"Now I'm not even sure if I really want to visit that village..."
"Why not? I thought that you wanted to learn about the way demons live"
"Didn't you see how they reacted to me? If I go there I'll probably scare them all again..."
I mean, they just ran away in a panic the second they saw me, that is even worse than the way humans usually react to me, is every single demon going to be that way?
"Huh... I wish that I was not this intimidating, all I get from it is trouble..."
"Well, there's also a positive side to having people fear you, you know" Arana is saying something weird.
"Positive side? What positive side?" I don't get what she means.
"Well, fear is a good way to make people do as you want, for example, people follow the law because they are afraid of punishment, and these bandits get people to give them their valuables by intimidating them, and you don't even need to do anything to make people afraid of you! I would even go as far as to say that the fear you inspire can be even more powerful than your magic, you just never take advantage of it"
"Why would I want to take advantage of that? I have no interest in making people obey me or anything similar"
"Are you sure? Then what about these bandits right here?"
Arana turns to point at the tied up bandits following us.
"Uh? What about them?"
"Well, they surrendered without fighting because they were afraid of you, didn't they?"
Well, that's true, but I don't think they would have been difficult to defeat regardless.
"Not all enemies will be straightforward, some might try tactics such as taking hostages or attacking when you sleep, but they might think twice before doing any of that if they fear you, and you never know what might happen in a fight, having your enemies give up from the start is a guarantee that nobody will be harmed, you don't want to hurt anyone, do you?"
"She's right, last time we fought some adventurers both sides ended up injured even though they were much stronger"
"I agree, this was the least painful way I've ever been captured"
For some reason, the bandits are sharing their opinions as well.
"But I never wanted to get into fights in the first place..."
"It's not only fights, you can solve all kinds of problems just by intimidating the people causing them, and you can also..."
"That's enough! Stop trying to tempt me!"
All the bandits stop walking and look at me worriedly when they hear me yell, even Arana flinches slightly. See? There's no way that this could be a good thing.
Seriously, what is she trying to convince me to do? And they say that I'm the villain... the evil one here is obviously Arana.
And it seems like while I was distracted we reached the ork village.
"Welcome to our village!"
"Please come this way, we have prepared a meal for you"
"Eeeeeh!?"
I can't help but be shocked when I see all the orks waiting to receive us into the village with smiling faces, this is basically the exact opposite of what I was expecting.
Some of the orks take the bandits to the village's jail, the rest takes us to a large building on the center of the village, the buildings here seem to be made of the greyish-blue that can be found everywhere around this area, the designs are rather functional, just rectangular houses with nothing fancy about them.
"We would have taken you to the temple, but it was destroyed by a group of orcs that snuck into the village during the night"
He points to a pile of rocks next to the building we're entering, do orks often take visitors to the temple? That seems weird. Like I thought, they have a very different culture from us, don't they.
Once inside, they guide us to a table with a delicious smelling meal placed on it, it seems like they just prepared this recently, which means that they were expecting us.
The food consists of roasted boar meat (something feels wrong about that) and many sweet tasting vegetables I have never seen before, it's actually very good.
"This is great!"
"Ah, I'm glad that you enjoy our offerings"
Did I feel some relief in his voice? I must be imagining things.
"So, you knew that we were coming?"
"Ah, yes, my daughter told us that you rescued her from some orcs that were harassing her"
So because I helped her and she saw that I had captured those bandits, the people of her village decided to reward us? I knew that doing good deeds would pay off in the end, I'm feeling quite happy right now, but why does she look like she's still afraid of me?
"She's your daughter? I thought that demons don't have families since you are born from concentrations of mana"
"Well, we don't, but orks are born as children and are weak at first, so it's customary for adults to take care of the newborns until they can fend for themselves"
Oh, so they are all basically adopted, and I guess the races of demons that are born as adults won't need to do this.
"By the way... why are there so many people staring at me?"
A large number of orks have been standing around watching me eat the whole time, I'm not used to being popular.
"Oh, don't mind them, it's normal that they are curious, this is our first time being visited by a great spirit of darkness after all"
...
"Being visited by a what now?"
"A great spirit of darkness, I mean you, of course"
Oh, I see, they must have mistaken me for some being from their mythology... why!? There's nothing mythological about me! Did they think I was someone else?
"Uh, it doesn't matter how you look at it, I'm an elf, see?"
I point to my ears, but he doesn't seem convinced.
"I don't know why you are trying to disguise yourself, but there's no way that an elf could have such a great quantity of dark mana, or of such purity"
Now that he mentions it, demons are supposed to be very sensitive to mana, and I certainly have more of it than any normal person should.
"No, please, listen..."
I try to explain, but then Arana pulls me to the side and starts whispering to me.
"Hey Luna, maybe you should just let them keep thinking whatever they want, just think about the reception you were expecting and what you actually got, isn't this a lot better?"
"You want me to lie?"
Why is she so insistent on taking me down the wrong path?
"It would not even be a lie, you just have to let them continue to believe whatever they want"
"A lie of omission is still a lie..."
"Also, if they think you are one of those great spirits, they will probably answer any questions you have about their culture, even things they would not normally tell to most people"
Well, when she puts it that way... I guess I could just stay quiet, it's not like I'm hurting anyone...
"...And then the water mana is absorbed directly by the seeds without ever turning into actual water"
"Oh... so that's how you are able to cultivate all these crops even in a place as dry as this"
It would be easy to think of the orks as having an underdeveloped society that has nothing useful to learn from, but even if their magic is overall less advanced, they have a lot of techniques that I've never heard about, I'm learning a lot from them.
While I'm talking to this older ork, Arana is sitting on a bench surrounded by ork children, Longleg is standing on her opened palm juggling several balls of web at once as the children watch in awe.
"And you said that the war-boss is your son? Could I meet him?"
This place is rather big for a village, there are more than 600 orks living here, as such, they even have a group of dedicated soldiers under the command of someone called a 'war-boss', I want to see what they're like.
"Yes, his name is Gorcanak, he's been very busy lately dealing with orc attacks, so he's not in the village right now, my apologies"
At that moment, the ork girl from before approaches while trembling in fear, her face is completely pale, is she alright?
"Well then... let's not delay this any longer"
The older ork suddenly gets serious and places his hand on the girl's shoulders.
"In accordance with the ancient traditions, we now offer you this girl as a sacrifice"
...
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
"We're offering you this girl as a sacrifice"
Yeah, I didn't mishear... WHAT!!!?
This is bad, I had no idea that dark spirits took sacrifices like that...
"Nonono! I don't want a sacrifice!"
"You won't take me?"
The girl sounds even more dismayed than before.
"You want to be sacrificed?"
"No, but... if I'm not then the entire village will be destroyed, no?"
So I can't simply refuse or the orks will think that they're all going to die...
Ugh, I'm just getting what I deserve for listening to the whispers of the devil, also known as Arana, what do I do now?
I guess I'll have to find a way to convince them that I'm a regular elf after all.
no matter how i see it arana is like an evil god trying to guide her blessed champion to bring destruction upon the world
Soo... the hero needs to point their blade at the true evil (Arana)
I'm fine with Arana and Luna the way they are. After all, MC would already be dead without her (she was lost with no food or supplies) and only weirdos like Arana would be friends with a socially awkward outcast like MC. I don't feel she is a jerk or mean to MC but is definitely a mischievous ? friend. It isn't bad to consider reader input but you don't have to bend over backwards either.
Still would like to know just what kind of hat Arana and Longleg are wearing. It's some kind of white hat but that doesn't say much. I was thinking a witches hat but she is a tailor (but then again she is fairly high level for a tailor, can sneak up on MC and other things so maybe her Job is something else).
Also, can Jobs be changed or are you stuck with it? Do you choose your first (and final) Job or are you born with it? Do demons and such have Jobs too? Would you kindly consider answering these questions in passing in story or just in comments?
Ah, it's actually supposed to be a witch's hat, Luna just called it a hat because she (and most people in this world) has no concept of what a witch is, I probably should have called it a pointy hat or something
.
Also, class and job is not the same thing, Luna's class is mage while her job was being a librarian. Classes don't mean much here anyway, it's just an appraisal stone looking at your skills and stats and determining what you're the best at, since appraisal stones also work on demons, they have classes too.
So our girl Luna is a fugitive atm? Late af
Arana is the worst friend!
I would criticize this story for using the worst kind of prophecy, but it's also part of the premise so it gets more of a pass. The problem with the prophecy is that it's entirely self-fulfilling. If the prophecy didn't happen or wasn't published, none of the events it described would take place. It is it's own instigato. Makes me think that it was fabricated to possibly thwart another prophecy.
It's like a greek prophecy. Those are almost always self fulfilling. also I feel like most prophecies are self fulfilling, I don't know why I made that statement or what I want to do with it but
Idk if that would change the way Arana feels, but mostly to me she just seems like she's a trickster who sees luna as a way to have a lot of fun. Idk if she's much of a friend, but hey, sometimes we all have uneven friendships we don't understand, and it seems to be driving the story along :3
Thanks for the chapter
ummm...useful doesn't offset bad friend, you know that, rite??? except for maybe sociopaths or something I guess? bad friend is bad friend. And one that makes a mess of ur life...yeah, that's a toxic bad friend. A couple anime comedy moments or utility doesn't really fix that.
In regard to the authors note. It would help if Luna wasn’t as clueless as a child. Her level of intelligence doesn’t match her level of naïveté. I think the changes you made to Arana is fine. Much less like a bad friend. But the bad friend impression comes from how stupid Luna acts most of the time imo.
Her int is high but her wis is so low...
Thanks for the chapter, I think arana is funny and i hope you don't change her behavior :)
Thanks for the chapter!
I'm loving Arana's antics so far, I think it's fine to continue this way.
will be straight forward
Straightforward, one word
not on the village right now
On should be in or at. Probably in
I fixed that, thank you.
I should have commented earlier, with the type of character that you are pulling of, The best way that I have seen to do it is to have them do stuff in the background and hint to it occasionally. It tends to not go very well when they actively do stuff that can be seen. It will not only give off the wrong impression but will make the reader question the main character for why they keep them around. For example, if they want the mc to do something they would sabotage the other options beforehand, so then there is the only option when they get to it.
But if Arana did everything without Luna's knowledge, then I could not include all her teasing and Luna's complaining... and it may come across as if she actually hates Luna and seriously wishes her harm, doing everything in front of her makes it seem more like she's just joking around.
Like I said I'm making an effort to make Arana more useful than she's detrimental to Luna, that's the reason why she keeps her around, and if it wasn't for Arana Luna would be left alone, which as was shown on chapter 3 would be really bad, and since Arana is not the cause of the REALLY big troubles that Luna gets into, Luna is willing to put up with her annoyances.
What really worried me was that Arana would be as annoying to the reader as she's to Luna, but most of the commenters here seem to be ok with her so I guess it's fine
.
Keep going as you are. I like reading this story so far as is.
Really speaking, Arana seems to have all sorts of mysterious skills and knowledge to the point of maybe overshadowing Luna at times. She is so mysterious, I'd even be interested in a side-story on her past - I'm curious about what all she has gone through that led her to become the whimsical troublemaker that she is. (Though I won't mind is she remains an enigma for a bit longer)
Arana is the real star of this series. Compared to Arana, Luna is rather plain - though each has their necessary place to move the story along. Luna is book smart but lacks experience whereas Arana is cunning but not ridiculously overpowered. Combine them and...
Together they will take over the world - albeit unintentionally.
This is perfect as is. Luna doesn't want to be a villain but, by being dragged around at Arana's pace, the misunderstanding will be perpetuated... (though she managed to do that all on her own with the water parasite incident)
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As for this chapter's developments... is she going to end up gathering a harem of cute girl offerings while being unintentionally worshiped by all their people... thereby becoming feared as an evil god that demands live offerings while gaining more followers as more tribes that fear her make more offerings...
I wouldn't mind that... If she brings them all along, she could be unintentionally gathering her future cabinet for when she unintentionally takes over the would and unwillingly gets forced to govern all her new followers as the Queen of Darkness...