Chapter 21

2 A PROPOSAL “Groooaaar!” Hearing a sudden roar, Bash jumped awake. He grabbed hold of…“something” nearby, pulled himself upright, got on one knee, and withdrew the sword from his back scabbard. “Gah… Geck… Guh!” A cough seized him, and a large amount of water spilled from his lips. Bash wiped his mouth and checked his surroundings. Someone had awoken Bash. Someone roaring. He appeared to be on the edge of some sort of cliff. It was hard to tell with the overflowing river, but there had originally been a cliff here, and Bash had gotten caught in one of the trees growing on the edge of said cliff. Before him was a vast forest, and he could see three individuals ahead. Two were people, their backs to him. And the third, the thing they were facing, was a monster. A magical beast, about sixteen feet tall, with the head of a hawk, the body of a lion, and a huge pair of wings. A griffin. No doubt it was the griffin’s roar that had awoken Bash. The water spirit had been trying to communicate something to Bash. Bash still did not know what. Or maybe it was all just a dream Bash had while on the verge of death. Maybe the spirit didn’t have anything to say. Maybe it just helped Bash out on a whim. But Bash thought he saw a deeper connection. That what had happened in the water had some meaning to it. You could call it intuition. And that intuition had saved Bash from trouble time and time again. Bash took a moment to observe the current scene more closely. Two people with their backs turned to him. One on their knees, bleeding. The other person holding the shoulder of the first, supporting them. Bash had seen this kind of scene several times. The two had fought the griffin and lost. Now they were about to receive their final blows. Was the spirit saying that I should help these two…? Bash came to that conclusion immediately. Why else would the spirit go to the trouble of transporting him to this exact spot? “Graaaagh!!!” came Bash’s war cry. The sound immediately caught the griffin’s full attention. It lifted its head, which had been pitched low and focused on the two other people, and fixed its eyes on Bash, the source of the war cry. It observed Bash for but a second. Perhaps it saw Bash as the biggest threat here, or maybe it saw him as tantalizing prey. Either way, it flapped its huge wings and rose into the air, charging straight toward Bash. It was probably a young griffin. If it were an older, more timid griffin, it would have probably run away the second it saw Bash. Not that it mattered. With Bash in the mood for battle, its chances were no different either way. Bash held his sword high and brought it down hard. “…Groar…” The griffin was cut in two with one blow. It fell into the murky waters flowing behind Bash, letting out a pathetic death cry hardly befitting a ferocious beast. “…” After Bash confirmed that the griffin was not going to rise again from the muddy swirl of water, he turned around. “…Huh?” “Wh-what…?” There were three people there, looking dumbfounded. A boy on his knees, wounded all over. He had deep-red skin and a horn growing from his forehead. These were telltale characteristics of an ogre, but he was too small and slender in form to be an ogre. Perhaps he had some human blood in him. A girl crouched beside the boy. She was an ogre, too, and a young one, at that. A horn rose from her forehead, but it was still a small horn only, and her body was even smaller than the boy’s. If Bash was to guess her age, he’d say about ten years old. And the third person… A woman, who had been hidden from Bash’s sight behind the griffin. “What a surprise. An orc born from a muddy river.” But the voice didn’t sound surprised in the slightest. The voice, however, was as beautiful and clear as a ringing bell, and it made Bash’s heart flutter. …What dulcet tones… Upon closer inspection, the woman who was standing there looked to be a human woman, and she was clutching a sword. …And that body! To say she was easy on the eyes would be an understatement. She cut a slender silhouette, but the curves of her chest and buttocks were the best Bash had ever seen. Not too small, not too big. The lines of her body seemed to represent the fullest of nature’s bounty, and her proportions made Bash want to fling himself into her arms on the spot. She was attractive, yes, but that wasn’t all. To say nothing of her strength! From her well-honed muscles, it was evident she was a talented warrior indeed. Beautiful muscles. She wasn’t too muscular, but it was clear her body had been trained to perfection. Her muscles glistened like gold. You might compare her to the human prince Nazar or the Hero Leto. Was it possible that her form was even better, even more toned than Bash’s own? Any child born to her would surely be a force to be reckoned with. Orcs deeply desired female knights because they knew strong women birthed strong children. It was orcish instinct to be highly attracted to strong women. The only thing left to check out was her face. However, the woman before Bash kept her face hidden. A white cloth was wrapped around her head, covering everything but her eyes. Though her body was a perfect ten, it was quite hard to make out her facial features. Still, it didn’t really matter all that much to Bash. “You’re beautiful…” The words left Bash’s mouth before he even realized what he was saying. Or perhaps all Bash’s practice with wooing women led him to spill compliments like dripping honey. The fruits of rigorous training, you might say. “Beautiful…?” The woman looked around, then pointed at herself as if to say, You can’t mean…me? Bash nodded sheepishly. What other woman was present? There was the ogre girl, but she was just a kid. “Ha-ha-ha, you haven’t even seen my face, orc. How do you know I’m beautiful?” The woman laughed, but without much mirth. As if she’d made a joke she knew wasn’t that funny. “I can tell, even without seeing your face.” “Oh, what a smooth talker this orc is.” The woman let out a chuckle this time, and then put her hand on the cloth around her face. “…Even with this ugly face beneath my cloth?” “Hmm…” What emerged from beneath the mask was a face riddled with gruesome scars. Half of her face had been burned, and she also seemed to have suffered a large knife wound. The only part of the face that was undamaged was the area around the left eye. In fact, when the ogre children saw that face, they cowered in fright. That’s how badly scarred and wounded she was. “It matters not. Scars are the pride of a warrior.” Maybe Bash was only able to say that because of how long he’d been on his quest. If he’d just been starting out, he might have balked at such a ghastly visage. After all, a comely face is an important factor when looking for a wife. But Bash had already seen plenty of beautiful women on his quest. Starting with Judith the human, Thunder Sonia the elf, Primera the dwarf, Silviana the beastkin… All of them had beautiful skin and no scars on their faces. But were all the women like them? Not at all. For example, many of the elves Bash noticed in the Shiwanashi Forest had large scars on their faces. Scars did not detract from beauty, however. Bash would have had no problem proposing to this woman. It was more than possible to be beautiful and scarred. “I see… Even after seeing my face, you still think I’m beautiful… That warms me.” The woman spoke indifferently, but the set of her mouth was more relaxed now. “In any case, what is it that orcs do when they come across a beautiful woman? You plan to beat and assault me, yes? Hmph, that’s some gutsy behavior from someone who just emerged from a swirling mud puddle.” “…No. Nonconsensual sex is prohibited in the name of the Orc King.” “Huh. Then what’s with the war cry?” Bash glanced at the ogress. Seeing this, the woman nodded as if satisfied. “Ah, I see… Even orcs help people out sometimes. So what you just said was only an attempt at flattery, meant to get me to lower my guard, huh…? Ha-ha, I never thought the day would come when I’d be sweet-talked by an orc… Man, this really pisses me off. I’m gonna have to kill you now.” “When I said you were beautiful, I meant it.” “…I don’t get you. You show up out of nowhere and start spouting a bunch of nonsense. What is it that you want anyway?”