Today, 8 goblins Ranked Up to hobgoblins. Three of them became mages, one became a cleric, and for the first time a [Hobgoblin Shaman] appeared. As for the other three, they became normal hobgoblins.
I was genuinely pleased that the number of our mages who greatly contributed in the ambush on the Female Knight's troops increased. Moreover, the addition of a shaman who could strengthen undead, and even lengthen their lifespan under the daylight is very useful, making the range of actions we can take bigger.
In addition to that, three kobolds Ranked Up to kobold Footmen.
TL Note:yappari, ashigaru kobold (foot soldier/footmen kobold) is a ranked-up kobold species.
Editor note: which makes it very difficult later on… ty author.
Caudyr note: NO WAY am I allowing this to remain "Ashigaru Kobold" when looking at it it is QUITE OBVIOUSLY "Kobold Footman" instead. -_-
When a kobold Ranks Up into a kobold Footman, they attain a weapon called an [Organic Spear] — an organic weapon is a weapon made from the body cells of the possessor, and as the their body grow, the weapon will also grow with them - , when the ones who became kobold Footmen came to report to me their Ranking Up this morning, they were holding the spears in their hands.
Although the three of them should be holding spears for the very first time in their lives, the [Organic Spears] that came from their own bodies could be said to be an extension of them, correspondingly their spear handling was quite splendid.
However, since they were still a far cry from mastery, the three kobold Footmen will join the kobold leader - who was already a kobold Footman even before they joined us - in the training program focusing on how to handle their spears.
Nevertheless, the reason this many individuals Ranked Up is mainly because of the great amount of Experience Values we gained in our recent battles against the human army. Being able to obtain such a large number of slaves is also very useful, as they can be used as both a fighting force and in labor.
Also, we got some women that we can use for breeding purposes, so maybe we should try increasing our numbers. However, if our group becomes too large, food shortage and other related problems may arise, so we will have to coordinate the increase.
Regardless, there's a high chance that we'll lose some of our members in the following battles, so we'll have to replenish them.
Note: 'breed' was originally TL-ed as 'bread'… makes the the next sentence so much better
We have yet to find out how long it takes for the child of someone who surpasses the rank of a hobgoblin to be born. As expected, even Gobujii doesn't know the answer. However, it seems that when a human female is pregnant with a goblin child it takes about 20 days and if a goblin is the one pregnant it takes about 25 days. For hobgoblins, if the one pregnant is a human, it takes about 40 days for the hobgoblin to be born, and if the one pregnant is a hobgoblin instead, it takes about 50 days for the hobgoblin to be born. Though the pregnancy period mildly varies between individuals.
To be honest, I couldn't hide my surprise at the delivery speed. Now I understand why humans regularly hunt goblins down. Although goblins are weak, with their reproduction rate, they can cause a disaster for humans if left alone.
As usual, I gave the ones who Ranked Up celebratory gifts.
I'm looking forward to seeing some of them becoming [Variant]s with corresponding attributes to the magic items I gave them as celebratory gifts, for now, the only [Variant]s here are me, Ogakichi-kun, and Dhammi-chan. The fact that Asue-chan, Supsei-san and Burasato-san didn't become [Variant]s means that there are probably other requirements to obtain a [Divine Protection], giving out magic items to sufficiently competent individuals will widen the scope of investigation.
I'll continue investigating this issue in the future.
After today's morning training, I questioned Rusty Iron Knight and the other commanding officers whom I put [Enslavement] collars on and threw into prison about the human army's purpose. I did this so as to gain information from multiple sources to supplement what I obtained from the Female Knight's side.
As a result, I understood the general idea behind this war.
What sparked this war is the disease of the First Princess of the « Sternbild Kingdom » ― because other kingdoms haven't been mentioned yet, I'll simply call it the "Kingdom" from now on ― , the first princess of the kingdom got infected by a very dangerous and rare disease.
The disease she got infected with is called the "Chrysindo Disease", a deadly disease without a cure that infects only humans. Its most prominent symptom is, the contaminated individual's internal organs would slowly rot away as the days passed by. In more than 99% of the recorded cases, the contaminated individuals died within one year. There are a few cases where the patients survived for about 2 years, but as they also eventually died without being cured, there seems to have been no survivors so far.
Fortunately, the disease can't spread by air or water vapor, and the fact that there are few cases seems to be the only salvation. However, the lack of cases also means that there were only a few chances to study the disease and look for a cure.
Naturally, the Kingdom tried every possible method to treat the first princess.
They were desperate to treat the princess who was renowned as an elegant and intelligent "Masako", and there was also the fact that she was engaged to their allies - although it was for political reasons, but as the two appeared to love each other, it may as well be a love marriage - , so she needed to be cured all the more.
By the royal decree, all the doctors and pharmacists in the Kingdom were frantically searching for a remedy.
Note: Masako = Clever/Wise Princess
However, the results were not very rewarding.
Although they found a way to slow down the progression of the illness, but by that time, the princess' organs were already nearly half rotten.
Normally, one would go crazy from the sheer pain they would experience by being kept alive with this disease for so long, but the princess was already put to sleep forcibly using magic to liberate her from the excruciating pain long ago, and in the meanwhile, they used magic to regenerate the rotten parts of the organs to prolong her life.
But as her body couldn't endure the process of the constant healing and destruction, the effects of the regeneration started dulling with time and her organs' decaying process started advancing steadily, ultimately they could not cure her.
At that point in time, they had already judged that she would die without them being able to find a cure.
However, a certain woman with the [Job - Holy Woman] who lived her life praying everyday in devotion to the gods, and who was also a former citizen of the kingdom, received a [Divine Revelation] from the [Demigod of Healing].
"To cure the 'Chrysindo Disease', you need the secret medicine made by the elves living in the forest under the divine protection of the [Demigod of Lush Greenery]."
Note: It could also be tled as 'Demigod of Green Depths', 'Jade Demigod', 'Demigod of Beautiful Greenery', etc.
Following the instructions of the [Divine Revelation], the kingdom did everything they could to locate the elves' location, and in the end, they found out that this forest that we were born in - the « Kuuderun Great Forest » - fits the exact same description of the place referred to in the [Divine Revelation].
The young next emperor-to-be crown prince - who was 24 years old - of the « Kirika Empire » — which I will refer to as just the "Empire" from now on, for the same reason as the "Kingdom" — , who is also the fiancé of the kingdom's first princess who fell ill, started the negotiations with the elves to get the medicine from them.
At first, everyone thought that because it is the empire's crown prince's request, the negotiations will progress smoothly and he will be able to get the medicine quickly.
However, the elves refused to hand over the medicine, the reason being that they didn't have much of it left, and because of some ancient law stating " It is forbidden to hand it over to "humans" ". Thus, the negotiations ended in failure quickly.
Fundamentally, elves have many annoying and troublesome laws regarding the outside world, not to mention that they also have a secluded nature. In the first place, elves are a very prideful race, always looking down on humans. I personally think that even if that law didn't exist, they would not have handed it over,.
Anyways, the result of the negotiations was that, ultimately the Kingdom and the Empire couldn't get their hands on the secret medicine.
There was no doubt about it, the failed negotiations were the cause of the war. However, after listening to the story, it seems like there are some human circumstances involved.
Well, I could keep going on about the little details, but that would be too troublesome, if I were to explain it in a couple of words, it would be:
"Humans are Greedy"
I think that says enough. This is, along with the secret medicine, is the reason behind the war.
What do I mean by humans are greedy?
One, as practically all elves are beautiful, they make for the ideal sex slaves. Two, elves as a race, are superior to humans, they can be excellent escorts and soldiers. Three, they can get a huge amount of wealth. The special magical metal that only elves can manufacture, Mithril, their magic items, the valuable raw materials that can be collected from the forest. Four, « The Elves Village » have an ideal location as a relay base in times of war against some of the neighboring countries.
After listening to the story, these were the most prominent reasons I could think of.
The original trigger was certainly the refusal to sell the secret medicine to cure the princess, but combined with the humans' great greed and desires, the original goal got twisted which, in the end, resulted in the current war being fought on a much larger scale than what you would normally expect.
Although I'm a former human too, but I couldn't help thinking that humans are such an annoying race even in this world.
Well, because I am in a position that allows me to just disappear if need be, it doesn't really bother me.
I also asked them many other things. Especially about the human army's forces, because there may be someone that I can't defeat among them. Information is important after all.
First, the human army is a coalition of both the kingdom's and the empire's forces, the Rusty Iron Knight belongs to the empire's side, so he didn't know much about the kingdom's side, but the Female Knight who belongs to the kingdom side have already told me everything she knows about it, so it's not an issue.
According to the information I got from the Rusty Iron Knight, it seems like the huge empire is the one leading this war, both of the numbers and the strength of the soldiers they dispatched is much more than the kingdom. They even brought a « Demi-human Unit » that included ogres, lords, members of a dragon-man species called [Dragonewt], and although it's not a demi-human, but a very strong [Chimera], a monster that was made by cross-breeding many strong monsters.
Most of the members appear to be slaves. It seems they are forced to fight with their lives on the line by their 'master'. I couldn't help thinking, 'What a troublesome and annoying matter'.
However, as troublesome as it is, it can be easy to make it backfire on them if you do it right. Anyways, I collected as much info as I can about the one in charge of commanding the slaves.
After I finished the questioning, I arranged a game to improve the commanding skills of our members.
The players are the captain-ranked members and above, the lower-ranked members and the male prisoners played the role of their pawns. Of course I made sure that the abilities of the pawns of both sides are equal.
It's basically, an actual-warfare strategy game in which, the players with the rank of captain and above have to move their pawns as efficiently as possible to take out the pawns of their opponents.
The pawns were equipped with wooden swords and shields, bows, axes, spears or simply with a large shield. The point was to give commands that suited their equipment.
Because I acted as a referee, I didn't join the game myself.
The results, Dhammi-chan and Supesei-san won a lot. On the other hand, Ogakichi-kun and Burasato-san just continued losing. Asue-chan is somewhere in between.
This is the difference between brain and brawn, it's not so hard to understand. Although Asue-chan is also more of a muscle-brain, but she most likely developed some intellectual skills because she have to think about her plans when mining.
Because we obtained a lot of provisions from the human army, there was no need to go hunting today, we spent the whole day carrying out strategy-training in the base. No, rather than training, it felt more like a game.
Recently, after going through the morning training together everyday, the goblins, kobolds and elves started to build some sort of camaraderie relationship, so I wanted to strengthen it further.
At first, the humans slaves couldn't hide their surprise seeing us training, but as time went by, their expressions gradually became serious. It was so amusing that it made me laugh inadvertently.
And at night, the female humans were raising screams ecstatically. Because humans have a much greater lust than elves, they fell very quickly. Moreover, humans can also adapt much faster than elves.
Although Blacksmith-san and the others had complicated expressions on their faces, however, compared to when they had just arrived here, their way of thinking has changed quite a lot. Knowing our relationship with the human army, they didn't really have that much of a problem with it.
Or rather, "We're in a war, so this kind of thing can't be helped, rather, this is the natural flow of things in a war. Besides, it's not like you're 'forcing' them until they break." this is what I heard.
They are good, understanding women. They're almost too good for me.
After that, I noticed some elves here and there who looked in the direction of the screams with envy ― the human females were in charge of sexual relief right now, so the elves were mostly free ― , so I paired up some of the hobgoblins and the new kobold Footmen with them.
They seemed pretty happy, both humans and elves.
Once you snap their pride, it's easy to make elves obedient. Well, even so I don't have any intentions of attacking them.
I am pretty satisfied with our current relationship with them, and there's no need to create enemies for no reason.