My Reincarnation as a Chicken

Chapter 327 The Ice Oni

After collecting the three weapons from the dungeon, we decided to return to the West. Of course, I’d come back to check up on Project CATH and all the other goodies in the dungeon, but I wanted to do something before I forgot.

As soon as the dungeon was conquered, Julian was able to regenerate, so he was perfectly fine. Back outside, I couldn’t find the ice oni reincarnator. Turns out he’d woken up while I was fighting the automaton and was already on his way back to his village. We easily caught up to him, though.

“P-Please spare me!”

He cried something like that.

I had no intention of killing him, of course. It’s just that it was finally time to do it. Ever since my return, Alpha’s odd actions and words had been bugging me. I knew there was more to this whole reincarnation bit, but I didn’t want to pry too much into something messy.

There was no point now. Everything was already messy, what with the war on our doorsteps. There was no harm in digging a little bit into what exactly that being was doing and why it was, right?

Also…

“Hey, do you want to return to Earth?”

“Waa…. E-excuse me?”

Finally coming out of his cowering position, the ice oni asked.

“Earth. You know of Earth, right?”

He remained frozen for a bit. With how crystalline his features were, I almost believed he’d actually turned into ice, but there was no fooling me, hehe. With a little bit of aura release, he broke free from his blank state and returned to his rightful place in the food hierarchy.

“Yes! I come from t-there! My name is Kanata Suzuki, 16 years old, male! I don’t know how I ended up here; please don’t kill me!”

He kowtowed before me, laying bare his very soul.

“Yes! Bow lowe-”

I kicked Julian as hard as I could, sending him miles away from where we stood. The force was so strong that the mountain shook. Somewhere on the floor level, there was going to be an avalanche, and it wasn’t my problem.

‘God, I love not being weak!’

The oni, Kanata-san, was still shaking, trying his hardest not to upset me.

I went down on one knee and offered him a hand with a bright smile.

“My name back on Earth is Kuromiya Akira, 15 years old, and despite my current appearance, also male. Pleasure to meet you.”

“K-Kuromiya Akira… as in that Kuromiya-san?!”

He jumped up, eyes wide open with shock.

“That Kuromiya?”

“You were friends with Miyamura-san, right?”

“Ken? That’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.”

I scratched the back of my neck and decided to really think back on it. Why exactly hadn’t I given Ken much thought? He was my best friend, right? Or was it [Evolver] again…

“Wait, how do you even know Ken? Or me.”

“Oh, it’s me. Kanata-san.”

He pointed his finger at his monstrous face like it was supposed to ring some bells for me.

“You know, Clumsy Kanata? Girly Kanata? Ghost Kanata? Worthless Kanata? Oh, oh, you’ve definitely heard of Dumb Kanata. No? Wimp? Glasses-kun?”

He kept listing his various nicknames, none of which sounded familiar. Though, if these really were his nicknames, he was better off dying and coming into this new world. He really needed better friends than the ones he had on Earth.

“Listen. I don’t remember much from when I was on Earth.”

I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Oh…”

He seemed to understand.

“Considering how strong you are and how mature you look, you must have spent at the very least a couple of decades in this world. I’m in my 8th year, and it’s been going great.”

“You’ve been here for 8 years?!”

“Yeah. Pretty small compared to you, huh? What monsters have you been fighting to get so strong? Is that kid from before also another reincarnator? Why do you look like a gravure model? Is that kid actually Miyamura san?”

I covered his lips.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re annoying?”

‘My parents did. A lot. But that was about it. Everyone else just beat me up.’

“No.”

He shook his head, telling a bold-faced lie. Well, I couldn’t blame him. That wasn’t something I’d tell just anyone, even if I’d been talking to them for over a year.

“Can we talk somewhere else? The brat will be here soon.”

Julian was approaching fast, and I could tell he was going to say something really stupid.

“We can go to my p-”

“My place is close by. It’s just a small village. Over there, we can talk more and catch up.”

“Catch up?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Huh. You do realise it’s a dude in here, right?”

I’d caught him ogling at me.

“Of course.”

My face grimaced at the image he was having in his head. This guy was bad news. Still, he clearly didn’t have the ability to give me any problems. It may have sounded cocky, but there was nothing in this entire zone that scared me enough to make me believe he could do something to me.

So, with all of that in mind, I entertained his request.

I flew us over to his place.

“Small village, my ass!”

This asshole had an entire city hidden up here in the mountains. Goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres of the winter variety lived freely within the confines of the ice blocks that served as walls for the cities. The houses were a bunch of igloos, with some of them being well-crafted wood and stone buildings. The largest of which was a massive fortress being built into the mountain wall.

I counted a total of 320 total members roaming freely. Not a massive number, but they were certainly living in lavish conditions for goblins.

“Well, we have to defend ourselves from outside threats. The Winter Emperor and his goons won’t just let us roam free; you know?”

‘Winter Emperor?’

I located him immediately. It was a dragon that rested in the heart of the mountain.

Kanata-san pointed at the fortress as being his home, so I flew us down there quickly, where we were faced with two guards—ogres.

“Mama.”

He walked up to one of the ogres. She gulped as he drew near. I couldn’t blame her. I was big, about the size of the average ogre, maybe bigger, but Kanata-san still towered above me.

“M-Master!”

“Where’s Joe?”

“H-He was hung-”

“So what?! You two are supposed to be together at all times. Joe Mama. That’s the joke!”

“S-Sorry.”

“Whatever.”

He pushed the ogress aside and marched forward. I quietly followed behind. The inside of the fortress was nothing impressive. Just a standard hallway, with the upper floors being held up by pillars. There were a lot of loud sounds coming from the back—most likely the workers upgrading the building.

A few winter goblins came forward, swarming Kanata-san’s feet like cute, well, ugly, puppies. They couldn’t say any words but jumped around him with glee, like happy children do.

‘Filthy mutts. Who let them out?’

Hey!

“Little ones!”

A hobgoblin came forward with a menacing glare. Her face looked angry, but she gave off the vibe of a terrified person.

“Mami-chan. What did we say about the little ones?”

“I-I apologise. I’ll send them back to their pen.”

Saying this, she grabbed a bunch of the goblins and forced them away. Those she couldn’t grab, she kicked away from Kakeru.

“Quite a few named monsters, huh? You must have used a lot of exp for these guys.”

“Yeah, but 8 years is enough time to name a few monsters.”

“Lord Kakeru.”

Another winter hobgoblin with a generous chest jumped on his back from the ceiling, hugging him tightly.

“Ha, Akemi-chan. I told you not to be playing around like that.”

“I wanted to surprise.”

She pouted, a little bit saddened that she got a scolding.

“Where are Madoka-chan and Sayaka-chan?”

My otaku senses were tingling, and not the good kind of otaku senses, but I couldn’t figure out why.

“They are still waiting for your mercy.”

“That so? Tell them to wait some more. A friend of mine has come.”

“Okie dokie.”

‘Okie dokie?’

The girl jumped off his back and ran past me, but not without throwing a disgusted sneer my way. I shrugged it off.

“Friendly one.”

“Oh, don’t mind her. She’s the only one amongst my wives that’s so cheeky.”

“Wives?”

“Yes. I have 4. I bet you got yourself some husbandos with that bod-”

“Not into men.”

I cut him off.

“What’d she mean by mercy?”

“Oh, that is, um, it isn’t important.”

As all people do, he unconsciously thought of it. And I was unfortunate enough to see what the hell he meant by it.

‘Ew.’

‘That’s disgusting.’

“Y-Yeah…”

That definitely wasn’t something I wanted to talk about. But I was interested in something else.

“Are all your wives hobgoblins?”

“You expect me to get with the goblins and ogres instead?”

Goblins aside, the ogres were pretty fine. In fact, they looked better than the hobgoblins, in my opinion. Who didn’t appreciate a good muscle mommy? The hobgoblins looked like children compared to them.

“Is there a reason you don’t get with the ogresses?”

From the looks of things, there wasn’t a shortage of them. This village was massive, and it felt like there were more than enough of them around.

“Hm, they look ugly, and their muscles just make them worse. The hob-goblins are manageable enough, though I’d like to see actual human women again.”

“Again? Like back on Earth?”

We’d finally reached his throne room. It wasn’t much of a throne room, what with it being possibly the tiniest spot in the entire building. There was nothing but fur on the ground, with a single seat propped up next to the furnace, which had a dim blue flame burning.

The room was warmer compared to everywhere else. He sat down next to the fire, and I followed suit.

“No. Some human settlers used to live around this area a year or so ago.”

I saw flashes of his memories. Humans in fur coats were building walls and houses. They were going to be living there with their families.

“We tried to make contact with them and form an alliance.”

They—the winter goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres—attacked the village, with him leading the assault.

“They attacked us regardless of how much we begged them to stop.”

They’d made a mistake. The humans were far stronger than they thought, and they were losing.

“Luckily, we had the field advantage and managed to fight back.”

They knew the mountain better than anyone. With their sly tricks and cunning, they eventually beat the humans.

“Their boss was strong, though. I have to 1v1 him. Even then, I almost lost. Haha!”

The one leading the assault managed to survive and face Kanata-san in a duel. With broken bones and a hole through his chest, he lost to Kanata-san. He was just one stroke short of winning the duel, too.

“I got a lot of XP for beating him and evolved the next day. Heard something about beating a [Sacred Bearer] or what not?"

That part was true. [The Grey Hero]. That was the [Sacred]. A human who’d fought his hardest and trained tirelessly to make his family proud, only to achieve what he sought on his deathbed. I was sure the god who gave him the [Sacred] in that final moment got a kick out of seeing the old man’s pitiful expression upon seeing that he’d received what he wanted so late.

“And the women? How do they factor into this?”

“I’d have liked to broker a peace deal, but they ran away.”

He did try. The women obviously refused, but they couldn’t escape because they had been caught by his minions while he was evolving. When he woke up, he… wow. He left their mangled corpses to rot in piles of snow. It was a shock that they hadn’t come back as zombies or undead yet.

“I guess humans and monsters can’t forge friendly relations in this world. It really isn’t like those light novels we used to read.”

This guy…

“Haha, so it seems.”

‘He’s useless.’

‘Yeah. There's no point in talking to him.’

‘He’ll hinder our peace negotiations.’

‘So we should ignore him?’

‘I s-suggest k-killing him. D-dangerous people like this c-connected to us could come bite us in the ass later.’

I was ready to stab him through the head with his own shadow.

‘No. He may be scum, but he is one of the top dogs of the [Winter Zone].’

‘So?’

‘He has a sort of monopoly here. If we manipulate him and increase his sphere of influence, we would essentially have a monopoly on this entire region that no other country in this world does. With Larm and the Winter Zone, no one would be able to deny our power.’

‘You want people to know we have some dealings with a monster? Doesn’t that just ruin our brand?’

‘Only if we let them know he’s connected to us. We can easily manipulate the spread of information on this matter. It isn’t like humans will hold discussions with him. Think about it. Trade routes, resources, information spread, and more territory. We could easily have it all.’

‘Why not just install a new ruler then?’

‘Takes too long, not as easy to manipulate. Besides, we’re new to this, so it’s better to use an idiot we know.’

‘Very well then. We will build up on this idea going forward.’

“Would you like to work with me, Kanata-san?”