Leo sat down and, with a heavy voice, started explaining why they had failed to get rid of the goblins.

  “The previous Lord was brave… but naive, he has never seen a proper goblin settlement. Neither of us have.” Leo took a deep gulp of the tea. “He didn’t think mere goblins required assistance from a count, so he gathered his own meager forces. With the Lord and me leading the forces, both of us being 3rd circle knights, we thought we had it easy. Being accompanied by four 2nd circle squires only increased that confidence. Together with fifty guards, we thought we will return to our homes by midday.”

  Leo paused for a minute as he put the cup of tea back on the table, his hands shaking. “We marched into the goblin cavern with no discipline; after all, it was mere goblins we were dealing with. That was the second mistake we made. The goblins, they let us get deep into the cavern…” His expression turned sour, eyes darkened.

  “Then they laid fire on us,” Leo continued. “Hundreds of goblins shooting arrows at us from the dark. Even if we blocked two arrows, another dozen were already fired. Then the shaman cast an explosion directly at the Lord big enough to cave the cavern in. At this point, half of the entourage was already dead, including the Lord. So we escaped, at least tried to. They hunted us down only the cave-in cutting off the goblins, helped four of us including me survive.”

  Elaria scoffed, “How dumb must you be to underestimate an enemy you know noth—”

  Josh interrupted, his mind still calm and tranquil from the spell, “Now, no need for that. Pointing fingers won’t solve the goblin issue.”

  He looked at Elaria’s expression to see if she was mad at him for interrupting her. Sadly, it was like looking at an ice statue as she was expressionless as always. So he turned to Leo and asked him, “What about count? Why hasn’t he cleared the goblins out?”

  Leo looked up from the ground. “I tried to ask him for help, Milord. But with no Lord reigning over the Baronetcy. Count Voss replied that he has other urgent matters at the moment and that he would answer this issue at the spring banquet. His reply was at the first month of winter, any further letters from us were ignored.”

  “Okay, so what you did after the failed raid? Your Lord is dead, you have a village terrorized, and if I remember correctly six months have passed since the raid?” Josh asked.

  “We paid tribute to the goblins. In grain, livestock, iron,” Leo replied.

  “So you fed them to become stronger?” Josh laughed out loud. “Doesn’t matter,” he waved off Leo’s reply. “Magus Elaria, what you think?”

  She thought for a moment before replying, “In open field? If we conscripted and armed a couple of hundred men, we could deal with them. In a cavern? Not a chance, unless we bought in a knight order,” she replied.

  The same goblins that Leo slaughtered can be such a big issue as well? Color me surprised.

  Dealing with this is way above my pay grade…

  The village chief, who was silently listening, shouted out, “We know a lot about the goblin settlement! We can help you!” A ray of hope shone in her eyes.

  “Go on,” Josh replied.

  “M-milord,” remembering her manners, she knelt. “Forgive me for my manners.” she apologized for her outbreak. "We have a hunter who is still living in the forest dealing with goblins daily, he would be able to explain better what we know."

  So, go into a goblin-infested forest to meet a random hunter in the hope that he will know something, which will most likely be useless?

  Sounds like a plan.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Josh turned towards Leo. “How safe is it to go into the forest?” he asked.

  Elaria scoffed. “You won’t die,” she said, not giving Leo a chance to redeem himself.

  Josh sighed. “Great, can you lead us there?” he asked the village chief.

  Who, in turn, nodded frantically.

  ***

  They silently approached the hunter’s hut. Which was located on the edges of Shallow Lake.

  The hut itself looked relatively good compared to the buildings inside the village. Smoke drifting from the chimney indicated that someone was inside.

  Leo knocked on the hut's doors after they approached it. Josh and Elaria stood further back, and the village Chief, who they learned was the previous chief’s granddaughter, named Mel, stood just beside the steward.

  They heard rustling inside as soon as they knocked on the hut’s doors. Soon enough, the door opened, revealing a middle-aged man with a rugged face and a bushy beard. His greasy dark black hair was tied back into a ponytail, with hints of gray hair here and there, showing his experience.

  With a deep and husky voice, he hushed them inside.

  Animal pelts lined the floors and walls inside the hut, trapping warmth within the hut. To the left of the entrance, a cluttered table held an array of hunters' tools. Directly ahead, a small fireplace was cooking the hunters' dinner.

  “What brings you to my humble home?” he asked, his face showing no signs of fear.

  “Why does a 3rd circle ranger live in boonies like this?” Elaria asked, not bothering to answer his question.

  The hunter sneered in response. “My grandpa lived here, my father lived here. And now I live here.”

  Elaria smirked. Ice formed on her sleeves as mana gathered.

  Josh took her by the sleeves, his hands freezing. “Please, Magus Elaria.”

  As soon as Elaria stopped channeling mana, Josh cleared out his voice and asked. “We came to ask you what you know about the goblins living here,” he pointed at the village chief. “Mel told us you know the most.”

  The hunter raised an eyebrow as he threw another log into the fireplace. “That shaman’s crafty as a fox; he does not let the goblins kill too much nor expand. Unless you bring a whole knight order,” he explained as he pointed at Elaria. “Or this lass turns Archmage overnight, you don’t have a chance in clearing the cavern.”

  Josh sighed. “How about you? How do you survive here, so close to them?”

  The hunter scoffed. “After I killed a dozen or so of their brutes, they don't dare to mess with me.”

  “Brutes?”

  “3rd circle goblin warriors, three of them as strong as that old man,” he explained while pointing at Leo. “You have time, a couple of months, at least. The goblin shaman is pregnant,” he added shortly after, as he took a bite off a smoked deer leg.

  Josh’s ears perked at the new information.

  Couple months. I can wait until the spring banquet, then.

  With the sun already heading down and them having information from the hunter that they have time to deal with the goblins. Even getting his promise that he will join a goblin raid if it looked promising. They headed back to the manor.

  The eerie silence that filled the carriage was disrupted by Josh.

  “What you know about the Count Voss?” He asked Leo.

  I need to know what kind of man he is. If I have to ask for his help.

  “Milord, Count Maximus Voss, he hails from an ancient lineage tracing back to the founding of the kingdom. He himself belongs to the loyalist faction. Who, as a faction, were heavily opposing the summoning of new Lords. His own stance on the matter isn’t clear, though, with him never expressing it publicly,” Leo replied, his eyes on the road looking for any straggler goblins.

  “What about his goals? Ambitions? His land?” Josh asked.

  “The Voss family was once a ducal house as one of the six founding families of the Pertis Kingdom. Over the years, the incompetence of the previous Lords, together with repeated failure at wars that our kingdom was waning, has seen them getting demoted from once a mighty dukedom to a county. I believe his goal and ambition is the restoration of the previous status.” Leo gave some insight on the county.

  “For the Count himself, from what I’ve heard, he’s a cautious man, focused on not repeating his ancestor's mistakes. He’s also been keen on marriage alliances and the like, as he has two wives and thrice the amount of mistresses. Which bore fruit to sixteen children. With the oldest being two decades old and the youngest barely a yearling." Leo added thoughtfully some more information about the Count.

  Josh nodded in response, getting deep into his thoughts.

  So, Cautious but ambitious and a womanizer. Gonna be an enjoyable experience working with him.