A Conspiracy

Yveta and the others bypassed five suits of Ghost Armor and charged straight toward the five Ogre Warriors dancing beside the Dark River.

But the five ogres had companions protecting them.

Black Wolf leaped onto an ogre's shoulder and drove a two-handed greatsword straight into its skull. Its brains flew everywhere.

When the ogre beside him tried to grab him, Black Wolf spun around and hacked off both its hands with his greatsword. Then he drew the dagger at his waist and plunged it into the neck of the ogre to his left, killing it.

A Demon Hunter who had passed four trials was no ordinary person anymore, not when it came to speed or skill.

And these ogres had already been badly wounded by Yveta's spells.

The Demon Hunter charged into the ogre horde like a showcase of brutal artistry, killing two ogres cleanly and disabling another.

The Old Witch also raised two Mithril Swords. They spun like the blades of a helicopter, their tips tracing elegant, intricate arcs. Each strike precisely cut the tendons across the Ogre Warriors' bodies. Again and again, her blades left countless wounds, like a slow knife, letting her enemies die in fear and agony.

The ogres shuddered at the cold, terrifying witch as she slaughtered them.

The witch wasn't as fast a killer as Black Wolf, but her endless flurry of blades flashed before your eyes, leaving you shrouded in terror before you died. You'd be better off being killed with a single stroke by Black Wolf.

Leili and Yveta were doing about equally well.

Leili was, after all, just an ordinary warrior. As he fought one of the ogres, he was gradually being forced onto the defensive.

As for Yveta, fighting an ogre with a short sword was... well, damn, his swordsmanship...

Let's not talk about it.

There was nothing there to speak of. It was beyond description.

Yveta had planned to overpower the ogre before him through sheer strength. Who knew that he'd be the one overpowered?

The ogre swung its club with a forceful whoosh, while Yveta's wild flailing with his short sword was an utter mess.

Before long, he was reduced to desperately dodging the club as it came crashing down.

The more they fought, the more the ogre felt it had the upper hand. It was already puffing itself up. "I'm going to eat you."

Damn it.

The bastard was getting cocky now, even though it had been ready to run away earlier.

Yveta glanced around. No one was in a position to help him, so he raised his right hand. The Ring of Desire on his little finger glimmered with an eerie light.

The ogre, convinced it had the upper hand, went glassy-eyed.

It struggled for a moment, but soon the spell took hold of its mind.

It worked even more smoothly than when he'd used the Charm Curse on that human earlier.

Using the unseen link between them, Yveta ordered the ogre to raise its hand. It did so.

Then he ordered it to join the humans and protect them.

The next moment, the ogre suddenly swung its club behind Yveta. The Ghost Armor that had been lurking there shattered under the blow, its chest plate badly warped.

Yveta's back went cold.

He hadn't even noticed the Ghost Armor lurking behind him.

That had been extremely dangerous!

He saw Black Wolf rushing toward him. Black Wolf had clearly noticed the danger too.

Black Wolf parried the swords of two suits of Ghost Armor and drove them back. "Your Highness, I'm sorry. I forgot this was your first battle."

"I should have stayed by your side to protect you. I was focused on killing the five ogre priests and neglected your safety."

Yveta said, "It's a good thing I controlled an ogre in advance."

Black Wolf turned to him, deadly serious. "Your Highness, you've already done exceptionally well for your first battle. You've badly wounded twenty-one ogres."

"From now on, I'll stay by your side and protect you. Order the ogre you've controlled to kill those five priests."

Yveta nodded and gave the controlled ogre the order.

The ogre immediately charged the five priests, while the Old Witch kept the other ogres occupied.

Black Wolf and Leili held off the five suits of Ghost Armor.

The five priests were still in the middle of summoning ghosts, dancing and unable to stop. The ogre controlled by Yveta promptly smashed one of them to death.

Clearly, the ogres had already lost.

Yveta had been about to use the Damage Curse, but the Old Witch had already dealt with the Ogre Warriors and was attacking the ogre priests.

It didn't take long for the Old Witch and Yveta's controlled ogre to kill all the priests.

Soon, twenty ogre corpses lay on the ground, and the Ghost Armor had fallen apart.

Green blood pooled across the ground.

It was the blood of humanity's enemies.

Yveta sat on a rock, panting softly as he calmed himself after the excitement and nerves of his first battle.

He checked his magic power. The Charm Curse had consumed only a third of the magic Odin had given him.

His problem now was that he could cast too few spells, not that he lacked magic power.

He should learn some swordsmanship, too.

The Old Witch kicked the corpse of the ogre that had insulted her into the water. Black Wolf, meanwhile, freed Branton from the roasting spit.

None of them had been badly hurt.

The Old Witch had only bruised her left hand when an ogre struck her. Black Wolf had several sword cuts, left by the Ghost Armor.

Leili and Yveta were barely injured.

Branton, having narrowly escaped death, thanked Yveta and the others for saving him. He'd thought the ogres were going to roast him alive.

After apologizing to Yveta for his reckless actions, he began searching for his sister, Sharon. "Where's my sister?"

"Sharon, where are you?"

"The ogres are all dead. Sharon, where are you?"

When no one answered, Branton grew more and more uneasy, his voice increasingly mournful.

Yveta walked around the place where the ogres had been camped.

There were bones scattered all over the ground.

But he noticed that they didn't look like human bones. They looked more like sheep bones.

Yveta's pupils suddenly shrank. "Black Wolf..."

"Leili, come and identify these bones."

Black Wolf came over and took a look. "Most are sheep and dogs. There are a few adult human remains, and some linen clothes nearby. I'd guess the adults were refugees."

Black Wolf looked at Yveta. "Your Highness, you're not the same as you used to be. You guessed right. The reason these ogres haven't gone up to the surface to eat people is that someone's been raising them."

Yveta quickly thought of all sorts of possibilities: a noble's conspiracy, Baron Moro raising ogres.

With this many ogres in the Moro Baron Territory, the baron couldn't possibly have failed to notice them.

But that didn't make sense.

Could a human noble really control these unruly, violent, stupid ogres?

Besides, with the way the ogres ate, a mere baron would be broke in no time.

What was he raising them for?

Could it be that he'd run out of food and started feeding them his own daughter?

Yveta said to Black Wolf, "Check whether there are any little girls' bones. This is getting more and more complicated."

The Old Witch suddenly stood by the river. "Your Grace, you might be about to get rich. I found the ogres' treasure trove! It's in the river! I only spotted it because I threw that corpse in earlier!"