Chương 26: Chapter 25 The Beautiful Game

Fortunately, the romantic rivalry among the women did not last very long. It was not because the members of their beautiful primitive community set aside their differences and achieved harmony like characters in a children's story. The well simply began running out of water. During the summer immediately after the monsoon, the well had overflowed with water. However, the monster-infested forest was not a place where water remained abundant throughout the entire year.

As winter approached, the water level gradually fell. The women continued bathing with soap despite the decline, eventually forcing the chief to intervene. Grild limited the amount of water each household could use, which naturally restricted the number of times anyone could bathe. As winter drew closer, the remaining water in the well also froze. Breaking the ice would have been simple enough, but before doing that, the tribe began construction work.

Until then, they had used the well as it was because it had remained full of water. In truth, however, it was still nothing more than a hole the children had dug with shovels. While the water level remained low, the orcs reinforced and improved the well. The adults continued hunting and performing their other duties as usual, while the underage orcs trained with Karath. Amid that routine, another year passed as swiftly as an arrow.

Nearly half a year had passed since Karath turned ten, and the tribe's second monsoon since constructing the drainage ditches had already swept through the settlement. The rains filled the well again, just as they had the previous year. Karath had also grown considerably larger. He was called ten years old, but the orcs counted only completed years, which meant he was actually approaching eleven.

Orcs also matured faster than humans, so he had already reached around one hundred and sixty centimeters, roughly the height of an American seventh or eighth grader. Considering the broad width of his shoulders, his overall build rivaled that of many high school students. Middle school was also around the age when a person's facial features began settling into their final shape.

"Keh heh heh. That delicate-looking boy is supposed to become the next chief?"

"He might look scrawny, but he is the strongest among those his age! Strength is all that matters! Krahahaha!" The adults occasionally exchanged jokes like those while discussing Karath's appearance. He could not agree with them at all. Words such as delicate and scrawny applied only by orc standards. When Karath studied his reflection in the full well, his face did not look weak in the slightest. By human standards, he appeared extremely masculine.

Ignoring the green skin and protruding tusks, his features resembled those of the rugged men often described as looking like wild beasts. He had that kind of face despite being only ten years old. Back in America, some women might have found such heavy features and an intense expression intimidating. As a male evaluating his own appearance, however, Karath was thoroughly satisfied. To be honest, he might even have been more handsome than Arnold had been in his former life.

He could only hope that the second maturation awaiting him would not ruin everything. There was one problem. If Karath resembled a wild man, the average adult male orc resembled an actual wild beast.

"Karath is a little ugly, but he is still cool!" Among the orcs, masculine beauty was judged by how terrifying a male looked. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Karina, ability matters more than appearance in a male! Karath will become chief someday, so you should try to win him over." Karath could hear every word, despite Aunt Gairin's attempt to console Karina after the girl called him ugly. Karina was the one Karath would reject. In truth, it was not only Karina. After living as an orc for ten years, he had grown accustomed to their appearances. He even found them cute on occasion, and kissing one on the cheek might not have been impossible.

Anything beyond that was different. He had lived as an orc for only ten years, while his human life had lasted thirty-four. The possibility of choosing an orc as a mate still failed to appeal to him. A terrible image almost entered his mind, and Karath hurriedly shook his head.

"Karath! We are playing that again today, right?" As he tried to drive away the horrifying thought, Krog approached and shouted excitedly. Just as Karath and the settlement had changed over the previous year, the children who played with him had also changed. Most of the hulking older boys who had trained with him had been thirteen or fourteen. By now, the majority had undergone their coming-of-age ceremonies and begun performing the settlement's adult duties.

Meanwhile, the boys who had been eleven or twelve when Karath first began brawling had undergone their second maturation and transformed into the settlement's new group of hulking adolescents. Krog had joined them as well. He had been the first child Karath ever fought. Perhaps because he had learned so much from being beaten more often than anyone else, Krog displayed the greatest talent among their age group aside from Karath himself.

"That?"

"Yes! Football!" Krog smiled brightly. The game he called football was the same sport that had existed on Earth. Karath had not spent the previous year doing nothing but managing construction, making soap, and idly playing around. He had continued creating various objects that could be produced within a primitive society. Yet life did not require every invention to serve a practical purpose. Paintings, music, novels, films, and the games Karath had once loved creating all brought people enjoyment.

People called such things culture. As a former game developer, Karath wanted to introduce something cultural to the orcs, even if he lacked the tools to produce an actual video game. He possessed no talent for music or visual art, so he considered what could be created easily in a primitive society. Football had been the answer. A ball could be made from the carcasses of monsters brought back by the hunters, while nearby branches and vines were enough to construct goals.

Of course, the football played in the Bloodclaw settlement differed slightly from the sport Karath remembered. Bang!

"Guh!"

"Damn it! Why is that bastard's body so tough?" Their version was combat football in the truest sense.

"Oh! Krog just kicked Karis in the face!"

"Krahahaha! Geor will be proud of his son!" The adults watched with pleased smiles as the young orcs who would someday protect the settlement crashed into one another. Bang!

"Grah!" The children continued slamming their entire bodies together while competing for possession of the ball. Every face was filled with pure delight.

"Take it from him!"

"Grab him!" Their cheerful shouting continued.

"Kill that bastard!" That seemed slightly excessive. Regardless of whether it was football or American football, the newly created combat sport had become the most popular training exercise among both the children and the adults watching them.

"Karath has the ball!"

"Everyone, get him!" The moment Karath gained possession, every young orc playing against him charged in alarm. He paid them no attention. Calmly controlling the ball, Karath sprinted forward. Kaden, who was three years older than him, rushed in to stop him. Karath shifted his upper body slightly toward the left and made a false step in the same direction. Then he knocked the ball aside with his right foot and slipped past Kaden. He had combined a body feint with a move known as La Croqueta, or the phantom dribble.

"Kaden, you idiot!" Krog cursed at his cousin after Karath broke through his defense in an instant. Kaden would probably beat his younger cousin after the match, but that was hardly important at the moment. Karath evaded the next defenders with a Marseille turn, another phantom dribble, several simple body feints, and bursts of speed after knocking the ball ahead. Then he drove the ball directly into the goal. This was the feeling he had been missing. Karath ran toward his teammates and performed a celebration.

He had never realized football could be this enjoyable. During his life as Arnold, he had possessed terrible coordination and rarely played. His memories of the sport were mostly unpleasant. Senior soldiers had dragged him into compulsory games while he served in the Army, then berated him for playing badly despite being the ones who forced him to participate. There had been little enjoyment in those matches. Because of that, Arnold had watched football only occasionally, usually during the World Cup.

He knew the rules and techniques mostly because he enjoyed football games and comics. The orc body named Karath, however, ignored common sense. Whenever Karath imagined a movement clearly, his body followed the image. He had already begun enjoying physical activities after reincarnating, and football increased that pleasure even further.

"Kill him! If Karath gets the ball, just kick him!"

"We have been kicking at him! That bastard keeps dodging!" The sport was admittedly different from the football he remembered. Karath continued playing with the hulking adolescent orcs for some time.

"Hraaaagh!" Kaden, who still refused to give up on the match, threw himself toward a ball flying through the air. Bang! He twisted his body in midair and struck it with a scissor kick. Kaden was imitating the technique Karath had demonstrated during a match several days earlier. His ability to reproduce the movement after seeing it only once was astonishing. The result was considerably less impressive.

"Kaden! Why did you kick it over there?"

"Aaagh! We are doomed!" The ball soared over the crude stone wall Karath had constructed the previous summer and continued maintaining ever since.

"Ah..." The moment it disappeared from sight, every young orc stared at the wall with a devastated expression. It was the only football in the settlement. Making another one would be difficult. Karath looked toward the place where it had vanished, his face filled with regret. Producing a replacement required specific materials, and the settlement currently had none. There was no guarantee the hunters would soon return with a monster suitable for making another ball.

"Karath, could you go and bring it back?" Krog looked at him with desperate hope.