Chapter 12: Temptations

"Now I'm not even sure if I really want to visit that village..."

"Why not? I thought that you wanted to learn about the way demons live"

"Didn't you see how they reacted to me? If I go there I'll probably scare them all again..."

I mean, they just ran away in a panic the second they saw me, that is even worse than the way humans usually react to me, is every single demon going to be that way?

"Huh... I wish that I was not this intimidating, all I get from it is trouble..."

"Well, there's also a positive side to having people fear you, you know" Arana is saying something weird.

"Positive side? What positive side?" I don't get what she means.

"Well, fear is a good way to make people do as you want, for example, people follow the law because they are afraid of punishment, and these bandits get people to give them their valuables by intimidating them, and you don't even need to do anything to make people afraid of you! I would even go as far as to say that the fear you inspire can be even more powerful than your magic, you just never take advantage of it"

"Why would I want to take advantage of that? I have no interest in making people obey me or anything similar"

"Are you sure? Then what about these bandits right here?"

Arana turns to point at the tied up bandits following us.

"Uh? What about them?"

"Well, they surrendered without fighting because they were afraid of you, didn't they?"

Well, that's true, but I don't think they would have been difficult to defeat regardless.

"Not all enemies will be straightforward, some might try tactics such as taking hostages or attacking when you sleep, but they might think twice before doing any of that if they fear you, and you never know what might happen in a fight, having your enemies give up from the start is a guarantee that nobody will be harmed, you don't want to hurt anyone, do you?"

"She's right, last time we fought some adventurers both sides ended up injured even though they were much stronger"

"I agree, this was the least painful way I've ever been captured"

For some reason, the bandits are sharing their opinions as well.

"But I never wanted to get into fights in the first place..."

"It's not only fights, you can solve all kinds of problems just by intimidating the people causing them, and you can also..."

"That's enough! Stop trying to tempt me!"

All the bandits stop walking and look at me worriedly when they hear me yell, even Arana flinches slightly. See? There's no way that this could be a good thing.

Seriously, what is she trying to convince me to do? And they say that I'm the villain... the evil one here is obviously Arana.

And it seems like while I was distracted we reached the ork village.

"Welcome to our village!"

"Please come this way, we have prepared a meal for you"

"Eeeeeh!?"

I can't help but be shocked when I see all the orks waiting to receive us into the village with smiling faces, this is basically the exact opposite of what I was expecting.

Some of the orks take the bandits to the village's jail, the rest takes us to a large building on the center of the village, the buildings here seem to be made of the greyish-blue that can be found everywhere around this area, the designs are rather functional, just rectangular houses with nothing fancy about them.

"We would have taken you to the temple, but it was destroyed by a group of orcs that snuck into the village during the night"

He points to a pile of rocks next to the building we're entering, do orks often take visitors to the temple? That seems weird. Like I thought, they have a very different culture from us, don't they.

Once inside, they guide us to a table with a delicious smelling meal placed on it, it seems like they just prepared this recently, which means that they were expecting us.

The food consists of roasted boar meat (something feels wrong about that) and many sweet tasting vegetables I have never seen before, it's actually very good.

"This is great!"

"Ah, I'm glad that you enjoy our offerings"

Did I feel some relief in his voice? I must be imagining things.

"So, you knew that we were coming?"

"Ah, yes, my daughter told us that you rescued her from some orcs that were harassing her"

So because I helped her and she saw that I had captured those bandits, the people of her village decided to reward us? I knew that doing good deeds would pay off in the end, I'm feeling quite happy right now, but why does she look like she's still afraid of me?

"She's your daughter? I thought that demons don't have families since you are born from concentrations of mana"

"Well, we don't, but orks are born as children and are weak at first, so it's customary for adults to take care of the newborns until they can fend for themselves"

Oh, so they are all basically adopted, and I guess the races of demons that are born as adults won't need to do this.

"By the way... why are there so many people staring at me?"

A large number of orks have been standing around watching me eat the whole time, I'm not used to being popular.

"Oh, don't mind them, it's normal that they are curious, this is our first time being visited by a great spirit of darkness after all"

...

"Being visited by a what now?"

"A great spirit of darkness, I mean you, of course"

Oh, I see, they must have mistaken me for some being from their mythology... why!? There's nothing mythological about me! Did they think I was someone else?

"Uh, it doesn't matter how you look at it, I'm an elf, see?"

I point to my ears, but he doesn't seem convinced.

"I don't know why you are trying to disguise yourself, but there's no way that an elf could have such a great quantity of dark mana, or of such purity"

Now that he mentions it, demons are supposed to be very sensitive to mana, and I certainly have more of it than any normal person should.

"No, please, listen..."

I try to explain, but then Arana pulls me to the side and starts whispering to me.

"Hey Luna, maybe you should just let them keep thinking whatever they want, just think about the reception you were expecting and what you actually got, isn't this a lot better?"

"You want me to lie?"

Why is she so insistent on taking me down the wrong path?

"It would not even be a lie, you just have to let them continue to believe whatever they want"

"A lie of omission is still a lie..."

"Also, if they think you are one of those great spirits, they will probably answer any questions you have about their culture, even things they would not normally tell to most people"

Well, when she puts it that way... I guess I could just stay quiet, it's not like I'm hurting anyone...

"...And then the water mana is absorbed directly by the seeds without ever turning into actual water"

"Oh... so that's how you are able to cultivate all these crops even in a place as dry as this"

It would be easy to think of the orks as having an underdeveloped society that has nothing useful to learn from, but even if their magic is overall less advanced, they have a lot of techniques that I've never heard about, I'm learning a lot from them.

While I'm talking to this older ork, Arana is sitting on a bench surrounded by ork children, Longleg is standing on her opened palm juggling several balls of web at once as the children watch in awe.

"And you said that the war-boss is your son? Could I meet him?"

This place is rather big for a village, there are more than 600 orks living here, as such, they even have a group of dedicated soldiers under the command of someone called a 'war-boss', I want to see what they're like.

"Yes, his name is Gorcanak, he's been very busy lately dealing with orc attacks, so he's not in the village right now, my apologies"

At that moment, the ork girl from before approaches while trembling in fear, her face is completely pale, is she alright?

"Well then... let's not delay this any longer"

The older ork suddenly gets serious and places his hand on the girl's shoulders.

"In accordance with the ancient traditions, we now offer you this girl as a sacrifice"

...

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"We're offering you this girl as a sacrifice"

Yeah, I didn't mishear... WHAT!!!?

This is bad, I had no idea that dark spirits took sacrifices like that...

"Nonono! I don't want a sacrifice!"

"You won't take me?"

The girl sounds even more dismayed than before.

"You want to be sacrificed?"

"No, but... if I'm not then the entire village will be destroyed, no?"

So I can't simply refuse or the orks will think that they're all going to die...

Ugh, I'm just getting what I deserve for listening to the whispers of the devil, also known as Arana, what do I do now?

I guess I'll have to find a way to convince them that I'm a regular elf after all.

forli

I considered including a small glimpse of her perspective earlier than planned, but it's still too soon for that and to be honest, I'm not sure if it would solve the issue...

So do you think that I should change their relationship a little? Or is it fine to continue this way?