Chapter 5.4: Tracking

Woke up to not just one, but TWO of you crazy bastards throwing your money at me.

Huge, HUGE thanks to my Ko-Fi supporters Reni2425 and Felipe. 

I hope I’m properly conveying to you guys how much these donations mean to me. This shit is like pure  motivation pumped straight into my veins.

I got so motivated in fact, that I managed to grind out another damned chapter. Here it is!

Magical beasts are vermin.

Even if they were completely exterminated, they would still return if left unchecked, sometimes attacking fields and livestock.

And if their numbers increased past the point that natural food supplies could sustain, they would even seek out and attack people.

There weren’t many differences between normal beasts and magical beasts – just a single distinction: magical beasts would seemingly appear out of nowhere, naturally occurring in a set yet still not well understood cycle.

In the past, magical beasts were classified differently. Any creature that actively attacked people unprovoked would be considered a magical beast.

Which is why prior to the war, Orcs, Daemons and many other races that are now said to be “civilized” were considered monsters. This information could be gleamed from ancient Human texts.

Bugbears are a species of magical beast, but to the Orcs, they were no different from any other wild animal.

They didn’t taste great, but they were big and numerous, and so they were an easy source of fresh meat.

Therefore, Orcs often hunted bugbears.

Hunting usually started at dawn, just before sunrise.

They would return just in time for breakfast, bringing back some juicy bugbear steaks to toss on the fire.

During the war, Bash regularly hunted bugbears.

“…”

Bash was silently tracking the bugbear.

It had been a long time since he had hunted, but habits die hard.

Bugbears were cunning, and rarely, if ever, left visible trails.

They did, however, leave nearly imperceptible signs of their presence – particularly the smell of their saliva on nearby trees.

Orcs had a particularly sharp sense of smell.

Their noses were especially sensitive to the odor of magical beasts.

They could pick up on minute traces that Human hunters could never detect.

When it came down to chasing down magical beasts using only their scent, it was said that Orcs were even better than Beastkin.

Conversely, without an Orcish nose, it was near impossible to track down a bugbear.

They were incredibly shrewd, carefully making sure to cover all signs of their presence.

And even if you did find their traces, they were often unreliable.

They would purposefully loop around and away from their nest, leaving footprints that would lead any would be tracker astray.

“I knew that orcs had an excellent sense of smell when it came to monsters, but this…”

Houston marveled at Bash, who was nonchalantly leading them through the forest, hot on the bugbear’s trail.

“It’s no big deal. Unlike the Beastkin, we’re easy to fool. You would know.”

“Ha…Well, well…”

Houston chuckled hearing Bash’s reply.

Sure, Orcs had an excellent sense of smell, but it wasn’t all that precise.

They could tell whether a particular odor was there, but they had a hard time distinguishing between similar scents.

Taking advantage of this, during the war Humans had lured Orcs and led them into waiting ambushes.

It was Houston, of course, who had originally come up with this strategy, and had even used to on Bash to try to trap and kill him.

“Anyhow, it looks like we’ll be reaching the bugbear den pretty soon.”

With Bash in the lead, the eight of them walked in unison, not including Zell, who was flying.

Houston, Judith, and five other soldiers followed behind him.

Those men were all Houston’s close aides.

They had been working under the Knight Commander even before the peace treaty, and of course, knew about Bash.

Though, they were only low-ranking rank-and-file, and weren’t as well versed in Orcology as Houston was.

Sure, they had heard of Bash before, and even knew that he was the Orc Hero, but they weren’t aware of the title’s real importance.

All they knew was that he was a scummy, extremely dangerous Orc that had previously rampaged through the battlefield.

Right before their departure from Krassel, Houston had warned them, “Look, I know he’s an Orc, but he’s got an official position among them. Think of him as… an ambassador or something. No need to be too vigilant. He won’t hurt us.”

However, that didn’t change the fact that Bash was still just as mysterious to them.

They kept an eye both on their surroundings and Bash.

Rather than feeling fear towards him, they were curious, wondering why Houston was so lenient towards an Orc.

“What’s going on with Sir Houston…? He usually despises Orcs…”

“Man, I don’t know.”

“…Maybe something happened with that Orc during the war.”

The soldiers whispered between themselves, interpreting Houston’s strange new attitude in their own way.

“Something? What does something mean? Did he befriend him? An Orc?”

“Well, we’re talking about “Houston the Swine Slayer” here, right? I can’t read minds, but if the ruthless Knight Commander of all people is buddy-buddy with an Orc, something special must have happened.”

“I mean, there are good guys among the Harpies and Lizardmen too. It wouldn’t be that strange if there were nice Orcs out there, would it?”

“I guess so… Yeah, that Orc does seem to be different, doesn’t he?”

The soldiers were gradually warming up to Bash, all except one: Judith.

“…Hmm.”

She was the only one was still disdainfully looking at Bash, staring holes into the back of his head.

“!”

Bash suddenly turned around.

Judith hurriedly tried to avert her gaze, but then realized she had nothing to feel guilty about.

Thinking that she would lose in this battle of wills if she looked away, she kept her eyes firmly on the Orc.

Bash looked straight back at Judith, his stern face not betraying a single glimpse of emotion.

For a moment, the pair looked deep into each other’s eyes.

Judith squinted, furrowing her brows, as if she was challenging the Orcish Hero to a staredown.

She thought that if she showed any sign of weakness, Bash would get full of himself.

“Huh.”

But unexpectedly, as if he saw straight through her shallow emotions, Bash looked away.

As he turned to look straight ahead, he was smirking as if to say, “Good grief…”

[What!?]

Judith understood.

She was being made fun of.

Bash must have been thinking that this was childish, and not worth his time.

[He’s making fun of me!]

Of course, Bash had no such intentions.

Faerie’s Guidelines for Attracting Humans 101 – Seducing for Dummies”, lessons 4 and 5.

He was applying his recently acquired skills: the “Smoldering Gaze” and the “Enigmatic Smile”.

As Zell put it, Human woman were vulnerable to the male gaze.

They were especially weak to mysterious men.

Even better would be a man who was both enigmatically smiling while looking at her with a sexy stare – that would be sure to make her heart skip a beat!

However, this didn’t seem to apply to Judith.

“What is it, Sir Bash?”

“It’s nothing…We’re getting close.”

At these words, Houston put on his game face and raised his fist.

At his signal, all the soldiers halted in unison.

The clattering of steel-on-steel rang out once, and then nothing.

Even with their heavy armor on, Houston’s soldiers were able to maintain a silent, upright posture.

These were men who had survived for years on the battlefield, where sometimes making a sound would mean their death.

“Alright. Judith, silence us.”

“…Yes sir.”

Houston ordered, and Judith reluctantly unsheathed the wand at her waist.

She chanted a spell and cast soundproofing magic on each soldier.

In order to cast this kind of auxiliary magic, you had to physically touch the target.

Naturally, Judith hesitated when it came time to apply the spell on Bash.

But she couldn’t show any lack of determination in front of her boss.

Her first assignment had nearly been a terrible failure – she couldn’t afford to lose anymore of his trust.

She couldn’t let her emotions get the better of her.

Her face contorted with disgust, she put her hand on Bash’s bare shoulder.

“Ohfu~”

At that moment, Bash involuntarily let out a peculiar sound.

Judith shuddered at his sudden outburst.

“Eh…?”

“Ah, sorry, it’s nothing. Your hands were cold.”

Bash managed to come up with a reasonable reply.

Of course, what truly happened was that he was overcome by emotion, feeling the softness of a woman’s hand for the first time.

He wanted to embrace her on the spot, to hold her in his arms.

But he held back.

He didn’t need Zell to tell him that Human women wouldn’t appreciate that.

This is especially true for strong-willed women.

During the war, he had seen his Battalion Captain carrying a woman around with him, and she had gone half-crazy and wildly flailed around when he had done nothing more than grab her.

He most likely didn’t intend to mate with her at that time, and the hug was just for fun. The Orcs around him laughed at it, but judging from her frenzy, that probably wasn’t the way the Humans saw it.

If anyone did that in today’s world, it would be considered non-consensual sexual relations.

Therefore, Bash sharpened his mind, focused on his controlling his instincts and held back his snorting.

Lesson 6: Men who snort too much are unpopular.

Orcs got excited prior to a battle or when near a woman and expressed themselves by snorting, but Human females didn’t appreciate that. To them, it looked barbaric and savage.

As he repressed his urges to sniffle, his body began emitting a dark glow.

It was the sign that the magic had taken hold.

“All right, let’s scout out the area first.”

As soon as Houston suggested this, Zell flew out with a whoosh.

“I’ll take care of the reconnaissance! I’ll even dive into Mount Buffer’s crater!”

She said as she whirled off into the depths of the forest, not even waiting for a reply.

“I’ll be back before sunrise!” she yelled, flying away.

“…Well, if we leave it to Zell, everything should go just fine.”

Houston knew about Zell’s capabilities.

That Faerie could instantly find the enemy camp, no matter how well hidden it was.

She would then penetrate deep into enemy lines and proceed to call Bash, who would show up and destroy everything.

She was a true expert in reconnaissance and infiltration.

The Knight Commander fully acknowledged her skill.

“So… it’s…”

“Let’s wait here for now, until Miss Zell returns.”

“Oh.”

Bash nodded, yet he looked slightly bitter.

He knew.

Zell would almost always manage to find the enemy.

But at the same time, there was a 50-50 chance that the enemy would notice and catch her in the act…

…And sure enough, Zell never came back.

Bash trying to use the “Smoldering Gaze” and “Enigmatic Smile” – circa 3 Anno Pax, colorized.