NOVEL FROG Chapter 713 – Sneaking through Blind Spots
“No matter how much people like to boast, such a thing as security or surveillance without any blind spots does not exist. There is always a flaw, somewhere, that someone or something will exploit in the worst way possible at the worst possible time. That is just how life goes.” - Harald Haraldssen, former mercenary.
“We’re definitely not taking the beaten path to the north, are we?” asked Kino while slicing her way through the bushes, undergrowth, and low-hanging branches that were in her way. The group was cutting their way through a forest as they approached the northernmost borders of the Clangeddin Empire, and it had been a couple days since they last saw any signs of civilization.
“Saves time and trouble this way,” replied Aideen as she followed behind Kino. Kino’s void magic was just the most convenient tool the group had for clearing the way, given its unparalleled keenness and ability to carve into literally anything. “There’s still ongoing hostility between the Empire and the northern orcs, so any guards stationed by the forts near the borders would have questions if they saw us crossing over to the plains.”
“It saves us time and saves them trouble if we just directly avoid the areas with the forts and make our way to the north on our own instead,” she continued. “And besides if we take this route we should emerge at a point that will conveniently allow us to sneak between the territories of two of the clans that dwell closer to the south.”
“We could thread the line between their territories and avoid trouble that way until we reach the territory of the Beastfangs. That’s the clan Celia and I lived in for several decades back during my first trip. If any of the orcs still remember us, it would be them,” added Aideen after a moment. “If they do remember us, that would make things a lot easier.”
“It should be several generations for them already, no?” asked Celia from the back of the group.
“Yeah. They live up to seventy, maybe eighty years naturally. Nobody that was around back when we were there should still be alive, other than some who came from the Greentusks originally since many of them have elven blood,” replied Aideen. “Come to think of it, little Miro might still be around. He was an apprentice shaman back when we left so maybe he already made shaman now? He was a quarter elf if I remember right.”
The Miro in question was a young grandson to Andromarche, a female Imperial knight who was taken captive during the first expedition and assimilated into the orcish lifestyle, to the point of fighting on their side against the second expedition. Aideen had helped the woman get used to the local lifestyle back then, so they had quite a close relationship.
Of course, Andromarche was already in her late age by the time Aideen and Celia left the plains back then, but one of her children happened to marry a half-elf from clan Greentusk and moved there. Miro was a child of said couple that garnered the interest of the Beastfang’s shaman at that time since the child was clever and studious for his age, and took him in as an apprentice.
Such practices were common, with people marrying into other clans and later having their children return to their home clan in some capacity. It was even encouraged, as it helped diversify and mix the bloodlines between the various clans and prevent stagnation. The orcs of the north might not be educated in the dangers of excessive inbreeding, but they had some old customs that were clearly designed to prevent such a situation from taking place at all.
Even for Aideen herself, such knowledge like the dangers of inbreeding was relatively recent. Something she observed over generations with the livestock being raised in the Lichdom. It was common practice to have a choice stud fertilize large amounts of female livestock to ensure that the next generation would inherit the good qualities of the parent, but over several generations, especially in cases where the stud was not changed or was changed to one of its own offspring, defects started to become far more common than normal amongst the younger ones.
It was from there that they traced the culprit to inbreeding, the mixing of the same stock over too many generations, specifically. While it did work well with making the desirable qualities of the stock more pronounced, it also did the same to the undesirable qualities. Defects that normally happen to one in a thousand started happening to one in a hundred, or even one in ten in the worst cases.
Since that discovery the ranchers in Ptolodecca made it a habit to trade around their studs so as to diversify the breeding stock and to avoid the situation from happening again, but the study was recent, something that happened only in the decade prior to Aideen’s current visit to the north. As such, it had not had the time needed to be widespread yet. Some regions of the Jarldom and Elmaiya had learned of it, but not many others have had the privilege.
Aideen did drop a copy of the notes from said research with the branch of the healer’s guild – the movement she started centuries ago – at Knallgant, and gave Engel another copy to disseminate. Given a few more years the knowledge should be widespread in Knallzog and start to spread to the neighboring nations as well.
It might unintentionally draw criticism to the Clangeddin Imperial family, now that Aideen thought about it, since they had a habit of marrying within the family, typically taking consorts from amongst their own first and second cousins, but that was none of Aideen’s business. It was the choice they made themselves, so it was only fair that they reaped the results as well.
Granted, it was easier to put the issue out of her mind now that the group had left Clangeddin territory and was closing towards the northern plains where the orcs lived instead.
