Chapter 4-8:
Count Bodgar
THE MOMENT WE RETURNED FROM OUR MISSION of defeating the dragon, we received another order.
“I want you to go defeat orcs next,” my father said.
Orcs were humanoid monsters that had pig heads—in short, they were pig people. They also reproduced as quickly as the animal. If left alone, their numbers would increase in no time. This mission had nothing to do with the saintess; I just had to clean up the mess caused by a regional lord’s carelessness. I had no complaints on that front.
In my previous life, I’d rarely left the royal capital. But when I saw those people bustling about in Trek Village and Marquess Doze’s fief, it made me realize that nobles weren’t important simply because of our rank—we were important because we protected our citizens. I hadn’t considered that in the past, but now I knew this vital lesson. I didn’t mind fighting for the people—my mindset had changed.
When I arrived to defeat the orcs, Count Bodgar behaved rudely, even though his indolence and neglect were what had caused the orcs’ population to spin out of control.
“Can you really defeat the orcs?” he asked as he glared dubiously at my squires and me. He was plump like a cask of liquor, his chin sagging under his weight. A man like him could never attend social occasions at the royal capital, but because he kept to himself in the countryside, he wrongly assumed that he was the most important person of all.
He cast a lecherous look at me; I could see him undressing me with his eyes.
Oh dear, I thought. I was all fired up before I came here, but all my gusto has left my body.
I no longer cared about the people here, and I yearned to return home. But above all else, Count Bodgar’s attitude irked me unlike any other. The moment he met me, he’d pointed to Isabel.
“Could you give your squire to me?” he requested.
The usually calm Isabel looked obviously repulsed. I felt exactly the same. I couldn’t believe the gall he had to ask for another person’s property. When I firmly declined, he began to doubt my abilities and voice his concerns.
“If you doubt my powers, shall I show them to you right here?” I asked, summoning a flame atop my palm.
If I claimed that I’d mistaken him for an orc, maybe I could get away with killing him. I just needed to fry him to a crisp and feed him to the real orcs, which would get rid of any evidence and cover my tracks.
In a flash, Count Bodgar’s large contingent of soldiers hastily surrounded us, spears and blades pointed at my group. I was quite fascinated at seeing them express such loyalty to this horrible lord.
Richard roughly grabbed the base of one of the spearheads pointed at him and raised the weapon high in the air, soldier and all. The soldier gripped his weapon tightly as he screamed in terror.
“Hmph,” Richard grunted.
He swung the spear around, hurling the pitiful soldier far into the distance. The man shrieked like a horrified maiden before he collapsed to the ground.
“Bring it on,” Richard said. “I’ll be your opponent.”
He snapped the spear in half and flashed Count Bodgar a fearless smile. This sort of attitude was a touch problematic for one of my squires to take, but I knew that I could pin all the blame on him should anything go awry. So I let him do as he pleased.
“Um, I understand your—no, Lady Serena and her squires’ power,” the count said quickly. “You are all very reliable, and I ask that you get rid of the orcs for me.”
He was trying his best to put on a tough front, but his voice was trembling as he acknowledged our strength. I didn’t mind fighting him, but since our orders were to defeat the orcs, I had to take care of that first. We required some information as well.
Count Bodgar fled like he was afraid of us, leaving his subordinates to tell us of the current state of the monsters.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Are those the orcs?” I asked as I gazed down from the top of a hill.
I could hardly believe what I saw. A sea of brown stretched before me, resembling a vast wasteland. When I looked more closely, I saw that each of the brown specks was wriggling—an extraordinary number of orcs had covered the entire area.
According to Count Bodgar’s subordinate, the orcs had tried to attack the city several times. At first, their numbers were few, but the count didn’t want to incur any needless losses and simply chased them away. He also firmly ordered against any sort of pursuit.
Orcs weren’t completely stupid. They were as smart as pigs, and as they were defeated time and again whenever they attacked the city, they retreated into the mountains and forests to slowly increase their numbers and power. Over time, they managed to multiply uncontrollably. Still, Count Bodgar’s subordinate claimed that the monsters weren’t strong enough to win just yet. The knight captain who defended the fief claimed the same, but when the count spotted the massive horde of orcs, he immediately folded and formed a peace treaty. He would hand over a portion of the fief’s food to the orcs and agreed to do so numerous times.
The monsters ate the food and grew their numbers to the impressive horde that I’d just seen. Bodgar’s fief no longer had any food to give—in fact, I doubted that even the royal capital could satiate the stomachs of all those orcs. Thus, the count had hastily asked the king to dispatch an army to provide aid.
How foolish, I thought. Orcs reproduced so quickly that it was common to assume that if one was spotted, there were at least ten others nearby. The general rule was to crush them on sight, or at least to chase them until they ran away elsewhere. How much of an imbecile could the count be to provide these monsters with food from his fief?
“I’m a pacifist!” Bodgar had boasted. “I don’t rely on power, and I settled this issue peacefully!”
The count’s subordinate, who had been left behind to explain matters to me, ranted about all of it to get it off his chest. Clearly, things weren’t going well between this subordinate and the count; he was tasked with providing me with details because it was seen as an undesirable role.
I was able to get some information thanks to that, though.
Now I was faced with a disgusting tide of orcs.
“I’ll start by burning them all,” I said.
“Your wish is our command,” my five squires replied.
I had Alice act alone for this plan. The orcs were numerous, but they weren’t very strong monsters. It would be no issue that I was short a squire or two.
“Lewis, support me with your mana,” I ordered.
“Certainly,” Lewis replied.
He gingerly placed his hand on my back and channeled his mana into me. He didn’t have as much as Alice, but he still had a decent amount. Obviously, I had the largest amount of mana, and his wasn’t even close.
“Spirit of crimson fire, your incandescence can melt boulders with the hellfire of wrath that dwells in my hand,” I chanted. “Bestow unto me your power as I desire to envelop the world with flames!”
I excelled at fire spells the most because I was compatible with them. I was so adept at fire magic that I usually struggled to hold myself back, but this time around, I was prepared to go all out against this sea of orcs.
“Fill the three thousand worlds with crimson lotuses in full bloom!” I chanted. “Vaporize them all!”
When my spell was fully activated, a fiery flame engulfed the orcs in a blazing tsunami. One by one, the monsters were swallowed by the crimson wave, their pig squeals echoing through the air. I held no special hatred toward the orcs, but I couldn’t stop my lips from forming a smile. Their screams rang out better than I’d expected.
“Heh heh heh,” I chuckled.
Several orcs managed to escape the flames despite the pain they’d endured, and they spotted me atop the hill. They emitted screeches—it seemed that even pigs could tell who exactly had created those artistic flames. The furious orcs lunged for me, rage in their eyes. I had managed to wipe out the majority of them with my magic, but there were simply so many that there were quite a few survivors. There were at least a hundred of the pigs left.
“I’m tired, so I think I’ll sit and rest,” I said. “Can I leave the rest to you all?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” my squires shouted.
As I sat on my chair, Richard and Emma took the lead. With a powerful battle cry, Richard charged and swung his greatsword, slicing through three or four orcs in one go. Emma skillfully used her two blades to strike the monsters’ vital areas. The two had completely contrasting battle styles, but they quickly cut down the orcs’ numbers. The monsters, finally understanding their disadvantage, tried to flee, but Oscar and Isabel had already closed off their escape route. Those two were experts when it came to strategy.
I couldn’t let a single orc escape; failure wasn’t an option. And so, the orcs were eradicated in no time.