Rise of the Horde

Upon entering the tent, what greeted Xiao Chen was an unfriendly gaze, her eyes filled with resentfulness, her scrunched-up face displaying her defiance despite being a captive.

"You monsters... I'll kill all of you"

She said in a hysterical tone as she tried to pounce on Xiao Chen, only to experience more pain as her restraints tightened against her body.

"Your kind should be hunted and exterminated, fiends like you shouldn't live"

The sand person was mentally broken and continued spouting curses at Xiao Chen and his kind, calling orcs, monsters, fiends, beasts and more.

Xiao Chen just listened to her words while munching on the skewered roasted prime beef in his hands, savoring it slowly as the sand person continued on her rants.

While enjoying his food, Xiao Chen heard a subtle gulping sound from the sand person. The fragrance of his roasted prime beef seemed to have reminded the sand person of her hunger. Glancing at her, Xiao Chen soon saw her gaze focused on the skewered meat on his hands.

"Grrrr...."

The sound of a grumbling stomach sounded and with her face tinged and a little red from embarrassment, the sand person looked down at the ground. She wanted to find a hole to hide herself because of her embarrassment; she was cursing the orc for quite some time who only remained silent, but her guise of defiance soon crumbled down after the grumbling of her stomach, fully displaying her pitiful and fragile state.

"Finally…peace and quiet"

Xiao Chen said as he stared at the dumbfounded look of the sand person, her eyebrows raised and became curved and high, almost non-existent wrinkles appeared on her forehead, her pupils dilated and her mouth opened wide wherein you could probably fit an egg inside it with no problem.

"You speak Ereian?!"

The sand person asked Xiao Chen in disbelief. She thought she must be hearing things and waited for Xiao Chen's reply to confirm if she really was hearing things or this menacing monster could speak their tongue.

"Well... It might be hard to believe, but... I do speak and understand your language"

Xiao Chen answered as he was amazed and in awe of the system's ability, he was unbelievably proficient in Ereian like it was his own native tongue after he receive the new language knowledge reward from the system.

"By Faerush name! How did a monster learn Ereian?"

The sand person exclaimed in surprise, to which Xiao Chen displayed an annoyed look

"Monster this, monster that... You humans sure are all the same... Upon seeing creatures, with a very different look than yours, you always call them monsters. By my standpoint, you humans are more of a monster than us. Lies, deceit, betrayal, backstabbing, immoral judgement and hate taint your characters. Humans are so invested in all that is temporary and materialistic, that they have forgotten the value of their blessings. You only cared about your own feelings and situations. You never tried to find out the truth, nor did you ever care about it. Orcs fought and killed not because we wanted to but because we are forced to. Orcs retreated to these almost desolate lands but humans continued to treat us as monsters, hunting and slaughtering us and always seeking to exterminate us."

Xiao Chen expressed his own thoughts, even bringing along his pent-up emotions from his experience in his past life, leaving the sand person speechless and, more so, confused. She never expected to fight with words against an orc, a creature that is deemed a monster for many generations.

"And by the way, orcs have names much like you humans...mine is Xiao Chen and yours?"

He introduced himself and freed the sand person from her restraints but was on high alert to react at moment's notice, as long as the sand person showed any hostile actions, he'll have to restrain her or maybe yet even kill her if she is proven to be dangerous to remain alive.

"Thanks...my name is Adhalia Darkhariss...a merchant"

Adhalia introduced herself as she massaged her wrists, which have swollen due to how tight her restraints were.

"A merchant?... or a noble?"

Xiao Chen can't help but try to confirm his hunch. If, according to what he knows, only human nobilities should have surnames.

"The Darkhariss family is no longer an acknowledge noble, but a fallen one"

Adhalia answered Xiao Chen's question with a face filled with sorrow and longing. Her family, the Darkhariss, was once a prestigious noble family among the Ereians but the royal family envied their family's prestige and accused them of treason. The Darkhariss bloodline almost exterminated to the last descendant, only leaving her as the only sole survivor and inheritor of the Darkhariss blood.

*****

She disguised herself as a merchant and denied her own surname, which pained her when accused of being a Darkhariss. She vowed to seek justice and vengeance for her family's tragic fate, restore her family's honor and prestige and bring to light the injustice that besiege the Darkhariss.

For many months, she disguised herself as a merchant, travelling northward towards the Orcish lands to avoid being captured by the Ereian Royal Guards who were hunting each and every descendant of the Darkhariss bloodline.

She did become a merchant in her travels and a successful one at that, but unluckily, her merchant caravan was discovered and got raided by the Galuk tribe after a few days of leaving the Burning Sands.

Deemed as a worthy trophy by the Galuk chief, she could keep her life unlike her unfortunate companions. She didn't know what fate had in store for her; she was in despair for many days and experienced many mental breakdowns, but upon remembering her vow, she held onto her sanity.

Unbeknownst to her, the ones who took her as captive were vanquished and was rescued, but since her savior was also an orc, she thought they belong to the same group.

*****

"A fallen noble..huh"

Xiao Chen softly muttered and then handed the food in his hands to Adhalia which she quickly devoured, not caring about her shameful behavior at all, nor the fact that it was bitten by Xiao Chen before. She squatted down, took large bites on the meat, munching loudly, very unladylike but since she was famished for many days, who cared about proper decorum anymore and the only one around her was an orc and not a nobility nor a human who shouldn't know about proper etiquettes of eating amongst humans and nobilities.

"Slow down... or you'll choke... there is plenty of food to eat"

Xiao Chen can't help but caution her, as she was eating much worse than his soldiers when they still didn't undergo his hell training. Surely enough, she choked upon hastily swallowing a rather still big piece of meat.

"Told you..."

He scolded her and handed over a jar of ale, which she hastily gulped down again

"Hakh...hakh...hakh"

Adhalia soon coughed as the bitter taste of the ale assaulted her tasted buds and the burning sensation of alcohol on her throat irritated it.

"Huff... Huff... Thanks"

She said, then continued chomping down on the meat again, to which Xiao Chen can't help but shake his head helplessly. Raising the flaps of the tent and calling for the nearest orc around, he then requested more food to be delivered to the tent to satisfy his voracious guest, whose loud munches could be heard even outside the tent.

A few moments later, different kinds of food were displayed in front of Adhalia, laid on top of an animal skin that the servers of the food placed.

"This one taste good...this one too. Also, this one"

Adhalia commented each time she had sampled the taste of the fresh food presented to her. Seated across from her was the speechless Xiao Chen, who only could stare at her unladylike actions. It kind of reminded him of someone from his past.

After eating so much, Adhalia couldn't stop herself and burped loudly, ignoring the odd stare given to her by Xiao Chen and further commented

"That's a satisfying meal"

as she patted her now bulging belly and grinning in satisfaction.

"Women and food"

Xiao Chen softly muttered to himself.