While the orc caravan headed towards the new settlement regions under Dimitri's leadership, another group of two set off toward the trade city. In the caravan led by the merchant's locomotive, Domuzkuyruk, the orc authority, walked with his people, while Sangre was traveling beside Dimitri.
"My dear friend, I have no intention of breaking my promise; please travel comfortably." The merchant, seeing his apprentice standing with his hand gripping the hilt of his sword across from the orc who waited with a bow in his hand, interjected to ease the atmosphere.
"Master, it's unnecessary. My Master commanded me to execute both of you at the slightest sign of betrayal. I am waiting intently for you to make a mistake." Sangre was quite resentful toward the duo, having been left behind to guard the merchant and his apprentice when he wanted to go to the city with his Master.
"This time, I am forced to restrain myself at my Master's request. You can be sure that I will sever your head from your body at our next encounter!" Sasha, subjected to insult and threat on his own property, radiated a thick murderous intent. Because of the stifling atmosphere in the vehicle, Dimitri began praying for the journey to end as soon as possible.
The pair advancing toward Nikonya were busy making the necessary preparations for entering the city. They planned to introduce themselves as two orcs arriving from the regional orc tribe to present Great Lord Godfrey with a sentient wild creature core for negotiation. They planned to kill the City Lord while presenting their gift and escape the city. After discussing the final details of the assassination, they approached the gate between the city walls.
"Stop! Remove what's on your heads and show your faces." The city guards on duty at the gate stopped the two figures wearing hooded cloaks at the entrance. When they saw that the people removing their hoods were orcs, the guards' behavior began to change completely.
"Look at this, two ignorant fools have come to our city! Didn't we say that if any orc tries to enter Nikonya, only their head will return?" Alyon, who learned from the captive soldiers that relations between the regional trade city and the orc tribe were poor, knew they wouldn't be welcomed, but the despicable treatment he received severely offended his pride.
"I give you ten breaths of time. Either move out of my way, or I will walk right through you!" Nafız, understanding her partner's feelings, also took an attack stance, and the air grew heavy as lead. When the time limit expired, Alyon took his war hammer from his back into his hand, and the gate guards were waiting, having surrounded the pair.
"What is going on here? Who wants to explain this to me?" When a skinny, tall man wearing a gray cloak shouted toward the crowd of soldiers, the guards froze instantly. A ranked soldier in the crowd immediately knelt before the owner of the voice and began to speak. "Lord Gulag, these two orcs were trying to enter our city. When we tried to stop them, they wanted to resort to force."
Nafız, overhearing the conversations, was cursing under her breath. "How did we manage to time it so this guy would be here!" Thanks to the intelligence they received, they knew exactly who the person before them was. Gulag, who had gone out to inspect the city, suddenly appeared with a battalion of soldiers behind him.
Nafız, seeing the situation rapidly deteriorating, quickly interjected. "Lord Gulag, we are individuals who have come from the orc tribe to Great Lord Godfrey for negotiation. We wish to enter his presence to present the fully sentient wild creature core we brought as a gift." Although Nafız knew they could easily kill three times the number of soldiers gathered around them, the ensuing noise could prevent them from killing Godfrey. At the moment, keeping a low profile would be a much more sensible move. While these thoughts were running through her mind, Nafız was about to be shocked by what she heard.
"Cutting the heads of these two here would be a reward for them; capture them alive and take them to my private dungeon." As the soldiers receiving the order attacked the pair, Alyon finally regained his composure. Putting his hand on Nafız's shoulder, he said, "We surrender!"
The frenzied soldiers were dying to kill the wretched orcs, but the enemy surrendering without a fight did not please them at all. Although their desire to kill had peaked, the order they received was to capture them alive. Knowing very well the meaning of disobedience to Gulag's commands, they set off to take the prisoners, who were wearing purple alloy handcuffs on their wrists, to the dungeon.
Gulag, seeing the orcs surrender, turned to the soldiers behind him and called out. "All of you return to your posts; I am going to the dungeon with the captives." The soldiers waiting at the gate were very happy with these words. One of them, unable to contain himself, shouted, "You scum, you'll wish you had died by our hands!"
The group bringing the captives stopped when they reached a large black door after a long walk. The door, which seemed to close the passage opening into the mountain the city leaned against, opened with a loud crash. A group of humans wearing masks made from the heads of wild creatures came out and saluted Gulag. "Leave the captives and move away!" When the soldiers heard this cold and soulless voice, they involuntarily took a few steps back. Only these strange creatures, apart from his test subjects, were allowed in Gulag's private dungeon. The group called Zebani were known as the individuals Gulag had enslaved through his experiments.
After Alyon and Nafız were taken inside the dungeon by the Zebani, they proceeded through a long tunnel and reached a wide clearing. This place, carved into the mountain, consisted of a large courtyard on the floor and cells spread across several levels on the sides. Nafız made eye contact with Alyon when a suspicion arose in her mind as she examined the surroundings. The plan they made since their capture was to kill those inside as soon as possible after entering the dungeon and wait for nightfall to carry out the assassination. But for some reason, both agreed to wait a little while.
The group stopped walking when they reached the middle of the courtyard. When Gulag turned and exchanged glances with the captive duo, the fate of those inside the dungeon was about to be sealed. "You fools, do you want to get yourselves killed?" The pair, who couldn't make sense of the words of this skinny man speaking very calmly, were trying to figure out what was going on.
"Children, untie our friends' hands; they will be our guests until nightfall!" When Gulag's voice echoed a few times in the wide space, some faces began to appear from the doorless hollows. Women, men, and even shadows of semi-conscious creatures within them were slowly emerging. A child, Jashua, ran from one of the small caves on the ground and clung to Gulag's feet. "Uncle Gulag! Uncle Gulag! Are this brother and sister going to live with us now?" "No, Jashua, they will be gone before dawn. You know we don't have enough space for too many people." When the little child received the answer, he raised his head and looked at the cave ceiling. Here, there was a hole just big enough for light to enter and illuminate the courtyard. Those inside could stand in this area in turns to benefit from the sunlight.
The Zebani had removed their masks as they walked toward Nafız to unlock her handcuffs, watching the events in astonishment. Nafız could not hide her admiration for these ordinary and quite cheerful people whose acting she had witnessed at the gate.
"If you're coming for the handcuffs, it's unnecessary, kids." The Zebani suddenly stopped when they saw Nafız cutting the handcuffs with the daggers that emerged from her wristbands. Meanwhile, Alyon, tearing apart the metal alloy restricting the movement of his arms with raw force, began to speak: "Our plan was to kill you after entering the dungeon, but it seems interesting things are going on here. You have one chance to explain everything openly."
Gulag was the first to react to the unfolding events. "My friends, those I managed to rescue from City Lord Godfrey's oppression are living in these dungeons. I use the excuse of conducting my experiments to hide and protect this place." "I haven't seen a single orc among all these people; is there a specific reason for that?" Nafız scanned the crowd that was starting to surround them and truly hadn't come across a single orc. "The City Lord harbors a deep hatred for orcs, a hatred that runs to the bone. Unfortunately, since he gave orders for orcs to be executed on sight, I haven't been able to rescue any of them."
Nafız was satisfied with the answer, but something bothered her. "What do we owe our presence here to, Mr. Gulag?" Nafız was curious about the motive of this skinny man who brought them to the dungeon, defying the City Lord's orders.
"Because of the words you said to me at the city gate, I took the risk of bringing you to my dungeon, which I hide from everyone. Do you really have a fully sentient wild monster essence with you?" "Let's say we do; why does that concern you?" Nafız immediately went on the offensive, sensing Gulag's excitement.
"For a long time, I've been able to create semi-conscious wild creatures by feeding them the corpses of truly wicked people, but the blood of a fully sentient creature is needed for my experiment to reach its conclusion. I must stop the cruel City Lord; can you give me the monster essence?"
Nafız, thinking for a while about what she heard, turned to Alyon: "We don't need to waste the monster essence for this. If we take the skinny guy's head and show the City Lord this dungeon, I'm sure he will start trusting us. The moment we get close to him under the pretense of giving him the gift, we finish him off."