< Chapter 123 – What forms a territory is (3) >
“What about those goblin punks?”
Lind came to me.
I’d love to have a leisurely afternoon, but there was no time for that at the moment.
I couldn’t build a house and take care of people on my own, so Digo, Lind and Axe were busy with me. Even in the midst of all that busyness, Lind expanded the scope of his thoughts.
He was worried about the goblins that originally occupied Fraunmund Castle.
The leader seemed smart enough to flee to Blade Mountain, so of course he felt uneasy with the herd of monsters on his back.
“Yeah, they are there.”
When I was prone, Lind spoke.
“Are you going to leave them there?”
He calls me lord and uses honorific title in official places, but it was unfamiliar to hear it when we were alone.
“When we’re alone, let’s be comfortable.”
“The authority of the Lords…….”
“My authority is mine to do with as I please.”
“Okay.”
Lind said as if he had been waiting. He would have been uncomfortable, too.
Anyway, I had to answer his anxieties and questions.
I didn’t want to move, but I was trying to move.
Lind, Digo, and Dokki alone could kill them, but they couldn’t chase them.
But it’s different if I’m there.
I’m the one called Pathfinder, who is second to none in tracking.
“Let’s go chase them out.”
“Chase them?”
You can kill them all. We could afford to do that.
We could pick off some of the troops Streek had brought with him, anticipate Goblins path and create a strike force to deal with them.
But it would take a long time. It wouldn’t be a matter of a day or two if we had to brave the steep mountains to capture and kill them one by one.
“It will take half a year to kill them all.”
When I said that, Lind nodded.
There were about a thousand goblins. There were probably quite a few that had formed villages in the mountains, because goblins are species that live in the groups.
“If we let them alive, it will be troublesome in the future.”
Since he had fought the goblins while I was away, Lind had learned of their cruelty and brutality.
“I’m going to kill them all, but I don’t have to do it here.”
There is a saying among the herbalists.
‘If you use it well, even the dog poop becomes medicine.’
And I was a pretty good herbalist.
The only people going were me, Lind, and Dokki.
Digo and a hundred soldiers that Streek had brought stayed behind, in case of a goblin horde that could come to the territory.
We headed straight for the Blade Mountain.
“This way.”
It’s a rugged mountain range, but the three of us climbed the mountain better than the average Rangers.
My physical abilities were different in the first place, not to mention the fact that I am a Pathfinder.
Maybe because it was a mountain there was no road to follow, and it would be easier to climb the mountain by following me on the path I was taking.
I spent two days looking at the signs of them and identifying the surrounding mountains. And began to move.
“There.”
Lind, who has good eyesight, found a small green monster and raised his finger to point.
I saw where it was and ordered Lind.
“Just hit the arm.”
Following their traces, I knew the form in which the goblin group had settled. I saw a guy leading them there once.
A goblin with red horns, a hobgoblin. The combat power is not much different from ordinary goblins, but the intelligence is different.
He’s smarter and more meticulous.
That was the head of the goblin pack that held out for so long in Fraunmunt territory.
I found him, but I didn’t chase him or kill him.
Instead.
Ping. Puck!
Lind’s arrow hit the Goblin’s arm.
Kieeek!
What does being smart mean? Monsters whose intellect was not fully established, used to show their cleverness by distinguishing between the enemies they could deal with and the enemies they couldn’t.
“Kaaaaak!”
The goblins that spotted us rushed in.
“Fifteen of them. Dokki?”
“I’m alone!”
Dokki stepped out.
Two axes in both hands mercilessly slaughtered goblins. It was slaughter, nothing more, nothing less.
Seeing the approaching goblin, he ran faster and swung the axe in his left hand horizontally at the goblin’s head.
Snap!
The head of the two goblins caught in that trajectory were blown off. The rusty spears and claws they held out were avoided by twisting, and this time the axe in his right hand was raised again from the bottom up.
Puck!
Green blood splattered in all directions. It was a terrifying combination of power and skill.
A mere goblin was no match for it. After Dokki cleared them up.
“Next.”
Lind drew his bow again toward my words. Eager to kill after waiting for two days.
“Kaaah!”
Finally, I got the reaction I wanted. The goblins spotted us and scurried away.
“Leave them.”
Lind said, grabbing the bow with one hand as he held it.
Hobgoblin is a clever guy. He distinguished between an opponent to fight and an opponent to not fight.
I deliberately drove them from the outside of the Blade Mountain to the inside and killed them.
This is Moll hunting. It was just on a large scale.
So a week later, a group of goblins from the Blade Mountain came down to escape us who were wandering in the mountains.
After a large group was forced to migrate, the remaining did not have to be handled.
“Pumpkin.”
Woof.
I left it to my cute pumpkin who came after me.
“Kill the goblins you see.”
Remaining goblins were left to him. Hearing my words, Pumpkin shook his butt and climbed the mountain with ease.
This was enough to deal with the remnants. There was no way the pumpkin would be pushed by the goblins.
If it’s dangerous he can avoid and choose the group with fewer numbers. Only normal goblins without their leader were remaining.
“Won’t those bastards go to another territory?”
I put my hand on his shoulder as Lind spoke with worry.
“I’m sending them to do so.”
“Huh?”
“Understood.”
Lind is smart. He guessed what I intended and asked.
“You’re throwing them on purpose.”
Yes, I am. I was trying to be a little more efficient with the monsters I had to deal with anyway.
Bean Sabnak saw a man with dark blue hair standing in front of him. Bean was the first to arrive at this land and had already met this man.
(TL Note: Name changed from “Bin” to “Bean”. Although pronunciation is similar to “Phin” or “Fin”)
He didn’t even looked like a lord at that time.
“Two days ago, he was a monstrous man carrying logs for a new house.”
The servant said. He didn’t have to say it, he knew it too.
The man had a peculiar charm that naturally attracted the attention of those around him.
“Is he modest, or is he smart?”
Bean Sabnak muttered to himself.
This is a territory that just begun. It seemed the best way to unite the people of the territory was for the lord to participate directly in the labor.
Bean turned his gaze. Inside the food began to be laid on the table, in a wide corridor.
Far from being rich, it was a meal that was meager.
“I think it’s right for me to eat what people of my territory eat, so I prepared it here. Please tell me in advance if it doesn’t suit your taste. I’ll take out the bowl right away and give it to other hungry people. Don’t spill it just in case you’re angry. I really hate things like that.”
How can there be such a crazy person? He said what he wanted and put his spoon in the distant stew.
The only food prepared was stew and thinly sliced pork .
“I’m hungry after coming so far, so I’ll take it without reservation.”
At the end of the Lord’s words, someone lifted another spoon.
Baron Bean Sabnak’s eyes glowed. There was another person as important as Baron Chris Fraunmunt.
Count Weehain Ludwig, did not come here in person. No matter what anyone said, he was a great lord who was no different than the king of this area.
Although he had just inherited his father’s title and did not yet establish his authority, he was still a great man who would not be moved by a mere baron’s invitation.
So the one who came instead is this guy. The man who had been hiding until now, whose face only appeared after the death of Count Van Ludwig.
A knight with fiery red hair. He was the Wyze Knight kept hidden by Van Ludwig, Hulken Ludwig.
(TL Note: In Manhwa his name is translated as Guillien Ludwig)
“It tastes good.”
He smiled as he put a thin pork in his mouth. He had a reputation as the Grim Reaper of the battlefield, beheading his enemies with a smile.
Looking at it, Baron Fraunmunt said.
“Eat less, there are others too.”
“You serve the food eat, why are you being so sour? Is this how you treat your guests Baron Fraunmunt? ”
“No, I’m asking you to eat in moderation.”
The two men seemed to be quite close.
“Baron.”
As his knight called, Bean Sabnak quickly woke up. Even though he wasn’t as famous as those two, he had a good amount of military power here.
“I’m also Wyze Knight.”
I wondered if I had greed in my eyes.
His secret and hidden move that he did not reveal to anyone, including his surrounding lord, or even his wife and children.
Jereple.
His knight who was standing by his side. He recognized his talent and took him as his foster child.
“I know.”
Bean Sabnak knows Jeraple’s skills. If there was a chance, the prestige of “Four People Blocked Two Thousand” would have belonged to Jareple.
He just didn’t ecounter such a battlefield.
“I’m a Wyze user of the third level. If you need it, I can break that guy’s nose.”
“Yes, I believe you.”
Bean said and crossed his arms.
Before they came, I was busy learning the surrounding terrain while training. Although it’s not a terrain that I learned by running on my own feet.
“If you cross the hill over there, it’s the land of another lord.”
I had the mouths of five hundred refugees. The people outside the Count Ludwig’s Triangle were of two kinds.
One is those who are born and raised in the land and do not know how to do anything other than dig and eat.
The other is a wanderer like the architect Baxter. And the wanderers basically know a lot. Even the most outspoken people liked to tell what they had seen and heard.
Besides, the person who is listening is interested, and that person has highest status in this territory, so needless to say he they have to speak.
“Oh, you’re saying it’s another lord, right?” “What’s the name of the land?”
“Was it Sabnad or Bonsanad? Anyway it is the land by that name.”
I collected the words of these people and used them as a foundation to see the path. I drew the surrounding roads by using pathfinder, listening and predicting, and then read the surrounding terrain based on those roads.
The paths and shapes that I read and drew remained in my mind in the form of a map. I worked with that map for days.
I needed something from them, so I had to be what they needed.
In other words, by making a map, I was able to gauge what they currently have and what I can have.
What kind of people are Lords.
I was able to give a lucid answer to this question.
They are the ones who defend their land and the ones who rack their brains for profit.
There are a few classes among them.
Who lives for the status and wealth of nobility.
My gaze glanced at the faces of those gathered. They were people with greed on their faces. Among them will be those who have bought the title, and those who have inherited it and are not able to operate it properly.
There were other types of people as well.
There were those who wished to pass on their lands, called fiefdoms, from generation to generation, and there were those who, though old, had managed to raise at least one fiefdom.
I can’t know everything just by looking at their faces, but I roughly classified them. The problem here is that there are humans who do not belong to this classification at all.
Hulken Ludwig. I didn’t know that that man would come in person. Although I expected Weehain not to come, but Hulken Ludwig?
To send someone directly who is widely rumored to be a Wyze knight and the heir to the frontier hero’s military power.
(TL Note: Frontier Hero = Count Van Ludwig)
Hulken must have been bored and free.
Will Wheelken light up my work or help? I was just curious about that.
Well, even if you’re playing candles, you should know what to do.
“I’m sure everyone came out of curiosity. So what do you think? What do you think of me now that you have met me?”
In other words, Don’t beat around the bush and get to the point. My blunt words made the old nobleman with a white beard say very angrily.
“As a nobleman, don’t you even know the basic etiquette?”
It’s machine translation with fixes so mistakes are expected. (Mangaplex.com)
