76

The first action I took was to move my tail and snatch the sword from the woman.

Even seen up close, the blade was indeed blunted, making it insufficient not only as a sword but even as a blunt weapon.

(If you’re going to hand over something like this to play with, I might as well deal with them myself using it.)

I slammed the short sword in my hand into the orc’s side.

Watching the orc, who dropped its spear and went flying, finally spurred the pigs to act against the intruder. However, since they could not fight without weapons, they scrambled indoors as if fleeing.

As for me, I leisurely walked over to the pig that had been blown away, pressed the short sword against the fallen orc’s neck, and slowly pushed it in with my body weight.

Naturally, since the blade was blunted, it did not pierce; instead, it crushed the flesh of the neck as the short sword sank in.

The pig struggled desperately to push it away, but there was no way an orc’s level of strength could lift the blade weighed down by my body. As its breathing grew labored, it began to pat my fingers holding the hilt.

I could have let it suffocate like that, but instead, I forced the sword in, shattering the bones of its neck.

This way, I could free my hands quickly, and it would suffer and die from being unable to breathe properly due to the bleeding.

Now then, there was something I had to do before the pigs returned.

Some of them brandished weapons to threaten me, but I ignored them and walked toward the gate.

There were three women currently in the hall—the one who had been fighting the pig earlier had joined the others, and they were hiding together in one place.

It was fortunate that at least one of them seemed able to think and act calmly.

I waited in front of the gate until the orcs with weapons had all gathered one after another.

Then, when an orc wearing a helmet appeared and raised its sword to give the order, the armed pigs charged toward me.

After confirming that, I closed the gate.

Strictly speaking, since it was an iron gate—quite audacious of them—I deformed it, making it impossible to open or close.

I spread my arms wide toward the halted group of orcs in a welcoming gesture.

(Welcome to hell.)

I wondered if my message of “No one escapes” had been conveyed?

No, there was no way it hadn’t been.

If it hadn’t, you lot would be on the level of goblins.

I leapt into the armed orc horde.

The massacre began.

A pig too slow to flee from my landing point was trampled flat.

A group of pigs with shields was swept aside by a single swing of my arm, sent flying through the air.

A thrusting spear snapped; an axe that had supposedly slashed broke.

Orcs who had taken up high positions shot arrows, but all of them bounced off without piercing my hard outer hide.

“Gaaaaaaaah!”

A charge—an all-out body slam—tore pig flesh and shattered bones.

I grabbed pigs and hurled them at orcs on the outer wall.

I hurled them at pigs inside the hall.

I stomped.

I punched.

I kicked.

With each action I took, a pig’s life was snuffed out.

Before long, there was nothing moving inside the fort.

When I crushed the head of a helmeted pig that had been playing dead, orcs pretending to be dead similarly began to flee.

However, since there was only one gate, their only escape was to jump from the outer wall, and I had piled pig corpses on the stairs leading up there during the earlier carnage, so climbing up would be no easy task.

The last one dropped to its knees as if begging for its life, rubbed its forehead against the ground, and raised its clasped hands over its head.

I mercilessly drove the spear I had picked up into its head.

Now, the ones outside remained.

They likely knew something abnormal was happening inside due to the commotion, but since they could not open the gate, they had no idea what was going on in here.

They could probably sense it from the smell of blood and the pigs’ screams, but that didn’t mean all of them would run.

Any pigs too slow to flee would all be slaughtered.

I would make them remember that they were the “prey.”

The number I killed inside and outside combined was less than 300.

The ones outside had not fled as much as I had expected, so it took me longer to exterminate them, but since I was able to deal with more pigs, I considered it acceptable.

Now then, next were the women inside… but first, I would approach them amicably.

During the cleanup, I had come up with a convenient scenario and wanted to proceed according to that setup.

First, I retrieved the backpack I had left before infiltrating.

Then, climbing back over the outer wall of the fort—I found a large number of nearly naked women.

When they saw me, they screamed, but one of them gave a firm order to quiet down, and they obediently complied.

(As expected, I should assume there’s a soldier mixed among them.)

That made things easier for me, so I welcomed it.

For now, I counted their numbers… there were as many as 38 of them.

As I descended the outer wall and slowly walked toward them, women holding orc spears blocked my path.

So I took out a notepad and pen from my backpack, scribbled some words, tore off a sheet, and thrust it before the woman in front.

“Shall we talk?”

The woman looked at the memo with a shocked expression and nervously took the paper held out to her.

“You… can understand our language?”

I nodded and wrote on the notepad again.

Since it was going to be a slightly long text, I had them wait. While remaining cautious, some of the women looked at me with interest.

It seemed they had not been captured by the orcs for long and still had the leeway to observe the situation.

Once I finished writing, I tore off the memo and handed it to the representative woman.

Its contents were something like this:

“The attack on the orcs was for my own reasons, so I will omit the details here. Due to the nature of my objective, I want to meet your commander. In other words, I have only one request for you: to arrange a meeting and discussion with your commander or someone equivalent. If you agree to this, I promise to return you all safely.”

The representative woman looked back and forth between the memo and me multiple times, her expression one of disbelief.

“So, in short, you want to use us as a bargaining chip?”

One of the women standing behind her glanced at the memo and voiced her impression.

That interpretation was fine by me, so I nodded.

Even if the reason was flimsy, as long as it worked as a “reason,” people would accept it.

If they accepted it, they would stop doubting me unnecessarily or taking strange actions, and things could proceed smoothly.

And crucially, the fact that I wanted to meet with the commander of the Furon Council, or someone corresponding to that, was true.

What I sought was information gathered on the human side.

It would be quicker and more accurate to get information from Furon, who were presumably actively involved, than for me to observe the orcs alone.

In this deal, they might think they were being “incidentally” saved, but for me, this was also the main goal.

To accomplish both while not closing the distance too much, such a disguise was necessary.

“I will give you time to think. You can give your answer after scavenging supplies inside the fort.”

The representative nodded at the additional memo and began issuing instructions to the other women.

As expected, being nearly naked was a problem.

If they put on clothes and armed themselves, they would regain some mental composure.

After waiting for a while in the now-empty fort plaza, armed women emerged from the building one after another.

The problem was that the weapons in their hands were stained with blood—and it wasn’t orc blood.

(Well, of course. This fort wasn’t built yesterday. Those captured for a long time were still inside—or rather, there were those who could no longer move.)

They could not leave behind those who had reached their limits physically, or perhaps mentally—or in the worst case, both.

It must have been an agonizing decision.

(A world not ruled by law really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.)

That said, the way of might making right was, in a sense, the same for humans.

Since both sides imposed their own principles on each other, there was no room for complaints.

All that remained was silent brute force.

“We have decided to accept your proposal. If we can return safely, we will arrange a meeting with our headquarters.”

I nodded at the representative’s words, feeling a twinge of guilt for forcing them to make such a resolution.

However, if I had taken out a magic potion there and given it to them, I would have provided them with more than necessary.

Creating unnecessary debts could eventually lead to entanglements.

(Having a monster’s body comes with more inconveniences than I expected.)

After confirming their intent, I walked to the gate.

To display my power, I blew apart the massive iron plate that had become an immovable chunk due to its deformation with a single punch.

If that could give them even a little reassurance, all the better… or so I thought, but when I looked back, their faces still looked grim.

Even after seeing this strength, there were still factors causing unease—so I steeled my mind, realizing my vigilance had unconsciously slackened.

The mass of iron that had been the gate fell to the ground with a loud crash.

It would be my first escort mission.

I would challenge it with all my strength, determined not to let a single casualty occur.