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Volume 3, Chapter 246 - The Absence of a Great Man (2/5)

Because of that the number of jobs at the guild decreased, and even the recruitment of personnel to gather information and strengthen defenses in response to the approaching threat from the south has come to a halt.

Gilmi had seen Yoshu’s skills during the war with Germion Kingdom, so he was naturally counting on those this time too to hold the western capital.

Unfortunately, he was completely off the mark.

The information that should have reached didn’t reach, and the preparations for defense haven’t been progressing at all. Gilmi had no choice but to hurry. In order for the king to be able to attack the east, the stability of their rear was an absolute condition. Although the goblins might try to persuade the Goblin King, they would never overturn his decision.

That was how much they respected the king.

“Hurry!”

With no time to bask in the joys of victory, they moved their army north.

Gilmi was greatly flustered by this unexpected situation that left him with no choice but to hurry.

◆◆◇

The year changed and it was once again the month of Mars.

In any other year, celebrations to welcome the new year would be held, but neither Pale nor the Goblin King could be concerned about such things now. The War Princess was invited to the king’s dinner party, but even that was a battlefield, a bloodless battlefield.

She had to put on a dignified front to the other great nobles and act in a way that furthered her interests while suppressing theirs.

She stood elegantly at the battlefield that formed the imperial court, and demonstrated her authority.

While Gilmi chased after the rebel army to the north, the Goblin King was pressed with dealing with the rebellions that broke out frequently.

Of course punishment had to be handed out to the people who took part in the rebellions, but punishing all of the participants would mean incurring about a 10% loss to the total population. The Goblin King had to come up with a better answer.

The Elrain Kingdom, managed by prime minister Elbert, experienced no rebellions in its capital city, but it did experience small rebellions in the countryside. What more then the other countrysides?

It was on the 10th of Mars and to the table of such a busy Goblin King that piles of bad news were brought.

Communications with the Western Capital have been cut.

Until now neither the Goblin King nor Pale have been looking at the matter that closely, but upon receiving that information, their countenance fell and they immediately started gathering information. They had just gotten word that the main force of the rebel army have been crushed and were starting to be at ease, but then this information came.

Pale was especially frustrated by the fact that this result was brought on by the Red King’s intelligence department, and so she set out to reconstruct their intelligence network.

The communication with the Western Capital was regularly done with mainly the goblins and then the humans and the demihumans.

This was done not just to stimulate trade between the various city-states and the Western Capital, but also to promote harmony and coexistence between the humans, the demihumans, the elves, and the other races. A plan proposed by the Goblin King and revised by Yoshu.

The people participating in this regular service would be given the right to trade freely, but at the same time also be tasked with gathering information from various places and bringing them back to the Western Capital. Peddlers who wished to avoid being attacked by monster beasts were also permitted to follow along from behind, so peddlers devoted to finding trade routes also participated in this regular service.

If this service has been cut, then it could only mean that there is an emergency at the Western Capital or that the regular service itself has been attacked. Either case was a matter of concern.

But the Goblin King couldn’t pull any more soldiers from the front lines, as word of Blanche the War Princess mobilizing her soldiers again was brought to them from the Holy Shushunu Kingdom in the latter half of the month of Mars.

The Goblin King had set their front lines at the south and the west and was supposed to have the Holy Shushunu Kingdom surrounded, but by creating a front line at their back, the War Princess was now threatening to surround them instead.

The reason the Goblin King was so concerned about his back was precisely because he wished to avoid this. Within the ‘history’ he remembered, his country once fought a great war and was driven to a corner just like this and lost.

Whether he liked it or not, the Goblin King was forced to recall that.

Pale, who had been given full authority over their intelligence department, felt gravely responsible for this loss. The high ranked goblins, Gi Gu Verbena and Gi Za Zakuend couldn’t say calm either when word of the news that the Western Capital may have fallen was brought to them.

The main force of the enemy has been defeated and yet they still had enough strength to take over the Western Capital. Everyone was anxious whether they could really win against the War Princess when they had an enemy behind them.

“My deepest apologies, Your Majesty.”

It was a rare sight to see Pale so admirably bow her head, but the Goblin King only struck his great sword into the stone paving while sat in his throne and smiled.

“Why apologize? We are surrounded by enemies, but so what? Isn’t this what just the usual?”

Pale raised her head, surprised, and the king nodded and smiled fiercely.

“We haven’t lost yet, only disadvantaged. And disadvantages are things that we will repel no matter how many times we are forced to suffer them.”

At the words of the Goblin King, the kneeling goblins too raised their heads.

“Remember. Where did we begin?”

They didn’t come from a powerful country already built. The high ranked goblins here today came from a background so poor they didn’t even know if they would die from starvation.

It was from that kind of dire hole that they crawled themselves out. Yes, that’s right. As long as the king was with them, they would never lose.

The doubts of his subordinates cleared, the Goblin King ordered for information to be gathered and for preparations to meet the attack of the War Princess be put underway. He told that to Gi Ga and Gi Gi.

“There’s no need to be afraid. Leave the back to Gilmi and maintain the various front lines.”

The king was actually also anxious, but he couldn’t afford to show that on the surface. He was the king of the goblins; hence, his fears would only become the fears of the country and create an opening for the enemy.

It was because he knew that that he showed himself full of confidence.

Even if it was nothing more than a bluff, the Goblin King always had to appear strong.