Chapter 275: The King Moves (3/3)
In order to protect the Iron Country of Elfa, the wyvern knights had to make huge changes to their strategy. At first, they had merely gathered information as scouts, but after the heavy knights were crushed by the goblins, they took on the role of a raid team and started proactively attacking the goblins.
Their results were terrific. With just 100 wyvern knights, they were able to stop the attack of Gi Gi Orudo’s Twin-Headed Beast and Axe Army(Zeilduk), saving the neighboring nations from a crisis.
The commander of the medium-sized company was Misha Tangrey.
A beautiful girl discovered by the hero. Despite their aversion to losses, their meticulous and cautious tactics that utilized anything proved effective in thwarting the attack of the goblins.
At one point, she led 100 wyvern knights to block Gi Gi Orudo’s Zeilduk, and at another time, she divided her medium-sized company into smaller platoons and attacked Felduk’s supply lines.
She has accomplished many things to prolong Elfa’s life, but she has also come to realize the limits of her wyvern knights. Indeed, there was no stopping the a.s.sault of the goblins. Try as she might to desperately hinder the attacks of Zeilduk and obstruct Felduk’s supply, the goblins were still gradually taking over Elfa.
The gap in potential between Elfa’s forces and the goblins was just too great.
The efforts of her wyvern knights were really nothing more than a slight nuisance to Genius with a Rubbish Mouth(Mardigas) Ganon’s supply lines, failing to hinder it in any meaningful way, while Zeilduk just turned around whenever they appeared, so they barely suffered any losses.
Elfa was full of praises for her, and they’ve even started calling her a battle maiden, but hearing that name only made her gloomy every time. At this rate, she won’t be able to complete the mission that the hero entrusted to her. Elfa will likely be swallowed by the goblins in the near future.
In fact, the goblin forces were attacking even more ferociously in the areas that the wyvern knights couldn’t reach. Already, the light knights that have been employing guerrilla tactics have already suffered enough losses to amount to an entire unit.
The main force of the goblin’s eastern expedition, Felduk, have already reached the outskirts of the imperial capital. The private soldiers sent by her country, Altigand, have been already been trampled underfoot in the north by Aransain.
The only happy miscalculation here was the cooperative att.i.tude of Elfa’s knight commander, providing them with all the support and supplies that they need, but forces were never sufficient to expel the goblins in the first place.
Misha understood that herself, so she’s been regularly sending reports to her country, but she never got the response she needed from Altigand; hence, all she could do was to continue obstructing the goblins despite her impatience.
It was under the orders of the hero that Altigand sent the wyvern knights as reinforcements, and even now, their actions were being dictated by him. Not only did he repeatedly send the private soldiers of the n.o.bles as reinforcements, he also punished the n.o.bles for the pettiest crimes and absorbed them into the royal family.
Despite that the n.o.bles remained docile because the great n.o.bles at the center of Altigand were submissive to the hero. But if that was how the n.o.bles of the orthodox faction were, then the treatment of the n.o.bles of the unorthodox faction could easily be surmised.
The leader of the unorthodox faction was Margrave Mordred, but he suddenly mysteriously died, and his private army was sent to confront the goblins as Elfa’s reinforcements.
Among the people sent was Gulland.
After fleeing from the three-country alliance to seek asylum in Altigand with Aldur’s remaining soldiers, Gulland had temporarily taken refuge under Margrave Mordred. It wasn’t actually the hero that was proactively accepting refugees, but the margraves in the border of Altigand, who were trying to cultivate their land.
Gulland chose to take refuge under him because of Aldur’s connection with him since the three-country alliance, and also because he was a sociable man. Mordred could never really get used to the concept of a center, even way back to the days of the former Holy Kingdom Alsas, and would rather stay in the borders to build relationships with peculiar people.
There were people who came to admire Mordred for his personality, but his successor, Redan, did not have the same talent and resolve as his father.
Unable to stand the slightest pressure from the country, he immediately dispatched his private army to Elfa as soon as the order to do so came. He sent all of Mordred’s trusted retainers when he was alive, showing how thorough he was, but in a twist of irony, the private army of the margrave turned out to be the strongest army sent by the n.o.bles, and so they ended up having to confront the goblins. Of course, no one had been sent with the intention of letting them die.
The soldiers of the private army knew that they were small fry, so they huddled together around the Mordred army and created a small group of their own. When they saw the private soldiers of the orthodox n.o.bles being trampled underfoot by Aransain, they skillfully walked around the battlefield and entered Elfa without incurring any big casualties.
Aransain’s role had been to distract and destroy the enemies through their superior mobility, and indeed, many private armies fell to them, but some managed to get away.
The people of Elfa were elated at the arrival of the reinforcements, and they welcomed them pa.s.sionately. Just when they thought Elfa was on the brink of defeat, the neighboring country that they hated so much sent reinforcements.
With that they could once again take aggressive measures in their fight against the goblins, and Elfa’s knight orders, which were being supported by volunteers, could bring their guerrilla tactics back to life. At the same time, they tried to prepare as much people and material they could before Felduk’s attack intensified, so they started employing mercenaries from the island nations.
What made this possible were the navigation techniques of the late Oceanic Kingdom Yarma, and the healthy situation of the neighboring countries bordering the sea. Elfa have been stubbornly persisting on defending themselves with their own hands, but just recently, they made a major change to that policy.
That change, though temporarily, brought life back to Elfa.
As Elfa’s guerrilla activities resumed and Gi Gu Verbena found himself at a loss, an unexpected report reached him.
──The Goblin King marches with his army for the borders of Elfa.
After advancing with his army at a speed that would surprise both foe and ally alike, Gi Gu Verbena sent Gi Be Slay as a messenger. By this point, Gi Gu understood that the leading role of the battlefield would have to be returned to the Goblin King.
But that did not displease him in any way.
Whether they were aware of it or not, many goblins could sense that their time fighting under the Goblin King was counted.
“Has His Majesty arrived?”
After advancing into the mining region of Elfa and devouring half of Eifa, Gi Gu stood before the mountains and muttered that.
“Gi Gu-dono, your valor has reached His Majesty. Shumea-dono and Pale-dono have spoken on your behalf.”
“…I see. Let His Majesty know. From this moment onward, I, Gi Gu Verbena shall enter into his command and become his limbs.”
Impressed by Shumea’s sense of duty, Gi Gu entrusted a message to Gi Be Slay.
“As you will.”
The military expedition personally led by the Goblin King took control of Gi Gu Verbena’s army, and then immediately headed south.
This was around the new year of the fifth year of the King’s Calendar.