Ch.172172. Invasion, Omen (2)

In this world, there exists a race called Orcs.

This race, not much different from the Orcs in fictional works from my previous life like most living beings I’ve encountered in this world, actually resembles what we imagine such a race to be, at least in appearance.

Light greenish skin, naturally sturdy muscular bodies, large jaws with protruding lower tusks, and strangely pig-like ugly faces.

These Orcs—exactly as we picture them the moment we hear the word “Orc”—are simply put, a warrior race where the entire species consists of warriors.

With an average height of about 2 meters, they are born with considerably large bodies compared to others of the same weight class, and even without special training, those large bodies become filled with muscle.

Moreover, Orcs have excellent recovery abilities and tenacious vitality, making them difficult to kill. By nature, they are also extremely aggressive.

To use an analogy, the entire race is essentially infected with a “war-maniac virus,” and the environment in which Orcs live also plays a major role in encouraging this aggression.

Orcs primarily inhabit a region called the “Great Plains” that connects the Eastern and Western continents. Naturally, such plains are not very suitable for humanoid races to live in.

With little rainfall and few rivers, water is scarce, making it difficult to farm freely. The significantly low temperatures prevent most food crops that grow in temperate climates from flourishing, and these low temperatures are also fatal to living beings.

Furthermore, this plains region is a quasi-desert area commonly known as a steppe climate, where rainfall is extremely low, making it difficult for even small shrubs to grow, let alone trees.

Obviously, the most one can do to survive in this terrain is nomadic herding, but nomadism is, of course, an extremely arduous and difficult lifestyle.

Life protecting and moving livestock—one’s only assets—in cold, remote terrain is naturally harsh and difficult. During this process, just one cold wave could result in mass deaths among the livestock.

Moreover, these are just the hardships excluding those faced by nomads in this world; the true sources of hardship in the Great Plains are actually due to the creatures that live there.

Due to the nature of plains having few places to hide, most creatures have developed prominent frontal combat power or mobility, and such creatures naturally prey on easy-to-hunt and abundant life forms.

Thus, to survive in such an environment, besides nomadism, one must also engage in killing and plundering others to obtain all the necessary food…

Therefore, Orcs, partly due to their innate tendencies, actively engage in plundering activities and have embarked on full-fledged “trade” actions.

Of course, just hearing this far, it might not be clear why Orcs are considered a threat…

In reality, under normal circumstances, Orcs cannot be considered a major threat.

Orcs are not a single force but a culture and race divided into thousands of tribes, and the size of each tribe is not particularly large.

As a result, while there may be sporadic invasions in border regions, these rarely occur on a scale that threatens nations.

However, occasionally, superior individuals emerge among Orcs who are considered heroes…

When this coincides with the Orcs’ characteristic tendency to “submit to the strongest among their kind,” they rally around such heroes and rapidly transform into a massive force.

…Of course, in reality, it’s more that the rarely born superior Orc forcibly unifies surrounding forces through military might, but regardless, it’s true that the appearance of a hero-class superior Orc can turn Orcs into a massive force, so let’s move on.

Anyway, Orcs who have become a single force naturally seize hegemony over the plains and wield their power…

And naturally, their target is usually the eastern part of the Holy Empire that exists nearby.

Of course, if such an invasion is not stopped in its early stages, it is sufficient to devastate the entire Western continent, so humanity tries all sorts of checks to prevent those Orcs from forming a unified force.

However, despite this, checks are not perfect due to various practical issues.

One might ask why not just slaughter all visible Orcs, but as historical massacres show, completely annihilating a specific group is nearly impossible.

Moreover, given that the entire Orc race consists of warriors, massacres would inevitably result in unbearable human casualties, and even if such tremendous human and property losses were endured to commit such massacres, Orcs would not be easily exterminated.

Their robust vitality, honed by surviving in the Great Plains, and their reproductive capacity, which is unbelievable for a species included among humanity.

Due to this combination of traits, eradicating the Orc race is practically impossible.

Anyway, the emergence of an Orc hero and the formation of a unified Orc force approximately every 20-30 years is almost like a regular event.

The most representative is a vast army, about half of which consists of cavalry mounted on Wargs, the wolf beasts of the plains, and these are naturally Orcs who are particularly strong in Orc society and wealthy enough to afford feeding Wargs.

Although due to the harsh nature of the plains, most Orc cavalry cannot wear proper metal armor, the physical abilities of Orcs and Wargs provide advantages that far outweigh such penalties.

An Orc warrior mounted on a Warg capable of carrying the vastly larger Orc body is a monster that ordinary infantry simply cannot stand against.

For this reason, when the time of the great Orc invasion comes, the nations and organizations of the Western continent temporarily halt their conflicts and unite.

Of course, I can’t say there aren’t those who harbor foolish thoughts in such an atmosphere…

But if such clumsy conspirators try to act out, the truly insane Inquisitors will end up crushing their heads.

This war, which contests the very existence of the Western continent’s order, is also a proxy war between the Western continent’s universal faith, the Pantheon, and the Orc god. In a war involving “religion”—something extremely sensitive to humanity—reckless schemes are tantamount to suicide.

Anyway, one might wonder why the Druid Conclave, to which Nana and Sophia belong, issues a summons in this war where the entire continent unites…

“…Those bastards, they’re attacking nature, aren’t they?”

“Yes. That’s what I understand.”

The problem is that this war cannot simply be viewed as someone else’s affair.

In the extremely warrior-centered Orc society, Orc shamans—experts in knowledge transmission and magic casting—are actually not much different from druids who happen to be Orcs.

However, these Orc shamans do not use methods that harmonize with the mysteries of nature; instead, they borrow power from their racial deity, the “Orc Shaman God.”

Orcs practice a kind of primitive religion that worships ancestral spirits, while simultaneously worshiping their racial deity, the “Three-Headed God.”

Given the characteristics of shamans who borrow power from the mysteries of this racial deity—believed to have aspects of warrior, hunter, and shaman—the growth of the deity is also the growth of the shamans.

To strengthen the mysteries of this Orc Shaman God, they must expand the plains—the domain governed by the “Orc Shaman God,” which is the shamanic aspect of the racial deity.

And in this process, the distortion of the existing mysteries of nature is inevitable, so when such a great Orc invasion occurs, the Druid Conclave also lends its strength in its own way.

‘What should I do…’

Therefore, I had no choice but to contemplate.

Realistically speaking, there’s no reason to enter a battlefield where my life might be in danger.

The Druid Conclave’s summons is nominally a summons but has little actual binding force; it’s closer to a request asking those who can come to please do so, so no one would complain if I didn’t go…

The problem is that my current status is not simply that of a druid.

‘If they press on that, it could be troublesome…’

Having a social position essentially equivalent to the heir of a territorial noble means that I need to fulfill certain obligations imposed on such individuals to some extent.

Of course, no high-ranking person would dare to act so impudently toward the great Aleinos, but politics is never an area that flows solely on reason.

If I don’t want to get involved in troublesome matters, it might be better to blend in rather than stand out.

“I think we have to go.”

“…Is that a premonition?”

“Yes. I had a feeling.”

At that moment, as Sophi approached me while I was seriously contemplating the future and shared the content of her premonition,

my heart, which was already leaning toward participation, became completely firm.

If it cannot be avoided, perhaps being thoroughly prepared is also an option.