That question took him by surprise. He seemed to process the import of my words, but he finally stood more upright, and firmly stated, “Yes, Hero.”
“Very good. Then I have one request. I want you to copy the contents of this book here. Have you ever done that before?” I asked, gingerly stroking the pages.
“Yes, copying the scriptures was part of my priestly training.”
His quizzical expression seemed to ask, What part of that goes against God’s teachings?
“Open it.”
I gestured toward the book on the table, and he opened its cover.
“Hero… I’ve never seen these letters. What are they?”
“You don’t need to know. All I can say is, it has to do with my work. In any case, I want you to copy all of it.”
“Understood.”
George wasn’t a fool. He likely had a vague idea of what this was. After all, he had closely witnessed my attempts to teach Johnny.
“Before you get to work, I need you to swear again that you’ll keep this a secret.”
I didn’t know how effective a vow would be to him, but it was better than nothing.
“Yes, I swear it not only to God, but on the name of my father. I will protect this secret.”
From what I’d heard from Thret, that man had been adored by his children, so I didn’t take George’s vow lightly.
During our exchange, Johnny shambled over. She noticed the open book on the table, gazed at its pages, and began jumping for joy. Early on, she—and I had to remind myself she was a she—had been so timid, but she had grown much more relaxed of late, so I could tell George had been quite welcoming to her.
George glanced at me to gauge my reaction. I gave him a nod, and he lifted Johnny higher so she could get a better look at the book.
To proceed, I was going to have to find an orc who could read. It would be so much easier if Johnny could read, but I didn’t have high hopes of that. What were the literacy rates of orcs, anyway? The orcs mostly fought with muskets—muzzle-loader guns. If their cultural development paralleled the advancements of my world, their literacy rates would still be relatively low. Additionally, the ones the humans captured were all farmers and soldiers, so it was unlikely she had received sufficient education.
I didn’t want to give in to pessimism about finding a literate orc. Surely their army’s high-ranking officers would be literate. And in any humble village, human or orcish, there always had to be one or two people who could read. There had to be an orc in captivity I could make use of… If only I knew—
Johnny was feverishly oinking at the book’s contents. She twisted her way out of George’s grasp, stole the ash-covered poker from beside the woodburning stove, and began scratching something into the dirt floor.
What? Could it be…?
I snatched up the book, searching for any symbols that resembled the ones Johnny had written. I flipped through page after page. The dictionary was ordered by human words, which had been written first, with the corresponding orc words gradually filled in later.
I scanned the entire book front to back before I was able to find the three symbols Johnny had written.
“I”
“Read”
“Words”
We’d already hit the jackpot.
Nearly two months had gone by since I’d acquired the orcish dictionary. The barrier ceremony had continued smoothly, and I would soon be freed from my monotonous position. Meanwhile, my lessons with Johnny proceeded at a rapid pace. Through learning their language, I was also gaining a bit of understanding about orcish society.
I had asked to Johnny write her true name. When I compared the words she’d written to the dictionary, I found hers corresponded to the human words for “white” and “flower.” A sweet, girly name. The letters she used were somewhat different from those in the book, but perhaps they were modified when used for proper names. I would need to ask the sage about that.
Nevertheless, I needed to change her name accordingly. I wasn’t someone who would arbitrarily come up with a demeaning name like “Potato.” However, it being impossible for me to match orcish pronunciation, I decided to go for something similar to what I’d decoded.
“Listen up. Your name is Lily. I’m going to call you Lily now.”
She just stared at me blankly. I pointed at her again and again, repeating, “Lily, Lily,” until finally she seemed to catch on. Thereafter, she responded to her new, more suitable name.
For one exercise, I flipped through the dictionary while asking her if there was anything in its pages she would like to have. She had progressed from writing on the dirt floor to writing on paper, so in small letters she meekly inked the word “clothes.” It was winter, after all, and quite cold, but I wondered if maybe it was also a matter of modesty, since she lived among clothed humans. I promptly asked the housekeeper to see about making her some clothing that would fit her orcish frame, and then continued with my questions.
From what I gleaned through piecing together her writing, she’d been the personal maid of a certain orcish noble. Unfortunately, while out patrolling their territory a few years prior, the noble she served along with her and the rest of the servants had been the victims of an out-of-season human attack, and they had all been captured. Those who’d attacked them had been dressed in white, undoubtedly the Knights Templar led by Princess Liana. Lily and her companions were soon taken to a slave market. She didn’t know the fate of the rest, but she herself was sold to the grain mill, where she had ultimately met me.
Beyond her personal history, I started to gain a bigger picture as well, and I soon feared humanity’s situation was more dire than I had imagined. The opponent we contended with was a single provincial lord of a massive orc empire made up of smaller states. The main state of this union possessed over three times the number of soldiers as the lord’s personal force, and with all their provinces taken together, that number would be increased tenfold.
Not to mention, there were numerous other orc countries outside of this empire.
With these facts before me, saving humanity by eliminating the orcs seemed but a naïve dream. The orcs saw the humans as troublesome beasts that had descended the mountains into their territory in the fall. They were left to roam free simply because it would be too much trouble to cross the mountains to hunt them all down.
Up to that point, I’d held to a vague idea of seizing victory in one great battle and using that victory as leverage for peaceful negotiations. In light of this information, it seemed that would prove difficult. Still, if we could defeat that one provincial lord, that would make the rest of the orcs take us seriously.
Meanwhile, I needed to somehow keep the humans in check, lest they stir up the hive too much, but how was I supposed to contain them when they headed out for their incursions come next fall? In the first place, their finances depended in no small part on plunder. It might’ve been a mistake to disperse the blockade with air raids. If the valley had remained sealed, it would have been impossible to send any more armies through. If we stopped this plundering, perhaps then the orcs would take a less hostile view toward us.
No, we couldn’t depend on them growing benevolent. They had tried to destroy Dragonjaw Gate with their massive cannons. If we didn’t use force against them preemptively, they would try to destroy the wall again. So what was I supposed to do? I was losing confidence in my ability to save this world.