Chapter 30 (2/2)
Muttering at that time, the appearance of an Orc entered Rei’s eyes. It was about double the size of a normal Orc, it was equipped with some kind of armour while the rest of the orcs were armourless.
「Is that the individual leading the Orcs?」
「Guru~」
Rei muttered while Set gave a cry at the Orc settlement, he drew Rei’s attention to a place that they had looked at before, a bit further away.
「……I see.」
There was an Orc at the place noted by Set. The Orc was also wearing armour and was double the size of the other Orcs.
And when you looked at the state of the settlement carefully, similar Orcs were present.
「In that case, those armours denote officers or generals. ……I guess?」
Next, he caught sight of a place where the Orcs had gathered. It was a shack north of the settlement. There were just under 20 Orcs around the hut.
「What? Is that a food storage or something?」
As he was thinking, the next moment, as he was about to leave the settlement, something jumped out of the hut and began to run……outside, it was held down by the Orcs that had gathered. Rei’s eyes, that were much sharper than a normal persons, confirmed what had jumped out. Wearing what seemed to be the remains of clothing on her body, it was a human woman that was almost stark naked.
When he concentrated on his hearing, 『No, stop it! Please don’t dirty me anymore than this!』a voice could be heard faintly.
Rei furrowed his eyebrows at that sight, he recalled from Zepairu’s knowledge that Orcs used human women to breed.
「Help, is it? ……No, I can’t help.」
If he only considered his personal feelings, he would have rushed down and killed all the Orcs. However, even if he could take care of the Orcs near the shack, it would likely make the rest of the Orcs wary. It could become a factor in the night attack and cause it to fail, finally, it would affect the number of people sacrificed from the subjugation force as well as the number of Orcs that would be able to escape.
「……Tonight. I’ll help if you can hold out until tonight. So don’t give up.」
Though he knew that the woman who had been pulled back into the hut couldn’t hear him, he gave a small mutter.
Rei himself averted his eyes to continue scouting, aware of the anger he was feeling as the woman was taken back to the shack and decided he would take out the Orcs at tonight’s night attack.
「In the end, most of the weapons the Orcs have are swords and clubs. Several are carrying shields. ……There are some with bows.」
With a bow in hand, Orcs with a quiver on their back could be seen walking through the settlement. And……
「Are there canes too? Those are Orc Mages.」
Though there were only a few, the figures of Orcs with canes could be seen.
「Right, this much scouting should be sufficient. Set, we’ll head back.」
「Gururu~!」
Giving a sharp cry in response to Rei, Set spread his wings and and returned to where the Orc subjugation force had camped.
「Orcs, tonight is your last night. I hope you enjoy your time before night to your utmost.」
With those cold words, Rei left.
When Set glided in and landed on the ground, several adventurers in the surroundings unintentionally clapped their hands as they saw it.
However, several smiling adventurers who were going to call out to Rei understood that there was something about the Orc settlement when they saw the cold smile on his face. They let him go straight to Hobbes.
「Guru~」
As Set gave an anxious cry, several adventurers gave him some dried meat and patted his head.
Leaving Set there, Rei headed straight to Hobbes, the person in question, Hobbes, also came to meet Rei.
「Rei, you’re back.」
「Ah.」
「How was the scouting?」
「I’ve roughly seen everything.」
「I understand. When you returned, I had already notified the party leaders to group. Please come.」
So informed, Rei followed Hobbes who went ahead. Though Hobbes felt his appearance was somewhat strange, he judged the top priority was to hear the results of the scouting and went to the tent for the meeting without saying anything.
As Hobbes had said, the party leaders had all gathered, they all gave a sigh of relief upon seeing the safe appearance of Rei.
Seryl, who was aiming for the Misty Ring, was the same. However, regarding Seryl, it was a sigh of relief that her prey hadn’t blundered on the scouting mission and had been killed by the Orcs.
Seeing Rei sit down, Hobbes started to speak.
「Well, Rei. Please report on the results of scouting at once.」
「Ah. First of all, the number of Orcs, the original 50 that we assumed has been greatly exceeded. There’s probably 100.」
100. The cheeks of the party leaders cramped the moment those words were said.
As they had joined the subjugation force to fight 50, it was no wonder.
「Calm down! I would like to say this first. The number of 50 was the lowest estimate. It was expected that the numbers would be greater.」
「However, I never hear that the number would be doubled. Can’t we decide to return to the city?」
「……And overlook the damage of the Orcs to the city of Gilm?」
「That’s……」
The person who advised withdrawing didn’t persist strongly when it was said that damage would be done to the city of Gilm if they retreated here. Even if that person didn’t have friends in the city of Gilm, they had acquaintances. If it was said that they might end up as victims of Orcs, they wouldn’t retreat.
「At the same time, though there might be more Orcs than expected, as a result, they haven’t finished building the settlement. The East side is almost untouched. However, I have confirmed the presence of sentries instead. 」
「I see, the East side is undermanned. That’s good information. I will reference that for the night attack.」
「As you want. Also, there were Orcs double the size of normal Orcs who were wearing armour.」
「……Those are Orc Generals. That’s one of the high ranking Orc species.」
「Others had bows, several with canes were also confirmed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the individual leading the Orcs……but because there was a building built better than the others in the center of the settlement, it might be there.」
「Orc Archers and Orc Mages……the center of the settlement.」
「Ah. ……As well as that, there’s one last thing. There is a shack to the north of the settlement, and I have confirmed there are humans there.」
Humans in an Orc settlement. The others that heard it had their faces stiffen, Hobbes opened his mouth to speak.
「That’s……a woman, is it?」
「Ah. I think the Orcs go there to breed. Though when I last saw they still looked alive……」
「I see. ……Did you notice anything else?」
「No. That is all.」
「I see, I understand. Then please rest until night. I’ll explain the strategy at dinner.」
Giving a small nod to Hobbes’ words, he left the tent.
Several hours remained before the night attack. Everyone started their combat preparations.