The cheering didn't stop.
The male Ogres were shouting, jumping, and chanting.
"Laagos! Laagos! Laagos!"
The female Ogres, on the other hand, stood frozen.
"What the hell just happened?" one muttered.
"Just what was that?"
"Is she playing some kind of prank on us?"
"There's no way Vel actually lost, is there?"
Their gazes shifted between Vel, still on the ground, breathing hard, and Jason, who now stood tall, chest rising and falling, basking in the sudden wave of approval.
'I'm not sure if I've ever had this many people cheering for me before,' He thought with a chuckle.
Even though it had been a male Ogre that killed him in his previous life, Jason felt quite good being cheered on.
Before he knew it, the male Ogres started moving toward him, running with their arms raised and faces lit up.
Jason froze suddenly.
As they were about to come into contact with his body,
[The Skill "Pleasure Touch" has been Deactivated.]
'Oh, thank god.' Jason thought as the male Ogres surrounded him, some holding his hands and shaking them rigorously, others tapping his back and hugging him.
The image of a dozen male Ogres getting hard from touching him had put the fear of god in him. Thankfully, he had deactivated the Skill just in time.
"Yes, of course, yes…" Jason responded while nodding repeatedly to the different Ogres.
He did not know yet, but he had freed them from a truly tyrannical hierarchy.
"A new Chief!" They chanted.
Meanwhile, the female Ogres had gathered around Vel.
"What happened?"
"What was that?"
"You're fucking with them, right?"
"No way we're actually respecting that wager, are we?"
Vel didn't answer.
She had pushed herself into a sitting position, staring blankly at the dirt.
Her eyes were unfocused, confused beyond belief.
The sensations that previously assaulted her body were starting to fade, but they still lingered.
Her pride left her unable to answer or explain anything.
The other females grew impatient.
"Say something!"
"This doesn't mean anything."
"Even if you… Whatever you did, we're not taking orders from a male."
The cheering began to die down as their raised voices cut through the noise.
Jason turned toward Vel, tilting his head.
"Well?" he asked lightly.
She could barely maintain eye contact, let alone answer.
Vel slowly stood, her legs now steadier.
"Shut up," she said. "All of you."
She brushed past the other female Ogres.
"Where are you going?"
"I need time," she answered. "Alone."
She began walking toward the large tent at the center of the village, and the female Ogres hurried after her.
"Vel!"
"We need to talk about this."
"This isn't finished."
Jason clicked his tongue.
"Vel."
She stopped and turned her head at once, face twisting with rage.
Jason tilted his chin toward the large tent, the Chief's tent.
"That's not your tent anymore."
A few of the female Ogres nearly laughed in disbelief.
But when Vel clicked her tongue in response and started walking away from the tent, the females understood that this was no prank.
Vel simply turned away from the tent and began walking toward the outskirts of the village instead.
"I said I need time," she repeated to the females following her.
Still, they followed her regardless.
"Serves you right!" One of the male Ogres shouted, but only once the females were out of view, disappearing toward the edge of the plain.
Silence settled.
Only Jason and the male Ogres remained in the village.
He looked around.
"Well," Jason dusted off his hands. "How about we eat without the girls, huh?"
The reaction was immediate.
Their eyes lit up.
"Without waiting?"
"Really?"
"We can?"
"Sure." Jason shrugged. "I'm the new Chief, aren't I?"
The males looked at each other as if the realization that true changes were coming only now dawned on them.
"When we usually only eat the scraps left…?"
One of the male Ogres stepped forward and placed a hand on Jason's shoulder.
"Chief." He said.
Jason felt a shiver. Despite not being part of Ogre society, being called Chief still felt pretty damn good.
"You should relax and rest in your tent." The Ogre added.
"Yeah! It's yours now!"
"Claim it before they start complaining!"
"We'll prepare everything." The first continued. "We'll call you when it's ready."
The Ogres were actually quite excited about this.
Jason stared for a moment.
"I'm pretty tired," He said while scratching his head. "How about you bring my food into the tent?"
The Ogres exchanged glances, eyes shining.
"Yes, Chief!"
"Yes, Chief!"
Eating inside the tent was truly 'Chief' behaviour, and the males wanted Jason to be accepted as Chief as quickly as possible.
"Alright." Jason nodded and turned towards the large tent.
Satisfied didn't even begin to describe how he felt, and the fact that an Ogre had ended his past life left no sour aftertaste at all. If anything, Jason thought he might start to feel thankful for that.
'If things continue going like this…' He nodded to himself while walking towards the tent. 'It's a pretty nice life, all things considered.'
Unlike in his past life, Jason now had numerous ways of growing stronger.
Not only that, but he also had people under him, ready to prepare and serve him food while he relaxed.
'Sounds like heaven.' Jason let out a satisfied sigh. 'I already have a small army under me. The males might be weaker than the females, but that doesn't make them weak. Each and every one of them is stronger than I was in the past. I'll need to gain the approval of the females somehow, though…'
Jason wasn't sure that they would respect the wager made. In the first place, he had only suggested the wager to gain time so that the System could finish its analysis and give him a useful Skill.
'And it really was useful.' He thought with a satisfied smile, remembering the wrestle he had just had with Vel. 'She wanted me to go into her tent earlier, huh? I guess I'll call for her later.' Jason adjusted his pants, which had tightened quite a bit around his newly-acquired and improved package. 'I've tested the different Skills I have. Now, it's time to test something else that I obtained by coming to this World.'
Growl-
'Too hungry for now.' He rubbed his stomach and pushed aside the tent's entrance flap.
It was huge, much more spacious than the different huts of the village, and reminded Jason of the contubernium tent used by the Romans.
'Huh.'
It wasn't one open area.
Cloth drapes divided the inside of the tent into sections, or rooms.
'They even had drapes to cover the ground.' Jason noted. 'Ogres didn't make this.'
Judging by the clothes they wore, it was unlikely that they would have built and made the tent or huts.
'They're probably just occupying this place after it was abandoned.'
Jason took a seat on a rough wooden chair near the center of the entry room. There was a long table in front of him, probably where the female Ogres dined, and where the previous inhabitants held strategic meetings.
Jason leaned back and relaxed into the seat.
'From getting killed by an Ogre to becoming Chief of the Ogres.' He thought with a smile. 'That's nice. In any case, now I can finally get to that information. System, tell me more about this Urd'Amazonia World-'
The thought was interrupted as a shadow passed through one of the inner tent's drapes.
'There was someone inside the tent?!'
Jason's eyes widened, and before he could stand, his back and shoulders were pinned to the chair, forcing him to remain seated.
"I'm not sure how it happened," She purred. "But I'm not wasting this opportunity."
In a blink, she had positioned herself on top of him, straddling his lap and pushing his shoulders down against the chair.
"And… You are?" Jason asked, slightly nervous.
"That's not important right now." She whispered, licking her lips.
Her slit pupils remained locked on his face as the pinkish, roughly cut hair barely reaching beyond her chin fluttered.
'Why would Ogres…' Jason gulped, and the Beastkin's left ear twitched. 'Have a cat girl in here?!'