Midway through Sunset Canyon.
The wind howled and wailed like the cries of the dead, sweeping back and forth along the barren rock walls on both sides.
“I say, Piggelu, what exactly is written on this?”
The Dog-headed Female stretched her neck as long as she could, pressing her nose against that small piece of sheepskin, sniffing hard, as if she could figure something out just from the scent of the ink.
“Mm… Seems like there’s a bit of human stench?”
Piggelu ignored her companion’s crude words, just flipping the sheepskin over and over, studying it with a muffled voice.
“It’s Orcish.”
“Huh? Orcish?”
The Dog-headed Female’s eyes instantly crossed, her face full of question marks.
“If it’s in our Orcish, then how come I can’t read a single word? The writing looks like a bunch of earthworms twitching!”
“This is the Orcish language that human nobles study,” Piggelu patiently explained, “It’s specifically for begging us for mercy. A few years back, when I led a raiding party, I saw plenty of human nobles secretly writing letters like this—telling us not to attack them, promising to hand over food, or… telling us where to find better bones to gnaw on.”
“So what’s written here? Is it begging for mercy too?”
“No,” Piggelu shook her head, her honest pig face wearing an expression more serious than ever before.
“It says… ‘There’s an ambush at the canyon entrance, retreat immediately.'”
“An ambush?!”
The Dog-headed Female shuddered in fright, instinctively wanting to turn her Dire Wolf around and flee.
But she quickly realized something, scratching her black-and-white dog ears in even greater confusion.
“Wait, Piggelu, if there’s an ambush, why’d you still send that lunatic Sharpclaw charging toward the entrance? Isn’t that sending her to her death?”
Piggelu lifted her head, gazing toward the canyon mouth dyed blood-red by the setting sun.
A complicated look flashed in her small eyes.
She let out a long sigh, as if speaking to herself, or maybe explaining to her companion, “I can’t order a full retreat for the whole army just based on a single mysterious scrap of paper and ruin Lady Sara’s strategy for nothing. Someone has to… go check things out.”
“As for Sharpclaw…”
Piggelu paused, her pig face full of helplessness.
“Hasn’t she always complained I move too slow, always in a rush to chop off human heads? Fine, let her scout the way ahead.”
The Dog-headed Female panted with her tongue out, her eyes now spiraling like mosquito coils.
“Ah… So complicated, my brain hurts.”
She shook her head vigorously, looking at Piggelu with worshipful eyes.
“Piggelu, I never thought a pig-headed orc like you could be so clever! Good thing you’re leading the vanguard this time. If it were that Sharpclaw idiot, she’d have already charged straight into the humans’ trap by now!”
Hearing her companion’s praise, there wasn’t a trace of joy on Piggelu’s face. Instead, she gripped her Bone Club even tighter, an ominous premonition growing ever stronger in her heart.
***
At the same time, near the entrance of Sunset Canyon.
A lone figure and a horse anxiously hid among the scattered rocks, the bloody setting sun stretching their shadows long and thin.
“The Signal Arrow should have arrived by now, right? I wonder if those muscle-brained orcs can even understand it…”
Kelly kept looking back toward Sunset Fortress, her heart torn in conflict.
She had just found the patrolling Scout Captain, lied that Prince Wendy had given her a secret mission and needed her to stay here alone to observe the situation, telling them they could head back and rest.
That simple-minded Scout Captain, upon hearing it was an order from the “Prince,” and seeing Kelly’s face full of “loyalty” and “seriousness,” suspected nothing and immediately left with her subordinates.
Kelly knew she was betraying them.
Betraying Her Highness Princess Astreia’s trust, betraying all her comrades at Sunset Fortress, betraying all of humanity.
But the moment she thought of those gentle, hopeful eyes of her childhood friend, of that promised future where she could rise above all others, Kelly’s hesitation was crushed completely.
For Edwin… everything was worth it!
After firing off a Signal Arrow from afar, she originally wanted to flee back to Sunset Fortress immediately, lest anyone discovered her.
But just as she turned her horse, a deep rumbling began to echo across the distant earth.
Kelly’s heart leapt into her throat.
The orcs… were really coming!
She couldn’t leave—just sending a Signal Arrow might not convince the orcs.
To fully carry out Edwin’s orders, she had to stay here and deliver the information to the orc commander herself!
Kelly gripped the reins tightly, her palms slick with cold sweat, silently praying over and over that those brutal, bloodthirsty orcs wouldn’t kill her on sight.
The rumbling grew louder and closer.
Soon, one after another, ferocious figures appeared on the horizon.
The Wolf Riders moved at incredible speed, kicking up a storm of dust, a black tide surging toward the canyon entrance!
Kelly braced herself, dismounted, and, facing that suffocating pressure, shouted with all her might, “Stop! Stop right there! There’s an ambush ahead!”
Seeing only a lone, frail human blocking the canyon entrance, the Wolf Riders slowed down.
The leading werewolf woman casually drew a curved blade from her waist, her eyes flashing with bloodthirsty red light.
“Wait! Don’t attack!”
Seeing this, Kelly was scared out of her wits, quickly raising both hands high to show she carried no weapon, her voice trembling, “I’m here to warn you! That Signal Arrow just now, I shot it!”
But the blade-wielding werewolf woman said nothing, just waved her hand lightly.
Dozens of Wolf Riders instantly fanned out, surrounding Kelly and her horse.
The Dire Wolves, fierce and terrifying, growled threateningly from their throats, foul saliva dripping from their fangs.
Sharpclaw squinted, sizing up the trembling human before her like a lamb about to be slaughtered.
Under the glare of a dozen savage, violent eyes, Kelly went limp with fear, her throat so dry she couldn’t even swallow.
But when she noticed that each Dire Wolf carried two orcs on its back, her heart gave a heavy thump.
This was bad.
She had to go back immediately, take Edwin, and escape to the Royal Capital.
It was too dangerous here!
“Human, you say there’s an ambush ahead?”
Sharpclaw bared her teeth and asked coldly.
“Ah? Y-yes, yes!”
Kelly snapped back to herself at the question, not daring to hide a thing.
She spilled everything about Wendy’s plan like beans from a bamboo tube.
“That Prince Wendy—he has a new kind of Gunpowder, even more powerful than the dwarves’! He’s already buried Gunpowder all through the mountain ahead, just waiting for your army to enter the canyon, then… then he’ll blow up the entire Sunset Mountain and bury all of you alive!”
After hearing her out, Sharpclaw’s wolf eyes went wide.
The next second.
“Hahahaha—!”
Shrill laughter echoed through the empty canyon.
“Utter nonsense! If you humans really dared to leave your walls and ambush us, the sun would rise in the west!”
The surrounding orc soldiers were amused, bursting into arrogant laughter, looking at Kelly as if she were an idiot.
“She’s just here to slow us down. She must think we’re as stupid as she is!”
“Look at how scared she is—fear makes you humans lie. Everybody knows that!”
Seeing the orcs clearly didn’t believe her, Kelly’s face flushed with anxiety, and she began to wave her hands nervously.
“I’m not lying! Really! Everything I said is—”
Shing!
A cold flash.
Kelly fell silent.
Blood burst out like a mountain spring.
A wooden Swan Pendant, stained red, flew into the air, tracing an arc before falling heavily into the dust.
“Just a decoy sent to slow our march.”
Sharpclaw flicked the blood from her blade, not sparing a single glance at the fallen Kelly.
She raised her curved blade high and barked a command:
“Everyone, move out! Faster! Before nightfall, flatten Sunset Fortress!”
“Howl!”
The Wolf Riders let out an excited roar and charged at full speed into the depths of the canyon, toward that fated land of death.
Only Kelly was left behind, lying in a pool of blood, watching her terrified horse flee in panic.
“I… I wasn’t lying… really… I wasn’t…”
“Why… why won’t you believe me…”
With the last of her strength, she groped in the cold dust, clutching the blood-soaked swan pendant tightly in her hand.
“Edwin… I’m sorry… I… can’t go back…”
Her murmurs grew fainter and fainter.
In the end, the girl’s eyes, once overflowing with humble love, lost all light, leaving only endless darkness and emptiness.
And in the shadows, a pair of violet-red beautiful eyes watched it all, grinning in mocking delight…
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