Chapter 12.4: Useful Information
Just kidding, this is the last release for the day. Or first, depending on where you live.
Goodnight for real this time!
The Elf nodded.
Were this just a few days ago, she would have been enraged at his statement, screaming, “Orcs don’t keep promises! They can barely keep it in their pants! Come here! I’ll kill you!”
But now, she had mellowed out enough to not do so.
She was engaged now, and happier than she ever was.
She felt invincible and her heart was full of kindness and generosity, so much so that she was she was willing to let wartime bygones be bygones and even help out a strange Orc.
“Wise Orc, I have some advice for you.”
“Advice?”
“If you’re looking to get hitched, go straight down this street to a tavern called The Great Eagle’s Nest. Unmarried people meet there everyday to try and find a partner. The women are… well, they’re the people who haven’t managed to find a partner yet, even after all this time, so they’re kind of problematic… Maybe you can find someone over there that thinks “eh, sure, this is fine” just like I did.”
‘Oh, thank you for the information.”
“Alright! Well then, I’ll be off. My darling future husband is waiting for me at home! Good luck!”
And the Elf turned away and headed down the road.
She hopped and skipped with so much joy it seemed as though she might just fly away.
“Did you hear that?”
“Oh yes I did!”
Bash looked at the Elven woman happily leaving, and then back to Zell.
He had struck out in his first attempt, but in return he had obtained two useful pieces of information.
First of all, if an Elf wore a white flower on their head, his proposal would be rejected.
This was extremely helpful for any future attempts he would make.
As long as he kept that in mind, he could greatly decrease the times he failed.
Furthermore, there was a place where unmarried people gathered to look for a potential partner.
If there really was a location like that, it was only a matter of time before Bash found a spouse.
Although he was at a disadvantage, as an Orc, the Elves were now almost mandated to marry other races.
Humans, Beastkin and even Dwarves, who, despite being allies, used to be scorned by the Elves, were not welcomed here.
The odds weren’t good, but they were good enough.
“Let’s go!”
Their destination was The Great Eagle’s Nest.
Bash was almost shaking, steeling his nerves as his prepared to embark onto the battlefield of love.
Suddenly, the Elf looked back.
She could see Bash walking towards the tavern.
He was headed towards The Great Eagle’s Nest, just like she suggested he do.
“Huh… How surprising. I heard that Orcs were dumb brutes that were only able to kidnap women and rape them, but I didn’t know some of them could adapt to foreign cultures…”
Up until the end of the war, she had been exclusively fighting against the Succubi armies, and had little to no experience fighting Orcs.
She had faced them once or twice during major battles, when both sides had allies on the battlefield, but most of what she knew about them came from hearsay.
They were violent, savage creatures with no sense of civility that didn’t see females as people.
That was what Orcs were to most of the world – and they’d be mostly right.
Yet the Orc she just met could not be further from what she had pictured them to be in her mind.
“…I guess that just goes to show that everyone can change… just like I did.”
Her name was Azalea.
She was known throughout the Elven Kingdom as a battle maniac, though Bash and Zell weren’t aware of this.
She was even nicknamed “Azalea the Merciless”, due to her, well, mercilessness, and how she laughed as ripped out the tails of her Succubus victims bare-handed.
Her name would spread fear among the Succubi, who were afraid of her sheer brutality and lack of humanity.
Until just a few days ago, she was a bloodshot-eyed, marriage-hunting warrior from hell.
She looked like a starving magic beast.
Her favorite proposal technique was the “Noose Courtship Ritual”, in which she would grab a man by the throat, lift him up, and “ask” him to marry her.
Naturally, its success change was zero.
One of her colleagues, upon learning that Azalea was getting married, told her, “Huh? You’re getting married?! No, no, no, no! There’s no way you could get married before I did!”
A collective cry of despair echoed among the unmarried Elves when they heard that Azalea of all people had managed to nab herself a man.
“Heh, I hope he finds a partner that suits him, just like I found my beloved darling.”
Azalea changed when she finally landed herself a man,
Love softened her toughened heart.
Her soul was rejuvenated, recovering from the years of damage the war had inflicted on it, and she began to smile.
She stopped sitting cross-legged, scratching her crotch, and even talking and laughing with her mouth full.
She even stopped actively picking fights. And even when she did get into a fight, she stopped knocking the teeth out of her unconscious opponents.
The Elven warrior went from being an insatiable carnivore to an ordinary Elf.
“Alright then, let’s hurry home. I’m looking forward to darling’s cooking!”
With a grin on her face, Azalea began happily walking down the road towards her home.