We maintained a certain distance to avoid being discovered and followed the fleeing king and queen for a few minutes, enough time for Usagi to lead thousands of goblins away.
"It seems like we can attack without being interrupted now," I said.
Taking my cue, Kurama advanced with me and Rin on his back. In a matter of seconds, he took us in front of the fleeing king and queen.
Except for their oval heads, they weren't much different from regular goblins, just taller and not as skinny, but their baldness was identical.
Given Kurama's size and the way he growled, showing his sharp fangs, fear was visible on the rulers' faces.
Before the two could even scream, Rin's cry was the first to come out. Along with Kurama's presence, Cry of Intimidation left the rulers paralyzed.
Despite our appearance, the hundreds of goblins around them did not attack us. It seemed like they were waiting for orders, but that wasn't going to happen.
Jumping off Kurama's back with me, Rin let out her second cry, Cry of Provocation, attracting our enemies to her. Even the cowardly king and queen seemed to have been affected.
Despite their apparent fear, they stared intensely at Rin and seemed to want to advance on her, but still didn't move a muscle.
"Remember, you can kill everyone except the queen," I said.
With those words, a magic arrow appeared in my hand and was fired at the goblin king's head.
Although the arrow was fast, the king still managed to react, putting his skinny hand in front to intercept it.
Screaming in pain from the arrow that pierced his hand, his cowardice reached its peak, and he prepared to flee.
"To be able to block the arrow shows that he has impressive physical stats," I said admiringly. "If I had used a fireball, it would have surely caused more damage to him. But well, there's nothing to worry about."
The moment the king turned to flee, he let out a miserable cry. When he realized it, sharp claws had pierced his chest.
Caught off guard by one of his own, he didn't have the opportunity to put his heightened reaction into action and died instantly.
The hidden attacker was none other than Han, who was still hidden among the goblins.
Seeing her companion die, the queen also prepared to flee but was easily immobilized by Han. As the goblins who were supposed to protect her were under the effect of Rin's taunt, they didn't even notice that their queen had been captured.
"It seems like she doesn't have the same physical abilities as the king." Drawing my One-Cut Sword, I shouted, "Let's eliminate them!"
***
After eliminating all the goblins, I went to deal with the queen who was still restrained on the ground by Han.
As soon as we approached her, she started struggling desperately in an attempt to free herself. Going to help Han, Rin grabbed one of the queen's arms and forced her to stand up. In addition to struggling, she also began to let out shrill screams.
"Shut up!" I ordered.
As if understanding what I said, she immediately closed her mouth and stared at me with fearful yellow eyes.
"It's strange to see goblins acting so cowardly," I said.
If we compare heights, the queen is only slightly shorter than me. Like goblins in general, she wore a loincloth, but not only that, she also wore a top. Strangely, she had considerably large breasts.
According to the glossary, a king is needed for a queen to be born. And a queen is needed for the number of evolved goblins to increase dramatically. Every time the queen has a child with the king, it will always be born evolved.
When the queen gives birth, her breasts fill with extremely nutritious colostrum for the goblins. Then she takes other newborn goblins and breastfeeds them. Those breastfed by her will evolve with 100% certainty if they live long enough.
Normally, I have to spend time approaching and gaining trust with food before I can tame monsters. But I feel like it won't be necessary this time.
Since she is extremely cowardly, I believe she can easily submit.
Very well, now let's see how effective The One Who Understands Animals is when used on untamed monsters that I'm not familiar with.
I approached the goblin queen, put my face very close to hers, and endured her strong odor as I spoke with a firm and deep voice.
"If you submit to me peacefully, everything will be fine, but if you refuse, I will have to use force."
In response, the queen made some incomprehensible noises, but somehow, I managed to understand that she was submitting. Rin and Han also released her arms, confirming that the queen was cooperating.
"Well, let's see if it was that easy," I said as I looked seriously at the queen for a brief moment before starting the taming process.
I tried to add the goblin queen as a tamed monster, and to my surprise, there was no difficulty or resistance from her. Goblin Queen appeared on my list of tamed monsters, but this also left me with some questions in mind.
Since the queen is one of the most intelligent monsters I have ever tamed, does this mean that truly intelligent beings can also be added to my list if they are willing?
This is something to really think about.
When she was a normal goblin, Rin may have been as dumb as a doorknob, but now, despite not speaking and her explosive tendencies, she is quite intelligent. If she becomes even smarter, will my skill no longer affect her or will anything change?
While I tried to find answers to my questions, I noticed that Rin had dragged the queen and was talking animatedly with her. Just as she did with Han, she was establishing my authority as the alpha and instructing the queen to obey me absolutely.
For a moment, I wanted to interrupt her and remind her to obey me first before instructing others, but I knew Rin could throw a tantrum, so I kept quiet.
Making some noises that indicated she understood, the queen shifted her gaze from Rin to me. It was an intense gaze that looked me up and down.
In that instant, shivers ran through my entire body. After living with Rin for so long, I knew this kind of look.
Before I could say anything, the queen threw her rags on the ground and stood completely naked.
Her body was anything but sexy.
Although the skin on the rest of her body looked rough and befitting of a goblin, the area of her chest looked smooth and soft.
Is it because she breastfed the goblins?
As I admired her chest, which didn't match the rest of her body, the queen approached me. Despite the temptation to sink my fingers into her skin, the stench was unbearable.
In fact, she was reeking much more than the other goblins.
"Don't come any closer!" I covered my nose and continued, "You smell awful! Put your clothes back on."
I turned to Rin and scolded her. "You shouldn't do this with every goblin we encounter."
But she completely ignored me as she scolded the queen for smelling bad.
I don't understand why she's complaining when she also smelled bad at the beginning. Well, considering it's her, maybe she has forgotten about it.
Not knowing what to say, I just sighed.
I feel like this situation makes it seem like I killed the king to steal his queen, which, to clarify, is not the case.
To be honest, I don't have a problem with the harem route of monster girls similar to Rin now. But if the added monster girl is a complete monster, that's completely out of the question.
***
After the queen dressed herself, I decided to give her a name, Kuin. I know my naming sense is terrible, but it's better than not having a name, right?
With Kuin in my hands, it was time to move on to the second phase of the plan, trying to control the goblins through her. Since everything was already under control here, I called Usagi, who was on her way with thousands of goblins following her.
Leaving Kuin alone in an open area, the rest of us hid in a secluded place within the forest. Following my instructions, Usagi led her pursuers to Kuin.
As I expected, the moment Kuin saw Usagi, she trembled uncontrollably with fear. It reminded me of the time when Usagi was the one trembling like that when approaching Kurama.
When Usagi approached, Kuin seemed about to run, but under my orders, she stayed put.
If only Rin could be obedient like this...
Passing right by Kuin, Usagi stopped behind her, as that was part of my instructions.
I wanted to see if Kuin could stop the onslaught of thousands of goblins who wanted to devour the delicious-looking rabbit. In case she failed, none of them would be able to reach Usagi, so everything would be fine.
Even if Kuin couldn't prevent the goblins from trying to eat Usagi, if she could still control them, I would use her to separate them into groups, and then we could eliminate them.
I'm sure these thousands of goblins would give me a lot of XP.
Despite trembling, Kuin still followed my instructions, and when the goblins approached, she shouted.
In response to their queen, all the goblins immediately stopped.
To test Kuin's control over them, Usagi approached even closer. Even with their eager eyes and drool dripping from their mouths, they proved to be absolutely obedient to Kuin and didn't advance.
Trying to see their limits, I instructed Kuin to make them sit, and just as she ordered, they did. After that, I conveyed a few more commands to the goblins through Kuin, and they obediently followed them all.
Seeing the army of goblins act so obediently left me amazed.
"Did I really get an army this easily?" I murmured.
Although I had hopes, I didn't expect to actually succeed.
"It looks like I've gone from easy mode to child's play," I laughed. "Well, now that I have an army, I guess all that's left is to dominate this forest."