As the Ocranine Orcs returned to their villages, they were immediately welcomed by an applause of thigh-slapping intensity. Even though they hadn't seen what was inside the crate as of yet, their noses told them everything they needed to know.
"BU! TO! TO! Was it successful?" their fellow Orcs asked expectantly.
But instead of seeing joy and excitement, the Orcs showed an awkward expression.
After bringing back a crate full of meat, everyone thought they had won over the merchant's favor and gained employment. They thought that they had successfully pulled one over the Orcupine tribe.
"Chieftain!" the Orcs cried out as they saw their leader come out of his tent.
"What is it?" the Chieftain asked after seeing the look on their faces. This was not the look of accomplishment, but strangely, it wasn't that of loss either.
"We met with the human merchant…"
The Orcs began to explain to their Chieftain about their meeting with Michael, and how their rival Orcupines somehow caught wind of the meeting and crashed it earlier than them.
"Let me get this straight…the human will give us meat and water for doing nothing? He is asking for peace?" the Chieftain asked.
"Yes," the Orc answered.
"They are probably from Orcus Town," the Chieftain guessed.
It was not hard to guess the reason why the humans were asking for them to stop their civil war. After all, their feud had been affecting the whole forest as of late, especially with the Orcupine Chieftain being a lot bolder during his recent rituals.
"He is asking for nothing else?" the Chieftain tried to clarify. "He is willing to give us precious meat without anything in return?"
The reason why the Chieftain found this hard to believe was because they had scoured every area in the forest and overturned any rock, but they still hadn't found any prey to hunt.
He guessed that the humans in Orcus Town wouldn't have been able to as well.
This meant that food was a very rare resource, especially red meat. Yet somehow, this Michael human had the capacity to share crates of meat with them for free. And it wasn't just them, Michael was also willing to offer the same resource to the Orcupine tribe.
"Reborn…" the Chieftain pondered as he looked at the Reborn company symbol painted on the crate. "I have never heard of them before. What does he look like?"
"A human boy with gold hair. He had dragons by his side…" the Orcs reported the four Dragonborns, with their description being a little bit exaggerated than reality. They seemed to have remembered the Dragonborns being a lot scarier than how they actually were.
Jaku became a dangerous warrior with his hands always sitting squarely on the hilt of his sword, ready to cut down anything in his path.
Sheina was remembered as a scary white dragon who looked like she could kill someone with a single glare.
The Orcs didn't remember much about Umisu, and only remembered feeling as if they were being watched intensely by a hidden presence.
Strangely, they remembered Zion as the energetic brat that he had always been.
The rest of the Orcs listening in on their conversation gasped as they pictured the Dragonborns. They had heard tales of Dragons from their ancestors, but never yet met them personally. This made them wary of the human who could tame the dragons to do his bidding.
"They were connected with the Goddess. Most of all was that human! He was able to use the voice!" they said, remembering Michael's soul-shaking words.
The Chieftain eyed the Orcs questioningly.
"The human boy was able to do that?!"
It seemed that the Chieftain had been underestimating the human. He thought that Michael was a simple merchant in need of a sword for hire.
But from how his Orcs described Michael and his attendants, it seemed that he came from a very powerful and influential company with no need for a warrior.
And there was only one reason why a company of Reborn's caliber would have any business in Orcus Town.
"Has the Golden Road been re-established?" the Chieftain muttered to himself.
If this Reborn company had the resources to transport meat to Orcus Town, then it was wholly indicative of their power. Not even the companies he remembered back in the glory days of the Golden Road could navigate through the destroyed forests around Orcus Town.
And the only reason why such a company of this magnitude would set its sights on Orcus Town was nothing less than the prospects of the Golden Road!
"Chief, he wants to meet with you. He is asking for both tribe's cooperation," the Orcs relayed Michael's words.
There was no reason to reject Michael's proposal. After all, this would solve the starvation problem in their village.
Yet, he knew that total peace between the two tribes was nigh impossible to pull off. He had a grudge with the Chieftain of the Orcupines, and that could not be solved through words alone.
Their grudge had escalated for far too long.
But for now, the Orcanine Chieftain would be willing to enter a truce with the rival tribe. The Orcupine Chieftain would probably agree to this too, as the rewards from Michael's proposal were simply far too alluring.
"Let us celebrate and have a feast!" the Chieftain shouted to his village. "Our benefactor has given us meat to indulge ourselves with, and indulge we will!"
"BU! TO! TO!"
"BU! TO! TO!"
"BU! TO! TO!"
In their celebrations, the Orcanine Orcs slapped their thighs and gave thanks to the goddess once again, directing their ritual towards their holy grounds.
The cacao trees swayed back and forth to the celebrations of the Orcanine tribe as they began to grill and smoke all the meat from the crate.
Meanwhile, a sneakily little shadow kept jumping from one Orc to the other, spreading its clones throughout the whole Orcanine population.
Every time Michael met a new group or species, Fudge always liked to spread his clones to their shadows and survey their every move. After all, it was what a good ninja would do.
And as he kept wandering from Orc to Orc, Fudge suddenly came across their holy grounds, the place filled with a thousand pristine cacao trees, each one bearing mature fruit.
"That's chocolate… hehehe Miss Yuna and Master will love this…"