He started telling everyone about Azekiel’s plan to get revenge and to kill the Triads.

The Orcs were already filled with rage and anger toward the Triad. They supported the plan instantly. There was not a single voice of resistance.

“We don’t have much time! The Triads already know that we killed the one they sent! Their armies could come anytime! We need to get working if we want to be ready by the time they arrive!

“Take all the children to the back, farthest from the battle. All the men, start lighting the trees into the fire! I want the surrounding of the Village completely clear! You have an hour!”

The Orcs dispersed. Everyone got to work. Half the Orcs started lightning trees to fire while the rest made sure that the Children had a place to hide.

Leaving the responsibility inside the village to the Orcs, Azekiel left the village with Lia.

They walked around a thousand meters outside the village.

“This far should be enough,” Lia stated as she placed her finger on the ground, chanting something.

An invisible line started spreading out from where Lia touched. The line surrounded up to a thousand meters of area around the village.

After finishing, she stood up. “And, we’re done. Whenever someone crosses this line, we would know about it. This should alert us when the Triads get here, so we can begin.”

Lia and Azekiel walked back, noticing the trees that were being lit in flames. The fires also kept spreading out.

Entering the village, Azekiel caught up to Raphael, who seemed to be waiting for him.

“Found him?”

“Yeah. He is sleeping inside the house in the centre. That’s the place,” Raphael pointed at the house in the distance.

An Orc walked inside the house and picked up Layin. “Wake up, kid.”

The Orc woke Layin and brought him out of the hut. Even though Layin wasn’t a child of the Orcs, he was still a child who was staying with them. They were taking Layin to other kids where he could be far away from the battle.

“Who is the kid?”

Even though Azekiel knew who the kid was, he still asked the leader of the Orcs about the identity of the kid.

The kid looked like a Triad to some extent. He had beautiful green eyes. However, he also had the ears of the Elves, which made his identity quite confusing.

“He is a guest. And if I’m not wrong, it’s because of him that the Triads are attacking us.”

“He is half Triad,” the old Orc explained. “But he’s also half-elf. In other words, he has an impure bloodline. His mother was a Triad who came to us. She begged us to take care of the child, saying she was going to return soon.

Our old leader didn’t think much of it and agreed to take care of the kid. The woman left. However, it’s been weeks, but she didn’t return. The first Triad we saw since then was the one who attacked us.”

“Hmm? If that was the case, why didn’t you give the kid to that Triad?”

“Heh, we can only give the kid to his mother. She left the kid with us. He’s our responsibility, and he will be our responsibility until his mother comes back. We Orcs can die, but we can’t break our promise.”

“What if we take the child to the Triads, and then his mother comes back? What will we tell her? Moreover, even if we give the kid to the Triads, we have a feeling that they would just kill us. For a Triad to give her child to us instead of giving to people from her own clan…? That tells a lot.”

“So your old leader was willing to die to keep someone who isn’t even an Orc, all because of a promise?” Azekiel was slightly taken aback to find out about the reason behind this conflict.

From the Triad’s memories, he knew what the story from their side was, but to hear the side of the Orcs; he felt that even though it was for his ulterior motives, he really had chosen a decent side.

The reason that the kid’s mother didn’t return was because she had been killed by the Triads. The mother of the Child was the sister of the Triad Queen.

She ran away from the clan after she fell in love with an Elf. She married the elf, against all the resistance from the clan. Moreover, the Elf Clan didn’t mind half blood too much. Elves had a hard time procreating.

That’s why even marrying people from other species wasn’t a crime since it actually passed the Elf Bloodline in one way or another.

On the other hand, the Triads had no such problem. To keep their bloodline pure, they only allowed marriage into the clan.

After Layin’s mother married the Elf, she shifted to the Elf Clan and started living there, worried that her clan might hurt her.

After years of her staying away, the Triad Queen finally sent an Envoy to the Elf Clan with a message for her sister. In the message, she mentioned that through the years, she really regretted how she acted. She asked for forgiveness and talked about accepting what happened.

Not only that, she even asked for her sister to come back with her nephew. The naive woman believed her sister, who appeared genuine.

She came back to the Triad Clan for a few days with her husband and some Elves to meet her sister. She also brought her child with her. However, instead of receiving the welcome she accepted, they were welcomed with a barrage of attacks.

The Elves that escorted the woman and her husband had been killed. Even the woman was badly hurt, but she managed to escape.

By the time the Triads found the woman, she didn’t have the kid. The woman was killed by her own Sister, the Triad Queen, as punishment for breaking the laws.

The Triads also managed to locate the kid, finding him in the Village of the Orcs. That’s why they sent one of them to retrieve Layin.

Just for the sake of their bloodline, the Triad Queen had her sister killed. She also killed the Elves, planting a seed of enmity. Just because the Elves couldn’t enter her domain without her permission, she didn’t worry about being attacked, even if the Elves found out what she did.

As Azekiel heard the Orcs’ side of the story, he understood how Layin ended up in the Orc Village.

“You people aren’t half bad…” Azekiel muttered. “The Triads won’t be able to harm you. Your promise… I’ll help you keep it!”

A blazing forest remained in the back, filling the sky with smoke.

The Triads came out from their domain…