Chapter 15: Diplomatic Tour
2 Months Later
Drak’s Scavengers Village, 140 Kilometers Away From Home
Theo, David, and Tara were currently visiting another scavenger tribe village, holding a meeting with its village chief inside his tent.
The three of them sat at the table, wearing confident expressions, ones that leaned just slightly into smugness. Across from them sat a rough-looking dwarf, complete with a thick mustache and beard exactly like what a dwarf should have.
Two of his village members stood behind him, both dressed in the same scavenger-style clothing as Theo and the others. But unlike Theo’s group, hesitation was clearly written across their faces.
“So Tara… in this plan of yours…” the man said hesitantly, his eyes fixed on the map Tara had laid out on the table. “You want us to move to the grassland near your village?”
He then shifted his gaze toward her.
“That’s right, Drak,” Tara replied, her lips curling into a smile, her eyes sharp. “It has more than enough resources for us to share.”
“Us, scavengers? Sharing?” Drak frowned, since the concept itself didn’t sit right with him.
“Yes. Share and grow together,” Tara said smoothly. “With strength in numbers, other tribes can’t look down on us anymore.”
She leaned back in her seat and folded her hands, the smugness still there, unbothered.
“Well… that is, unless you and your people are content living like rats. Always stepping aside, always making way whenever another tribe passes through,” Tara continued.
Drak said nothing. The words hit their mark. He lowered his gaze slightly, unable to respond. Silence settled over the tent.
David suddenly leaned toward Tara and whispered something. Tara gave a small nod.
“Just take your time to think,” Tara said to Drak. “There’s still time until the next full moon.”
She stood up, followed by Theo and David.
“Well then, thank you for your time, Drak,” Tara added. “We need to leave now. There are still a couple of villages we need to visit.”
“…you’re really serious about uniting all the scavengers, aren’t you?” Drak muttered, still hesitant, his eyes lingering on her.
“Yes, I am,” Tara replied casually. “I need to build a strong friend circle if we want to form a strong tribe. One that can rival the agriculture tribes in the future.”
“…and what happens to the ones who aren’t inside that circle?” Drak asked, concern slipping into his voice.
“Oh?” Tara tilted her head slightly. “That means they’re not my friends.”
Her tone remained light, but now becoming colder.
“And other than friends… there are only enemies.”
The shift was drastic. Drak and the two men behind him visibly gulped at her words.
---
A moment later, Theo, Tara, and David stepped out of Drak’s tent.
Outside, the village felt… empty. Most of Drak’s people had disappeared into their tipi tents. Only a few dared to peek out, carefully lifting the flaps just enough to watch Tara’s group from a safe distance.
Waiting for them were fifteen men, standing in perfect formation. They looked nothing like they had two months ago.
Gone were the skinny, frail scavengers. In their place stood men who were visibly fitter, more solid, their bodies carrying weight and strength that hadn’t been there before. Their black clothing still followed the common scavenger style, but now it was uniform. Consistent. No random pieces. No mismatched scraps.
Their equipment matched as well. Ten of them held spears and shields, with swords sheathed neatly at their waists. The remaining five carried bows, standing slightly behind.
As Tara, Theo, and David approached, one of the men stepped forward and raised his hand in a salute. A modern Earth-style salute. Something completely foreign to Drak’s people, confusing in purpose, unfamiliar in meaning.
And yet… it somehow made them look even more intimidating.
“Waiting for orders, ma’am,” the soldier said.
“Captain, we’re leaving,” Tara replied.
“Understood.”
The captain turned sharply and began organizing the others.
Soldiers. That’s what they were now.
Not scattered tribe fighters. Not desperate scavengers.
Disciplined and trained killers. Forged through David’s training, shaped further by fragments of modern military structure that Theo had introduced. Together, it turned them into something the Border Prison wasn’t used to facing, organized soldiers who followed orders.
And right now, that presence alone was enough to keep Drak and his villagers watching from hiding.
However, it wasn’t just Tara’s soldiers that frightened them. There was something else. Something even worse.
It was the dogs. Three oversized dogs sat patiently nearby, their bodies tense, their mouths slightly open, revealing long, sabertoothed fangs. The demon hounds.
At first, the entire village had fallen into panic, thinking the beasts were about to tear through them. That fear only settled when they realized… there were people riding them.
Tara, Theo, and David walked toward the hounds without hesitation. Then, one by one, they climbed onto their backs and settled into position as if mounting horses.
Soon after, they fell into formation with the soldiers and began preparing to march out of the village.
But just before leaving, Tara guided her hound toward Drak.
“Well then, Drak,” she said, sitting atop the beast with complete confidence. “Thank you for the hospitality. I really hope to see you on the next full moon.”
Drak opened his mouth to respond—
—but the hound suddenly leaned closer.
It moved in, slow and deliberate, until its snout was right in front of him. Then it began sniffing.
Drak flinched.
“Uh… what is it doing?” he asked awkwardly, trying very hard not to lose control of his bladder as the creature’s fangs hovered just centimeters from his face.
“Ah, sorry about my pet,” Tara said lightly. “You know how demon hounds have a strong sense of smell.”
Then she smiled. Showing a cold eyes with a cold smile.
“And how they can track down anything they smell… stubbornly… for many miles.”
“Grrr…” The hound let out a deep, low growl, its gaze fixed on Drak.
Drak and his men shivered.
Only then did Tara pull on the reins. The hound backed away, and she turned to rejoin the others as they began leaving the village.
Drak and the two men behind him could only stand there, watching in disbelief, their bodies still stiff from the encounter.
“They used to be so weak…” one of them muttered.
“Not anymore… with a secret weapon like the demon hounds, they don’t need to run away from anything anymore…” the other added.
“Nay,” Drak said, shaking his head. “Their real secret weapon isn’t the hounds. It’s that necromancer, Theo. He must be the one using magic to tame beasts that no other tribe has ever managed to control.”
“How on earth did they even manage to get a powerful necromancer on their side…” one of his men muttered, watching as Tara’s group disappeared further away from the village.
Only when they were at a safe distance did the villagers finally dare to step out from their tents. One by one, they emerged, staring in disbelief at what had just visited them.
This was what Theo, Tara, David, and their men had been doing for the past three weeks. Moving from one scavenger village to another, announcing their plan to unite the scavenger tribes into a single territory.
And, at the same time, making it very clear—without saying it outright—that they would be the ones leading it.
They demonstrated that through strength. Through the soldiers they brought, and through the beasts they rode.
A diplomacy method Theo brought from his old country back on Earth. Speak softly, and carry a big stick.
Or more precisely, in this case—
carry a giant, vicious dog that could wipe out an entire village if it felt like it.
---
But as they moved farther away from Drak’s village, the confident expressions they had been wearing moments ago quietly disappeared.
What replaced them… was fear. Every single one of them. Fear of the very “big stick” they were currently riding.
“Grrrr…”
Tara’s hound let out a low growl.
“…Can we run now?” Tara asked nervously.
“…Not yet. They can still see us,” Theo replied, just as nervous. “Stay in formation.”
“Grrrrr…”
All three hounds began growling now, their agitation building.
“Wait until we reach behind that mound,” David said, his eyes fixed on the grassy mound ahead.
“GRRRR—”
The growls grew louder. Deeper. No longer patient. Theo, Tara, and David all swallowed at the same time.
They kept moving. Step by step, formation intact. No sudden movements.
Only when they finally passed behind the grassy mound, completely out of sight from Drak’s village—
“Now!” David snapped.
All three of them immediately jumped off their hounds.
At the same time, the soldiers rushed forward, quickly tossing chunks of meat toward the now clearly irritated demon hounds. The beasts lunged at the food without hesitation.
A second later, the growling stopped. Now replaced with loud, satisfied chewing and wagging tails.
Theo and Tara both let out a long breath.
“Dang… give it a few more minutes and we’d be the ones getting eaten as snacks,” David muttered with a short laugh.
“Sigh… I thought forty minutes of patience was enough to finish a diplomatic talk…” Theo wiped his sweaty forehead.
The truth was, the demon hounds were not fully under their control. Not even close.
So far, they had only managed to barely tame three of the weakest hounds, the same three they were currently riding. The rest were still back at their home, still doing the pattern training that only god knows when it will be completed.
But that truth was something Theo had no intention of sharing. As far as every other scavenger village was concerned—based on the story Theo and Tara had been consistently selling—they controlled an entire pack of demon hounds.
Fully obedient, easily refilled by capturing other demon hound packs. And more than capable of tearing through anything that stood in their way.