As Owen came closer, Lakrak wrote down characters that he himself, Zaol, and a lot of the other Lizardmen in his clan had created and shared with each other. Then he explained the meanings to Owen. These primitive characters were very simple, and there weren’t that many. Owen was smart enough to quickly memorize all of them.

‘They’re not just simple scribbles…or hunting marks. You can combine them to express a different meaning. Just like talking.’

Lakrak then said to Owen, who was quietly listening to the explanations, “Isn’t this fun? My clan and I made it together.”

“...It is fun. I don’t know if it’s useful though.”

“It’s definitely useful. We call these things ‘writings’, and you have to know their meanings to understand what is being written.”

“Why are you saying such an obvious…”

Owen trailed off, realizing what Lakrak’s words meant.

‘He’s saying that I, who just learned them, and Lakrak himself know what the characters mean, but the other Frogmen wouldn’t know. Did this black scaled Lizardman want to have a private meeting so that he could tell me this? …Why?’

It seemed as if Lakrak had read his mind.

“Because of trust, Owen.”

“.....”

“The things we talked about earlier, the conversation we had about building trust—it wasn’t between you and me, but between me, Lakrak, representing the Lizardmen tribe, and Auloi, representing the Frogmen tribe. However, the real trust I want to have is between you and me.”

“...Haha. Is there really a need for that? I’m just someone in between the Frogmen and you, the black scaled Lizardmen who…”

Lakrak shook his head.

“We have exchanged trust today, but I do not trust the Frogmen. I don’t believe anything you said about them. I actually believe that there is a lot more you are hiding and not telling me.”

“T…then, is everything that we talked about today a lie?”

“No. I can swear on everything I have that my name and everything about my clan is all true.”

Lakrak said these words with his eyes wide open, and Owen could see from those eyes that this warrior and tribal chief had a strong sense of pride, and that he’d only told the truth. Owen wouldn’t have been able to say that about himself though.

Lakrak relaxed his facial expression and said, “The important thing is the trust between you and me.”

“How so?”

“You have the face of someone who is suffering.”

“Do I?”

“Yes.”

Owen unconsciously touched his face. As Lizardmen had long snouts, they weren’t a species known for their wide range of facial expressions.

“I know much about suffering. Me and my clan know very well what it's like being pushed aside and kicked out. I saw that in you,” said Lakrak.

“Oh.”

Owen exclaimed without realizing it and quickly shook his head.

“No. I am not suffering.”

“Only those who actually suffer say that.”

There was silence between the two.

Lakrak lightly spun the wooden stick in his hand and said, “Well then, there are a few more. This means ‘no’ or ‘refusal’.”

Lakrak wrote on the ground.

X

“And this means ‘lie’ or ‘fake’.”

As Lakrak moved his hand, another character was written below the X.

√

Owen blinked.

“If you put these two closely together…” Owen muttered. “It says, ‘It’s not a lie.’ Thus it is true.”

“Oh, wait a second. I’ve never thought about it like that. You’re smart, aren’t you?”

“...Also, what you wrote before…”

Owen gave Lakrak a few ideas, and Lakrak thought it was a valuable discovery. Owen found this moment strangely joyful and fun, but he realized his voice was shaking. He hadn’t had a moment like this since getting enslaved by the Frogmen, where he was so immersed in using his intellectual capabilities. It was the feeling wise individuals would get when they discovered a valuable innovation for their civilization. As Owen was telling his ideas to Lakrak, he vaguely thought to himself, ‘I wish time would just stop right now.’

But that didn’t happen. Lakrak slightly raised his head at the sound of movement.

“The time we spent was helpful. Oboi has been hanging around over there though. Shall we head back?”

“...Yes.”

Owen watched Lakrak’s back get farther away after getting to his feet. Hesitating, he barely managed to say to Lakrak, “Is there nothing else you want to talk about?”

“Yes. I believe that trust has been shared between us two. And I’ve already seen the signals.”

“Signals?”

Lakrak didn’t say anything further and simply smiled with his teeth showing. Owen could sense that there was something behind Lakrak’s appearance of confidence, but he couldn’t tell exactly what that was.

***

“Good work, Owen.”

“T-That was nothing.”

“This is a significant accomplishment, especially just for a single bow.”

Owen bowed to Shunen.

Lakrak had told Owen almost everything about his clan and their village. That alone was already a great accomplishment, but Lakrak even talked about trust and invited Shunen and a few of the Frogmen warriors to his village. At first, Oboi thought it might be a trap, but that wasn’t the case. The Frogmen warriors weren’t able to go too far into the village, but they managed to confirm that everything Lakrak had said was true.

“I never thought he would come to trust us this much. A lot of it is thanks to you.”

“Thank you.”

“Tell me what it is you want.”

Owen gulped.

“I’m...not sure if you remember the agreement we made last time…”

“Agreement? What was it?”

Owen wanted to strike the Frogman in front of him for his bad memory, but held himself back.

“If I succeeded in doing something big, you said you would allow my child to come out of the island and live with me…”

“Ohh, that. Hm, okay. I’ll allow it.”

Shunen nodded.

“Oboi will oppose this, but I can probably convince my father. I always thought it was necessary to show you Lizardmen that if you obey us well—no, not only obey, but if you serve us well, there will be times where good things can happen.”

“T-Thank you.”

Owen’s heart was full as he felt that his long cherished dream had finally come true. And somewhere in his mind he also thought of Lakrak. He thought of Lakrak, the writings that Lakrak had shown him, and the conversations they had about the different characters.

‘...Even though he’s a tribal chief and he’s confident, he won’t be able to win against this many Frogmen and the Two-Headed Fiend.’

In Owen’s head, he thought that it would be hard for the 30 Lizardmen warriors to even make a small scratch on the Two-Headed Fiend’s scales.

‘They mentioned they’ve caught a huge monster before, but that kind of news is nothing to those who see a real monster all the time in their everyday life.’

Lakrak had brought a big and hard piece of the Ancient Beetle’s shell to the barter, but the Frogmen saw little value in it. Disappointed, Lakrak didn’t go ahead with the exchange.

‘It might have been an object that a vagrant traded saying it was valuable. Frogmen also have lots of those kinds of things. Fangs the size of a forearm or leather that doesn’t rot. They are fascinating objects, but they don’t really have any value…’

In other words, while Lakrak did seem more thoughtful than Owen first assumed, he still believed Lakrak was a naive chief.

‘You should have been more suspicious and taken caution. You shouldn’t trust someone like me.’

Owen thought he had made up his mind.

‘Shouldn’t have believed someone like me.’

However, Owen looked at the island in the middle of the lake at night and picked up a wooden stick.

‘...Why does he want to trust me? I’m nothing but a trickster.’

He then began writing on the ground.

***

Shunen was in a good mood the day Lakrak and his warriors came to the Frogmen’s village.

“Welcome, friend.”

“Thanks for inviting us. I hope to deepen the friendship between our tribes through today’s gathering.”

“I agree.”

Shunen took warriors with him to the front of the Frogmen tribe’s village to greet Lakrak and his warriors. Oboi, who refused to lower his suspicions to the end, kept saying that Shunen had to bring 30 warriors with him to greet the Lizardmen, which left Shunen a bit dissatisfied. Fortunately, it seemed to Shunen that Lakrak did not suspect a thing.

“Oh, I hope you’re not upset that we came armed. You made us scared after telling us about the Cockatrice, so a few of our warriors insisted that we should be armed. It would have been a problem should we run into something like it on the way here without our weapons, right?” said Lakrak.

“Oh, I understand.”

Shunen laughed on the inside.

‘Stupid Lizardman. I already told you that a spear like yours wouldn’t be enough to do anything to a Cockatrice.’

It was also pointless for the Lizardmen to be armed with three of four spears because the Frogmen used bows. The Lizardmen would only be able to throw the spears three or four times, but the Frogmen each carried around ten arrows each.

‘I’ll get you all drunk in the middle of the banquet hall, and then we’ll shoot poison arrows into your backs.’

The Frogmen hadn’t shown the Lizardmen that, but they also carried secret weapons around their waists other than their quivers of arrows. These secret weapons were living poisonous frogs. Neurotoxins were secreted from the backs of these poisonous frogs, and applying some of the poison to an arrow would grant it a strong paralyzing effect.

Shunen felt happy at the thought of the big black Lizardman in front of him helplessly collapsing.

‘Father will finally be satisfied.’

There was a truth that Shunen hadn’t told Owen about. The Frogmen tribe was largely divided into three areas around the lake. One was where the lower ranked Frogmen that weren’t warriors or elders lived alongside the grayish-brown scaled Lizardmen to keep them encircled and under surveillance. Another area was the island where the Lizardmen children to be sacrificed were, along with the Frogmen that watched over them. And the last area was on the opposite side of the lake, where Auloi, the elders, and the warrior Frogmen and their families lived.

‘It’s good that the disease hasn’t spread a lot among the lower ranked Frogmen. Father isn’t the only issue now.’

This illness they called the itching disease was known to cause white fluid to secrete out from the body, and it had spread throughout the village where higher ranked Frogmen lived. There were already some deaths. The disease had claimed ten warriors, and another ten were suffering from it. This disease was oddly more fatal for the young and healthier individuals.

For the most part, if the Frogmen hadn’t lived divided into two villages, the remaining Lizardmen not on the island would have noticed. Shunen didn’t take his eyes off of Lakrak and his warriors for a second to make sure there were no disruptions to their plan.

Lakrak then asked when he was invited over to the banquet hall in the middle of the village, “Right, now that I think of it, where’s Owen?”

“I left Owen to prepare the banquet… Let’s see…there he is. Owen! Owen! Huh, it seems he can’t hear me because he’s too far away. What is he doing?”

“It seems he’s drawing something on the ground.”

“Oh, I got it. It looks like he’s deciding where everyone should sit. Smell the food and the smoke coming from over there. Go have a seat, and say hi to Owen.”

“I’ll do that.”

“I’m gonna go check if the food is being prepared well for a moment.”

At those words, Shunen left, and Lakrak led his warriors to the banquet. Owen and ten Frogmen warriors were waiting.

“Owen.”

“You’ve arrived, Lakrak.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve marked the places you may sit at. Once you and your warriors take a seat, the banquet to celebrate peace and friendship between our two tribes will begin.”

Lakrak nodded and looked at the character Owen had drawn on each seat.

√

√

√

…

Lakrak said while looking behind, “Yur.”

“Yes, chief.”

“Start.”

“Okay.”

Yur pulled out the spear strapped to his waist. His actions were so natural and slick that the Frogmen surrounding the Lizardmen at the banquet didn’t even notice what was going on.

Then Yur said, “Bone Warriors, kill all the Frogmen.”

The sharp spear in Yur’s hand flew across the air like a lightning bolt and pierced a Frogmen warrior’s head.