Living in another world as an Oni!

Chapter 29: The Goons Back Home

Chapter 29: Chapter 29: The Goons Back Home

Author's Pov:

In the distance, nestled in a clearing surrounded by a forest of tree and a river just a few kilometers away, lay a small yet chaotic monster village. It was the perfect spot—a sanctuary for ogres, lizardmen, imps, that society had deemed too terrifying or troublesome.

The village had been peaceful. Well, as peaceful as a village of unruly monsters could be. That is, until Scarface, the current stand-in leader, found himself grappling with an unforeseen crisis.

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Scarface was an ogre of impressive size, an intimidating scar bisecting his face, and a personality that screamed, I just want to hit things, not manage a village.

All he had ever wanted was to lead his people to glory and then die a legendary death—preferably against some overconfident human hero.

Instead, here he was, babysitting a ragtag group of monsters while their real leader, Aria the pint-sized runt, was off having fun in who-knows-where.

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Scarface's day took a turn for the worse when Shine, the overly zealous scout, came barreling into the village.

"Chief! Chief!" Shine yelled, skidding to a stop in the middle of the clearing. His tail flailing around, narrowly missing an imp.

"What now?" Scarface growled, his patience already wearing thin.

"Humans! From the north! They've set up camp near the river!" Shine declared, saluting sharply.

Scarface groaned. Of course, it had to be humans. "How close?"

"Close enough to smell their campfires," Gorn replied.

The imps started murmuring, their mischievous eyes glinting with excitement.

Scarface raised a hand to silence them. "What else?"

Shine puffed out his chest, clearly relishing the attention. "It's a merchant team! There's a party of armed adventurers with them— 5 females. And one of the females is dressed just like a merchant."

Scarface frowned. He remembered there being a merchant that the little runt told him in passing before, saying that if she meets one again she could have bought more things for the village.

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Scarface gathered his "council," which consisted of the largest lizardmen, the loudest imps, and the most bored ogres, around a crude wooden table in the center of the village.

"We're going to talk to them," Scarface announced, his deep voice booming across the clearing.

The adventurers didn't lower their weapons.

The merchant—a young woman with a wide-brimmed hat and an annoyingly cheerful expression—stepped forward. "What do you want?"

Scarface cleared his throat. "We heard you're a merchant. We're interested in trading."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Trading? With monsters?"

Scarface nodded. "We need materials. And maybe some of that... shiny stuff humans like to carry around."

"You mean gold?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, that."

The adventurers exchanged skeptical looks, but the merchant seemed intrigued. "Alright. What do you have to offer?"

Scarface blinked. He hadn't thought this far ahead.

"Uh..."

The imps began whispering frantically behind him. Finally, Tink piped up. "We've got some really shiny rocks! And, uh, mushrooms! Lots of mushrooms!"

"Mushrooms?" the merchant repeated, looking unimpressed.

"They're very tasty!" Tink insisted.

"And we have weapons!" Gorn added, holding up a crudely made spear. "Very sharp!"

The merchant tapped her chin, considering. "Alright. Let's see what you've got."

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By the time the negotiation was over, Scarface felt both relieved and exhausted.

The humans left with lots of monster-made trinkets, and the monsters gained several sacks of grain, some shiny human tools, and a promise from the merchant to return with more goods in 4-5 days. Humans couldn't be trusted so after they left Scarface told the lizardmen and Imps scout further, to see if they brought some "friends" with them later.

As they watched the humans disappear into the distance, Tink grinned. "See? That went great!"

Scarface sighed. "Let's just hope the boss doesn't kill us for selling her 'shiny rocks.'"

The village erupted in laughter, and for the first time in days, Scarface felt like maybe—just maybe—he wasn't completely terrible at this leadership thing.