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"Hey, kid, wait. Let me come with you," says a deep voice behind me.
I turn around and see an elderly orc, apparently 60 years old, clad in orange leather and cloth, pulling the reins of a gigantic black dire wolf the size of a horse, which, judging by the saddle on its back, is the orc's mount.
The orc is slender and green-eyed, with pronounced features and long, shoulder-length hair.
He doesn't seem to have any weapons with him, but at the side of the wolf's saddle, I see that there is a rifle and a lute on either side.
"No thanks," I say, suspicious of the situation, as I bring my right hand to the hilt of my sword, which I have decided to equip on my belt as a deterrent against a repetition of what happened in the tavern.
Now I wonder if I'm going to need to fight all the townsfolk in the end, whether I want to or not.
'Just give me a reason'
"Oh, come on, don't be like that. I'll tell you what. If you let me come with you, I'll tell you a method so that what happened to you in the tavern won't happen to you again," he says, ignoring my movement and looking at me with a smile.
"How do you... How do I know I can trust you?" I ask, changing what I want to know mid-sentence as I realize that it doesn't matter how he found out what happened. The important thing is that he knows, and I don't know what he really wants from me.
'Shit. I have to get out of town as soon as possible, and this old orc is stopping me'.
"I haven't reported you to the guards yet, have I?" He says, raising an eyebrow and giving a nonchalant laugh.
Annoyed by the possibility of other people overhearing our conversation, I say, "Ok, but only for a short distance. And that method of yours had better do some good; otherwise, your trip with me may end in a somewhat violent manner."
'Once we get out of town, I can easily get rid of him if I see he has hostile intentions, but right now I need to get out of here as soon as possible, and the easiest way to do that without making another fuss is to play along.'
"Ohh, no. I hope it doesn't come to that," says the orc without the slightest hint of fear on his face. "I'm Kaelion; by the way, what's your name?"
...
"And that's why I'm never going to forget...."
"Alright, old orc, I'm running out of patience. We've been going on for an hour or so now, and you still haven't said a word about the method you said you had," I say, irritated by the old orc's non-stop spiel.
He has it easy, though, since he doesn't have to walk because his mount carries him.
So, despite the fact that we're going at a good pace that would surely have left him out of breath in no time if he wanted to talk and walk at the same time, the old orc hasn't stopped talking at all since we left, telling me stories of his own about all sorts of nonsense when he was supposed to be explaining to me how to talk to the townsfolk without being discriminated against.
"It's actually quite simple," he says with a smug look on his face that makes me want to punch him. "You have two options. You could come in just like you are and say you're a slave doing some errands for your masters..... But that will eventually get you into trouble if you're on your own, as you've seen, since it limits your freedom a lot. Which you could solve if you would take the amazing me with you wherever you want to go. I'm a very good partner, and I'm a much better actor. Let me tell you about the time that..."
"No! What about the second one?" I say, abruptly interrupting his words so that he doesn't start again with another of his stories.
"The second one is more boring." He says this with a tone of discouragement, as if I had taken away the dream of his life by denying him the right to act as my master "I could get you a mask, a hooded cloak, and some gloves. With that, you could walk anywhere you want without revealing the race you belong to. I don't know how isolated your masters must have kept you, but wingless slaves are quite rare. And so, since you don't have wings, a tail, or ears to identify you as a member of the enslaved races, people will think you're an orc if they can't see your skin. Even more so if you make any show of strength, as our society considers the other races naturally weaker."
'Shit! The idea is good, but that means I'm going to have to put up with him until we get to the next inhabited place.'
"So, you're not saying anything?" says the old orc, looking down at me with a grin from atop his wolf, which he told me is called Fenrir, a mount he got in an adventure that seems very unrealistic to me.
"It's possible that the second idea might work, although I'd have to test it to find out, so… for the moment, you might be of some use to me." I say reluctantly, almost spitting out every word, but seeing the old orc's smug face, I try to change the subject "how far is it to the next village? Shouldn't there be more villages and towns, or some crops at least? It seems strange to me to see so much desolate landscape without a trace of civilization."
'The sooner we get to the next village, the sooner I can get rid of this unwanted companion.'
"Hmm... You have some strange ideas, Xelean. Though I suppose that's normal if you've lived in isolation, which is most likely being an enslaved Avian," Kaelion says, glancing sideways at me, waiting for me to deny or affirm what he just said.
'I'm getting tired of him trying to get information out of me'
Seeing that I'm silent, he sighs and continues speaking "Haa.... The reason there are no sown fields is because it doesn't make sense when you can get almost all the resources society needs from the labyrinths. And the reason there are no more settlements is directly related to the first explanation. All people in the empire seek to live as close as possible to the labyrinths, as they are an inexhaustible source of resources. And that's why we still have a long way to go before we reach the next settlement."
'Hmm, makes sense. In a society where brute strength is prioritized, it makes sense that very few people would want to stay away from labyrinths, as they are an easy way to train and level up.... And if many people explore the labyrinth challenge and safe rooms on a daily basis and get resources from there.... That would just leave the livestock issue. But they could also eat monster meat... After all, many monsters leave large portions of meat as loot when defeated. But that kind of bounty on our continent is not very valuable, as it is a tough meat with very little flavor that is used as food for some animals. Or maybe they have some other sou...'
"Hey! You could at least thank me, as I have decided to use some of my valuable time to answer the unusual questions you come up with," says the old orc, who for the first time shows a grumpy look, interrupting my thoughts.
"Thank you for using your time for answering me, even if you don't seem to have anything better to do," I say, as I laugh at the stupid comment about his 'valuable time'.
"You think I'm not doing anything? For your information, I work with my mind" he says, looking at me with an air of superiority "so you should be thankful that I'm wasting my time making this trip a little more entertaining for you when I could be doing other more productive things".
"Aha... Whatever." I say, tired of this old orc saying only one sensible thing out of ten stupid things. "Go ahead then; I won't bother you with any more questions... In fact, I'd appreciate it if you'd shut up for a while."
"You're very rude, you know?" he says, scowling at me.
But, thankfully, he remains silent.