The road to Murtis—the village the bandits were operating out of—snaked across the land to avoid the multitude of chasms along the way, and it felt like we’d barely made any progress by the time we stopped. I considered insisting that we continue on, but from the way Misuin and Elmidath had sat down the moment we paused I assumed they were exhausted. Besides, the ogres had already agreed to stop and I had no interest in arguing with them.
I was looking over at the hulking brutes when Aog waved me over. Much as I’d rather not talk to them, ignoring them would probably only make things worse. Already dreading whatever potentially volatile nonsense they were about to drag me into, I went over to Aog. “What is it?”
Tilting his head back, Aog thoughtfully stroked the tusk protruding from his mouth. “My esteemed companion and I find ourselves short on intellectual stimulation, and we were hoping to ask your opinion of a certain matter that you might enliven things with whatever utter inanity you happen to excrete.”
I knew Aog was insulting me, but I was beyond caring. All I wanted to do was get out of there. “What do you want my opinion on?”
“I desire to know which strikes you as nobler; violence justified by logic or logic justified by violence.”
“Um, neither? What’s noble about violence?”
Gurk let out a deep groan, pounding the ground with his fist. “Do you not see that he comprehends nothing? Asking this imbecile anything beyond the simplest of inquiries is destined to lead to far more frustration than amusement. There are a multitude of better uses to which we could put our time than consulting this intellectual waste pit.”
Unphased, Aog glanced at the other ogre. “That may be so, though it remains to be seen if his contribution, inane as it most surely is, may not spark discussion. After all, is this not a grand opportunity to squarely confront ignorance?”
He turned back to me and hauled himself to his feet. “Now then, allow me to explain the basics. Violence, for all its stark beauty and rich variety, is a quite a simple concept at its core. In essence it is the most effective means for one to impose their will upon the world.” He concluded his explanation with a flourish. “Now then, do you understand the nobility inherent in such an endeavour?”
I sighed. While it would be smarter to just nod along, I didn’t feel like conceding the point. I’d seen too much of violence already to agree to such a thing. “No, I still don’t see how there’s anything noble about it. Violence is inherently destructive and causes much suffering, how could that possibly be described as noble? To be honest, it might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
The ogres stared at me in mute incomprehension, faces
reddening as their rage built. Aog jabbed me with one of
his oversized fingers, sending me staggering back. “Your ignorance is far worse than I had thought even after having experienced the ridiculous notions that spill unwanted from your defective faculties. I had never conceived that your mind might be so tainted by whatever vile foolishness has taken hold of you.”
Gurk lumbered forward, club raised and I stepped back, gripping my sword. “Even if we disagree, we are still allies.”
Gurk halted. “Do not presume to lecture me upon the nature of our relationship, I have not forgotten my commitments. But ally or not, I cannot allow such a travesty to go unavenged. To do so would be to betray everything that is good in the world.”
Keenly aware that he was still holding his club, I licked my lips nervously. “Fine, then let’s talk about this. From what I understand, destruction is anything but noble and yet you clearly disagree. Why is that? What’s so good about it?”
Gurk hurled his club to the ground and struck Aog squarely in the side of the head with his fist. “As you bear the responsibility for bringing this exceptionally moronic individual into this, I will entrust you with the no doubt laborious process of explaining this elementary concept to a simpleton of the highest calibre.”
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Ignoring the blow, Aog scrunched up his face in concentration. “Much as it shames me to admit, I struggle to recall my childhood instruction on the subject. I shall have to make do with my own interpretation and what fragments I can remember.”
I cleared my throat. “If it’s that much of a bother, you don’t have to worry about it.”
Aog sneered at me. “You have enraged me enough for one day, do not attempt to evade my gracious offer of education. Now, on the subject of destruction. It is only through destruction that the errors of the past can be corrected, as well as it being the truest method of self-expression and self-actualization. Surely even you can see the nobility in that.”
“Uh-huh, and what about all the suffering that comes along with destruction?”
“Suffering is of vital importance. It keeps those of weak conviction in subservience, where they belong, while providing a catalyst for the righteous to improve themselves even further.”
I winced; trying to comprehend the ogre’s insane logic was making my head hurt. There was clearly nothing to be gained from arguing with him, but something in me just couldn’t bear to let his awful proclamations go unchallenged. “That’s a load of crap. No one wants to suffer, so how can causing suffering be righteous?”
“The wants of lower beings are of no importance. If they lack the conviction and wit to elevate themselves, then they are worth nothing more than the dirt beneath our feet.” Aog stomped his foot for emphasis and the parched ground crumbled beneath his heel.
So that was it then, I don’t know why it took me so long to realize it. Back on Earth I didn’t believe it even existed but here it was; pure evil. I couldn’t think of any other way to describe the ogre’s convictions. And with the realization, the desire to argue with them any further left me. “I see. You’ve given me a lot to think about, we’ll have to talk about this again later once I’ve had a chance to properly consider what you’ve said.”
The words rang hollow in my ears, but they seemed to placate the ogres. Free of their odorous presence, I walked purposefully toward Elmidath.
“We need to get rid of the ogres.”
She crossed her arms and sighed. “Why? What have they done now?”
“It’s not that they’ve done anything exactly, though I’m sure they’ll do something terrible sooner or later. They’re just horrible creatures; we never should have brought them with us in the first place.”
Glancing in the ogres’ direction, Elmidath beckoned me further away from them. “What makes you say that? They’re certainly distasteful, but I don’t recall you having this much of a problem with them before.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I just had other things on my mind. But now that I’ve talked with them more, I understand just how terrible they are.”
Elmidath pressed her lips together. “You’re putting me in a difficult position here. You realise how short we are on allies, right?”
“I know.”
“And for their flaws, the ogres have been relatively loyal, haven’t they?”
“They have. But it doesn’t change my opinion, at this point I’d rather fail without them than succeed with their help.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“I do.”
The demon lord shook her head. “I don’t understand, how bad can they be? Did they do something to you?” She looked me over, presumably checking if I was injured.
“Not exactly. I just can’t stand to be on the same side as them any longer.”
“We don’t have that kind of freedom right now. Since when did you care so much about our allies anyway? You didn’t seem to have a problem with any of the others.”
“I barely thought about it to be honest. I know I should have, but it was all too much at the time. I should have thought about it then, and that’s all the more reason why things need to change this time.”
Brushing aside an errant strand of hair, Elmidath met my gaze. “If you’re so intent on thinking about this, then think about how little sense throwing away one of our last resources makes. You’d really jeopardise everything we’ve worked for just because you don’t like them?”
I grit my teeth, trying to keep my anger in check. “If that’s all it was, I never would have mentioned it. I don’t know how much you understand the concept, but they are evil; plain and simple. Nothing good can come from having them on our side.”
“Things aren’t as simple as that, I thought you’d at least have learnt that by now. Do you really think this is the right time to be worrying about them being ‘evil’? We can’t expect to get anything done if we’ll let something like that stop us.”
Much as I tried to understand where Elmidath was coming from, by that logic wasn’t she almost as bad as the ogres? We’d already had to do some terrible things and there was a good chance it would only get worse from here. What was I supposed to do then? Abandon Elmidath? Just do whatever was necessary regardless of if it was right? There had to be a better option.
“Fine, I guess I’ll have to accept that we can’t get rid of them immediately. But as soon as we have other allies to take their place, we cut them loose, alright?” It wasn’t much, but at least it would show Elmidath cared even the slightest bit about doing the right thing.
“If you insist then I have no problem with that. The ogres were too unpredictable for my liking anyway.”
That, at least, was something we could agree on. Morality aside, it was dangerous even to keep them around.