“That’s it! Ahh, yes, that’s the Beast…”

As he heard Nfirea, Brita, who had not moved to the village at that time, made a sound.

According to her, she had seen it in E-Rantel, from far away.

And there were two more monstrous creatures out there who could equal it. Nobody could not feel shock and fear at that realisation.

“Then, how did you escape?”

“Until recently, the three of them held each other in check. The Beast of the South didn’t leave its territory, but nobody could guarantee that would always be the case. If the East and West fought, no matter who won, there was always the chance that in their moment of victory, they would be finished off by the Beast in their weakened state. As such, none of the three powers actually engaged in battle.”

“All right, I can accept that. However, if the East and West cooperated and… no, the Beast of the South wouldn’t leave his domain, so there’s no need to ally to defeat it. And of course, they can’t make provocative moves…”

“I don’t know what those guys are thinking. They just have their own territory and turned it into their own kingdoms. However, the owner of the Monument of Destruction messed up the power distribution. Because of that, the East and West decided to make war on that king of destruction, and they went on the warpath.”

Agu just kept talking and talking, without a pause.

“He forced us to be his comrades in battle. Though that’s a bad joke. We goblins were worthless to them. They used us up and threw us away, and if we messed up, we suffered. Because of that, we ran away. However…”

“It was useless, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. The barghests and ogres came after us. We couldn’t fight them, so we scattered. I fled in this direction with a few people into the Beast of the South’s territory, but we didn’t expect them to come in after us without hesitation.”

He said there had been a few people, but there had been no sign of anyone other than Agu.

A pained expression drew across Enri’s face, and Gokoh spoke.

“…We have people scouting out the Forest, if anyone’s still alive, we can bring them back here as long as they don’t resist.”

“Yes, there’s that. Wolves’ noses are very sensitive. Then… the question is, besides the barghest, what else is out there? Did they have friends that came over too? If it goes badly, the pursuers might end up coming all the way here. Oi, Agu, what other monsters are there?”

“There’s barghests, ogres, boggarts, bugbears, and some kind of wolf thing…”

“They’re fairly common monsters. I’d like to hear more about the Giant of the East and the Serpent of the West, specifically, their looks, their abilities, that sort of thing. Do you know anything?”

Agu shook his head.

“I don’t know details. Only that the Giant of the East carries a big sword, and the Serpent of the West has a head like you, but what kind of magic he uses, I don’t know.”

Nfirea, the center of everyone’s attention, shook his head. There was simply too little information to work with.”

“The question now is what are we going to do? If something that can fight evenly with the Beast shows up, frankly speaking, we’re done for. The most the self-defence force can do is take the women and children to safety.”

“Indeed. If all we needed was a sturdy defense then it would be fine, or maybe we should think about some other methods. If the disturbance in the forest blew over by itself, it would be great.”

To the people who lived outside the forest, if the matters in the forest settled themselves, they wouldn’t need to move. However, if they were completely unable to enter the forest, that would cause a lot of problems in its own right. In the worst case, they would have to make painful sacrifices to keep going.

“…However, if the enemy can easily take out a forest tribe, that means they must have gathered a lot of fighting power.”

“Wrong! …Originally, our tribe was a lot stronger. However, when we went in search of new places to live, our tribe dispatched mixed teams of ogres and adult goblins. If they’re still alive, we can still fight back!”

“Then those adult goblins still haven’t come back yet?”

As Brita spoke, Nfirea tilted his head, as though thinking about something.

“About that… although this is a completely different topic, could I ask you about something that’s bothering me? Do you speak the same way that other goblins do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ah, you don’t know? In the past, I’ve met goblins myself, and don’t take it the wrong way, but they spoke like morons. In the village though, Jugem-san and the others speak normally. The same goes for you — as in you both speak fluently. Because of that, I was wondering if the ones I saw were savage goblin tribes or something.”

“No, it’s just that I’m particularly smart for a goblin. Most goblins speak in single syllables. That made conversation in the tribe really troublesome, I can tell you that. I was seriously wondering if I was from another tribe instead. Now, just to be safe, let me ask you this, was I born in a tribe from around here? Have you heard anything about me?”

“No, we don’t know… You kid…Could it be… Ane-san, Ani-san, could you come over here for a bit?”

Nfirea and Enri followed Kaijali to the corner of the room.

“That Agu brat, could it be he’s not a goblin, but a hobgoblin?

Hobgoblins were offshoots of the goblin race, and they were superior to goblins in every way. Goblins were about as big as human children when they were adults, but hobgoblins could reach the height of an adult human.

They were similar to humans in terms of physical abilities and intellect. In order to mate with other goblins, many tribes tended to live in the same region. However, in order not to let the population increase too much, many were left behind as bodyguards or team leaders within the tribe.

“But if my father or mother was a hobgoblin, wouldn’t they know themselves?”

“Both his parents were goblins and he was a hobgoblin.”

“Eh? Isn’t that the kind of weird plot that shows up in dramas?”

“…This is the first time I’ve seen Enri make that kind of expression… but unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the answer. Just as humans adopt children, I think the goblins might have done something similar.”

“That’s certainly possible. Well, in that case, we don’t have to worry too much about it.”

The three of them returned to the table, and as they did, the hitherto silent Lupusregina opened her mouth to speak.