What was she thinking?

Flying gets my blood pumping, but I wanted to think calmly, so I used one of the teleportation pads to get close to where momma was and just walked the rest of the way.

I was irritated though, even if I tried not to be.

I’d put decent effort into keeping a friendly stance between my people and Humans. There were three reasons for that, and sympathy because of my past life was not one of them. Reason number one: if my previous family were to reincarnate into this world, they would most likely be Human. I, who was born an Orc, am probably an anomaly among former Humans. Reason number two: maybe because of my ego that was carried over from my past life, I still feel attracted to Human men as potential mates. I want the opportunity to date one without having to kidnap him and hold him hostage. Otherwise, I'm going to die a virgin twice.

Third, I want to expand my own influence in order to make this world a more comfortable place to live. An isolated kingdom simply isn't good enough, so I want to make friends with other races in order to branch out. Since I already understand how Humans think, I wanted to start with them. Not to mention, they live the closest to the west forest where most Orcs live.

Allying with Beast People seems like it will be difficult, considering they decided to “subjugate” a number of Orc women last winter. I'm currently sheltering a Dwarf fugitive, so it’s hard to tell whether allying with Dwarves would be easier or harder. But if I exclude those three, there are only Elves and Dragons--which live on the other side of the world--and Demons. Since there will be a large number of Demons who have the Demonic attribute, it might simply be impossible for me to get along with them.

To put it simply, the Humans are potential political allies that I really don't want to lose. And momma…

“Oh, hi baby,” momma called when she saw me approaching. She was just standing still, practicing how to move flames across the surface of her skin. Since she’s a Mayhem Orc now, she’s able to do this. She also has more trouble controlling her emotions, particularly when they're related to destroying something. Analysis makes everything of that nature clear as day, but I can't read minds, nor can I view the past.

There's no choice but to ask it clearly.

“Why did you kill ten Humans?”

Momma blinked and gave one of her usual smiles. “Is baby upset? I'm sorry. You used to be a Human, right? I hope you can forgive momma for losing her temper a little bit.”

Did I tell momma about my past life? I didn't. Maybe she found out already through Oracle. I can't tell if she’s trying to be sympathetic or if she’s testing me. It doesn't matter.

I didn't answer right away. I just crossed my arms and stared passively at her until she started to look uncomfortable.

“Um, baby? Momma really doesn't want you to hate her. I'm sorry, you know?”

“Sorry? Did I ask for an apology?” I cut momma off, and she frowned. “By apologizing, are you admitting that you did something wrong? All I asked for was an explanation. Why did you do it? What were the circumstances? I won't pass judgement before that.”

Momma tilted her head down a notch and prepared a more genuine answer. She also stopped using a tone that tried to curry favor with me.

“I became able to detect heat just after evolving, and I noticed several Humans near the city. They were close enough to be seen, but they had hidden and disguised themselves. They were a group of all people like that; no heavy fighters, so I figured they were spies. I thought they might have been comrades of that Human we interrogated.”

Yeah, that person is still living among the slaves.

“I chased after them, and I intended to capture them too, but I saw them screaming and running away, and I couldn't help but want to play with them a little. I tried to round them up with fire magic, and before I knew it, I couldn't stop myself. So I am sorry, but it’s for making you upset and for killing valuable sources of information, not for killing Humans.”

“Honesty is better, isn't it?” I'm not sure if I said it to myself or to momma, but I can feel that some of the tension has left my body. “Alright, it couldn't be helped. They were probably sending information to people who want to kill us anyway. It’s a shame that we can't interrogate them though.”

I furrowed my brow and started to rethink my words, but momma just put on a big grin without noticing. While she seemed to be celebrating something, I interrupted.

“Say, are their bodies still around? I know we were having food trouble for a while, but…”

Momma nodded. “That was after the fields became so overgrown, so I asked to keep them stored until after you woke up.”

I walked with momma back to the storage building and moved the bins until two, each holding five burnt corpses, appeared. Momma helped me untangle them and lay them out on the ground, then I cast until the corpses looked brand new.

“It’s impossible to revive them after this long, isn't it?” momma asked. “Are we sending the corpses to the Humans as an apology or a warning?”

“The Souls have long since moved on and their egos have dissolved, but there is still a physical brain full of neurons that link to their memories.”

, Law

Name: Vyra

Law Power: 2%

Law: *********life*****pursuit of******meaning

“When my Law Power has recovered, I’ll use it on them.”

“To do what? Will you force corpses to talk? Or will you bring them back to life?”

“Corpses talking is disturbing, and I already said bringing the previous people back to life is impossible. But I can bestow a new life onto these bodies. They will possess the memories of the previous inhabitants, and we can make them talk.”

I stood up and refolded my wings. “But that’s for later. More importantly, the war with the Fomors was put on hold wasn't it? They might have noticed us by now.”

“So should we prepare for another attack?”

“No. We’ve basically lost our momentum, and our element of surprise is likely gone as well. This time, I'd like to investigate the next village before deciding how many troops to send.”

“Is that so? Then why not send that Human? He seems to have skills for hiding himself, and we’ve already learned plenty from him. Besides, after those others showed up, I have to wonder if they're somehow tracking him.”

“That’s a good idea,” I nodded. “But it will be annoying if we send him alone and he dies before being able to tell us anything useful.”

“Should we give him something to protect himself with? A Magic Tool perhaps?”

“There isn't much that could help him if he met a Small Baphomet. I’d rather give him something that would ensure we get the information.” I placed my hand on my chin and ran over the various magic tools I've encountered so far, then parted with momma to go see Fiara.

Fiara adjusted her glasses. “So you want me to make a Magic Tool that will use and to automatically record what the scout sees, then have it to the city if the wearer dies?”

“Yeah. You're not busy with other things right now, right? Do you think you could make one within a day or two?”

“I can make one within half an hour,” she replied confidently. But I’d need your permission to use a few eggs.”

I had to hesitate, but I guess it’s fine. “Go ahead and make it. I'll look it over when it’s done, and if it’s still too dangerous, we’ll just hide it away for later.”

While Fiara was doing that, I took some time to move my body around. It feels a little sluggish after lying still for a week and a half, but it didn't take too long to warm back up. After I’d worked up a good sweat through some aggressive flying, I saw Fiara waving for me in front of the research building. She’d been doing her research in there for a while, and the more sensitive stuff is kept hidden in the basement.

By the way, the research building was structured like a tower with eight floors and two basement levels. The lowest level was hidden behind a secret door, and that’s where the eggs were being kept.

I followed Fiara down into the basement, where smooth white walls and cold silver counters were neatly arranged. Fiara used a light tool to brighten the place up a little. She showed me, resting on a pelt on top of a counter, a spherical, milky crystal a little smaller than my fist.

“I'm sure it’s the thing I asked for, but what is it?” I asked her.

“It’s basically an egg made of three magic cores. To be more specific, two of the crystals are fused to make an egg that will automatically cast and . Around the outside is a third magic core with a spatial magic circuit for teleportation to this spot, and also half of a spell pattern for, basically, a do-not-teleport spell. Right now, none of these three have any Magic Power in them.”

She showed a thick leather glove made for a left hand. The Human happens to be right handed. The glove had a small magic core attached to its palm.

“This one has a lot of power in it. Basically, when someone holds this egg while wearing this glove, Magic Power will fill the egg. It will record things until it is let go. Also, it has the other half of the don't teleport circuit, so that spell will be active as soon as they're in contact. But once you let go, it will teleport to here.”

Considering I don't need to know how to make one, I think I understand it well enough.

“Good. I want him to leave right away. We’ll have to make sure he takes something to tie around his hand while he sleeps, so he doesn't accidentally let go and have to come all the way back. By the way,” I turned my head to a certain scrawny person standing in the corner, “why was he here?”

It was Balig. Was there a reason he always seemed to be around for the most ludicrous of Fiara’s undertakings?

“That’s because I don't know , chief. There’s no way I could make this on my own.”

“Oh, I guess that’s true. You should have said something. I would have helped.”

“Well, you have a lot of other things to do, chief. I'd rather have someone trained to make them who is available all the time.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. So if there’s nothing else, I'm eager to see what our neighbors have been doing while we gave them some breathing room.”