Near the Fortress of the Foggy Plains, Melgion, was a small river that strangely branched off into three streams. Such rivers were rarely seen in the plains. There were also dots of small woods nearby. To the south was the borderlands, and to the north was the western plains.
In the morning, fog would cover the bank of the river and in the evening a cold atmosphere would cover the land while the twin red sister stars dazzled in the night sky. Wood could be procured from the nearby woods. After Pale left for the front lines, Zaurosh took command and continued construction.
Further down south was the borderlands’ Shirak. Pale picked out her base and started working to drag the Red King into battle. Razuel came to view as well. The mixed army could be seen stationed in the borderland regions of Shirak and Razuel. The mixed army was made up mostly of adventurers and were there both as scouts and to deal with the monsters.
Send out a small group of scouts, and if there’s an opening, kill the enemy.
The strategy of both sides were quite simple, but in the ever changing battlefield and despite the chance meetings that might occur regardless of the time of day, somehow, a big battle just never started. The mixed army in particular were quite hesitant to start a battle, as the pillar of the Blue Knights, Allen, was absent, so they couldn’t proactively fight.
Moreover, with the representative of Pena and the person responsible for keeping the clans together absent, friction even started to occur between the clans. Naturally, such a situation left them with little opportunity to attack the goblins.
The mixed army somehow managed to keep themselves from killing each other by diligently focusing on scouting, but they were already at their limits.
Pale also didn’t want to exhaust her forces, so even after securing victories with the scout platoons, she would pull her forces out, without finishing off the enemy, and then repeat the same thing again. Pale’s scouts centered around the centaurs, who wielded spears and bows to hunt humans and monsters alike from afar.
Tianos, who led the centaurs, had a serious disposition and prioritized safety above all else. As such, they never approached the humans too deeply. And even when they pursued their enemies, they made sure to wrap things up quickly. This was all within Pale’s expectations.
In the end, the only thing the mixed army could do was to inform the Red King of the monsters’ attack and request for reinforcements.
But the Red King was also in the middle of dealing with the elders. He didn’t have much to spare. Moreover, he had left the matter of the elders to the top leaders of the Red King, so he didn’t know which side would finish first.
Brandika didn’t think much of Pena’s civil war. To him it was as good as won. Because of that he just left the matter to his subordinates.
The commander of the vanguards, Saldin; soldier and diplomat, Grave; Wyatt the General, Kanash from Elrain Kingdom, Cell an information specialist like Grave and a soldier.
Brandika had sent these people to deal with the civil war not just to deal with the problem but also as a test to see how good they really are. After all, a suitable test required an appropriate problem.
The Red King has gotten big.
But as far as Brandika was concerned, the number of people he could genuinely trust and the people with actual abilities were few. One such person, Carlion, whom he trusted the most, no longer had much left to live. Brandika would have to pick a person out of those mentioned earlier to take on his role.
Brandika remained in Pena, an unmoving mountain, while his commanders wreaked havoc in the surrounding lands.
The young and lively Saldin fought fiercely and claimed the head of an elder, while Grave used his connections as a diplomat with Pena to succeed with a scheme.
Wyatt chose to attack steadily and safely, while Kanash, who was renowned in Elrain Kingdom for his tactics, fought with a good balance of defense and offence. As for Cell, she attacked the enemy with a small platoon and killed an elder in one fell swoop.
While all the other commanders have already brought results and were returning, Allen the knight commander of the Blue Knights alone had yet to achieve anything. His subordinates called out to him, but he refused to hurry, and simply made camp in the territory of an elder without moving.
“Commander, we have to make a move quickly and get some results! This is surely the best plan if we are to ensure her majesty’s safety! It will also be our way of making up for the last battle!”
“Perhaps, but I don’t believe the queen would be happy to see countrymen killing each other…”
While Allen was at a loss on how to proceed, a messenger from Brandika came, urging him to hurry. But even then Allen hesitated to point his sword at the elders.
Seeing Allen like that greatly worried his subordinates. In the end, they came up with a plan and sent a messenger, saying that they wouldn’t execute anyone else as long as they gave them the head of the elder. The knight order has gathered the most skilled of the young martial artists of the country. Naturally, those members of the knight order could also be found within the regions of the elders, so getting a message through was trivial.
Three days later, the head of their political opponent was brought before Allen.
When Allen saw that, he prostrated himself on the ground.
“Forgive me… I…”
Couldn’t protect our country. Allen wept.
He couldn’t protect his own country, he couldn’t bring his subordinates to fight a magnificent battle as members of a knightly order, he couldn’t shed the blood of the political opponent because he was a fellow countryman… Allen engraved all these things to his heart.
◆◇◆
After winning many small victories, on the sixth day of attacking the enemy without regard for the time of day, a report reached Pale.
The elders of Pena have all been defeated.
Pale knew that it was only a question of time before they would be defeated, but this was still much quicker than she’d expected.
The longer they took, the more time the Goblin King would have to learn horseback riding, but it seems their enemy wasn’t planning on making their lives easy.
The reason she has been piling up these small victories was because she wanted to let the Red King know of their existence.
The existence of an enemy that wasn’t so easy to deal with. If word of that were to reach the Red King, then he would naturally turn his attention to them.
If Pale had simply let the Red King be, then they would surely start ama.s.sing wealth. Even if the Red King were to be given just one year to strengthen their foundations, the amount of wealth they would be able to gather would be staggering.
The wealth of the Red King after acquiring Elrain, Pena, Tortoki, Fatina was already far and above that of the borderlands and the western region. Pale couldn’t wait anymore. She had to gamble on a battle now.
She didn’t think that the Red King would hide within its sh.e.l.l when there’s a problem left to deal with. After all, they were only able to get to where they are today by attacking.
The fact they were able to get this far without any great mistakes almost makes one wonder if they were actually under the protection of the G.o.ddess of Destiny, Liuryuna. But it was also because they have never experienced any setbacks that they will find it difficult to change their approach so suddenly.
Hence, it didn’t take much to predict how they would approach this problem presented before them.
“Now, come.”
The seed planted, Pale called out from the borderlands to her hateful enemy.
A herd of monster beasts ran across the plains. At the head of the herd was a terrifying carnivorous horse, an andoryu sarkus, upon which rode the Goblin King.
The Goblin King found the strong winds pleasing as he rode. Seeing the world while mounted so high on horseback made it seem as if he had found himself in a whole new world. And as if it were expressing his own thoughts, his wild steed rode wildly like a tempest across the plains.
The winds the Goblin King normally couldn’t feel when walking cooled the heat of his body and made him feel as if he could ride wherever he wished. As he drew the great sword hanging by his waist, he brandished it up above his head and swung it to his right.
At that, Gi Ga Rax, who was riding behind him, drew a curve and went toward the direction the Goblin King swung his sword. When he swung his sword to his left, the platoon led by Hal of Paradua similarly changed course. The Goblin King kept going straight with his own cavalry unit, but when he turned his great sword over his head clockwise, all 3 cavalry units turned around.
And when the three units converged, they once again became one. Like that they went back the road they came from. After a while, trees that stood in disorderly fashion, clearly unnatural for the plains, came to view. No. These weren’t trees but dolls imitating the appearance of man. When the Goblin King saw the dolls, he pointed his great sword at them.
The Goblin King lightly kicked the body of his horse, and suddenly, the terrifying horse let out a chilling howl as it rocketed ahead. Black tigers and hipparions (three-eyed wild horses) followed suit and dashed madly themselves.
In the blink of an eye, they pa.s.sed through the forest of dolls while the Goblin King swung his great sword. When the Goblin King turned around and confirmed that no one had fallen behind, he changed course for the western capital.
The leader of the orcs, Bui, was waiting for him when he arrived.
Bui wasn’t just sweating buckets when he spotted the Goblin King riding toward him with such haste, his eyes were spinning. Still, he waited patiently to be able to greet the Goblin King, whom he hadn’t met in a long while.
But when the Goblin King finally stopped before him, the dam gates opened, and the sweat pouring down his back became unstoppable. It has indeed been a while since he last saw the king, and now, the Goblin King was more terrifying than ever. His arms were no bigger than before, but they seemed much denser now, and his whole appearance emanated a strength unknown before.
Even the fangs that peeked out of the Goblin King’s mouth gave Bui the impression that they would bite at him any moment now. He intentionally averted his eyes away from them.
“It’s been a while,” the Goblin King said.
And Bui knelt before him.
He hadn’t intended to do so, but fear made him.
“I-It’s been a while, Your Majesty.”
The Goblin King got off his steed and left its care to Gi Gi Orudo. He didn’t forget to pat the area around his horse’s face and show some affection to it before leaving. Despite the clear affection in the king’s eyes, however, the pressure emanating from him was even greater than the beasts within the forest.
“It seems you’ve been preparing your race for the humans of the east. You have my grat.i.tude,” the Goblin King said.
“Y-Yes…”
It has been 10 days since the messenger of the Goblin King’s tactician, Pale, arrived at the orc village. The messenger was Gi Ji Arsil. The orcs had tended to him before when he was hurt, so it was known among the goblins that he was very tolerant of the orcs.
The reason he came as messenger was to ask for reinforcements against the eastern human invasion. Although it seemed like a request, it was really an order.
“H-How many would you be needing?” Bui asked.
Although the front lines of the goblin-human war have expanded to the east and the south, the numbers of the orcs have been rapidly increasing. Already, their villages have increased from three to five in their stronghold at the north of the lake sh.o.r.e. While the goblins have busied themselves with shedding blood with the humans, the orcs have been expanding toward the north of the Forest of Darkness.
After absorbing the northern orcs, Bui already had nearly 700 soldiers. Normally, a single orc could win against 7 goblins. One reason was because of their greater stature, but another was their greater endurance and strength.
But the goblins under the Goblin King were different.
They coordinated with each other using a formation called the three-man cell. Against goblins that worked together, the orcs were much weaker. Bui has racked his head time and time again, wondering how he could take back the advantage in strength. When he finally thought up a plan, the Goblin King started attacking the south.
Bui decided to follow the goblins’ example.
Like the goblins, the orcs too would work together. He figured that as long as the orcs could learn the goblins’ three man cell, that would be enough. So, immediately, he called for representatives from the villages, explained to them the benefits, and got their cooperation. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the results he wanted.
In the forest, the orcs were fairly high up in the food chain. Other than the giant spiders, they didn’t really have anything that could be called a mortal enemy, so there was no reason for them to need to work together. In other words, they didn’t have a situation like the goblins wherein they had to work together or die.
The orcs could hunt just fine individually. So, when they’re suddenly asked to hunt with others, their efficiency actually goes down. And so, Bui went back to the drawing board. Bui’s end goal was the independence of the orcs.
He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life under the goblins’ rule. He hadn’t forgotten the glory of the orcs during his predecessor, Gol Gol’s, heyday. As such, he needed strong warriors that wouldn’t lose out to the goblins’ teamwork.
To that end, Bui built villages and created a suitable environment to raise children to build the foundation. Next, what he needed was a way to create strong soldiers. Once he acquired that, achieving his goal should be trivial.
But then a messenger came to the village. Bui didn’t want to join the goblin-human war. Or rather, he just didn’t want to lose any orcs. Bui knew that he couldn’t forge great warriors unless they fought, but he didn’t want to let his brethren die for nothing.
“For now, 400 should do,” Gi Ji replied.
When more than half of his orc army needed to be sent out, Bui’s vision went dark. Just how many of those would come back alive? The remaining 300 could certainly defend the villages, but if he sent out that many, he would have to go out himself.
“Alright,” Bui replied.
Gi Ji, who was a friendly goblin to the orcs, happily nodded at Bui’s response.
This was the mental state of Bui, who came before the king. His real purpose here was actually to ask the king to allow his orcs to be positioned at the back, but he didn’t even have time to pet.i.tion to the king before the king called out to him and they entered the western capital. The elves were calling for them now, so they will probably have to attend to some government affairs.
When the sun was setting, Bui returned to his comrades, dejected. Naturally, his comrades weren’t happy and voiced out their complaints.
Bui himself didn’t feel like going to war, so he just said, “It can’t be helped.”
But then Bui noticed that his fellow orcs had all paled, eyes swimming.
When Bui turned around, he went wide-eyed. The Goblin King was there.
“D-Did you require my service, Your Majesty?” Bui asked.
“Yes. Receive your equipment before departing. A male human called Yoshu will deliver them to you,” the Goblin King replied, then left.
“H-H-Hey, Bui. What was that!?” One of the orcs asked with visible fright.
“The Goblin King,” Bui replied with a sigh.
“T-That’s not a goblin!” An orc said.
“But he really is the Goblin King. Come to think of it, this is your first time seeing him, no?” Bui said.
“That’s a monster!” An orc pointed out.
“You’re not wrong,” Bui found himself agreeing.
After that silence filled the area and reverence filled the eyes of the orcs as they realized that their king could actually negotiate with the likes of a monster.
“Anyway, you heard the king. We’ll get our stuff, then go,” Bui said nonchalantly.
But for some reason, no one uttered a word of complaint anymore, and the orcs soon departed for the east.
Tl Note: We’ve already had three regular releases this week, so this counts as part of the extra releases. Only, it’s not long enough, so I’ll post another one before reducing the queue. The queue’s not visible on the website since the redesign just yet, but I owe like 10 releases or so, so that’ll go down to 9 after I post another extra release next week.
The Goblin King was busy with government work after returning to the western capital.
Yoshu was in charge of the humans, who were in the process of becoming va.s.sals, and the elves were in charge of the government officials responsible for the tax collection, the administration, and the other government-related functions of the western capital, but despite their presence, in the end, it was the Goblin King alone who had the last say.
As such, a mountain of doc.u.ments seeking approval have been brought before the Goblin King.
The people of the borderlands, who have expressed their desire to work with the king on all fronts, have also been brought under Yoshu and are being organized.
Shumea was a.s.signed as the head of the western region’s security, placing the security of the villages of the northern part of the western region and the security of the border under her. At the same time, she was also in charge with negotiating with the various village elders, so her jurisdiction was actually quite expansive.
a.s.sisting the king in his government duties was the elven princess, Shunaria, and the adjutant of the great elven patriarch, Fei.
Princess Shunaria generally supervised the races other than the humans. The demihuman chiefs are under her. Meanwhile, Fei supervised the humans living outside the western capital. Under him was the chief of the snow demon tribe, Yustia, and the people of the northern part of the western region that came under the rule of the king early.
The two elves managed the entirety of the western region, but there was another person who held a position as important as theirs. That person is Yoshu. Over half of the people with high positions in the western capital were put in position by him forcefully.
Yoshu is the mayor of the western capital that ruled over the non-combatants of the Leon Heart clan, the people of the southern borders, and the people who were too slow in escaping the western region, the slaves. After the Goblin King accepted nearly 10,000 people from the borderlands, the task of reorganizing them once again fell to Yoshu.
Fortunately, the feudal lords of Shirak and Razuel were in good health, so they could help out. With Yoshu at the helm, they were able to steadily build up their town.
The Goblin King was wise to understand that humans and monsters had their respective strengths and weaknesses. A look at the list of bureaucrat would show that there wasn’t a single goblin among them. They were mostly either humans or elves, and because of that, the government was able to quickly take shape.
The duties of the goblins mainly revolved around the army.
And the Goblin King was currently in the middle of completing the reorganization of that army.
The goblin to lead the foot soldiers would be Gi Jii Yubu’s regiol. Normal goblins would serve as privates, while the rare cla.s.s goblins would serve as the commanding officers. And Gi Jii, who was a n.o.ble cla.s.s, would be the commander. They numbered 600 and all of them came from the Fortress of the Abyss.
Gi Jii was the only n.o.ble cla.s.s goblin, but there were 10 rare goblins.
Next came Gi Gu Verbena, who led the southern goblins. The positions according to cla.s.s remain the same as Gi Jii’s, but Gi Gu had more rares in his battalion than Gi Jii. Moreover, because he possesses the southern portion of the Forest of Darkness, the size of his base was huge. As such, his soldiers currently number 1,000, a result of his efforts these past 3 months, where he conserved his forces and focused his efforts in making more goblins. Furthermore, with the help of Gi Gi Orudo’s monster beasts, the rares of the southern goblins now number 90. And they even have 3 n.o.ble cla.s.s goblins. Gi Gu Verbena’s battalion is currently the biggest within the goblin army.
Gi Zu Ruo possessed a territory just like Gi Gu Verbena, but unlike him, he preferred to have a smaller group composed of elite, which he himself acknowledged. When the Goblin King returned to the Fortress of the Abyss, Gi Zu went back to his territory and led the normal goblins to fight against the mindless giants, Gigantopitecus.
As a result, although his battalion only numbered 300, the rare cla.s.s goblins in his army actually number more than 100. Gi Zu even evolved into a duke cla.s.s and Zu Vet, his right hand man, was also around. Other than the king’s own forces, Gi Zu’s army had the greatest number of rare cla.s.s goblins.
Gi Ji Arsil’s company of a.s.sa.s.sins were sent to scout the eastern and southern battlefields. They numbered only 100, but they had a greater ratio of rares than Gi Jii’s army, having 30 rare goblins out of 100. They had no n.o.ble cla.s.s goblins, but they did have Gi Ji, who himself was a duke cla.s.s.
The druids led by Gi Za Zakuend currently number approximately 300 goblins. Not that many compared to the other battalions and companies, but their ability to command magic gives them a huge advantage. The ratio of rares to normals for Gi Za’s battalion is equal to that of Gi Jii’s. Also, because of the presence of his adjutant, Gi Do Buruga, who himself could utilized wind magic. There was a lot of things that they could do with their wind magic.
Lastly, Gi Gi Orudo’s monster army.
In terms of goblin numbers alone, they only number 300, but when the monster beasts are included, the total size of their army reaches 1,000. With each beast tamer having at least three monster beasts, Gi Gi Orudo’s monster beast army stands out even among other monsters. They have 30 rare goblins among their ranks, and Gi Gi’s adjutant, Gi Bu Rakuta the Monster Doula [1], is responsible for supplementing their supplies.
The battalions led by Ganra’s hero, Gilmi, and the elf, Felbi, which makes up the rear support, each numbers 300.
The above battalions and company will make up the main force on top of the cavalry, which the Goblin King himself will lead with the aid of Gi Ga Rax, his adjutant. The one-armed goblin, Gi Be, also received the name ‘Slay’ from the king, and would be leading in the vanguard as part of the king’s imperial guards.
Even with the Goblin King’s charisma and Gi Ga Rax’s leadership, completing a cavalry battalion that could stand in an actual battle with only one month to prepare was really difficult.
The lowest cla.s.s in the Goblin King’s cavalry was rare. And with the numbers of the Paradua tribe and the gray wolves added, they numbered 600 all in all.
With the great speed and penetrating prowess of the Goblin King’s cavalry, it could be said that this battalion was the concentrated form of all of the goblin forces’ strength.
For the forces still within the main force but not organized, Gi Go Amatsuki, the Gaidga’s Rashka… etc. were their representatives. Their forces were so few that the Goblin King couldn’t give them a proper position within the main force, so instead, he decided to turn them into special units that would move depending on the situation.
The special unit consisted of Yustia’s snow demons, which numbered less than 100, Gi Go Amatsuki, Rashka of the Gaidga tribe, who lost much of his forces in the last battle, and the 500 soldiers from the Leon Heart Clan.
In the Leon Heart Clan’s case, their soldiers were currently in the front lines with Zaurosh, busy constructing a fortress. The Goblin King believed that it was best to leave the construction of buildings and various other structures to the humans, so he decided to bring them into the special unit as well.
The intelligence unit that revolved around the Elks and Leon Heart Clan were also brought into the special unit.
For similar reasons, the medics led by Kuzan of the Gordob tribe were also brought into the special unit.
The demihuman chiefs have gathered something that could be called an army, but again they numbered too few to be positioned in the main force, so they were also brought into the special unit.
With the exception of the clans, those of the human forces with the objective of maintaining the public order and defending the borders, the guards led by Shumea were gathered together under the credence of the king, and turned into an independent battalion whose mission covered the entire western region. Shumea’s face was twitching when she accepted the job from the Goblin King. Presently, they were expanding within the western region to defend against Germion Kingdom should they attack.
With 7 days of the promised three months remaining, a report from Pale was brought before the king. The Red King had finally began to move.
When the Goblin King received that report, he took his army of nearly 5,000 and advanced south.
The former inhabitants of the borderlands cried out for vengeance, while the elves responsible for the government cried out in cheers.
And like that, in the month of Horus, which was early summer, the Goblin King’s army began to move, and the lid of the flintlock that was the battle for supremacy in the south, was quietly opened.
[1] – The RAWs say something along the lines of ‘someone who helps give birth and raises monster beasts’. The ‘monster beasts’ is implied. The best I could come up with is monster doula. If you have any better suggestions, let me know in the comments.