Fate Online: Shadow

Chapter 551: A Covenant of the Past

The Alliance Envoy soon left too and reported the conclusion of the meeting to the leaders of the Alliance.

General Marson gave a rough account of what happened and when he brought up what he observed before, the Kings sitting around the round table couldn't help but become animated during the discussion.

"A possible Orc Lord? Since when was the last time that an Orc Lord appeared on this land?"

"It was during the Continental War hundreds of years ago"

"It's not surprising. After the war, most of those Orcs had retreated to the mountains of Neverwinter"

"Let's stop jumping into conclusions, what if he's just an Orc General?"

"Still poses a huge threat and it's a Horde, not an Orc Army"

"General Marson, are you sure that Dragoth speaks no differently from us?"

"It's the truth, Your Majesty" General Marson immediately replied when his Monarch questioned him.

There was a reason why these people were more emphasizing on why Dragoth was able to speak clearly and concisely.

Like other monsters of the monster race, most Orcs do not know how to speak the common language, they can only converse amongst each other through grunts and squeals, and even if they do, they either turn out to be an Orc Shaman, a proper Orc Warrior, an imposing Orc General or something else entirely, like an Orc Lord.

But leading a Horde made up of different races?

Now, that's a different story entirely and would require a lot of resources and manpower to verify its authenticity, since an Orc Lord is not something to be taken lightly.

"No use thinking about it. Instead, write up a report about what you witnessed and send it to the Six Sages. This problem isn't something that we'd be able to handle. Make sure to include that person he calls an Empress"

"As you wish, Your Majesty!"

General Marson bowed and quickly left the tent.

"But who is that Empress though? It's my first time hearing that inside those mountains, there's an Empress. Could it be a very powerful monster like the Dragon Emperor?"

"That's something we'll have to find out since this is the first time we're hearing about it"

"I concur. We should set up and independent squad of Scouts who will gather information about this Empress during the expedition"

"I agree"

"I have no objections"

And with everyone's agreement, this short gathering between the Kings was concluded. Soon after, a soldier bearing the reports from this frontline mounted a large hawk and started its journey back towards the center of the continent.

Meanwhile, on the side of the Horde camp.

"Welcome back, Great Chieftain!"

"Hmmp!"

"Did you beat up some humans while you were there? Gahaha!"

"When are we going to fight? I'm bored!"

"Honey, can you tell me why we have to listen to an Orc?"

"Shut up, I keep telling you it's the Empress orders. Are you defying her words?"

Great Chieftain Dragoth, with his escorts, just arrived and was immediately greeted by the various tribe leaders of the other monster races gathered for this expedition, and while the various leaders of the Orc Tribes greeted him with respect, the other monsters were more cold, some were glaring, a few look unsatisfied, but there were also some who nodded at him and seems like they didn't really care who would lead them, like some of Lizardmen, Trolls, Ogres and the Werewolves, while the other half of these group of races are clearly unsatisfied with the arrangement made.

The races on the lower chaste like the Goblins, Kobolds and many others had grouped themselves up together and were standing at the very back, just quietly watching the rowdy bunch before them.

Then there's also the Wyvern couple, whose size towers everyone at over three meters and twice the size of normal Wyverns and some other Dragon-blooded monsters, who currently, are in their own world and quietly arguing with each other.

Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!

Riding on his mount, Great Chieftain Dragoth just quietly watched them and didn't say anything, and the longer he did that, the chatter also slowly died down.

It started with the weaker races until the stronger races finally noticed it and also shut their mouths, and finally felt the oppressive feeling permeating through the air.

Obviously, the Wyvern couple were the mavericks of this group as they're still not paying attention to them and even flew away while screeching at each other in anger.

Dragoth watched them fly with a dark glint in his eyes, clearly unsatisfied at their actions but powerless to do anything since those two clearly do not answer to him.

"The humans and I have come to terms. The Horde will take the vanguard and in exchange, we will be granted with anything. Return to your tribes and discuss with your elders what you want. There's only three quotas for each tribe, so think well about what you want and no human slaves! Get ready, we march at the next daylight! Disperse!"

When they heard that they would be able to ask anything from the humans, all of them were suddenly feeling eager and their eyes were even shining, but when Dragoth mentioned that human slaves were prohibited, a lot of them immediately felt dispirited and disgruntled.

"I thought I'd finally have a taste of human after so many years!"

"Yeah, they're the best for breeding. I'm already bored with our women!"

"How about doing with a Troll then?"

"With this tiny body?! I'll die!"

Listening to their chatter as they broke off into different groups, Dragoth shook his head and muttered, "F*cking idiots, they only care about satisfying their selfish desires and do not even care that the humans are taking advantage of them. These kind of fools are the reason why humans had been the dominant force of this land for so many years"

He complained but deep inside, he knew that in exchange for the lack of wisdom and intelligence, Monsters were gifted with physique beyond human capability, and they were also gifted with the traits to reproduce rapidly.

Unlike the humans where it would take years before one reaches adulthood.

"What can we do? It is how this world balances itself" a rugged voice sounded from the side and when Dragoth looked over, he saw a hunched back Orc, with a necklace of made beast fangs and carrying a wooden staff with three similar shaped beast skulls hanging from it, using it like a cane while walking.

"Shaman, you're here"

"How did it go, lad?"

"In exchange for taking the vanguard, and in the name of the Sage Laura, the humans had promised us that we'd be able to ask anything from them as long it's not something that would harm their Kingdom, should we take precautions in case they go back on their word?"

The old shaman smiled slightly and shook his head and replied, "If this was in the past, then I would have said yes, but with the awakening of the Empress, we don't need to. We should just worry about fulfilling the Covenant of the past"

While walking slowly, Dragoth added, "Then we'll have the humans answer to the Empress then, if they go back on their word"

"Exactly my thoughts"