According to a villager, around 10 years ago, a deal had been struck with the Orc tribes of the forest to cease their raids on the village in return for the transfer of some female slaves once every six months. Apparently, it was more convenient to so do due to the high income of the village rather than risking lives to fight the Orcs and their constant raids up til now.
However, the Orcs have recently begun to break their contract, and on the contrary, have begun attacking the groups that have gone logging. In doing so this time, they have supposedly captured the daughter of an influential member of the community. I was told that this was the seventh large attack in recent months, with the Orc's attacks growing more rapid each time.
I hear there are quite a number of them, but they haven't taken the risk of attacking the village directly as of yet, even though Orcs are a type of monster that, if there were several of them, would be able to kill a [Morito]. Though the [Moritos] are strong, with the size of this village, you can't protect everything with only five Iron Golems. It would be up to the villagers to fight should they come under full-assault from the Orc tribe. As it is, the villagers are no longer able to safely obtain the high-quality wood material.
The Orcs have been pretty friendly to the village over the past decade, so this level of brutality has left the village in a state of confusion. Though Orcs have some humanoid characteristics, in the end, they are still just monsters. That's where the general consensus is heading - Typical human mentality.
The history of this village is short, and not many have spent much of their lives in this village. Though they are pleased with their lives here, especially the skilled craftsmen that have invested so much into the town over the past decade, there is risk that the village may have to be abandoned if the Orc raids continue. These humans have no fighting mentality whatsoever and would prefer to cut their losses rather than die. To leave their village and all of their hard work without even putting up a fight. Hmph, I suppose this also qualifies as human behavior.
Though I would normally not care too much about the sufferings of the humans, there could be business to be made through trading with this village since they use the spirits of the forest in their crafts.
Since the only place that would be able to dispatch a punitive request to deal with the Orcs would be the governing town Guild, I went there to offer our services, for a just reward suited to saving their entire village of course. I don't like charity unless it benefits me.
Ah, right. I think I may have figured the root of the crisis that this village is facing. It seems that I truly am at the center of this incident. It was myself and the rest that had robbed the Orcs of their base of operations and slew their leader. Given that probably most Orcs don't have that much intelligence to begin with, cutting off the head of their clan probably sent the survivors into a tribal civil war. There was probably several divisions over the next leader, with each out to secure their own survival. So far, survivors from their raids pin that there are probably between thirty and forty surviving Orcs from the dozens that were slain at the mine.
It may have been that all of the Orcs with even the slightest bit of wisdom had been present at the mine during our attack. As such, all of their supplies, leaders, Mages, and organizational hierarchy were all wiped out. The survivors are probably no more than mere beasts that rely on pure instinct. A better way to picture what is going on is to imagine all of the survivors are like Ogakichi-kun without my influence. With their food running short, they are attacking the closest source of food possible, meaning the town and those that went out to collect the lumber.
Orcs were never really that weak, but as we are now there would be no trouble in removing the threat. For normal untrained human civilians however, an Orc is a frightening proposition when you bring up the discussion of fighting back. It would be extremely difficult to subdue the Orcs to ensure the safety of their lumberjacks.
Recent sightings of the Orcs portray them as far more skinny then they had been previously, an obvious sign that they are struggling to secure proper sources of food.
The Orcs probably held off on attacking the humans until hunger got the better of them, and they came looting the humans even though they remembered the warnings that their superior's had told them before we slaughtered them all. Since the crop fields were almost totally undefended, the Orcs also struck there.
Sigh, since this is a problem that I have caused, I suppose I can't just leave it as it is. Especially if, for some reason, it comes to light that it was me who caused the Orcs to attack the human settlement, who knows what the results would be. Most likely, my relations with the humans would be tarnished for a very long time. Not that I feel sorry for kicking the Orcs out of the mines. The spirit stones that were extracted from the Orc mines were far worth the cost to the humans. The experience at the time was also nice.
Spirit stones are precious to the humans and many other races for their magical properties. If I were able to clear out the remaining Orcs, selling them here would bring an enormous pile of gold in. Since this place has such a high demand for high-quality magical materials, I see this place almost as if it were filled with trees that grew money. Its not something that my greedy heart could just pass up. Well, for now I'll keep the information I've discovered concealed while I discuss the matter of a contract to deal with the Orcs. For me, what I have done to the Orcs is a thing in the past.
Its not like I have anything against the Orcs, but, with the idea of gathering a reward, I pushed any possible morals aside. Though as a consolation, I suppose I'll throw in the treatment for all the injured people created from the constant Orc raids. There is even benefit in doing this. It makes me appear as a benevolent soul in their eyes. I may even be given special prices for my goods once this is all over.
Anyway, with the contract with Clute Village made, I had a few small conversations with some of the head Guild members before I made my way out. If I play my cards right, I could turn this short-term contract into a formal long-term contract to protect the village from future attacks. Even this would be in my benefit. If I'm going to be doing business with these people by selling them our spirit stones, I may as well makes sure it doesn't get pillaged or razed to the ground. With myself being sure of the future of this deal, I made my way back.
After the contract was made, it wasn't even evening before all of the Orcs were being fried up as roasted pork. The village's Orc problem has been all wrapped up. With a delicious meal thrown in, I can accept that price of one day's worth of travels.
While we were wiping out the Orcs, we made sure to not harm the human women in their possession. By taking this caution, we managed to recover the three women that had been kidnapped during the Orc raids. When we returned, a deal was signed for the future protection of the settlement. With the deal struck, I sent for ten Goblins and ten Hobgoblins led by a Hobgoblin Mage to garrison the village. They should arrive within a day or so and would be greeted with great kindness upon arriving at the village.
The trust I gained from this was great.
While keeping the slave women would be nice, I decided to free them and leave them in the village. I gave the Guild Master a request to treat them as equals, to which he agreed to.
I think the environment of this village is better than before.
That's good. The better the relations with a village, the better the business.
As we were back on the road, the effects of the ring wore off.
I decided to eat the ring for the chance of picking up the ability for myself
Ability unlocked [Makeover Shape Shifting]
For now, I change the color of my body to be more human like, though I leave my tattoos as is.
With that, we continue to proceed onward to our destination.