The Villain has Perished

'Finally, I'm out of there.'

I sighed and closed the door behind me. At this moment, I was hiding inside the hidden room in the orc chieftain's residence.

A few minutes ago, Jae-sung entered and fought with Zor, the orc chieftain. I had been planning to use that as an opportunity to escape.

However, Zor turned out to be weaker than I gave him credit for. He was defeated in a single hit. A single hit!

'If it wasn't for the orcs who rushed into the house after Zor was defeated, I wouldn't have been able to escape.'

The orcs' attacks distracted Jae-sung, and I sneaked into this hidden room during the ensuing chaos of Jae-sung fighting hundreds of orcs.

'I know he is using <Limit Break> but just how absurd are his stats to fight hundreds of Master rank orcs? Well, I'll wait for his skill to run out of juice and hide until then.'

The power given by <Limit Break> skill was a double-edged sword. It increases the base stats of the user by many folds and strengthens other skills.

In exchange, after the <Limit Break> ends the user cannot use any ranked skill and their stats are restricted by over 90% for 24 hours.

'The time limit for the <Limit Break> should be almost up, Jae-sung would escape before that. The Great Ape tribe will also attack shortly. I will get out of the orc tribe at that moment.'

<Limit Break> was a skill that can be learned by anyone if the correct conditions were met. It was a powerful skill that only a handful of people were lucky enough to learn. In the novel, it will take a few years until Jae-sung creates a training method to learn <Limit Break> and arms everyone following him with the skill.

'With this, I won't need to worry about Jae-sung for at least 24 hours.'

Dusting my hands, I went deeper into the hidden room. Well, I say deeper but the hidden area under the Orc chieftain's residence was only one room.

Inside the room, there was a massive table in the middle. The edges of the table were almost 4 meters above the ground. Except for the chair, the room was empty, save for the chest lying at the far back of the room.

'Oh! Treasure!?'

A chest was hidden inside the secret room under the orc chieftain's residence. If not treasure what else would be inside it!

I skipped towards the chest with light steps.

The treasure chest was made of wood. Strangely enough, its size wasn't proportional to the size of orcs but that of humans.

My steps slowed down gradually and I stopped in front of the chest.

'The craftsmanship of this chest isn't something that the orcs could create. This item doesn't belong to them. The orcs most likely plundered it from humans.'

Just to be safe, I summoned a treant and asked it to open the chest. "Use your vines to open the chest."

The treant shook its leaves as a nod. Its two branches extended and grew soft, turning into vines. The vines were green in color and exuded the smell of soil.

A faint creaking noise echoed. The lid appeared to be made of a kind of heavy wood but the treant opened it effortlessly.

I waited for a few seconds behind the treant before checking the contents of the chest. It was a precaution in case the chest was a trap. As for the contents…

"...What are you doing here?"

"Umph! Umph! Umph!"

Inside the chest laid a frail and weak Orc. His legs and arms were bound by vines, and a cloth was tied around his mouth. But even then it wasn't difficult to identify the imprisoned orc.

It was Orca.

When he saw my face, he started moving violently while trying to move away from me.

"I'll untie you. Stop moving."

He didn't stop moving.

"Should I kill you if you won't listen to me?"

Orca stopped his actions and patiently waited for me to untie him. The vines turned out sturdier than I expected. I had to use my sword to cut the bindings.

"T-thank You! Thank You"

Immediately after, Orca jumped at my feet. He prostrated himself.

"My brethren caught me a-after you left. They had become suspicious of me because they saw me repeatedly snooping around in the village, asking for news. Then they…"

"Forced you to expose me?" I nodded absentmindedly. "As expected, this was how the orc chieftain was informed about me beforehand."

"I-I'm sorry… please, they t-tortured me. I had no other way! Please don't kill me!" Orca kept his face buried into the ground.

Orca had been evicted from his tribe a few months ago. But these monster tribes aren't socially developed like human settlements. The concept of eviction was different for the monsters.

They don't force the evicted monster to live away from the tribe, and treat them like an outcast living with them. Orca had left the Orc village because he couldn't bear the scorn and maltreatment he received.

It would be definitely suspicious if Orca, who had left the tribe, returned suddenly and tried to procure information. Though, he wouldn't have been caught if he was discrete about it.

"Stop talking. I'm not killing you."

Thereafter, we waited in silence.

It took a few minutes but the commotion above the ground stopped. Jae-sung had retreated. Now, I needed to wait for the Great Ape tribe to begin their attack before escaping.

I spoke to Orca in order to kill time. "Where will you go after this?"

"P-pardon? I don't understand the question?"

Looking at Orca's expression it didn't look like he was lying. I sighed lightly and continued. "The Orc tribe has lost over 300 heavenly warriors and their leader. When the Great Ape tribe attacks the orc tribe will most certainly be annihilated.

The loss of one of the great five tribes will disrupt the balance of the forest. It will cause the other large tribes to interfere. They will either try to stop or try to take advantage of the Ape tribe's attack on the Orc tribe. The chaos that began with two great tribes will spread to the remaining tribes.

If the great tribes fight, their vassal tribes will be also forced to enter the war. After that, it is only a matter of time before the chaos eats up the entire forest.

Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I… do…" Orca's voice was full of hopelessness and despair. "The forest… our home is about to be destroyed… with our very own hands."

Tears slid down his cheeks when he spoke those words. The Forest of Silence was about to end due to a civil war.

A blazing inferno would erupt from the sparks I lit and engulf the entire forest. Orca was correct but not entirely. The forest won't end from a civil war. He didn't know that the forest would be attacked by humans before that.

The holy knights who came to search for clues regarding Matthew's death and then entered the forest with Jae-sung will also realize that a civil war is about to begin in the forest among the monster tribes.

Those knights would report the situation to their superiors. The news would eventually leak to other officials. What would happen then?

The Swordsmith Empire would aim to grab the pie, the Forest of Silence, which they hadn't been able to conquer for ages.

The Forest of Silence contains countless resources but humans couldn't steal them due to the guardians of the forest, the monster tribe.

With the monster tribes self-destructing into a civil war, the empire would attack after the monster tribes had exhausted their strength.

Just like I had planned, today the forest of silence was destroyed~

Or, was it?

…..

….

…

..

.

'I'll check the location of holy knights after leaving the orc village.'

I hadn't attacked the orc tribe until today because I had been waiting for Jae-sung and the knights to reach the proximity of the large tribes. And how was I able to track their movements?

Remember the baby tarantula summoner cards I left with Lumine, the elven slave I bought? I had instructed Lumine to sneak them into the belongings of Varnish before he entered the forest.

Of course, I knew that Jae-sung would also enter the forest. Because I was aware about his quest to defeat me.

I mean, that idiot spoke about the quest out aloud when he received it. Others wouldn't have understood him, but I sure as hell did.

In the novel, Jae-sung received a similar quest, to defeat Jared Lionel in a spar. It happened after Jared defeated a contestant participating in the Rite of Passage. However, Jae-sung skipped the quest after he regained his memories of the 1st timeline.

The quest was another reason that I fought and defeated Matthew. It was to see if Jae-sung would receive the same quest with me.

Yes, you guessed it correctly! Everything that was happening at this moment had been meticulously planned by me~

Ah~ I'm too smart~

A few minutes later.

'Looks like the Great Ape tribe began its attack.' I thought while listening to noises of uneasy footsteps from above.

It was time to leave the underground room of the orc chieftain.