NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28.3
“If something like here happened, then I might think about going there?”
“Something like here…” Taid Nail cocked his head to one side. Unfortunately, he had never heard of enslaved orcs. However, the word “festival” came to his mind with the words “something like here”. “Ah!”
“What’s the matter?”
“Well, I don’t think this has anything to do with you, Sir Bash.”
“Mm?”
“I heard that the engagement between Inuella, the third princess of the Beastmen Nation, and Aconite of the Elf Nation has been officially decided, and the Beastmen Nation seems to be in a festive mood.
“I see.”
It was really irrelevant. Bash’s shoulders slumped. But he was the only one who thought so. Zell had an idea, though.
“Mister… that’s it!”
“What?”
“Lend me your ear a little.”
Zell whispered to him. It was a fairy whisper.
“When you see something good in someone else, don’t you get a little jealous and want to copy it?”
“Mm.”
He thought back to the incident in the elven land. After Bash’s failed marriage proposal, “Last Breath” had gotten an elven wife. And he felt envious. He would be lying if he said he didn’t want to imitate him. Elves were monogamous, therefore, he gave up…
“Perhaps something similar would happen in the land of the Beastmen.”
“And by that you mean…?”
“How clueless, mister! Listen, if the princess will marry, that means there will be a boom of marriage activity with different races in the Beastmen Nation!”
“…!”
There would be a boom in interracial marriages in the future. It certainly wasn’t impossible. Bash looked at Zell. The fairy had a smug look on her face. Never before had he thought that this fairy’s ability to gather information and detect enemy targets from it was so reliable.
“Zell. I’m glad you’re with me on this journey.”
“Hey, don’t get so sentimental!”
Zell patted Bash on the shoulder. Bash thanked Zell again and turned to Taid Nail.
“Thanks for the information. I think I’ll head for the Beastmen Country…”
“…” Taid Nail nodded. However, in light of the current secret talk, he took the liberty of guessing that there must have been a reason for it. Because the one he was talking about now was Bash. He was a true hero who freed the dwarven nation’s captive orc slaves and defended their pride. “I see! I’m glad my information was useful to you!”
“Someday, when this journey is over, I will visit your nation.”
“Yes! I will welcome you with open arms!”
“See you later!”
“Good luck!”
And so, Bash set out on his journey. A journey to the Beastmen Country.
◆◆◆
Over the next few days, the dwarven nation of Do Banga’s Pit buzzed with talk of the Armament Festival.
Orc slaves had been held captive since the war. A slave warrior fought to regain his freedom and his pride. The Orc Hero came to his rescue. The Hero, with the help of the War Fiend’s daughter, ascended through the Armament Festival and confronted the slave warrior. The Hero put the warrior to the test, and the warrior passed it. Thus, the warrior regained his freedom and pride and returned to his country…
Such verses were sung throughout the taverns, and the dwarves toasted the manhood and pride of the orcs and their wondrous battle. The merchants who had enslaved the orc warriors were exposed for their wickedness and fled from Do Banga’s Pit. The Arena was deserted, but the dwarves, who liked to make money, would eventually bring it back to life.
“But…”
Now, when the dwarves in the tavern were talking about it, two questions came to mind. One is what happened to the Hero. After granting victory to the Warrior in the arena, he stayed behind and disappeared. He did not send the liberated warriors back to his country, nor did he stay in the Do Banga’s Pit. However, by then, the Siwanasi Forest incident had also reached the Do Banga’s Pit, so they thought: “He is a Hero. He probably went to the next place to protect the pride of the orcs”.
“The War Fiend’s daughter is that Primera, isn’t she? I don’t think that snooty little girl could have been of much help to the Hero.”
The other one was about Primera, who helped the Hero.
“No, it was Bash, the Orc Hero, who put Primera in her place. The story is that Primera changed her mind after being scolded by a Hero as great as him.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The proof is that Primera became Barabara’s apprentice, whom she hated. No, she’s more than just his apprentice. She works quietly without a word of complaint, even though she gets yelled at every day. Her enthusiasm is so great that the other day, in a bar, Barabara said, “I can’t afford to rest on my laurels either”. It was that Barabara Do Banga, you know?”
“Ha… I guess the Hero must have taught her a good lesson?”
Yes, to keep his promise to Bash, Primera became an apprentice to Barabara, the foremost blacksmith in the Do Banga’s Pit. She was working on her training as a blacksmith without complaining, without comparing herself to others or making herself look bigger than she was, as she had been doing until now. There were still those who said that her blood, her mother’s blood, was no good. However, there were fewer who slandered her, now that she had lent her strength to the Hero and was still working hard.
“Oh, and speak of the devil.”
She visited the tavern once every three days. The dwarves were supposed to drink every night and go back to work in the forge after drinking, but she didn’t. She never came alone. She always brought a woman with her.
“Oh, and she comes with her sister Carmela?”
“Only recently.”
The first time Primera visited Carmela was the day after the Armament Festival ended. Primera visited Carmela’s workshop with a bottle of wine in her hand. No one knew what words she exchanged with Carmela afterwards. However, seeing them together at the bar and drinking merrily, no one would have thought that they had had a long-standing grudge.
“So, the Orc Hero ended the Do Banga sisters’ quarrel after all.”
“Can that be done?”
“Don’t be silly. He did it because he is the Hero, and it is a thing only the Hero can do.”
The two dwarves laughed and held their beers in their hands. They raised their cups in their right and clinked them against each other’s cups.
“To the Orc Hero.”
They raised their glasses in their left and clinked them together.
“For the sons of Do Banga.”
They raised the last two cups and struck them against each other.
“Cheers!”
The night in the Do Banga’s Pit was still full of bustle and noise.