Volume 3, Chapter 8 – Do you want power?

Exhausted.

Though she hadn’t done anything especially strenuous all day, the girl felt an unexpected mental fatigue.

To be precise… a few weeks ago she had still been a carefree girl in her father’s arms…

Back in the crude shelter the tribe had built for her, the girl lay on her bed and stared at the shabby thatch roof, zoning out.

Half-beast…

Why must I be a half-beast?

She couldn’t help but recall the scolding the orcs had hurled at her earlier that day.

Especially that line… Half-beasts get out…

“Father…”

She murmured, and a few bright tears slipped slowly from the corner of her eyes.

But now, no matter how sadly and painfully she called her family’s names, those people who had already passed… were gone.

She remembered how, to protect the tribe, her father, who could hardly lift a chicken, had resolutely picked up a dead orc’s weapon from the ground.

And how he had said, “The tribe… is entrusted to you.”

The girl had imagined all kinds of futures for herself.

But she had never expected her father to leave her like this under such circumstances.

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And somehow, a thing called responsibility had landed on her shoulders.

Responsibility, an intangible thing with no real weight.

Yet now it pressed on the girl until she could barely breathe.

“Can I really… lead my people properly?”

She felt lost.

At an age when she shouldn’t be bearing responsibility, she had taken on the burden of an entire half-beast tribe.

Now, although she was still only a half-beast girl, she had become the chieftain of the whole half-beast clan.

“Really, Father, you’re so cunning, so cruel. You leave me like this, leaving your daughter alone in this world…”

For a moment she thought about leaving this world too.

The responsibility on her shoulders was crushing.

“But… if I choose to die easily, that would be the coward’s escape…”

As she thought that, words her mother had said before she died, words the girl had heard long ago, suddenly rang in her mind.

No matter what, she could not choose to run away.

That was what her deceased mother had taught her in her final moments: you must not run away.

But… What should she do now?

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The meeting earlier had not only let her see with her own eyes the half-beasts’ low, dehumanized status inside the Stronghold.

It had also made her painfully aware of a terrifying truth.

The old beast king of the Stronghold did not intend to let those living hundred thousand half-beasts return to the Stronghold.

The old beast king’s real aim was to seize the Kingdom’s Northern Fortress without shedding blood.

Yes, that was the fact she had detected during today’s meeting.

After all, half-beasts are different from orcs; she could easily see through this sort of wordplay, even if she didn’t know how the Kingdom would view such a transparent maneuver.

But she knew this much now… those hundred thousand half-beasts of hers… were probably already doomed by the orc high command…

Although a hundred thousand half-beasts could produce a lot of grain for the Stronghold, they also consumed a large amount of grain.

For the price of a hundred thousand half-beasts, gaining the Northern Fortress, a gateway allowing a direct assault into the Kingdom, was an undeniably shrewd move by the orcs.

The Kingdom’s lands were the richest in the Main World. With the Northern Fortress, the orcs could march north to attack the Kingdom whenever food ran short, pillaging supplies without restraint.

Such profit for so little cost, a mere hundred thousand half-beasts sacrificed, sounded like a smart deal to the orcs, no matter how it looked to the half-beasts.

So… Father, how can I save our people?

It was precisely because she had seen this that her spirit felt so heavy.

Whether the orcs’ plan would succeed or not, the sacrifice of those hundred thousand half-beasts seemed inevitable.

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As for resistance—

The old beast king had already dispatched the Legendary commander Grinrui the Skullcrusher and his 300,000-strong Skullcrusher Legion to the half-beasts’ encampment.

Though nominally here to help her find the missing half-beasts, they were really there to keep an eye on her.

If only she and the Skullcrusher were needed to search for the missing half-beasts, there would be no reason to bring other orc commanders into play and, “if necessary,” seize the Northern Fortress.

Clearly, the Stronghold’s action this time was a ruse: under the pretext of searching for the missing half-beasts, they planned to take the Kingdom’s Northern Fortress.

If she tried to rebel, the Skullcrusher Legion already stationed in the half-beast encampment would crush any uprising she organized at once.

So resistance would be pointless and only lead to greater loss.

Going over it again and again, the girl fell into despair: she had no way to solve the problem she faced.

So… would those hundred thousand half-beasts just die in vain?

Reluctant though she was, she knew there was nothing she could do to change that fact.

“If… if only I could have strong power… how wonderful that would be…”

She couldn’t help sinking into that strange fantasy.

And the thought grew stronger and stronger in her mind for no apparent reason.

Just then, the plain, unadorned bracelet on the girl’s pale, slender wrist suddenly emitted a blood-red glow.

“Do you want… power?”

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While her mind was drifting toward a haze, a voice like a demon’s whisper suddenly sounded by her ear.

“Who… who are you?”

“Power… want… power?”

To her surprise, the voice in her ears only repeated that phrase mechanically and monotonously.

“Do you want… power?”

“Power?”

“Power… Do you want power?”

“Who… who are you?”

“…Do… you… want… power?”

Even though the voice in her head kept repeating that question, for some reason the girl suddenly felt an urge to agree.

“If it can save my people… even if you are a demon…”

“I, Yeluo, want powerful strength…”

“Your request… received…”