Wishlist Wizard: The Rise of the Zero Hero [Isekai LitRPG / Now releasing 3x weekly!]

Today's Earth date: June 27, 1992

We still haven't moved. That's given Horcus plenty of time to tell us his newest plan: Skip the Fire Temple.

Not completely, but for the immediate future. He wants to push farther into the Free Continent to find tougher encounters and then loop back around to absolutely crush the demons inside by being overleveled.

Wilmond is against that plan. He reminded Horcus that the demons are getting stronger the longer we wait to kill them, but Horcus said that didn't matter. He wouldn't say why it didn't matter, but he's got that look. He knows something we don't.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

"You want to negotiate with orcs?" Kryss asked.

Wayne found her in her temporary Maliit office. It was an inn room, but she had enough sway–or money–to have the beds and dressers replaced with couches and office furniture.

"There's a whole city of them," Wayne replied. "The beacon is in their territory. If it marks the Desert Temple like we think, we'll have to deal with orcs no matter what."

"I assumed you would cull them."

"We might not have to. That's better for Maliit's peace treaty, right?"

Kryss sighed. "It is, but it makes everything harder for me. If this negotiation works, I have to convince all of my men to walk through a portal into the middle of an orc city."

"I'd relocate the gate to the outer edge. That'd be more convenient."

"You know what I meant."

"If it goes to shit, we'll go back to your way," Wayne continued. "If workers quit, we'll just hire more. That's better than some of them dying in orc raids."

"How long do I have to think about this?"

Wayne grinned. "I was hoping you'd come with me now."

"Right now?"

"Right now. Think of it like a dinner with the Mayor. I set it all up. The only thing you have to do is come along."

Kryss scowled at the Zero Hero. "Are you taking pleasure in this?"

"Absolutely."

"Fine, but I'm bringing two bodyguards."

"Sure. As long as they aren't trigger-happy dumbasses."

"Trigger-happy? I'm not familiar with this term."

Wayne hadn't accidentally used Earth-specific language in some time. Even he needed a second to think about what the term actually meant. "It means overly aggressive, looking for a fight."

"I can be ready in thirty. Is the Maliit gate in the same location?"

"Yes. The inn. I can give you directions."

"No need. I've seen it."

Cocking his head, Wayne asked, "How have you seen it?"

"I've spent a few nights in Vanilli's cabin."

"Ah. Yeah. I don't need to know any more than that. Yes, I'll meet you in that room."

The only time Wayne had seen Kryss show fear was in the depths of her glitch sickness, but even then, she seemed resolute in dying with dignity.

The second time Wayne saw Kryss show fear was as she stepped into the orc shack where Vanilli treated orcs with glitch sickness. The orcs had organized a line while Wayne was away, and they put their children at the front. That sort of civility gave him some measure of comfort. They might be orcs, but they were capable of self-sacrifice and empathy.

Armond helped Vanilli manage the line while Hector and Margo sat on boxes directly in front of the Quick Gate. Fergus stood in the corner speaking with the orc leader from before. They were joined by a tall female orc adorned in necklaces made from wood, bone, and scraps of metal. She was clearly important, and she looked far more muscular than the orc that led the Zeroes here in the first place.

As Fergus spoke animatedly with a big smile, the party wizard returned to the same base pose again and again: his head high, his belly and hips slightly forward, and his legs slightly apart. He never crossed his arms over his chest. He either put his hands on his hips, rested them on his belly, or touched his face or beard in some way.

Wayne knew this specific Fergus pose. The old scholar's confidence was high, and he had set his sights on a very specific goal.

"No," Wayne said via Voice, delivering the message to Fergus only.

"I'm busy."

"Still no."

"Fate is not so easily swayed."

Rubbing his eyes for a moment, Wayne took a deep breath and led Kryss to the corner where the trio spoke.

"Friends," Wayne began, "this is my colleague, Miss Kryss. We work together to recover historical artifacts."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Kryss offered a slight but nervous bow. "Pleased to meet you."

"Me Hoggle," the orc leader said. "This Queen Sarah."

Wayne and Kryss both bowed extra deep. "Honored to meet you, your grace," Kryss said.

"You want orc land?" the Queen asked.

"We would like your permission to cross it and work on it," Wayne said. "We don't want to own it, but before we talk too much about business, we should do this first. Kryss, please show them your arm, if you don't mind."

Kryss rolled down her long black glove to reveal her bone arm and hand. Both orcs raised their eyebrows at the sight.

"Miss Kryss had glitch sickness too. Vanilli treated her, and he made her this arm."

"You lose arm?" Hoggle asked, pointing at his own stub.

Kryss nodded.

Without asking, Hoggle gently grabbed Kryss' arm and inspected it. He tapped the center of her bony palm. Her hand twitched.

Hoggle looked up at Kryss, who did her best to maintain her composure as fear and disgust churned within her. "You feel?"

"Yes."

Hoggle tapped her pointer finger. "You-"

"Yes."

Before Hoggle could repeat the test a third time, Fergus butted in. "It's as good as the real thing, if not better, in every way. It's a marvel to be sure."

"You give mine arms?" the Queen asked. Wayne assumed "mine" was her way of saying "my people," or something akin to it.

"Legs too," Fergus added.

Wayne smiled. "Yes. We told Hoggle we wanted peace, and helping each other is what peace looks like for us."

"Trade for land? What we say, 'no?'"

"If you can assure us the peace with Maliit is still intact, we'll treat everyone we can, even if you say no to our request. We do want access, but I won't use sickness as a bargaining chip."

Wayne felt Kryss shoot him a glare, but he didn't look to his side to confirm.

"We say no, you still help?"

"Yes."

"This trick?"

"No trick," Wayne assured her. He gestured to the line. "We already started, didn't we?"

The Queen ground her teeth as she thought. "Me think. Talk later."

"Of course."

She took in the scene once more, nodded, and stepped out of the shack. Hoggle followed her.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Kryss whispered.

"Not at all," Wayne admitted. "I'm not a diplomat. I'm just not being a dick."

"That's worked well for us thus far," Fergus added, proudly. "For the most part."

Kryss rolled her eyes and excused herself to speak with Vanilli while he was between patients.

"She really wants something different from all this," Fergus said. "She'll come around."

"Kryss?"

"Queen Sarah."

"Jesus. I don't need to know."

Fergus shook his head. "That's not what I mean. Yes, of course it's true that the Queen is curious about the taste of the exotic, but that's not what I'm talking about. She listened more than most of the leaders we've spoken to."

"Could be the language barrier."

"I'm just saying that it felt like she came into the conversation to compromise, not to find a way to get what she wants."

"Your way of reading people is interesting."

"Fine. Don't believe me."

Wayne held up his hands. "That came out wrong. You see things in social situations that are completely invisible to me, and that's a good thing. I thought she seemed nervous and skeptical."

"She was undoubtedly feeling both those things," Fergus replied. "But there was a sincere curiosity too. The Royal Scholar kind of curiosity that wants to believe learning something new makes the world better."

"That's kind of beautiful. I hope you're right."

After a long day of treating patients, Wayne and Fergus invited Vanilli and Armond to enjoy a meal at their favorite Iomallach restaurant, the one that made a dish adjacent to tacos. The rest of the Zeroes joined as well, including Sammy. To ensure that the train was secure, Wayne temporarily swapped the orc city Quick Gate for a Station Gate. Only a member of his party could operate a Station Gate, and only for as long as the train stayed parked at the orc city station.

"You both must be exhausted," Margo said.

Vanilli shrugged while Armond nodded. The cleric swallowed a bite of food before speaking.

"Tiring but rewarding. I loved being a medic in my younger years. Keeping something alive was always more appealing to me than killing something, but I didn't realize how little of the reward I was really getting."

"I'm not sure what you mean," Fergus said.

Armond thought. "Medics don't really fix anything. We bundle up the broken pieces and hope they get to a real healer in time. This work with Van? We're not just plugging leaks. Patients leave excited about their futures."

Fergus smiled warmly. "That's very poetic, Armond."

"I forgot we were working on orcs there after a bit. I've seen my share of orcs, even before joining on with this crew, and they've always been bloodthirsty hell fiends. Never once did I think that talking to them was an option."

"Why are these orcs different?" Sammy asked.

The party's cook wasn't a boy, but he was younger than anyone else in the party by far. Wayne liked that he retained a sort of honest curiosity and wasn't afraid to ask direct questions.

"Now that's a question above my paygrade." Armond took a drink of wine to wash down a bite of food. "I'm not good at understanding why anything happens. Can only tell you what I see."

"I'm not sure anyone but the orcs could answer that question, in fairness," Fergus said. "All of the orcs I've read about were only a step above rabid wolves. They form loose tribes and then go hunting for anything that moves. A whole community? An organized leadership structure? It's fascinating."

"Or it's a trap," Hector added bluntly.

"Fair concern," Fergus replied. "I don't think that's the case, though. The illusion magic they're using to hide in the desert is far more advanced than what our mages are capable of."

"How much more?" Margo asked.

"My understanding of illusion magic is that hiding a single building is an incredible feat. To hide a whole city? My peers would tell you it's not possible. They may have found a piece of tech from the first dwarves that powers it, or they have a far more advanced understanding of magic than we do. Either possibility is impressive."

Wayne wobbled his head. "I think it's more likely that they got lucky in finding something incredible and were smart enough to take advantage. They definitely weren't the ones that set up the illusion."

Fergus asked, "What makes you so sure?"

"The password. Someone from Earth chose it. Not a doubt in my mind."

"Like one of the Heroes?"

"Maybe, but Sheeri and I are also proof that it's not just Heroes who get summoned here. If she was able to sneak away and build a life without anyone knowing where she was from, it's possible there are other people from Earth hiding out here too."