WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 488: Ende's Spring - 1

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"...The Magician. Who in the world is that man?"

The old orc let out a heavy sigh. In the past, his spirited subordinates would have stepped forward, saying it was nothing and that they would capture and kill the bastard at once. But after everything they had suffered in quick succession, even the orcs had lost much of their confidence.

The old orc muttered bitterly.

"The 'Fang' we have left is broken. Even the godmothers who once supported Orcma so reliably are trembling in fear. Orcma's ordinary members are fleeing one after another. Not from the Magician, but from us. From Orcma. Hmph. We're a joke now. No one fears us. I went out into the streets today, and one butcher was shouting at the top of his lungs that he was openly selling pork. He said he'd had to turn it all into sausages and store it in a warehouse because of us."

"Who was it? I'll go kill him!"

"That's the problem. You can't."

The old orc gave a self-mocking reply as he watched the young orc step forward in outrage.

"We laid a hand on Sapien of Oberli. Even if we were caught up in the Magician's scheme, it was a painful mistake. The security force now sees Orcma as a dangerous group. They look at every pig beastkin with suspicion, ready to lock them up the moment they cause trouble."

"Wasn't that always the case?"

"No. Before, they didn't even care. They didn't treat us as fellow people in the first place."

No matter how many pig beastkin there were or how well Orcma hid, there were limits. If they had been stronger than Ende's authorities, they would have built a city of their own.

Orcma had only hidden among the crowd and acted for the interests of pig beastkin. Once things escalated and Oberli responded, it was inevitable that their power would shrink.

"Those Oberli bastards never cared about Ende's security before, but now that an official has been attacked, they're dragging everyone away!"

"It's the Magician's scheme. Damn it. Just who is that bastard? Judging by what he's done, he seems familiar with how Ende works. Maybe he's been here for ten years."

"Why would someone like that move now of all times? There has to be a reason! A reason for doing this!"

In truth, the Magician had not even been in Ende for a month and was acting for the simple reason that he did not want to listen to nagging. But the orcs, who had no way of knowing that, found another explanation.

"There is one possible reason."

All eyes turned to the old orc. He slowly rose from his seat.

"Gruel of the Beast Faction. You all know about him, right?"

A complicated silence settled over Orcma's leadership.

Not all pig beastkin were comrades. Some belonged to Ende's order and lived peacefully, while others, like Orcma, harbored resentment and worked in the shadows. Yet even that was a story taking place within Ende.

The Beast Faction were wild folk who lived on the harsh lands of the Ende Plain.

The Ende Plain was a blessed land, for humans and beasts alike. Vegetation flourished across its fertile soil, and the herbivores that fed on it grew plump and fat.

Then the beasts that ate those beasts gathered there. They had to fight endlessly against the harsh wilderness, other predators seeking to monopolize the prey, and prey that would not go down easily. Until they died of old age, weakness, or anything else.

The Beast Faction had survived there.

They had cultivated some civilization of their own. The Beast Faction used writing, wore clothes, and built homes. But compared to ordinary humans, it did not amount to even half as much. Most of their time was spent struggling to survive.

After energy arts were passed down to them, that struggle came to include training in energy arts. The Beast Faction learned and wielded energy arts to live. Their energy arts, which evolved in a direction all their own, produced miracles.

Gruel, the orc who had reached the Principle. The glory of pig beastkin.

"It seems he'll be joining the coming battle against the King of Wolves."

"...I heard he feared the Beast King."

"It seems news has reached him that we have the King of Dogs on our side. They say the boy who brought the King of Dogs is also a powerful figure equal to a Beast King. That seems to have influenced him to some extent. We're pig beastkin like him, but we're causing trouble. We must have been an eyesore."

Secrets of Oberli, gathered from who knew where, spilled from the old orc's mouth.

Shei was not meticulous, but she hated troublesome matters. When she visited Oberli, she firmly told them to keep anything related to the King of Dogs confidential. It would be troublesome if dog beastkin who recognized Azzy came flocking over.

Mayor Triber of Ende had kept the secret fairly diligently.

Unfortunately, the secret he tried to hide had reached Ende's lowest depths.

The orcs who heard the information twitched their broad noses.

"Hmph. If Gruel has come, then pig beastkin will play a major role in this battle..."

It was certainly good news that the glory of pig beastkin would stand at Ende's forefront. Yet the pig beastkin could not accept that glory wholeheartedly.

Because...

"The problem is that the pig beastkin isn't one of us. Gruel, the fierce orc warrior, has no interest in the rights of pig beastkin!"

An individual's glory was not the glory of their species.

Where there was light, there was shadow. The dragon raised in the gutter despised the place where it was born. The ones who felt the fiercest hatred were the gutter worms watching one of their own ascend alone.

"He's arrogant! He goes around spouting nonsense about how the despised pig beastkin simply haven't worked hard enough!"

"Reaching the Principle is something even Sapien, that promising genius, couldn't accomplish! His very existence is a miracle, yet he talks as if anyone can do it!"

"Do you think he'll help us when all he says is to train instead of whining? He'll ignore us, go up to Oberli, and be treated like every other official! He won't even need to cut off his ears and tail. Energy arts that reach the Principle are qualification enough!"

They felt inferior to humans, but Gruel also made them feel betrayed. The violent, agonized reaction shook the pig beastkin like loaches doused in salt. Only after emotions bordering on a fit had swept through them did the old orc speak.

"Still, he is one of our kind. That will not change."

That was true. The glory of pig beastkin had undeniably brought glory. Since Gruel appeared, all claims that pig beastkin were insignificant, lowly, or lacking in intelligence had vanished. From Oberli's officials to even the Obelisks, the strongest unit bearing that name, everyone was conscious of him.

A dreamlike realm that even the Obelisks, who ruled Ende like kings, had never reached. At a peak that could not be attained through learning and effort alone, one that required both talent and luck, stood a pig beastkin. He was too exceptional an energy artist to inspire simple inferiority.

"The Obelisks only captured and imprisoned Orcma because they were conscious of him. They probably wanted to lock up troublemakers before Gruel joined Ende. I heard First Fang Urukpaing and several members are doing fairly well in Oberli's prison."

"Isn't Oberli's prison still a prison?"

"One room there is larger than your house. Hmph, they won't give one room to each orc, but it means they're trying to show consideration for Gruel."

Once again, the old orc revealed information gathered from who knew where. Several young orcs wore complicated expressions as they listened.

"We'll soon fight the King of Wolves. Everyone in Ende must join forces for this. The strength of us orcs, especially since we have the greatest numbers, is indispensable. Ende will ask us for help, ask us to die in exchange."

"...But this is a battle we need as well. If the wolf pack roaming the Ende Plain sweeps through, we orcs won't come out unscathed either."

"If we're risking our lives anyway, we have to get everything we can!"

"Gruel will fight in our place, and he won't give us anything we want! Fair treatment? Equal opportunity? Gruel doesn't care about any of that!"

"This time, we have to step forward and settle the matter ourselves. If we don't seize it with our own hands, Ende will return to how it was before."

But the foundation they needed for that had been destroyed.

Orcma had been steadily expanding. Hidden in anonymity and supported by countless pig beastkin, they had been on the verge of rising into a true power. If Orcma had remained intact, Oberli would have entered negotiations, if only because of the coming battle against the King of Wolves.

But now, that secret and enormous organization had been ruined. Not by Oberli or the King of Wolves, but by a single human.

"If not for the Magician, we wouldn't have to hide like this..."

"That's why hiding won't work."

An orc who had been silently listening in the corner abruptly rose. Now that everyone had fallen silent, her only chance had come. Tila, a young orc woman full of passion, appealed fervently to the others.

"Let's go into the streets! Gather everyone we have left and march on Oberli!"

"March?"

"Yes. March. We have to make our will known. But if we keep working in the shadows, it will be impossible even after a thousand years. If we don't speak directly, our voices will never reach them. At least once, we need to make it known not only to Oberli, but to everyone in Ende!"

Marches and protests. The pig beastkin had always made unrealistic demands. As they always did, the other pig beastkin stepped forward to scold her.

"Hmph! Tila, you fool. A march? Are you openly asking the security force and Obelisks to haul you away? Even if a thousand gather, you'll all be subdued and rolling on the ground within two hours!"

"But then they'll earn the resentment of more than ten thousand people. If they ignore voices demanding fair treatment even as the King of Wolves is approaching, nothing will justify them!"

"Do they need justification? The people in power in Oberli hold all the strength and authority. They just have to crush us by force!"

"Gruel will help us!"

This time, his name carried a slightly different meaning.

Gruel was Beast Faction. He had endured the survival of the fittest in the harsh wilderness. That was why he despised the pig beastkin living in Ende, feeding on its scraps.

"I think Gruel is right. If we don't act, we won't gain anything. Of course, it would be nice if it were strength gained through bone-grinding effort. Sadly, we haven't even been given the conditions to make that effort."

But that did not mean Gruel was heartless.

If he truly were heartless, rather than gathering the wild folk of the Ende Plain and building a force, he would have pursued his own advancement alone. Rather than becoming the guardian of the Beast Faction, he would have become a ruler of Ende.

"We are demanding that they at least give us the chance to work. If we have the chance to eat, learn, and grow, then we too can reach a new realm, just like Gruel."

So while he might despise pig beastkin, he would not ignore them. With eyes that held political calculation and yearning alike, the young orc sang of a dream.

"Gruel did it. I think Gruel is special, but I don't think he is the only one. Pig beastkin have potential! Just as spring comes after winter, spring will come for us orcs who endure these difficult times!"

It was an unrealistic and hollow story, as sweet and addictive as a drug.

But Orcma, beaten down by the Magician, needed even a drug to lose themselves in.

Footnotes:

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