Chapter 321 - Marugahaja

"Then let's hear it, little chief. What's going on here, exactly?" Eiro asked curiously. The young Orc child in front of him looked at the ground with a bitter, hopeless expression, "There is something attacking us... Every single day, the moment that dusk falls, one of us falls down onto the ground dead. We don't know how, or why... They never have any fresh wounds or anything like that."

"Do any of the ones that died have something in common? Age, Gender, abilities? That sort of thing?" The Demon inquired, but the Orc immediately shook its head, "They never had anything in common, no... They could be children or old people, men or women, guards or craftsmen... And it was never location-based either, before you ask that." 

Eiro stared back at the Orc. He was telling the truth, and didn't seem to be trying to hide anything from the Demon either.

"Can I take a look at the dead bodies? If they're around here?" He asked. The Orc looked back at him and then slightly shook his head, "Most of them were already buried... Except the one that died last night..."

Immediately, Eiro nodded his head and then stepped toward the door, "Then let me take a look at that body."

"B-But-"

"Kid. I said to let me take a look at that body. You need my help, and this is the only way that I can help you." The Demon told the child, who seemed to be getting the shivers when staring back at Eiro's eyes. He slowly nodded and then led the way for the Demon. Eiro looked at the village in the process, and then chose to ask the Orc child a few more questions, "So, why did you decide to attack the Kobold village?"

The child slowly turned its head around, "...It was my father's choice. He thought it was because of the place we were living in, and we needed to quickly leave the place, but... Then during nightfall that day, the one that died was my father himself, while he was in the Kobold village. So it didn't seem to matter where we went."

"...That so?" Eiro muttered quietly to himself. Meanwhile, he turned toward Gondos floating next to him and extended his hand toward the Spirit, "Fuse with me." The Demon said, and immediately Gondos approached Eiro's hand.

"Is there anything you want to find again?"

"Well, I hope there's something to find. So I guess so." Eiro replied bluntly. It seemed like the Golem understood what Eiro was getting at, and then started to take a look around the place. The Orcs all seemed quite startled by Eiro's sudden transformation, but the Demon just quickly ignored them.

However, there was immediately something that caught Eiro's sight. It was a thin layer of magic that was covering this whole area. It was so thin that Eiro wasn't able to sense it normally, but now that he was fused with Gondos, he was able to see it rather clearly. Eiro took note of this fact, and of course also of the places where this thin mana was a bit more concentrated.

The Demon kept following the Orc child, and they soon reached the place where the dead body of one of the other Orcs was currently being prepared for a burial. Honestly, this all just made Eiro wonder more and more about how these Orcs managed to become so... civilized. That in itself was probably as mysterious as these seemingly random deaths.

Eiro kneeled down in front of the Corpse, and proceeded to place his hand onto the center of its chest. Immediately, he found something that was quite unnatural. This body didn't have the slightest trace of Life Force left inside of it. And sure, that maybe didn't seem all that weird to an extent, considering that it was natural that one would usually die after your health reached 0. But it was actually rather rare to die in this way, especially when combined with the fact that this Orc didn't have any actual external wounds. Some small scratches on its hands and legs, sure, but that seemed to be rather natural.

The burial-ground was near here, so Eiro was actually able to sense part of the other dead orcs' bodies, and it seemed like they really didn't have anything in common body- or injury-wise. The Demon grumbled quietly to himself. He didn't really want to wait until nightfall, to figure out what was going on here.

So instead, Eiro closed his eyes and thought for a few moments. And then, the Demon came to a conclusion. Whoever or whatever did this had the power to wipe this whole village out immediately. But for some reason, they didn't. That only left two possible conclusions up for discussion.

One, they were doing this for fun to see the Orcs freak out.

Two, they wanted to chase the Orcs out of this village. Although this second option would only make sense if there was some specific destination that this being wanted to lead them to. The orcs already left this place once, but the being still killed them. Well, maybe it was a combination of both, although Eiro didn't really want to think about that.

But on thing was clear, the magic that was spread out thinly in this large cave was something that the perpetrator created.

After a bit of thought, Eiro looked at the Orc Child, "Just wondering, but... How does that 'Complete Tool Proficiency' skill of Highland Orcs actually work? Meaning, what is the definition for 'Tool' in this sense?"

"Ah..." The Child said, "In our language, this skill is called 'Marugahaja'. The 'ja' at the end means 'complete', the 'gaha' means an 'ability given by the arcane', and the 'Maru' means anything that is used for a specific goal... And we get the abilities to reach that goal, although we don't know what it is until we've reached it..." The child explained. With that, Eiro figured a few things out, actually.

First, that skill names maybe aren't always all too accurate. Then, that there really was a deeper mystery to be explored with these Highland Orcs. And at last... That Eiro might be on his track to figuring out what exactly this meant.

"...Can you give me some examples of these goals?" Eiro asked, and the Orc child slowly nodded his head, "I only know two, though... My father finished his task and it was to 'Slay the Hill Ogre' that was living nearby. And my uncle finished his task to 'Reach Advanced Grade' for his Blacksmithing skill..."

"I see." The Demon immediately managed to figure out the rough rules of this place, as well as a few specific other things.

For one, he was certain that these Highland Orcs were a similar creation to the Grandour. A species of Monsters that was artificially bred and created for an unknown purpose. In the case of the Grandour, it could have just been a test-run to figure out if monsters could really be bred toward a certain point, or maybe they were created as mounts or war-beasts, or something like that.

And in the case of these Highland Orcs... Eiro had to think that the only viable reason for why they were created was to find a way to control the way that a large group of monsters or people acted. It was possibly by one of the former Monster Kings, even. That would make sense, at least. 

While most monsters were subservient to the Monster King, there were many that simply tried not to get on their bad side and did whatever they wanted otherwise. Most didn't have a true sense of 'Loyalty' toward the Monster King. Maybe one of them wanted to change that. At the very least, Eiro found it hard to believe that there were many other beings that were capable of breeding Orcs in a way like this while also bestowing them literal skills.

And now... For some reason... One of these Orcs may have been born with the task to 'Empty out the Village'.

"Wait, no..." Eiro muttered quietly. That wouldn't make sense, since these Orcs didn't know about their tasks until finishing them. But then again... "How would they know what sort of route they were supposed to take..?"

There had to be some sort of subtle information planted into the minds of the orc that influenced their behavior in some way. 

In the end, Eiro knew close to surely that the perpetrator was one of the Orcs here in the village.

"Are there any magic casters here? They might be able to help me out with the investigation." Eiro asked with a blatant lie. The child turned toward him and then nodded his head, "We have three magic casters, yes. One is an Earth Mage that helps us build out our village. The other one is a fire mage that works together with our blacksmiths a lot. And the last one has some sort of unique magic, I think? He helps us out with finding enemies around us." 

"Hm, could I maybe speak to the last of those three, then?" Eiro inquired with a smile on his face. The child slowly nodded his head and kept leading Eiro through the village, looking at the dead orc that they left behind now with a bitter expression. This kid seemed surprisingly mature for his age, able to take this sort of thing.

But well, considering that it was a monster, it wasn't right to treat its mental state the same as that of others. Eiro knew himself that monsters usually had a different mentality than people did in a lot of ways. It was still surprising in many ways, though.

Either way, the child brought Eiro toward the outskirts of the village to an exit on the other side of the cave. Out there, some stairs led further up the mountain onto what seemed to be a flat platform, like a place for a lookout to stand, albeit a bit larger to the one that Eiro landed on.

Up there sat an elderly orc, weak and frail, crossing his legs and looking at the horizon. There was a rather high concentration of the same magic that Eiro saw throughout the cave in there. He knew that it wasn't just something to increase the range of one's perception, since Eiro was the expect in that field. Instead, it was rather obviously something more versatile and aggressive than that, even if it may have those perception-increasing qualities as well.

"Kid, leave us alone for a while, alright?" Eiro asked of him. He seemed a bit confused, but when Eiro smiled at him, he figured that it was important and stepped back down the stairs.

Once he was gone, Eiro and Gondos stopped their fusion, and Eiro sat down on the log that acted as a bench, "You're a minion of the Monster King, aren't you?"

The elderly Highland Orc nodded his head immediately, "Mhm. I figured you would see it in me. Since I can see you are one of his minions as well."