"I'm pretty sure a big beastman tribe lives in those mountains."
Arnold stepped through what remained of a village as if he were retracing a path he already knew by heart.
"I don't remember if they were called Rakeshi though, but does that really matter when demihumans have a hivemind mentality? They probably came down from the mountains to terrorize this village together."
He moved without hurry, boots pressing into dirt that hadn't yet settled from the chaos that had passed through it. The village wasn't ancient or long-forgotten. It was recent. That much was obvious from the way doors still hung half-open, from the faint heat clinging to the stones of a fire that had not fully died, from the smell.
He passed a cart that had been overturned in the center of the path, its contents scattered. Sacks torn open. Grain spilled and trampled into the mud. Looking at it, everything was ruined for the joy of it.
A waste. Some poor fellow probably worked hard to produce all these crops only for invaders to ruin everything.
His gaze shifted to the nearest house. The door had been forced inward, the wood splintered at the hinges. Inside, there was movement—but only from the fire still licking at the edges of a collapsed table.
There was no tension in his posture, no urgency in his movements. If anything, there was a strange calm about him, as if this was less a discovery and more a confirmation of something he had expected. What else can you expect from demihumans abusing the power of their kind during war?
His boot struck something soft.
It rolled slightly before coming to a stop.
He looked down.
"…They don't like eating their meal whole, huh."
The words left him flatly, almost absentmindedly, as his eyes settled on what lay at his feet. A severed hand, fingers still curled as if frozen mid-grasp, the flesh torn unevenly where it had been separated. Judging from the ruined flesh, it wasn't cut but torn with something sharp.
He simply stepped over it and continued forward.
The deeper he walked into the village, the more complete the picture became. Walls were smeared with dark streaks where bodies had been dragged. There were signs of struggle—deep gouges in the wood, broken tools that had been used as makeshift weapons. But there was no pattern of defense. No sign that anyone had been allowed to organize.
As he continued walking, he heard laughter and cries coming from the hill overlooking the village.
The laughter grew clearer the higher Arnold climbed up the hill, no longer carried faintly by the wind but echoing openly between the rocks. It wasn't the kind born from camaraderie or victory. It was loose, careless—amusement drawn from something ongoing.
He didn't quicken his pace.
The path curved around a jagged outcrop, and the source revealed itself.
About three of them.
Thick-bodied, broad-shouldered, their weapons hanging loosely at their sides as if they weren't even needed. In front of them, a man was on his knees, barely upright, one arm hanging limp while the other tried—pointlessly—to shield the woman behind him. His body shook with the effort of staying conscious. Blood ran freely down his side, soaking into the dirt beneath him.
The woman clung to his back, her fingers digging into his torn clothes as if that alone could keep him standing. Her breathing was ragged, uneven, each inhale sounding like it might be her last.
One of the demihumans nudged the man's shoulder with his foot, not hard enough to kill him, just enough to make him sway.
"Still moving, kukuku" he said, almost gleeful that he gets to play even more with his food.
Another crouched slightly, grabbing a fistful of the man's hair and forcing his head up. "You're soooo stubborn, uncle," he said, peering into his face as if trying to decide whether that made him interesting or just annoying.
The third wasn't looking at the man at all.
His gaze was fixed on the woman.
Arnold stopped a short distance away, watching them.
The man coughed weakly, blood spilling from his mouth as he tried to speak. Nothing coherent came out. Just a broken sound.
The demihuman holding him sighed and let go, allowing his head to drop forward again. "Boring," he said.
That was when the third one finally moved, stepping forward toward the woman.
She shrank back instinctively, pressing herself harder against the man's back, but there was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.
Arnold spoke then.
"Hey."
The single word cut through the air.
All three turned.
Their eyes settled on him at once, expressions shifting not to alarm, but curiosity. The same kind he had seen in the village below.
They took him in quickly. His posture. His clothes. The absence of visible urgency as if he wasn't perturbed by what he witnessed at all or who was at the heart of it.
The one closest to the woman straightened slightly, a grin spreading across his face. "Another one wandered up," he said.
Arnold glanced briefly at the pair on the ground. The man's body was barely holding itself upright now, his strength spent on nothing but staying conscious. The woman's eyes were wide, locked onto him, a faint light returning to them as the tears rolled.
Then he looked back at the three in front of him.
"Question," he said, tone even. "You part of the group hitting caravans that pass through here?"
The three exchanged glances, amused glints in their eyes.
One of them barked a short laugh. "Hear that?" he said, nudging the one beside him. "He's asking like it matters."
The one in the middle tilted his head, studying Arnold more closely now. "Caravans…" he repeated slowly, as if tasting the word. Then his grin widened. "Yeah. Sometimes."
"Depends what they're carrying," another added with a shrug. "Food, coin… people."
The third chuckled, rolling his shoulders. "Sometimes they fight back. That's more fun."
"I see." That was clearly to taunt him, thinking he had something precious on the carriages that he believes they attacked. It's more fun toying with their food.
"…Then you're not scouts, huh." he murmured, almost to himself. "Just stragglers without a purpose besides killing."
The one in the center frowned faintly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Arnold looked back at him.
"Means you're not important so I'll take my le—" he said plainly. He barely finished his sentence when one of the demihumans appeared in front of him instantly. A cloud of dust had been formed behind him, marking a trail.
"Oi, oi, oi. We'll take offense to that if you call us not important." He pretended to be offended even when that was just an ordinary remark.
The stink of innards and feces came from his mouth, as if he chewed on intestines. His teeth were yellow and his body reeked.
"P-Please… H-H-Help us, sir…!" the woman called out to Arnold weakly but they weren't important so he continued speaking to the wolfkin.
"Your native tongue is quite good."
"Kekeke, thank you, human. I had a kind human master who taught me to read and write." He said amused, "Though maybe I inherited his intelligence when I ripped out his brain and devoured it."
He flashed his canines, muscle tissue still clinging between the gaps.
"...If you belong to the Rakeshi tribe then maybe you can help me."
"Hn? With what?" curious, another one asked.
"I need to speak to the leader of that group—an associate of mine often comes through this land and they always get attacked. To avoid that, I need your leader to take all of you elsewhere."
Just because they're nomads doesn't mean they don't have a superior. Like mercenaries hired into an army but with no obligation to follow rules or orders besides fighting in the war, these beasts would go wherever their superior goes. How else will they get to kill humans and avoid the consequences?
The demihumans laughed, "Listen, human, we don't got a leader. We just travelled with Rock and the others for a few weeks cause there were many humans to hunt before they hid behind their walls. We go where there's opportunity, money, human women, and food. Now we're supposed to abandon it just because you asked nicely?"
"And what brought you here recently? What stopped you before from coming to this village?"
"This be the land of the Holy Kindim. Lots of knights prowling lands." Another one replied to him, "Forces break apart because battling joint tribes."
Basically, since the Holy Kingdom wanted peace, they always had their knights ride around their territories to patrol. This is standard for every kingdom. Lockinge City does this as well since his father is even concerned about the common people.
But with the war brewing between the Theocracy and the demihumans, every bit of manpower had to be concentrated either on the war or the cities. The people outside the capitals were defenseless unless they choose to leave their homes to go to the city.
As evident by the village, many didn't manage to escape in time.
"I take it then you won't help me?"
"Kukuku, why don't you make us?"
"Fine, I can find them on my own. I just needed some representatives with me."
'The system won't be helpful since I need to be specific what I'm looking for.;
He tried to keywords "Rakeshi" and other tribe names but how do you find the leader of these tribes when the tribe is spread across the country like ants? He'll need to fly around a lot and use his warrior sense to search for the highest concentration of soldiers. That will take a lot longer than a few hours.
His arm was grabbed just as he was about to leave.
"I see you got one of them fancy magic bags around your waist. Give it here." The man's smile was gone as he tugged at the bag.
This was Vetis' magic bag and has been very handy to him so far so he obviously refused. His inventory might be a better alternative but it's not something that's common at all amongst NPCs and as someone who is very wary of potential level cap players, he wants to avoid using it in public. Maybe he's used it without thinking lately and was only in one piece due to luck.
The demihuman's grip tightened when he tried to pull away.
'How cute. Trying to intimidate me.'
He chuckled, "I don't have time for this."
Then he lightly slapped the beast's face. However, the beast's entire head splattered into chunks of meat and blood. His heavy body fell with a thud and twitched before going silent.
"H-He killed Brother with one blow!? W-Who is this hume!?"
"He h-has to be an S-class adventurer or somethin', bro!"
The shock didn't last long before a teleportation gate suddenly appeared beside Arnold. A tall woman in a gothic dress stepped out, her hair as white as her skin with a big black bow on her head contrasting her porcelain skin.
"—Ah, there you are, Senior." Selia immediately noticed him, "I hope I'm not interrupting something."
"I was about to be robbed by these guys."
She chuckled as if he cracked a joke.
"Then, shall I deal with them?" she lifted her hand, a magic circle forming in front of it.
"W-Wait, w-we'll take you! P-P-P-Please don't kill!" the two got onto their knees, hitting their foreheads on the ground while pleading for their lives.
"I only need one." Arnold said coldly.
"Okay~"
**
After getting rid of the second demihuman, Selia cast a spell on the other one to stop him from running when they weren't looking.
They made sure to ask the woman if there were other survivors. Apparently, there are several "farms" in this region despite it being in the Holy Kingdom's territory. Breeding or butchering—humans were being kept as cattle. All trading and merchant guilds stopped sending their caravans through the country unless accompanied by an army. This dealt a blow to small villages and towns that rely on imports and exports.
Selia had summoned a monster and told the woman to get on it with the injured man so that she can lead it to the farms. She reassured the woman that—despite it being SS-class in terms of strength—the beast is harmless and will help her rescue other survivors.
She also made sure to mention that it's a creature belonging to the Undead Nation and will help them leave the Holy Kingdom's lands safely. What a strange time to advertise your city to survivors.
"What a mess," she commented as they rode on a carriage. A regular horse wasn't what was pulling it along, but it was the same mount Selia summoned before.
It had black flames around its body and looked like a lion from Earth, although much larger in terms of size.
By the way, the demihuman was in charge of the carriage since he knew where one of the Rakeshi outposts were where the leader also was. He seemed to hesitate every time he had to pull the reigns because the monster kept giving him side glances as if it hated him.
"The Theocracy will probably get off scot-free despite all of this being their doing. How can they just seal off any means of getting into the capital at a time like this?"
"The Pope is in the empire while the Holy King is dead. Even with his son still being alive and well, the citizens wouldn't have much courage in his ability to lead given his age so shutting the entire capital off is the best thing to do until Justice or someone else can go lead their people."
Ignoring Selia's confusion—she hasn't been paying attention to what's been happening, it seems—he continued:
"Is that why you came here? To see if you can stop the war?" And advertise your own city to them, he withheld that remark.
"…No, Lilith stressed that I need some rest after our confrontation with that imposter. She wouldn't allow me to handle any of the work that piled up. Even Lunaria pestered me about it… So, I came looking for you since I'm bored."
"I'm not out here for sightseeing, just some business that will be over in a few hours if the other party cooperates with me. We can hang out properly another time."
"That's okay! Anything is better than just lying in bed while my subordinates serve me." She took a glance at the rising smoke in the distance, no doubt the cause of other tragedies that took place here in this region, "Is the business you mentioned related to what's been happening here? Did you get a quest?"
The demihuman probably thought she was talking about adventuring quests but she was actually referring to the system's quests.
"No, but it's important I deal with the Rakeshi tribe now so that my future quest goes smoother. I made some deals on the side that's related to it. We'll already have other adventurers looking to kill us to overtake us. We have to cut through these lands without alerting anyone so the demihumans are an obstacle."
"You can simply stop the war, no? The Theocracy may be fighting the demihumans but it will be a war that can last years but we can stop it in one night if we try a little bit."
That's the power of a player. You simply cannot use the common sense of this world with them.
"I don't see a benefit to helping either side stop that war. They can deal with it themselves."
They may have the strength to stop it but as long as it stays on the Holy Kingdom's lands and doesn't impact his city's operations, he won't get involved with the war directly. Of course, if there's a benefit to fighting with either side, he'll help.
"Guinevere will probably head there anyway once she hears about the war so neither you nor I need to get involved because of pity. How can she idly sit by and watch fellow humans slaughter people who won't make peace? She'll probably force them to sit at a table to discuss their differences and negotiate—wouldn't that be comical to witness? If it was anyone other than her, I would call them an idiot. But… she has the strength to back up her naivety."
"Ah, the Guinevere you mentioned in our messages. It's hard to believe she's… you know."
"Yeah."
It's hard to believe she almost killed him just a few weeks ago but now she's sworn to him by the stigma of the Cardinal Artifact. She's more than just an ally as her life is owed to him. That said, he might help her restore her lifeforce as he won't be a God for much longer once he defeats Oriel.
"Shouldn't that Justice fellow be on her level? He killed Plesiduxius, after all." she pondered.
"That was an exaggerated tale. Plesiduxius was already weak and dying at that point but wanted to die fighting a strong opponent instead of dying slowly." Arnold felt a little offended that someone would make that assumption. Maybe it's the dragon's ego that engrained itself on his soul?
"Oh, I didn't read his codex so I just assumed… Uhm, sorry to ask so early but… how are the crystal sales coming along?"
He almost chuckled. It's been a year by this point since they established their alliance but he still hasn't repaid her yet for her help. The knights and shadow demons made his land and city the safest among every other territory in the empire—no, the world. This wouldn't be possible without her help so he made sure
"I wanted to message you about that later anyway… I've made a deal with a merchant guild to send your first share to the city within the next few days. It's preorder money, which is illegal to use in this way, but I can't stall it any longer. You should receive many carriages carrying gold bars soon. I felt it was better to package them like that instead of using coins since they would be heavier and take up too much space."
"Haa, that's good to hear," she sighed in relief, "My citizens may have shown approval to my rule and methods of protection but we've barely scraped by with all the farmland we have. I'm even renting soldiers to neighboring lords in exchange for money."
"Huh, isn't that bad?"
"Yes, but they seem to only care about the manpower I can give them. Although, aside from asking me to keep quiet about our alliances, they did request that the soldiers I send not be empty husks of armor or undead so I had to make sure they were at least human… in some way. That takes lots of resources that I simply don't have anymore as the method to creating them is expensive."
"…Sorry about that. I've been taking too long to get everything ready."
She smiled bitterly, "That's just how the business world works. Not everything can just enter the market. I'm sure the biggest competitors are pulling strings one way or another."
"It's pretty surprising how you kept to your promise not to invade other countries to take their wealth. You have the power to do so."
"…I was serious when I said I wanted humans to follow me through their own will and not fear."
She still had a little bit of her humanity left, huh? He's glad about that as he can't see that little girl he knew mercilessly killing people for her own benefits. He's been wondering this for a while now—
How long has she been in this world? Was it enough time for her to abandon her humanity...?
'How goes the Death Flag hunting?' she messaged him. changing the subject, as this was a private matter.
'I haven't found the time to seek out future death flags but I resolved a few. Victoria had a Death Flag, something I didn't know of before but I eliminated it unintentionally. Olivia's… well, I'd say it's a bit shaky. Lauran's is gone now after I helped her out of her family's debt and killed that gangster who ruined their lives.'
'You killed that person…? Was that the first life you took?' she asked, assuming that he would try his best to eliminate the death flags first before anything else.
'Yeah. But this was when my souls were still separated so there was some guilt left. Now, I can barely remember the guy's face or name.'
'You never told me about that! Does this mean that your soul is now Arnold completely?' she was probably worried that he was also a fake.
'After a certain encounter, I'd say so, yeah. But I share memories from both Arnold and my life as Liam. The dragon soul is a bit tricky to access, though.'
'…I see.'
She sighed in relief softly.
Arnold glanced at her status window which he was able to see after the two became in-game friends. He noticed on the [Friends] tab that there was a number 2 between parentheses next to "Friends".
'You seem to have met someone…'
'A-Ah!' realizing she didn't hide the tab, she tried to explain but he cut her off.
'It's alright. As long as the person isn't hostile towards me, I won't care who they are.'
'T-Thank you… Uhm, I want to tell you but they made me promise to not talk about them… They're an old friend, you see…'
'Cautious, huh. I'm interested in starting an alliance so if they need my help, let me know. While we should avoid confrontation with players we don't know, we should also get acquainted with those who aren't hostile as they might have information we can use to fill in any gaps from what we know.'
'Got it. But it's not safe to tell them who you are just yet...'
'Ah, you have a point. I'm the villain, after all.'
He's planning on revealing himself to Grace sooner or later, though. She was one of the developers, after all. As he's already told Selia about Grace, it shouldn't be her that's this mysterious player.
Selia glanced at her system window, "The Hell Hound is accumulating XP so the demihumans didn't want to cooperate, hm? Won't this complicate negotiations with the Rakeshi tribe?"
"We can just wipe them out if peaceful negotiations isn't an option anymore. Just as they mercilessly kill humans, I won't spare any who go against me."
The demihuman's shoulders jerked comically at hearing that casual remark.