Free Web NovelChapter 221: _The Humans Are Allowed To Leave
The entire throne room was dead silent. Orcs and Hunters alike stared with confusion as Leon stepped forward before the scrutiny of the orc king.
Even Ambrose had to blink twice to confirm if he was seeing things clearly.
"Human." The orc king placed a finger on his jaw. "Do you have a problem with the results of the trial?"
Leon didn’t respond immediately.
Internally, Loki was having just about enough of this little fiasco. It was clear that Ambrose wasn’t willing to expose himself even with how serious things were getting.
And that was understandable.
There were too many witnesses anyway. So, with all that said... they’d have to manipulate the situation until he subconsciously had no choice but to reveal himself.
Clearing his throat, the next words that left Leon’s lips weren’t English. They were of the orc tongue.
"I’m familiar with orc customs across different tribes," he began, ignoring the uproar from the orc army. They glanced amongst themselves as he went on. "In the case where the champion of a group of captured enemies loses... they are still eligible for a second trial."
The orc king was astonished.
How was this puny human able to speak their tongue so fluently?
Ambrose was equally clueless. ’How the fuck is he casually speaking their language?’
[I don’t know but it looks like your paranoia about him being suspicious was very valid.]
’You think?’ Ambrose squinted hard. ’First his daddy just happened to be a weapons expert—mind you, even that doesn’t explain why he was able to guess the Rank of my dagger in one go accurately.’
[Someone’s having a little light bulb moment.]
’Not to mention he just happened to be the only one who witnessed me battling those spiders. Even though I saw him wiping his weapon which clearly meant he was fighting too.’
’Now he just happens to know the orc tongue?’
He may technically be new to this world but he wasn’t born yesterday. Something wasn’t adding up with this Leon dude. And if he wasn’t so skilled in the art of minding his business he’d look into it.
"You are right." The orc king admitted all of a sudden, also speaking the orc tongue. "But still—if I allow your group a second trial. Who among you would be worthy to face even the weakest of my soldiers?"
That made the other orcs laugh.
The sound was thick, rumbling between the throne room walls like multiple thunderclaps resounding at the same time.
Yet Leon was unfazed.
Slowly, he glanced back until he was staring right at Ambrose.
The latter’s brows furrowed only slightly.
He didn’t understand what their exchange meant but he sure as hell didn’t like that look.
Fortunately, Leon snapped his neck right back to the orc king. "So you can see the unfair disparity of power here?"
The orc king snorted. "That doesn’t matter to me."
"You don’t care about your tribe’s honour?"
"What matters to me is eliminating threats to my people. We’ve owned these cave networks peacefully for generations. You—"
"Threats?" Leon echoed, not caring at all that he interrupted the so-called king. "We never meant to intrude into your throne room. We never meant to be anywhere near this cave at all. If it weren’t for the Rift connecting our worlds and threatening our people we wouldn’t be here."
Once again the orc king was going to speak but Leon took a couple more steps forward until he was way too close to the towering orcs.
"Hunter Leon!" Captain Killian—who had been brought back to the group and was being treated by a healing type Esper—yelled. "W–What are you—argh!’
The Esper healing him placed a hand on his head, forcing him to rest his neck on the pillow below him. "You can’t be moving right now, sir."
Leon didn’t even glance back at the others. "Even if you do kill us," He went on in the orc tongue. "More humans will come after us. More powerful ones who’ll slaughter your army in a blink."
A dangerous light glinted in his eyes. Only for a second.
But enough to make even the orc king shift with weariness. "And letting you go will prevent them from coming here? Do you take me for a fool?"
"I didn’t say any of that. But just know what I did say was the truth. If you don’t believe me, go ahead. Take us down and see the results for yourself."
The orc king’s large fingers tightened so hard on his throne’s armrests that they audibly cracked.
He hated how certain this human sounded.
His eyes slid over to his halberd resting beside his throne. If he wanted to, he could just execute all of them with one slash from it.
But then—what if there were indeed more powerful humans?
His tusks ground against each other as he finally switched to English. "Impressive negotiation skills, human."
Leon’s lips curved. "Was only pointing out facts, your majesty."
The orc king gradually rose to his feet, under the watchful gazes of his army. He ground his tusks some more before speaking in the orc tongue.
"The humans are allowed to leave."
As those words landed, Ambrose sensed a shift. The Hunters swerved their heads to the sealed-off exit. To their surprise, it was now open, as if there wasn’t a wall there a second ago.
No one could believe it for the first couple of seconds.
Until the orc king added in English. "Leave. Now. Before I change my mind."
It only took a few more seconds for one of the Hunters to turn on their heels and dart toward the exit. Another followed. Then the others helped Captain Killian to his feet, leading him out of the throne room.
Only Ambrose remained standing, even when Leon turned around as well.
A part of him felt... tempted.
If he walked away he was leaving behind tens or even hundreds of potential cores he could loot. Plus—they’d make a spectacular addition to his currently nonexistent undead army.
[You greedy little gremlin.]
Meanwhile, Leon halted just when he was a few feet away from the exit. He looked over his shoulder, his gaze first settling on Ambrose.
Then it flicked directly to the orc king.
His eyes lit up.
A realistic illusion of himself appeared before the orc king. The latter stumbled, gawking at the illusion with horror.
"H–How did you—"
"I’m sorry but you dared to threaten my life," Loki’s deep, reverberating yet androgynous voice wrapped around the king like a web. "And after careful deliberation... I’ve decided I can’t let you get away with that."
From Ambrose’s view, he witnessed the orc King suddenly staring at something with fear. Mind-boggling since there was literally nothing there.
[WARNING: High rank Aether energy spike detected.]
His eyes bulged at the system notification.
High rank?
Just when his instincts screamed that he turn back, the orc king roared.
"YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME KNEEL IN MY OWN DOMAIN!"
A powerful burst of aether exploded from him. It sent gusts of wind that forced Ambrose to cover his eyes.
It was only then that he realised he was the only one in the team who hadn’t stepped out of the throne room yet.
Too late.
Because when his eyes batted open, the exit was sealed once again and he was the only one standing against an army of very angry orcs.
