Chapter 126

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With the unruly soldiers and the gradually approaching Rustling Forest (Forni), the goblin-elf coalition caused Fenit’s mood to worsen by the day.

Fenit sought to gain support by visiting the other village through the Elven Road, but the walls the villages had erected interfered with the spell, preventing him from reaching them.

“Silver Sheng, Nash Jirad, even Priena! What is wrong with you? Have you been seized with fear!?” Fenit slammed the table as he yelled at the soldiers of Symphoria standing before him, not an elf looked up to meet his gaze. “How infuriating… Fine, if this is how they want to play it, we’ll just have to go ourselves. I, Fenit, will open the eyes of the Forni myself! But before that I’ll start with that brat, Silver! I’ll show him the price of humiliating me!”

In his anger, Fenit ordered his men to march to the nearby Forest of the Lost (Sheng). His army numbered 500-men strong. There was no power in the hot sands of the southern desert able of contesting the elves, so the Tranquil Forest (Symphoria) had much room to grow. Fenit took roughly half of their great army.

The army included Pale, who was also an elf of Symphoria. Since returning to Symphoria, she has bowed her head countless times to strangers in her search for Selena; and in the end, she concluded that Selena must be with the goblins.

She would go to them now to prove her conclusions true, but she didn’t think it feasible to grab Selena from right under the goblins’ noses. Moreover, Forni had formed an alliance with the goblins. As far as they were concerned, she was an enemy. The Elven Road was not omnipotent.

Even if she manages to make contact with Selena, how would she escape with her?

To go by herself meant to move through enemy lines alone; the goblins and the Forni who have accepted them. Running away surely wouldn’t be easy. Not to mention, Pale wouldn’t even dream of taking an army alone, though it was precisely because she understood her limits that she was cautious.

The first most important thing an adventurer must learn is to know one’s limits.

After discerning what one can do and cannot do, one must then do his best according to those limits. Pale learned that after joining the Soar to Freedom ClanElks.

Using the same method, Pale concluded that the best way to meet Selena was to move with Fenit’s army.

“I’m not wrong, am I, Touri?” Pale muttered to herself, calling out the name of their leader as she rebuked herself for her weakness.

“So this is were you were,” a voice called out from behind Pale as she was doing maintenance on her bow and quiver. When she turned around, a young elf her age was there.

“Felbi, what’s the matter?” Pale said.

“…Nothing. I just wanted to see your face a bit,” shrugged the elf who was one of the commanding officers of Symphoria’s army. Felbi Anthra, though young he is an elf accomplished in both archery and magic. He is one of the friends that Pale still has contact with even after her long absence.\n“Is Fenit still throwing a tantrum? Sorry about that. I’m his relative, so let me apologize in his place,” Pale said.

“I haven’t even said anything,” Felbi said.

“You’re making that face though.”

“Alright, I give. You hit it right on the money,” Felbi sighed as he sat beside Pale and worked maintenance on his short sword. As he rubbed his short sword made out of Srilana, he talked about Fenit. When he got to the part where Fenit ordered them to march to the Forest of the Lost, Pale raised her two well-shaped brows.

“It’s not something to praise, but… I don’t think he’s wrong,” Pale said.

“And I thought you’d surely be against it,” Felbi said, looking at Pale as if he was looking at someone for the first time.

“You might not want to hear this, Felbi, but I think the Goblin-Forni Alliance is a force to be reckoned with. Gathering numbers to overcome that isn’t a bad move; and since they agreed during the meeting, they should honor their promise… even if that promise was made due to a threat.”

“Because it’s the duty of the nobles, huh. Pretty harsh, aren’t we?”

In the end, negotiations were just tools executed upon the stage that is power. That was true for the humans; and it rings true even for the elves.

“But I guess it can’t be helped if we’re to defeat Forni,” Felbi sighed as he sheathed his short sword.

“Perhaps,” Pale agreed. “For the sake of peace.”

When they stood up and were about to bid each other farewell, the tumultuous noise of a violent wind and the sight of the chief’s roofs being blown away hit them.

◆◆◇

They’re not attacking.

That’s something to be celebrated, I suppose.

This whole thing began because of Shure’s unexpected declaration of war, but it seems to be going exactly as he planned. Currently, our forces are marching together with the goblins surrounding the elves to protect them.

The road in the forest had been maintained well enough to allow even an army our size to go through. It wasn’t paved with stones, but it was wide enough to accommodate us; moreover, the needless stones have been removed and the land has been leveled.

I wanted to ask Shure why their roads were like this, but after seeing him busy dealing with all the reports, I decided to postpone the trivial questions for later. In fact, even the usually chattering goblin horde was acting as if they’d been forbidden from talking.

When Shure finished hearing out the scouts’ reports, I spoke to him. “Things sure are going smoothly. I thought for sure the other villages would attack you.”

“We’ve already made our move. Right now, the other villages shouldn’t even have the leisure of sending out their army.”

Assassins? Shure was still free, so I asked.

“Did you have the other leaders assassinated?” I asked.

“No… Well, we’ve gotten this far so it shouldn’t make any difference. There are other people among the sylph who share my misgivings; such elves aren’t limited to those in my village,” Shure said.

So he had those elves do something then? Did he tell them to attack? No, that would be too weak. A separate attack force isn’t impossible, but he said the other villages won’t even have the leisure of sending out their army, so it would have to be something even stronger than that.

“You incited a rebellion?”

“…Bingo.”

Just a bit I saw a glimpse of what this man is worrying about. There were indeed people who share his misgivings in the other forests, but they were by no means many. Otherwise, he would have simply had the other chiefs exiled. The fact that he had to resort to a rebellion meant that he didn’t have enough influence otherwise to cripple the other forests.

The only way to affect the other forests was for him to make a desperate move. A desperate move that would mean death if anything were to go wrong.\n“We can go faster if you want,” I said.

“But…” Shure said, hesitant.

“It’s fine, we’re used to wars. We’re not pushing ourselves.”

“…Thank you. Fei, order the army to go faster!”

Nodding, his secretary ordered the soldiers. “Elites of Forni! Let us make haste! There is no weakling among us only capable of moving so slowly!”

I raised my voice as well.

At that, the elves and the goblins both quickened their pace.

Like that we headed to the Tranquil Forest (Symphoria).

◆◆◇

Bui groaned when he saw the goblin that was brought to the village.

“Food!” The kobolds, on the other hand, demanded food as usual as they bit him by the legs.

“What to do, Bui? That goblin is that goblin’s subordinate, right? It’s black and big too,” Gui said.

Bui could only nod his head despite being troubled. “Let’s heal him first. Remove the arrow lodged into his back, then apply some herbs.”

“Wouldn’t that be bad? If he dies, it’ll be our fault,” Goi said as he quivered in fear.

Bui shook his head. “I think it would be worse if we just threw him away and did nothing. Even if he dies, it should be fine as long as we tried our best.”

Bui’s words gradually grew weaker until they were completely powerless by the end of his speech. Gui and Goi glanced at each other at that, then sighing, they carried the goblin into a house. It was a house made only out of wood and the skin of animals, but it was much better than nothing.

Washing the goblin’s wounds with water purified by Doralia, they rubbed some herbs on them to hasten their recovery. After that, all that was left was to wait for the goblin’s leaf-covered wounds to recover.

“Food!” Meanwhile, the kobolds were still clinging onto Bui. When he finally took out some meat, they started salivating.

“Aight, now you boys go over there-” Bui threw the meat away, causing the kobolds to run after it. It was then that someone called out to him.

“Bui! The goblin is awake!” When he turned around, he saw that it was Goi, who had come running out from inside the house.

Inside the house.

“…Ugh, bastards… you’re… orcs,” the goblin said, still clearly in pain.

Contrary the goblin’s seemingly hostile appearance, however, Bui was quite relieved to see him alive.

“Don’t worry, we won’t eat you,” Bui said.

“Bastards, I know… you… eat our kind!” The goblin said.

“I am Bui, the ruler of this orc village. I have no intentions of antagonizing your king.”

The blue goblin – the assassin, Gi Ji Arsil – groaned when he heard those words tinged with intelligence; that was something far too rare for the orcs.

“Anyhow, it should be far too difficult for you to be moving around, so just lie down and rest,” Bui said before leaving Goi behind to tend to the goblin, while he left with the others.

“It’s good he didn’t die. For the meantime, let’s observe him. He’s probably hungry, so we’ll have to feed him some meat,” Bui said as he ordered the other orcs and thought of the actions they would be taking.

The wounded goblins was found in the area the king gave them, the area south the lake. The arrow lodged into his back was exquisitely made, something far too difficult for the goblins and orcs.

That being said, the enemy was most likely human.

Had the humans invaded the forest once more? Or did the goblin come from outside the forest?

There was much to confirm.

“Gui, I have a request.”

The chief of the orc village began his own investigation.

—316 days until the war with the humans.