From Slave to King: My Rebate System Built Me a Kingdom With Beauties!

The hidden passage cut through the hillside like a secret vein of ore: narrow, damp, and smelling of earth and old dwarf smoke. The merchant had sold them the route the moment he accepted to smuggle them and a favor owed, back when favors still felt cheap. Now it was the only road left.

Byung rode in the middle, reins loose in his bandaged hands. The bruises along his jaw had ripened to deep purple, and every breath still tugged at cracked ribs, but the short, hard sleep in the brothel had done its work. His eyes were sharp again, ears pricked forward. Maui rode point, her bulk filling the tunnel so completely that the horse had to walk half-sideways. Murkfang lay across the saddlebow in front of her, wrapped in blankets, head lolling with fevered dreams.

They emerged from the passage just after an hour, stepping into goblin territory proper.

The air hit them like a wall.

Byung reined in hard. The scent was wrong: thick, heavy, layered. Not the usual scattered traces of patrols or his kind, but the concentrated reek of a full war-band: sweat, oiled iron, horse, and the sour bite of too many males in one place for too long. It clung to the back of the throat.

Maui's nostrils flared. She twisted in the saddle, tusks catching the last whiff of her kind, and met Byung's eyes. One slow, deliberate nod.

Something was very wrong. Byung leaned sideways, keeping his voice barely above the wind.

"This much scent… a few dozens, maybe more. They're not moving through. They're camped," Byung muttered under his breath. Maui's hand tightened on her axe haft.

"Mine's less than a day north of here," Maui muttered under her breath.

Murkfang stirred, mumbling something lost in fever. His nose twitched, but the sickness still muddled everything; he only burrowed deeper into the blankets.

Byung's mind raced through options the way it once raced through blueprints.

Splitting up would be fastest: Maui could scout ahead with her strength and size, he could circle wide and look for signs, Murkfang could be hidden and guarded. Classic infiltration tactic.

He dismissed it in the same heartbeat.

No intel. No fallback. One captured meant all three compromised. And if the mine had already fallen…

He shook his head once. Maui read the motion and gave the smallest tightening of her lips: agreement.

Together, then. Slow, quiet, eyes open.

Maui nudged her horse forward until she had reached maximum speed. He kept his voice pitched for her ears alone.

"Stay off the main trails. We follow the dry riverbed until the old watchtower ridge. From there we can glass the valley without being seen. If the mine's taken…" Byung didn't finish. Didn't need to.

Maui's huge hand settled briefly on his shoulder: warm, steady, reassuring.

"We get our people out," she rumbled.

"However many are left," Maui added because she understood there was a chance that a mass slaughter had taken place already.

Byung nodded, throat tight in fear because he didn't know the fate that awaited them if the orcs had invaded.

The wind shifted, bringing another wave of orc-stink and, beneath it, the faint, unmistakable tang of goblin blood carried on smoke.

Time was no longer against them. It was already gone.

Maui touched her heels to the horse's flanks. The three of them melted into the distance, riding toward whatever waited at the mine.

But there was a scent Maui kept to herself, it was the scent of Kragg and she knew without a doubt this was an invasion.

-

The lower mines smelled of damp stone, fear, and the sour reek of too many bodies pressed together. Torchlight flickered across the mines that now housed goblin with their essence inscribed in the walls. The orcs had not responded to the provocation by Vrognut or this war would have been over already if they did and the surviving goblins here would have surrendered, leaving them in the dark to wait for whatever came next.

Gribnox sat on the cold floor between Naz and Naruz, his dented armor clanking softly whenever he shifted. The armor on his wrist had already rubbed raw circles into his green skin, but he ignored the sting. His voice, when he spoke, was low enough that no one at the tunnel mouth could hear.

"You two still have a chance," Gribnox said, eyes fixed on the flickering torch beyond the bars.

"You're orcs. Big ones. When they start their attack, they'll focus on us goblins. They'll offer you a place if you turn us in, or at least spare you the worst. All you have to do is walk away. Say you were sent her to spy and to live among us. No one would blame you," Gribnox suggested but this was exactly why they were here in the first place. Naz's laugh was soft and bitter.

"Walk away and leave you lot to rot? After everything?" Naz questioned. If this was the Naz prior to coming here, she would have done so in a heartbeat but here was beginning to feel like home.

Naruz leaned her head against the wall, arms folded protectively over the gentle swell of Naz's belly.

"We stopped being just orcs the day we chose this mine, Gribnox. You know that," Naruz added. Gribnox's shoulders sagged.

"I'm not a fighter. Never was. When they come for us, I'll stand in front anyway. I'll buy you minutes, maybe seconds. It's all I've got." Gribnox's voice cracked on the last word, but he forced a crooked smile.

"But I'll be damned if I let them touch my family without going through me first," Gribnox blurted out.

Naz's eyes softened. She reached out, and rested her hands on his knee.

"You're a terrible liar, Gribnox. You'd last three heartbeats against one of their warriors. But the fact you're willing to try…" She swallowed hard.

"That matters," Naz concluded and Naruz could see how soft spoken Naz had become with Gribnox.

Silence settled, heavy but not unkind. Naruz broke it.

"Do you think Byung and Maui will find Murkfang?" Naruz questioned, dispelling the rising tension between the two.

Gribnox's smile turned real this time, small and fierce and full of certainty.

"Byung can make the impossible possible. If there's anyone walking this world who can track a half-dead goblin across half the kingdom and drag him home, it's that stubborn goblin. And Maui? She'd tear the gates of hell off their hinges for him. They'll find him," Gribnox said without missing a breath.

All three of them chuckled, the sound low and warm, a brief candle against the dark. For a moment their situation felt less grim.

Naz's laughter faded into a soft gasp. She pressed a palm to her belly, eyes widening.

"He kicked again," Naz whispered.

"Strong one this time," she added.

Naruz's hand joined hers instantly, feeling the firm thump beneath skin.

"Less than five days now," Naruz murmured, voice thick.

Gribnox looked at the swell of Naz's stomach and felt something cold settle in his gut. He had heard what orcs did to pregnant captives especially when the child was half-goblin. The stories were older than the mine itself, and none of them ended well.

Naz met his gaze and read the fear there. She lifted her chin, defiant even in her current situation.

"They won't touch this child," Naz said quietly.

"Not while any of us still breathe," Naruz added with a grin. Gribnox nodded once, slow and deliberate.

"Then we make sure we keep breathing," Gribnox said.

"Long enough for Byung to come walking through that gate with Murkfang on his shoulder and Maui on his right," Gribnox knew there was hope as long as Byung was alive.

Naz leaned her head against Gribnox's shoulder, just for a moment. Naruz rested her brow against Naz's temple. The three of them sat there together in the dark section of the mine, sharing the moment like they had each made a secret vow to stand by their sides.

-

Somewhere far above, the orcs sharpened their axes, it looked like they were done waiting for Vrognut to make his next move because Kraghul understood he needed to send a message.

But there was one thing he noted, the body language of the goblins, they had no idea where Byung was.

he wasn't in the mine and attacking the mine might deter him from returning from wherever he went to.

It was a waiting game not to starve them out but to wait for this goblin he has heard so much about.

Because the truth was, regardless of how tricky Vrognut was, he couldn't withstand the overwhelming strength of these orcs.

Kraghul has already shown he didn't particularly care about the orcs so what was stopping him from storming the mine despite knowing he would lose a few orcs in the process?

More proof that Kraghul wasn't looking for something as silly as victory because it was something he could accomplish at any moment.