Chapter 18

He took a deep breath and looked around.

The place was now full of Orcs’ corpses, and Kaham was nowhere to be seen.

He looked between the bodies, in case there are some that weren’t dead. However, there wasn’t any.

If the monster was busy with something else, most people would probably run. The same case happened with Kaham.

He ran away without helping…

He was strange from the beginning.

Starting with his gloves, luring him towards the deepest part of the forest, and the brown barrel.

All of that pointed towards Kaham as the culprit.

‘The Orcs were drugged.

“How?”

Then, he remembered something.

Orc stimulant.

A drug that took away the reasons of the Orcs and make them go insane.

However, it should not be possible to avoid Orcs just because they were the one who gave the drug.

Something else was needed to avoid Orcs’ gaze. An item that could hide his scent from the Orcs.

Recalling the brown barrel beside Kaham, there might be something there that could prevent the Orcs from going near him.

But how can Raymond prove that it was Kaham who instigated the Orcs?

He needed more solid evidence. Yeah, evidence like the Orc stimulants.

“Ugh.”

He heard a light moan.

Looking down at the sound, Beatrice was looking down holding her ankle.

“Does your ankle hurt?”

After asking the question, Raymond looked at his own body.

Perhaps because of the orcs, the clothes he was wearing were dirty.

She said nothing without raising her head.

Raymond could feel that she didn’t want to talk to him yet because of what happened earlier.

“You have to tell me so that I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

She fixed her hair and said with her cold voice, still, she did now raised her head.

Ouch.

Raymond forgot that he had a big wound on his hand, so the pain reminded it to him

He looked down at his hand and covered it with a clothe by cutting his sleeves.

Still, Raymond actually hoped that they would have gotten a little closer while they were fighting together.

Recalling what happened four years ago, she haven’t forgotten that event yet.

“Can you go back alone? There could be more orcs.”

Her body flinched and trembled at the word ‘Orcs.’

She didn’t want to talk to Raymond, but her fear for Orcs was stronger.

“If that’s the case, there’s nothing I can do.”

As she tried to move, she hurriedly reached out and grabbed Raymond’s pants.

“Help me.”

It’s only then that Raymond let out a small smile. Beatrice must have been afraid to be alone in this forest.

“Then let’s look your injuries first.”

Raymond squatted down and grabbed her ankle. She flinched, however, Raymond didn’t care and continued rolling up her pants.

It was very swollen.

It was amazing that she could endure such pain for a very long time.

“Get on my back.”

Raymond turned around and showed his back to her.

“What?”

“I will be carrying you on my back. Your ankle would become more swollen if you force yourself to walk.”

“….”

Raymond could feel her hesitation for a moment. After a while, he could feel a weight on his back.

‘She is heavier than I thought!’

She was slim but heavy.

Still, she was not that heavy to him. Whether this was the results of his exercise or whether the Mana’s influence was still there.

“I’ll move slowly, so tell me if you ever feel uncomfortable.”

“Okay.”

As she nodded, her hair passed by his cheeks.

It smelled good.

After a few minutes of walking…

“What is this?”

Something blocked his view. A leaf had fallen off from branch because of the wind, and now, it stucked on his face.

“….”

He took it from his face and look at it closely.

It was not actually a leaf but it was shaped as leaf. Its color was faded yellow.

Except that the holes were unnaturally drilled, there was a thread at the end.

“It smells bad.”

There was a pungent smell coming from the holes.

It smelled like rotten excrement, or fermented durians.

In short, the worst smell.

“Oh, that’s…”

Listening to him, Beatrice, who was on his back, pretended to know.

Then, she told him to put her down.

“Do you know what this is?”

While asking, Raymond went closer to her.

“If what I think is right… Your face is too close.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

At her remarks, he distanced himself a little.

She looked at him fiercely before speaking.

“…And until when are you going to speak formally? You’re really weird.”

Raymond was actually feeling uncomfortable talking to her, that’s why he used formal tone unconsciously.

Fortunately, she told him not to use the formal tone and he nodded willingly.

“Okay.”

“….”

Without saying anything else, she bowed her head silently.

Her eyes looked at the leaves for a while.

Seeing her curious eyes locked on the leaves, Raymond also looked at it with a serious face.

‘I don’t think that’s the only one.’

He moved away from her, and looked between the bodies of the Orcs.

Looking at the branches above their heads, he wondered.

There were more things that resembled the leaves Beatrice was holding.

He reached up a branch and got three more of those.

Other than that, no matter how much he searched anywhere else, it seemed to be that weren’t any of them anymore.

He look at it for a while and went back to Beatrice.

When he handed over the leaves to her, she nodded after checking what she received from Raymond.

“Do you know what it is?”

“This are stimulants.”

Stimulant?

If she said it was stimulant, then, his assumptions were right.

“Using this raises all the Orcs’ desires. Things like appetite or greed.”

She continued with a serious face.

“Among them, this especially increases appetite explosively. Humans are the main prey for Orcs.”

Raymond understood what she was trying to say.

Orcs blinded by hunger will rush in at the same time as they discover humans, and those living nearby will surely be in danger.

Above all, the fact that this was hanging here means that someone installed it to kill people.

“What should I do to avoid them?”

“Their predator’s stool. At least a Troll who hunt for Orcs or their stool, is needed. A stimulated Orc can even find a hidden wizard.”

If so, their current situation wasn’t strange.

The stimulant belongs to Kaham, so he had the Troll’s stool to avoid the Orcs’ gaze.

Otherwise, there was no reason for him to stay near the brown barrel.

Then, how should they explain this to the knights?

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***

Somehow, Kaham was able to lure Raymond inside.

He knew that Raymond was suspicious of him, but he still followed.

Then, at the sudden scream of a woman, Kaham’s heart seemed to sink.

Was there anyone else?

Kaham, who arrived along Raymond in a hurry, got his plans broken.

“Beatrice… What’s wrong with her?”

There was a person who shouldn’t have been there.

Beatrice. The eldest daughter of a Master Wizard equivalent to the Millennium Family.

The original plan did not include her.

There was even an Orc Warrior there.

The Orc Warrior was too dangerous to him.

Orc Warriors doesn’t mind trolls so the stool he prepared were useless.

He have to run away.

If he stayed here, he would also be attacked.

Even if Beatrice was here, he wouldn’t want to help her.

When Orcs’ eyes faced his way, Kaham immediately opened the lid of the barrel.

Then it began to smell disgusting.

He resisted it but it was too disgusting smell.

The eyes of the Orcs flinched for a while, then they focused their gazes to Raymond.

Raymond, who was dealing with Orc, look back at him.

Kaham, who had eye contact with Raymond, flinched and shivering, also stared at him for a while.

‘What’s the point of noticing now? You’re going to die anyway.’

There was an Orc warrior. Even the knights might not be able to defeat them.

There was no way that incompetent man can survive in front of an Orc warrior.

Kaham ran away without looking back.

Suddenly, what happened yesterday came to his mind, but he shook his head.

Raymond will never beat an Orc warrior.

‘Rather, it turned out well. If it’s him, It’ll definitely kill him.’

Although there was something unexpected in his plans, the results would still be the same.

There was Beatrice, but there’s nothing he could do.

She was caught, and it wasn’t his fault.

Kaham, who was running to the meeting place, suddenly stopped and looked at his body.

He was too clean to say that he ran away by himself.

Kaham tore up his clothes and injured himself and returned to the entrance.

“Hmm? Why are you here alone? Where’s your party?”

“Oh, there is an Orc Warrior!”

At the words of the article, Kaham shouted with a very scared face.

“What do you mean ‘Orc Warrior’? When we looked there, it wasn’t there.”

“Are you saying that I lied? They really came out! I barely ran away by myself!”

Kaham’s voice spread in all directions, and all eyes finally looked at him.

Only then did the Knights recognized the seriousness of this matter and urgently ask.

“Who were you with?”

“With Raymond… Oh, there was also Beatrice.”

Kaham spoke in a voice full of anxiousness and sadness as much as possible.

“Where are they?”

“Hey, hey.”

At the question of the Knight, Kaham raised his hand and pointed in one direction.

Knights with a stiff face headed immediately towards the direction he pointed.

“Are you okay? Your face is very pale.”

People around him gathered and gave him words of consolation.

Kaham bowed his head deeply.

In order not to show a smile forming.

Now that his obstacles had disappeared, Count Warlug and Selina’s interest would return to him.

Although there was an unexpected sacrifice.

What can he do? That’s was her unluckiness.

“Uh, uh, uh. Excuse me.!”

“It’s Raymond!”

What?

Kaham’s body, surrounded by people, stiffened by his words.

When he saw him, Kaham’s face turned pale.

Raymond was carrying Beatrice, and approached them with a fierce face.

Coming under the escort of the knights, he shouted.

“Healer! Bring a Healer!”

He put Beatrice down on one side.

All the people gathered around Kaham, were now running towards them

“What happened?”

“Is it true that you encountered and Orc Warrior?”

“How were able to come back alive?”

People wanted to hear their stories.

But Beatrice remained still with her mouth closed.

Raymond loosened his shoulders, walking out from the crowd, and approached Kaham.

“You ran away fast, huh?”

Raymond glared at Kaham with a deep Killing intent in his eyes.

Seeing Raymond, Kaham faltered and stepped back.

***

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