Goblin Kingdom

VOLUME 2: CHAPTER 145 (2/2) – GI GI’S RETURN

The ancient beast tamer, Gi Gi Orudo, had at long last returned from his trip to the north with a great horde of beasts. We almost ended up fighting with the goblins he brought, but fortunately, Gi Ga managed to name himself before anything happened.

“Welcome back,” I said, my great sword in hand.

Gi Gi bowed. Behind him was a small horde of goblins and an uncountable beast horde. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he would come back with a great horde of beasts.

Well, I can add them to the army, all the same.

Rewarding and punishing is one of the basics of building a country, so I had to reward Gi Gi for a job well done.

“Gi Gi Orudo, the ancient beast tamer, I hereby permit you to build your village northwest of the Fortress of the Abyss. Take your fellow beast tamers with you and build a village there.”

“As his majesty wills!”

After seeing him nod, I informed him of the earlier events.

“When the war with the humans begin, I shall leave one front of the war with you. Train your beast tamers and your beasts with that purpose in mind. You have done well, Gi Gi Orudo.”

“My deepest thanks, Your Majesty!”

Gi Gi seemed nervous to be commended in front of the goblins.

There was still time until the war with the humans. If he raised his beasts well and trained up his rare beast tamers, Gi Gi’s horde should become a force to be reckoned with.

That’s something I’ll be looking forward to.

Still… It sure is surprising to see so many different beasts together in one place without fighting. I guess that in and of itself is a testament to Gi Gi’s skill.

I’ll have to give him a fitting land, so that he’ll be able to spread his wings to their fullest.

Speaking of which, since he brought this many beasts back with him, I wonder if this’ll have some sort of effect on the ecosystem of the north? After all, he didn’t just bring herbivores back with him, he even brought back carnivores like the thorn dogs.

If anything, it would be more surprising if the ecosystem of the north doesn’t get affected. Just to be safe, I should have Gi Ji send some scouts to monitor the north.

Now, with Gi Gi back, I wonder how Gi Gu Verbena and the others are doing.

I hope they’re doing well…

◆◆◇

After the sylph unification war, the elves were busy repairing their villages. Starting with the burned forest of Sinfall, the elves buried their dead and gathered the weapons and armor made of blue silver steel to prevent them from negatively affecting the forest.

They also mended their relationship with the demihumans, improving the lifestyle of the demihumans that were turned into slaves. Because of all these, the new chief of the sage’s council, Shure Forni, had a mountain of documents sitting on his desk.

“Here are the population for the different villages,” Fei said as he handed over a document.

Shure glanced over at that document, and then imposed work according to the population of each village. The demihumans were unconditionally released from their slavery, so voices of complaints rose from the defeated villages. Warriors had to be sent out to quell them.

“You sure are in high spirits,” Old Falun, Shure’s sworn friend and teacher, said.

“Well, the elderly did retire too early,” Shure sarcastically said.

Falun laughed. “Don’t you know? A man should work hard while he’s yet young.”

Shure sighed as he took a sip from the herb tea Fei had made for him.

“Anyway, I came because of those goblins you sent me,” Falun said.

“Is there a problem?” Shure asked.

The two shaman goblins, Gi Za Zakuend and Gi Do Buruga, had stayed behind in the elven village because they wanted to study. Presently, they were being taught how to read and write by Falun in the great village of Gastair to the west.

“Oh, no, none at all. I am a teacher, after all. Regardless what race a person comes from, if they want to learn, I’ll happily oblige,” Falun said.

“I thought you didn’t like homeworks?” Shure asked.

“Well, yes, I’d rather hand out homeworks than have homeworks handed to me,” Falun said in a roundabout way, causing Shure to smile.

When Shure remembered the past, he couldn’t help but wryly smile. The fact that he could wryly smile like that just went to show how long it had been.

“Anyway, Shure,” Falun said, causing Shure to raise his brows.

He was familiar with Falun’s ways, being his sworn friend and student, so he knew that when Falun acted like this, he was up to no good. At the very least, it wasn’t something that could be considered ‘good’ as far as Shure was concerned.

“I was thinking of reviving the old school house,” Falun said.

There used to be an elven school, but the lack of funds forced it to close. Now, Falun was saying that he wanted it brought back.

They certainly had more funds at present. After all, the hidden treasures of Jirad were all being brought to light because of all the arguments on who exactly was to blame for the elves’ defeat.

Bringing back the school was certainly possible.

“The foundation of a country is education. I have always believed this, Shure,” Falun said.

The higher the educational standard, the more efficient the management of the country. Now that the elves were unified, it was only right that they took this as an opportunity to raise up the standards of education.

The powerful race of goblins to the east have already started to prosper, and their growth shows no signs of halting. The coming war between them and the humans would surely propel them even further.

What of the elves then?

Should they throw their lot with the humans and wipe out the goblins from the face of the world?

Or should they throw their lot with the goblins and defeat the humans?

Or should they pick neither side and look for their own path? Or perhaps pick both and remain in either race’s good graces?

They were currently allied with the goblins, but it remained to be seen whether the goblins could be trusted. If the Goblin King were to die, how would the goblins react? What would they do?

The current alliance was something that was being held together solely by the friendship between Shure and the Goblin King.

“…The one to decide is you, Shure, but no matter which path you choose, you will need strength,” Falun said.

“Your words ring true, elder,” Shure said.

Whichever side he picked, he would need to gather the elves’ strength.

At the same time, he would need to ensure that he makes allies.

That is to say that he needed to raise people with similar values.

One method to go about things was to share their knowledge and values with the intellectual among the goblins, and then send them back as skilled bureaucrats to the goblins.

The elven school was once a great village itself, but it was mainly a system to teach the children of the chiefs of the small villages a peaceful mindset.

When Shure thought of it, that was certainly a clever method. By studying together and instilling similar values, they would be able to carry out a so-called ‘peaceful attack’.

“Good plan,” Shure said.

Falun happily nodded. “I’ll leave the details to you then.”

“…Huh?” Shure thought he misheard for a moment, but when he turned to Falun, the old elf was gone.

“…He got me,” Shure said as he stifled the unspeakable expletives that demanded to gush out of his mouth.

Shure started working on the documents at his desk again.

A good night’s sleep was a long way away.

—185 days until the war with the humans.