"Nice to meet you, I am Bookworm. Chancellor of the Interior of the Orc Empire!"
His face, rarely seen since he mastered the art of poison and donned the purple robe, was now clearly visible to Alyon, and the purple veins on his green skin were glowing despite the insufficient lighting.
"There is no need for you to put on such an expression, father. When I said I wanted to fight, the solution offered by the person who showed me how to do it was using poison, and I am very happy because I managed to achieve this.
I have a wife who loves me regardless of my appearance, and a half-orc son named Soul Reaper who has his own unique Lineage Power. If they told me I could trade my powers that allow me to stand at the top of billions of people for my appearance, my only answer would be 'fuck off'!"
When Alyon couldn't hide his reaction to the change in his son, whom he hadn't seen this closely for a long time, Bookworm, feeling the need for an explanation, was clear enough to leave no need for another question. He had his intellect, poison arts, a poison-spewing power animal, and he had no regrets regarding the sacrifices he made to gain them.
"For a long time, I thought about whether I should hate my father or look for flaws in myself. Yes, there was someone watching over and taking care of me, and this person was at least as powerful as my father, but somewhere inside me, the urge to prove myself always lay dormant.
Even if the whole world knew me, what essentially concerned me was you seeing my power and appreciating it. I must confess that your fall during the Great War was the first event that opened my eyes, then during the two years I spent in the Glacial Region, I saw that the person who was an invincible god in my eyes was actually quite fragile.
That's when I said to myself; if I believe I am doing my best, then that is enough. As long as I complete my responsibilities and don't neglect my duties, I decided to leave the rest to time. I tried to be a reliable orc named Bookworm, not the little son of a great man. By spending every day productively to surpass myself, I believed the process would carry me to the point I wanted!"
While Alyon was telling his own story, he had sprawled out completely relaxed, but while his son spoke, he stood at least as upright as the rock he leaned his back against. Even if their relationship wasn't as disconnected as orcs growing up without knowing their parents, it couldn't even come close to the human relationships they experienced for years.
They had just recently left the side of Dimitri Balsici, who was trying to exalt his father's legacy, and Alyon could clearly see how deep a sorrow the man in his fifties fell into when talking about his father.
"I am sure every new piece of information I learned during this conversation of ours will illuminate the darkness before me, but one of them was in the nature of a cure for an issue that has been a wound inside me for a long time!"
Alyon, who was already on high alert, became all ears; he wondered which of the things he said had caught his son so deeply, and had such an impact on his inner world.
"I always used to wonder why the first task I received as my master's apprentice was about the defecation needs of the orc society, but today I learned that the two pillars of our empire suffered quite a lot from this issue. The first task I succeeded in ensured their relief and allowed our borders to reach their current state. It turns out, I accomplished a great job without knowing it!"
Silence, a silence deep enough to hear the sound of the wind slipping through the rocks blocking the entrance, the scurry of mice wandering at the bottom of the far wall, the stomach rumble of a member of the Nameless Ten who didn't get entirely full at dinner, and their own heartbeats, enveloped the two orcs.
Then suddenly an erupting volcano appeared; the lava of laughter erupting from wide-open mouths was scorching every ear it touched. The Nameless Ten members, waiting ready to flee due to the explosion a while ago, still froze because the effect this time was twice as intense.
"I must confess I wasn't expecting this, you really caught me off guard. So the job of collecting shit is a tradition passed down from generation to generation in our family, huh. Don't tell me you didn't make my grandson do this!"
Alyon, with the sentence he squeezed between their laughs, fanned the flames of the fire that was about to turn to embers. There would be no morning to this night; the two orcs, putting their heads together, would continue to let out laughs by drinking the liquid Nafız saved for special occasions, which took on a milk-white color when water was added.
When the first lights of the morning passed through the rocks and hit their faces, the father and son were completely wrecked. Because they drank all of the liquid they saved for special occasions, one of their eyes was looking to the right and the other in a direction changing every second.
The Nameless Ten didn't act hastily regarding opening the entrance; prolonging the job for a few hours with slow and steady movements, they meanwhile allowed their superiors, whom they had never seen like this before, to sober up. Fortunately, the constitution of orcs was more robust compared to humans, otherwise, even if they were used to it, their sobering up couldn't be short after consuming this much alcohol.
"Let's hit the road!"
Alyon, stepping to the front as if nothing happened, took the lead of the team with fast steps; his son one step behind him and the Nameless Ten in pursuit continued to walk. Even though there were roads where they could use mechanical vehicles, the fear of being detected prevented this; when they reached the end of the second day, they had covered the entire road using their feet again.
"We're exhausted, come on, let's have a nice meal. Close the entrance well and set the table!"
Alyon, giving the order, stepped back after taking out the floor table, which cut its connection with the ground with four small legs and had a diameter of two meters. Handling the rest was the duty of the Nameless Ten, and as told, closing the entrance and setting the table didn't take half an hour.
They ate, they drank; dinner time tonight lasted a little longer. Even though Alyon and Bookworm were hungover, they looked energetic; when the others retreated to their own areas, they started to continue yesterday's conversation.
Despite being father and son, whether it was because they chatted comfortably like two adult orcs or because the ice between them had broken a bit, their communication was clear as crystal and flowed incredibly smoothly. Even if they couldn't manage to stay up until morning, they continued to laugh and have fun until late hours.
They were relatively vigorous when starting their last day of travel, and this was evident from them waking up early and opening the entrance together with the others. They were advancing like mountain goats in the rocky coastal area; slopes, valleys, and deep cliffs weren't enough to slow their speed.
As a matter of fact, their eyes were shining when they reached the residence where they would stay the last night. At the time they should have been the most tired, they were as energetic as the very first moment they left the Balsici Castle. The orc race was like this, getting refreshed as they got closer to achieving what they aimed for; if they had a solid leader at their head, no one could stand before them.
Because they would infiltrate their targeted point tomorrow, Alyon and Bookworm didn't dare to sacrifice their sleep. They were even generous enough to lay the mines they carried with them at the entrance of the cave to take the watch duty off the others' shoulders. Financial losses weren't as important as the Nameless Ten members resting tonight; they would need each of them tomorrow.
That night was one of those nights where you couldn't realize how quickly morning came, only understanding it was daytime when you saw the sun. The orc group too had to wake up at a very early hour, maybe they hadn't slept at all.
Three hours after throwing the rags on their backs to hide, they were a hundred paces away from a rock mass higher than the surrounding mountains. They were so fast that the road too was consumed as quickly as the night, but they weren't in a state to think about this. What had happened up to that time was over; next, there was carrying out the mission requiring them to enter a place where they didn't know what they would encounter inside.