Today I received word from Father Elf via the transmission device I had left with him. He said "Please come to « The Elves' Village », since I was training with Redhead and Female Knight at the time, I decided to take them with me as escorts. Although it may be unnecessary to take escorts with me, I took them mainly to sightsee. The others were engaged between training, hunting and studying. I straddled Kumajirou together with Redhead, while Female Knight rode atop Kurosaburou, then we headed to « The Elves' Village ».
It's probably because they already know that we have humans in the base, but no major problems arose when we got to the village. There were some elves who were directing looks as if looking at livestock at the two humans, so I taught them a lesson by glaring back at them while using [Intimidating Glare], then they quickly averted their eyes.
After some time, we reached Father Elf's mansion, then we were led to the guest room that I came to before with Ogakichi-kun. While waiting for Father Elf to come, I drank the served tea. Redhead and Female Knight were looking around the room curiously, well, it was their first time in an elven village, so they can't be blamed. As for me, I passed time by analyzing the information I got from my clones earlier.
After around five minutes, Father Elf came with a bottle of elven wine and cups, the Elven Maiden who I saved before was standing behind him.
First, Father Elf apologized for being late, then said "Please drink some wine first", then Elven Maiden poured the wine in the cup from the translucent bottle, and the rich smell spread. Naturally I drank it. We continued drinking for sometime. And although I didn't get drunk even a little no matter how much I drank, I felt ecstasy just from the taste.
While drinking, we exchanged some information and discussed the current status of the war in a good mood for a while.
Then, we moved onto the main subject at hand. In summary, he wants us to launch an assault together with the elven army's elites at the human army's main force. The reason for this is that the human army's main force is closing in on village and would soon have the village surrounded, in short, he wants to take down the human army's supreme commander before that happens to stop their advance. Well, given that a prolonged war is not desired by either side, I can see the reasoning of this move.
According to the information I got from the humans I captured, it seems like the relationship of our enemies with other countries is tensing lately, so there's the fear that other countries may take advantage of their war against the elves to mount an attack.
On the other hand, the elves who are superior to human but have overwhelmingly small numbers compared to the humans, had already lost quite the number since the war started. In short, they don't want to increase the casualties further, and it's also necessary to have a safe environment to throughly focus on treating the injured.
In the first place, there aren't many advantages that the elves can get from this war, so they want to finish it as quickly as possible.
Well, we are mercenaries, so I can't simply disregard my employer's request.
We've been allowed to move freely until now, and we'll be getting bonuses for this request. I've already profited from this war more than enough, if I get too greedy it'll only bring my ruin.
After an extensive discussion regarding the assault's strategy, we headed back to the base.
On the way back, Female Knight asked me if it's possible to hand over the secret medicine to the kingdom, "I've already willingly pledged my loyalty to you, but I want to complete my last duty as a noble from the kingdom and help cure the princess's disease".
Hmm, it's worth considering. It might be a good idea to try selling a favor to the top of the two countries. Having the backing of a country makes a big difference after all, for example the scope of information you can get will enlarge to a level that's impossible to get normally.
However, there's the fact that me, a black ogre with the [ [Great God of Demise and Origin] Divine Protection] is the one who negotiated handing over the secret medicine. Even if I use a substitute, there's a good chance that they'll be able to find out that I was the one behind it.
I can easily imagine that many troublesome things will happen if word about that gets out. Mainly, because of religion, religion and religion. The [Divine Protection] of one of the heads of the five divine pillars holds that much meaning in this world.
Moreover, the kingdom's first queen seems to be a zealous believer in the « The Five Great Gods' Teachings » which is currently the world's largest standing religion, from this fact, I can smell only trouble...
To be honest, all of this is troublesome. That's why I dismissed the idea of me handing it over personally, I dismissed the idea of having a substitute hand it over too, as there's the risk of them finding out that I was the one behind it- At the moment I thought of this, an idea came upon me. I thought about it for a while, then decided to perform it as it has the highest merits with minimal losses.
With that decided, I began the preparations for tomorrow's decisive battle.