Chapter 30
#30. His Highness the Grand Duke and Her Highness the Grand Duchess Saved You
The orc Grunak approached Krok, respectfully carrying a bowl of fragrant meat soup in both hands.
"Chieftain……."
"Get lost, Grunak. I saw with my own two eyes that you, too, have surrendered to that hypocritical human wench."
Krok bared his teeth and growled.
But large tears were welling up in Grunak's eyes.
"Chieftain…… Please listen to me. This…… this is really delicious. Just try one bite. Whether or not the humans see us as slaves, we have to survive first. Then we'll be able to take revenge or escape……!"
Grunak had somehow become fairly fluent in human speech.
That wasn't all.
He was also the one who had fervently urged the other orcs to learn human speech.
When Krok turned away without even replying, as if telling him to get lost, Grunak chewed a thick piece of meat from the bowl and began to sob.
Not a trace of vengeance remained on his face.
Only the face of a loyal dog tamed by food remained.
Gulp…!
Watching Grunak's expression, Krok unconsciously swallowed hard.
What on earth did that ignorant fool taste to make him cry?
Charge. Destroy. Victory.
Those were the only things he knew.
'Should I try just one bite……? Just one bite?'
The others had all surrendered anyway. What was the point of holding out alone?
Krok's pride began to crumble, little by little, before his hunger.
He had just reached out with a trembling hand toward Grunak's bowl.
"Th-then, just one bite…"
"All right, mealtime is over! Everyone, return your bowls and get back to your workstations!"
The human guard's heartless shout reverberated through the tunnel.
"Ah……!"
Krok's hand froze in midair.
The guards began pulling the carts loaded with food out of the tunnel.
The orcs returned their bowls in perfect order, then went back to the worksite, each with a refreshed look on their face.
"Chieftain, I'm sorry…… I'll be sure to bring you some at the next mealtime."
Oblivious Grunak finished the remaining broth in one gulp, then scampered off with the empty bowl.
Krok stared blankly at the receding cart.
Regret. Resentment. And perhaps……
Anger?
His indescribable hunger brought tears prickling to his eyes.
In the end, Krok once again had to swallow his tears that day as he chewed a piece of hard bread.
And finally, disaster struck.
After several days of barely eating, Krok was hauling an enormous boulder far beyond what he could handle when his vision suddenly went white.
'Huh……?'
In his dazed state, the image of Eleanor's meat soup, which Grunak had thrust right under his nose, shimmered before his eyes.
A savory aroma seemed to brush the tip of his nose.
"Chieftain! Kurrk…! Be careful…!"
He heard the orcs' frantic cries, but it was already too late.
The strength left his hands, and the enormous boulder he had been dragging with a rope lost its balance and rolled toward Krok.
Crash!!
"Kurrk…!!"
The boulder crushed one of Krok's legs.
With the agony of his flesh being crushed, Krok collapsed to the ground.
Normally, he could have pushed aside a boulder like this with one hand.
But now, hunger and fatigue had combined to push his body to its limit.
"Oh my! Krok!!"
Just then, Eleanor, who had been making her rounds through the tunnel in the distance, came running over with a scream.
Behind her was the enemy who had reduced him to this state—Kylan Winterwald.
"Hey, orcs. Six of you, come over here and lift this boulder."
"Kurrk…! At once…!"
He issued the order as naturally and smoothly as though he really had become the orcs' new chieftain.
The orcs, too, were accepting Kylan as their new chieftain.
"Your Highness! I'll treat him!"
"Don't worry too much. Someone like him shouldn't be seriously injured."
Once the enormous orcs cleared away the boulder, Eleanor carefully placed her hand on Krok's injured leg. Her touch was unbelievably soft and warm.
Fwoooosh!
Warm healing magic, bright as sunlight, poured from Eleanor's palm.
As the magic seeped into his body, the crushing pain in Krok's leg began to melt away like snow.
Even his hunger seemed to disappear.
The demonic energy in his body was purified, and his mind cleared.
He even felt as though he had opened his eyes for the first time in his life.
"Ugh……."
Krok slowly opened his eyes to slits.
The first thing he saw was Eleanor's face, sweat beading on her forehead as she gazed down at him with concern.
"Are you awake? That was almost a catastrophe."
With a sigh of relief, Eleanor held the warm bowl Grunak had brought right under Krok's nose.
"Injured people need to eat well to recover quickly. If you refuse, I'll ask His Highness the Grand Duke to force-feed you, so please don't."
A person. She treated an orc as a person—as one of her own.
And yet, strangely, Krok could not feel insulted.
Eleanor's warm smile.
The fantastic aroma of the meat soup stinging the tip of his nose.
The gentle, sunlike mana beginning to circulate through his entire body from the wound.
All of it shattered the last line of defense remaining in Krok's heart.
Krok took the wooden spoon Eleanor handed him with trembling hands. Then he scooped up a generous spoonful of broth and meat and put it in his mouth.
"……!!"
It was a revolution of taste.
Thick pork that melted softly in his mouth, and a rich, deep broth that warmed him to the bone.
It was a heavenly taste he could never have experienced in the barren mountains of his homeland—no, one he had never even imagined.
"Kurrk…… Kuhhuhk……!"
Tears streamed from Krok's eyes like a waterfall.
"Kuhhuhuhk……! It's delicious…… It's so delicious……!!"
Krok stopped using the spoon and began gulping down the broth straight from the bowl.
His face was smeared with tears and broth, but he didn't care.
Her Highness the Grand Duchess Eleanor had given such delicious food to a monster like him and genuinely worried about him.
Loyalty began to take root in Krok's heart.
"Kurrk…… Kuhhuhuhk……! I was foolish! I was an idiot. I was wrong. I failed to recognize the grace of Her Highness the Grand Duchess, so benevolent and kind……!!"
Krok set the bowl down on the floor, then prostrated himself at Eleanor's feet and slammed his forehead against the ground.
"For the rest of my life……! I will become Winterwald's slave and repay this kindness! I will atone by helping the humans! Waaaaah!!"
When Krok, their leader, sobbed and pledged his loyalty, the other orcs, who had been watching for cues, also shed tears of emotion and slammed their heads against the ground in unison.
"Long live Her Highness the Grand Duchess!!"
"We will… work hard…!"
Eleanor, who had suddenly turned hundreds of monstrous orcs into fanatics, looked flustered and did not know what to do.
"Uh, everyone…… Why all of a sudden?"
Kylan, who had watched it all with his arms folded, wore a satisfied smile at the corners of his mouth.
'Just as expected, she's my wife. Her skill at taming them is a work of art.'
Kylan pulled an estate development plan from inside his coat and hummed as he revised the proportion of labor assigned to the orcs.
'Two hundred muscle-bound monsters I can put to work for twelve hours free of charge. Heh heh heh, I can save another two percent on next quarter's construction budget!'
Kylan still viewed the orcs from a thoroughly capitalist perspective.
***
A few weeks later.
The new city's residential district, on a wide, newly paved road.
Two children were excitedly fencing with wooden sticks.
"Take this! I am His Highness, Grand Duke Kylan, the Empire's strongest Sword Master!"
"Tch! Then I'm Ludwig, the Central Continent's First Prince! Come at me!"
"What are you talking about! A mere First Prince can't even reach His Highness the Grand Duke's toes?! You're dead now!"
"Hey! Don't you know you'll be arrested by the military police for insulting the imperial family!?"
"Give me a break! Up here in the North, His Highness Grand Duke Kylan is the king~!"
The children gleefully shouted remarks amounting to high treason, then ran straight into the middle of the road.
It was then.
The horses pulling a huge merchant wagon around the corner suddenly spotted the children and reared up in fright.
"Neighhh!"
"Whoa, whoa! Stop!!"
The coachman frantically tugged on the reins, but the excited horses did not stop. Instead, they charged straight at the children.
"Ah…!"
Just as the children stood frozen, unable even to move.
Thud!!
The huge merchant wagon came to an abrupt stop.
When the dust cleared, a massive orc was revealed, pressing down on the excited horse's head with one hand and lightly blocking the front end of the wagon with the other.
His blue work clothes were covered in dust.
They were proof that he belonged to Winterwald.
"Kurrk. Dangerous, little ones. You'll get hurt if you play on a road where wagons pass."
Krok, now a full-fledged resident of Winterwald, released his grip on the wagon and gently admonished the children.
"Waaaah! It's an orc, an orc!!"
"Mister Orc! Thank you for saving us!"
The children's innocent greetings brought a gentle smile to Krok's fierce, scar-covered face.
He slowly shook his head and looked toward Winterwald Castle, rising majestically in the distance.
"No. It was His Highness the Grand Duke and Her Highness the Grand Duchess who saved you."