullen.

“I’m embarrassed to say that they seem to have cast a sleep spell on us and gone in ahead of us…”

Sleeping magic.

They were spells that put the target into a state of deep sleep for around an hour.

“Did you order them to rush in?”

“No… they went against my commands…”

“… Humans disobey orders?”

“Sometimes… If they don’t agree with it.”

Bash was in culture shock.

In Orcish society, anyone who disobeyed an order was immediately killed or banished from the country.

Orders were sacred and absolute.

“What do humans do when that happens?”

“Well, mostly you get lectured and your pay gets docked… possible house arrest, or even revocation of knighthood, if it applies.”

“Ah… so it’s not that severe of a crime, is it?”

“We’re at peace… and humans have a lot of incompetent commanders. There’s a strong argument to be made against dying due to orders coming from inept superiors… I’m ashamed of myself… I’m sorry.”

“Hmm…”

Whether Houston was qualified or not didn’t matter to Bash.

He was surprised that violation of orders wasn’t that serious an offense to Humans, but that didn’t matter right now.

What mattered was the stench of blood wafting out of the cave.

Judith, the exquisite female he was trying to wed, might be in danger.

“So, what do we do now?”

“If they cast a sleeping spell on us and still haven’t returned after its effects wore off, its very likely that they’re all dead. The best thing to do right now would be to return to Krassel and get a proper strike force together…”

“Is this really the time to be thinking things over that deeply?”

Bash glared at Houston.

He couldn’t withdraw now.

“You’re in command. I’ll follow your orders.”

Orcs obeyed their commanders without question.

But they could still voice their opinions.

Though it wasn’t considered a very commendable act.

“We Orcs are not cowards. We will follow any orders and fight till the end.”

Houston looked back at Bash.

Green skin, two tusks, tight muscles.

He was a small, nondescript orc.

But he was unmistakably the man from whom Houston had been running away during the war.

The usual Houston would have abandoned Judith without thinking twice.

He’d already be on his way back to town right now.

She had it coming.

It was the price she had to pay for violating his orders.

He couldn’t risk it all for some idiot like her.

Even if he was criticized, even if he was called a coward, he wouldn’t have cared.

His life was his number one priority.

But right now, he was in front of Bash.

The man Houston feared most of all.

The man whose strength he recognized above everyone else’s.

The Knight Commander was proud of the actions he had undertaken during the war.

Yes, he ran away from Bash because of fear.

But it was also necessary to ensure victory.

To his point, Houston survived, the Humans won, and the Orcs lost.

He didn’t want the Orc Hero to believe that he was just fleeing due to cowardice, and things just managed to work themselves out for the best.

“…I see. We’ll raid the cave, rescue the prisoners, and kill all the bandits.”

“Understood.”

The Orc Hero smiled, baring his fangs.