Volume 2 - CH 33

“No way.” I answered immediately. However Orphe wasn’t going to back down at just those words. I understood that much of course. Rather, if he did back down then I’d have to stop him. He might move out on his own after all. I’ll have to explain very clearly why he can’t launch an attack.

“B, but…! If we just sit here and wait!”

“Being attacked would be dangerous. Offence or defence, do you know which one will be more advantageous in a fight for us?” As I cut him off, Orphe folded his arms an tilted his head.

“Aren’t they both pretty much the same?”

“No, it’s overwhelmingly more disadvantageous to be on the attack.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. Being on the attack simply takes a lot of work. This isn’t a simple discussion of military might. You have numbers, terrain, as well as the problem of food supply in enemy territory.”

“…” Orphe nodded to my words with a difficult expression.

“If we are going to attack from our side, then we can’t just half-heartedly send out our forces to fight. There’s the chance you’ll just die in vain. If you really want to do it, then we’ll need to get everyone ready for it but… only the werewolf tribe will be able to move around in the northern area the way we all can here. Myself included, the goblins don’t know the layout of the land to the north of here. If we do battle in a location we have no understanding of, then we’re just forcing ourselves into a disadvantageous struggle.”

“…Yeah.”

“This will give the positional advantage to our opponents. Additionally, even if our werewolves know the layout of the northern area that doesn’t mean they can move about there freely.”

“…What do you mean?”

“For example… There are lots of things I can think of, such as laying traps all over any secret paths our werewolves are familiar with.”

“…” Orphe openly grimaced as I said this. …As I thought, he knows a secret path to get to the village. He was planning on going in through there and attacking or something like that.

“Even if you still have an equal force up till this point, the enemy will still have the advantage. It is said that you need to have three times your opponent’s force in order to attack.” …Of course there still is the possibility of using a surprise attack, or some other scheme to turn things around. There’s no need to plant that hope in him right now though.

Orphe bit his lip before speaking up. “…But, I don’t want to turn this village into a battle ground. I don’t want us to bring harm to this village after they’ve taken us in.”

The other werewolves nodded to me as well. “…This place is very comfortable Crest.”

“…I don’t want the people or things here to be hurt.”

“I don’t want to see this place become a battle ground.” I sighed seeing their determination continue this far.

“You guys just said that you don’t wish to see this village turn into a battle ground. That you would hate for the village to be harmed.”

“…Yeah.”

I found a chair nearby and slashed my sword down through it. As its parts clattered to the ground, I used its own wood to once again make a chair. I couldn’t use a little bit of the wood that was broken so the chair was a little bit smaller than before, but it was still enough for me to sit in it.

After I sat down, I looked at Orphe and the others as they stared back at me blankly.

“It’s a bit hard to sit in, but it’s the same as before.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“It’s fine no matter how many times the village is destroyed. I’m here, as well as other monsters who will have skills like construction technique and smithing technique. With them around it can be fixed no matter how many times it’s broken.”

“…”

“You say it’s comfortable here? Is this village just the objects it’s made from?”

“…No.” Muttered Orphe.

“Yeah, isn’t that right? There are things our skills can’t simply fix. And that’s you guys.” I patted Orphe’s shoulder. Then I smiled. “If I lost you guys, I’d be losing this comfortable village. So don’t do anything that will get you killed. Alright?”

After looking at Orphe, I looked at the werewolves behind him. They were all looking at me. “…Okay.”

Orphe nodded to me, and so did the werewolves behind him. For some reason some of them were crying. I thought it was a rather excessive reaction, but I managed to stop Orphe, and the werewolves went back to the centre of the village with their heads down.

…Seriously.

I guess Orphe is a bit simpleminded, or rather he’s the type to act while leaving things to his feelings. That’s not particularly a bad thing. He can move a lot quicker than someone like me who always thinks before doing anything.

…Since I’d like to leave him and Livia in charge of the village at some point, I hope he can stay strong in this sort of situation. While I was watching Orphe’s back as he left, Livia stared at my face.

“As expected of you, chief.”

“…I said I’m not going to become your chief.”

“You say that, but isn’t the one everyone trusts most of all you, lord Crest?”

“…I guess. You too then?”

“Yes. I revere you.”

“In that case… if you think I’m making a mistake, make sure to warn me.”

“Of course. I don’t think I’d be able to stand by your side if I didn’t.”

“…Thanks.” Even I make mistakes. It’s dangerous to think I can do everything. Without anyone there to stop me, there’s a chance I may continue down the wrong path. “I was thinking we should go to the slime village tomorrow.”

“To exchange information? However they refused our alliance before, so will it be alright?”

“Certainly, the slimes rejected to form an alliance with us. But they aren’t our enemies.”

“I see. So if we try talking to them and they figure it would be dangerous to go alone, then there’s the chance they form a joint front with us.”

“Yeah.” …Of course since the slime queen hates werewolves, I don’t think they’ll do so that simply. But maybe if they learn of the threat of the vampire tribe, that could take care of itself.

“You said that the vampire tribe is good with making magic tools right?”

“Yes. Making magic tools, and they possibly have a number of other magic type skills I believe.”

“…The slime tribe is weak against magic type skills right?”

“That’s right… If we want to make an alliance with them, perhaps it would be good to point that out to them.” Livia seemed to be thinking the same thing as me. …Guess I’ll give it a shot tomorrow.