Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

'What troubles, you were clearly enjoying slaughtering the ogres' the orcs wanted to retort back but stopped themselves from saying anything after they remembered who they were dealing with.

"What do you want?" Berirock gathered his willpower and asked.

"Hmm let's see, since the tribe of orcs does not want to submit to me, then it is only natural for me to assume that you will pay this debt through something else. I have a few things in mind. First, I want rights for me and my people to freely roam the territory of the orcs".

"Additionally, I want the rights to excavate every mineral mountains that are in your territory…"

Simon listed several conditions like how the core stone and the other spoils of war that would be found on the battlefield would go to him. One condition even bars the orcs from going anywhere near his dungeon.

As the orcs did not mine, they had no qualms with Simon mining the mineral mountains that were abundant in their territory nor were they surprised that the demon didn't want them to linger around his dungeon. All of the aforementioned conditions were acceptable to Berirock and Berimond.

"Apart from that, I want everything that your tribe of orcs have stored in your treasury which also includes the possession of your previous king" Simon stated matter of factly.

The orcs that were planning to not submit to his rule, furrowed their brows at those words. Taking everything that was in their treasury, didn't it mean that the demon was trying to empty out their coffers that they have been collecting for hundreds of years?

What's more, the demon wasn't just satisfied with that and was even planning to loot the possessions of their king. The orcs couldn't help but doubt whether the one in front of them was a demon or a bandit.

"W-Wait a moment please… we cannot possibly accept you emptying our treasury and taking the inheritance of the previous kings away" Berirock spoke out unable to accept the conditions.

The mining rights and the rights to collect all of the spoils of the war were acceptable to them. However, they couldn't just allow the demon to simply plunder their coffers.

His retort was the final straw that broke Simon's patience. He pointed at the orc and called out "Bianca".

BOOM… immediately raising a cloud of dust in her wake, Bianca travelled so fast that she was already beside Berirock before the latter could even blink.

Simon did not have to give any other order to her, the Valkyrie knew exactly what he wanted.

<strong>BANG…</strong> a punch was delivered to Berirock's face shattering some of his teeth and making him roll on the ground all the way to where Simon was. The Orc general was unable to perceive a thing, his mind had blanked out from the force.

When the pain finally returned to him and he tried to get back up, a foot came bearing down on his head forcing him to kiss the ground once again.

"GUGH.. UGH…" the orc general struggled. His agonising grunts were heard by all the observing orcs who looked like they had a bucket of cold water poured over them suddenly.

During the heated debate, they had forgotten who they were dealing with and were trying to haggle against someone who had just wiped his hands with the blood of thousands of ogres.

What was currently being done to Berirock was not juts a punishment, but an example for everybody.

While still keeping one of his feet down on the orc general head, Simon addressed the crowd— "You seemed to have misunderstood me, I was not a request but an order, one that you all have no say in".

<strong> BANG…</strong> Simon kicked Berirock away from him and towards his faction.

"Master please give us the order to eliminate them. There is no value in keeping such ingrates that do not even know who their benefactor is alive. They would be much more valuable if they become experience points for your level".

Annette spoke out unable to take this charade from the orcs any longer.

"Elder sister is right, these stupid and stinky orcs deserve to die. They have already forgotten that they were on the brink of having their entire tribe eliminated at the hands of the ogres just a few moments ago. And now look at them, not only they are shirking from taking accountability, they are even trying to keep the things that should rightfully belong to our master to themselves. Please give me an order master… I will immediately open thousands of new holes in their bodies".

Alice took out her bow, ready to fire her shots. The elder sister wanted the ingrateful orcs to become his experience points while the little sister wanted to open thousands of holes in the bodies of orcs and eliminate them at once.

How could the orcs who had witnessed their powers firsthand, not be terrified after hearing all that? Some of them even started trembling as fear grabbed hold of their bodies once again.

"Calm down you two, put down your weapons" Simon declared, as he silently walked towards Berigard who was yet to give the order to raise his head.

"Tell me Berigard, in this Ghastly Winding Forest, what happens to the side that loses the war?" Stopping beside him, Simon asked.

Berigard answered while still keeping his head down—"The side that losses, becomes the slave of the winning party. All their possessions and territories become the prize for the winning party including their life. Basically, one loses all their rights as an individual or as a tribe if they lose in a war".

"I see" Simon nodded his head "Then why is the attitude of your tribe not like the losers? Did you perhaps think that this was your victory? Don't make me laugh, the one that won this war was me".

"The ones that are on the losing side are you orcs and the ogres. As the losses, it is only just fair for me, the victor to take all your possessions. You should already be thankful to me that I'm not enslaving you or taking away your territory".

Each of Simon's words were like arrows that pierced at the heart of the orcs and since all that he said was true, it hurt even more.

Victor reigns supreme, that was the unequivocal law of this forest. If one wasn't fine with that, they could only suck it up or leave the forest in which case they would have to wander the desert or be subjugated by the humans.

The demon was already doing them a great favour by allowing those who din't want to submit to still live their previous life. If they asked for even more, they would only be shown the boot.

Berirock who was painfully made aware of that, could only nod his head in approval. Berimond was tactful enough to not stick his head out, he too nodded his head without any question.

The orcs who were in their factions, mimicked their leader's actions and dodged being slaughtered indiscriminately.

"Alright, it looks like you guys get it now. Berigard, assign some men to clean up this mess. You will come with me to the treasury and the place where the orc king used to live" Right after throwing his words, Simon along with the Valkyries took off towards the centre of the orc territory.

The orc general finally raised his head up after he saw the demon disappear into the horizon. He moved his men as per the orders of his new lord and quickly scavenged through the battlefield.

"Berigard… are you really going to become the subordinate of the…" Berimond came over, he couldn't complete his sentence for fear that the demon was hiding around the corner and was eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Don't worry, he is not here. As for your question, I have already made my decision" Berigard replied without any hesitation in his voice.

"Is that so… that's a pity. I have never seen an orc general like you, perhaps now that the seat of orc king is empty, the orcs might have considered electing a new king. One that is truly worthy of the position this time" Berimond lamented, turned around and left.

Berigard did not stop him, nor did he call out to the latter. The position of an orc king, it was no doubt an enticing offer; however, Berigard was not among the ones that coveted such a materialistic thing for himself.

Besides, the reason why he wanted to dethrone the orc king was already accomplished. There was no reason for him to be fixated with that position anymore. If he had to state his disappointment, it would be that even though the truth had come out in front of everybody, he wasn't able to exact vengeance for his friends by killing Belgarious himself.

"I wish you good luck" the next one to reach out to him was Berirock who looked a little worse for the wear.

The general wished him luck and left the place along with his subordinates. The only ones that were left here on the battlefield was Berigard and those that wanted to follow him.

"Master was it alright to just leave them like that?" Annette asked after they were a certain distance away from the Blackfield.

"I have the same question master, wouldn't it have been better for us to kill them rather than let them live even after they had the audacity to accept master's help. That orc also said that the losers become the possession of the winners which means that all their lives was yours for the taking"

Alice added after Annette, while Bainca simply nodded her head in agreement.