Ch.26Orc Subjugation (1)

The day after completing all the Molotov cocktails.

“Two breakfast sets here.”

“Yes! Coming right away!”

After breakfast, we leisurely headed to the blacksmith’s shop.

Since finishing the swords wouldn’t be a quick process, it seemed better to give them a bit more time.

Around 10 o’clock, we entered the blacksmith’s, and the blacksmith greeted us.

“Right on time. Wait a moment. I’m making the scabbards.”

“How long will it take?”

“Not long. About 5 to 10 minutes?”

When I turned my head, I could hear the continuous sound of sandpapering from inside the forge.

It seemed like a fellow blacksmith or his apprentice was making the scabbards.

“Well, we’ll wait then.”

We sat at the edge of the blacksmith’s shop and watched people pass by.

Adventurers like us equipped with armor and weapons, security officers monitoring them with indifferent expressions from a distance. Then there were gambling addicts with anxious eyes and children running around making pattering sounds…

And even large carriages passing through the streets, loaded with monster corpses likely bound for the black market.

Time passed quickly as we observed them.

“Hey! It’s all done now! Come over and try on these swords!”

“Oh my.”

I got up and received the four swords that the blacksmith was proudly holding out, then fastened them to my waist.

“Hmm… I’m not sure how to hang them.”

“Wait a moment… In this case, like this… Right. Connect them that way.”

“Hmm…”

The binding method the blacksmith taught me was simple.

First, I wore the longswords on both sides of my waist, then connected the scabbards of the longswords and middle swords with cloth, like opened scissors.

“That’s a solid knot. Where did you learn it?”

“I learned while tying mooring lines. If I got it wrong, it wasn’t just me who would die.”

“Mooring lines… I see. That makes sense.”

Mooring lines are the ropes used to tie ships to docks.

Naturally, they’re much thicker and sturdier than ordinary ropes, and if one breaks or comes loose, it could easily take several lives.

The ones I tied were just for fishing boats, but even then, I could have died.

Shing!

I drew the twin swords.

The blade parts were like any longsword, but the handles were shortened to be wielded with one hand, and the pommels, which were small to maintain balance, had been changed from circles to spheres attached to the ends of the handles.

“This pommel. It feels heavy enough to be used for striking.”

“That’s right. I deliberately added lead. It’ll be useful for subduing someone with a blow.”

“Subduing…”

Come to think of it, I’ve killed all the enemies I’ve encountered so far. I haven’t really subdued anyone.

But well, there was no particular reason to subdue anyone, nor did I want to, so I didn’t really care.

I could just accept missions that required killing everyone.

Shick.

I put the longsword back in its scabbard and then drew the middle sword.

Chang!

The middle sword didn’t look particularly different, but I could see that it had been subtly adjusted to work with the twin sword style.

“It’s well-adjusted. You’re a skilled blacksmith.”

“Of course. I’ve been hammering swords for over 20 years.”

As we exchanged compliments, Seriya, standing beside me, asked with an incredulous expression.

“Don’t they look exactly the same?”

“No, they don’t.”

“They look identical to me.”

“Well, they look different to me.”

I shut down the conversation and put the middle sword back in its scabbard.

Well, it would be difficult for anyone but a skilled swordsman like myself to gauge the difference, so her question was reasonable.

After leaving the blacksmith’s, we stopped by the bow shop.

“What can I get you?”

“100 arrows.”

“Ah… understood.”

We paid for 100 arrows in a lump sum, as we didn’t know exactly how large the orc force would be.

No matter how many orcs there were, if we needed to use all 100 arrows plus the 30 in the quiver, it should have been a mission for the security forces in the first place.

Although I only had one quiver, it wasn’t practical to carry two quivers around anyway.

“We’ve got the Molotov cocktails, bought arrows, retrieved the swords, and we still have leftover food… Nothing else to buy.”

“We even have plenty of potions. I guess we can depart now.”

All that remained was to carry out the mission as described in the request, and all preparations were perfect.

Around lunchtime, we bought sandwiches from a street vendor to satisfy our hunger, then mounted our horses.

*

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The outskirts of the city did not refer to the forest we went to last time.

According to the map in the request, if we went straight north from the city, we would reach a coastline like Parcival, and that’s where the orcs had set up camp.

“By the way, orcs setting up camp… Does that mean they pitched tents?”

“Seems like it. I’ve never seen orcs build anything more sophisticated than tents.”

“Hmm.”

Although we had faced orcs in the previous dungeon, those orcs had poor armor and weapons.

I was quite curious about the armament status of wild orcs, but for now, I needed to focus on steering my horse through the wind.

It’s often said that rookie parties die while hunting orcs, but through this mission, we would show the guild that we had moved beyond being rookies.

Or we’d become the orcs’ dinner.

I liked this all-or-nothing approach unique to adventurers.

If you die, you die; if you succeed, you succeed. There’s no ambiguous situation like “Let’s run away and come back later!”

Of course, most people wouldn’t understand my way of thinking, but I didn’t particularly care about being understood.

My adventure and their adventures were bound to be different.

After riding for four solid hours, we reached the coastline and discovered the orcs’ camp as described in the request.

*

“Hmm…”

I scouted the enemies with a telescope.

Seeing about 20 tents, it appeared there were at least 40 orcs.

Since the tents weren’t particularly large, I figured they couldn’t fit more than one or two orcs each.

I turned the telescope to observe the orcs’ lifestyle in detail.

How they spent their days and how they procured food.

Having set up camp by the sea, most orcs seemed to get their food through fishing, but judging by the groups returning from afar, they also seemed to hunt.

As hunting tribes, orcs don’t eat grains like wheat or rice, so these orcs didn’t appear to lack nutrition.

“Hmm…”

I carefully observed the coastline.

Unlike Parcival’s sandy beach, this was a rocky shore covered with pebbles and boulders, which was good for us as we could break our Molotov cocktails on them.

However, the problem was that there didn’t seem to be any point from which we could launch a one-sided attack.

Moreover, those orcs were all wrapped in animal hides, probably obtained from hunting, so their defense would be considerable.

My sword strikes might penetrate, but they could easily block an arrow or two flying from a distance.

After thinking for a while, I finally came up with a strategy.

*

“So you want me to infiltrate alone and cut off the orcs’ heads?”

“Yes.”

The method was a diversion.

While the orcs were numerous, half of them were at the shore fishing, and the other half were living in tents, with some leaving the camp to hunt.

In other words, only a few orcs remained at the main base.

We would wait until tomorrow morning, then Seriya would break Molotov cocktails on the rocky shore to isolate the coastline from the camp. Taking advantage of this, I would charge into the camp and cut off the head of the orc chieftain.

And to prevent the possible return of the hunting party, we would cut down trees in advance to block the path they used.

“We call this a suicide mission.”

That’s how Seriya evaluated my strategy.

“…”

And she was right.

The operation I had planned would require at least 10 people to execute smoothly.

“Then you come up with a plan.”

“…So what are the details again?”

But unless Seriya could create a better plan than mine, she had no choice but to follow it.

I didn’t need a party member who, like in group projects, contributes nothing but constantly says “I don’t think that’s right” just to avoid being overlooked. Seriya, being an elf, was quick to catch on.

We moved stealthily and set various traps along the path used by the hunting party, and carefully cut down trees so they would fall when the hunting party returned in the morning.