Orcus' Food

After the man was apprehended back, both armies packed up their camp and resumed the march in a hurry, since the incident had taken precious daylight time off their schedule. The offenders were bounded by ropes tied to a wagon at the end of the column, donned in ragged tunics while being viciously eyed at by an entire orcus army.

When that day's exhausting march, both mentally and physically, finally came to an end, the prisoners were forced to complete their daily duties as usual, after which, instead of being able to enjoy a soldier's hard-earned dinner, the group was once again dragged to the commander's tent. Upon being interrogated, they confessed everything right away. The idea came to the conspirators when latrine-digging duty fell onto some of them the previous evening. They began scheming as well as calling for back up, expecting some backlash from the orci, and the size of their group quickly ballooned to thirty. The group chose a location at the south side of the camp, close to the riverbank to dig the latrine pit under the pretense that the soil at the plot they were originally assigned to was unexpectedly hard. The acting praefectus of the camp, coincidentally being Oga, thought nothing of it and readily accepted their request. Before dawn, instead of covering up the pit as usual, they shoveled out as much feces as they could and dumped it into the river. Due to the Covrunach's natural slow current, by the time the orci woke up and began to stockpile water they would be greeted with a swarm of shit bobbing up and down in front of them. It came as no surprise that the contubernium originally charged with the duty belonged to the only decanus present, and who being the chief architect of this fecal design was also clear. Yet when asked, all of them refused to admit the notion, persistently claiming that it was a joint idea of all thirty men. While being outwardly displeased, the princess was quite touched by their, albeit misplaced, solidarity, and decided that all but one would equally share the punishment.

That evening, after dinner, the sentence was publicly meted out for the offenders. All those who participated in this, to put it lightly, tasteless shenanigan received five lashes, while the backstabber himself received twenty. Additionally, all of them would receive additional duties pertaining to all sanitation matters, indefinitely. Rubi carried this out with fear of backlash in mind, yet the soldiers' reaction was far better than she had anticipated, with some even clamoring for more. While it is true that they have an aversion towards orci, even more so towards orci who lived at the border, many of whom within this very army could have encroached upon Empire's soil in the past. But above that, they detested those who refused to stay in line and endangered others even more. Messed up in a battlefield and you may get your contubernium killed, but messed up in the territory of such a capricious ally could get your whole army annihilated. These orci have so far shown disciplined, marched to defend their homeland, and upheld the treaty with honor. While it may be a stretch to say that they respected these orci, dumping feces into their water supply was certainly disrespectfully over the line. This was also in line with the princess' belief, as the initial punishment ordered by her was much more severe, being ten and thirty lashes respectively. However, further investigation revealed that all perpetrators were from the ranged infantry cohors. In light of this new evidence and at the beseeching of Werten and Harkon who personally witness the carnage that day, the punishment was thus lessened. Later that night, the princess questioned the offenders' decani, most of whom were truly oblivious to the plot and was chastised for their ineptitude, but there were also those who admitted to turning a blind eye and begged for mercy. Next, the various centoriones in charge of those contubernia and even Fingar, the praefectus of the ranged infantry cohors were not spared from the princess' wrath. Oga was the last to bear the brunt of scolding, who although being the highest-ranking officer responsible, received the most lenient of reprimands since his connection to the incident was but a small one. This, however, did not lessen his anxiety in the least bit, as evident by the soaked handkerchief constantly being dabbed on his forehead. In truth, this extensive dressing down was just a pretext for the princess to determine whether this was just a spontaneous incident or part of a much grander scheme to undermine her authority. Thankfully, at least by her judgment, nothing of the such were at play.

With her delft management, the incident soon died down with no further complications. With that out of the way, the two armies marched on, and three days afterward, a vast field of wheat spanning a few milia came into view, and at the end of which lay an extensive wooden wall made up of sharpened wooden logs bounded together. Kezzil was finally in sight.

***

The human army set up camp on the riverbank south of the settlement, just outside the farmsteads, under probing eyes and hushed whispers of a small crowd of orci. They only dispersed after seeing their own army marching down the main road, with a few of them even excitedly waved at some of the soldiers in the column. The soldiers themselves, however, kept on moving emotionlessly with their eyes up front, apparently unmoved by the loving home crowd. Strangely enough, the crowd did not seem to mind this unaffectionate response and continued to wave, point, and giggle at the passing army. After the camp had been set up, dinner time also rolled around. An orcus visibly older than the ones Rubi had seen so far arrived at the camp and delivered an invitation.

"Greetings, Princess Rubi of The Sangro Empire. I'm called Eban. The Chief would like to invite you and your retainers to dinner at his residence." The orcus politely bowed and spoke his piece in fluent Common.

"I never thought there would be another one besides him who can speak Common so well." The princess replied before sending her attendant to summon the commanders.

"I learn much from the chief, but I do have a lot of experience trading with humans beforehand."

"Oh my. Isn't that illegal?"

"Forgive me but I am not proficient in human's law. But the ones with whom I did business did not seem to mind at all."

'Gods, another cheeky one. Or all orci this good at mincing words? Did we just never find out because we don't speak their tongue? Surely not, right? This should be a rare case, right? Orci should be more like that one from before. Yep that's right.'

Rubi smiled, hiding the mental veins popping out of her forehead.

The others showed up soon after, and all seven of them departed for the town. Past the wheat fields, a series of houses that were mostly made of wood came into view. Lights flickering from the windows on both sides of the roads, through which one could see orcus men, women, and children merrily eating and laughing. Some houses had more than one child, while in some others there was even more than one orcus woman.

"It usually isn't this boisterous, but some of them had just returned from war after all." The orcus guide sniggered at their bewilderment.

"But they didn't look happy at all when they were welcomed at noon. I thought these just weren't their family."

"It can't be helped after all. The chief is very strict with military affairs in general. Before your duty ends, you're a soldier, and soldiers have no need to emote. They simply must obey laws and orders."

Rubi once again gained an outlook on the harsh, even borderline psychotic manner that Vietas trained his army.

Through the rural road and past the large opened gate, they had at last set foot inside Kezzil. Behind the wall was a series of wooden ramparts, forming a makeshift wall-walk surrounding the inner side of the city. Three guard towers stood atop each section of the wall, one directly above the gate and two others in each corner. Guards in groups of eight were moving along the wall from one tower to another, with the one in the front holding a torch in one hand and a spear in the other, while the other seven were armed with the traditional spears and shields. This town gave off the same first impression as Vietas' camp, that it was extremely neat. The main road was well paved and straight, wide enough for two wagons to move comfortably side by side. As the group continued forward, Rubi kept silently kept count in her head and confirmed her suspicion, exactly every five buildings there would be a small intersecting road.

'This lunatic built his town exactly like a giant barracks…' Rubi shuddered at the thought. Turning her head around, the princess realized that she was now slightly elevated from the gate.

'This town is built atop a hill huh. His mansion should be at the top then.' She never noticed this while going in since it was dark outside. 'Huh? Then how come I can see it now?'

It was already after dusk, and on a moonless night to boot, yet their group was traveling without a torch. The princess did not think much on the outskirts since lights were flickering from the windows along the road, so she took it for granted when she could easily count the number of houses in each block. It was not until now that she noticed the little oil lamps hung outside the buildings along the main road, on the first, third, and fifth building of each block to be precise.

'Even in the capital, only the wealthy can hang oil lamps outside at night like this. Are these orci that rich? What is rich in orcus standards anyway? Do they have a lot of money? Can they even mint coins?'

Questions plagued Rubi's mind all the way until they arrived at their destination. Vietas' mansion lay just beyond a similarly wide road perpendicular to the one they had been on, most likely being the secondary road that connected the east and west gate.

Two sconces, holding two brightly lit torch were mounted on both sides of the gate. Fully armored soldiers armed with spears and shields stood guard in the front, unlike their brethren with shabby armors whom Rubi had seen for the past few days, these orci wore full plate armors which could rival that of a legionarius in terms of intricacy. The lambent light reflected upon their metallic armor, casting shadows onto their already obscured visage, making the glare they were giving the group all the more petrifying. Yet as soon as the guards recognized the orcus called Eban, they quickly put their shield-holding hand on their chest and politely bowed.

"Slanu, Reigaro!"

"Slanu, bathor! Hiar arn gos u leitari. Sorga an ir hros wola."

"Har, Reigaro!"

"Please dismount and follow me. Your horses will be well taken care of." Eban turned back with a reassuring smile and led them through the entrance.

Walking past the gate, the bleak scene just outside vanished like a long-forgotten nightmare. What awaited them was a winding path of stone steps cutting through a vibrantly illuminated garden. Every dozen steps or so a small stone path would cut across wherein wooden benches were placed, gifting those who seated a wondrous scenery of iridescent flowerbeds, cascading down the gentle slope. To the sides stood two small wooden octagonal structures, with a long bench attached to their inner wall, which surrounded a small round table in the middle and covered by slanted roofs. It was hard to believe that Vietas, the same man who could even whip orci into shape could design such an elegant landscape. The mansion itself, however, appeared much less glamorous, being a simple two-storied rectangular building covered with smooth white plaster. It's one peculiar feature was a slightly raised platform just outside the entrance and surrounded by a low fence, saved for a pathway in the middle which led straight to the main door. Looking up, the princess noticed that the platform was exactly as big as the balcony above, which was utilized as a roof. A set of two chairs and a small table were placed to their left, on which lay a small board and some small circular blocks engraved with strange words, which Rubi could faintly guess were game pieces.

"Evening Thiorna. These are the chief's guests. Please show them to the dining room." Eban spoke up as he saw the young orcus maid standing outside the door.

"Ha... ah, yes, Reigaro."

"Then we part ways here princess. I wish you a pleasant meal." The old orcus turned around and bowed with a smile.

"Until we meet again, Sir Eban."

He then slowly stepped back down the winding stone path with a low chuckle. "Sir Eban… hahaha"

Through the door, they arrived at a small area slightly lowered compared to the rest of house floor, which on one side was a small shelf filled with a few pairs of sandals and a much bigger shelf divided into many smaller numbered compartments on the other.

"Leave shoes here. No dirty the floor." The maid took off her sandals and put them on the larger shelf on the right before pointing to the smaller shelf and asked them to do the same.

"We are to walk around barefoot?" The princess asked hesitantly.

The maid simply nodded, unfazed by the fluster of the group, who was now caught in the horns of a dilemma. The act in itself was not all that hard, it was just that… only slaves walked around in barefoot. They did not know if this was a genuine custom of theirs or that this was merely some scheme Vietas was hatching. The six people looked at each other reluctantly at first but quickly complied. Since they have no way of knowing, they would rather become the butt a joke than be accused of disrespecting foreign culture by him again. Stepping on the floor seemingly made of sanded planks, Rubi was surprised at how comfortable it was. Being freed from your stuffy sandals was one thing, but the rugged sensation she had expected from lumber was nowhere to be felt, instead, every step taken on this wooden floor is soft and cool to the touch. Unable to best her curiosity, Rubi knelt down and traced her hand along the plank.

"Your Grace?" Werten perplexedly looked down.

'I knew it! Varnished. No wonder they build everything with wood here.'

While where they were was technically the Near East by the Empire's standard, they had been traveling due north ever since reaching the Covrunach, since the river itself flowed in the north-south axis. Unnoticed by all, pine trees began to replace those accustomed to more temperate weather and gradually became dominant. Pine sap, if properly processed, could preserve and smoothly coat the surface of timber like no other.

Rubi got up and followed the maid under a few of her puzzled glances.

Right after the sandal-removal area was the guest room, as evident by a bench and two armchairs surrounding a long table. The furniture was arranged on the right side of the room, whose top side bordered a staircase doubly utilized as a shelf, where trinkets of various sizes lay in ascending order on the extension of the steps. The staircase itself was also noteworthy as it was 'folded' in half with a large platform at the crease, essentially halved its length but doubled the width.

'Quite innovative. Not as space-saving as a spiral staircase but definitely much more comfortable to walk on.'

The open section on the left was directly connected to the hallway beyond, where a seductive aroma was wafting from further down through a small arch. But instead of guiding them towards the source of that heavenly scent, the maid lightly knocked on a closed double door on the left wall just past the stairs. Their disappointment, however, was not to last.

"Chief, your guests arrive." Thiorna softly called out, to which she was replied with a voice Rubi could recognize as Vietas'. "Show them in."

The door slowly creaked open and, to their amazement. a feast was laid out on a large table in front of their eyes. Baskets of bread were placed along the two edges together with equally cut pieces of a cheese wheel. Dozens of amphorae were already stashed in the corner, no doubt filled to the brim with wine. But the most eye-catching feature of all, the star of the feast, was undoubtedly the meat. Whole roasted chickens, whose golden grease glinted enchantingly under the candlelight. Slices of veal and pieces of ribs, tender red on the inside yet mouth-wateringly brownish on the rim, together with the occasional charred spots which added an irresistible exotic charm of the wilderness, made for a grand display of the forest's rich bounties.

The whole group had their eyes glued to the table on the spot. The food in an Empire's banquet could easily rival this orckish feast, but one secret ingredient made this table trumped all those they had ever attended. That was none other than their own exhaustion. Today marked exactly the 42nd day since their departure from the imperial capital, just a few days shy of an entire month and a half. A reconquest legio in name but an exiled one in truth, their march was riddled with hardship. The journey from the capital to the Elen Peninsula was a particularly bitter one. The heartland of the Sangro Empire in itself was also a peninsula, with Elen essentially being its next-door neighbor to the east. Those who traveled to Elen from the capital usually took one day to travel to the port city of Hirzhoubit, from there it only took an additional 2 days to reach the city of Dusparn in Elen. Yet every official in the capital, either out of spite or fright, refused to organize a transport fleet for the princess. With no other option, she had to lead the troops all the way up north along the coast of the Tanau Sea, around the Gulf of Winida, and then down south again. The expedition ought not to have been so dreadful if only they could requisite some luxury goods for both the men and themselves. Alas, in every city through which they marched, the praefectus would flatly refuse to have any business with them upon learning who the commander was. The round trip took them 25 days as opposed to the usual 3, every day of which was strenuous for their mental faculty, for they know that the imperial loyalists were purposefully slowly the princess down to debate amongst themselves whether they should just kill her off or not. Only after they had crossed the border that such fear gradually subsided, only to have it replaced by that of orcus raids.

And now, at this moment, after 42 long days of denied requisitions and constant mental torture, they could feast once again.