Johanna and Noah embraced each other in a long and deep hug, but Noah was so excited that after hugging for a while, he instantly rushed into the cave to get Ethan and tell him the news.
"They have grown up but still act like little children."
Johanna was talking to herself when suddenly the voice of Aiko responded out of the shadow.
"Well, this will change with time, and once it happens, you will be sad about it, but who am I to judge?"
"Aiko, it's good to see you again. Would you mind telling me what happened here while I was gone?."
"No, I wouldn't, but after Noah and Ethan are back, you should spend a bit of time with them. They missed you very much while you were gone."
"Well, thanks for taking care of them and helping them while I was gone."
"As you commanded them, they worked hard on improving themselves; Ethan, for example, has been training very hard every day, while Noah has planned and executed six village raids to strengthen the village. We improved the number of adult goblins to 200."
"What that many? The two certainly gave their best. Is there anything else to know?"
Johanna was proud of them; she expected them to do well, but she didn't expect her sons to make such rapid progress.
"I continued training the army; we established basic military rules and added archers to our rows, but we sadly still lack mounts to establish a cavalry and not to even start talking about siege weapons or anything similar to that."
"You shouldn't be that harsh on yourself and the army; who would even expect something this advanced from goblins, and you make accusations against yourself that you couldn't even do that? This sounds ridiculous."
"Well, thanks for the motivating words, but I am sure that with enough time I will be able to do these things."
"I didn't say that you would never be able to do it; just give yourself enough time, and with the whole village's help, we will find a solution."
Just as the conversation between the two of them came to an end, Noah and Ethan came out of the cave. Ethan was just as excited to see Johanna as Noah was; he hugged her, and when Johanna noticed Noah standing there, she motioned for him to join in the family hug as well. The three of them stood there hugging each other in complete silence until Noah broke it by asking what she had been doing in the human world and who the female adventurer was.
Johanna told them the story of how the human army she travelled with was ambushed by the orcs, how she moved into the golden bird, what she had to do to earn her stay, and how she met Frank. Johanna suddenly got quiet, and Noah and Ethan looked at her with a curious expression.
"What happened after you met Frank? He seemed like a nice guy."
Johanna was surprised at how well they picked up the message that she prostituted herself and how she had sex with other men, but she also knew that they had to get used to this fact.
"Well, it turns out he wasn't what I thought him to be. He let three people kidnap me, and these people were strong, but he didn't intend to kill me; he decided to lock me up in his dungeon, where he would torture and rape me. I even gave birth to the son that happened after that."
They looked at Johanna with a sad expression on their faces, since they couldn't have done anything.
"Wait, if you didn't know all of that, why did you even build the tunnels?"
"We got the message of your capture from one of the adventurers that was sent out from the guild to exterminate us, and he got it from one of his friends who was a guard."
Johanna knew that ordering one of the guards she took control of to spread information about a beautiful blonde and blue-eyed woman being locked up at Frank's mansion would turn out to be helpful, but she definitely didn't expect her sons to get this message. Well, it still made her escape easier since she would have been caught by Wu or other guild members quite quickly.
Johanna also told them about the escape from the city and Frank, and once she got to the part about the wolf attack, she had a sudden idea.
"Wait, Aiko, why don't we use these wolves as a war mount for our goblin soldiers? Not only do they have considerable power themselves, they are better at navigating through the forest, and since dogs do exist, domesticating them wouldn't be impossible."
"Hmm, there are some flaws. First things first, we would have to feed them meat, which is not a resource we can just decide to have more of, and then there is also the problem that you were lucky to find one of them; normally they move in packs, and because of that, they are quite rare."
"Well, I would be able to locate them quite easily with my abilities, but you are correct; getting enough food for them would be a problem."
Johanna still wasn't ready to tell Aiko about her powers since she is the only subordinate of her that isn't being mind-controlled by her or one of her children.
"Why don't we just train our soldiers with hunting missions so that we can provide food for the wolves and train them at the same time?"
That was the first thing Ethan said about this topic, and Johanna and Aiko had to admit that this would be the best way to create the goblin army cavalry unit.
"Ok, I will depart now and go looking for the wolves in the forest while you pick the best soldiers who can be drafted as cavalrymen."
All three of them looked at Johanna with a serious expression on their faces.
"What? Have I said something wrong?"
"How about you relax and enjoy a short break for the day, sleep the night here with us, and depart tomorrow in the morning?"
Johanna wanted to start immediately, but Noah and Ethan's words made her calm down a bit from her excitement, and she agreed with them that she would rest and recover for the rest of the day.