At the Fortress of the Abyss, the headquarters of the goblins, Gi Be and the other one-armed goblins instructed the newly born goblins that would become a part of the imperial guards.
It has already been three months since the war with the humans, and new warriors have already been sent to aid the Goblin King in his quest for the south.
After conquering the western capital and making his move to conquer the plains, the Goblin King’s need for soldiers has become unquenchable.
After the Goblin King received soldiers from the Gi Village, the four tribes, and the southern goblins, which totaled to almost 500 goblins in three months, the Goblin King set off to execute his plans for the humans of the western region.
The goblins have learned how to farm, but it was limited to the red fruit alone, which wasn’t suitable as staple food. Perhaps there might indeed come a time when the goblins could farm on their own, but for now, the Goblin King believed it would be best to have the humans take over the farms.
Goblins and humans have always had a difference in stamina, so after hearing that Gi Go Amatsuki was able to easily eat human bread, the Goblin King made up his mind, and now, goblins could be seen tilling the land.
The Goblin King didn’t go as far as to call it the Tuntian System, but he didn’t want to leave the goblin soldiers idle either, so he had them help out.
After all, it didn’t matter how much food there were.
Hunting was an indispensable method to gather the staple food of the goblin diet, which was meat, but it was no longer sufficient to feed an army of almost 2000 goblins.
The Goblin King knew that breaking the delicate balance of the ecosystem would surely bite them in the rear later, and he also didn’t want to consider driving a species to extinction.
With that, the Goblin King decided that they needed to gradually move from hunting to farming.
That being said, it wasn’t possible to completely abandon hunting, as it was a necessity for the goblins to hone their skills.
After all, a goblin could only be considered an adult when he is able to perform the three-man cell training and risk his life. The Goblin King himself acknowledges this.
Shumea was put in charge of overseeing the goblin and human farmers, and was presently going from village to village to arbitrate and appeal. This was on top of her duties to watch over the juvenile vagrants that were left behind in the western capital.
Any trouble or dissatisfaction reported to her were immediately passed to the king.
There were nearly 100 children less than 15 years old gathered around Shumea, and whenever she had the time to spare, such as when traveling from village to village, she would personally train them in the way of the spear.
When the Goblin King conquered the colonial city, they acquired enough food to feed 2000 soldiers for half a year. Because of this he was able to exempt the humans from tax for a year.
Shumea was always busy nowadays, but unexpectedly, she loved watching over the kids.
Contrast to her, her younger brother, Yoshu, who was tasked to watch over the slaves, was at his wit’s end.
Although they may all be classified under the word ‘slave’, there were all sorts. Some were swordsmen, some looked after their master, some were bedmates… etc.
Yoshu was put in charge of all these different ‘products’, and he hadn’t a clue what to do with them.
Of the 700 humans under the Goblin King, 100 were children, 400 were slaves, and the rest were either the elderly, the criminals, or escapees.
Even with just numbers alone he already had 4 times more to deal with than Shumea. He had to interview them one by one just to figure out what they could do, and in the end, it took him 10 days to go through them all. Life did not become easier afterwards, as it would take him a great deal of effort to put them to use.
After all, he was all alone. The goblins were unreliable, and while the elves seemed somewhat reliable at first glance, it turns out that they are actually utterly incompetent when it comes to moving humans. In the end, Yoshu had no one to rely on but himself.
Yoshu was so busy that he didn’t even have the time to scream as he dealt with the slaves.
In the end, Yoshu left 30 battle slaves to Gi Go, whom he believed was somewhat sympathetic, then he left the slaves that could write and calculate to the elves to support them, while he had the slaves that looked after their master to either look after the elderly of the western capital or help with the farms.
Yoshu happened to bump into Shumea when he went to the farms, and as it turns out, he was so worn out that Shumea went wide-eyed the moment she saw him.
But no matter how difficult the work was, Yoshu eventually managed to deal with it, and the goblin kingdom finally started to look like a proper kingdom.
◆◇◆
Elrain Kingdom, wherein the Red King Clan focused most of their activities, was separated into two kinds of lands, one was green and the other was a dessert.
In the dessert region of the southern part were city-states formed by small villages referred to as Oasis City-State, whose income revolved around merchant caravans traveling the desert.
Naturally, there were various kinds of monsters and beasts lurking in the desert, and one of the source of income of the Red King Clan was to protect these caravans from such threats.
The Red King led the clans under his to subjugate the monsters lurking along the route that the traveling merchants used to go west. It was at a distance about 2 days toward the west.
“Have the rangers look for the ants coming from beneath us.”
The one leading was a muscular warrior.
Members from various clans had come here to support him.
“Our united front (party) seems to be going well,” a pale-faced youth – unfit for the desert, named Carlion – said.
Brandika nodded. “But of course. After all, someone went out of his way to pull an all-nighter just to pick the right people.”
“Well, that’s…”
“What? Embarrassed?”
As Brandika laughed heartily, Carlion scratched his face, troubled.
The Clan Coalition of the Red King would periodically go out to hunt like this to gather experience and deepen relations with the people of the various clans under them.
Whenever Brandika himself is leading, there would always someone good at management to support him.
“Don’t push too far! Just push gradually!”
As the muscular warrior gave out instructions, several party members at the frontline made the signal to show they received orders.
“Sardine is really heated up… I think I’ll—”
“—Don’t. That would be cruel to Sardine.”
Brandika wanted to go to the frontlines, but Carlion stopped him.
“Just a little.”
“No.”
“I won’t take long, promise.”
“No!”
“Just the tip!”
“No means no. Besides, the customers need someone to take care of them.”
Brandika desperately tried to persuade Carlion, not noticing Cell’s gaze from beside him, but Carlion ignored his pleas and looked behind.
Brandika ended up following Carlion’s gaze, and there, behind them, he saw the influential general of Elrain, Kanash, and the clan leaders under their clan.
“Ah~ Well, I guess it can’t be helped then.”
Brandika pouted like a little kid and walked toward those people.
“…I’ve always wanted to ask you something.”
Cell asked as Carlion watched Brandika walk away.
“Yes?”
“Why are you supporting a man like that?”
“Because I want to… Is that not good enough?” Carlion chuckled and looked toward Sardine’s direction.
When word that the anthill of the killer ants had been found came, Carlion knew victory was theirs, so he told Cell to rest and he went back to his tent.
“Hmph…!” Cell snorted as she looked over the clear blue sky and the vast desert.
The desert winds caressed the female gnome warrior’s face, going past her just as quickly as it came.
