Chapter 7.1: Judith

Got one hell of a spicy chapter this week. Some delicious backstory incoming!

Huge, huge, HUGE thanks to my most recent Ko-Fi supporters, Calypso, pizzapicante27, and CPT Anon.

I have an older sister.

I was proud of her.

She was about ten years older than me, but for as long as I could remember, she’s always been carrying the family expectations on her shoulders.

She had excellent grades, and perfect manners and etiquette.

A role model to look up to in every way.

I grew up admiring her.

My sister always was very kind to me, even though I was younger.

It seemed like she didn’t get along that well with her classmates, so she was happy that I was so fond of her.

I liked having her tie up my hair.

She was good at nearly everything she put her mind to, but she was a little clumsy. Whenever she would do my hair, it would slant a little bit either to the left or the right.

But I liked it that way.

It was proof that my sister had tied my hair up.

She became a knight after graduating from school.

My family had been knights for generations, and my sister had always intended to be one.

Our country was in the middle of a war at the time, and they needed manpower.

My sister was talented, and after she became a knight, she kept rapidly rising through the ranks.

In just a short few year, she was able to lead a company.

Once every year, she would come back to our home to see us and tell us about the latest news coming from the warfront.

The Alliance had just slain the Daemon King and secured victories in many major battles.

Victory was in their grasp.

“The war will be over soon.”

“Once I come back, I’ll help you with school.”

“You’re going to be a knight, aren’t you? Of course, you are. I’ll give you some sword practice.”

“Hmm, maybe you’ll be assigned as my underling.”

“I won’t be as nice as I am at home if that happens! I’ll be strict! You better prepare yourself!”

My sister used to say, laughing.

But a few months later, my sister’s unit was destroyed.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on her side that day – in more ways than one.

She had to face a fate worse than death.

She had been taken captive by Orcs.

When the messenger knocked on our door delivered the report, my father fell to his knees on the spot, while my mother sat down and buried her tear-stricken face in her palms.

My family was in despair.

Both my parents acted as if it was the end of the world.

They even said that they would have preferred she had died.

Back then, I didn’t understand.

How could they say such a thing?

She was my sister. My one and only sister than my mom and dad were so proud of.

“How can it be better for her to be dead!” I shouted, as I retreated to my room.

After that, I didn’t speak to my parents for a while.

A few years later, at long last, the war came to an end.

The Four Tribes Alliance, led by the Humans, was victorious, while the Seven Races Federation, which the Orcs were part of, was defeated.

The prisoners of war who had been captured by the Orcs were all freed, including my sister.

She could finally come home.

And I ultimately came to understand what it truly meant for a woman to be captured by Orcs.

My sister’s spirit was completely broken.

Her previously bright eyes were now dull and devoid of life, and her luscious, long hair had become sparse and shaggy.

She used to walk proudly, with her head tall and back straight, but now she would barely walk at all. And when she did, she skulked around while hunched over, as if hiding from some invisible enemy.

She rarely spoke, and when any man came remotely close to her, she would scream and cower in fear.

Even towards our father.

I only later found out that my sister had become the wife of an Orcish Battalion Captain, and by the time the war was over, she had already given birth to six of his children.

The repeated pregnancies and childbirths had ravaged her body and mind, and she was in no condition to return to her knightly duties.

Furthermore, she could no longer be a bride. No man would take a “tainted” woman as his wife.

My sister’s life was ruined. Her future, stolen.

I couldn’t forgive the Orcs.

Yes, I knew.

Even though I knew…

I knew that Orcs were a race incomparable to Humans.

They had an entirely different set of values, morals, and common sense.

They couldn’t reproduce without rape.

Just like how cats preferred dark, confined spaces, or how dogs urinated on trees to mark their territory.

It was just the way they were.

The Orcs weren’t doing this out of malice.

But my understanding of the facts and my personal feelings were two different things.

I wanted to exterminate the Orcs.

Every single one of them.

And so, I became a knight.

That was always the plan, but my redoubled my efforts.

I worked harder than ever before.

After the war, the armed forces were significantly downsized, and the demand for knights decreased.

It took longer than expected, but I still managed to work my way to knighthood.

I wanted to be assigned to the Fortress City of Krassel.

The settlement closest to Orc Country.

The town that would become the bulwark were a war with the Orcs ever break out.

The city led by Houston, the Swine Slayer.

My wish was granted.

Many of my teachers and peers warned me, telling me that women should never, ever go anywhere near Orcish territory, but I ignored them.

Houston the Swine Slayer lived up to his name

He held no mercy towards the stray Orcs that occasionnaly drifted in from Orc Country.

After ascertaining that they were, in fact, stray Orcs, he would ask no further questions.

He didn’t need to know who they were or even the reason for their exile.

No matter how much they begged and pleaded, he sent them to the gallows without a second thought.

It didn’t matter if they hadn’t done anything in Human lands, or even if they claimed innocence.

His policy was, “Stray Orcs are, in essence, already convicted criminals in Orc Country. Whether here or there, they’re scum, right? Better be safe than sorry and get rid of them before something happens.”

Impressed by his ruthlessness, I decided to follow him.

After the peace treaty was signed, inter-race interactions rose exponentially. Tolerance was gradually becoming the norm as every race became more aware of each other’s customs.

Among all this rosy buddy-buddy atmosphere, Houston’s deadly, no-nonsense attitude towards the Orcs was a breath of fresh air.

This person would help me enact my revenge.

I truly believed that with him on my side, I’d be able to exterminate the Orcs.

I’d heard about exceptions.

Orcs who weren’t hadn’t been exiled.

In other words, proper Orcs who were simply traveling or acting under orders from their nation.

Those Orcs, we were supposed to let go.

I’d only ever heard of that situation occurring.

The whole time I’ve been in Krassel, I’ve never even one come across an Orc like that.

So, I had forgotten about them.

But then he appeared.

An Orc calling himself “Bash”, completely different from any other Orc I’d met before.

He was small for an Orc, but his body was more toned and imposing than any other of his kind.

It wasn’t only his body that was different, but his face as well.

Stray Orcs generally had this sly perverted sneer on their lips.

Whenever they saw me, they would unashamedly stare at my chest and hips.

I despised the way their eyes would linger on my body, undressing me in their minds.

Bash, at the very least, didn’t wear that same, sickening expression.

Sure, he did look at my chest and hips… but then again, so did most Human men, so it wasn’t that bad. It was still pretty uncomfortable, though.

The real issue arose when I saw Houston’s attitude towards this Orc.

Honestly, I was disillusioned.

What the hell was this?!

Where’s the Swine Slayer?!

Apparently, this “Bash” was a bigwig back in Orc Country.

I mean, yeah, sure, give him some respect, but you don’t need to go this gaga crazy over him.

He’s just an Orc.

A single, dirty little Orc.

After that, we started a rather strained cooperation, yet Houston seemed to always be paying attention to Bash’s mood.

Even I could see that he was more interested in keeping this Orc happy and satisfied rather than solving the highway robbery case.

My distrust just kept growing and growing.

So, I violated the order.

It was an emotional, spur of the moment decision

A childish rebellion, to protest my boss’ preferential treatment.

But there was more to it than that.

This situation brought back unpleasant memories of my sister.

Her long stint as a prisoner of war, or rather… a sex slave, left her broken in both spirit and body.

It was inevitable that she would have been defiled the moment her side lost the battle, but had she been rescued earlier, she might not have suffered as much.

I was impatient and frustrated.

Captives should be saved as soon as possible, shouldn’t they?

Sure, the prisoner was a Faerie to which I had no real personal connection, but still…

The other soldiers, who knew what I had gone through, agreed with me.

Yeah, I’d violate a direct order, and even though I probably won’t be able to avoid a pay cut and a short stay in a cell, there was peace now, and they’d eventually forgive me,

All is well that ends well.

To be honest, I wasn’t taking this whole thing seriously.

I had no real plan charging in here, no idea what Houston’s orders really meant… but most of all, I wasn’t aware of the enemy’s capabilities.

“Gehehe… I’m looking forward to tomorrow…”

And as a result, my life and the lives of my soldiers hung in the balance.

“Guh…”

“Urgh…”

All of us were now laying on the ground.

Some with open, bloody wounds, others with broken bones, other fainting.

No one was dead – yet, but from the growing pool of blood on the stone floor, I wasn’t sure if they would make it through the night.

We were all lucky to be alive after that fight.

As soon as we rushed into the cave, we were met with an ambush.

They first targeted our light sources.

With our vision suddenly gone, we couldn’t even discern the number of enemies, and they proceeded to systematically wipe us out, one by one.

Standing around us were a dozen or so Humans and bugbears.

And a lone Orc.

An Orc.

He was a Beast Tamer, and he stood there flanked by his magical beasts.

I shot him a scornful glare, and he replied by licking his lips and looking right back at me, disdain in his eyes.

I was terrified.

“First, we get a Faerie, now we get a lady. Gehehe… looks like it’s our lucky day.”

“Hehehe… Hey, Boss, can I get the woman?”

“Dumbass, she’s for all of us.”

“Yeah, you can’t keep her to yourself.”

“All right, put the girl in jail, kill the men and throw their corpses outside.”

As soon as I heard this, I knew what would follow.

“Kuh… urgh… just… kill me…”

I could hear my voice shaking.

I knew deep down that I didn’t truly want to die, despite putting on a brave front.

I haven’t even achieved anything yet!

I don’t even know why I became a knight in the first place…

I don’t want to die.

Please.

Please…

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice echoed out from the darkness.

“Hey! You can’t kill her right now you know! You’ve been incognito this whole time, do you want to ruin it? Listen, if anyone finds the body, the knights will swarm over this place. They’ll come in droves!”

Out from the shadows, a small, flying, glowing orb came darting out, shouting.

“Yeah, that’s right! Let’s execute these guys outside, tomorrow morning! Then, we’ll set it up to make it look like the bugbears did it! We’ll find a nice little clearing in the woods, and spray blood everywhere. Then we set up a couple of bugbear corpses around and pretend that it was a hard-fought battle that the knights unfortunately lost. Whew, like, if I put myself in Human shoes, even I would be fooled! And Humans are smart! Listen, guys, you got a nice thing going on here, right? Nice little business venture, robbing people, right? It’d be a shame to let it all go to waste. Oh! And tomorrow, it’ll be nice and bright, and you’ll kill them while being able to clearly see their faces, right! They’ll be in despair and fear and all. Yeah, killing them like that would definitely feel nice, right?”

It was Zell.

At the same time, another thought popped into my head.

I thought we had been outmaneuvered, but no…

This little…thing, was in cahoots with them the whole time.

We were ambushed because he told them about our plans…

“Ah, that sounds good. Alright, take all the men and lock them up… And you, my dear knight, I’ll take you to cloud nine right in front of your subordinates, hehe…”

The Orc said to me as he grabbed me by my hair and dragged me into the depths of the cave.

Upon hearing this, the surrounding brigands also let out a sneaky chuckle.