Volume 3, Chapter 30 – Join Forces?

“Half-beast chieftain?”

Wearing skirt-armor, the knight girl Fisiel looked curiously at the beast-eared girl Yeluo before her.

For Fisiel, this was technically her first time seeing what people would call a “beast girl,” and her first impression of the beast-eared girl was that she had an animal-like cuteness.

“Mm… my name is Yeluo. General can just call me Yeluo…”

The half-beast girl in front of her seemed a bit nervous.

“Yeluo, huh? Well, you don’t need to call me ‘General’. Although I am indeed the commander of this army, I don’t like being addressed that way. Rather than calling me General, just use my name Fisiel.”

At that moment, Fisiel’s words fully expressed the humility expected of a Paladin.

To be honest, humility was indeed one of the principles in the Knight’s Code.

“Eh…?”

Yeluo froze slightly, her fluffy cat ears twitching involuntarily.

Of course, Fisiel did not have extra time to ask why Yeluo looked so surprised.

Instead, she got straight to the question she wanted to ask.

“If you’re the chieftain of the half-beast tribe, I’m curious. Why did the Beastmen abandon you? Logically speaking, half-beasts should be part of the Stronghold as well, right?”

“Mm… that’s correct…”

Hearing Fisiel’s question, Yeluo’s eyes dimmed slightly.

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“But… even though I am the chieftain of the half-beast tribe, in the eyes of those Beastmen, I am someone they can abandon at any time…”

Fisiel could not help feeling shocked at such a statement.

After all, in her impression, Beastmen were simple-minded beings. And because they were simple, they were also straightforward in their thinking.

But according to Yeluo’s explanation, half-beasts seemed to hold no status in the eyes of the Beastmen?

Naturally, Fisiel would not take the words of a single half-beast as absolute truth. So although she was surprised, she felt the need to understand further.

“You mean that as a half-beast, your status in the Beastmen… in the Stronghold… is extremely low?”

Fisiel continued questioning.

“Yes… Sir Knight, do you not know? Our half-beast tribe’s status in the Stronghold is the same as the slaves of your Kingdom nobles. We have absolutely no human rights.”

Slaves.

Although she did not want to admit it, it was an acknowledged fact that the nobles of the Kingdom would enslave captured enemy soldiers.

Fisiel, being a Paladin, also knew this. But knowing was one thing, seeing it firsthand was another.

And although the Paladins had tried to stop such things before, without exception, all their attempts had failed.

She had never seen a slave with her own eyes, but Fisiel knew very well what slavery meant.

A slave was property, without dignity, and could be traded back and forth among the upper nobility.

“There’s actually something like that?”

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As a Paladin, protecting the weak was one of the virtues she upheld.

So if what Yeluo said was true…

“Sir Knight… it is true. And my identity as the chieftain of the half-beast tribe is also real…”

Yeluo spoke slowly.

“And… I revealed my identity as chieftain for a reason…”

“Hmm?”

Fisiel looked at the cat-eared girl with some confusion.

“It may sound laughable, but… I want Sir Knight to help me…”

Lightly biting her lip, Yeluo eventually forced herself to speak the words.

“Help? Help with what?”

Fisiel was still completely confused.

“The half-beasts are treated like slaves among the Beastmen. As the chieftain of the half-beast tribe… I want to save my people.”

“And after thinking again and again, I realized the only way to save them is to lead the entire tribe away from the Stronghold…”

“Leave the Stronghold?”

“Is that true? You really want to leave the Stronghold?”

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Fisiel could not help asking.

She was shocked by the determination of the girl before her, but… the idea of leaving a faction was far too astonishing.

After all, leaving a faction was not something one could accomplish with words.

Not only would they need to safely gather all their people and escape the Stronghold’s territory, they would also need a place where their tribe could live and settle.

And those were only the simplest problems.

If a race declared that they were leaving a faction, such an action would not only earn the hostility of their original faction but would also earn the label of “traitor” from all the other factions.

The consequences of such “betrayal” were unimaginably grave.

That was why Fisiel repeatedly confirmed Yeluo’s intent.

“Yes… only by doing that will my tribe no longer face Beastman oppression…”

The cat-eared girl continued.

“From the moment we joined the Stronghold until now, the half-beasts have been treated as disposable tools. Weak enough to be bullied at will, yet valuable enough to be traded as bargaining chips. This kind of… this kind of life absolutely cannot continue…”

“But if you truly want to do this, have you thought about the consequences of failure?”

Fisiel asked.

After all, leading an entire tribe to betray its faction…

Such a thing had never appeared in the history of the world.

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So the consequences, while unimaginable, would certainly be extremely severe.

“Even if we fail, so what?”

In response to the knight girl’s question, the cat-eared girl smiled.

“Sometimes… someone has to stand up, right? Our half-beast tribe has been oppressed for a million years. We cannot continue being oppressed like this…”

“I see…”

Looking into the girl’s eyes, which held unwavering determination, Fisiel found herself unknowingly feeling a faint sense of respect.

“But how am I supposed to help you? I’m struggling just to hold the Northern Fortress…”

Fisiel wanted to help Yeluo, but she also knew very clearly that her top priority was defending the fortress.

So even though she wanted to help, she could not do much.

“Helping me is actually quite simple.”

But to Fisiel’s surprise, the girl did not look disappointed at all.

“Sir Knight, if we defeat those Beastmen… if we heavily damage them… then it will be easy for me to lead my tribe away from the Stronghold…”

To be precise, Yeluo’s current goal was to join forces with Fisiel in order to weaken the Beastmen’s living power directly.