The Pope Returns

In an instant, the Eight Knights became the center of attention. Everyone was tense. Their clothes seemed somewhat ill-fitting, stretched taut by their rigid bodies.

"Y-Yes."

"Lord Ryan is right. There truly are many orcs in the Northlands. We only need to travel for half a day to see their tribes. They seem to have migrated there not long ago."

One of the Eight Knights at the front spoke. He was fairly composed. With noble blood in his veins, though only from a collateral branch, his flushed face was one of excitement.

"Will the orcs really invade our lands again?"

The nobles frowned skeptically. They were not nearly as accommodating toward the Eight Knights as they had been toward Ryan, afraid that these knights might be deceiving them.

"Th-That... we don't know either. Perhaps there are simply that many orcs in the Northlands."

The Eight Knights spoke more quietly, but the nobles still caught every word.

"Impossible. The Northlands cannot sustain that many orcs. Otherwise, those disgusting, lazy monsters would not have invaded us in the first place. Besides, we killed so many of them the year before last."

"Orcs know fear too. They fear humanity's Extraordinary Legions and would not willingly approach human lands."

Count Soron offered an impartial analysis, though he too was puzzled.

Too little time had passed. The orcs' memories had not yet fully faded, which meant they still remembered humanity's butcher knives.

Yet under such circumstances, why did they still dare come so close to human territory?

All at once, aside from the nobles of the Corland Kingdom, the others were no longer so opposed to Ryan's proposal for a Northern Military Council.

They had not rejected it outright from the beginning, so naturally, their bottom line would be pulled back again and again.

Ryan