Chapter 14.2 Thunder Sonia's Troubles

Anyways, here’s the second part of chapter 14. This whole thing was a blast to translate and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did!

Apparently, Lady Sonia wasn’t kidnapped.

The soldiers were confused.

“What? Why not? What happened? Did her guards manage to rescue her? Did the Humans send reinforcements in the nick of time?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Huh? What? How come? Orc Hero or not, he’s still an Orc. Orcs always, without exception, either rape the women they beat on the spot or took them away to enjoy later. Hell, it nearly happened to me just the other day! I’m glad help came before that happened…”

“No, that’s not it either.”

“Heh, maybe she smells older than she looks?”

“Hahaha, maybe! That’d be pretty funny!”

Similar conversations occurred nearly everywhere, and these rumormongering Elves came up with a theory:

“Although Thunder Sonia might look young… she smells so old that even Orcs won’t touch her!”

And thus, Sonia became “the woman whose stench would make even an Orc cringe”.

She was seen as expired goods.

Marriage? She could forget about that.

Besides her age and power, this became the third and final nail in the coffin in which lay her potential as a spouse.

Following this humiliation, Sonia sought a partner outside of the country, in Human Country.

A Human’s lifespan went up to 80 years-old at most.

She believed that from their point of view, whether an Elf was 200, 300 or even 1200 years old, it would make no difference. She still looked young and fresh, after all.

But once again, she was met with nothing but failure.

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The story of the “Nightmare of Siwanasi Forest” had spread far beyond Elven borders and had reached even the Humans.

Whenever the Elf Hero tried to steer a conversation with a Human in the direction of relationships, the other party was quick to change the topic.

Of course, that was only what Sonia thought was the reason behind their evasiveness. The actual cause was something else entirely…

Anyhow, Thunder Sonia hated those rumors…

Naturally, she knew that whether it was the marriage boom among the Elves or the tale of the “Nightmare of Siwanasi Forest”, both were just temporary fads that would eventually come to pass.

Having lived for 1200 years, she had seen many generations of Elves live and die.

Not to mention Human generations – she couldn’t even count how many she had seen go by.

As generations changed, so did the trends.

Even during wartime, there were fashions and crazes.

In a short 20 years, a new Human generation would have grown up, and there would be people willing to marry her.

And in another 100 years, another generation of Elves would have sprouted, and there would be even more people who would be willing to marry her.

For an immortal like her, who would be remain in this world unless killed, those years would pass in the blink of an eye.

But then again, thought Thunder Sonia…

If she gave up like this, right now, wouldn’t she be admitting her loss?

Wouldn’t she be admitting to the fact that she smelled so ancient that even an Orc would turn up his nose at her?

Of course, she wouldn’t! That stupid rumor wasn’t true anyways!

Come here! Come closer and give me a sniff!

These days, she even took the extra time to spritz on some perfume before going out.

Not because she thought she stank! Definitely not! She just enjoyed wearing perfume. Yup. Definitely.

Needless to say, no matter what she actually smelled like, rumors would be rumors.

They wouldn’t disappear overnight.

And all of this was because of that man…

All her troubles were because of the Orc Hero, Bash.

All due to him not taking her away when he had the opportunity to.

Certainly, if it had actually happened, she would have lived a true nightmare, but…

Still, it would have been nice to have a word with him, she thought.

The other day, even though they hadn’t seen each other in a while, she didn’t even get to say properly say hello.

No… they didn’t have the kind of relationship where they’d greet each other politely like that…

And how come he didn’t react even when he saw her face? What does that mean?

According to Aconite, when she passed him in her carriage, Bash just averted his eyes with a dumb look on his face.

As far as she could remember, most Orcs, when encountering a woman, would get a hard-on and start sadistically licking and smacking their lips.

But that was a long time ago.

The last time any Orc adopted that kind of attitude towards the Elf Hero was when the Elves were on the backfoot, being brutally murdered wholesale by the Orcs, before she rose to prominence and rebuilt the army – in other words, when she was still actually young.

Later on, whenever they noticed Sonia, they either shuddered in fear or challenged her, with the determination to face certain death.

She hadn’t seen an Orc perversely leer at her in the last hundred years.

However, the war was over now.

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The Orcs were said to be much more peaceful these days.

The two races were no longer at each other’s throats, so why didn’t the Orc Hero freely express his desire?

Could it be that she was really starting to smell moldy…?

Bash’s seemingly incongruous attitude made Sonia uneasy.

But she couldn’t let her anxiety be apparent.

She was the Thunder Sonia, the Archmage and the Elf Hero.

As the symbol of Elven victory, she couldn’t let her subordinates see her in this vulnerable state.

“What the hell is he doing in this country anyways! I know you’ve got some eyes on him. What’s going on?!”

“The first day he spent here, him and the Faerie seemed to be gathering information. After that, the only thing he’s been doing is hunting zombies in the forest.”

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“Zombies? Why?”

“No idea. Maybe they’re trying to raise money to fund they travel expenses until they reach their next destination?”

“Ridiculous! He said he’d come back to see me, didn’t he?! Why?!”

“Don’t ask me. From the reports, all he’s been doing is killing zombies. No suspicious movements at all.”

It had been seven whole days since Bash’s arrival in town.

On the first day, he seemed to be sniffing around, trying to unearth some kind of intel, but now all he did was go between the inn and the forest.

He was being eerily docile.

He hadn’t caused any problems and was living his life like an ordinary citizen.

It was as if he wasn’t an Orc at all.

“To be frank, there’s something else I should tell you. There are rumors going around about an Orc that came out of nowhere and was putting zombies back into the dirt at a staggering pace. He’s doing pretty well for himself. In fact, I’ve received reports of a dramatic decrease in the number of zombies in the last seven days. The military has even brought up the idea of assembling a cleanup taskforce to finally eradicate the undead.”

“Don’t give him too much credit…”

“These are their words, not mine. He has a lot of fans…”

“Idiot, that’s not what I meant. Remember what Pole-boy said? Remember the dead but forget the killers. I just recalled that just now and…”

North Pole, the current Elven King, had ordered all Elves to do one thing when the peace treaty was signed: to not hold grudges against their former enemies.

Resentment would do no good except lay the groundwork for another conflict.

The semantics of who-killed-who-first blame game were useless and unproductive. Tracking down the originators of the conflict was an impossible endeavor either way.

The killing was mutual. Everyone was just as equally culpable.

“It might be difficult to let go of past grievances, but the chain of revenge has to be broken here and now”, said the King.

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The Elves, who used to be exclusionary, and now tolerant of other races due to this order.

This was the chief reason why Bash was not treated as poorly as he was in Krassel when he entered Siwanasi Forest Town.

That, and the fact that the people living here hadn’t fought the Orcs much during the war.

“Lady Thunder Sonia, you’re not making sense. So should I praise him or not?”

“Ah, shut up. I know, I know… I’ve got complicated feelings about this whole thing, you know…?”

Sonia let out an exasperated sigh.

Anyway, there was no way to skirt around the fact that things have turned out the way they have.

“Well, I guess things are fine for the time being. Thinking about it again, would he have been that brazen towards me if he was really planning something bad?”

She was upset and impatient when Bash came to town, and even shuddered in fear when he said he was coming back to see her… but now, she had somewhat come to terms with it.

Sonia couldn’t shake off the feeling in her gut, telling her that something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

And she didn’t even really hate Bash. She just loathed the rumors that he inadvertently started.

Not like she could blame anyone but herself for losing to him.

She smells like fossil! Related video.