Chapter 61: The Third Prince.

The system’s 1 minute wasn’t universal. At the end of the timer, only a few knights woke up and stood vigilantly while the rest was still groggy. A few even didn’t wake up at all. They weren’t dead, though. None of my skills can directly kill anyone. Make them go mad? Probably! Make them dizzy? Definitely! But kill? That’s impossible.

Not even the infant goblins died from this skill. How can a human die?

“You damn monster, let our prince go!” A knight wearing deep-sea green-colored armor shouted upon seeing the fat prince in the hands of a sturdy orc. The orc was though an adult, wasn’t proficient in human speak. He couldn’t understand what the man said and thought the human was threatening him. It grabbed the prince’s neck tighter and lifted him off the ground and displayed it to the knight who shouted.

“Borin, shut up.” The prince, who woke up just in time, shut him up with a scream unbefitting of a man. His voice was high-pitched, and his eye held fear. After that, he lowered his voice and pleaded with the orc that held him, “Orc brother, how about you let me go? I am a vegetarian and will definitely not taste good.”

On Urt’s back, my mouth curled into a smile filled with mockery. Does this fat prince really think of himself as smart? He thinks, just because he was a vegetarian, the orcs wouldn’t eat them? Disinclined to listen to his drivel, I had Urt place me below a tree and do what I have said to him earlier.

While the knights were waking up one by one and watching vigilantly at the sturdy orc that held their prince in a vice grip, Urt emerged from the shadow of the trees. His towering height eclipsed even the biggest of the human knights, which happened to be the man called Borin. Borin had a head-full of white air, and age marks could be seen clearly on his face. Yet, he had a well-muscled body lacking every bit of excessive fat.

At present, the man’s face was changing expressions faster than a bullet train. From anger to fear to helplessness, he was showing them all. Urt’s appearance only made it worse, as another emotion added to the changing ones. For some reason, upon seeing Urt, his face displayed disbelief.

“Get out of our home and this fat human lives.” I had him speak intimidatingly, which suited his character. We were supposed to be monsters who gained a bit of intelligence. We had to act the part.

“We will get out. We go out right now.” The fat prince shouted and glared at the knight called Borin. He signaled him with his eyes. As if daring him to say otherwise. The moment I saw this prince, I already had a rough guess on his personality. Still, I was afraid of my speculations failing me. So I orchestrated this round out way.

“Then go! Tell them to leave first. Only then will I let you go.”

“This… orc friend!” The fat prince tried to say something, but the orc who held him tightened his grip on his(prince) neck, making the fatty shut up. Throwing a glare at Borin, he yelled, “Borin, why aren’t you leaving yet?”

“But prince, leaving you with these bastards isn’t right.” He adopted a bitter face and continued, “His majesty, the king has ordered us to protect you at all cost. We can’t just leave you alone.” To prove his loyalty, he tried to reach for his sword, only to find it wasn’t there. His face became even more contorted than before if that was even possible, “You can’t even fight!” he added as an afterthought.

Not to mention me, even Urt burst into a laughing fit when he heard Borin’s plead to his prince.

The prince’s face darkened and looked like the butt of a wok. It was a good thing none of the mercenaries were around, or else this prince might really have shamed to death in this place. That would have been spelled trouble for us later.

“Borin, you fool. Just shut up!” The prince growled. He was angered to the point of frothing from his mouth. His eyes were red and his chest was rising and falling rapidly. After calming himself down, he shouted to Urt, “We will get out of here. They will be the first ones to go out. Don’t kill me.”

“Why are you not listening? Get out of here! Borin, you bastard! Has your puny brain stopped working? I am in the hands of an orc, held in a vice grip. How can you save me in this situation? You will kill me at this rate.”

After hearing this, the middle-aged knight called Borin finally saw the light on the situation they were in. He realized that his prince was indeed right, and he couldn’t underestimate us. What’s more, some knights might have put up a fight with their skills and abilities, but my act of stripping them of their armors and weapons sapped away their confidence.

Watching all those TV dramas, and reading the novels, paid off today. Often times the captured would escape the situation and retaliate because of their captor’s carelessness. I didn’t want that to happen. When my wellbeing was on the line, I had to pull out all the stops.

I vowed that day to not leave anything to fate and luck, ever again.

“Orc friend, those people have left the place already. How about you let me go as well?” After Borin, the last one of the knights to leave the place went out, the fat prince’s shouted to Urt. I was amazed he didn’t recognize Urt as a goblin. I wondered if Goblin Generals were really as rare as claimed in the Monsterpedia book. Forget about everything else, he didn’t even have a pig face.

However, neither Urt nor Borin, who seemed to have done so, corrected him the whole time.

“Let him go.” Urt roared to the orc in monsterspeak. The monster nodded and threw him towards the tunnel. The prince didn’t even look back. The moment he fell down, he ran crazily. It made me wonder how he did it with that fat body of his.

“Lord, why do you have to let that fat human go? Wouldn’t it have been better if we killed him here?” Urt came back to where he left me, only after making sure they really left the dungeon. With the most troublesome obstacle out of the way, it was just a matter of time before we drive out the remaining humans.

“If we did that, the king would have come with his army to clean us up. Do you think we can win against so many well-trained humans?” I shook my head and smiled bitterly. We couldn’t win against these well trained forty-something knights. How can we fight against an entire kingdom? We shouldn’t push our luck.

“Alright, don’t think about it now. In the future, you would know what I meant. Now go and finish off those humans who entered the forest.” I shook my hands on his face and shooshed him away. Then suddenly, I remembered about Logier, so I added something else, “Urt keep an eye on the Logier’s battle. After taking care of the humans that entered the forest, return and frighten the ones who were fighting him.”

“Are we not killing them as well?” Urt was surprised which reflected on his normally apathetic face. I could tell he was having doubts about my decisions. It was only due to the Nightmare Seed’s effect that he didn’t rebuke me. But I couldn’t just make them understand that I wasn’t getting soft.

If we don’t allow survivors to go out, next time, even more, powerful humans would enter. The owl bandits might try it again and amass a bigger force before coming here next time. But if we let these people leave, they can create a rumor which will provide us with safety for some time.

With enough time in my hands, I will try to complete the achievement and leave this dungeon together with everyone. That’s my overall agenda for the time being. Being cooped up in this place will kill us sooner or later.

“Don’t doubt me, Urt. Why I am allowing some to leave this place, I will make you understand that later. For now, do as I say.”

“Yes, my lord.”

A sigh escaped my lips as I saw Urt’s disappearing back in the woods. If only Urt can understand the terror of humans, he wouldn’t have doubted me.