Why can't humans do it too?

"Right? You remember now, don't you?" The white-haired orc pulled Sulti closer and said softly, "Although I don't know what you just said, and I don't understand monkey language, I've seen it... your desire to sacrifice yourself for your tribe... have you calmed down now?"

After the initial impulse subsided.

This is the second half of what the orcs didn't finish saying.

After the initial impulse of passion subsides, all that remains is lingering fear and an unresolved emptiness, much like how someone who has failed in a suicide attempt is unlikely to have the courage to attempt suicide again.

All the white-haired orcs knew this, and he deeply understood this feeling, just as he had experienced it firsthand.

"I 'see' every single change in your muscles, the contraction and contraction of your pupils, your heartbeat, even the flow of your blood," the wolf-like orc whispered in Sul's ear, as if two intimate people were talking to each other. "...So you've calmed down now, haven't you? Monkey, can you tell me now which race you're under orders from? And what are you trying to do, sneaking into the orc territory?"

After saying that, the white-haired orc even considerately loosened his grip a little, giving Suer's head a moment of freedom, completely unafraid that Suer would take the opportunity to bite off his own tongue—he was that confident, but in reality, Suer did give up on that idea.

Right after the orcs voiced their question.

He lost.

Completely.

His plan to provoke the orc into killing him in a fit of rage and thus keep the secret was completely exposed, and he also seemed to have misunderstood something terrible... Hmm?

Doesn't he possess the ability to read minds?

If that's the case, why ask such a question in the first place? And why wait here for my answer?

Shouldn't they have 'heard' my answer the very next second after I asked the question, and then disposed of me after I've become useless?

Having overcome the panic and helplessness he felt when he first learned of the existence of mind-reading, an overpowered skill, and letting his fear lead him to unleash his excessive emotions, Suer keenly realized at this moment that the white-haired orc might be deceiving him.

The answer to this question was found in the next second, and the evidence was that even when the orc carrying him had some outrageous thoughts in his mind, he did not twist his head off.

In less than two seconds, Suer's mind raced and he came to this conclusion. Although his intelligence was not as great as that of a genius like Riku, it was sufficient for this situation.

He cannot die, and not only can he not die here, but he must also dispel the doubts of the orc in front of him, because the orc has already considered that this will have a devastating impact on the survival of humans in the surrounding area.

It was as if the rekindled flames were scorching Suer's already exhausted body.

Yes, no one would be so idle as to pour water into an anthill every day to drown the ants, but what if that ant possessed a tool that could threaten human survival?

Without a doubt, it will be a war of life and death, and the outcome is completely predictable—the destruction of the settlement where Sur lives.

Unless there is a food shortage, the orcs don't really care what humans, whom they see as monkeys, do every day. But if these monkeys start serving other races, such as relaying information, it's a different story. This means that they have transformed from harmless monkeys into enemies that need to be eliminated in advance.

This directly contradicts the creed that Liku proposed five years ago, a creed upheld by everyone in the entire settlement at a great cost—

Humans do not exist, cannot exist, and therefore cannot be perceived. Human resistance is not permitted at all, and humans are forced to become prey to be hunted. They cannot resist because they cannot pose a threat; even a slight counterattack and a minor victory would be meaningless.

The sacrifices already made must not be wasted.

Therefore,

This is a world that only Sull can save.

Our world.

"Ugh! Cough cough cough!" He tried to say something, but before he could even speak, he choked on his saliva and coughed violently. Looking at this orc who was being very patient, even waiting for him to finish coughing, Suer slightly curled the corners of his mouth. "Listen, cough, obey?"

A mocking smile appeared on Suer's lips; it was a genuine expression of his feelings, containing absolutely no lie.

"What race needs the service of beasts like us?"

Unconcerned about belittling himself, Suer looked up, only to see the eternally unchanging crimson moon in the sky, and the blood-red sky itself.

Chapter Eleven: Fragments of the Past

There was no answer; the orc's eyes flickered with uncertainty.

Although his senses told him that the monkey he was carrying, which had somehow learned the language of the orcs, was likely a slave kept by another race, his reason told him that what Sull said was true.

Elves are the elements that make the impossible possible. They are everywhere and exist within the bodies of every life and creature living on this planet. The number of elves that can be kept in a body and the neural aptitude connected to the Elf Corridor determine the rank of the race.

Orcs have extremely low aptitude, while humans have none at all and are unable to connect with the Elven Corridor. Because of this, and because humans do not possess the ability to create their own divine race, orcs are still given the suffix "[race]", while humans are simply humans... regarded as the lowest level of beasts. Even the name "human" is only used by themselves and has never been recognized by other races.

Unable to use magic or possess any supernatural powers, how can a beast that even elves cannot see gather information useful to races that can efficiently utilize elves?

For those superior races, it would probably only take a little effort to write a spell to gather information that the beasts could not gather no matter how hard they tried. It's just dealing with a low-ranking orc race, why would they need to use such a secretive method?

When you can kill an enemy with one punch, do you spend a lot of time preparing or charging up?

That is not the choice of the strong.

This is precisely what puzzled the white-haired orc.

But he was a vanguard, a scout, a tentacles that risked their lives to detect danger for the tribe. What this matter meant was beyond his ability to judge. All he had to do was pass the information back. However, given that his messenger partner had just sent back information about the Ork group that had appeared in the Ork's territory and had not yet returned, the matter of sending back the information had to be postponed for the time being.

Before that, he had to bring the monkey, which contained some secret, back safely—although he didn't know the answer to the question above, there was only one thing the white-haired orc was certain of.

The monkey in front of him did indeed possess an arrogance that came from the very marrow of its bones. Even the monkey itself was unaware of it. Only when observing subtle details such as the flow of blood in its muscles or the beating of its heart could he clearly sense this. It was as if he was not facing an ignorant and lowly beast, but rather a creature with a soul as noble as, or even more noble and powerful as, the beastmen. This gave him the illusion that he was looking down on the existence of the beastmen.

Did the monkeys see a world that the orcs had never seen before?

What kind of orc joke is this?

The white-haired orc felt this way, and he asked the same question about this mysterious feeling.

"...Look, you haven't given up even now, have you?" With boundless curiosity, the white-haired orc fiddled with Sul's bones. With just a gentle tug, the bone at the joint popped off with a crisp crack.

The sudden pain made Suer groan, but he remained silent—he had to find a decisive reason to make the orcs abandon their earlier judgment.

"Still pondering lies, do you really think I can't see through you?" Unaware that his scheme had been seen through, the white-haired orc continued to act out his own script. "Speaking of which, I saw a monkey like you three years ago... Aren't you curious why I knew to hold your skull?"

hum!

A single, simple sentence seemed to veil a bloody curtain before Suer's eyes: the raging fire, the wooden house torn to shreds by claws, the image of himself being carried away by Lennie three years ago, and the lingering, dim vision of the man who turned back without hesitation, leading those who had volunteered to stay.

"You remember now, right?" The white-haired orc chuckled maliciously, satisfied to hear Sul grit his teeth so hard they were practically grinding to powder. "It's all thanks to you guys. Even though you're all bones and have little meat, if we hadn't caught you monkeys back then, many children in the tribe probably wouldn't have survived that winter... From that perspective, you monkeys are practically heroes, aren't you?"

The venom was almost flowing onto the ground.

Trembling.

"By the way, although you monkeys have your own language, do you even know what a hero means? Let me explain it to you—"

Bang! ! !

The white-haired orc stopped speaking, his fist, which had been hurtling towards him, now firmly clenched in his hand.

For some reason, his body, which was long past the point of being able to muster any strength, suddenly erupted with power like a volcano. His eyes were bloodshot, and even though he knew it wouldn't cause any harm, and even his reason was urging him to preserve this power, Suer could no longer endure it.

"Lovas".

"Hmm?" the white-haired orc asked curiously, not understanding.

"His name... ah... is... is called... Lovas!"

He was breathing heavily, and the words that came out from between his clenched teeth trembled with every syllable. Suer kept his head down, trying his best not to let the orc see what he was seeing.

"And what about you, monkey?"

Completely disregarding Sul's hatred, the white-haired orc was fully aware of the emotions of the creature he held, casually asking a question.

“...Sul”.

“Very good, my name is Asano Shirasu. Now we know each other a little better,” the white-haired beastman, no, Asano Shirasu, stretched his stiff neck. “That monkey, oh, Luvas… Anyway, Luvas was a very important person to you, right? But even so, didn’t you still abandon him and run away without looking back?”

To shut up.

Suer cried out in his heart.

"You know what? That guy, it seems like he only suddenly realized how precious life is when he was really about to die," Asano Shirasu said, forcibly lifting Su Er's lowered head to face the hatred and anger in his eyes, which could no longer be concealed. He brought his face, which Su Er found incredibly ugly, closer without caring. "He regretted it, huh? He was crying and wanted to live, huh?"

To shut up!

A silent shriek.

"The way he begged for mercy when he bit off his flesh was truly awful. I thought a monkey that deliberately charged at us would have some kind of skill, but it turned out to be just this..."

Asano Shirasu was still reminiscing, but Suer couldn't help but sneer contemptuously.

"Really?"

Chapter Twelve Refusal

Asano Shirasu could clearly sense that when Sue mentioned that Luvas had regretted or begged for mercy, he didn't show the slightest doubt or guilt; all that burned within him was boundless rage. But that wasn't the point.

“Lovas definitely didn’t ask to be circumvented, right?” Suer said with a sarcastic smile, looking at Asano Shirasu who hadn’t reacted any further.

"...Why are you so sure?" After a moment of silence, Asano Shirasu asked doubtfully, "Do you trust him that much?"

“No, although I also trust Lovas, I don’t know how a person will react when they are truly facing death… so I actually trust you more,” Suer said, his tone practically mocking. “Have you already forgotten what you just said? — [Why I knew to hold your skull].”

"..."

Asano Shirasu remained silent.

"So Luvas actually died because he bit off his own tongue, right?" Ignoring the white-haired orc who was slightly embarrassed by his mockery, Suer muttered absentmindedly, "Was he afraid of regretting it, or afraid of revealing our whereabouts..."

Just like the choice I made today.

It wasn't the same person, nor the same place, but the choices they made were so similar. This indescribable sense of heaviness made Suer feel increasingly lost.

Suer knew what the orc was doing.

Asano Shirasu simply wanted to break his will and make him reveal the secret of so-called confidence and arrogance that even Su Er himself didn't know, which could be described as utterly inexplicable.