kscans

Chapter 35 - The Living and the Dead Have Gathered

Chomp!

"Ngh."

At the request of Youga, the Dark Elf chief, I was drinking his blood in front of his clansmen. Yep. This one's coffee-flavored. After meat, fish, and dessert, now we have a beverage. Is a salad next?

"...Hah, look, everyone. We have gained the protection of our savior. We are now saved!"

""""Wooooooooooh!!""""

A cheer erupted from the Dark Elves. Well, if this satisfies them, I don't really mind.

"Grrr, that thieving Dark Elf..."

Meanwhile, from behind a corner, Adolnel was reacting like a wife glaring at her husband's mistress... Maybe I should spoil her a bit later.

◆

"What? More new races have arrived?"

"Yes, Goblins and Orcs have come."

Ah, Goblins and Orcs. The classic fantasy game monsters.

"My subordinates made contact with them. Like us, they are seeking protection."

"Protection, huh."

Having the Dark Elves around has made information briefings so much easier. They even handle negotiations on their own initiative.

"Ba-ba."

"Pa-pa-pa."

Hey, you undead over there, you don't need to practice your gestures. I feel like their autonomy is developing in a weird direction. Ghouls are supposed to be the lowest rank of undead without a sense of self, right...?

"In any case, let's go meet them. If they can be a fighting force, I don't mind offering protection."

And so, I headed off to meet the Goblins and Orcs.

◆

"O, Great White King."

"Please, save us."

I looked at the Goblins and Orcs groveling before me, begging for protection. The Goblins looked like the typical game version: green-skinned humanoids about the size of a human child. However, the bodies visible under their loincloths were something else.

They were covered in muscle, with a lean, ripped physique. If a human tried to fight one of these barehanded, they'd be in serious trouble.

The Orc, on the other hand, was huge—about two and a half meters tall and thick all over. He looked like a slender sumo wrestler, and his weapon was basically a metal beam. It was a crude chunk of metal that looked like it would kill in one hit if it connected, regardless of its poor design.

Yeah, this one also looked dangerous to fight head-on. And creatures like this are asking for help? Just how dangerous are the humans in this world?

"Um, so you guys were also attacked by humans and fled here?"

"Yes. They said evil Goblins kidnap humans to increase their numbers, so we must be exterminated."

"It was a similar story for us Orcs."

Ew, they kidnap humans to reproduce? As a former human, that's pretty gross.

"A m-misunderstanding, Great White King!"

"We do not kidnap humans to make them bear our children!"

Seeing my disgusted expression, the Goblins and Orcs frantically tried to explain.

"Of course not! Making a human bear our child would be like a dog trying to make a bird bear its child!"

"It would be impossible, and besides, none of us have such a vile hobby as attacking humans! They're all just skin and bones!"

Ah, right. Maybe with some special fantasy power, completely different species could have children, but normally, different species can't reproduce.

"Right, right, and they don't even have green skin! From our perspective, that's unthinkable!"

They further added that they couldn't possibly do something so disgusting. Which, when you think about it, makes sense. It's not like humans normally do that sort of thing either.

"But if that's the case, where did the story about Goblins and Orcs being able to make other races bear their children come from?"

"Who knows. We have no idea what humans are thinking."

I would learn later that this half-breed issue was apparently caused by troubles between men and women in human society. For example, when a newborn child's eye or hair color somehow didn't match either the husband's or the wife's. Yep, it means it was the child of an affair.

If an ancestor had those traits, they might be able to explain it away, but if they couldn't prove it, that household was in for a rough time.

So, as a desperate measure, the excuse of 'I was attacked by a demi-human and had a child' was born. And apparently, this excuse wasn't just used by women; high-ranking men used it too. If the child was a boy, it could create succession problems later, so it was a convenient way to cover things up.

In other words, the Goblins were taking the fall for human scandals. What a truly sad state of affairs.

"We will follow you. And we offer the bodies of our kin. Please use them as undead."

While I was pondering this, the Goblins surprisingly offered up the corpses of their comrades.

"What?! Are you sure? Those are your comrades' bodies, right?"

"It does not matter. Once dead, they are just corpses. We have mourned them, so there is no issue."

Hmm, it seems that for Goblins, the handling of the corpse itself isn't important. What's important is mourning their comrades' deaths—the funeral, in other words.

"We wish for you to use our comrades' bodies as well. They died a frustrating death, unable to fight properly due to the humans' cowardly tactics."

Wow, different races have different ways of dealing with death. The Orcs' way of thinking is a bit like a samurai's. And their willingness to use their comrades' bodies as a bargaining chip showed just how cornered they were. If they were this resolved, I should give them a place to stay and a chance to fight.

"Alright. I will protect you."

"Oh! Thank you, White King!"

"Our loyalty is yours!"

"One condition, though. I have a human subordinate. Can you promise not to fight with her?"

Right. I understood that Goblins don't needlessly attack humans, but there was still a chance they'd see Adolnel as a hostile species and attack her.

"If she is the White King's subordinate, there is no problem."

"Same for us."

And so, Goblins and Orcs were newly added to my domain.

"By the way, I understand the Goblins and Orcs were a misunderstanding, but why are Dark Elves called an evil race? The only physical difference is their black ears, right?"

I honestly don't think that alone is enough to be called evil.

"The humans detest the customs of us Dark Elves."

"Dark Elf customs?"

What could it be? Do they have some kind of evil cult festival?

"We Dark Elves have a ritual to mark a true warrior."

Huh, they do something like that? Like a coming-of-age ceremony?

"Those undergoing the ritual must leave the settlement with nothing but their bare hands and defeat the first living creature they encounter that is not their kin, bringing it back."

"With nothing? You mean they fight barehanded?!"

Isn't that a bit too harsh?

"No, that's only when leaving the settlement. Once they are out, they can make stone tools by breaking rocks, set traps, or whatever they need. They can even negotiate with other races to obtain weapons. That kind of adaptability is also a form of strength."

I see. So as long as they defeat the first prey they encounter, it's all good.

"...Um, about that 'first creature you encounter' part, does that apply even if the opponent is human?"

Adolnel asked Youga, looking perplexed.

"That is correct. In our current situation, all Dark Elves, as well as our master Merlille-sama and her familiars, would be considered our kin."

Ah, that's good. Then at least our own people won't get caught up in the Dark Elves' coming-of-age rituals in the future.

"But you said it's acceptable to obtain weapons through negotiation, right? Which means the one you're negotiating with could be..."

"Ah, yes, they could indeed be the first one you meet!"

"Huh?"

"Just as I thought..."

Wait, what does that mean? Does it mean they'd kill the person they just got a weapon from through negotiation?

"So if the first person they met after leaving the settlement was a human merchant, they might pretend to buy a weapon, then steal it and kill him."

Yikes! That's straight-up robbery!

"No, that's not it."

But Youga asserted that they would never do such a thing. Right, that would be far too evil.

"We would never break such an agreement."

"O-Oh, is that so? I'm sorry. That was rude of me. But then how would you defeat the..."

"We would pay the proper price and conclude the transaction on good terms, and then, with the weapon we just obtained, we would kill them!"

""...""

That's just as bad in its own way... If someone smiled at you and said, "That was a good deal! Now die!" of course you'd be called an evil race. Intercultural communication is tough.