Chapter 44

3 THE DARK GENERAL Sequence, the Dark General, was currently in the war room in the innermost part of the Gije Fortress. And he was nodding off. “…” He closed his eyes, lay his hands on the armrests, and, as he fell asleep, thought about his life so far, his fallen comrades, and the future of the demon race. Sequence was an old man. Even among the demons, who live as long as elves, he was particularly elderly. To be more specific, he was the second longest-lived person alive, after Thunder Sonia. His life was marked by war. Starting off as a young man, wet behind the ears, he became the Wise General Sequence, who witnessed the ascension of the Demon Lord Geddigs to the throne. On the battlefield, he achieved great feats and eventually earned the title of Dark General. He was the one who led the retreat after the defeat at the Remium Plateau, the one who kept the fight going even though from that point on there was nothing but losses. You’re too old. You’ve lost it. You should give up your seat to someone younger. How many years had he been getting comments like that? But Sequence stayed on the front lines… He continued to survive. His friends died, one by one. He had many wives, but they had all perished. He had sired many daughters, but only one remained. There had been three left after the war, but one died in the chaos of the postwar period, one ran away, and only yesterday, he’d gotten the news that the third was most likely dead, too. It wouldn’t be surprising if the remaining daughter had died. There had been no word from her, after all. He no longer had any family. Sequence was out of strength and out of time. All he could do was use what little brainpower he had left here, in this war room. They would meet once every few days to discuss the future of the demons, with no solution in sight. (How ironic.) Sequence sighed. When Geddigs proposed building a fortress here, Sequence had been the one in strongest opposition to it. “Why build a fortress in a place like this? Don’t go wasting our precious resources,” he’d said. He still stood by his opposition of Geddigs back then. Even now, he felt he’d been in the right at the time. But…without this fortress, the surviving demons would have had nowhere to escape to… It would have meant the annihilation of the demon race. It was also Sequence’s idea to flee to this fortress after the big defeat. They would not be pursued here. And even if they were, they would have been able to handle themselves. That wasn’t why Geddigs built this fortress. He hadn’t foreseen the defeat. Sequence knew that. That’s why it struck him as so ironic. Despite deriding this fortress as completely pointless, it had been this fortress he had relied upon more than any of his fellow demons. Meanwhile, Sequence continued to think deeply about the demons’ future. It had been three years since the war ended. Or wait… Perhaps it had already been four years. The demons had been trapped in this land for four years. There were more animals roaming these snowy plains than might be expected, so the people had no trouble finding food. It wasn’t like food was plentiful, but they weren’t starving. Or at least, only very few of them ever starved to death. With a will to survive, you could get by quite well here. …If only it wasn’t for that. The conqueror of the skies. The strongest creature on the continent. The infernal dragon. This whole area was its territory. Because of the dragon, the demons couldn’t go out during the day. They couldn’t burn their lamps brightly. They had to hide behind their fortress walls, crawling out only at night, like rats, searching for food to survive. The noble demons, reduced to scratching around in the dirt like rats. At first, the people had been optimistic. “They think they can crush us this easily?” “They didn’t even enslave us survivors… In fact, they left us alone to have our own land!” “We’ll make them regret not eradicating us when they had the chance!” “Those foolish humans. They let their guard down, even though total victory was within their grasp!” Right. They looked down on those who had defeated them. Actually, Sequence was right there with them. He didn’t look down on the humans, exactly, but he also agreed that, under these circumstances, the demons could absolutely regain the upper hand. Demons had robust bodies and high cold resistance. They could survive for quite a few days without food. And their magical skills were among the best of all the races’. The demons were a superior race. They could live quite well even here on these snowy plains. If they cultivated the land, raised livestock, worked to increase their military strength, then in about a dozen years, they’d be able to repopulate this entire plain with demons. Or so they thought. Even if there was a dragon about. Dragons are certainly the most powerful of all creatures. You couldn’t take down a dragon easily. All living things on Vastonia understood this implicitly. But one dragon was slain on the Remium Plateau. When the Remium Plateau dragon appeared, people were terrified of its huge size and its overwhelming firepower. They gazed up at the sky in shock, wondering what on Vastonia they were supposed to do against such a foe. But once the dragon was defeated… The people started saying that as a foe it hadn’t been up to much. There was even a general feeling of anticlimax, like the dragon had been a lot weaker than they’d been expecting. After the dragon had been dragged down to the ground, it had been an orc warrior who’d dealt the killing blow. Orcs were a far inferior race to demons. If an orc could do it, who was to say they couldn’t? They didn’t have the fighting force they’d had back on the plateau, to be sure. And there would no doubt be casualties. But make no mistake, they would slay that dragon and have these plains as their own. So the demons decided. They only realized their hubris once they’d sent out their first hunting party and challenged the dragon. That entire extermination force was wiped out in a single battle. Their commander had been one of Sequence’s daughters, Rimendia. On top of that, the dragon did something unexpected. It flew to the Gije Fortress and retaliated. Hell had been unleashed that day. The dragon’s fire breath easily broke through the demons’ magical barrier, instantly reducing every demon in the vicinity to ash. The demons’ magic attacks rarely hit the dragon, and even when they did, they simply bounced off the dragon’s scaly hide. The silver lining was that the Gije Fortress was indeed extremely sturdy. Because the fortress was built into a cliff, the dragon was unable to descend to the surface, and the barrier walls that ran all throughout the fortress prevented the dragon’s fire breath from spreading and burning down the entire structure. However, and perhaps for that very reason, the dragon seemed especially vengeful. The dragon began to fly to the Gije Fortress once every few days and launch its breath attacks from the air. The demons cast a barrier of invisibility around the Gije Fortress so that the dragon would have a difficult time locating them. But still the dragon came. Even though it couldn’t see them, it seemed to remember the general location and began unleashing plumes of fire indiscriminately. Being invisible didn’t help. If the dragon sensed any of them outside the fortress walls, it would swoop in and barbecue them. As a result, the demons were no longer able to leave the fortress during the day. Even within the fortress walls, the terrified residents began skulking about in hoods, trying to be as quiet as possible and keeping a low profile. Dragons weren’t nocturnal, so there were no night attacks. But the demonfolk were petrified all the same. Their spirits had been broken by the repeated attacks. They could not defeat the dragon. (What to do, then…?) It was a question Sequence struggled with day after day. How could the demons get out of this situation and bask in the light of day once more? He racked his brains every day, but… He could not find the answer. Everyone wanted the dragon gone. But no effective solution had been reached. Most of the demons had already given up. They resigned themselves to a life trapped among the snow and ice. Then an eventual death. Sequence was stumped. He was said to be the most intelligent demon general who ever lived. On the battlefield, he had always been able to find the right answer. Even the renowned Dark General, Sequence, was lost. What to do? All he could do was churn over it. Today had been another day of sitting in his chair… Never moving, even as his body crusted over with frost, but… “Excuse me, General. I’ve brought a guest.” …This day seemed to be different. A soldier stood at the entrance to the war room. Sequence knew him, he thought. The young man had only recently become a soldier. “A guest? Who? I thought I told you no one was allowed in until the meeting!” “Yes, General! But it’s someone from outside the country.” Someone from outside? Sequence deigned to open one eye. He glanced askance at the soldier standing in the entrance. Then he saw who was accompanying him… And his eyes almost popped out. All of them. “You…!” He had two eyes on the left and right, and four on the front. All eight eyes widened and stared at the newcomer. It was an orc. A plain green orc. You found those everywhere. He’d certainly seen plenty of them dead and littering the battlefield. Although there were many excellent warriors among them, they were still merely expendables and represented nothing but numbers. Sequence generally couldn’t tell one green orc from another. He’d even scoffed when friends had told him, “There are some gems to be found among the orcs, you know.” But the moment he saw this orc… He got goose bumps. Tremors ran through his entire body. He had seen this orc once before… Only once, but it had been enough. There was no other orc like this one. Sequence never bothered to remember the names of any orcs, but this one… This one he could never forget. “Bash?!” “It’s been too long, General.” Sequence shot to his feet. He hadn’t stood up in weeks. Sequence’s hips and knees cracked, and the frost that had built up all over his body now crumbled to the ground. Bash! This green orc was a warrior who had shown remarkable achievement, ever since that decisive battle at the Remium Plateau. He was also the only one to whom Sequence’s friend, General Netherhanks, had deigned to gift his sword. After Geddigs’s death, news of the orc’s great exploits had come in thick and fast. He had faced off a fierce attack from the humans and destroyed several of their camps. He had defeated a great elven mage. And saved the succubi from their dire situation… He was also the one who’d been there at Geddigs’s final moment. He had also slaughtered the Hero Leto… Sequence could never forget the moment this orc appeared before him with Geddigs’s corpse… The despair of that moment… Oh, he wished he could forget it! And Sequence knew one more thing, too. He knew of Bash’s nickname. Of course, this orc had plenty of nicknames, but among demons, he was primarily known as… “Dragon Decapitator.” The Dragon Slayer…! Bash had defeated that dragon, back at the Remium Plateau. Defeated it! That dragon! Was this not exactly the very man the demons most needed at this moment? If he used this orc, then the dragon that had so terrorized the demons could perhaps be…! But Sequence wasn’t one to play his hand so openly. It was obvious that the orc he saw before him wasn’t here for the sake of the demons. And times had changed. Sequence could no longer use an orc as a pawn… “…What brings you here?” So he acted as calm as possible. Seen rationally, there was no clear reason why the Orc Hero Bash would be here. Orcs, like demons, are oppressed by the Alliance of Four. They have their own problems. Why would a national hero leave his home country and journey all the way here? “I have a letter from the Human Prince Nazar.” Hearing this, Sequence closed four of his eyes. He nodded inwardly. Yeah. That made sense. No way would an orc journey this far of his own devices. But what did the letter say? “I’ll see it.” The envelope that Bash took out of his pocket spoke to the harshness of his journey. The corners were crushed and bent, and the whole thing was stiff, like it had been soaked in water at some point and hardened after drying. The seal of the human royal family was just about still there, proving that the letter had indeed been penned by Nazar. (A letter from the young human, huh…?) He used his sharp fingernails to slice open the envelope and removed the letter inside. “Hmm…” The words had smudged and were no longer legible. It was impossible to read what it said. That’s what you get when you ask an orc to deliver a letter. “I see.” Still, it was easy enough to guess what Nazar wanted to get across via the orc. It was no doubt to do with Sequence’s daughter, Popratika, and her cohort. She’d left this war room, boasting of resurrecting Lord Geddigs. She’d even stolen the national treasure that Sequence had somehow managed to smuggle out of the old demon land. Many others had followed her out. There was no way to know what she’d been up to since then. There wasn’t much information to be found. “But what about you? Are you a mere courier now? Has the Orc Hero lowered himself to be the lapdog of a human shrimp?” Sequence spoke in his usual composed tone. Still, he thought Nazar had chosen the right messenger boy. Without Bash, the letter would never have actually gotten here. Sequence would dearly love to have a drink with Bash and ask him how he managed to get over the border and make it all the way here without being flambéed by the dragon… In fact, he’d like to know how Bash had even managed to find this hidden fortress at all. You might not credit it to look at him, but Sequence actually loved to hear the tales of young warriors and their heroism. So no doubt, Bash had been the best possible option to deliver that letter. The mere fact that it had gotten here at all was proof of that. Even so, he couldn’t help the mocking way he spoke. It was a bad demon habit. They can’t stop themselves from dissing others, even if they themselves have fallen into disgrace. So even if Bash had been the right man to deliver the letter… The question remained… Why would he? Why would Bash take on this errand? Why would a humble but noble warrior hero do something as menial as delivering a letter? “I am no lapdog.” “No, I suppose not. A mere errand boy could not make it all the way here. You’re here at night, so then I suppose you’ve seen it?” “The dragon? Yes, I saw it.” “You did, did you? So what, then? Did you slay it…?” “No, I had no means to bring it down to the ground. Instead, I hid and waited for nightfall.” “I see, it’s almost like…” Sequence started to say, It’s almost like you’re saying you could defeat it if you were able to get it out of the sky, but stopped himself. A silly thing to say to a man who had already slain a dragon in the past. “I want to hear from your own lips the reason for your being here. Not from some piece of paper or some chattering half-frozen fairy. From you.” Sequence said this with respect. It is not often that a demon shows respect to an orc. Orcs weren’t really considered worth listening to. If any other race had been nearby, a demon would usually have much preferred to ask them. Orcs don’t say much of importance. They mostly just talk big and say stupid things. Even a fairy would make more sense. Still, Sequence waited for Bash to speak. That’s how highly Sequence thought of Bash. How could any man fight in the war and fail to revere Bash? “…” Bash gazed intensely at Sequence. That look sent a chill down Sequence’s battle-hardened spine. “I want an introduction to your daughter.” “Popratika? I don’t even know where she is.” “What about the other one?” “Rimendia is dead.” “I’m sure there was one more.” “Of course there was! Asmonadia!” “Okay, introduce me to her.” Sequence stopped to think. “Introduce me to your daughter.” In demon terms, this meant, I want to date your daughter. In usual orc terms, this meant, I’m going to ravish your daughter and impregnate her. This was an unforgivable thing to say to demon nobility. There was only one thing to do. Crush the orc and teach him a lesson. But this was the Orc Hero Bash… Sequence didn’t know very much about what Bash was like in terms of personality. Though that friend of his once said that Bash was a man with a backbone. The friend was a hardheaded man who rarely spoke well of anyone. Yet he had given Bash his favorite sword. Sequence had never heard of such a thing. And the Human Prince Nazar entrusted this man with a letter bearing his family crest. A human… Trusting an orc. Yes, Bash was an excellent choice of courier, to be sure, but no doubt there were others he could have asked. Surely, more trustworthy fellows than orcs are in plentiful supply. “Do you…know what Asmonadia is up to?” So Sequence had to probe to find out what Bash really wanted. “No. I do not know.” “She is currently out on a dragon-slaying mission.” “I see.” The fairy fluttered. It was whispering something in the orc’s ear. Who knew what they were up to together? Orcs and fairies were of little use. Fairies were marginally more intelligent than orcs. But to the demons, they were equally stupid. “Do you have some method for defeating it?” Bash’s words were, in a way, an insult to the demons. Of course, the answer to that question was no. They had no effective means of fighting the dragon. If there was a way, that dragon would have been reduced to bones long ago. And the demons would have expanded their territory across the entirety of the Ress Snowfield. “No. But we have located its nest. It’s in the mountains to the east. We can’t fight it when it’s airborne, but on the ground… We may have a chance.” “Indeed.” “Simply put.” If this had been any other orc, Sequence would have started to get annoyed now. Don’t be so glib. The dragon isn’t an opponent you can take so lightly. “It wasn’t easy, but I have killed one dragon before.” “That’s right!” But the orc before him had proved his worth. He was the only man in the world who could boast about killing a dragon on the ground. He had a track record, as ridiculous as it seemed. “My daughter said that as it has been done, that proves it’s possible. So she left with a group of young warriors a few days ago.” “So… They should have reached the dragon’s nest by now, then?” “Possibly.” Actually, they had planned to be back by now. And yet…there was no sign of them. And the recon team leader had confirmed the annihilation of the squad before sundown. The number of confirmed dead was less than the total number of those who had set out. So perhaps not all had died. Of the dead, though, the bodies were so charred that identification was impossible. Therefore, the possibility that she was still alive was not yet zero. She might yet be hiding near the dragon’s nest. Still, a victory over the dragon seemed impossible at this point. Foolish child, Sequence thought. This was a dragon she intended to fight. It wasn’t like the other monsters. It was cunning. It was cruel. It was vindictive. It was…intelligent. No doubt the dragon would have measures in place to counteract an attack upon its nest. Even if they did manage to corner it… It may yet have another ace hidden up its scaly sleeve. Sequence had told his daughter and her young cohorts this. But they wouldn’t listen. “It’s just a big lizard,” they said. “Why does the beast not descend upon the Gije Fortress?” they asked. “Why does it only breathe its fire on us from the sky…?” They could defeat it, they boasted, if they could only get the beast while it was on the ground. And the result of their hubris… Total annihilation. “Such foolishness I never would have expected from a daughter of mine… Still, if you’re fine with a foolish girl like that, then I don’t mind introducing you to her. In fact, why don’t you go ahead and marry her?” “…! May I?” “I’ll allow it. Assuming she’s still alive, of course.” The wife of an orc. That was something no demon could stand for. The noble, prideful demons… For one of its highest-ranking females to become the wife of a foolish orc… To be collared and dragged around like a dog, naked, her pregnant belly exposed… Unthinkable! Ordinarily, Sequence would rather lead his entire remaining demon army to wage bloody war on the orcs than let that happen. However, misjudging the enemy’s strength and dragging not only himself but also his subordinates into a battle they had no chance of winning… To lead them to their deaths…that was something a wise demon nobleman should never do. (In the past, yes, I would have prioritized our honor…) Indeed… During wartime, no daughter of a demon would ever be offered to an orc. No matter how foolhardy she was. But honor was for another place. Another time. The demons of today, who were desperately clawing their way back from the brink of extinction… They could not afford that luxury. A demon daughter was a human resource. A precious commodity. And yet she had risked her life. Lowering her to the level of an orc’s wife… That seemed a fitting punishment. A death sentence would be more lenient. “I shall go to the mountain at once.” “…Are you…? Are you serious?”