Wayne gave a brief introduction to what a "movie" was and the kind of experience one could achieve within it.
However, he also told the group that while the world of Harry Potter could indeed improve combat strength, it was better suited for spellcasters. Furthermore, his deep exploration into the movie world the previous day had taken over eight hours. This meant that even just watching it once would cost a customer an entire day's worth of playtime.
He suggested that the warriors focus on clearing Monster Hunter G first. After all, in less than a month, they would once again face life and death together as they moved to strike the Gnoll camps.
Rainier felt that Wayne's idea was excellent and accepted his suggestion.
Since there was still some time before noon—the official opening time—the group sat in the net cafe and chatted.
Wayne first asked about their injuries. Then, with a look of confusion, he asked why the people at Stormwind Keep had told him that the report submitted by Rainier and Verdan made no mention of him using magic that night.
Hudson explained that Verdan had consulted with everyone who witnessed the scene to agree on a consistent story for outsiders. This was done out of a desire to protect Wayne, and the reason was the appearance of Shamanic spells that night.
In Stormwind, someone becoming a Warlock and studying demonic magic had become an open secret—officially ignored but privately tolerated. However, infiltration from the Horde was something that could never be permitted.
Any human of sound mind, even those who were veteran enthusiasts of demonic magic, only sought to gain combat power through those evil and dark arts to use against demons and the undead. They did not truly worship demons.
But the Orcish Shamanic teachings were completely different. Just like the Holy Light followed by the Alliance, it was a full-fledged religion, except the Orcs believed in the Earth Mother and the power of the elements.
If Shamanic teachings were to spread among humans, it would cause a massive shock to the Alliance's values and philosophy of life.
Furthermore, the former Orc Shaman Ner'zhul had now become the master of the Scourge, controlling countless undead to attack Alliance territories and slaughter its citizens. In the eyes of many high-ranking Alliance officials, this undoubtedly added a layer of loathing and hostility toward the Shamanic path.
The lightning was easy enough to explain—after all, Druids could also summon natural lightning. However, the two elemental totems stuck in the ground, and the fire and earth elementals summoned because of them, were impossible to explain away.
If this news had been reported to the Countess—the one whose extreme hostility toward the Horde was so great she didn't care about searching for the former King Varian or protecting Alliance civilians under attack, and who constantly urged Regent Bolvar to launch a full-scale war—then Wayne would not have received a knighthood. Instead, he would have been thrown into a dungeon and tortured to confess his connection to the Orcs.
But everyone present had witnessed the event and firmly believed that Wayne could not possibly be an undercover agent for the Horde. Many of them had watched him grow up, and he had nearly given his life to protect them.
After Wayne was knocked unconscious by Hogger, and Hogger and the Gnolls were repelled by the arriving Gryphon Riders, Verdan quickly gathered the other six who were recuperating in the net cafe and explained the stakes to them and the others hiding in the Lion's Pride Inn.
Fortunately, while the townspeople of Goldshire might not always be exceptionally close in their daily lives, they were highly united when it came to external threats and matters of survival. Their simple values led them to swear an oath together to keep the secret for their savior, Wayne, and to answer any inquiries according to the story provided by Verdan.
Of course, the reason the villagers agreed to this oath wasn't just based on shallow neighborly affection. The adults had not forgotten what happened in Year 19 of the Dark Portal—only five years ago.
It concerned one of the first five Paladins of humanity, a man who held the rank of High Lord.
He knew that given his situation at the time, it would have been effortless for that old Orc to strike a finishing blow and take his life. But "it" had not done so, choosing instead to save him.
Not taking advantage of a person in peril was an expression of honor.
The old Orc was named Eitrigg. He told Fordring that the reason the Orcs fell was because of the demon blood, and he spoke of the noble honor they possessed when they once followed Shamanic teachings.
Fordring saw in Eitrigg that Orcs also had a rational, noble, trustworthy, and honorable side. He vowed not to reveal the other's location, but he hadn't expected his subordinates to track his path and find the place.
To repay the life-saving debt, Fordring was forced to fight his own subordinates to buy time for Eitrigg's escape.
Ultimately, both were captured.
Before the trial, his wife, Karandra, pleaded with him to pin all the blame on the "savage and bloodthirsty" Eitrigg.
She urged him to preserve himself so he could fight another day.
But faced with the chance to lighten his "crime," Fordring chose to uphold his honor. He told the jury and the gathered public that his son had once asked him: "Daddy, are all Orcs bad people?"
And his answer was: "Race does not define honor. People should not judge others who are different from themselves so hastily."
His words were so deafening that they left many present in deep thought.
However, the evidence of him taking up arms against his comrades was indisputable. Worse still, the incited public opinion had already labeled him a "bloodthirsty, brutal, and treacherous traitor and scum" who sided with Orcs. People wanted to stomp on him ten thousand times so he could never rise again.
The Royal Family, the military, the ignorant and frenetic public, and the neutral magical community—even if there were a few clear-headed individuals, they could only remain silent as cicadas in winter amidst the clamor of public indignation. They knew that if they spoke up, their fate would be the same as Fordring's.
In the end, Fordring was convicted of treason. Because he had acknowledged the positive aspects of the old Orc's Shamanic teachings during the trial, another charge was added to his crimes: spreading cultist ideologies to delude the people.
He was not only stripped of his title as High Lord and sentenced to exile, but before his exile, he was also stripped of his connection to the Holy Light.
They sought not only to destroy his dignity but even to destroy his very right to hold faith.
The one who presided over the stripping ceremony was none other than his old friend, Uther, who had become a Paladin alongside him.
That old friend suffered immense internal agony. He found himself tragically powerless to change the outcome. All he could do was separate Fordring's "crime" from his family, sparing them the hardship of exile.
But while the truth may be concealed for a time, it cannot be hidden forever.