The Two Leaders

Because trolls had the natural ability to regenerate, their wounds would recover over time. However, regenerating its injuries would still take a while, which was troublesome. Who knew, its fellow ogres might have eaten all the humans by the time it got there.

Then, since the opposition had dispersed, as long as it moved straight ahead, they would all come out to attack it.

It felt a glimmer of pride at seeing through its opponents and slowly began moving again.

It would destroy them all in a short time. Thus, the fact that its opponents had split up was a golden opportunity. All it needed to do was slay the ogres one by one.

It moved slowly, taking care not to make noise, but suddenly, a small shadow dashed out of a nearby house.

It wasn’t a goblin, but one of its favorite prey, humans.

In contrast to the troll who had been surprised into inaction, the caped human splashed something on it…

“Uguooooaaaahhh!”

The troll screamed from the overpowering stench. Just by smelling the odor of the green stuff, the powerful stink burrowed into its nose and sinuses. This reek was several times stronger than that of the grass-stained ogres.

Even though it could regenerate, this was not a wound it could heal. It simply could not endure the smell. Its eyes watered and it took a step toward the human, but it had already run back into the house.

The reason why the human had managed to get so close despite the troll’s keen sense of smell was because the human’s scent had been masked by the scent of the crushed grass.

Angered by the loss of its target, the troll returned to its earlier target — the ogres. First, it would kill the ogres and then find that tantalizing bait, the troll thought.

The troll, thrashing around the outside of the house in a fury, didn’t find any signs of the ogres. It was as though they’d vanished into thin air.

“Guuuuu, where?”

Looking around, it still couldn’t find the ogres, which were still large despite being smaller than itself. No matter how those ogres moved, it should have seen them eventually. Could those puny ogres use invisibility, like their master? The troll had encountered another situation it could not figure out and snorted.

However, the strong stink of herbs rising from its own body interfered with its sense of smell, and it could not follow the ogres’ scent trail.

“Guuuuuuuuuu…”

The moaning troll scraped experimentally at the fluid on its body. This time, its fingers stank.

Glancing around, the troll found a fallen piece of cloth on the ground.

The troll considered that it might be good to wipe itself off with the cloth and picked it up with a curious expression on its face. It brought the cloth to its nose and sniffed, but because its nose still wasn’t fully recovered yet, it could only get a bit of scent.

The troll smelled ogre on the cloth, and suddenly, it understood.

It had mistaken this cloth that reeked of ogre-stink for an ogre itself.

This was not a coincidence.

“Humans!”

Roaring angrily, the troll started tearing up its surroundings. No humans. Then they should still be in their homes.

The troll’s fist pounded angrily at a nearby house and after hammering at it several times, it reached up to tear the roof off, intent on destroying the interior.

A human rushed out in a panic as it was demolishing the house. Eager to tear the human apart as well, it gave chase.

♦ ♦ ♦

The target was chasing her. That meant the plan was working. Though she was grateful for that, her heart was still pounding and she wanted to cry. A gigantic, man-eating monster was pressing in from behind, and this high-stakes game of tag — if she lost, she would disappear down that monster’s throat — was something any ordinary village girl would cry about.

The fact that she didn’t know how long she’d have to play this game made her want to cry even more.

If she knew when it would be over, she might be able to will herself to keep fleeing until the last moment. However, without knowing when the battle at the gate would be over, without knowing when the others could come and help her, she was filled with uneasiness, which diminished her strength.

Enri regretted not sending someone over to the main gate to make a report, but the preparations had taken too long.

She ran with all her strength, rushing into the house where Nfirea was waiting. In turn, Nfirea rushed out of the back door, wearing the same cape and robe that she was.

Enri held her breath, gulping and hoping that the enemy hadn’t seen through their scheme. The troll continued chasing Nfirea, not having noticed the switch.

She calmed her ragged breathing and clasped her hands in delight.

Trolls were far superior to humans in strength, stride length and physical ability, therefore a single person running away would definitely be caught. In order to recover stamina for extended periods of movement, they decided to switch with each other without letting the enemy notice. This was intended to draw out the chase, and also to keep it from going to the rendezvous point where the people were.