Within the villages of the western region were a pair of siblings that had finally found the time to talk to each other.
“I don’t think I can go on anymore…” Yoshu said with glazed eyes.
“Why so pessimistic?” Shumea asked with a laugh as she hit him at the back.
After Yoshu finished identifying what the slaves were good for and distributing them throughout the land, he now had to figure out their pay and holidays.
The slaves here all belonged to the Goblin King. Regardless what human laws might say, as far as the western region was concerned, all humans belonged to the King and were being kept at a distance.
As a former slave and one who has received the Goblin King’s trust, Yoshu was tasked by the king to make use of the slaves. But making use of about 400 human slaves was a vastly different ordeal from raising beasts.
Where will their food come from? When is their off day? Do they have issues with other humans? There were countless problems that had to be dealt with, and Yoshu had to deal with them all.
The easiest to deal with were the gladiator slaves. Shumea and Yoshu themselves were of the same sort. These slaves had to fight everyday to fill their bellies.
They could understand the goblins to some extent, so after training with the goblins for some time, they were able to learn how to communicate with them.
The goblins grouped themselves into those that could get along with humans and those that couldn’t. The most favorable of the humans were Gi Za Zakuend’s druids. Druids had a thirst for knowledge and possessed a spirit of inquiry. Normal and rare goblins couldn’t talk well, so only the likes of elves could hold a decent conversation with them.
The druids lived in their own particular world of magic; hence, they treated humans and goblins the same.
The next most favorable were Gi Zu Ruo and his thug-like goblins. They were never directly invaded by the humans, so they never really felt any hate for them.
The goblins under the king’s direct control were also not that hateful of humans. Gi Go Amatsuki the Sword King and Gi Ga Rax the Knight Class were quite favorable of them even. Apparently, they were the sort to find it hard to hate humans.
On the other hand, the ones who hated the humans the most were Gi Ba Hagar and his goblins, who were the most proactive in pursuing after the humans in the previous chain of wars.
They openly hated even Shumea and Yoshu, who were treated as the king’s guests. Because of that the slaves and the villagers greatly feared them. The children too. While there were those among them who would hug Gi Go, they would only look at Gi Ba from a distance, and some of them would even flee.
“Why don’t you cry to the king and ask for help? If you keep that up, your body won’t hold, you know.”
“You mean the king who tasked me with the job?”
The one who said slaves needed holidays was none other than the Goblin King himself. At first, Yoshu thought it was a joke, but he was actually serious. Who would’ve thought that the Goblin King would be more humane in some parts than some of the rotten nobles?
Unfortunately, the Goblin King hadn’t taken into consideration how much trouble that would cause Yoshu.
“Mama Shumea!”
“Oh, Maridya!”
While Yoshu and Shumea were talking, a little girl briskly walked in small steps toward them. Shumea turned to her with a smile, while Yoshu turned to her in an exaggerated manner after hearing the word ‘mama’.
“I picked out some flowers for you!”
In the hands of the roughly 5 year-old’s could be seen a wreath of flowers.
“Thank you! Maridya!”
“Yep!”
Shumea smiled as she watched the little girl run back to the other orphans.
“She called me mama.”
“Mama, huh.”
Shumea couldn’t be any happier, while Yoshu felt a mix of complex emotions welling up from within.
Just when Yoshu and Shumea were about to go back to work, someone suddenly screamed. The two of them immediately glanced at each other before switching into warrior mode and running toward the direction of that scream.
“What are you doing!?”
When Yoshu and Shumea reached the source of the scream, a group of goblins could be seen surrounding Maridya. The leader of those goblins was none other than Gi Ba Hagar.
Shumea glared at Gi Ba as she approached him. The villagers only watched from afar, but Shumea brazenly nagged at Gi Ba.
She took the crying Maridya into her arms and looked around at the surrounding goblins. In response, the surrounding goblins made a face that looked like a troublesome person had come and turned to Gi Ba.
“Are you in charge of those children?” Gi Ba spat.
Shumea’s gaze grew sharper. “That’s right. Mind explaining why a bunch of adults are surrounding a group of children?”
“If they’re so weak so as to cry after hitting someone, then you should teach them not to run… So annoying!”
From the looks of things, it seems Maridya bumped into them while they were doing their rounds, and she ended up crying.
“Maridya, are you hurt?”
Maridya shook her head while crying, and Shumea glared at Gi Ba. Of the humans living in goblin territory, only Shumea was brave enough to butt heads with Gi Ba’s group.
Shumea handed the little girl to Yoshu, placed her hands on her hips, and gave Gi Ba a piece of her mind.
“That was a little girl, you know! Can’t you show even a little concern?”
“It’s too weak!”
Gi Ba rejected Shumea’s complaints and went back to his patrols. Shumea heaved a sigh as she watched the goblins leave.
The rulers of the western territory were the goblins and the ones being ruled were the humans. Although they weren’t directly hurting humans, that much pressure was bound to make people fear them.
Gi Ji Yubu and the others could keep their soldiers in line, so why was it that Gi Ba was so hard headed? Shumea couldn’t understand it.
“Well, I’m sure time will eventually solve it.”
Yoshu took the little girl by the hand and walked toward Shumea. He resolved himself to write a letter to the king later.
◆◇◆
The Goblin King had received information from the Leon Heart Clan. He has become able read articles these past few days. But this time, he passed the letter to Fei and had him read it. He did so because it was written that the letter was about the success of his scheme.
“…This is.”
“Read it.”
Gulping, Fei read the contents.
“The plan has succeeded; hence, we hereby request that the king dispatch the troops.”
The date on the letter was just recently. It was also written that the small feudal lords were willing to meet with the king with a declaration of war against the Kushain believers. The small feudal lords will also show no resistance when they pass through their lands.
The Goblin King grasped his hands tightly and announced.
“Send the soldiers to the south! Have the following added to the vanguard: Gi Ji Yubu’s legion, Felbi’s elves, Gi Za Zakuend’s druids, Ganra, Paradua, Gaidga, and the Gordob!”
“I shall inform them posthaste.”
As Fei withdrew, Gi Za Zakuend frowned.
“Can you trust just one letter? Those are a human’s words.”
“I decided to trust them. To overturn that now is to deny the me from the past.”
“I won’t say anymore then.”
“If they get in our way, then at that time, we’ll simply crush them. We have more soldiers now than when we took the western capital and the coordination between our various platoons have gotten much better.”
When the king has said that much, even Gi Za won’t have any choice but to back off.
“But I think we should still prepare to withdraw in case something unexpected happens.”
“That’s oddly timid of you.”
“I just can’t come to like humans. I don’t like elves either, but I can’t trust humans as much as them.”
“Hmm… I’ll keep that in mind. But in order to rule over vast lands of human territory, we might have too change ourselves once more.”
The Goblin King decided to leave the defense of the east to his most trusted retainer, Gi Ga Rax, who will be accompanied by Gi Ba Hagar and the rare class goblins, as well as Nikea the araneae and the demihumans. As for the rear guard of the defending forces, Gi Gu Verbena and Yustia’s yugushivas will be taking charge.
The Goblin King himself will be leading the soldiers directly to the south. Because of that the pressure coming from the east will surely become greater, so Gi Ga Rax’s presence and the rest of the warriors will be needed to defend.
“We will depart in 20 days.”
“Your Majesty, if we have that much time, why don’t we make the enemy put down their guard.”
The Goblin King folded his arms with interest at Gi Za Zakuend’s proposal.
“What do you have in mind?”
“Wasn’t there a Kushain believer you once supported?”
The patriarch, Benem Nemush, who came to power after experiencing the miracle of walking through the Forest of Darkness and even receiving treasure from monsters.
In truth, he was captured by Gi Gu Verbena, brought to the king, and was then released. But of course, neither side thought it necessary to make the records that specific.
“We do have an acquaintance.”
“How about promising to support him again?”
“…I see. Fortunately, we have time.”
Since they would be needing time to muster their forces, they might as well make use of it.
“I’ll take care of it. I can ask Yoshu about human matters.”
Gi Za nodded and withdrew himself to pass on the king’s words to those who will be defending the east.
The battle in the south needed to be concluded as soon as possible. Or else the eastern Germion Kingdom just might bare their sharpened fangs toward the goblins once more.
The king felt the one-eyed snake coiled around his right arm squirm.
