CHAPTER 1: BEASTMAN LOYALTY

I don’t know how many weeks or months had passed since I started living with the Beastmen. As with the old Chersea, the current Cherwind was without a single hourglass…at least among its native population And I wasn’t able to count my ‘long sleeps’ either; my safe guess was that it’s been quite a while.

“…”

And though I’m here staying with them, nothing much had changed. As in nothing. I mean, I never had been lazy, or anything similar. But if I may say some words about my companions, I’d proudly declare that the Beastmen were a frustration for me.

See, while they did follow my instructions about having good personal hygiene, these people failed in other ideas I tried to introduce. Not that they couldn’t comprehend what I’m trying to tell them; it’s more an issue of their attitude than understanding. Like, for example, when I talked about ‘time reckoning’…

“Eh? Why do we need that ‘time reckoning’? We just follow our instincts! It’s more trustworthy than a machine!”

“Bah! ‘Time’ is just a human invention! We, the noble Beastfolk, live as we wished!”

“Your head is full of weird ideas, Lord Kuro!”

While I really wanted to help them improve their lives, I had to retract my proposals from the community leaders in the end. It’s not that good of a feeling to be rejected and laughed at every time you say something ‘strange’ to them. These Beastfolk only prefer to ‘live’ at the present; I don’t think they’d consider planning for their future.

“Haa…”

“That is a long sigh you got there, Kuro,” I heard Ursura say as she walked behind me, “Are you okay?”

“Well, I just remembered something unpleasant,” then, I stopped and turned to her, “By the way, why do you keep on walking behind me? You’ve been like that—as well as the others—ever since we returned from slaying those monsters.”

The bear-woman avoided my eyes, “Even if I explained to you, you won’t understand.”

“Is this about your ‘beastman loyalty’?”

Ursura had a subtle but noticeable jolt, which meant that my question was spot on.

I couldn’t help but smile, “You know, I’m a human, so of course, I can’t fully understand why you’re acting that way. But at least, please quit doing that and walk beside me. It’s kind of awkward when I try to talk to you while you’re behind.”

“I really can’t do that.”

“Why?”

My companion had an uncomfortable expression on her face as she squirmed and would throw occasional glances towards the other Beastmen watching us. Their eyes looked at me as if they intended to melt me with their stares; though, in their defense, I could feel no air of hostility this time.

“That’s why I’m asking you to walk beside me,” I desperately reasoned, “I’ve been going around this village with a powerful bear-woman tailing me. It’s no explanation why I’d stand out!”

“Really? You think that’s the reason they’re looking at you?” Ursura countered, “Are you out of your mind? You say I’m powerful, but the only thing I’m good at is protecting my own ass! And you, in comparison…”

“What? Why did you trail off?”

Ursura’s face was red, “You put the lives of our people before yours! Don’t deny it; look at your hand! And for us, that is the mark of a true, powerful warrior!”

I could not speak for a few moments after that. My eyes inadvertently fell to the stump at my right arm. This…this is a mark of a true and powerful warrior? All that I could remember was that I’m panicking because I couldn’t control that weird power, and I’m desperate enough to cut-off my hand to stop it.

“From your face, I could tell that you really don’t understand,” Ursura quipped, “Well, I’ll just keep it simple for you: for most of the villagers here, you’re like a leader of the pack.”

The ‘leader of the pack’, huh? Was this what the humans of my old world referred to as an ‘Alpha’? Did Ursura mean to say that she and the villagers here treat me as an ‘Alpha’ male? That’s bullshit! That ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ male concept was just a myth, a pseudo-science promoted by some douchebags to give reason to their obnoxious and rude behavior.

In reality, the concept of human male ‘masculinity’ is more complicated than it looks like. To define it into two, ‘black-and-white’ types are just shallow…

“…” Ah, I guess I’ve said too much. And also, this was a Beastman society we’re talking about, anyway; a different culture and set of values. What may not apply to humans may apply to them…

“You’re in deep thought again, Kuro? You’ve gotten pretty silent.”

“Oh? Sorry about that,” I chuckled, “In any case, if you claim these folks treat me the way you say they are, then why in the world would they laugh and scoff at my ideas?”

“Beats me,” she shrugged, “I, for one, look up to you as a good warrior. But I do think your ideas are weird.”

“You mean to say you’d follow me in battles, but not in what I think I should do outside war?”

“Well, your prowess in battle is different from your behavior as a human,” Ursura snickered, “While we accord respect to every creature that could give us a good battle, in a way you’re still one of our enemies…though a friend to us at that.”

“The heck? I don’t think I get what you mean by that.”

“Neither do I,” the bear-woman laughed, “Ah, whatever! It’s just that, your culture is not our culture, so don’t change it! Or, it’s futile to change it!”

“Ah, now I’m getting why the humans defeated your people.”

“Bah! Don’t start with that; I’m just a warrior, and like my kin, I only wanted a good, physical fight. I leave the planning to our leaders like Konka and Banu! They know better.”

“Haa…”

“Again with the long sigh.”

“Well, hearing you say that makes me doubt if these plans I have in mind would even be considered by Konka,” I couldn’t help but shake my head as I tried to fix the piles of parchment on my arm.

“What are those, anyway?”

“Something that will help this village.”

“Ooh! Well, it’s Konka you’re dealing with,” Ursura patted my back, “She’s smart; I’m sure she could see the reason for your proposals.”

----------

“Time-reckoning? Rejected. Forming a small, uh, standing army of soldiers? What’s that supposed to mean? Rejected. Build some outlying outpost on this region? A good, uh, proposal, but we can’t spare anyone for that. Rejected.”

I was speechless as I watched Konka reject every plan I proposed to her. Deep inside I was like a burning firewood that was doused with cold water. This insect-woman was my last hope in making those proposals possible; it felt like it was a waste of time to come up with all of those ideas.

“W-Won’t you even try to look at the illustrations?” I was desperate, but kept myself from getting emotional.

“Ah, you know I really liked, uh, some of your recommendations, personally,” she explained, “But well, I, uh, don’t think it’s possible to implement those things.”

“Why?”

“Well, for example, this ‘time reckoning’ thing. What’s it for?”

“We could use it to measure time. And by measuring time, we could schedule things so that we are organized and fewer resources are wasted.”

“It’s a human invention. Your race not only disrespects the nature around them, they are, uh, also wasteful indeed. That’s why you, uh, need to measure time. We beastfolk are one with our, uh, surroundings, so we don’t waste things.”

I was dumbfounded by that explanation. I was about to give a counter-argument to Konka’s point when she moved on to the next proposal.

“What does a, uh, standing army even mean?”

“W-Well it’s a group of professional soldiers…meaning, they were trained and solely exist to fight as they are told. Think of it as someone having ‘fighting’ as his/her job.”

“No. We can’t possibly do that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want our people to be ill-prepared to defend their land and let someone else do it for them!”

“Th-That’s…well, we can give your people some basic combat training, and select a few of them as professionals.”

“And risk lowering the number of those who would hunt or farm for our food?” Konka countered, “I’m sorry Kuro, but that won’t do. Because of the breach on the ‘Outer Wall’, our population is increasing. Refugees keep on coming in and our food supply is being stretched too thin. However, the farmers and foragers have limited territory to plant or look for food; besides their normal adversaries like the human patrols and marauding monsters. We’re risking starvation if we’re going to reduce the number of hunters to train as pure soldiers. The same goes into this proposal about the outposts.”

“The outposts could serve as an early warning for the hostile armies, or monster hordes coming near this settlement!”

“I know. But again, we can’t spare people. Plus, we beastfolk have heightened senses; we can detect someone approaching several leagues and prepare for it when the time comes. The foragers would suffice.”

“…” I couldn’t say anything more about it. Neither do I plan to give any more explanations; it’s clear to me that my efforts were wasted.

Konka then put down illustrations and looked at me, “I know you’re disappointed about the rejections, Kuro, but you see we are the Beastfolk. We have our own ways and your people have your own. We couldn’t just shed our identity to cater to your ideas.”

“It’s not my intention! My goal is to help you and your people improve their lives,” I replied, “Aren’t we at war here, Konka?”

“Indeed, we are at war. But as I’ve said before, we have our ways and you have your own. Shedding our heritage for your ‘superior’ ideas is an affront to our ancestors. Have you ever considered it, Kuro? If you humans could easily forget your loyalty to your forefathers, we the beastfolk simply can’t. That’s why the phrase ‘Beastman Loyalty’ exists.”

‘Beastman Loyalty’? Hell, if that will impede progress and living safely, I’d rather drop it. Well, so much for ‘Beastman Loyalty’.

“…”

Awkwardness filled the room as Konka and I argued about our points, but in the end, I knew I had to back down. After that statement about ‘Beastman Loyalty’, I couldn’t put up my recommendations anymore. I mean, I’m on the wrong side of history. If you think about it, it’s me who’s forcing my ideas on them.

I guess I’d been insensitive about the Beastman customs and culture, huh?

Saying nothing more, I bowed before Konka and faced the entrance. However…

“Wait, Kuro, what’s this?”

“Hm?” I turned around to see that Konka was holding an illustration I made for a wall around the refugee camps. “It’s a wall proposal. A stone one, so that we can protect the settlement.”

“Like the ones in the human cities?”

I nodded. “Well, I know it’s a human invention, so don’t mind it—”

“No, I wanted this done.”

“Eh?”

“Well, honestly, I don’t think we could put up a stone wall around the entire settlement because it requires great numbers of men and resources,” Konka explained, “However, can you do something about our palisades?”

“You mean you wanted to upgrade them?”

“If that’s the word to improve it uh, it’s a yes.”

“Well…” I took the parchment from Konka and spread it wide before her. Then, using a makeshift pen, I showed some parts we could change to increase our settlement’s defenses. After all, though, these Beastmen were pissing me off for being extremely stubborn, I couldn’t leave them to their own devices.

I need their help to cross back into Chersea…

----------

***The throne room inside Ruro’s cave-palace, in the middle of the Cauldron…***

The entire hall was in intense silence as the Beastman Saint sat on her ivory chair. In the middle of the room were some delegates from one of the Beastman tribes of Cherwind, the Rabbit people. Their leader, upon reaching the foot of the throne dais, immediately fell on her knees, which the others followed.

“Your Holiness!” the rabbit-lady clasped her hands as if in prayer, “We beg for your help. The humans have reneged on their promises and retreated to the inner walls of the Enclave, leaving your people to be killed and eaten by the groundworms and leviathans!”

As if on cue, her companions wasted no time in offering their saint the best product their land had yielded and laid those down before Ruro.

“Please accept our sincere offerings, in return for your help, oh Holy One!”

Ruro, however, remained in her seat. Her head rested on her right hand as she watched the Rabbit folk with empty, disinterested eyes. A few moments of awkward silence then followed.

Kashca Telis, who was standing beside her liege, spoke, “R-Raise your head, Hanamira of the Hare, for your plea was heard by Her Holiness. She would send her best servants to deal with your situation.”

“T-Thank you, Great One!” the rabbit-lady was more than happy to hear Telis’ assurances, “May the heavens bless your reign, Your Holiness!”

And with that, the Rabbit tribe delegation stood and took their leave. After making sure they were now alone, Kashca Telis turned her attention back to her liege.

However, it was Ruro who broke the ice, muttering, “Hmph. Empty words of praise from an empty tribe. Thinks I can’t read her mind…”

“Your Holiness, your people have been scattered considering the recent breach on the Outer Walls of the Enclave. The humans, who were supposed to protect them, retreated to their cities after the Lord Kuro decimated their armies in Malvette—”

“I know Telis, I am aware of what’s happening in my lands.”

“Then, milady, command me to—”

“We shouldn’t be bothered by trivial matters. The humans, though many of them died in Malvette, were now training more soldiers to bolster their armies and take back the ‘Outer Walls’.”

“Yes, but shouldn’t we do something about—”

Kashca Telis’ words were interrupted when Ruro suddenly kicked the baskets of fruits presented to her by the Rabbit tribe before. She silently stood up and asked, “What about your search for Kuro?”

“M-Milady…we’re doing our best to find him,” the captain of the Saint’s guard was taken aback by the disregard of her liege for the current situation. “However, the Rabbit tribe is asking for our help. Should we—”

“I want your men to focus on looking for my master,” Ruro reiterated. “My wisdom for inviting the humans in this land is to help the Beastfolk to defeat those monsters. But my people opted to cower behind the human-made walls living in fear. They chose their destiny by becoming livestock to the powerful.”

Telis made no objections to her lady’s statements. Indeed, Her Holiness had made her point clear, no matter how cruel it might seem to be.

“Good to see you agree on my reason, my dear Telis.”

“As always, Your Holiness. Our tribe would always follow you wherever you go.”

“I see. But deep inside, you still wanted to do something for the Rabbit tribe, yes?”

“Your Holiness, I—”

“The Rabbit tribe should just shelter with the humans for a while,” Ruro answered, “Make arrangements with the Duchess of Malvette to accommodate them. Or better yet, advise them to serve in the human armies for a while. That would solve their stupid problem about the monster hordes.”

“Milady, but the humans won’t easily accept this.”

“Then tell them to bring in a few of the tribesmen…or whatever!” the Beastman Saint raised her voice, “I’m sure with their fewer numbers—no matter how much they train more soldiers, the humans knew of their proper place in this land. Just threaten them with another Telessaria, and it’d be a done deal.”

Telis bowed and took her leave, “It will be done, Your Holiness.”

“Remember, I want to make sure that my Kuro is safe more than anything,” Her Holiness called out to her as she made her way out, “I could sense that he had hurt himself, so he’s your priority, you hear me!”

----------

Once she was outside the throne room, Kashca Telis was immediately greeted by her lieutenants, who were all waiting a few distances away from the entrance. Everyone knew their liege was in a bad mood, and never dared to risk earning her ire.

“Captain!” one of them began, “Looks like Her Holiness got angry at you.”

Telis just nodded. She didn’t want to bring up the matter, yet her men were itching to question her what transpired inside the throne room.

“Ugh…Her Holiness had been acting strange ever since she came back from the land of Chersea with that human male,” another lieutenant pointed out. “It’s as if she doesn’t want to have anything to do about anything else, save for that Kuro.”

“I was thinking if that human seduced our saint,” a third lieutenant added, “Of all creatures, why does she want a human male for a mate—”

“Cease that talk, Daru!” Telis’ sword was quick to find its way near the throat of the third lieutenant. “Even I don’t know what’s going on in the mind of our great saint. However, it is a sin for us to question her wisdom, for she was given authority to rule over us by no other than the heavens itself!”

“M-M-My apologies…Captain!”

Telis then sheathed her sword, “Never do that again, or I’ll kill you myself.”

The poor lieutenant just nodded and retreated behind his comrades. Their captain then went back to business and brought out a map of the land.

“Her Holiness wants us to focus on looking for the Lord Kuro,” she began, “I already sent scouts all around Cherwind to search for him. Once we find his trace, we’ll be coordinating with the human armies to capture this man. Don’t underestimate him; the Lord Kuro is more than your match if it’s in battles…”

----------

**Kuro**

The work to improve the wall around the refugee camp began as soon as Konka and I could smooth out our differences. Because the old palisade was dismantled to use as weapons for the monster hordes, a new one was erected. However, truth be told, a set of wooden stakes like that was just a nuisance to the attackers rather than a serious obstacle.

Yep, I’m thinking of Ruro’s men or the Duchess’ soldiers…

So yes, Konka was thinking of upgrading the walls of the settlement; but given the limited resources and men, she didn’t know how to do it. The solution? I proposed that instead of a stone wall; we build a rampart made of earth with the palisades at the very top.

Surrounding the earthworks was a ditch with a sharp fall on the opposite side, stakes at the bottom, and on the face of the rampart. Those were designed for the humans, Beastmen, and the dreaded wild Leviathans.

For the groundworms, we set aside some logs sharpened at one end and tipped with flammable materials.

It was the plan. Given the limited resources, we really had to ‘tread carefully’ on allocating those, in order not to stretch our supplies too thin. Workers had been assigned. Tools had been readied. And the foundations, as well as the limits of the rampart, was already been marked.

But then…

“!!!” My sleep was rudely interrupted by someone knocking at the entrance of my hut.

“Milord, come look at this!” I heard Banu’s voice speak to me from behind the curtains that served as my ‘door’.

“What is it?” I muttered as I pulled myself up and headed outside. My vision was still muddled, but I could already make out that there was a crowd gathering along the pathways of the camp.

“Milord, the heavens blessed us with more people!” Banu said to me as he pointed out towards the gates of the settlement. There were a lot of Beastmen coming in; some were carrying big, makeshift bags of their belongings with their children tugging along beside them. Others were pulling carts loaded with their entire household.

I don’t like this. “Huh? You mean more refugees?”

The bear-man nodded with a big smile on his face. Konka was already standing by the gates, welcoming the new arrivals. Naturally, we headed over to get to know what’s happening…

“Lady Konka,” the leader of the group bowed before her, “we came over from the villages east of the Grand Marshes, running away from the hordes of monster that devastated that region. We heard that you’ve been graciously providing our people with protection from these cursed creatures, so we decided to head over to this place.”

“We welcome you to our settlement!” the insect-woman received him. “What the humans can’t do anymore, we’ll be glad to give to you.”

“Wait, a bit!” once I overheard their conversation, I couldn’t help but interrupt them, “We’re accepting more refugees?”

“Huh? There’s a human here?” the leader of the refugees exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, he’s a friend to our people,” Konka reassured him, before turning her attention to address my concern, “Yes, we’re going to accept them, Kuro.”

“But you told me before that our food supply is being overstretched! If our population increased further, we really might starve! Are you sure about this?”

“More people means we have more workers, farmers, and foragers.”

Well, I couldn’t argue with that…provided, our territory also increased. However, the refugee camp was also at its limits. Accept more people, and the squalor increases. So we had no choice but to expand. But we also couldn’t expand carelessly, or we’d have to sacrifice our farming lands, thereby worsening our food supply problem.

Hell, isn’t that the reason she keeps on rejecting my proposals?

And if I may add, with the growth of the settlement, we’re risking attracting the attention of the humans and they might end up attacking us.

This is supposed to be a hidden camp, see?

“Well, we can’t turn a blind eye to the plight of our people,” the insect-woman countered, “Or do you wish to send them away to be butchered by the monsters?”

“I…” Honestly, I expected Konka would raise that point, to which I had no hope of winning. Our food supply was in a poor state; however, we couldn’t just simply turn them back and let them die.

“Don’t worry about us, Kuro,” she reassured me, “We Beastfolk have our own ways to take care of ourselves. These people have been sent by the heavens to increase our strength for the coming war against Ruro and the humans; just help us in battles, and I assure you your way back home.”

This was getting even more stupid. I mean, I try my best to respect the traditions and customs of these people. However, it’s a mortal sin for me not to say anything when it’s clear to me that Konka was committing a big mistake before my very eyes.

And yet, she expects me to keep quiet until my opinion is needed?

“…”

Haa…if things went on like this, then there’s no way the Beastfolk could win against the humans. This ‘Beastman loyalty’ of theirs was creating more problems than I expect it should. Expecting no support from everyone else present, I silently retreated to the crowd. I’m just hoping that there’d be no serious consequences on Konka’s decision to accept those refugees.