Chapter 125

"After all, Master Orson has been with me longer than we have."

Mary only married Lucius when Orson was ten years old. In terms of time, it was indeed not as long as Orson stayed with Lucius.

"Then if that's the case, why not let Butler Albert stay with him to take care of him?"

"Maybe Mr. Butler is old."

Although Randall kept trying to alleviate Mary's inner doubts, it only made Mary more suspicious that there was definitely an ulterior secret between Lucius and Orson, which was probably related to family inheritance and power distribution.

"Randall, you are the only servant I brought from the Duke of Orleans. You have been with me for so long. You know, you are the only one I trust in this family." Mary said this and looked at Randall. .

"Yes, I am very honored to have your trust, madam." Randall saluted Mary respectfully after hearing this.

"So, there are some things that I can only tell you, and I will tell you. I hope you won't tell them."

Randall nodded and looked at Mary.

Then, Mary spoke and told Randall what she thought.

"I want to hold the power of this family in my hands."

"But... madam, Master Orson and Master Leeteuk are both good and bad. No matter who inherits the title, they are not mediocre people. It is still very difficult to snatch the power of the family from them. Especially since you told me before..."

"Master Osun and Master Li Te are probably still on the same front."

"That's right." Mary nodded. "But the inheritance rights are not limited to just the two of them."

As she said this, she touched her belly.

Seeing Mary's actions, Randall looked shocked.

"Madam...don't you think..."

"Yeah." Mary said this with a hint of complaint in her tone. "There is no way. After all, Orson is unwilling to cooperate with me, and Li Te has been led by Orson to get power. I

This is the only last resort. "

"So, Randall, we are on the same front now. I can't help you even if you don't help me."

"..." Randall's expression changed again and again, and finally nodded. "Everything is at your command, madam."

…

On the other side, the desert.

It has been some time since the orcs completely retreated into the desert.

And because it retreated the slowest, Balu's army only returned to its tribe today.

When he was still some distance away from the tribe, a pungent smell of blood reached Balu's nose.

He frowned and suddenly felt bad, and then quickly ordered the army to speed up. Finally in the morning, Balu's orc army saw the tribe's wooden wall.

Before entering the tribe, Balu saw a shocking scene.

On the wooden wall at the entrance of the tribe, half of the brown wall was stained red with blood.

Many corpses lay scattered at the entrance of the tribe, and a hill was built up.

The scene in front of me could only be the work of other orcs.

Humans cannot enter the desert, and Balu knows this.

As for the specific tribes of orcs, Balu also had a clear idea. They were the group of orcs that he suppressed with strong methods at that time. They were deeply resentful of him, so they took advantage of this opportunity to attack their own tribe.

At this moment, the other orcs were still confused about the situation, thinking that humans had entered the desert, which made them angry and scared.

They are angry because humans are attacking their young, old, women and children, but they are afraid that if the human army can march into the desert, then their last line of defense will be gone.

Balu looked at the army following him, and he made a decision in his heart.

Since other tribes are unkind, don't blame Balu for being unjust.

With this in mind, he called the soldiers together.

"Warriors! Our tribe has been attacked." After the army gathered together, Balu began his speech to mobilize the emotions of the soldiers.

"They are not humans, but orcs from other tribes who fought with us some time ago!"

As Balu finished these words, the audience was in an uproar.

"Yes, you heard it right. We made a rule at the beginning of our development. The more we fight, the more we gain. We have sacrificed thousands of soldiers, and we deserve the huge amount of loot!"

"As a result, those greedy guys were jealous of our wealth. After they escaped on the battlefield, before I could settle the accounts with them, they invaded our tribe first, killed our relatives, and took away what was originally ours. something.”

"We can't just let them go!" Balu said, raising his arms and shouting. "Fighters, come with me and fight back!"

"Kill back!" In the audience, the emotions of other orc warriors were also aroused at this moment. The low morale caused by the defeat and retreat was instantly swept away, and everything turned into a passion for revenge.

After the speech, Balu walked off the stage and looked at the old orc who was chatting with him before.

"Old senior, this is enough, right?"

"Yeah." The old orc nodded. "The orcs need a king, a king who can unite all the orcs, and you are just the right person to be that person."

At this moment, in the desert, other orc tribes were also fighting over the uneven distribution of spoils. It was hard to imagine that such a large joint group turned against each other instantly after disbanding.

…

Seven days later, at the border between humans and orcs, a man in a white cloak appeared on the edge of the desert.

He raised his head, glanced at the wind and sand in the desert, then looked back at the city behind him, and then took his own steps towards the depths of the desert.

The reason why humans do not enter the desert is because of the special wind and sand climate in the desert.

In this windy and sandy climate, ordinary human soldiers are extremely susceptible to respiratory infections, which can reduce their combat effectiveness and even lose their lives.

The deeper you go into the desert, the more frequent this kind of windy and sandy weather occurs, and in the most severe cases it can even block out the sky and the sun.

At the same time, with the deepening of exploration, the harm of desert wind and sand to the human body is getting stronger and stronger.

Even high-level experts had to spend energy on protection when facing such windy and sandy weather. Under such harsh conditions, it was difficult for humans to survive, let alone fight.

Humans had previously sent an army of 20,000 people deep into the desert in an attempt to annihilate the orcs, but failed. In the end, before this army could penetrate deep into the desert, they were on the side of humans.

Contact was lost, and only one out of ten people who finally escaped returned, and most of them suffered from lung disease and were unable to live a normal life at all.

For this reason, humans have always stayed away from deserts.

The strange thing is that the impact of the wind and sand in the desert on the orcs is almost negligible.

Orcs regard the desert as their natural barrier and usually come out of the desert to attack the border.

But as long as humans send out armies to encircle and suppress themselves, the orcs will retreat to the depths of the desert, waiting for the wind and sand to repel the human army.

And the person who headed against the wind and sand to the depths of the desert was none other than Orson.

Time goes back to a month ago, when help from the Imperial College arrived, Tris brought a gift to Orson.

"This suit of clothes is enchanted with runes that prevent wind and sand. It has a miraculous effect on the climate in the desert. Wearing this suit of clothes, you can go into the desert without worrying about the damage of wind and sand." Tris said.

"But, Teacher Tris, why did you give me this?" Orson looked at Tris and asked doubtfully.

"Don't you want to know the real reason?" Tris said, looking at Orson with a smile. "About the reasons for the formation of the desert, and why the sandstorm alone has an effect on creatures other than orcs."

"Teacher Tris, do you know the reason behind this?"

"Have you forgotten my race? I am a witch with a long lifespan." Tris said, knocking on the table. "Although I can't guarantee that my professional knowledge is better than yours, Orson, when it comes to gossip and various gossips, don't underestimate someone who is older than your grandfather!"

"Is it really okay for you to be so honest about your age..." Orson complained helplessly.

"Ahem, in short, in my memory, someone once explored the secrets of the desert. It is said that there is a palace deep in the desert. The orcs use it as a place to worship their gods. There may be a reason for the formation of the desert. ”

"Then why don't you go by yourself, teacher?" Orson asked.

"Of course that's because the orcs have little to do with me." Tris replied matter-of-factly. "As for you, Orson, you are the one who wants to solve the orc problem the most, right? Don't you want to go to the desert to see it?"

To be honest, Orson really wanted to go there and have a look. After all, he designed the orcs to be in civil strife, and he also wanted to see the current results.

In addition, if we can really understand the reasons for the formation of the desert and find a way to restrain the sandstorm, it seems that we can really eliminate the threat of the orcs in one fell swoop.

"Okay." Orson nodded after hearing this, and then took the clothes from Tris.

This suit looked like a white windproof cloak, and there was nothing particularly praiseworthy about it. However, Tris told herself that it had a miraculous effect on wind and sand, so Orson could only go into the desert with the idea of ​​giving it a try.

As Orson went deeper and deeper into the desert, the surrounding wind and sand became larger and larger, but apart from slightly blocking his vision, Orson felt nothing else.

In other notes on exploring the desert, when encountering wind and sand, even a small amount of sand, the human body will react very strongly.

It seems that this clothes really works.

Thinking this, Orson quickened his pace.

No one has ever drawn a map of the desert. Orson is going to find an orc tribe first and get information about the desert from the orc tribe.

…

It was unknown how long it had been since Orson entered the desert. Orson only knew that he was a little tired from walking, and a wooden wall of a tribe appeared in front of him.

At this moment, the wind and sand had stopped and no longer blocked the view.

Orson approached the tribe and tightened his collar.

In his opinion, orcs would never welcome humans, so he planned to knock out an orc and take him away, forcing him to be his guide.

But when Orson came to the edge of the tribe, climbed up the wooden wall and looked into the tribe, he was stunned.

At this moment, the tribe was not filled with green-skinned orcs like those on the battlefield, nor were they like the tauren who still retained a large number of characteristics of the original race.

All the people in this tribe are half-orcs.

Like the half-orc girl codenamed Lion whom I met in the Imperial City before, the half-orcs here are all similar to humans in appearance, but have animal ears and tails.

Most of these half-orcs are the offspring of the union of orcs and humans, and only a rare number of orcs with primitive racial characteristics can give birth to this race.

The matter of reproductive isolation seems to be more psychedelic in this world. Obviously humans and orcs can be said to be different races, but the half-orcs born are still fertile, and because of the strong genes, the children of half-orcs are also fertile.

Still an orc.

Although their genes are powerful, the living environment of half-orcs is extremely difficult.

As a race caught between orcs and humans, half-orcs are not accepted by either party. Orcs feel that half-orcs are too weak, while humans feel that half-orcs are too barbaric.

Orcs were discriminated against by both parties and could only build a community of their own.

However, half-orcs do not have the strong fertility of orcs, and they are not as numerous as humans. Even if they are in a group, half-orcs will still be bullied by orcs.

There are not many orc communities in the desert.

If a group of orcs with animalistic characteristics headed by tauren account for ten percent of the orc group, then half-orcs can only account for one percent or even less of the orc group at most.

This is because Orcs have never participated in a war against humans. Otherwise, Orcs may even be exterminated.

The tribe in front of him didn't look big. Orson took a rough look and saw that the number of orcs was only about two or three hundred. But even so, it was still a relatively large group of orcs in the desert.

At least half-orcs are easier to talk to than orcs, Orson thought, feeling that he was quite lucky.

He jumped off the wooden wall and came to the door of the tribe again.

Guarding the door of the tribe were two half-orcs with canine characteristics. They saw a creature about the same size as themselves approaching and thought that the other person was also half-orcs like themselves.

After all, orcs are either huge muscular men or small peons.

Of course, the other party was a stranger after all, so the two guards cheered up as usual. One of them stepped forward and glanced at Orson.

"Hello, do you need help?" the orc asked.

"Yes." Orson nodded, "I got lost nearby and I need a map here."

"This..." The guard was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then said: "Sorry, I have to go back and report first. Please wait at the door for a moment."

"Okay, thank you very much." Orson said this and thanked him politely.

After a few minutes, the orc guard came out with an old man with white hair and fox ears.

"Excuse me, are you the leader here?" Orson looked at the other party and asked politely.

"Yes, my name is Arati. What is your name?"

"Ah, my name is...Edward." Orson hesitated for a while and made up a name on the spot.

At first, he wanted to tell himself his name, but considering his identity, if the orc in front of him heard his name, he would probably not be willing to cooperate with him, so he thought of a fake name.