In the Darkness—???

“Huh? Who are they? I’ve got nothing on them.”

The man muttered his words in the darkness, having just found something.

The something then responded to him.

“And some other being has control over them...?” muttered the man. “And it’s somewhere else? The heck? Nobody said anything about that to me...”

The man continued to grumble. He was frustrated. The something did not answer the man’s annoyances—only the questions that were mixed in among the ceaseless complaints.

“Damn it all... So I can’t do a single thing about them then, huh?”

The man’s grumbling continued for quite some time, and he eventually grew sick of the something, which gave him nothing in the way of an emotional response. The man thus gave up and turned his gaze elsewhere in the darkness. He stood silent, which was how he’d been spending the vast majority of his time.

The Southern Wasteland—Dias

A few days had passed since Count Ellar had visited the eastern border station. It was noon, and I was out in the wasteland with the animals he’d given us, which Aymer told me were called camels.

I’d come out here with the camels to see just how well they would handle the wasteland heat, and because we had a lot of projects ongoing in the same area, I figured I’d check on that stuff while I was at it. Joining me were Aymer, Patrick, Sulio, Leode, Cleve, Colm, and the eiresetters who were tasked with taking care of the camels.

“So this is the wasteland, huh?” Patrick mused with a chuckle. “Quiet, dusty, and—above all—hot. A perfect place for training.”

“Hmm. This heat is nothing for a lionkin,” commented Sulio. “We hail from Mahati, and our ancestors from a place even warmer still; we lionkin were built for arid environments.”

I nodded to let them both know I was listening and took a look around for myself.

Compared to the grasslands, the heat in the wasteland was on another level. A breeze blew through the area not unlike the plains, and the humidity was more bearable than the forest in summer, but the sheer heat left you melting in your own sweat. That, and there was just no escaping the swirling dust that traveled on the wind. It got in your clothes, stuck to your body, and left you feeling all icky.

I didn’t like it here one bit, and just like always my expressions were as subtle as a sledgehammer about it. Patrick and Sulio, on the other hand—one here for training, the other for study—looked totally fine. Even Aymer, who was riding on my shoulder, smiled contentedly, basking in the dry, hot breeze that blew by us.

Then again, Aymer did tell me that her desert home was as hot as living next to a volcano, so I guess this is nothing compared to that...

But that didn’t explain Patrick. He hailed from the east just like I did, but he looked right as rain out here. That said, he had told me that he and his paladin friends were unique in that they put themselves through all sorts of hard training in order to feel closer to God, so I guessed his current state of comfort had something to do with that.

“I’m not such a big fan of this arid heat myself,” said Colm, his ears wafting in the breeze, “but the camels don’t have any issue with it. In fact, this is the first time they’ve been out to these parts, but they don’t look bothered in the slightest. Is it the fact they’re carefree by nature? Perhaps simply placid? Or maybe they’re bold creatures. Whatever the case, they’re completely different from horses.”

And he was right. The camels looked cool as cucumbers, letting out little snorts as if they knew we were talking about them.

“They’re friendly, they’ll sleep anywhere, and their stamina reserves might well be endless,” continued Colm. “And the amount of milk they produce is astounding! If possible, I’d very much like to have another four or five of them.”

I checked on one of the camels, the lone female, and found myself reminiscing on all the excitement and surprise that had come the day after we received them. We’d discovered that one of the three we received was a female and was producing milk. We hadn’t known when it would give birth, but Grandma Suuk—who was just crazy about milk—went straight to milking...and boy was it a lot of milk. She’d ended up with a big pot full of the stuff. It was easily ten times more than what you’d get from a single baar, and four or five times what you’d get from a horse or ghee.

Grandma Suuk had seemed to think the amount was due to the camel not having been milked in some time, but the very next day we’d gotten the same amount of milk. The day after that was no different either. This seemed to be just the way it was for camels, because the female camel hadn’t looked at all unhealthy after giving us so much milk. If anything, she had looked bored by the whole process. Grandma Suuk ended up shaking her head in astonishment.

Once we’d realized how much milk camels produced, we made camel milking the job of people with the strength to do it regularly, which meant me, Joe and my old war buddies, and Patrick and his paladin friends. In the end, Patrick and his buddies happily took on the job because they were in the village a lot and wanted to stay active.

The milk that camels produced was rather fatty and not especially tasty right out of the bucket, but that same fat content made it just perfect for things like cheese and butter. It also worked to really bring out the flavor in soups.

Aymer had never seen a camel until now, but she’d learned a whole lot about them from when she lived in her old home. She’d explained that camel milk was very nutritious and helped ward off sickness. In the desert, it was often given to the weak and young like medicine.

Camels were very resilient to illness as it was, and that strength of theirs revealed itself in their milk. When people with camels were traveling through locations where only dirty water was available, they had their female camels drink that while they drank the milk those same camels produced. It was a way to survive in such locations for months at a time, because the water had no effect on the camels.

During the war, my soldiers and I had been forced to strain dirty water through rocks and clean cloth before we could risk drinking it. I guessed that camels basically had a similar sort of filter... But then when I thought about how their milk was a kind of medicine, I suddenly felt like it was rude to compare them to that.

But milk wasn’t all that made camels useful. You could ride them if you put a saddle on them, and they made for excellent beasts of burden because of how much they could carry. They had no problem navigating sandy ground either. We’d already accepted them from the count, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty about him having given us such wonderfully helpful animals.

I was thinking about all that as Colm gave the camel a pat and ran over to me.

“Lord Dias,” he said. “There’s no use just standing around. Let’s go take a look at the waterway they’re setting up through the wasteland. Once we’ve done that, we can head straight back to the village and reward ourselves with a hard-earned cup of redcurrant wine.”

“Come to think of it,” I thought aloud, “it is harvesting time for redcurrants, isn’t it? It was odd to me that I saw so much wine drinking recently. That must be why. Just be careful not to drink too much, okay?”

Senai and Ayhan were growing redcurrants in the forest, and I knew from past experience that redcurrant trees bore a lot of fruit. In Iluk, that fruit was used for wine, and though redcurrant wine wasn’t particularly popular in east Sanserife, it was a massive hit in Iluk Village. I figured it must have had something to do with how skilled the cavekin were when it came to brewing and distilling and whatnot.

“Yes, of course. All good things in moderation. I think of it as part of my daily nourishment.”

And with that, Colm gave a gentle pull on the reins and got the camels walking. He was heading towards the spot where Senai and Ayhan had met with a mysterious lizard-thing that was not unlike the mysterious baar-thing we sometimes saw in the plains. The lizard had told the girls of a good spot to run a stream through the wasteland, and the cavekin had wasted no time getting to work setting things up so the river running through Baarbadal would reach out here.

The new stream was sturdy on both sides and was reinforced with hardened clay and rocks. The weirdest thing about it to me was how the cavekin had managed to make the flow of the stream faster. Stranger still, they’d used some kind of knowledge they had to increase the amount of water flowing too, which allowed them to bring water to the wasteland, little by little.

The wasteland was an arid stretch of land, but if there was water then there would be grass, and if there was both grass and water then we’d have a place for the horses and camels to eat and drink. By setting up little rest areas like that, we’d be able to explore farther south.

We continued on our way, and the camels must have sensed something, because they reacted in a way that got Colm and the other eiresetters sniffing the air. Sulio and his two friends soon followed suit. I wondered if perhaps they could smell water nearby, so I started sniffing the air too...but all I got for it was a whole heap of sand and dust up my nose, and a whole heap of sneezes to go with it.

?—????

“What? Are you telling me that it’s not all wasteland out there to the north?”

A group of small creatures, somewhere distant, were on edge. They sharpened their blades as they discussed something of great importance.

“Nothing has been confirmed yet, but some were playing by the cove and they spotted a strange creature wandering the lands. It walked on four legs and boasted sharp scales. We thought perhaps it was a legendary dragon, but it was far too small... Still, it appeared to beckon to them.”

“Huh... We’ve steered clear of the wasteland because it is a place of only desolation and death. But perhaps we should explore? Perhaps we should even claim it as our own?”

“But it gives us nothing. It is nigh uninhabitable for the likes of us.”

There were many of the creatures huddled together. The biggest of them scanned those around quietly, but when he finally spoke his voice boomed and silenced them all.

“If a living creature has been seen in the area then we must investigate! Let us not forget the ancient promise! But more than anything else, we are the proud goblin race, and we do not back down to anyone or anything! We will set up a base at the cove and send our warriors north! If necessary, we will show that tiny dragon that we are prepared for battle!”

The gang of self-professed goblins let out a cheer, each and every one of them now trembling with excitement.

The Wasteland—Dias

One sneeze wasn’t enough to clear out all that had gotten up my nose, so I kept on sneezing even as our group walked on. Eventually we came across something that was clearly man-made. It was the waterway, and the cavekin had done a real fine job with it considering how little time had passed since they’d started.

“Impressive stuff, getting all this way,” I muttered.

I knelt down and put a hand to the water to feel the flow of it through my fingers.

“I often speak to the cavekin at the pub,” said Sulio. “They told me they only get more efficient in their work the more drink they have. They are glad to have all of what is at hand: the wine we buy from outside the region, the redcurrant wine, and of course the mead. The alcohol brewed is often free of impurities, and even the twins have been planting flowers well suited to the brewing of mead.”

“The twins are doing that too, huh? They’re doing all sorts of stuff over there... I guess it won’t be long before we’ll have to build a yurt for them in the forest.”

“I have heard there are trees with medicinal sap, and the twins have begun planting those too. Such a sap will be as good for us as it will the bees. We will all be that much further from illness.”

“There’s tree sap that does that, huh? Wow. Sweet, nourishing, and as good for alcohol as it is medicine. Guess I’ll have to find a little reward for the girls, for being so considerate in getting us access to that sap.”

We talked while we listened to the water flowing along down the stream from the north. There hadn’t been much when construction started, but it had gradually built up until it was flowing pretty quick. I followed the direction of the stream and saw that it ended at a small reservoir.

It wasn’t like the one we’d made in Iluk. This one was made with rocks instead. The water pooled in that reservoir, and when the camels noticed it too they just couldn’t help themselves—they began pulling at their reins, stretching out their heads to get closer and have a drink. Colm gave me a look in case I wanted them to stop, but I let him know with the wave of a hand that the camels were free to drink as they pleased. Colm and his eiresetters then loosened their grips and let the camels go and get their fill.

I spent some time just watching the water make its way to the end, and after a time I noticed some little boats headed our way, made out of reeds. They had some sort of grains in them, and I leaned in a bit to get a better look, wondering just what I was looking at. After a bit of examining I realized that the boats were carrying seeds.

“Ah, I see. So the twins send their seeds down here in these boats. As the boats tilt and turn, the seeds spread to the water and the surrounding soil, which helps the grass and other plant life to spread.”

I reached out and picked up one of the boats, spreading the seeds to the soil, because I thought that would be better for them than the reservoir’s stone walls. Then I cupped some water in my hands and splashed it over the seeds. When Patrick, Sulio, and all the others saw me do that, they all followed along. Colm and his friends all did a great job digging little holes for the seeds and planting them.

If all things went well, the seeds would sprout and eventually provide food for the camels. This little spot would become a small oasis, allowing us to go farther south and repeat the process. Eventually we’d end up at the sea...or so we assumed and hoped, anyway.

“If we keep pushing south and reach the ocean, we’ll have all the fish we can eat,” I said, looking to the south. “There’s way more fish in the ocean than you ever find in rivers and ponds, and they taste better too. I’ve never eaten anything other than fish preserved in salt, but I’d sure like to try fresh fish some day...”

Sulio’s ears perked up, as did those of his friends, and their eyes glimmered.

“Ocean seafood!” cried Sulio, sidling up to me. “I have heard it is delicious! We lionkin love our meat, but nothing beats seafood! I myself have only ever eaten preserved fish, and so I dream of the day I might be able to sink my teeth into fresh ocean seafood... Speaking of which, why is it that all the fish brought into Mahati of late is salted cod?”

“Well, cod keeps for much longer than other fish, you see, so if you properly salt and store it, it won’t go bad for a good long while. Some say anywhere from six months to a year. That’s why it’s usually salted cod that makes its way to locations far from the ocean. Back in the war there was often salted cod, but that all went to the higher-ups. Foot soldiers like us were stuck with herring most of the time.”

“Huh. So that’s why. But if Baarbadal starts to catch ocean fish and makes good use of its cold storage cellars, then one day even the residents of Mahati might find themselves with a smorgasbord of seafood to indulge in! If that’s the case, then I implore you, let Leode, Cleve, and myself aid you in your mission to cultivate the wasteland!”

“Uh, but Sulio... You and your friends are guests here; there’s really no need for all of you to—”

“If it means getting seafood to my brethren even a day sooner, then I am willing to beg you to let us help! I know there is little we can do, but we three are well suited to this environment, and I am sure we can be of use!”

Sulio’s breath was growing ragged with excitement, and Leode and Cleve were no different. They were bearing down on me with such pressure that I could only nod. The three lionkin clenched their fists with joy as they started chatting away about all the foods of the ocean they hoped to someday try.

Personally, I felt they were getting a bit ahead of themselves. Assuming we could even get to the ocean in the first place, we still didn’t know if it would contain edible fish...or any fish at all, for that matter. There were a lot of potential problems to consider.

If there were people living near the ocean, or a hamlet or village, then we’d be able to ask about the place and maybe even arrange a deal where they fished for us. But that wouldn’t be so easy if all we were looking at until the ocean was wasteland...

Still, the lionkin all looked mighty happy, so I figured I could save that discussion for later. I’d lay it all out for them, and if they still wanted to help even then, I’d let them.

A Cove Somewhere—Goblins

The goblins wore simple tops and loincloths made from the skin of other animals. Their long tails were pierced with fishhooks and decorated with strangely shaped rings. On their wrists and waists were seashells, and around their necks they wore pendants made from their own sharp fangs.

When they reached the cove the goblins looked around, clearly cautious and ready for anything. They took in their surroundings and slowly moved around, searching the area. The moon was hidden behind the clouds, and it was so dark that the goblins shouldn’t have been able to even see one another, but the creatures saw well in the darkness and knew full well where each member of their party stood. Taking up a circular formation, the goblins proceeded north.

“Ugh... It gets so dry up this way...” grunted one.

“It’s because it’s only sand and rocks. No water, no signs of life. I can’t imagine anything making a home out here,” said another.

“Hrmm... Are you certain someone spotted a lizard out here?” said yet another.

The goblins continued north until the biggest of them signaled for the others to stop with a raised hand. He looked around, taking his time to take in everything he saw across the darkened landscape, but in the end he only sighed.

“What the others saw out here was a trick of the mind... There are no lizards out this way...”

Even if they did not find the lizard itself, the goblins had expected to at least find traces of it having been here—footprints, the trail of a tail across the ground, or perhaps a nest or the remains of a meal. But there was none of that here. With no signs of any life anywhere nearby, the goblins decided to turn back, but it was then that they noticed the glimmer of scales upon the top of a rocky mountain. The scales undoubtedly belonged to a lizard.

“There it is!” cried one of the goblins. “It’s real!”

The goblins all readied themselves for battle, some brandishing their claws while others opened their mouths to bare their fangs. The lizard, however, watched them with a gentle gaze, then looked to the north as if to urge them onwards.

For a brief second, the goblins all looked in the direction that the lizard was facing, and it was at that very moment that the lizard emitted a faint light before vanishing completely. It did not make a sound as it left, and indeed it was as if the lizard had never even been there to begin with. A goblin raced up the mountain to investigate but found neither footprints nor any signs of life.

The group of goblins thus found themselves sharing the same unspoken questions. What was that lizard? What was it trying to tell them?

But the only answers to their questions lay in the strange lizard, and it was no longer there to answer them. Brimming with curiosity, the goblins talked among themselves and came to a consensus: They would explore the barren wastelands to the north.

Iluk Village, Hubert’s Yurt—Hubert

Hubert’s yurt was lined with shelves, at the end of which was a table covered in documents. It was here that Hubert sat, putting his pen through its paces. The shelves were home to a great many documents, each one either neatly rolled up or otherwise stacked in an orderly pile.

The members of the Iluk Wives’ Club were often busy in Hubert’s yurt, helping to keep it neat and tidy. At some point in time a few of the club had made his yurt a regular stop during their daily chores. Hubert shouldered the governance of Baarbadal entirely on his own, which meant making and updating their maps, preparing reports for the king, and recording monthly expenditure accounts.

Thanks to the work of the Wives’ Club and their efforts in cleaning, tidying, washing, and preparing tea, Hubert could focus solely on his key responsibilities. With their help, he was somehow able to make it through a workload just barely within his grasp.

We’re buying an awful amount of food and drink from outside our domain, but fortunately we’re still not in the red... That’s no guarantee for the future, however, and we may well find ourselves struggling once demand cools for baar wool and salt.

To pull ourselves out of that situation, we need either a new industry or to take out a loan...which would mean asking for money from either the king or one of our neighbors. Though in Dias’s case, perhaps selling the materials we gain from slaying monsters or a dragon isn’t entirely out of the question...

Hubert glanced up from his desk to look at the map on the wall. It was this particular task—that of exploring the region—that he most wanted to get back to. Cultivating the wasteland could help Baarbadal claim yet more territory. More territory meant more survey work, which would culminate in the creation of another map.

Here in Baarbadal, Hubert could use the surveillance tools available to him as he pleased, but he also had the falconkin to assist him. With their keen eyesight he could craft maps to a degree of detail unheard of in the royal capital, and so nothing was more fun for Hubert, nothing more joyous, than the act of cartography.

The last map I sent to the royal capital was a work of art. If anybody from the capital came to visit with a copy of that map in hand, the sheer level of detail would floor them.

Hubert’s pen raced across documents as he thought about his maps, and it was just as he was finishing that he heard a knock at the door.

“Come in,” said Hubert.

A young cavekin, Sanat, entered, carrying a piece of metal.

“What can I help you with today, Sanat?”

“We finished our first mining tests and whipped this up.”

Sanat showcased the metal—an object made of iron—while Hubert put his pen in its wooden pen holder and adjusted his glasses to get a better look.

“What?!” he blurted, his voice choking up as it neared a scream. “H-How?!”

“Well, uh...I mean, we just did what we do,” Sanat replied, a touch confused. “We dug for ore, then we smelted it. This is what happens when we craft it, and that’s why I’m here.”

Sanat spoke as if it were nothing, but Hubert was astonished. The cavekin mining project was ready for mining already?! They were fully capable of producing refined iron already?! When had they set up the pipeline for mining to refining to processing?

There was so much Hubert wanted to ask, so much he wanted to say...but with the finished product sitting in front of him, he swallowed his words. What point was there in voicing all his thoughts now that everything was done? Hubert got his mind back on track and took a different tack.

“I... I see,” he said. “And this is a...an iron pot, is it? Why did you decide to make this, of all things?”

It was a black pot so large it had to be held with two hands. The pot itself was iron, its handle was iron, and its lid, too, was iron. Though as he examined it further, Hubert couldn’t help noticing that the center of the lid stretched upwards.

“When I heard Dias talk about what he ate in Mahati, he mentioned that they steam food over there. Well, I figured with the right tools we could do that here too, so I tried whipping this up as a kind of prototype.”

Sanat explained that the center part of the lid cooled the steam as it rose, turning it back into water, which dropped back into the pot and started the process over again.

“I made a regular lid too, a thick one just like the pot, so you could even put coal on the lid itself and cook from both sides if you wanted.”

The Wives’ Club members in the tent all paused what they were doing, drawn in by Sanat’s explanation. Hubert put a hand to his jaw in thought, his mind racing. He did not know much about cooking, but he at least understood the logic behind the pot. And at a glance, it was a well-made pot. Knowing cavekin craftsmanship as he did, Hubert was certain that the iron was similarly exceptional.

The pot was finely crafted and looked durable. Hubert was just wondering if they could sell it to help balance their expenditures when fate brought another knock at his yurt door.

“Here’s the most recent sales report,” said Ellie as she walked in, placing a document on Hubert’s desk. “Demand hasn’t shown any signs of dropping yet, so sales are still good. Oh, hello there, Sanat. What’s with the pot?”

The merchant’s eyes were quick to take in Sanat’s pot. The cavekin explained it to her and Hubert asked her for her opinion on it as a good for the market. Unfortunately, Ellie’s face scrunched up with uncertainty as she took the pot in hand to feel its weight.

“If you’re just asking if we can sell it, then the answer is yes, but regular sales? Not easy. The main reason? It’s heavy.”

Ellie explained that the weight would tire out the horses transporting it. More rest for the horses meant it would take longer to get the pot to market, and selling it wouldn’t result in all that much profit without cranking up the price. Baar wool was light and in high demand. Ellie didn’t expect to sell much more than one tenth of what the wool brought in.

“But the other question is, should we even sell it in the first place?” asked Ellie. “When you’re talking iron, you’re also talking weapons and armor. I’m not sure we want to just be selling off quality iron that could be repurposed for equipment when we need it. We also have to consider the Beastkin Nation, who invested in the mine, and the onikin, who don’t have enough metal. If we’re going to sell our metals, we really ought to bring the quality down a step or two.”

Ellie then turned to Sanat.

“But Sanat, hear me out. We’re able to mine ore now, and the first thing you make is a pot? I know you’ve quickly become a regular at Goldia’s pub, but go easy on the booze, yeah? All that drinking and eating, and you might find yourself fattening up before you know it.”

Hubert and Sanat both reacted with shock to Ellie’s comments, but before they could say anything the air filled with the sound of distant dogkin steps quickly growing louder. The rushed footsteps meant they had something important to report, and Hubert’s mind immediately turned to working out what it might be. Perhaps something had happened at one of the border stations, or a visitor had arrived. But maybe a monster had appeared somewhere...or Dias had once again walked straight into trouble, as the man was wont to do.

“Lord Dias! Where are you?!” cried a dogkin. “One of the frogkin is at the western border station!”

“He said he’s brought gifts to thank you for fighting off the dragons!” cried another.

“And none of us have a clue why, but that frog guy sure is shocked about something!”

Hubert cocked his head as he dropped once more into thought. He assumed that the frogkin was from Peijin & Co. and that they had brought gifts to thank Dias for protecting the beastkin.

But what could have shocked him so much that the dogkin felt a need to report it...?

“Oh,” said Sanat, taking his pot back from Ellie. “Last time the Peijins came by, the border station still wasn’t complete. Dad and the others really got to work since then, so the frogkin is probably surprised to see it.”

Hubert nodded. This was highly likely. The cavekin had made themselves ready for mining in record time, after all. Hubert didn’t doubt that the border station was similarly a formidable sight. None of the Peijin family knew how quickly the cavekin worked, so it was no wonder they’d be astounded at the speed with which the border station had come together.

Now that Hubert had a read on the situation, he turned his focus to handling the matter at hand.

“If Peijin & Co. are here, then we must respond immediately,” he said. “Ellie, would you mind heading to the station to greet them while we contact Lord Dias? I’ll send a message with the dogkin and head over upon Lord Dias’s return. Sanat, take your pot to the kitchen range and let the Wives’ Club test it; we’ll work out what to do once we have their feedback.”

Ellie and Sanat nodded, then followed Hubert out of his yurt, all three of them breaking off into different directions to see to their individual tasks.

Hurrying Back to Iluk Village—Dias

When the dogkin told me that Peijin had arrived, we all headed back to Iluk on the double. Once there, I leaped onto Balers and was ready to speed off for the border station, but Alna stopped me.

“If you’re leaving now, you’ll arrive around sundown,” she said. “Stay at the border station tonight. I’ll bring everything you need for the stay, so wait a second before you go charging off.”

Alna rushed back into our yurt and returned a few moments later carrying a hefty cloth package. While she secured that on the back of Balers’s saddle, she explained what it was.

“This is what we use when we go hunting—it’s everything you’ll need for camping. There’s a short pillar and cloth for a one-man yurt, a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, and some rags for wiping away dirt and grime. And I know you probably think it’s unnecessary, but I’ve put some emergency rations in there too. Jerky, dried cheese, and tea. If you get peckish, dig in.”

“I knew we had jerky and tea, but we’re making dried cheese too, huh? Is it tasty?”

“Nope. It’s made specifically to last, so it’s hard and sour. Anything but tasty, actually. But when you dry out a big hunk of cheese it gets very compact, so even just a small piece should be enough for one or two days. I say ‘should’ because a guy as big as you will probably need more than the usual person.”

“It’s, uh... It’s sour, huh?”

While Alna and I were talking about all of this, Lady Darrell was finishing up her own preparations. She was borrowing Alna’s horse, Karberan, but she wasn’t an especially confident rider, so she was leaving the actual riding to Hubert. I noticed that they had travel packs of their own as well.

Lady Darrell wasn’t just along for the ride, however. She was coming with us because she was curious about the Peijins and wanted to make sure my speech and manners reflected the respect necessary for welcoming foreign guests. She had pants on instead of her usual dress, with a decorative riding crop clipped to one side of her belt and a shortsword clipped to the other.

I’d actually told Lady Darrell that we didn’t use riding crops with our horses in Iluk, but she said that among the nobility it was in good taste to equip one, regardless of whether or not you used it. Honestly, just looking at Lady Darrell’s spotless and gleaming riding crop told me that she’d never used it before. It was covered in gold, silver, and jewels that I was certain would get scratched away or come loose if you actually used the crop as a crop.

Anyway, while Lady Darrell fastened the two travel packs to Karberan, I tried telling Alna that maybe we didn’t need to go to so much effort when we were just heading to the border station, but she insisted we take all the camping gear. I thought on it some, and I could see her point; even if we didn’t use all the camping gear this time around, some day we might, so it was good to get into the habit of always bringing it along. It was a bit like preparing for a rainy day and being glad when that rain never came.

When all our prep was done, I had Balers take off at top speed with Lady Darrell and Hubert following behind me. Some of the senjis were running alongside us as protection, and they had no trouble keeping up with the horses. We powered along the beautifully crafted road to the west, and I saw cavekin as we went. They were working on fences by the roadside, and those were coming along great.

The cavekin were hammering stakes about as tall as my waist and connecting them with rope. They also put signs up at set intervals warning people not to venture into the onikin territory. The signs read:

Venturing off the main roads is prohibited. Trespassers who damage the grazing fields will be fined.

Hubert had come up with the text, and he’d been careful not to name the onikin directly. Between the fences and the fines, I felt pretty confident we wouldn’t get too many people—if any—trying to leave the road.

On our way to the border, we made sure the horses had a chance to catch their breath and recuperate at the rest area that sat between the village and the border. Then we were off again, and we arrived as the sun was setting, just as Alna had predicted.

Every detail of the border station became clearer the more we closed in, but it was so big and broad that it felt even more like a stronghold than the last time I’d seen it.

The walls were a formidable sight in themselves, stretching out along the border—they even had paved walkways now! The guard towers were all built from stone, and I even noticed big stone platforms that I imagined had to be for things like ballistae and whatnot. As we neared, I noticed movement along the station walkways, and the gates opened up for us.

“Sir Peijin has brought gifts as a sign of gratitude,” murmured Lady Darrell, looking at the gates as they opened. “I wonder what the extent of that gratitude is...”

She glanced at Hubert and her eyes narrowed to slits—his face was real pale and he looked completely and utterly beat.

“Yeah, I wonder,” I replied, my head tilting as I thought. “I guess it’s because we fought off that earth dragon and sheltered those refugees. Well, Mont and the guys handled the bulk of that responsibility... But there were no casualties, and we could safely send the refugees back home with some food. I guess Peijin is also here to tell us how they’ve been since then.”

“I see... So a gift to thank you for slaying a dragon and sheltering people. We’ll need to be prepared to respond in the case that he gives us either too much or too little. But it will prove hard to make a decision without some kind of precedent to work from.”

Personally, I thought things were pretty open and shut. Peijin had asked us for help, and we’d helped. I was kind of surprised that Lady Darrell thought we needed to think so hard about it.

Anyway, the border station gates opened and we were ushered inside. The interior of the place was just like the exterior and felt like a completely different place compared to when I’d last seen it.

For starters, the floor had gone from stamped soil to pavers. But it wasn’t like the road between Iluk and the border station; the interior paving was designed with a mighty fine style in mind. Colorful patterns were carved along the floors, and it was so like being in a fancy manor that I almost forgot I was actually standing in the courtyard of a veritable fortress.

The courtyard was separated into different sections, each of which was to be used for things like inspections and immigration, sales, and a dedicated marketplace. There were flower beds at the center that were currently empty, and beyond them was a familiar sight: the Peijin & Co. caravans. There was a whole load of them, in fact.

I’d heard that Peijin was shocked, but when I saw him he was happily chatting away with Ellie and Mont, rubbing his hands together and nodding all the while. I was glad to see him looking so lively. While I was wondering what they might be talking about, Joe, Lorca, and Ryan all came up to me with some dogkin. They swiftly took the reins of our horses and helped Lady Darrell and Hubert down from Karberan.

“Lord Dias, welcome to the border station!” said Joe as he and the dogkin started taking care of our horses. “What do you think? She’s quite the sight, don’t you think? You’ve the hard work of the cavekin to thank for it!”

“Did you see the chimney with the smoke billowing from it? That’s where the cavekin moved their workshop,” said Lorca, “and I think most of them are over there at the moment. They’re always working on something, every day, rain or shine, so make sure you drop by and say hello.”

“The Peijins have been here a couple of times to report on recent happenings, but I’ve never seen them here with so many carriages,” Ryan reported.

“Thanks for the updates, guys,” I said, nodding to them before walking towards Peijin.

When Peijin saw me, he burst into an even bigger smile—he started hopping on the spot and clapping his hands above his head. Behind him I noticed a smaller creature in clothing like what I’d seen Kiko and Yaten wearing. I couldn’t quite work out what it was. A beastkin? A demi-human? I wasn’t sure.

Whatever the creature was, it was the first of its type that I’d seen.

“Lord Dias!” cried Peijin, still clapping. “This border station’s a dang beaut! Was I surprised? Y’bet I was! Delighted? One hundred percent! Comin’ here t’do business is gon’be a real treat, I tell y’what! I’m here on behalf o’Peijin & Co. t’thank y’for your help! Wow! What a bright future we’ve ahead’f us!”

Based on the tic, I was dealing with Peijin-Do, but more importantly I finally worked out what his strange dance was. He was celebrating the finished border station. When I thanked him for being so complimentary, he burst into an even bigger grin and clapped his hands again.

The little creature behind him, who looked to be a child, stared up at me, its big black eyes brimming with curiosity. I met that little creature’s gaze and was just about to introduce myself when Peijin-Do started talking again.

“Ah! I completely forgot t’introduce you two! This here’s Peijin-Doshirado, my eldest! He’ll be taking th’reins of Peijin & Co. when he’s all grown up, and I brought him along t’introduce him t’you, one’f our best customers! Come now, Doshirado, say hello like I taught y’now.”

“I-It’s n-nice to m-meet you,” the little one slowly stuttered. “I’m...Doshirado!”

Doshirado had a really charming voice, completely different from the rest of the Peijin family. I took a step closer and knelt down in front of him, introduced myself, and shook his little hand. It was all slippery and slimy, just like his dad’s, and I wondered if he was a slightly different variation of frogkin.

“Ah, that’s right,” whispered Hubert after he’d introduced himself, “it’s not too dissimilar to the way young frogs look, now that I think about it...”

I thought back to the baby frogs I’d seen in lakes back when I was growing up, and I could see what Hubert was getting at.

“Yeah, okay,” I said simply.

Doshirado looked up at us, his head tilted to the side, but when he felt his dad’s gaze bearing down on him, he quickly straightened up and puffed his chest out.

“I’m y-young but I-I’m trying my best! I l-look forward to working with you in the f-future!” he cried.

And with that, the little frogman dropped into a polite bow.

He was a real cutie, what with his small frame and his adorable voice, and though he didn’t look much like the rest of his family at his young age, his big eyes, his expressions, and his gestures were a spitting image of the others’. The way Peijin-Do looked so warmly on the boy also told me everything I needed to know about their father-son relationship.

Peijin-Do nodded, satisfied by his son’s introduction, then pointed over to the caravans behind him.

“Let’s get down t’the brass tacks, yeah? Today’s not about trade. It’s about thanks! Y’took out an earth dragon that threatened our lands, and you were nothing but generous t’those who needed refuge during the battle. I mean it from the heart—from all of us—when I tell you that we simply can’t thank you enough!”

He continued, “The weak and the lordless were protected, and the dragon problem was nipped in the bud before anybody was hurt. The Beast King sang us praises for it, and Peijin & Co.’s rep is on the rise! We owe all of that t’you, Lord Dias! Octad is over the moon about it, and lemme tell you, when he decided t’thank you, he really decided t’thank you!”

As he finished, Peijin-Do whipped out a thick piece of paper folded in a strange manner and passed it over to me, telling me it was a list of their gifts to us. I took it from him, unfolded it, and scanned over the long, long list of items before it hit me...

“This list is ginormous!”

I would have held my tongue, but my brain couldn’t stop my body in time. Peijin-Do grinned while those around me closed in, curious about the list. There were Hubert, the dogkin, and the people working around the border station, and Peijin-Do took it upon himself to read it aloud for them.

“F’starters, foodstuffs! We heard that the falconkin played a role in your handling of the situation, so we’re giving you four barrels o’jerky, just f’them! Then you’ve one whole caravan full o’wheat, rice, and vegetables! We’ve also prepared some of our special Beastland herbs, spices, and tea, along with alcohol for all the brave soldiers who went t’battle! Thanks being thanks, we didn’t forget th’gold and silver, but we also have jewels and high-quality clothing and fabric f’you—a selection we hope th’women will love! And, uh... Oh yeah!” Peijin-Do then clapped to signal to his guards. “We also brought you a Peijin family heirloom!”

At Peijin’s command, a number of bearkin brought over a big package.

“A family heirloom...?” I uttered. “You’re going to give us one of your family’s treasures? But isn’t that, y’know, a treasure?”

I couldn’t help but be surprised. Peijin-Do, for his part, grinned and nodded.

“I was surprised as you are! But what pa says goes! He said he had a feelin’ ’bout it, and y’never doubt pa’s instincts! I did exactly as he told me! I mean, honestly, I say ‘family heirloom,’ but actually it’s just an ancient carpet. So, uh...consider it a sign o’friendship, yeah? The coloring is a bit old fashioned, but it’s a strangely durable rug, t’be sure. It just doesn’t rip or tear; it really doesn’t. It always looks brand-new. It’s f’that very reason that the carpet is said t’bring whoever holds it prosperity! It’s a good luck charm o’sorts.”

While Peijin was explaining everything, the bearkin passed me the carpet, and when I held it in my hands, I got this strange but familiar feeling from it. I knew what it was right away, and so I put it on the floor and opened it up.

“How many times has it been now...?” I murmured to myself. “It’s like I can’t forget this sensation even if I try. Still, it’s usually weapons. I don’t even know what to make of it coming from a carpet...”

Hubert saw me at work and he must have heard me because he knew what I was thinking.

“Lord Dias,” he said, “perhaps it would be best to avoid doing that immediately...?!”

I knew what he was getting at. If the carpet had a power like my battle-ax or the fire starter rod, then he thought maybe we shouldn’t show it to Peijin. But in my opinion, I thought it was fine to test it in front of him and his son.

“Look, they gave us a family heirloom as a sign of friendship,” I said. “It’s theirs, and they have a right to know what it can do. Frankly, depending on exactly what it does, we might even want to give it back.”

I spread the package out on the floor and opened the carpet over it. It had a red bird in the center of it, surrounded by flames. I looked at the whole thing curiously, because I wasn’t sure how it worked, but I figured that for starters I’d just put both hands on it and give it some of that good ol’ energy. When I did, the bird on the carpet lit up, and it lit up...and, well, other than lighting up, it didn’t seem to actually do anything.

“What in th’blazes?!” cried Peijin-Do.

Lady Darrell and some of the others went wide-eyed with shock, but Hubert and I didn’t really get it ourselves. I didn’t know why, but at that moment the dogkin yelped a few cheers and jumped onto the carpet. They all flopped down where they landed and narrowed their eyes contentedly. Lady Darrell was watching them, and she must’ve noticed something, because she let out a shriek.

“Their feet!” she cried. “Their little battered feet are...!”

She couldn’t finish her sentence, so she just pointed. But even from a distance it wouldn’t have been hard to see what she was talking about: The sores and scars on the dogkins’ paws closed up and healed right then and there. Their paw pads had been worn and calloused from all the running out in the wild, but now they were softer than a baby’s bottom, and there was even a sheen to them.

When Hubert saw this, he moved silently to the carpet and put his hand on it. He’d spent so much time writing with that hand that it was all blistered and rough, but in just a few moments his calluses vanished too.

Mont must have heard Lady Darrell too, because he clopped on over and plopped his prosthetic on the carpet. When nothing happened, he let out a sigh.

“Tch,” he muttered. “I shoulda known...” He watched the dogkin for a moment, then murmured thoughtfully. Then he pulled out his knife, rolled up his sleeve, and cut his own arm. But as a thin line of blood spread, his arm healed just as quickly. Mont pulled his arm away from the carpet and wiped the blood from his arm. When that happened, all the rest of us were just left staring, wondering what to make of the carpet and its power.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, those of us around the carpet let out our shock in cries and gasps, but oddly enough...the guys working at the border station just kind of shrugged. The carpet healed injuries. That was pretty amazing, so I wasn’t sure why they were so nonchalant.

“Yeah, but your battle-ax mends itself, and your hand-ax comes back to you with a mere thought,” said Mont. “The carpet is odd, yeah, but after a while you just get used to this stuff.”

Joe and all the other guys felt pretty much the same as Mont, and they just went about carrying materials and continuing with construction the same way they’d done every day. It seemed like those of us who were surprised were actually in the minority.

“No, wait, hang on a second,” said Hubert. “This is an incredible power. It deserves closer inspection. We need to find out if it requires magic like the weapons, if you’re the only one who can power it, and how much magic will heal what sort of injury... The results of this inquiry will tell us if we should give the carpet back.”

So, we borrowed the help of one of the onikin women working at the border station and went about looking into the carpet. The first thing we discovered was that only I could access its power. Nobody else could get it to work—not Joe, not Mont, not Peijin, not his guards, not the onikin women, and not the cavekin. The carpet apparently required a lot of magic, but that amount changed depending on the injury being healed.

Even a minor injury required a decent amount of magical energy, and more when you were dealing with multiple injuries. According to the onikin, healing two cuts on Mont’s arm, from his wrist to his elbow, required the same amount of magic it would take to hide the entire border station with their concealment spell.

I wasn’t all that knowledgeable about magic and magical energy, but according to the onikin women, who were way more versed in the area, it wasn’t very efficient. For most minor injuries you were better off just letting them heal on their own. Still, as inefficient as it was, the carpet had a whole heap of magical energy already stored in it, and it replenished over time when it wasn’t used. The onikin seemed to think it might best be kept for times of emergency.

By the time we finished our inquiry, the sun was well and truly below the horizon, and torches were being lit around the border station. Dinner and rooms were being prepared for those of us who were staying, and things were bustling. I was just about to tell Peijin-Do that the carpet was far too important for us to accept and that the Peijin family should keep it, but before I could, little Doshirado gasped and cried out in a language that was completely foreign to me. I guessed it must have been what they spoke in the Beastkin Nation.

He sounded bright and happy though. Peijin-Do listened to him and put a hand to his head.

“Nah, look; I know it’s somethin’ right out of th’old tales, sure, but th’old tales are jus’ that. Old tales. Nobody really believes they’re real, son. And more importantly, how many times have I told you that we speak th’local language when we’re visiting?”

Peijin-Do stared at the carpet, then looked at me, then back to the carpet. He repeated that a number of times, then crossed his arms and dropped into thought. Meanwhile, Doshirado kept chattering away excitedly in his native tongue, pointing at the carpet and repeating himself over and over. I got the sense that maybe he was saying something along the lines of “It’s amazing!”

I waited for a bit, but when Peijin-Do made no attempt to talk, I cleared my throat and spoke up.

“Peijin, I don’t think your dad had any idea that the carpet has this power, so we really can’t just accept a gift like this. I—”

Peijin-Do knew exactly what I was going to say, but I could see by his face that his mind was made up, and he let out a loud “Ribbit!” to stop me in my tracks.

“Nope. Nope!” he stated. “Once we give a gift, we want th’recipient t’take it! Even if that gift later turns out to be o’great value, we’d have no right t’call ourselves noble merchants if we asked for it back. And I don’t mean just me. I mean my whole family. I want you t’keep that carpet and put it to use for th’people of Iluk!”

I tried to tell him that it wasn’t about value or price or anything like that, but before I could say a word, Hubert and Mont already had me by the shoulders to stop me. Even Lady Darrell gave me a stern stare that told me it wasn’t good manners to force a gift back on the giver, so I had no choice but to accept the carpet we’d been given.

Because the carpet was so important and valuable, we had to make sure we stored it carefully until we brought it back to Iluk. The border station didn’t have a treasury, and so Joe decided it could go in the room I’d be sleeping in, and I rolled it up neatly and hefted it onto my shoulder. I think the energy in it was fading by that time, because the carpet lost its luster. Doshirado watched it happen, then said something in his native tongue before letting out a little gasp and switching to the language of the kingdom.

“Dad, he’s the guy out of the stories, I’m telling you! The one gramps told me! The empty-handed hero!”

Doshirado took off running, circling my legs with his hands held high, and even though I didn’t know what he was talking about, I still smiled at the sight. There was nothing quite like seeing kids in high spirits.

“He’s empty!” he cried. “He’s empty!”

“I’m so sorry f’my son being so disrespectful!” said Peijin-Do, running over to me. “Oi! Doshirado! You know better than t’be rude to our clients!”

Peijin-Do scratched the back of his head while he explained himself.

“So in th’Beastkin Nation, there’s an old story—a fairy tale, really—and because of that the word ‘empty’ isn’t an insult or nothing like that for us. There’s this old way of thinking, and, uh...quite frankly I don’t really get it, but it’s been around since times of old because some folk back then did some great things. The stories say they had everything even though they had nothing; they could master any tool, and they saved everybody and anybody with only their bare hands. My dad loves that old story like you wouldn’t believe, and he’s fond of regaling little Doshirado with it, you see... So, uh, anyway, I’m really sorry.”

“No, no, I don’t mind at all,” I replied. “There’s no need to scold your son on my behalf. I think it’s good for kids to be so full of joy, and I can tell just by looking at Doshirado that you’re a good father to him. It makes me happy, it really does.”

Peijin-Do was nothing if not relieved to hear it, and when Doshirado heard, he just took off to see how many more laps he could do around the two of us. Eventually I took the carpet into a really nice room deeper in the border station and left it there, then returned to the courtyard to have dinner with Peijin and his crew.

After dinner I washed my body with some warm water that was prepared for me, got changed, and went to bed. The next day, after breakfast, Peijin and his people joined me on the trip back to Iluk. They hadn’t actually intended to go to Iluk, but after they’d brought us so many gifts and that amazing carpet, Lady Darrell said it was only right that we treat them to a full-blown welcome party...which meant we were throwing another banquet.

We’d sent word back to the village the previous evening, so preparations were already in full swing, and everything was sure to be set by the time we arrived. Peijin also graciously offered to bring his caravans to Iluk, which saved us the hassle of moving everything into our own carts.

As for the carpet, I decided I’d take it myself, so we secured it to Balers and we set off. All the seats had been laid out in the village square when we arrived, and I guessed the grandmas must have really given it their best that morning, because they all looked a bit worn out.

“Sure would be nice if this carpet of ours helped with exhaustion and not just injuries,” I murmured, hopping off of Balers and untying the rope fastened around the carpet.

I had it on my shoulder when Uncle Ben seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Then I say you should give it a try,” he said, having heard me talking to myself. “Even if it doesn’t heal their exhaustion, I reckon it’ll heal other aches and pains anyway...and that alone will work wonders for their daily lives.”

Clearly he’d heard about the carpet from the messengers we’d sent the previous night, and I nodded my agreement. I laid out the carpet on the ground in front of the grandmas and asked them to take a seat on it. They were a bit confused by my request, but they humored me all the same, and when they did I powered up the carpet.

Just like the day before, the carpet lit up, and the grandmas all let out awed gasps as the light surrounded them.

“Oh my, that worked wonders for my back and my joints,” said Grandma Maya. “Young one, it looks to me like you’ve stumbled across another helpful tool, hmm?”

The other grandmas all said things along the same lines, and the carpet healed them all without the light fading one bit. For some reason, it seemed like healing them didn’t even take all that much magical energy, which was a bonus.

“Maybe the best place to keep the carpet is with the grandmas then...” I mused.

I thought that might make daily life that much easier for our oldest residents, but as I voiced my thoughts I felt Hubert’s grip on my shoulder.

“Let’s get all the village representatives together for a deeper discussion on the matter, shall we?”

There was a real clear authority in his voice as he spoke, and I just couldn’t turn him down.

We were now in possession of a strange new carpet that healed injuries and, as a bonus, soothed the grandmas’ back pain. I decided to gather all the Iluk representatives to discuss what we should do with it, and everybody was ready in a flash.

In terms of attendees, we had Alna, Grandma Maya, Hubert, Lady Darrell, all the dogkin tribe leaders, and Klaus, who happened to be visiting the village at the time. Uncle Ben wasn’t there because he was playing host to Peijin-Do, and Goldia and our other resident merchants were all busy elsewhere.

The twins had both rushed over to spend time with Peijin-Do, and you could hear them outside the yurt having a blast. They’d gotten together with the dogkin kids and really hit it off with little Doshirado. Their joyous cries and laughter played as a backdrop to our discussion.

“So here’s what we know,” said Hubert. “The carpet heals injuries and soothes pain, though we think it’s possible that the soothing effect is in fact the carpet healing injuries invisible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, I’m no doctor, so I can’t say anything in any greater detail.”

The carpet in question was rolled out in the middle of the assembly hall, with all of us sitting around it in a circle. Once Hubert had kicked things off with his opening remarks, Klaus was first to raise his hand to offer an opinion. This was a surprise, because he was usually content to sit back and listen.

“Does anyone mind if I speak first?” he started, pausing for a moment before going on. “I’ve heard that Lord Dias put the carpet to use for the grandmas, and I am in favor of this idea. It is my belief, in fact, that the carpet should not be allowed for anything more than that.”

“Could you explain your reasoning?” asked Hubert. “I ask because the carpet strikes me as something that the chief of the domain guard would ordinarily want for military purposes...”

“But if we were to use this in times of war, we would only be inviting horrible tragedy,” said Klaus, his expression grave. “A carpet like this would only cause our soldiers to be more and more reckless. If they believed they had a surefire way to heal their wounds, they would no longer fight with any concern for their own safety. Once they were to start down this path, it would quickly become all they knew, and over a long enough timeline, there would be no happy ending.”

Klaus went on to explain that even if the carpet healed injuries like...well, like magic, it would still take a toll on the injured person. Over time, the mental and spiritual toll would grow so great it would inevitably result in something very bad.

“I think it’s fine to use the carpet in the aftermath of a monster attack or an assault of some kind, but I am entirely against the idea of considering it part of our military strategies,” Klaus concluded.

Klaus had a wealth of wartime experience, and even now he was in charge of our frontline defenses. This gave his opinion great weight, and though Hubert had thought of the carpet as incredibly convenient in a whole manner of areas, he now understood the point Klaus was making.

Hubert wasn’t alone either. Everybody thought more deeply about the carpet upon hearing Klaus’s opinion, and silence filled the yurt. I listened to the kids having their fun outside, and eventually Grandma Maya put her hand up to speak.

“I can speak for all of us elderly when I say that nothing makes us happier than having a way to soothe our aches and pains. I’m grateful for that, and I agree that the carpet should not be put to use for war. After all, this carpet heals both external and internal pain, which means it can be put to far better uses, no?”

Grandma Maya looked at all of us in the assembly hall with a knowing grin, like she was fishing for an answer. Alna and Lady Darrell gasped as it hit them, and they cried out almost simultaneously.

“Childbirth!”

“We can use it for childbirth!”

Grandma Maya smiled brightly and placed her hands on the carpet, nodding.

“Sometimes a mother, her child, or even both can be lost during childbirth. It is just something that happens...and though Iluk has been fortunate until now, I believed it only a matter of time before that misfortune befell us. But this carpet could be a great means for preventing such an outcome. Now, we cannot simply have you in the yurt when a mother is giving birth, young Dias, but there are ways around that... We could have you put your hands into the yurt from outside of it, or allow you inside of it as long as you are blindfolded. I’m sure there are also other options that elude me at present, but they are there, I’m certain.”

Alna and Lady Darrell both nodded at Grandma Maya’s statement, and Hubert was right there with them.

“Yes... We could use this to increase the success rate of childbirth within Iluk. A higher rate of safe births would naturally lead to a higher population, which would make for a more active and lively domain. The results would be far and away more beneficial than simply putting the carpet to use for the military!”

Hubert was thinking beyond just our residents. He seemed to think that we could use the carpet to aid the livestock when they gave birth too.

“We’ve got all that endless grass, plus that fast-growing white grass too,” he continued. “We could make Baarbadal’s livestock industry explode if we so desired!”

Klaus clearly liked the idea of that, and though the dogkin couldn’t grasp the finer details, they were totally on board with the idea of us having more livestock. I thought it was a good idea too, and I was already daydreaming of an Iluk Village with booming livestock numbers.

“If we grow our livestock industry, we can then sell any surplus or otherwise increase our meat stockpiles,” I said. “Anything we can’t consume before it goes bad we can preserve with rock salt...or freeze in the border station storehouses, or maybe sell to our neighbors.”

I felt like I was on a roll now, so I just kept on going.

“Horses sell for a really good price, so we can sell them as they are... And with Colm and the other eiresetters handling the training of our military steeds, we can sell those too. But I guess if we sell too many we might be making a problem for our neighbors depending on their situation... Which makes me wonder, is it okay to sell livestock to the Beastkin Nation?”

Everybody had started off nodding along with my idea, but the more I talked the more they went from nodding to, uh, shaking their heads or just staring at me wide-eyed. Everybody was focused on me in different ways, and one by one they all made their thoughts clear.

“Dias, selling our finest horses to our neighbors? What are you thinking...?” asked Alna.

“Lord Dias... As a duke you do have the right to sell military steeds, but to another nation?” murmured Klaus.

“I know we’re not in the midst of war, but we can’t just go selling military supplies to other nations. We’d be stepping into a world of trouble, and we’d want the express permission of the king too,” said Hubert.

“Lord Dias, I see now that someone needs a refresher course in Sanserife law,” mused Lady Darrell.

“Young Dias, I daresay it’s best not to think too much,” said Grandma Maya, “and perhaps leave the details to your advisors.”

“But you can sell them to the onikin, can’t you?” cried Shep.

“If neighboring domains are out of the question, then perhaps sell to that noble who visited not so long ago?” offered Sedorio.

“We can protect livestock and horses over long distances, yes we can!” boomed Marf.

“And if it’s horses you want trained, leave that to us,” declared Colm.

I didn’t know what to say to the onslaught of comments, and so I simply nodded and scratched the back of my head.

“In any case, we’re all settled on how to use the carpet, yes?” said Hubert, who summarized what we’d all agreed upon. “We’ll put it to use where the grandmas take their breaks, keep it on hand for emergencies, and ensure it is available to aid with childbirth. Military activities involving the carpet are a firm no, and we’ll do our utmost to keep it far from military mobilization should that ever be something we do. Is everyone okay with that?”

Nobody raised any objections, so that was the end of our discussion. Alna was quick to approach the carpet and put a hand to it. She let some magic flow through it and started taking note of how it was woven. She was soon joined by Grandma Maya and Lady Darrell.

As for the others, something had clicked between Hubert and Klaus thanks to the meeting, and they left the yurt chatting about all sorts of stuff. The dogkin had heard all the fun happening outside and could barely contain themselves any longer; they dashed outside as soon as they were allowed.

And me? Well, I wasn’t all that different from the dogkin, to be honest.

I left the yurt to find Doshirado running around with the twins and the dogkin kids. Peijin-Do was standing off to the side, watching over them with a smile.

“This is great,” he said. “Just wonderful. They’re so healthy, so happy... I’m truly glad I brought th’girls here, I really am.”

Peijin-Do had originally agreed to look after the girls for their parents, and he’d watched over them for quite some time. Seeing them here making new friends and enjoying themselves so thoroughly seemed to stir something in him.

The twins had been expelled from their village with their parents just for being twins, and while living in the wild their parents had fallen ill. Knowing that they would not survive, the twins’ parents had begged Peijin-Do to take them into his care, and fate had woven a path that brought him to Baarbadal.

Back when they had first arrived, the twins had been terribly withdrawn and anxious about the new world around them. But with some love and an open mind, they had slowly begun to open up. I walked over to Peijin-Do’s side and talked with him a bit, letting him know I was grateful for how things had gone.

While Peijin-Do and I were chatting, the twins dragged the carpet outside and asked Doshirado and the dogkin to sit on it. Then they dashed off to the kitchen range and came back, both of them with bowls in their hands. Senai gave one of the bowls to Doshirado, while Ayhan brought the other to Peijin-Do. She paused before giving the bowl to him, I think because of the past they’d shared, but Senai gave her a gentle pat on the back, and the two of them passed Peijin-Do the bowl.

“Drink up! It’s herbal tea!” said Senai.

“It’ll give you energy! Enjoy!” said Ayhan.

Alna and Grandma Maya were standing a little ways off watching the twins, and that told me everything—the tea they were giving to the frogkin was sanjivani, and they’d asked the ladies for permission.

Peijin-Do was as shocked as he was delighted. Although he didn’t know what was in the tea, he knew better than anyone the weight of the twins’ kindness. He knelt down and accepted the bowl with a grin.

“I can’t thank y’girls enough for being so kind as t’brew me this tea,” he said. “And what an aroma! I’m going t’dig right in!”

And with that, Peijin-Do downed the contents of the bowl in a single gulp. His eyes went even wider when he was hit by the delicious flavor of it. The girls shared a laugh at the look on his face, had a little silent conversation between themselves, and then dashed over to Doshirado.

“I tell you,” said Peijin-Do. “I really am overjoyed that I brought the girls here. Back then there was hardly anybody here, but now look at the place. It’s bustling! Every time I look around, I’m floored by how much you’ve managed t’do in pretty much a year. There’s no way I could do that!”

“But you’re a merchant,” I said, tilting my head. “I reckon you’d do fine. You’d do a great job.”

“No! Nope! No way! Nuh-uh! I’d crash and burn!” cried the frogkin. “For starters, I couldn’t do anything like this because I only think in terms’f exchange! And taking out an earth dragon single-handedly, without getting any residents injured? Get outta town. But you did it, Dias. And I’ll be honest with you—I don’t know if there’s anybody else in the entire continent who could do that. But even putting that aside, look at how quick y’formed a domain guard and built two outstanding border stations. Ain’t nobody else who could do that but you, Dias!”

Peijin punctuated all that with some chuckles and hearty ribbits and patted his stomach as it wobbled with his laughter.

“But still, even during the war I met plenty of people who were far more impressive than me,” I said. “I got myself cornered, I got myself neck-deep in hard fights, and I don’t know how many times I got myself on the verge of being killed, but it was a lot.”

For whatever reason, Peijin-Do just wouldn’t take me seriously. He really thought I was joking even though I meant every word, and he was practically pounding his gut, he was laughing so hard. I reckon his bellowing ribbits echoed across the entire plains, in fact.

The Domain Lord’s Residence in the Western City of Merangal, Mahati—Juha

On this particular day, Juha was attending a banquet at Eldan’s manor. In fact, Eldan had thrown the banquet for Juha, and the room was filled with beastkin. The people of Mahati now respected Juha’s abilities and had grown to see him as an ally. This was why he could sit and share drinks with them, smiling all the while.

Finally, the foundations are set.

Everybody sat in a circle on a thick carpet. Before them was food and drink piled higher than their heads. It was the alcohol that Juha happily indulged in, and for the first time since his arrival he found that he could truly appreciate and savor the taste of it.

“By the way, Sir Juha,” said a dogkin nearby. “I heard that recently Eldan asked for your advice regarding what to do if Duke Baarbadal were to ever become our enemy... Humor me, if you will; do we truly have no options whatsoever?”

The dogkin sported black spots unique to his type, and Juha smiled.

“To put it simply, we don’t,” he replied, the answer coming easy to him. “The empire easily eclipsed the kingdom in terms of its power, but over twenty whole years they could not bring Dias down. They tried everything, but they were thwarted at every turn.”

The dogkin sighed and thought.

“But Duke Baarbadal is said to be a kind and good-natured sort, no? Could that not be exploited, by maybe...taking his family or subjects hostage? Are such tactics completely out of the question?”

This was far too pointed a question for mere conversational fodder over drinks, and it was the sort of thing that could prove very problematic if overheard by the wrong people. Juha’s exasperation showed for but a brief instant before he was once again grinning.

“You, my friend, speak of a tactic that only the lowest bottom-feeding scum would ever consider,” said Juha, his voice jovial and his body exuding an aura of playfulness. “The empire, too, considered that an option. There was even a man who attempted it, but... Let us just say that it did not end well for him.”

Such was Juha’s choice of words that suddenly everybody at the banquet was drawn in. All conversation outside of Juha’s own stopped. Everybody was hungry for more, and Juha, knowing this, made a grand gesture as he took on the air of a lecturer.

“All of you here have experienced war, and so all of you know that in war victory is not so much about how to kill your enemy...but how to kill your enemy’s resolve. Wiping out the entirety of your enemy’s forces is a long, grueling task. Everyone knows that having the enemy surrender or flee is the far better option.”

Juha explained that Dias understood this, and so at the immediate start of any engagement he would launch a single overwhelmingly powerful strike against anyone in his way, opening a path for him to get directly to the enemy commander. Such was his ability to crush enemy leadership and, following that, enemy morale, that many considered him the nation’s finest when it came to such lightning-fast conclusions.

“It is in Dias’s nature to choose life over death, and so there were never many enemy casualties in the battles he fought. Perhaps this was a small silver lining for any of those who found themselves opposite him on the battlefield. But this is only in the case that Dias is in control of his faculties. He is patient and calm at heart, and he stays cool when others might burst into rage. But playing the hostage card is like willingly throwing a match into a pile of dry leaves and branches—it will result in an uncontrolled inferno of rage unlike anything you have ever seen.”

Juha stopped at this point, pausing for impact, and all that could be heard around him was a single, nervous gulp. Some turned to look at one another, remembering the infamous “no balls” incident.

“Dias gives no quarter to any who make moves he deems underhanded. He will not simply allow such enemies to surrender or flee...and besides, he will have already crushed them to a pulp the moment they tried. When one crosses the line, any attempts at negotiation and coercion fail utterly.”

Juha seemed to believe that Dias’s childhood as an orphan had shaped him, teaching him that succumbing to the demands of such enemies would only lead to things getting that much worse sooner or later.

“If one faces Dias in a straightforward battle, casualties are minimal. But when one throws aside their honor, they find themselves completely decimated, utterly and to the last. The empire learned this lesson the hard way, and when they did, they gave up on those ideas for good.”

Perhaps they were all engrossed in Juha’s tale. Perhaps they were all simply terrified of the very idea of Dias’s wrath. Either way, the rest of the attendees made not one peep. Nobody touched any of their food or drink. All sat on the edge of their seats, waiting for Juha to continue. When Juha saw this he nodded, cleared his throat, and took a sip of his drink.

“I know I keep harping on the point, but I will repeat it again. It is always best to keep Dias as your ally. Should you find yourself on the business end of his axe, accept your loss immediately and surrender. As long as he is not mad, Dias is indeed as kind and good-natured as you have heard, my friend,” Juha then said to the dogkin who had first started the conversation. “He will not harm any who have surrendered, nor will he take from them. This is the lesson that spread throughout Dias’s time in the war, to the point that enemy forces often surrendered at the very sight of him. It made my job a cakewalk. And the kicker? Though Dias is a master when it comes to sapping his enemy of their morale, he has no idea he’s even doing it.”

It didn’t matter what they did, be it sneak attacks, traps, assassination, poison, seduction, or simply throwing numbers at him. None of it worked, and when it incited Dias’s rage, suffering was always the end result. Dias was an unstoppable force—an unyielding calamity in the shape of a man—and over twenty years of war, the empire’s most effective tactic against him was...

Surrender.

“Dias is a generous man to those who meet him face-to-face. When one does not resort to cowardly means, Dias can accept the results regardless of losses, for he knows that both sides were fighting for their homes and families. And in that sense, yes, one can easily see why Dias is so widely known as a hero. He did not succumb to the anger that so often would have consumed the ordinary man. But as a result, when rage did hit him, not even my voice could bring him to his senses. Even when a group of us pinned him down and used everything at our disposal to talk sense to him, our attempts were useless.”

Juha then reached out for a piece of spice-covered meat from the plate in front of him and took a bite. It was an unspoken sign that his story had come to its end. For a moment, all of those around him sighed before falling into conversation between themselves.

It was not long before the party was back in full swing, and it was here that Juha chose to direct a pointed stare at the dogkin who had asked him about ways to defeat Dias. The dogkin deflated and seemed to shrink to about half his size, but his reaction made it clear that he would not ask any such stupid questions again.

Trudging Through the Wasteland—Goblins

The goblins marched through the wasteland in single file.

“Shake those caudal fins!” shouted their leader, a goblin bigger than his brethren.

“We march with all our strength! We yield to nothing! We break through headfirst!” shouted those behind him.

Each of them had a spear in hand, a big wooden cask on their back, and a surplus of dried fish hanging from their belts.

“Our placoid scales are harder than rock! We! Know! No! Fear!”

“We march with all our strength! We yield to nothing! We break through headfirst!”

There was a rhythmic quality to the call and response as the goblins strode across the wasteland, repeating their words like a mantra. Onwards they pressed into the unknown territory ahead.

The goblins were now far from the ocean that was their home, and the shores were but a distant memory. In the depths of their hearts, the goblins were worried and anxious, and all of them wanted nothing more than to turn tail and return whence they came...and yet, they marched onwards, never allowing themselves time to doubt the direction in which they were headed.

For their survey of the unknown land ahead, the goblins had prepared in every way they could. The casks upon their backs were filled to the brim with water to ensure their bodies didn’t dry out, and the fish around their belts had been drenched in seawater so that the dry climate would bake them into a preserved foodstuff.

As the goblins continued onwards, they splashed water on themselves and munched on their salted fish. This gave them the power to continue headfirst into the wasteland, a place they had always thought invited only death.

The goblins usually walked in a circular formation, but they saw no need to be so cautious here. There were no signs of living creatures and no perceivable chance of attack by wild animals or monsters. The goblins had decided that their greatest threat out here was that of starvation.

Starvation, and that sliver of anxiety—of fear. Had not others come out here, risking their lives, only to find nothing?

But these goblins here were the best of the best, and each was a hero in his own right. Their knowledge of this fact trumped their anxieties. They were brave, and their courage welled up and suppressed that gnawing fear. It was a strength they were proud of, and one that practically oozed from their gills.

With such courage empowering the group, they were afraid of no journey, however long. Rather, it was excitement that rushed through their bones—the knowledge that they were taking huge steps for goblin civilization by exploring the unknown.

“I gotta say though,” said their leader, stopping in his tracks. “It sure is boring out here, what with there being no life whatsoever. We haven’t even seen that lizard once since we set out. But the stories say that beyond these deathly plains, to the north, is an almighty king who controls all... You guys think such a powerful dude is really out there somewhere?”

The rest of the group ceased their chanting to respond.

“Well, if he is, I want a round with the bro. To see if he’s all that, you know?”

“The way they fight, their tactics... Things are real different on the surface, yeah?”

“They might use different weapons, and they might even use magic we haven’t seen before too. Aw yeah, just thinking about it’s got my blood pumping.”

“The ocean’s best meeting the surface’s best... It’s like something out of a dream, ain’t it?”

The excitement among the goblins grew, and they once again set off on their march, speaking energetically of what they might face. Just as the goblin leader was thinking it might be time to stop for a rest, the fin on his head twitched. He immediately readied his spear and looked around, prepared for anything. The rest of his troop followed suit, and when the goblin leader’s fin once again twitched, he turned his gaze skyward.

“Huh. It’s just a falcon,” he said. “But that’s a real big’un compared to what we see on the seas. Maybe that means they breed them big out here for food or something?”

The rest of the goblins all kept their eyes on the periphery, but they sensed no threats and saw no traces nor smelled the scent of any nearby creatures.

“Wait a sec...” muttered the goblin leader. “How’s a falcon live out here when there’s nothing to hunt? Is its nest located somewhere else? But if so, what would it be doing here...? Maybe it’s us it’s after?”

The goblin leader steeled himself and shouted to the skies.

“If that’s the case, then listen up, falcon! You better give up on trying anything! Your talons are useless against our placoid scales!”

The leader kept his gaze firmly on the falcon as it circled them a number of times. Then, with a hard flap of its wings, it flew for the northern skies at blinding speed.

The Iluk Village Square—Dias

Peijin-Do and his crew decided to stay the night in Iluk. They weren’t here for trade this time. It was more of a diplomatic friendship thing for strengthening ties, and I was only too happy to host them after he’d brought us so much food, not to mention their family heirloom. After a quick soul appraisal, Alna told me that everybody was still bright blue, and Lady Darrell advised me to have them stay as it was the right thing to do.

I agreed with Lady Darrell wholeheartedly, and so we quickly set about throwing up some yurts for Peijin-Do and his people. That was when I heard a mighty strong flapping and looked up to see Sahhi hurtling towards us. I stepped away from the yurt and handed the materials I was holding to a nearby dogkin, then held out my arm for Sahhi to land on.

Sahhi was panting like crazy, but after he caught his breath, he opened his beak and started squawking a mile a minute.

“Dias! I was on patrol when I saw some people in the wasteland! They’re pretty far south, but they’re...fish, or...fishkin, I think? Fish demi-humans, maybe? They look like fish that grew arms and legs! But that’s not the important part! They’re marching this way in single file, and all of them have spears! There are six of them altogether, and by the looks of things they’re not native to the wasteland. I mean, they’re fish, so, well...uh, you’d have to imagine they usually live in oceans or rivers or some other place with water...”

I was just about to reply when Peijin-Do looked up with a surprised ribbit and beat me to the punch.

“When it comes t’fishkin species, I’m an expert...which is I guess what you’d expect, given how I look! Tell me what they look like, and I might be able t’tell you what type of fishkin you’re looking at!”

Peijin-Do said there were countless different species under the general moniker of “fishkin,” each with their own unique culture and worldview. He wanted to give us any advice he could to make sure we didn’t run into any miscommunication or cultural clashes. I thought that was a great idea, and Sahhi was quick to describe the fishkin he’d seen.

“Well, I don’t know if you’d call it skin or scales, but their bodies were a dark blue. They also had big round eyes, and huge mouths filled with sharp teeth. They carried spears in their hands and big barrels on their backs and wore roughly made clothes similar to you, Mr. Peijin. Oh, and loincloths, which they had dried fish hanging from. Uh... They also called their skin placoid scales...or something like that?”

Peijin-Do fell into silence as his mind pieced together all the information.

“Hmm...?” he murmured after a few moments. “Well, f’starters, if they’re speaking the language common here, it means their home isn’t too far out. I’ve heard o’placoid scales too... They’re unique t’sharks for the most part. Combined with everything else you’ve described, we’re probably dealing with shark fishkin. And I have read in old texts that there are sharkkin living in the ocean t’the south.”

Peijin-Do wasn’t completely sure of himself, and it was then that little Doshirado poked his head out from behind his dad.

“Dad!” he shouted. “I’ve learned about this! The southern sharkkin call themselves the goblin tribe!”

“Ah, that’s right!” exclaimed Peijin-Do. “They take their name from the ancient sharks’f old. Real fearsome-looking characters that many o’the sharkkin still worship and look up to, so they adopted the name. That said, they don’t look like goblins, really... More like just sharks with arms and legs.”

“Well, I’ll be...” I murmured.

I was a bit puzzled trying to work out what was going on. If the goblins made their home in the seas to the south, what were they doing wandering the wasteland? It didn’t offer any water whatsoever...let alone anything even remotely hospitable.

Are they just out there drifting without a purpose, or is there a reason they’ve come all this way?

Whatever the answer might be, they were coming this way, which meant we had to be prepared for them. With that point in mind, I set about finishing the yurt we were putting up.

After the yurt was set up, I started talking with Sahhi about meeting with the fishkin. Peijin-Do was in the yurt getting all his bedding and stuff in place, and when he heard us talking he chipped in with his thoughts. In short, he seemed to think that it was going to be a real struggle for the goblin tribe to make it all the way to Iluk. On the other hand, without much in the way of water, it was going to be just as difficult for us to go to the sharks. In the end, we arrived upon the idea of sending Sahhi with a letter suggesting a peaceful exchange.

“Us water-based demi-humans and beastkin dry out really quick,” said Peijin-Do. “When our skin or scales get too dry, we can get in all sorts o’trouble. It’s not too different from getting burned. That’s the whole reason a lot of fishkin avoid the surface entirely, but if these goblins speak th’local language, it’s likely that they’ve done some dealings with humans. If that’s the case, there’s a good chance that they might be open t’dealings with you too, Dias. We frogkin are great when it comes to brokering deals, and seeing as you put up these big tents for us, I’m happy t’help you out where I can!”

That got Peijin-Do started on the story of how Peijin & Co. first started. Back in the distant past, there had been friction between those living on the surface and those in the water. It was never so bad that it resulted in outright conflict, but there had been clear defensive walls up between the two sides, and nothing in the way of friendly relations. The Peijin family, however, did business both on the surface and in the water and were friendly with both. They could live in either environment and provided essentials for everybody.

The Peijin family had long occupied a neutral position between the surface and the sea until the head of the family one day made up their mind and decided that the situation was untenable. Realizing that profits would speak louder than words, they had brokered direct trade between the two sides, and when the land and sea saw the benefits, relations had improved as a result.

“The Peijin family also profited through all the dealings, o’course, and th’company was built by riding on the new trade routes that opened!” declared Peijin-Do. “Our first trade breakthroughs with the fishkin came by way o’this ointment, so take it with your letter. I guarantee you th’goblins will love it! And considering all the help you’ve given us o’late, Lord Dias, I’m more than happy t’give it to you on the house! Not a coin! Naturally, you could take th’goblins some water and food, but a falconkin can only carry so much...”

As he explained things, Peijin-Do reached into one of his bags, pulled out a small jar, and passed it to me. I gave him thanks and took the lid off to take a look inside because I was curious about what sort of ointment Peijin wanted to give the goblins. When I did, I was hit by a real pungent scent unlike anything I’d smelled before.

“That concoction is made by boiling a very special seaweed together with herbs and fats and whatnot... Apply it t’your skin and it’ll keep y’free from drying out for a full day! We frogkin use this every day when we’re out on the surface, and I think the goblins will be glad t’have it—it’ll keep them protected from the dry weather and make it easier for them t’keep moving f’longer periods o’time. That means that they’ll likely be able to make it here to Iluk, so whether or not you want t’give it t’them is your call, Lord Dias.”

I put a little on the back of my hand while Peijin-Do was explaining it to me, then closed the lid tight. My next course of action was clear—it was time to gather the village reps to discuss our options and decide on what to do.

While I was heading to the assembly hall, I called over some dogkin and asked them to send word to Alna and the others. We all talked things over and quickly came to a consensus—we’d take Peijin-Do’s advice and send the goblins the ointment. We were admittedly worried that we might be sending Sahhi into danger, but he was an experienced warrior in his own right with an excellent set of armor to keep him protected. More than anything else, however, the falconkin was nothing if not brimming with confidence.

“In the sea would be one thing, but there’s no way a fishkin on the surface is going to get anywhere near harming me!” he declared. He said it with so much gusto that we figured he’d probably be fine.

That said, we didn’t think that the ointment alone would make our intentions clear, so we decided to send a letter with it that stated our willingness to enter into a friendly exchange. As I suppose was to be expected, the person tasked with writing that letter...was me.

I walked back to my own yurt, took a seat at the table, readied my ink and pen, and looked up through the skylight of the yurt to gather my thoughts. When I next lowered my gaze, it was to write my letter. I opened with a comment on the recent weather, then jumped into politely explaining our circumstances and position.

“You’re really good at the whole letter-writing thing, huh?” commented Alna.

“Your knowledge of letter-writing customs and conventions is perfect,” agreed Lady Darrell.

They were both watching over my shoulder. I was careful not to spill any ink as I replied.

“My parents taught me when I was just a boy, and they made me write a whole lot of letters. They always told me that it was an indispensable skill. I don’t know how many times they said it, but they made me remember all sorts of standard opening lines and whatnot... But now I’m here, and it’s come in real handy, so I can’t say a bad word about it.”

“Hmm... So did your parents know you were going to be a domain lord?” mused Alna.

“No, they couldn’t possibly have predicted such a thing...” said Lady Darrell. “But your parents were priests, and I imagine letter writing was indeed important where their duties were concerned.”

That was when Fendia, who’d come with Patrick and the paladins in tow, spoke up.

“The great temples of the north, south, east, and west were all in constant contact via letters so as to stay informed at all times,” she said. “For those residing in the temples, letter writing and everything related to it was essential. Scribing even became a profession as a result, so perhaps Dias’s parents wanted to ensure that their son had a future career to fall back on?”

According to Fendia, the great temple of the east had a total of ten scribes in its employ, and the high priest even handpicked a dedicated writer for anything of great importance that required a more poetic touch.

“Saint Dia founded the temples as a way to support the founding king’s mission,” she continued, “and even now that is a part of their duties. The temples keep watch over domestic affairs, employ a number of different intelligence-gathering methods, and exchange letters that are read thoroughly. In this way, the temples decide whether to handle issues on their own or inform the royal palace, and in doing so, they keep the peace. The writing of letters naturally plays a huge part in the whole process.”

I couldn’t help noticing that Fendia and the paladins looked a bit pale. They had all been hard at work decorating the Iluk temple. Uncle Ben had designed it, the cavekin had put their best into building it, and the exterior was complete, but the interior was another story entirely. There were also sections that wouldn’t be built until Iluk’s population grew and we had all the necessary facilities in place.

Fendia and the paladins were doing their best to get things all set, and while I didn’t really know the particulars of it, it clearly left them pretty tired.

“You guys look exhausted,” I said. “Are you okay? If the temple work is getting to be too much, we can prepare you an herb bath or some herbal tea. I know you might have come to update me on how the temple is going, but I don’t mind if you want to save it for tomorrow, or even the day after...so how about taking a bit of a break?”

But Fendia shook her head. She knew my letter was important, and she stood next to Lady Darrell in case my writing needed any corrections. The paladins knew it was a big responsibility too, and so they all huffed and puffed and set themselves up so they could protect me in case anything happened.

Well, I’d best get this letter done quick. Don’t want to make them any busier than they already are...

I was in a hurry, sure, but I made sure to choose my words carefully and add some poeticisms where I felt they were necessary...and when I was done, I signed it as the Duke of Baarbadal, then added my seal to make it official.

All in all, it was about ten pages. Alna, Lady Darrell, Fendia, and the paladins all took a good look, and they thought it was more than just well written. If I didn’t know any better I’d think they were one more look from crying tears of joy. All the praise they heaped on me for it put a real bounce in my step, and I practically floated with it over to Peijin-Do, who was sorting his luggage.

I handed him my letter...and received an unexpected response.

“Uh, Lord Dias,” said Peijin-Do, clearly struggling for the right words. “Now look, I can tell that you’ve written a really wonderful letter here, I really can, and, uh...it’s such a complete package that it’s even, uh, awe-inspiring. But, um...I don’t think th’goblins are going to understand a lot of these poeticisms of yours.”

Peijin-Do seemed to think a lot of what I’d written was based on surface-dweller culture, and a lot of it would only serve to confuse a sea dweller. He didn’t even know if oceankind enjoyed poetry in the first place.

“Worst case, the goblins might think you’re being overly complex and decide not t’read this at all if they don’t get the gist. I’m really sorry and all, and I know it’s extra work for you, but how about condensing this all down to...I dunno...a single page?”

When I heard that, my shoulders slumped. Alna, Lady Darrell, Fendia, and the paladins had all helped me out and were all just as excited as I was, and now they were just as disappointed. We all trudged back to my yurt so we could get to writing a newer, shorter letter...

Soaring Over the Wasteland—Sahhi

Dias spent a good deal of time shortening his letter. It was very much an ordeal for the man, but he made it happen, and everything was finally ready. The very next day, Sahhi set off into the wasteland with the letter from Iluk and the jar of ointment graciously provided by Peijin-Do.

It was a great day for flying. The northerly winds were blowing, and Sahhi was light on luggage. The high temperature also helped make the air lighter, allowing Sahhi to soar higher and higher with next to no effort at all. And with just a dash of magic, the falconkin’s cruising altitude drifted higher still. Sahhi was fully decked out in his armor, crafted from wind dragon materials, but the equipment was no impediment at all.

One might have thought that wearing a full suit of armor when approaching someone with an offer of friendship was counterproductive, but safety measures had to be taken. After all, as peaceful as Iluk was, there was no guarantee that the marching goblins wouldn’t spring a surprise attack. It was for this reason that Dias had urged Sahhi to wear his armor, which had since been further improved by the cavekin—it was masterful work in the first place, but they’d made it even more durable and comfortable somehow.

Not that I have to worry. There’s no way anybody can touch me from the ground.

As Sahhi’s thoughts meandered through recent events, his wings took him towards the area where he’d first seen the goblins, his eyes constantly scanning for their figures. Some time had passed since he’d first seen them, and he expected that the group of fishkin would have made considerable progress since.

Of course, there was every chance that the goblins might have stopped somewhere, turned back, or found some reason to change course and go east or west. Sahhi kept his eyes peeled, even going so far as to pour a little magical energy into them to enhance his vision that much more.

Falconkin had extraordinary eyesight and could spot even the tiniest of mice from well up in the clouds. Rabbits hiding in their burrows and foxes creeping under cover of snow, too, didn’t stand a chance. But with magical energy flowing through his eyes, Sahhi could now trace even insects as they crawled along the ground. It was with this boost to his eyesight that Sahhi found the goblins in the distance, and they had indeed marched quite a ways since he’d last spotted them.

Even with their progress, however, the goblins still had yet to encroach upon the territory that Dias had claimed for Baarbadal. And yet, their progress astounded Sahhi all the same. Even with his magically enhanced eyes, he could not see as far as the end of the wasteland or the ocean from which the goblins had come. He wondered just how far they had traveled from the beginning of their journey.

The goblins had set off under the blistering heat of the summer sun and marched onwards for an incredible distance. As far as Sahhi was concerned, the only thing to call it was irresponsible. He did not think them foolish, but he could not exactly respect their behavior either—it was perhaps most apt to simply say that Sahhi found them inscrutable. A part of him could not help but feel a hint of uncertainty about attempting friendly relations.

As Sahhi neared, the goblins noticed him. They opened their big mouths and shouted, and Sahhi slowly began to descend. He stayed alert, his body primed to react in an instant were the goblins to try anything. Once their voices grew clear, he started circling through his descent, but what they were saying nearly knocked him out of the sky.

“Whoa! Check out that armor, bros! Tough as it is stunning! And light enough to fly in!”

“Just beautiful. It’s like a stingray dancing on the water’s surface!”

“It’s a falcon warrior! Ha ha ha! There’s no way we could ever reach it at that height!”

“So this is the surface world, huh? Seeing that armored critter makes the whole journey worth it, I reckon!”

“Ha ha ha ha! Such dreams we are blessed with on the verge of starvation!”

“Yep! Ain’t no regrets here!”

The goblins didn’t seem at all worried, and none of them showed a hint of enmity. If anything, they were filled with awe. Their friendliness shocked him, but it was their choice of words that most tugged at his mind.

Starvation? No regrets?

Sahhi wondered what it was the goblins meant by such things, but he was glad they seemed friendly. It was sure to make things easier, and so as he came closer to the ground, he opened his beak and addressed the goblins.

“I come as a messenger of peace! To the north of here lies the domain of Baarbadal, and I come bearing a letter from its lord, together with a token of our goodwill! We do not see you as enemies and have no intention of harming you. Should you choose to visit our domain, all of you are welcome!”

The goblins’ jaws hit the ground, every single one of them frozen in a stupor. Was it the fact that they had never seen a talking falcon before? Or was it what the falcon had said?

Perhaps, in truth, it was both.

After a time, the goblins regained their senses and began to discuss things among themselves. When they were done, they placed their spears on the ground and raised their arms up high to show that they had no further arms.

The apparent leader of the goblins then replied, “Hero of the skies! Messenger of the north! We welcome your arrival! I don’t know who your lord is, but I’m happy to take a look at his letter!”

Sahhi remained on guard as he neared the ground, choosing to land upon a rock in front of the goblin leader. He then tapped the leather satchel dangling from his neck with one of his wings.

“The letter and our gift are contained within this satchel. Please be sure to read it, as it fully explains our token of goodwill.”

The goblin approached Sahhi and reached for the satchel without so much as a hint of fear. He took out the letter and the jar of ointment, then sat down on the spot and unfolded the letter—he seemed to have no issues reading the language of the kingdom.

Dias’s letter started with an introduction so the goblins could better understand who he was. He then explained the extent of his current territory—made up of the grassy plains and the northern section of the wasteland. He told them that Sahhi had noticed them approaching, and he was extending an offer of friendly exchange in the hopes of continued relations into the future. To that end, he invited them to Iluk.

In closing, Dias said he could offer the goblins food, water, and shelter. He also asked what the goblins wanted and if they had any demands or requests with regards to friendly relations. He was also curious as to what had compelled the goblins to trek so far from their homes.

When the goblin leader was done reading, he stood up and returned to his group, where another discussion took place. Sahhi could have listened to them if he so wanted, but he did not think it right to eavesdrop and so buried his head under one of his wings. He was prepared to wait as long as it took, but the goblins concluded their discussion far more quickly than he expected. They were done in mere seconds, in fact.

The goblins approached Sahhi as a group, and their leader clapped his hands together, which appeared to be a signal for the others to bash the ground rhythmically with their tails.

“I have read your letter!” the leader boomed. “I understand that your offer of friendship is genuine, but before we can respond there is something we must ask! This...Dias you serve, is he a powerful warrior? And just how strong is he? Hero of the skies, will you answer our questions?”

Sahhi was admittedly a little perplexed, but he saw no harm in giving the goblins what they asked for.

“Lord Dias is the very definition of strength,” he said. “He fought in war for two decades and came to be known as the heroic savior of Sanserife. He is capable of felling an earth dragon on his own and has slain wind dragons on two occasions with my help and the help of a warrior from a neighboring village known as Zorg. In my travels, I have met none as strong as Lord Dias.”

When the goblins heard this, their fists clenched tight. Their faces filled with joy as bold smiles grew upon their faces. They began talking about how the king was indeed a fearsome warrior and how the stories were true. One among them said something in particular that caught Sahhi’s ear.

“Can you believe we’d run into an opportunity like this when we’re damned near all out of water...? The gods really are watching over us!”

Sahhi responded before he could even think.

“What?! You’re almost out of water?!” he cried. “In the wasteland?! Hang on a second! Why in the world didn’t you turn back when you still had half your water left?!”

The goblins weren’t bothered by the falconkin’s outburst, and their leader grinned.

“What choice did we have?!” he replied. “We wanted to see these foreign lands and explore them! We craved the unknown! Our hearts are the hearts of adventurers, and they would not allow for us to turn back! They demanded that we go on! It is this courage that earned us our responsibilities, and it is our spirit of determination that brought us this far! Who else but reckless adventurers would ever dare step into an arid wasteland devoid of life?!”

Sahhi read this to mean that the goblins had entrusted their lives to their bold, adventurous spirits, only to find themselves in the wasteland in the middle of summer, facing a pitiful end by starvation. The casks they carried were almost empty, and any hope they might have had of returning safely home had evaporated.

“No, guys, do you even get it?!” cried Sahhi. “You can’t relax now! You’re still in great danger! I have to get back to Dias at top speed! We gotta get you guys some water! I’m going to have to get the whole falconkin clan on it if we’re going to save all of you! You’ll die if we don’t! The waterway isn’t nearly close enough... Ugh! Here’s what’s going to happen! You’re going to wait right here! Don’t move! I’m going to see you get some food and water!”

The goblins heard the falconkin’s outburst, looked at one another, and then burst into laughter, some of them stomping the ground and others patting their bellies with each guffaw. The air was full of chatter as they spoke of how glad they were to have come all this way and how this was all the work of the strange lizard god they’d met.

Sahhi felt like he’d heard about such a lizard before, but there was no time to waste thinking about it—he spread his wings and raced home at top speed.

The Iluk Kitchen Range—Dias

When Sahhi’s report came in, Iluk sprung into action, all of us rushing to ensure we helped the goblins in time...and gave them a proper welcome.

First we had to prepare enough water for all six of them and transport it across the wastelands. That was far too heavy for Sahhi to do on his own, so he gathered some of the falconkin tribe’s strongest to help with the task. Iluk paid well, so they were only too happy to help, and we arranged for twenty falconkin to work shifts across the wasteland carrying food and water.

Some of the villagers wondered if we should also send the camels with carts, but we still hadn’t done the work to make that possible—there was no road, no places to rest, and no wells. A long trek across the wasteland with a heavy stockpile of food and drink was a bad idea.

Instead, we intended to have Hubert and some others meet the goblins at the salt plain. Until then, we had to rely on the help of the falconkin. Still, meeting the goblins in the wasteland was a journey in and of itself, and I thought that maybe I should go too, but apparently doing that wasn’t becoming of a duke, and I was told to wait at home. The idea was that the lord of the domain waited for visitors and greeted them in noble fashion.

With new visitors coming, Alna and the Wives’ Club were especially enthusiastic. It was onikin tradition for a whole family or village to work together to give travelers a warm welcome, especially when they came from very far away. Not welcoming a visitor who had arrived by way of a long, arduous journey was considered a great humiliation, and it even dropped the standing of families and villages alike.

Importantly, visitors brought with them information and goods. They also bought food and baar wool, and treating them well just increased the likelihood of them coming back later. Plus, if that traveler returned home and told people about the great time they’d had, the news would spread, and other travelers might also visit.

Our visitors on this occasion came all the way from the ocean, and that meant they likely had connections and access to the bounties of the sea. In the future it could even mean more people and goods flowing through. With that in mind, sharing some food and drink was a small price to pay for future profits, and so Alna and her crew threw themselves into preparations.

According to Hubert and Lady Darrell, the kingdom itself shared a similar custom. It was the duty of domain lords in Sanserife to shelter travelers to their territory for very much the same reasons that Alna had described. There was a saying along the lines of “villages that treat travelers coldly eventually freeze themselves,” and it was based on the idea that when travelers were treated badly at a village or town they passed through, they told people. This created a snowball effect—merchants stopped visiting, people stopped moving in from elsewhere, and eventually, the flow of people and goods stopped altogether.

Treating travelers well was also a matter of reputation for the nobility, and the hospitality had to match their rank. Seeing as I was supposed to be one of the higher-ranking nobles as a duke, Hubert and Lady Darrell were also rushing around to help out Alna and the Wives’ Club.

The dogkin, meanwhile, helped out wherever their help was necessary. Some were with Alna, others with the falconkin, and so on. Me and the twins handled Alna’s usual chores between us, and everyone else found tasks wherever they were most needed. The end result was, needless to say, a banquet. And when the cavekin saw how preparations were going, they commandeered a corner of the kitchen range and started cooking up a whole storm of their own.

My own work had calmed a bit, and I was at the kitchen range checking things out when Narvant called me over. He was carrying a pot full of sausages and chunks of other meat, and they looked scrumptious.

“Hey, young one,” he said. “These sausages are something of a test batch for a new flavor, and this meat is real tender. They’ve both got white ghee cheese in them, and they’re going to be out of this world! The cheese here has a unique hint of thistle to it, and with a dash of herbs the scent’ll blow you away. Once we’ve cooked these up, we’ve got some filled with walnuts and I bet the twins are going to love it.”

“You make it all yourself, huh?” I commented. “You’re quite the cook, Narvant. I have to admit, it’s a bit surprising.”

Narvant burst into laughter.

“I can’t cook as good as the Wives’ Club, but cooking is a kind of craft, when you think about it. As long as you know what to do with your fingers and hands, you can make something work. And as for the meat here, well...nothing goes better with booze, honestly. So it shouldn’t be surprising that cavekin specialize in this sort of thing.”

“Ah, that makes sense. And it’s looking a lot like we’re going to have a big banquet with a lot of drinking when the goblins get here.”

“Yep! Nothing like good booze to ease weary bones at the end of a long journey! And they hail from the seas, don’t they? There’s a good chance they won’t have seen cuisine like this, and I’ll bet it’ll brighten them up! Give a guy good booze and good local food, and who wouldn’t want to come back again?! That’s what it means to give a warm welcome, and that’s what we’re aiming for!”

Narvant gave another full-bellied laugh as he trudged off to see to his next dish. I watched him for a little while, then noticed how busy the Wives’ Club still was, so I walked on over to see how I could help.

Heading to Iluk Village—Goblins

The falconkin had brought food and drink over a number of days, and the goblins had been able to fill their bellies. Together with the ointment that had come with Dias’s letter, they were more and more energetic with every step they took for the north, marveling at the subtle changes in the scenery around them.

Once they reached the huge, swirling salt plain, the goblins began to notice more than just the usual rocks. There were huts and carts that had left tracks along the ground, and...when the goblins looked closely, they saw the hints of life—tiny blades of grass, and the tiniest of insects with it. They realized then that somebody had come by recently in the carts with seeds and bugs and spread them together with leftover food to act as fertilizer. Whoever it was, it looked as though their sustained efforts were slowly beginning to take root.

With time, the temperature dropped and a cool breeze blew in from the north. It was bliss for the goblins.

“Not much farther now.”

The voice came from a man by the name of Hubert, who was leading the goblins to their destination, and the way he carried himself was a refreshing sight. Hubert must have heard about the goblins from the falconkin, because he was not surprised or scared at the sight of them. Rather, he was as gentlemanly as could be. The goblins were a little disappointed at how thin he was though—the man was no warrior, of that they were certain—but he was friendly, as were the guards that traveled with them.

The goblins could tell at a glance that the guards were warriors—they boasted thick legs and impressive claws and fangs. They introduced themselves as members of the masti tribe and surrounded the group, all of them on guard and ready for anything. There was a pressure emanating from the mastis—one that said they were ready to pounce should the goblins try anything. The goblins were impressed.

It was only natural to be wary of unknown visitors, but the people of Iluk did not make their caution obvious. They were careful not to make the goblins feel uncomfortable, and this too impressed them. Such was the experience and self-control of the mastis that the goblins wanted to stop right where they were to ask for a sparring match.

All the same, they held back their urges and walked onwards until they heard a natural sound that was music to their ears—that of water running through a stream. The scent hit the goblins’ nostrils, and soon after they saw the waterway that ran through the wasteland.

It was a thin stream that ended in but a small pool of water, but even then the mere sight of flowing water brought the goblins tremendous joy. As they continued to walk, there was a noticeable bounce in their steps.

The goblins followed Hubert upstream, passing by a number of rest areas until the seemingly endless wasteland came to an end. Grassy plains stretched out before the goblins’ eyes, and all were shocked by the new textures tickling their feet. They chuckled at the feel of it brushing their soles and tails as they continued on north.

The stream grew wider (and they noticed that both sides of it were well reinforced) and it was then that they spied the smoke of a bonfire in the distance, and with it the sight of a far bigger village than any of the goblins had imagined.

Lively voices could be heard talking, shouting, and laughing, and flowers were decorating the various facilities to help welcome the domain’s new guests. From deeper within the village wafted mouthwatering scents—a mixture of various meats and spices and other delicacies—all of which whet the goblins’ appetites.

As the goblins neared, all sorts of different beastkin turned their gazes on the new guests, but none of them were scared, worried, or derisive. Everybody was merely curious. The children especially were fidgeting at the prospect of something new and exciting, and it was a heartwarming sight for the goblins. To see such a village left them speechless, and they sighed.

After all, the goblins had set out on a most reckless journey, trekking into a place largely considered devoid of life. They had prepared themselves to meet with death itself and instead landed upon lively Iluk. The village alone was like a reward for their efforts, and they knew that their journey would be talked about for many generations to come. It was almost beyond their ability to completely comprehend.

It was then that a human stepped out from among the villagers to greet them.

“Welcome to Iluk. We’re glad to have you.”

He was a man of a build much, much bulkier than the thin Hubert who had been their guide. His thick arms showed that he was in great shape, and his body radiated with a near overwhelming power and presence. He was far beyond anything the goblins had expected, and they felt themselves almost shrinking before him.

The goblins were so beyond overjoyed to have such a man welcome them to this place that for a few moments they did not have it in them to utter even a single word, and they instead let out awed sighs.

At the Banquet in the Village Square—Dias

When I’d first heard we needed to accommodate guests, I’d thought of Yaten’s visit from the Beastkin Nation, but apparently things were different depending on the type of visitor you had. For the goblins, we didn’t have to be especially formal and use the guesthouse, so in the end our welcome party looked a lot like one of our village parties.

That said, we couldn’t have the goblins thinking that Baarbadal was poverty-stricken and had nothing to offer, so this particular banquet was on a bigger scale than usual. What I was told was that the greater the distance one traveled, the bigger the welcome, because our goal was to have the Baarbadal name spread to the distant locale from which the goblins had come.

So, after introducing myself and saying hello, we invited the goblins to the village square and treated them to food and wine. The goblins hadn’t been expecting such a lavish welcome, so at first they were a bit confused, but eventually they eased up and accepted things. It wasn’t long before they were chomping on our cuisine and chasing it with our finest alcohol. All the while, they were telling Hubert and Ellie all about their trip.

You see, just like it was a domain lord’s duty to welcome travelers, it was a traveler’s duty to talk about their experiences. Usually they opened with the journey they’d been on, then they moved on to whatever rumors or news they happened upon on the way, and finally they talked about where they’d come from and the place they called home. When they were asked questions, they were expected to do their very best to answer.

Naturally, the goblins didn’t have any rumors or news for us, considering that they’d trekked through a lifeless wasteland, but they could still tell us all about the weather in the south, the lay of the land, and roughly how many days it took to get from the ocean to Baarbadal.

Talking about it was how we learned of the cove at the southern end of the wasteland. It was a crescent-shaped location, and long enough to almost be a river of sorts, except that the water was seawater, of course. Lots of different creatures lived at the cove, and the goblins liked it there a lot because the water temperature was fairly high.

Just north of the cove was soil that had built up from the wasteland and muddied the waters, so the goblins rarely ever went much farther than that point. But a few had tried to see what was beyond, and when some goblins had gone to play out that way, they’d encountered a strange lizard, which was what had kick-started the whole journey that had brought them to Iluk.

“The lizard spurred us on. It prodded us like it wanted us to go north,” said the goblin sitting next to me, who was the group’s leader. “I figured it had some connection to this place, but I guess not, and that means we don’t have any idea what it was... Still, it’s been a meaningful trip, what when you consider the ancient promise and all.”

I couldn’t help but be mighty curious about that.

“That lizard is strange all right, but...what’s this about an ancient promise?” I asked.

The goblin nodded, his fin wavering a bit like a tail as he spoke.

“It’s only been passed down orally through the generations, so we don’t know how accurate it is, but a king once built a big old castle in the wasteland. A sage at the time struck a pact with our tribe’s leader, saying that if another castle was ever built, they wanted us to aid the people building it however we could.”

According to the goblin, that ancient sage was the reason the goblins enjoyed an age of prosperity, and even why they’d started calling themselves goblins.

“For us goblins, the wasteland may be lifeless, but it’s also tied to our people. It’s special. Time may flow forever to the future, but we will never forget our past. Still, based on what we’ve seen, it seems like it’s going to be a long time before anybody builds a castle in these parts.”

“Hmm...” I murmured. “Yeah, and we’ve no plans to build any castles anytime soon. I mean, we just don’t need one. We’ve got the border stations, which are already more than enough, so I don’t think we’re going to be the ones building any castles in the wasteland...”

“Huh? Border stations? And what do they look like?”

“Oh, well, there’s the eastern border station, which is made mostly out of big wooden stakes at the moment...though eventually we’re going to make it into a proper stone build. Then the western border station is a big old square thing made entirely from stone. We’re planning to have a wall running to the left and right of it, but that’s not done yet.”

I was talking a lot with my hands, and the goblin’s eyes went wide. He leaned in, intrigued.

“And how big is this stone border station of yours, then? Could you fit twenty or thirty people of your size inside of it?”

“Well, if you were set on putting people in there, you could probably fit a couple hundred, I reckon. It’s got a big courtyard and rooms for people to stay in, after all.”

“A stone construction that big... Isn’t that practically a castle?”

“Hmm? Uh... I don’t know, actually. I mean, when I hear ‘castle,’ I think of something that reaches up towards the sky, you know? Something that towers over everything around it, kind of larger than life and whatnot.”

The goblin’s eyes went wide and rolled back and forth as he pictured it. He closed his fang-filled mouth and put his hand to his jaw—or perhaps kind of his throat, given how the goblins were built—and thought long and hard.

“Duke Baarbadal!” he said finally, slapping his own knee. “I want to see your border stations later, but for now...how about indulging me and mine in a sparring match? If your border station is big enough to be considered a castle, then as proud goblins we’ll throw our lot in with yours per the ancient promise. But...we cannot know how much support to give you without first knowing who you are and the extent of your strength. That falconkin of yours said he’s never seen anyone stronger than you, and we goblins want to see that firsthand. As proud warriors ourselves, I admit that we’re also just downright curious... So, what do you say?”

“Well, I don’t want either of us to go spilling blood at a party held in the name of friendship, so my only condition is that we be careful not to injure one another. Is that okay?”

The goblin leader looked down at the ground for a moment, then nodded and hopped to his feet. “No injuries it is!”

The residents who had been listening to us speak began talking to one another, and the goblin leader told his pals what was going to happen. They were quick to spring to their feet, stretching their arms and fins, and twisting at the waist as they warmed up for action.

Alna had naturally been listening, and she didn’t waste any time. She gathered a bunch of wooden poles for us to use as weapons, wrapping them in cloth to soften their impact. When the villagers saw what was going on, they cleared out the middle of the village square, creating a ring for me and the goblins to use for our sparring. The residents were all brimming with curiosity, and I figured they wanted to see just what the goblins were made of.

I took another look at the goblins while we were all getting ready and sized them up. In terms of height, they were about half the size of a normal adult, with short, stocky arms and legs. They had teeth and claws that were sharp enough to cause pretty serious injury. The goblins’ body type made me think of the masti dogkin, except they had humanlike hands. It seemed clear to me they knew how to handle weapons too.

Given that the goblins were capable of crafting usable weapons and accessories like rings for their fins, I had to imagine they were pretty good with their hands. Approaching them as if they were dogkin was a mistake that would be punished by a painful beating.

In that case, I guess I should take this pretty seriously then?

I mean, the goblins said that they wanted to see me in action, and they might get bent out of shape if I hold back... But they’re also guests who just arrived here after a long journey. If I hurt one of them, it could be a whole thing...and I’m the one that said we should avoid injuries.

How in the world am I supposed to find the right balance...?

“Duke Baarbadal,” said the goblin leader, reading my face. “These placoid scales of ours won’t break, not even to steel. We goblins don’t hurt easy. More importantly, a scar left by a true warrior is a mark of honor for us, so there’s no need to worry. We don’t want to injure you either, but more than anything else we want to see what you’re made of! This ‘friendly sparring’ thing has us all stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I say the only answer is to go all out and just enjoy our fight to the fullest! What do you say?!”

The goblin then thumped his chest with both fists, and the rest of his buddies did exactly the same. They let out enthusiastic roars that told me they were all set. I didn’t want to hurt them, but I didn’t want to disappoint them either.

Not only that, I wanted to see what they were capable of, just like they did me. The goblins took their cloth-wrapped spears in hand and flashed me great big, excited grins. At the same time, I was brought a big cloth-wrapped wooden object in the shape of my axe, which I held in both hands.

When the goblins and I were settled into our fighting stances, Alna got us started. She had a smile on her face that told me this was the best entertainment we possibly could have provided at our welcome party.

“Begin!”

The goblins got moving immediately. This wasn’t a one-on-one battle, but they didn’t pile on all at once. Instead, five of them stayed ready while their leader came forwards and launched his first attack. It was impressive to be sure, but nothing I couldn’t dodge. I twisted and weaved as the goblin leader kept up the offense, but he wasn’t leaving me any space to fight back.

He was good, and his attacks were accurate, but he lacked a little something compared to the likes of Klaus. The goblin leader was a touch slower, and that meant I could dodge his attacks with ease. I felt that was probably just part and parcel of the goblins being a bit on the smaller side. They were only half my size, but even then the attacks were really something.

The goblin leader’s tail moved this way and that as he stayed on the offensive, and I couldn’t help thinking that the water was where the goblins would truly shine. I thought that if they had water to propel themselves through, they’d be capable of strikes well beyond Klaus, and I wouldn’t find them nearly as easy to dodge either, especially when I wasn’t designed to fight in water in the first place.

In the water, these guys would have my number, no two ways about it...

But even here on the surface, the goblin leader never gave up, and he never let his misses get him riled up. He stayed calm and watched my movements with every thrust and swing he took. He knew he was at a disadvantage on land, but he was having too much fun to care, and in fact being on the back foot only seemed to rile up him and his buddies that much more.

The goblin leader’s mouth widened and his sharp teeth revealed themselves as he grinned. His friends all wore similar smiles, which were, as joyous as they were, honestly a bit scary. The goblin leader roared, licking his lips—or, uh...the area around his mouth—while he swung his spear.

The goblins were enjoying every minute of this, and I thought it was about time I gave them what they asked for. Gripping my wooden battle-ax in both hands, I swung it with great heft and speed, but just slow enough to ensure I didn’t break it into pieces upon impact.

The goblin leader just barely got out of the way, but he lost his balance, and I wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip away from me. I swung my axe horizontally, but this time the goblin leader ducked underneath it. Still, he was in an even worse stance now, and he had no way to fight back. After about ten swings he ran out of room to duck and dodge, and his wooden spear snapped as my axe collided with it.

The moment the leader was down, another goblin rushed in, attacking me with ferocious speed. I did a round with each of them, and then Narvant provided them all with new spears, and we did a round with all of them coming at me at once.

The goblins were quick, they were accurate, and they had excellent teamwork, but I could tell they were tired—they’d lost some of the oomph they’d had during the first rounds, and it was all too easy for me to deflect their attacks and smack them around as soon as they left an opening.

“You mean we can’t even tire him out?!” cried one of the goblins.

“Does the guy even have a limit?!” another complained.

The third simply roared at the sky.

“Is this the strength of the surface dwellers’ king?!”

“He truly is the stuff of legends, bro!”

“God of war, how you honor us!”

They said stuff like that as they ducked and dodged and eventually ate a hit from my wooden axe. Not too long after, they all ran out of steam, and when their leader lay face down, his arms, legs, and tail all splayed out and useless, the sparring match was called to a close.

“Phew...” muttered the goblin leader, rolling onto his back. “I was hoping for a lot, I’ll admit, but I never expected this. I am awash in awe and gratitude, and you have our sincere thanks. Your hospitality knows no bounds, and you indulged us in a truly awesome match. What would you ask of us, Lord Dias?”

His question was a little puzzling for me. Guests had arrived, so we welcomed them. That was pretty much it in a nutshell, and we’d done the information gathering that we’d set out to do too. All that was left now was to make sure the goblins got home safe and told their people about us. I wasn’t sure if we had anything else to ask for.

But then again...

“If I had to put it in a word...I guess I’d choose friendship,” I replied. “I’d like for us to build ties with which travelers and merchants can travel freely and trade is smooth between us. If we can get a hold of good saltwater fish, our world will open to even more delicious food for our tables. I’m sure there are yet other products that the oceans bring, so... Yeah, I just really want us to get along.”

I figured it was best to speak from the heart, but when the goblin leader heard my reply his eyes went wide.

“Friendship and trade? That’s it? Doesn’t the king of the human race want more subjects, or to lord over vast lands, that kind of thing?”

King?

Oh, yeah. I guess he did mention a king earlier, didn’t he?

“Well, I’m no king. I’m just a domain lord, and all I’m asking for is friendship. I’m not interested in more subjects or more land, or the wars we’d have to fight to get them. No thanks.”

This seemed to surprise the goblin leader, who sat up to look at me.

“Wait,” he said, confused. “But I heard you’ve been cultivating the wasteland. Are you telling me the plan isn’t to keep that up until you reach the ocean and make it part of your territory?”

“You’ve got it all wrong,” I replied. “We made the northern part of the wasteland ours, sure, but that was because it was totally uninhabited and we wanted to gather salt there. I don’t even know where the ocean is yet, so making it my domain isn’t part of the plan.”

I told the goblin leader that I wanted to engage in trade with any cities by the ocean, and how I thought having a road to the sea would be really handy, though I couldn’t handle all of it on my own.

“Even Sanserife’s king can’t keep control of the farthest reaches of his country, which is why he made me lord of the frontier here,” I explained. “I reckon trying to take too much more is just too reckless. I’ve been learning more about it of late, and in the past the continent splintered because the nation’s founding king tried to reach beyond his own means. We’ve all got our limits, you know?”

“Hmm... Hmm... So speaking hypothetically, if we goblins were to take the southern part of the wasteland, what would you do? Would you allow it?”

“Huh? Well, it’s not ours, so I don’t imagine there’s much we could complain about... And if you lived there and took good care of the lands, then I reckon that would work out pretty good for us, actually. We could buy things from you, you could buy things from us, and we’d have a great thing going... Huh? What’s up, Hubert?”

Hubert must have heard us talking, because he came up and started whispering in my ear. I wasn’t sure if it was the sort of thing to be talking about here, but Hubert told me to relay his messages to the goblin leader, so that’s what I did.

“Uh... If at all possible we’d very much like to build a port at that cove of yours, as well as a road stretching from it through to Baarbadal. Do that, and we’d be happy to support you with food, produce, or money.”

Hubert whispered some more, so I spoke some more.

“Oh, and if you find yourself up against monsters, then we can also offer military support,” I said, then turned to Hubert. “Wait, Hubert, would we really do all of that just for a port? Huh? Oh, because we could arrange for the goblins to protect our sea vessels...which in turn would lead to better profits...?”

Hubert went on whispering, but I told him to stop. It was getting to be a bit much for my simple mind, and the goblin leader burst into laughter. He laughed until he could barely breathe, and the openings by his neck—his gills, I think—started flapping. He stood up slowly, walked over to me, and held out his hand.

All of the goblin leader’s buddies watched on with giant grins, and I knew then that he was well and truly accepting my offer of friendship. I thrust out my own hand, and we shook on it.

The Royal Ministry of Home Affairs, the Royal Capital—A Minister

In a room near the castle’s famed library was a ministry, where countless shelves were packed to the brim with documents. The ministry had been endlessly busy since the beginning of the year—people and documents came and went without any noticeable pause.

The ceaseless work was, of course, because of Prince Richard’s ceaseless reform. Under the prince’s command, a not insignificant portion of the nobility had lost their land, which had then come under the direct control of the order of knights. It was a bold, nigh unbelievable policy he had enacted, and it left the Ministry of Home Affairs shouldering all the territorial responsibilities once held by their former owners.

Those who worked at the ministry thought nothing of the prince’s reform at first, assuming that it would fail miserably. It did not. The nobles who did not contribute to the nation’s war efforts saw their domains confiscated and given to the order of knights, who had risked their lives fighting for honor and country. The common people swelled behind the prince’s efforts, showing extraordinary support for his policy. In turn, many of the remaining nobles announced they were in favor of the prince’s policies. But for the Ministry of Home Affairs, all of this was like watching a dam burst.

It was Duke Sachusse who spearheaded the nobility, declaring that any noble who did not fight for their nation and their people did not deserve to be called a noble at all. The nobility who had not aided in the war effort but had paid their due reparations—nobles including Ellar and Earlby—also railed against those who’d had their lands taken, claiming it a just punishment for refusing to pay what was owed.

Some loudly raised concerns over the domain of Duke Kasdeks, now ruled by the young Duke Mahati, and voiced their displeasure at the fact that none of his land was confiscated. Duke Mahati, however, had been to the castle personally to apologize for his father’s crimes, bringing with him reparations in the form of highly valuable gifts. It was a bold response by the duke to his critics—Duke Mahati was telling his detractors that if they did not want their own land taken, it was up to them to provide the castle with the same as he had...or more.

However, Duke Mahati controlled the western trade routes, and there was not a single noble in the nation who could provide more lavish gifts than he. The nobles who had loudly criticized him, then, found themselves with no other choice but to offer their own lands.

Prince Richard was thus able to amass huge swaths of territory that fell either under direct royal control or, otherwise, the order of knights. Even then, Prince Richard managed the order of knights from the castle, which made for a political system in which power and authority were most focused at the very center of the nation.

In and among all of these rapid changes, a number of ministers made their own complaints known.

“We don’t have enough people for these gigantic mountains of work!”

The very next day, Prince Richard provided them with around forty experienced people. This included knights who had experience with clerical duties, second or third sons of noble families who could not inherit the position of family lord but were nonetheless well educated, and volunteer troops who had learned accounting in the midst of the war.

The ministry had heard rumors that Prince Richard was assembling such people, but very few had put any stock in what they’d heard. Nobody had expected that the new arrivals would all be ready to work the very day they arrived or that they would come with all the skills necessary for the tasks expected of them.

The domestic ministers accepted the new employees and, through careful delegation, their workload became more manageable. However, it was not long at all before Prince Richard once again claimed more territory, bringing yet another flood of responsibilities.

More work resulted in more people, which once again resulted in more work. Eventually, however, the arrivals dried up, while the pool of work threatened to overflow. Once again, a group of ministers voiced their concerns over the situation, but this time they were met with an unexpected reply.

“You have more than enough manpower,” said the prince plainly. “If you cannot juggle your workload now, your procedures are the problem. Do not cling to the methods of old. Seek updated approaches for the times you find yourselves in and find efficiency. But if you are here to admit to me that you are incompetent and incapable of doing this, then quit. We will handle the rest.”

Prince Richard had filled the Ministry of Home Affairs with a great many people of his choosing, such that they were now the majority. Over the months since their employment, they had all learned what the prince called “the methods of old,” and so it no longer mattered if any of the old guard decided to quit—the prince had people ready and eager to take over.

The ministers at the castle were intelligent, and none were so stupid that they hadn’t seen this as a possible outcome from the start. They knew that to push back against the prince would only make things harder still, and so with shoulders slumped they resigned themselves to following the prince’s suggestion.

They put their heads together and analyzed their various responsibilities, working out in what ways they could make the ministry more efficient. Little by little, that efficiency came, and little by little, the workload grew lighter. The ministers were still overworked, to be sure, but they were at least able to take a day off here or there. They felt a newfound respect for the prince and felt surer than ever that Sanserife was heading for great change.

The change that would sweep the nation was not one that would be seen in mere days, but it was emerging steadily, and many believed that the results would begin to truly take shape as early as the following year. Then, the domestic ministers would see their workloads become truly manageable. Financial affairs would smooth out, life for the common people would be that much easier, and the nation would only grow stronger. When that day came, the authority of Prince Richard and his faction would be all but absolute.

But what then did the prince aim to do?

The question was one that could not be answered by a mere minister, but all knew there was no doubt he would aim to achieve something as great as the power he was accumulating. The prince had his sights set on the sort of glory that would go down in history, and it was for this reason that he moved at reckless speed, forcing through his various reforms.

One such mere minister was pondering this as the door to the main office opened and the prince entered. The prince’s arrival was not anything out of the ordinary, and so the minister assumed the prince was simply stopping by to take a look at things. He returned to his work as his coworkers crowded around the prince, all trying to flatter him and win his favor.

The now lone minister watched this from the corner of his eye as he went about his duties, and assumed that things would be as they always were until the prince left...except that on this particular day, the prince set his sights directly on this lone minister. He stopped in front of the lone minister and took stock of his face, then looked at the documents in his hand. He leaned in and, in such a quiet whisper that even the minister could just barely hear, spoke.

“You are exceptional, it must be said. But is there not a better place for your abilities than here? Will you not lend me your skills and help to see a fallen nation rise once more?”

The lone minister’s thoughts devolved into a storm of questions upon a sea of confusion. Why me? Did he just say what I think he said? A fallen nation? Our nation?

It took some time for him to settle his thoughts and attain an understanding, but understanding did come. It was true to say that the Sanserife Kingdom had indeed once fallen. It had been pushed to the brink of defeat by the empire, but even in defending itself there was little unity within its borders. Had the king not excelled in matters of domestic governance, Sanserife would have crumbled to pieces.

It was the king’s governance and the eventual successive victories in war that kept the nation intact, but one could just as easily take stock of the situation and claim that the Sanserife of old was beyond repair. This was why the prince was moving with such haste. This was why he eschewed the methods of old. This was why he wanted to rebuild the nation from the ground up.

The prince was giving the nation the kick in the rear that it desperately needed.

And while it was possible that the prince also felt a need to prove himself in the aftermath of the earth dragon attacks, there was no doubt that he was very deeply concerned about the future of his home. He was striving for a nation that was unlike anything anybody had heretofore ever known, and so the lone minister rose to his feet and told the prince that yes, he would lend his abilities to see such a future.

The prince grinned and thrust out a hand in response. There was something cold in the prince’s smile—something dark hidden behind it—but the minister felt a unique trust in the prince’s gaze, and so he reached out and gripped the prince’s hand with both of his own.

Watching the Proceedings from Behind the Prince—Narius

Hmm... You can call it rebuilding, but I wonder if he realizes how much he’s tearing down to do it...

Narius stood behind Prince Richard, his true thoughts indiscernible behind the stern expression on his face—the sort of expression expected of a man of his current standing.

The prince was attempting to rebuild Sanserife. This was a fact. He dealt with the esteemed families that had histories stretching back to the nation’s founding, and judged them with extreme prejudice. He put his support behind the modernist priests and had even gone as far as amending the kingdom’s laws. He was taking every tradition and custom in the country and grinding them underfoot.

The aftershocks would be no small thing, and in Narius’s eyes, the prince was making himself a great many enemies in the process. In truth, many of the nobles who’d had their land confiscated were now putting their experience and knowledge to use as bandits. As former domain lords, they knew the geography of their lands well and understood the strengths and weaknesses of the local military forces. This made them terrifyingly efficient criminals, and so far all attempts to see them captured or stopped had borne no fruit.

This was a direct result of Prince Richard’s reform, and it was by no means an isolated incident. The prince sought manpower to address the issue, but Narius sensed ill will in his lack of any explanation.

Still, given the movements of the empire, I can see why he’d want to move fast and break whatever’s in his way. Better to surround yourself with the capable than the useless, and the common people are much better off under good governance. That, and the guild is doing well, so no complaints there...

There was far less noble opposition to the guild than there had been in previous years, and as one of the prince’s aides, Narius had early access to intelligence, which had been a boon to the guild on a number of occasions. He was happy with his place in things and had decided to stick with the prince for as long as he could.

The reform will continue on through the rest of this year, and the prince’s foundation will be set by some time next year. When it’s ready, my workload will lessen and I’ll have more freedom. Which means that the prince won’t start making serious moves towards his objective until next year...

As Narius thought things through, the prince began to walk, so Narius straightened up his posture—he still couldn’t get comfortable acting like a high-and-mighty official—and followed after him.

A Discussion at the Village Square—Dias

A few days had passed since we’d thrown our welcome party for the goblin travelers. Now that they were more or less fully recovered after the long journey to Baarbadal, we decided to meet at the village square to discuss the future.

The southern part of the wasteland would become part of the goblin domain, and we would work together to build a port at the cove to the far south. The deciding was the easy part, actually—the hard part was making our decisions a practical reality. That’s why we had our best and brightest in attendance—Lady Darrell, Hubert, Goldia, and Aymer, with Peijin as a kind of guest adviser. Narvant was also in attendance on account of the fact that he’d be leading a lot of the construction—his input was invaluable when it came to necessary materials and whatnot.

We rolled out the carpet and set up cushions in a circle around it, and Goldia kicked us off.

“We still haven’t even built the port, so I know I might be getting a bit ahead of things,” he said, “but a port needs ships and boats, right? If we’re looking at getting ships, we either buy them or build them. But it’s not that simple—both will take time. If we’re building a port, then the earlier we consider the ship situation, the better.”

He explained that getting a sturdy ship big enough to transport goods would take everything the guild had. It wasn’t easy, in other words. We all looked over at Peijin, seeing as he was a merchant too, but he just shook his head—Peijin & Co. weren’t in a position to acquire a ship on the cheap either.

“The making of a sturdy ship isn’t actually all that difficult,” Narvant commented, “and if we get all the cavekin on it, it won’t take that much time either. The problem is one of timber. It’s not like we can’t use the eastern forest, but if we want a truly sturdy seafaring vessel with a good, strong mast, the trees to the east just won’t cut it. The best ships are made with the best wood, and their masts keep them on track. What I’m saying is, we need to work out where we’re gonna get some real good wood.”

According to Narvant, big ships had big masts, and big masts were made from trees that had grown for decades, if not centuries. The trees in the eastern forest just weren’t that tall, and they wouldn’t really make for great masts. That meant we had to find ourselves a supplier, but that was easier said than done. On top of that, good timber didn’t come cheap.

Peijin chipped in after Narvant and added that exporting lumber required permission from the nation itself, so our best bet was to find some in Sanserife and transport it to Iluk. Not only was buying good lumber expensive, but so was shipping it. Goldia said that finances were going to be real tight if we tried to do it at the same time as constructing our port, and that left us all scratching our heads.

It was then that the goblin leader, Iberis, chose to speak.

“I’m no expert on boats, but is a sturdy mast really all that important? As long as you have a couple of half-decent sails, you can let us goblins pull you wherever you’re going.”

Everybody aside from me was downright gobsmacked. For my part though, I stayed practical.

“Yeah, but can we really ask that of you?” I said. “Pulling a boat through the ocean isn’t easy, and I reckon it’ll take some work.”

“It’s not like we’re moving mountains,” replied Iberis. “For us it’ll be no different from you guys walking through the plains with a loaded bag. With a mast and some wind in the sails, it’s smooth sailing, so obviously that’s the best option, but even mastless we’ll be just fine.”

The southern ocean was full of goblins, and Iberis said that with thirty of them pulling or pushing a boat, you didn’t even have to worry about stormy weather.

“Look,” said Iberis in closing, “we obviously won’t do it for free, but if we can get some iron tools made by your blacksmiths, our people will be plenty happy to help you out.”

“Huh,” I replied. “Well, all righty then.”

Hubert and Goldia immediately hopped to their feet to discuss this and that with one another. Peijin-Do whipped out his calculating device—an abacus, he called it—and started flicking beads at lightning speed while he worked out numbers. All three of them looked a bit loony to me—I couldn’t quite work out what they were so hectic about.

“I’ve heard that it’s not at all uncommon for accidents to occur in which sailors fall from masts,” Lady Darrell explained. “But we’ll potentially have boats that don’t need masts at all and aren’t reliant on the direction of the wind. They’ll also be protected by very capable warriors, and I daresay your merchant friends have already considered the profits such ships might bring. It will definitely pay you back any investment you put into the port and roadwork to get there. The three of them are probably working through the exact numbers right this instant.”

I could hear little snippets of conversation between Hubert and Goldia, and Lady Darrell was bang on the money. It was crystal clear now that a port was a good investment, and Iberis looked relieved when I nodded my agreement.

“We’re nothing but glad to hear that you lot have much to gain from us having a port,” he said. “We’ve always wanted land of our own, and on top of that we’ve always wanted meaningful trade and exchange with people on the surface.”

“Huh? You mean the goblins have always wanted land?”

Iberis nodded.

“We can raise our children in the sea, it’s true, but the ocean is a very dangerous place. We prefer raising our kids on land when it’s possible, but... Well, the humans don’t often let us...”

Iberis explained that until now, humans had been extremely hard to work with. It wasn’t simply that they found the goblins scary, but also that they suspected them of scheming something under the water.

“You might think we could have just up and moved to somewhere deserted, but that brings its own dangers,” Iberis continued. “You might find your new home to be full of monsters or as arid as the wasteland. Packing up and moving isn’t as easy as it sounds. If it’s possible to make the arid lands habitable, nothing would make us happier than calling it home. We’ve already been rewarded with so much for this journey, so asking for any more leaves me practically trembling.”

“I see, in which case it’s not just a port but buildings and facilities that we’ll have to think about too,” I said. “Let’s start by joining our homes with a road and making sure there’s access to food and water along it. Then we’ll be able to send Narvant and his people to take a look at things. But now that I think about it, we’re looking pretty far down the road, aren’t we...?”

Narvant heard his name and took a big swig from his bottle of booze before coming back with an answer.

“If you want things done quickly, young Dias, then I can always send a couple of the younger cavekin through the wasteland. We can live a couple of months on nothing more than booze, so we’ll send them with some stuff that doesn’t spoil and they can build up the facilities you need. I’m sure they’ll figure out a way back home themselves. A port though? That’ll certainly take a few months, so it’s not quite so simple.”

“Uh, no,” I stated firmly. “No, Narvant. Not funny. Living on booze alone? What kind of a joke is that? It, uh... It is a joke, right? Ugh, forget about it. Even if you’re telling the truth, what happens if there’s an accident and those cavekin are just stuck out in the wasteland? We don’t have the means to rescue them. So like I said, we’ll start with the roads, the wells, and the rest areas—”

Narvant blinked a few times before his eyes went real wide; then he burst into laughter and started clapping his hands.

“We’re cavekin!” he boomed. “What’s there to worry about?! Didn’t I already tell you? We have a hibernation state we can drop into at will. We just dig a hole, and then we sleep in it like rocks. You can leave us there for a few years, decades, even thousands of years if you want. We’ll be just fine! If one of the boys runs into trouble, that’s exactly what he’ll do!”

Oh, yeah. Narvant did tell me about that, didn’t he?

That’s why they were sometimes called stonekin...

Still, I thought a thousand years was going a bit too far. When the goblins heard Narvant talk about it, they all let out gasps of awe. Aymer and Lady Darrell looked dumbfounded. Hubert, who had been in conversation with Goldia, turned to look at Narvant and froze for a good thirty seconds. It was like his body shut down and all of that energy went straight to his brain.

“Thousands of years?!” he eventually cried, dashing over to Narvant. “Did you just say thousands of years?! Just how long were you asleep before you met with Lord Dias?! Could it have been centuries?! More?! Is it possible you walked the lands even before the age of the founding king?! Are you telling me you might know about the world before then?! The world that isn’t even a part of recorded history?!”

“Well, young Hubert, I wish I could tell you,” replied Narvant, shrugging, “but we cavekin aren’t very well-versed in human history, or all the ages and generations, so I can’t really hazard a good guess.”

Narvant sounded a bit like he was playing dumb, and maybe toying with Hubert a bit, but that only served to spur Hubert’s curiosity. He started with another onslaught of questions, and I watched it for a moment before turning back to the goblins.

“Uh, in any case, I’ll look at getting onto those facilities for you right away, so you don’t have to worry about your kids,” I said. “The port will have to wait until we get the road all set up though. So I’m guessing next year, or maybe some time after that... I don’t want to rush anything, and I think it’s better we take our time and really hash out all the details. I also plan to make sure you guys have a safe route home as soon as I can arrange it, but until then I’d like it if you thought of Iluk as home.”

Iberis nodded happily, and with all the big picture stuff settled, our discussion was concluded.

With our talks over, everyone broke off into smaller groups to discuss things in more detail or otherwise just chat. Others went about their own business. Narvant went over to Iberis to get a clearer idea of what kind of facilities they needed. Hubert had given up on interrogating Narvant and was asking some goblins about the coast they called home and the surrounding sea. Goldia had also grabbed a couple of goblins to find out what sort of trade they usually did. Meanwhile, Aymer and Lady Darrell were busy at work recording the key points of each conversation.

Peijin-Do was just as curious as everyone else and was asking a goblin about their daily lives and what they entailed. Somewhere along that conversation, Peijin-Do asked the following question.

“You mentioned iron tools from blacksmiths earlier, but wouldn’t that rust in no time in the ocean? If it’s a cycle where the iron rusts, then you throw it away, then you buy new stuff, that’s gonna cost you a lot o’money however hard y’work, ain’t it?”

Iberis heard the question and nodded. He opened up a little pouch hanging from his belt and brought out a small metal knife.

“You’re right,” he said, softly touching the blade of his knife. “But not all iron rusts underwater. If you wash your gear with fresh water on the surface and run it over a flame, it lasts plenty long. There’s a lot we need to use for daily life, and that includes raising our children, but usually the people up on the surface are adamant about not trading with us. We’ve had to sneak stuff onto the island we call our main base.”

“That ain’t right,” commented Peijin-Do. “But it’s got me wonderin’—these people you usually deal with, whereabouts d’they live? The southern ocean is a wide area, but I’m thinking it’s humans you’re dealin’ with and not beastkin, yeah? I mean, you speak th’common language here, which is the oldest and most widespread’f ’em.”

Iberis wasn’t sure how to respond, and so he started scratching a picture that soon resembled a map into the ground at his feet. The starting point was Iluk; then he mapped out the wasteland, the cove, and the ocean.

“Now, bear in mind that we goblins aren’t experts on the surface,” said Iberis. “We’ve never really cared much for where a person comes from, so we haven’t really looked into it. I can’t give you any exact locations. But what I can do is give you a general idea... The humans we deal with are east of this point. The wasteland is vast, and it spreads to the east and west. Farther east I’ve heard is a place where the sandy winds blow. It traces a path south, but if you take the long way around, you’ll find a town where you can sometimes do trade.”

I followed the path from the cove, tracing the southern coast and heading east. According to Iberis, it was a long journey, but that’s where the town was.

“I see, I see,” muttered Peijin-Do, checking out the route himself.

“That’s definitely Sanserife territory,” said Hubert, who had heard the explanation. “Based on what I know of the kingdom’s port towns, Iberis is likely talking about the one located just south of the royal capital. I’m astounded that you would travel such a distance... Is it because you can move that much quicker in the water?”

Hubert paused for a moment to think, then voiced a question that bubbled up in his mind.

“But let’s say that it is the royal capital’s port town where you’ve been doing trade... I wonder why I never once heard any talk about goblins in that area? Were the locals intentionally keeping it quiet? But if so, why...? Did they think that the existence of goblins might mean their fishing and shipping jobs were in jeopardy? Or is it more likely that this is all connected to the discrimination against demi-humans prevalent in the east...?”

Hubert’s questions weren’t really directed at anybody in particular; they were more a way for him to work through the problem. When he had things worked out in his head, he clapped his hands and walked over to me, his eyes glimmering.

“Lord Dias,” he whispered, leaning right up to my ear. “For the time being, it’s best we keep the goblins a secret and not go public about our working together. Do you mind if I share this information with the king, and the king alone?”

“Huh? The king? I mean, sure, but why only him?”

Hubert lowered his voice even more as he replied.

“This is my intuition speaking here, but I think this is the best way for both the king and you to profit. I think it likely that the king will provide you with the ship or ships you need, because it will give him a route to Baarbadal in the event that he needs to make a hasty escape. After all, the king already has ten of his own sea vessels at the southern port, three of which are flagships—the biggest in the whole country. There is a chance that he may well give us one...and that’s not a bad deal at all.”

“Hm? Hmm... Well, if that’s what you think, then I’m happy to trust you to handle it. Write your letter and get it to Eldan, and he’ll see that it gets safely to the king. Don’t worry about showing me what you write—I trust you.”

Hubert nodded and raced off for his yurt. He was nothing if not gung ho about that letter of his. I watched him dash off, then turned back to the others. Aymer had been listening to us with those big ears of hers, and her expression told me she thought Hubert was on the right track. Lady Darrell, who had surmised the conversation from afar, held a similar view. I had to chuckle.

Can’t get anything past those two, nope...

“If you goblins are going to be hauling our boats for us,” I said, broaching a new topic as I walked over to Iberis, “and you take us to the southern port town, about how much iron is that worth? If we’ve got a general idea, it’ll make it easier for us to source what you need. Oh, and Peijin, does the Beastkin Nation have any port towns? And if we sail out that way, will we be able to trade?”

Iberis hadn’t actually considered the iron to labor ratio in any real depth, and so he put his hand to his jaw and thought about it while he discussed things with his buddies. Peijin then bounced over to me in one giant leap and started gesturing like mad.

“Of course, of course!” he croaked. “We’ve got a Peijin & Co. branch all set up that you’ll be able to do business with. But fair warning—if you just show up outta the blue it’s gonna make for big issues, so y’gotta get permission before you come sailin’ on over.”

Peijin-Do seemed to think getting that permission wouldn’t be too hard because the Beastkin Nation would welcome new trade partners. We just had to prove we weren’t up to no good or breaking any laws, but Peijin-Do said he’d hash out the particulars on our behalf.

“Fortunately, you count Lady Kiko among your allies, and her children’re merchants here!” continued Peijin-Do. “If you have them on board as your representatives, things’ll go all th’smoother!”

“Oh, now that you mention it,” I muttered, “Seki, Saku, and Aoi were all born in the Beastkin Nation, huh? I completely forgot. Ellie says they’re almost all set to work alone, and I reckon they’ll be fine merchants in their own right by the time we’ve got our port and ships all set up. They’ll probably jump at the chance to visit home and Kiko... And they’ll be able to help out any other lostblood who are thinking of moving here.”

I was mighty impressed by Peijin-Do’s suggestion, and he grinned his frogman head off.

“Right? Right?” he replied, nodding over and over.

We were still some ways away from having a port and a ship, but even then it felt like everything was coming together, albeit in unexpected ways. Seeing as all the pieces were neatly arranging themselves, work to the south felt like the right thing to do. The goblins were still trying to iron out the iron to labor ratio, but even then they looked enthusiastic about our plans, and I decided to talk to the cavekin and get some proper plans hashed out.

While I was thinking things through, I saw that Aymer and Lady Darrell had read my expression, and I could see in their eyes that they agreed with me. But it wasn’t just them—it was Goldia too. He grinned like I’d just spoken my thoughts out loud, and all I could do was chuckle and scratch the back of my head.

“Well, I guess that settles it then.”

A few days passed, and by then the goblins were all settled in. They spent their time doing whatever interested them most. They hunted black ghee, they went to see the cavekin at their workshop, they helped out with construction, they took care of the baars and horses, and they even went to Klaus to learn more about how humans fought with spears.

Having journeyed through the wasteland and made inroads with us here at Baarbadal, the goblins were nothing if not keen to return home and tell their people about it. The problem was that it was still the middle of summer and way too hot—it wasn’t worth them risking their lives. That was why everyone decided they should stay until the temperature dropped.

Nobody in Iluk cared how long the goblins stayed, and the goblins were very intrigued to learn more about our way of life anyway. They decided it best to stay until around the beginning of fall. The temperature would have come down by then, and the cavekin would have made good headway with their waterway, so the journey would be much safer.

As for the road from Baarbadal to the ocean, there was a lot of other stuff that had to get done before we could start, and so it seemed best to focus on acquiring all the materials in the meantime. All of that meant we were back to regular life in Iluk Village, with the addition of the goblins staying with us.

One day after I finished a training session with Iberis, he sat down to rest and looked over at the road we already had.

“A stone paved road, huh?” he muttered. “We goblins don’t really need much more than a waterway for ease of travel, but I guess that’s much harder work than a road, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve only got the stream that runs through the plains,” I said, swinging my axe around to wind down. “I don’t think we’ve got any other water sources.”

Iberis turned his gaze to our stream.

“We goblins can swim in a stream like that, but something a bit deeper with more water flow would be ideal, really. Then we could come and go with ease.”

“Come and go?” I asked, a bit confused. “I know you’d follow the current to go south, but you could go against the current to come here too?”

“It’s totally possible. Even against the current these fins of ours would do most of the heavy lifting. It’d be slower, but by no means impossible. We don’t have to worry about drying out if we’re in water either, and it’s easier on our bodies. And if there’s fish, then we’ve got a source of food too.”

Iberis seemed to math out that a journey of thirty days on foot was only four or five days in the water. If the current was especially strong after heavy rain, then maybe ten days at most.

“And if we’ve got stuff to transport, it’s much easier if we’re doing it over water than over land,” continued Iberis. “And if you’ve got boats made specially for transporting goods, then it’ll be all the quicker.”

“Huh... I always think of boats as something for the ocean,” I mused, “but I guess they can come in handy for streams and rivers too. Still, you can make the waterway, but if you don’t have enough water for it, that’s the end of it.”

Sanat happened to be passing by as I made my comment, and he dropped the big hunk of rock he was carrying and called out to me.

“You know you can always make a waterway if you need one, right? You can increase the water flow too!” he said.

Iberis and I just looked at him, blinking in confusion.

“And how do you do it?” I asked eventually. “Is it a kind of magic?”

Sanat chuckled.

“Nope, no magic involved. If you tried doing something like that with spells, you’d run out of magical energy as quickly as I could snap my fingers. Didn’t Aymer tell you about how they’re already doing it next door in Mahati? You dig holes in the mountains to find underground water sources, and make paths for them into town for use with daily life.”

Sanat said that just like with their mining, if you dug down into the mountains to the northwest, you’d find water. It turned toxic if it was contaminated by the ore in the mine, but otherwise it was perfectly safe. Even the stream that ran through Iluk could be traced back to a mountain, according to Sanat.

“When earthquakes or whatnot cause mountains to crumble, you can get springs as a result, and the water eventually carves out sections of the earth to make streams,” he explained. “But we cavekin can do that same thing ourselves, increasing the water flow or even creating new waterways. If we don’t plan carefully then we might end up harming the Iluk stream or making it unusable, or even causing landslides. In any case, you have to be careful about it.”

“Hmm... So how hard would it be to make a waterway that the goblins could use for swimming and transporting materials?” I asked.

“Well, we don’t want that sort of thing impacting the water we use for living out here on the plains, so first you’d have to work out where you want the waterway to run. Then you’d survey the mountains and plan exactly where you’re going to dig.”

It wasn’t exactly easy, but Sanat seemed to think they could safely get a new waterway to Iluk within about a half a year. From there to the wastelands however, and from the wastelands to the ocean, would require more effort, and thus more time.

“It’d be quicker if it were just a matter of increasing the flow coming into Iluk, but I wouldn’t recommend that,” said Sanat. “If you dirty the water, you’re just left with a useless stream. But we had that earth dragon attack recently, and the earthquakes they caused might have made for some new springs... We just wouldn’t want to run into any aqua dragons.”

I haven’t heard of them before. I wonder what kind of dragon they are?

But when Iberis heard the words “aqua dragons,” his eyes lit up.

“Huh, you mean to tell me the great dragon slayer’s never heard of an aqua dragon?” Sanat mused. “Well, where do I start...?”

Sanat told me that aqua dragons had bumpy carapaces, big horns, and countless legs. They could live on the land, but they preferred to be in water. They were a really weird sort of dragon, from what I gathered.

“Aqua dragons can breathe fire too, but more commonly they’ll blast you with water,” Sanat explained further. “That’s where the name comes from. They prefer to be wet, which is why they often gravitate to underground streams and lakes. But if an aqua dragon living underground decides to emerge, it usually means the mountain it emerges from comes down with it. Still, when an aqua dragon makes a huge opening like that, it can make waterway construction a lot easier. Not that you should go looking for an aqua dragon’s home—sometimes the resulting damage will wipe out your water source entirely. Best-case scenario is always just not running into one at all.”

“When I think of dragons I always think of fire,” I admitted. “But there are water dragons too, huh? It’s hard to think of water as particularly dangerous, but I guess it’s not easy to fight something that’s hitting you with a strong, steady spray...”

“Aqua dragons sometimes live in the ocean too,” said Iberis, clenching his fists in all his excitement. “Me and my gang are still young, and we still haven’t ever encountered one, but everybody knows how fearsome they are. Slaying an aqua dragon makes you a hero! It’s like etching your name into the history books! And if goblins like us beat one on land? We’d be legends! Fighting one in water is like fighting on our home turf, and if we get a waterway out of it, then count us in!”

So aqua dragons exist in the ocean too. I mean, it’s water, so it makes sense... And it’s actually weirder for them to prefer mountains, now that I think about it. I wonder if they all start out in the ocean and somehow make their way to mountains?

After all, all the other dragons that have appeared have all come from elsewhere. At least all the ones we’ve seen so far came from beyond the northern mountains. I wonder if that desire to roam is just inherent to dragons...

Thinking about it made me wonder about the land beyond the northern mountains. Nobody had ever made it out there as far as I was aware, and people said it was full of monsters and dragons. I couldn’t help but try to imagine it.

Will there ever come a day where brave adventurers set out like the goblins and cross the mountains to explore those lands?

I shook my head clear of the thought, because we were getting way off topic.

“Look, nothing is set in stone yet, Sanat,” I said, “but would you mind looking into the whole waterway thing for me? I’ll come with you if you need to go to the mountains, of course.”

“I’ll speak with dad about it,” he replied.

The cavekin then hefted his chunk of stone back on his shoulder and trudged off towards the temple. That got me curious about our progress on the temple, so I said goodbye to Iberis and put my axe away, then walked on west to check it out.

The first thing that caught my eye were the two stone baar statues that stood like pillars out in front of the temple. The exterior of the temple was pretty much done, but the inside was still incomplete. Uncle Ben told me that it needed some time, and so he, Fendia, and the paladins were all still working on it.

The main place of worship was good to go, but that was it, apparently. Aside from that, there was a roofed area right off to the side of the temple that reminded me of the kitchen range.

Underneath the roof sat a small number of tables where I spotted a bunch of kids, including dogkin, the twins, the young baars, and even little Peijin-Doshirado. They were all looking towards the far end of the roofed area, at a bigger table that hosted Peijin-Do.

Ordinarily, Peijin and his people left for home as soon as trade was done, but they’d decided to stick around this time until the goblins went home themselves. Peijin-Do figured that while he was here, he’d teach the kids some arithmetic. He taught them how to count, how to add and subtract, and how to use that abacus contraption of his that he loved so much. As a bonus, he even taught them some tips when it came to sales, and some simple Beastkin Nation words and greetings. It all struck me as good stuff for adults to learn too, actually.

This little addition to the temple was a request that had come from Uncle Ben. He saw temples as places of learning and priests as responsible for overseeing those lessons. Because of that, there was a lot more than just arithmetic being taught.

When Hubert was the instructor at the temple, the kids learned to read stories that he’d written. They read the stories, practiced writing, and were even sometimes tested on how well they understood what they had read. Hubert said that these stories were the basis for understanding Sanserife law. Simply knowing how to read them wasn’t enough though—the student had to understand the deeper meaning and intent behind them. In doing so, they learned why certain laws were important and how they worked. It was very important, because it was like polishing the skills that would allow for civil servants in the future.

When Aymer was the instructor, she taught the kids about the workings of the natural world. Back when Iluk was much smaller, Aymer had taught the twins everything—from arithmetic to reading and writing—but now she had space to focus on her specialty. She taught the kids about the sun and the wind, what the world was, the flow of time, and what the seasons were.

Aymer taught the kids about how the greater world was like a big cog around which the sun and stars moved. Smaller cogs turned our world, which resulted in day and night, and larger cogs turned the sun, which in turn made for the seasons we were familiar with. Aymer’s lessons were all about encouraging inspiration through understanding natural phenomena. Even her cog example had been inspired by the grandmas’ looms. Since then, Aymer’s lessons had centered on expanding from basic ideas.

When Lady Darrell was the instructor, she taught arithmetic, manners, and lessons about the nobility. With Peijin handling the arithmetic at present, Lady Darrell concentrated much more on her other two topics. Originally, her lessons had been meant for the twins and Alna, but because it was possible Iluk’s people might one day meet with nobility or be promoted to higher ranks like knight and whatnot, Lady Darrell kept her lessons open to everyone. That was why her lessons had kids, adults, the domain guard, and even the grandmas in attendance. Joe and the guys dreamed of some day becoming knights, and the grandmas wanted to be well prepared for serving high-profile guests.

For a time, Lady Darrell had given additional private lessons to Alna and the twins, but she’d been doing that less and less of late. I was getting curious as to why when Lady Darrell—who had been watching Peijin-Do’s lesson—walked up, saw the look on my face, and gave me my answer.

“Lady Senai and Lady Ayhan are always conscientious in their studies, and today is no different. They have a solid educational foundation to work from, such that they could enter the royal capital’s high society even today and have zero issues.”

Clearly she knew I was curious about the twins too and saw fit to give me an update.

“The twins are diligent to their core and are both very intelligent for their age thanks to Aymer’s teachings,” Lady Darrell continued. “They’re both very fit and healthy, and their ability to absorb information is astounding. Watching their growth has been a joy, and they may well surpass their teachers as early as next year.”

Well, that explains why Lady Darrell decided she didn’t need to give them private lessons anymore.

Lady Darrell told me that most young noblewomen weren’t as hardworking as Senai and Ayhan and often didn’t apply themselves to their studies. Lots of them didn’t exercise either, so they didn’t have much in the way of strength and endurance. For Lady Darrell, that meant her more physical lessons sometimes took a really long time.

Senai and Ayhan were way more active than what Lady Darrell was used to. They were running around whenever they had a spare moment, jumping on their horses to go wherever they felt like, or grabbing their bows to go hunting...

Thanks in part to that, they had an acute understanding of their own bodies, and Lady Darrell didn’t have to teach them posture and gestures in any great detail. She just gave them some examples, and the girls copied her before she blinked. They had a knack for that kind of thing.

This meant that when it came to how young noblewomen were supposed to hold themselves, the twins learned it all in a flash. They weren’t perfect, but they were doing a bang-up job given their ages.

Alna didn’t share the twins’ ability to instinctually understand what Lady Darrell was teaching, but she had experience on her side. She was always active, just like the twins, and she was the one who taught them all about horse riding and hunting. She was as earnest as earnest got, and Lady Darrell was impressed with how far she’d come in terms of her etiquette lessons.

As the wife of a duke, there was more pressure on Alna and so she had to be more well-versed in noblewomen ways than the twins. While she wasn’t quite up to that level yet, Lady Darrell wasn’t worried—she believed it was just a matter of time.

“So there’s no need to worry at all about the twins, Lord Dias,” concluded Lady Darrell. “That said, if you’ve some free time, let’s do some lessons of our own. You’re a warrior born of the common people, and while many will accept your rougher edges because of that, a duke should never fall back on such things. So please, seek me out whenever you have a spare moment.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, but it just so happened that Peijin-Do wrapped up his lesson at the same time. All the kids stood up to thank him in big, bright voices, and then they were off to the races. They looked set to go somewhere and play, but then they noticed me and Lady Darrell. Senai and Ayhan ran up to us and smoothly bent at one knee whilst pinching something invisible with their hands. If they’d been wearing skirts or dresses, they probably would have been holding the hems—they were curtsying, and you could tell they’d practiced because the movements were just smooth as silk.

Lady Darrell loved it, and she smiled warmly at the two girls. The rest of the kids ran on over after the twins, and the girls did little curtsies of their own while the boys each put one hand on their chest and the other behind their back as they dropped into polite bows. They were all very good, though none quite as clean as Senai or Ayhan. They simply lacked the polish and elegance of the twins, and I understood then what Lady Darrell meant about them having a knack for it.

And if Alna is getting to a similar level as the girls, then...yep, I’m going to have to knuckle down and put in some more work myself too.

I was just about to say as much when one of the paladins, Patrick, appeared from behind the temple. He stomped on over looking like he had something he wanted to talk to me about. He walked right up to me and poked his head out real close to mine, and when he spoke it was with a real gruffness to it.

“Lord Dias, Sir Ben suggested we build a graveyard behind the temple. Where in the world would such an idea come from?! Temples and graveyards have always been constructed apart from one another... Does he think us grave keepers?!”

I knew full well that wasn’t what Uncle Ben thought, but I could see from Patrick’s reaction that Uncle Ben hadn’t explained things very thoroughly. I felt it important that I clear the air, so I spent a moment organizing my thoughts before I answered.

“During the war, my pal Juha—who now works as Mahati’s military strategist—wasn’t the praying type. He just never did it. But one day, I saw him in front of the graves of our fallen comrades, praying with the most serious look on his face. I didn’t think he was just mourning, so I went up and asked him what he was praying about.”

Juha had told me this:

“I wasn’t really praying. But I was the one who decided on our strategies and our direction, and I was thinking about that. I was wondering: Is this really the right course of action? Are my decisions correct? Many of our comrades and friends fell because of my inexperience, but have I chosen a path that they can feel proud of? A path that will not tarnish their names? That’s what I was asking myself, Dias. Because if a military strategist starts praying to gods who may or may not exist, well...that’s the beginning of the end right there, isn’t it?”

“I happened to remember that episode not long ago,” I continued to Patrick. “I’m a bit different from Juha, in that I don’t always trust my decisions, and I do pray, but I didn’t think his thought process was a bad one by any means. In the future, I’m going to have to make lots of decisions, and I thought it would be nice to have somewhere I could reflect on them—a place where I can look to the gods and think of my friends in their place of their final slumber. That’s why I brought it up as a suggestion during one of our meetings at the assembly hall.”

Patrick’s back went straight as a rod, and he looked me dead in the eye as he shouted. “I am so very sorry for asking such senseless questions! Your idea is so very thoughtful!”

It was then that Lady Darrell cleared her throat. When Patrick and I turned to her, she flashed us a smile that I couldn’t really read.

“For some time now, I have been thinking it would be wise for those working at the temple to take some etiquette lessons,” she said. “And this is the perfect opportunity. Sir Patrick, you and your fellow paladins will attend together with Lord Dias to learn. Yes, we’ll start with the basics, such as why we shouldn’t simply interrupt other people’s conversations and why it’s so important to properly explain ourselves when we make important decisions. I assume the two of you won’t mind?”

Patrick and I both shook our heads. Lady Darrell’s smile widened, and she went off to gather the rest of the paladins.

What followed was a very long lecture that was much stricter than usual, but eventually it ended. When it was finally over, the six young baars who had joined us came up to us bleating about whatever was on their minds. The paladins and I all gave the baars pats for being so good about attending the lecture together with us.

The baars had been attending lots of lectures, both the ones for the children and the ones for the adults. This was Uncle Ben’s idea. The baars couldn’t write, and they couldn’t use the big abaci that we’d made for the dogkin, but they were still intelligent creatures, and Uncle Ben wanted to nurture that. After all, we were building a temple decorated with baars, in which we’d spread the teachings of the gods through the work of their baars—the smarter the baars, the better. At least, as far as Uncle Ben was concerned, anyway. I didn’t mind though—the six baar kids loved learning new things anyway, and I figured that was the most important part.

Patrick and his paladins were set to be priests for the new temple, and so they treated the six baar kids like they would their own children. Actually, sometimes I thought they loved the baars even more than that. The baars loved the paladins just as much in turn, and I often saw them together. Sometimes they were playing or hanging out, and sometimes the paladins would brush them.

Anyway, I kept on patting the baars with the paladins until they were well and truly satisfied. The baars got to a point where they were all fidgety and restless, and they leaped away and dashed off into the distance. The paladins just laughed their hearts out, and then they returned to the temple, while Lady Darrell decided to head to the kitchen range. While I was wondering where to go next, Alna, Francis, and Francoise came up to talk to me.

“Seeing any minor improvements, Dias?” Alna asked.

There was a joking tone in her voice, but I couldn’t quite place her expression, so I thought I should ask about it.

“What’s up, Alna?”

Alna looked a bit surprised that I’d read her so well, but she steeled herself and opened up.

“I’ve been learning a lot from Orianna,” she said, “and recently she’s been teaching me about nobles in the kingdom. It seems they like to prod, poke, and belittle each other. They look for faults in other families to prop themselves up, and...well, that seems to be the trend among the nobility. It got me thinking... What’s that mean for you, having married someone who isn’t human?”

I could just hear how anxious she was, and even Francis and Francoise were looking a bit worried. I scratched the back of my head and offered them all a reassuring smile.

“You don’t have to worry, guys,” I said. “In the teachings I was raised with, discrimination by race is frowned upon. And as for our future here, we’re going to be led by Uncle Ben and the baars, so I don’t see any issues.”

Uncle Ben had grown up with the same lessons I had, and he had thought all this through from the very start. In the teachings that spread through the royal capital—popularized by the modernists—humans were the ultimate race, with everything else a lesser existence. For that reason, demi-humans and beastkins were looked down upon. If those teachings spread here, it would complicate my marriage with Alna, and I think that’s why Uncle Ben had come up with entirely new teachings.

“We have baar statues at our temple because we see baars as the messengers of the gods,” I said. “So let’s ask two of them right here and now, yeah? Francis, Francoise, do either of you have a problem with Alna and me getting married some day?”

The two baars were quick to shake their heads and bleat a response.

“That looks like express permission from the messengers themselves,” I said. “Which makes it final, in my book. I reckon Uncle Ben came up with his doctrine because he wants to see Iluk protected. If the modernist ideology were to spread this far, it would endanger not just our marriage but probably even the existence of our home as we know it.”

Alna was left blinking as she processed what I said. When she recovered, she knelt down, gripped Francis’s face in both hands, and started giving it a really good rub. Then she moved on to Francoise and did exactly the same. Finally, she climbed back to her feet and looked up at me.

“I never imagined you’d one day be buoying my spirits when I was down,” she admitted. “Look at how much you’ve grown, Dias!”

And with that, she gripped my cheeks with both of her hands and started giving them a good rub just like she had with the baars. I tried to reply, but she was rubbing my cheeks so hard anything I tried to say would be incomprehensible, so I simply had to wait.

Alna was smiling as she rubbed away, but then her expression turned to one of bewilderment, and she started pinching and touching my face all over. It was like she was looking for an answer, but instead it only made her confusion worse.

“Dias, your skin is just so...soft—pristine, even. Have you been using something other than the horse oil ointment I gave you? Maybe some kind of Sanserife sunscreen? But wait, if that were the case, then Ellie would show the same effects... So what is it, Dias? What have you been using to make your skin so supple?”

I couldn’t really make sense of what Alna was saying at first, but when I really thought about it, washing my face in the morning had gotten easier. It was just a smoother experience, and a whole lot of stuff had improved in a similar fashion.

“Well, I’m not doing anything in particular,” I said, “and I’m not sure exactly when it started, but I’ve been feeling really great ever since I drank that sanjivani concoction. Washing my face is a breeze, I feel more refreshed, and my condition has improved across the board. I guess I just haven’t really taken lots of notice of it. Besides, you’re plenty younger than me, and your skin is so much nicer than mine.”

Then she went from confusion to something else entirely, but I wasn’t sure where to place it. It was like she was happy but also enraged... And before I could think about it any further, she gripped my cheeks again and started rubbing them—or crushing them. It was somewhere between the two.

I couldn’t get a word in edgewise like that, and Alna probably knew it. Francis and Francoise watched us, letting out bleated sighs of a sort that sounded a bit exasperated, but they were grinning like it was some kind of in-joke. Not that Alna cared; she just kept kneading my face until a voice called out to us.

“What are you two doing?”

It was Alna’s brother, Zorg. Alna’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“Nothing special,” she shot back, still clasping my cheeks in her hands. “What are you doing?”

“Hang on a second,” muttered Zorg. “You guys called me over. Something about inspecting the springs to the north? In the mountains? The dogkin messengers came to our village and said that the cavekin wanted my opinion on things.”

“Huh. So they’ve already gotten that far, huh?” said Alna.

She mercifully released my cheeks while Zorg was talking, and I was gently massaging them as I commented.

“That’ll be Sanat and the cavekin. It’s still in the early stages, but a waterway would make travel easier for the goblins. They might be trying to get things set up before winter hits.”

“I see,” said Alna, nodding in understanding.

“Goblins, huh?” said Zorg, looking over towards the village square. “I never thought I’d see a fish walking on two legs, but they’re good guys. I saw them sparring with those three, uh, lionkin, I think? Anyway, they’ve got guts and they know how to fight. They showed me a lot of respect when they saw me too. I’m not against helping out if it’s to give those guys a hand. We onikin get our water from our wells, so we won’t have any complaints so long as the new waterway doesn’t have a negative impact on the wild baars. The chieftain left things in my hands, so clearly she thinks the same way.”

“If the onikin are okay with it, then we’ll do everything we can not to cause any trouble for you guys,” I said. “Making a new river that allows for easy travel between our lands and the ocean will be good for everyone, so expect big things.”

“Oh... You mean like ocean fish? We onikin don’t even usually eat river fish, but...now that I think of it, the chieftain did say she wants to try ocean seafood before she dies. If you can get some to her while she’s still here, that would be great.”

Zorg paused for a second as he thought about Baarbadal’s development.

“Still, you’ve got your old war buddies, a former imperial sergeant, lionkin who know their way around a war, and now goblins. Just what kind of crazy military are you looking to build, Dias?”

“Well, I mean, when you put it like that, I guess it is pretty formidable...but it’s not like I set out to do it. I just wanted more citizens... But I think we’re about the right size for the time being. We’ve got more lostblood coming from the Beastkin Nation, and Goldia says some more guild members are coming along too... I think that’ll be about right. More than that and it’ll be a bit hard to handle.”

Even at present, there was lots in Baarbadal that I didn’t have a handle on, and lots I barely even had a moment to glance at. If our population grew any bigger than it already was, I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle the responsibility. There was only so much food we could produce here on the plains, and we couldn’t always rely on trade going as smoothly as it was.

Things might get easier when travel opened up between Baarbadal and the ocean, but we’d have to put down a hefty investment in order to get to the point where we could start regularly buying seafood. All of that made me realize our current size was just about right.

Fortunately, we lived pretty comfortably, and with our temple and our laundry space, things were getting even more convenient for the people of Iluk. I wasn’t sure there was much more to ask for, really. I just had a feeling that if we all worked hard, good things would come, and when I thought about where we had started, we’d come even further than I ever could have expected.

Zorg took my comments in, and his features softened. It was like he knew where I was coming from.

“I know the feeling,” he said. “Ever since taking on a position of leadership, I’ve learned a lot about life for our people and what it means to bear the responsibility of more lives than just your own. I think about how hard it is just to manage our little village, and I can barely imagine what it’s like for the people who have to look out for tens of thousands of lives. So yeah, if I’m ever village chieftain, then I’ll be looking for even closer bonds with you than we have at present. I just think that...with the two of us sharing the load, life will be a whole lot easier, you know?”

I was shocked because I had never expected to hear something like that from Zorg, but I nodded because I agreed. He nodded back, and Alna—who was watching us the whole time—nodded even more than the both of us.

I’d always intended to work with and do right by the onikin people, but if Zorg was chieftain, I thought maybe I’d work even harder. I felt a real warmth at that moment, like the air was lighter and softer than usual.

“I mean, thanks to Iluk doing so well, life for us has improved too,” said Zorg, looking a little bashful. “If you ever need help, we’ll always be ready. You can count on us. So if another dragon rears its head, we’ve got you covered! I mean, not that they just appear out of nowhere. Admittedly there have been a whole lot more than usual recently...but that aside, I don’t think we have to fear—”

Zorg’s words cut off into silence and a tension seized his entire being. He was looking at Grandma Maya, who was walking this way all by her lonesome. It wasn’t like her to be out on her own. Still, Zorg’s reaction was confusing. I knew that he’d met Grandma Maya at some of our banquets, but as far as I was aware he only knew her as an old woman with some ability to read the future.

Maybe it’s some kind of magic I don’t know about that’s got him all frozen like this?

I was about to ask, but then Zorg collected himself enough to speak.

“When old ladies come to you with that look, they never have anything good to say,” he uttered, his voice trembling. “I’ve seen that look way too many times on the chieftain’s face. I know.”

Alna and I both thought Zorg was being pretty ridiculous with a comment like that, and we gave him a look as Grandma Maya came up and nodded a brief hello.

“I just finished some divining, young Dias, and it would seem that a huge monster will arrive from the northern mountains next week or sometime soon after,” she stated plainly. “I suspect it is another dragon. It will be big, and it will be strong, and you will not have an easy time with it. Still, I don’t think there’s too much to worry about, what with all the support you have from your friends.”

Alna and I were taken by surprise, but if Grandma Maya was the one saying it, then we knew better than to doubt it. Zorg’s shoulders slumped when he heard her.

“You bring us this immediately after I pledge our support? I mean, come on! I bet you knew exactly when to come over and bring this up too!”

Grandma Maya didn’t respond, but her features creased and wrinkled as a big old grin stretched across her face.

Preparing for Battle

To put it simply, Grandma Maya could say the following about the future: At some point in the next week or so, a dragon would appear. It would be a stronger foe than anything I’d faced yet, and it would force me into a fierce battle that would test my limits like never before. However, if I stood my ground and took it on, then there was no doubting the outcome—I would emerge victorious.

I got to tell you—that bit about me emerging victorious was a real relief. Unfortunately, everybody else was stuck on the “fierce battle” bit. None of them were relieved in the slightest, and the village was a whirlpool of worry as everyone scrambled to prepare.

If the battle started as early as next week, then we needed to organize all of our fighting forces by that time. We also had to make sure that all our armor and weapons were up to scratch and that we had enough food to last us through a prolonged engagement. When all the villagers started running around talking about all that stuff and making plans, a part of me honestly wanted to tell them to take a deep breath and relax. But then I remembered that they were all doing their preparations to ensure our victory, so I took to just watching them all at work.

With me mostly on the sidelines, discussions regarding the looming dragon attack proceeded at lightning speed, and everything was set by the following day. Our main fighting force was, well, me, with Klaus, Alna, and Aymer as my immediate support.

Backing us up were four falconkin, ten of the domain guard led by Joe and Lorca, the four paladins, ten mastis, and five cavekin. Our neighbors were providing support of their own in the form of Zorg, himself leading ten other onikin warriors, and Mahati’s three lionkin: Sulio, Leode, and Cleve.

Heck, even the goblins and Peijin-Do were on board, adding another seven to the ranks.

Then there were the important duties that had to be handled at home. Ryan was leading a number of the domain guard to keep the eastern border station safe, and Mont had a number of the domain guard with him watching over the western border station. All the rest of the guards and the dogkin were tasked with protecting Iluk Village.

Joe and my old war buddies were probably the most enthusiastic in the whole village. Now that a bunch of them were engaged and set to marry onikin women, they saw this upcoming battle as a chance to show off their manliness. But they weren’t alone—the onikin women who were currently staying in Iluk were just as raring to go, and they helped out wherever they could.

Zorg was in the same boat, and things seemed to be going swell in his new relationship. He was just as fired up as all the others. The energy of these soldiers—these soon-to-be married men—buoyed those around them, filling them with a similar energy and a will to win. Even those who were single knew that to slay a dragon was among the most manly of feats—and that it would result in a truly grand victory banquet. They had motivation in spades.

The three lionkin and Peijin-Do were guests, and so I thought it best for them to take things easy and stay sheltered while we took care of the dragon threat, but they wouldn’t have it. They said that they wanted to fight a dragon for themselves! They wanted to help out Baarbadal too, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I was especially against the idea of Peijin-Do joining the fray, but apparently he’d fought bandits and monsters alike during his time as a merchant. He knew how to handle himself, and he wanted in. As it turned out, the Peijin family fought with weapons that had been passed down over generations, and he intended to bring them to bear in the upcoming battle.

Peijin-Do’s guards were all tasked with protecting his caravans and ensuring the safety of little Doshirado, but they were also prepared to help out at Iluk Village should the need arise.

Now, we already had a pretty formidable fighting force, so I’ll be honest—I wasn’t especially keen on letting our guests stand anywhere near the front lines of battle. I had to tell myself that in a worst-case scenario, we’d still have the carpet to fall back on. It was a strange thing, that carpet. We’d since tested it more and discovered that with enough time it could even heal more serious injuries like broken bones. One of Joe’s guys had broken his leg during daily training, but the carpet had healed him up good as new. I figured it would come in handy in a pinch if we needed it.

I knew it wasn’t good to rely purely on the carpet, especially given that we didn’t even understand how it worked, but at the same time my axe was no different, and I relied on that too.

Things were pretty smooth in terms of preparations, but we did have our issues. The main one this time was when it came to our best horses. We had eight military steeds in total. Three of them went to the eastern border station, one of them was Mont’s, and three of them went to the western border station. That left us with just one left in the village, and it was clear that we didn’t have enough of them... I’d wanted to supply Joe and Lorca with one each, but that just wasn’t feasible.

Now, you might be thinking, “Dias, if you didn’t have enough horses, why didn’t you just get some more?” Unfortunately, a good military steed wasn’t something you could just go out and buy at the drop of a hat, and even when you could buy them, you had to make sure you had the people ready to take good care of them too.

Military steeds were as handy in combat as they were when it came to delivering messages across the battlefield. I’d really wanted enough for everyone if it were at all possible. I was thinking about that as I was looking around the village, and I found myself drawn to the stables. The sheps and eiresetters were all there like they usually were.

We had nineteen horses, seven white ghee, two donkeys, four goats, and three camels. This was more than enough to keep the dogkin caretakers real busy. Any more and they wouldn’t be able to keep up. Heck, we already had some fifty geese at the pen now, and they were just as much of a handful...

“It’s like I blinked and suddenly we had a menagerie on our hands...” I muttered. “How did we end up with so many geese...?”

I wasn’t actually speaking to anybody in particular—more just airing some thoughts—but Shev happened to be nearby at the time and piped up.

“Ah yes! The geese! Ellie has been buying them up little by little and filling up the pen! Lots of them are laying eggs too! Our dream is to see their population rise to three hundred!”

“Three hundred?! Why do you need that many?”

“For roast geese! Roast goose on a spit!” replied the dogkin, gesturing with his hands in a circular motion while he nodded. “Imagine it! One roast for each and every one of us! Oh! The flavor explosion that awaits! It’ll be a banquet!”

“Roast goose, huh...?” I muttered. “But don’t you think it’ll be tough taking care of three hundred geese?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” replied Shev. “If we’re running low on helping hands then we’ll just get more! Our children are almost of working age, after all, and you can bet the population will be booming next year too!”

“But more people makes for more problems too, no? I don’t know if we can manage all of that or keep an eye on it all...”

“Really? I think we’ll be just fine! When the population gets to that level, you just need to delegate, right? And if you don’t have somebody to delegate those responsibilities to, you just need to find them! It’s no different from us dogkin calling for more tribe leaders as necessary!”

Shev seemed to think that maybe humans were expanding in number just like the dogkin were, but before I could say anything he was off to the races.

“If you’ve got lots of people to manage, it’s simple!” he declared. “Just make Klaus or Mont leaders of a new tribe. Ben and Ellie would also be good candidates, if you ask me! Oh boy, I wonder what they’d all call their own tribes? How exciting to think about!”

Shev was gesturing with his paws a lot as he rattled off, he was so excited. Still, I don’t think it was something he had put a lot of thought into. It was more like he brought it up because it was how the dogkin always did things, and he thought it would help me to know. It was a simple line of thought, to be sure, but all the same it stuck with me and got me thinking.

Just yesterday I’d been of the mindset that Baarbadal had more than enough residents. But the reality was that we didn’t have enough military-grade horses, and we didn’t have enough people to look after them. That meant we needed more people... And if we were going to make Shev’s dream a reality, then we needed more people to look after the geese too.

Basically, it was starting to sink in that we didn’t have enough residents after all. And while it was true that I couldn’t manage an increased population all on my own, someone like Klaus or Mont would do a fine job in my place. Entrusting them with things would yield good results, I was sure. It was entirely possible that there were even more dangerous dragons lurking in the future, so increasing Baarbadal’s military might was a new priority.

I hadn’t actually made up my mind about any of the above, but I thought it was a good idea to bring it up at the next village meeting to see what everybody else thought about it.

“Uh, Lord Dias?” asked Shev. “Is everything okay? Are you having trouble thinking up new tribe names? I know! How about using my own name then? The Rhinehartgodofnyahdishev tribe sure has a nice ring to it!”

Honestly, all I could do in response to that was just give Shev a good pat on the head.

With our various groups and responsibilities sorted, the village could get started on equipping everyone for the coming dragon attack. Sahhi and I had everything we needed, but it was a different story for everybody else, so all the cavekin banded together to produce all the necessary gear.

The last time earth dragons had attacked, we hadn’t sold the materials, so the cavekin decided to put them to good use. Since we were already well stocked on the materials side, things proceeded smoothly. In the past we’d left our weapons crafting to the onikin craftsmen, but we had our own craftsmen now, and boy, they sure whipped us up some incredible gear.

The armor the cavekin made was even easier to move around in than Klaus’s armor, and Klaus himself said that the cavekin armor was on another level entirely. That said, the cavekin had also done some work on Klaus’s armor and spear to improve them, and they hadn’t stopped there—they’d even done some work to improve the mastis’ dragon fangs and dragon scale cloaks.

The ten participating members of the domain guard were all decked out in earth dragon armor, but Patrick and his fellow paladins all said they didn’t need any. They were happy to fight in their priestly robes, so we made sure to craft them something out of baar wool just to give them every advantage we could.

The young cavekin warriors who would be fighting alongside us were given earth dragon armor of their own. They were also planning to make use of the baar wagons that we’d used in the past to fell the flame dragon. The onikin were similarly making use of earth dragon materials back at their village, preparing bows and arrows for the upcoming battle.

Sulio and his two lionkin buddies hailed from Mahati, and they didn’t think it was right to accept earth dragon-enhanced equipment. They were happy enough with steelware, so the cavekin prepared them some fancy new steel armor and claws. The cavekin also equipped the goblins with new spears—as an added bonus, they were rust-resistant to boot.

The cavekin then crafted gear for Peijin-Do, who requested five shortswords. Apparently the number was important because of the way he fought. I didn’t ask about it, but maybe it was important for him to have spares? In any case, Peijin-Do didn’t like heavy armor, so he went the same route as the paladins and had his outfit made from baar wool. He was very particular about it and even made sure that his clothing was all dyed a dark brown.

As for me, I had my battle-ax, my hand-ax, and my usual orichalcum armor set. Because I was traveling with Klaus and the others, I didn’t need Balers on this occasion. Sahhi had his usual wind dragon armor, but his wives didn’t need anything—they would be running intel across the battlefield for us, so they wouldn’t be in any immediate danger.

Alna was decked out in her standard gear. She had her usual outfit on, plus her earth dragon bow and her arrows. Once she was settled aboard Karberan, she was ready to go. When the cavekin heard that Karberan was going into battle, they offered to make some horse armor, but Alna said she rode better without armor getting in the way. The cavekin explained that they wove together countless small pieces of steel to ensure that the horse wouldn’t have any mobility issues, but even then Alna turned them down.

The onikin warriors were the same as Alna, and none of them needed armor for their horses. Even when they did use armor, it was usually made from baar wool. It was the way they’d always fought, and so fighting with extra gear was only going to be a nuisance to them, it seemed.

In any case, our equipment was all readied, after which everyone put it on and got to training so they’d feel comfortable on the battlefield. Training was also a good chance to run through various formations, strategies, and signals during the battle.

A few days passed like that, and with the day of the attack nearing with each moment, Sahhi and the cavekin did regular patrols of the north to keep watch for any dragons. The cavekin weren’t especially quick on their feet and didn’t seem well suited to patrolling, but they were very sensitive to the rumblings of the earth; they enlisted the help of some mastis to pull them along in their baar wagons.

While the patrols were going on, the rest of us remained on standby in the village. Most of us gathered in the square, where we ensured our weapons and armor were in good shape, made sure to stretch so we could fight at a moment’s notice, and took care of our horses. In and among all of this we also just chatted.

My armor needed sunlight and magical power to function, and so I stood out in the sun with my arms outspread while Aymer recharged me from my helmet, and the twins helped her out to my left and right. According to Narvant, I didn’t need to stand in any particular way to recharge my armor, but the twins saw things a bit differently.

“We have to be doubly sure!” said Senai.

“What will you do if you don’t have enough power when you really need it?” added Ayhan.

They were pretty stubborn about it, but I knew it was because they were just worried about me.

“When the time comes you go out there and you slay all the dragons, okay?” said Senai. “And any other monsters you find along the way too!”

“Don’t let any of them get away!” added Ayhan. “You have to kill all of them!”

I have to admit that the sentiments were encouraging, but their choice of words was probably Alna rubbing off on them.

“You hunt all the dragons and you make us lots of money!” Senai demanded.

“All of them!” echoed Ayhan, driving the point home. “The wild baars will be in so much trouble if a stray dragon is out wandering the plains!”

All this came as a bit of a shock to me and my old war buddies, but for the onikin it was just common sense. I was feeling pretty awkward, while Zorg and all his warriors were grinning and praising the girls.

“You’ve both grown into fine, upstanding young women,” said Zorg, pride in his eyes as he smiled at the twins.

It was then that I heard the familiar flapping of falconkin wings as one returned from the north. Aymer scurried into my armor, Zorg and his warriors all hopped onto their horses, and the twins backed away to safety. Klaus and the domain guard all stood in formation to await further orders. The cavekin were still on patrol with the mastis. Patrick and the paladins all quickly ran to my location, followed by Sulio and the lionkin. Peijin-Do was with them too, covered in dark brown clothing from head to toe with just a single opening for his eyes and all his shortswords ready by his sides and on his back.

Our forces were ready.

“We’ve seen something at the mountain!” reported Riasse as she landed. “Something is coming up from the ground!”

As soon as she finished, I began my march. The villagers watched me go, with Uncle Ben and Fendia offering prayers and Lady Darrell wishing me good luck. In contrast to their gloomy expressions, however, the grandmas all had big old smiles.

“Get out there and show that dragon who’s boss!” said one.

“Don’t forget what Maya told you!” added another.

“We’ll throw a banquet when you get home!” whooped another.

We all continued north, and after a time Bianne arrived with an update.

“It’s not just a dragon we’re looking at,” she said, sounding nervous. “There’s a large number of creatures the likes of which we’ve never seen! They’re chasing the cavekin around, and they’re en route to meet you as fast as they can!”

“Alna! Zorg! You’re on support for the cavekin!” I shouted. “Klaus! Joe! Lorca! You and your guys go on ahead!”

Klaus and the others were by my side, and it seemed that the air around us had roused in them old memories and experiences. Juha was the type to always think things through, even in an emergency, but I gave my orders by instinct. I said what felt right, and then I thought it through as we fought. This time, too, it seemed like I’d made the right call, because nobody spoke up to voice their concerns—not even Aymer.

The goblins were slower than the rest of us, and I didn’t like the idea of leaving them behind. That’s why I sent the fastest of us ahead, followed by the next fastest. The rest of us would meet with them in battle.

When the goblins and I caught up, we weren’t quite at the mountains. There was still grass around and baar wagons riding over it acting as protective barriers for Klaus and the others as they fought. I couldn’t quite believe what I was looking at when I approached our enemies.

The goblins all threw themselves into battle with everything they had, their spears thrusting wherever the monsters happened to move. The monsters at first struck me as a beastkin of some sort. They were just little guys that stood about as tall as my knee, and they were covered in green skin. They had pointy noses and ears, and their hairless faces were scrunched into wicked grins.

“That disgusting miasma...” Aymer spat. “They’re monsters, all right!”

Well, now there’s no mistaking it, but still... Just what kind of monsters are these critters? I haven’t ever seen any monsters like these little guys. More importantly, where’s the dragon?

“Have at you, monsters!”

“So this is how hideous the monsters of the surface are, huh?”

“But they’re wimps! All of them, wimps!”

“Oh god of the sea, watch as we honor your name in battle!”

“Damn, bro! These new spears are crazy!”

“Ha ha ha! Take as many heads as they give us!”

In contrast to my confusion, the goblins threw themselves into the fray with gusto. There were a least a couple hundred of the monsters, so I steeled myself as I leaped into battle with my axe held high.

Battle was upon us, and it was not long before I realized that the green-skinned critters were a most annoying foe to have to face. After taking down a handful of them, I realized first that yep, they were small, and they weren’t particularly strong. Their size, however, allowed them to move with great agility, and unlike other monsters, they also wielded weapons. Little more than wooden stakes and rocks—items they had probably picked up somewhere, by the looks of it—but the weapons granted the monsters considerable power when swung at full force. You could not take them lightly.

But the little critters were also smart...or perhaps I should say cunning? They moved completely differently from any monsters I’d faced thus far. They were capable of fighting in groups, similar to how wolves fought in packs, but because they were smaller they could hide themselves in the long grass and utilize their weapons as projectiles.

Weapons were swung and sent flying, and the creatures were always quick to pick up what was thrown, so they were almost never without arms. More than that, morality meant nothing to them from what I could see—they even used their dead friends as shields. If the means led them to victory, then the little critters would take it.

Each critter was weak on its own, and indeed, one swing of my battle-ax could take out several without a hitch, but their overwhelming numbers and amoral cunning made them a force to be reckoned with.

But were the critters able to push back the forces of Baarbadal?

No, they most certainly were not.

Klaus, Joe, and Lorca had all fought together for many years, and teamwork was like breathing for them. Their experience also meant that they were very used to being outnumbered. For these guys, it was just another day’s work. The onikin, led by Alna and Zorg, ran their horses around the outskirts of the battlefield, picking off any little critter that peeked its head out of the long grass. It just didn’t matter how good the critters were at hiding, really—they were playing a losing game when they were up against the onikin sensor magic.

And the onikin horses? They were, in a word, magnificent. Any critter who dared get too close was stomped to death or missed its target entirely because of how deft the onikin were on their steeds. With Alna issuing orders from moment to moment, the attack-and-evade strategy worked wonders.

“Zorg!” shouted Alna. “We don’t have enough arrows for a force of this size!”

Zorg responded with a fearsome battle cry that roused his fellow onikin to action. They changed tactics, shifting from their bows to a full-on stampede, plowing through the battlefield. They were careful not to impede their allies as they stomped little critters to death.

Thanks to the monsters being small in stature, they were easy pickings for both the goblins and the dogkin, who made perfect use of their weapons, their armor, and—in the case of the goblins—their scales to gain a strong advantage. The lionkin, too, fared well against the little critters, having spent so much of their time here training with the dogkin.

And the cavekin warriors? Well, they just...did what cavekin do, I guess. They didn’t care one lick about any of the monsters’ attacks. Clubs, claws, teeth—none of them had any effect whatsoever, but when the cavekin hit back, it was another story completely.

I’d been worried about the paladins, but as it turned out, monsters were the archenemies of the gods, so they went hell for leather, bashing in skulls like it was a competition they were intent on winning.

Huh... So I guess the only one having a really hard time with these critters...is me.

I could take the critters out with a swing of my axe, and I could blast away any attacks with my armor, but truth be told, using all my might to swing my axe just wasn’t terribly effective against the army of little monsters we were up against, especially given the fact that they were pretty good at dodging it. Their diminutive size also made it easy for the critters to circle to my blind spots.

I switched to my hand-ax and picked off the critters one by one, but if I’m being honest, it felt like more work than it was worth. All the same, though, I swung my axe, I swung it again, and I kept on swinging it. I couldn’t help wondering if this was what Grandma Maya had meant when she said I was going into a difficult battle. Because in a sense, it really was difficult.

But where the heck’s this dragon she told us about? These little guys can’t be a dragon, can they?

“My lord!” shouted one of the cavekin. “It’s likely that these monsters were simply living in the cave systems beneath the mountain and were driven to the surface by the dragon!”

“So the dragon is still on its way?” I asked.

“We don’t know if it’s on its way up or it’s waiting for you deeper down! We don’t even know if more monsters will emerge along with these little bastards here! One thing I can say for sure is that a dragon’s going to be a handful if we have to juggle it along with these at the same time!”

I racked my brains, thinking about what to do, and it was at that very moment that some ten little critters pounced on me, hoping to hurt me while my attention was elsewhere. But an instant later a single shadow fell, slicing them into pieces before launching a shortsword at the critter nearest to me.

“Lord Dias!” cried the shadowy figure, who I realized was Peijin-Do. “I’ve scouted ahead, and I’m here with a status update!”

I had thought it weird that he’d suddenly vanished, but apparently he’d been scouting ahead for us. Riasse, who had accompanied him, arrived soon after.

“A dragon has emerged from the area I reported on earlier, at the mountain,” she said. “It’s red, with a very craggy outer shell and multiple legs!”

“We think it’s an aqua dragon!” added Peijin-Do. “I’ve only ever heard about them from stories, but all its features match what we know!”

He was speaking mighty eloquently for a frogkin with swords held with not only his hands but also his tongue. Still, Riasse was in agreement with him. While I thought about what to do next, I hefted my axe outwards and started spinning with it like I’d done against the wind dragons.

Should we take out all the critters before we move on to the dragon together, or should I let everyone here handle the critters while I take on the dragon myself? Sanat said that aqua dragons live in watery areas and in mountains...

“Lord Dias! Go on ahead!”

That came from Klaus, who ran up to me to explain his reasoning.

“Everybody knows how much you love kids, so we all understand how difficult it must be for you to fight these little monsters with their childlike bodies. Leave them to us! We’ll have them done and dusted before you know it! Oh, and I think Sulio and the other lionkin could learn a thing or two from seeing your tactics firsthand, so take them with you!”

In the next instant, Lorca and Ryan had arrived to hold my position. A second later, Sulio, Leode, and Cleve were at my side. I hadn’t actually been very conscious of that whole child angle that Klaus mentioned, but it was true that I didn’t have much experience fighting kids. Thinking about it now... Yep, they really might have been the most difficult foe for me to have to face.

And if that was the case, then my next move was clear.

“I’ll join you in case you need t’get a message out t’the others,” said Peijin-Do. “Sahhi will have his hands full watching over things from above, so I’m th’best guy for th’job!”

“If it’s aqua dragon hunting you’re talking about, then we want in!” said Iberis, speaking for his goblin brothers.

That meant our dragon attack squad was set—there was me, Aymer in my armor, the three lionkin, the six goblins, and Peijin-Do. We all headed north following Peijin-Do, who knew where the dragon was located.

Peijin-Do flipped and hopped about like an acrobat, and I couldn’t believe he didn’t get tired from all the jumping. He led us to where the land met the base of the mountain, and it was there that we saw the aqua dragon. It was about as big as the flame dragon, or maybe a little bigger, and though both dragons were red, that was where the similarities ended. I stopped dead in my tracks.

Try as I might, I just could not bring myself to see the aqua dragon as an actual dragon.

“Is that a...crayfish?” I muttered. “Wait, it’s got smaller pincers, and I think it might have bigger feelers, but...I’m not going crazy, am I? That’s a crayfish, right?!”

I heard a sigh from within my armor. At the same time, Sulio and his fellow lionkin spun to gape at me like they couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“Lord Dias, that’s an aqua dragon!” shouted Peijin-Do. “Yeah, it looks a bit like them pricey shrimp you sometimes buy at th’market, but it’s a dragon, through and through!”

But even then it just wouldn’t connect in my brain. Still, I stared that giant crayfish down and raised my axe for an attack. This thing looked like it would be a cakewalk compared to the flame dragon.

“I’m going to see what it’s made of!” I shouted. “The rest of you, stand back!”

My fists gripped the axe handle even tighter as I stomped in.

“Ordinarily I’d tell you that this is a horrendous idea,” said Aymer, “but you have that charm the cavekin gave you and your set of armor, so in this case I think you marching in on your own is likely our best option, all things considered.”

Aymer had remained in my armor while everybody else had steered clear. I nodded and marched onwards.

“I don’t have any advice for how best to fight this beast, but keep in mind that no matter how it looks, it is a dragon. Do not take it lightly, and if things get dire, retreat and regroup with the others.”

I nodded again and picked up the pace, soon enough running full bore at the crayfish. With my first strike I intended to break this dragon clean in half before it could even think about doing anything else. I stayed on guard as I stepped within the dragon’s attack range. Hopping from right to left, I went for the dragon’s horns—or were they feelers?—with my axe. They broke far easier than I expected, spraying blood around as bits of shell and meat burst through the air.

“It’s...so fragile.”

The earth dragon and the flame dragon had both boasted far tougher hides than this, and I couldn’t help commenting on the fact. I felt like this was all going to go way easier than I’d first expected, but I stayed alert and cautious as I raised my axe for my first real attack. It was then that the giant crayfish opened its mouth...or at least I think it was its mouth. Anyway, it was this strange mouthal area with lots of wriggling brushlike mini feelers, and from it came the dragon’s voice—a high-pitched, ringing squeal.

I knew that Aymer would hate that sound, so I moved to finish the crayfish off quickly, but before I could...the monster’s countless legs all clicked and sprang into action, carrying the crayfish in a circle around me at an unbelievable pace.

“I don’t remember crayfish being able to move so fast!” I exclaimed.

“That’s because it’s a dragon!” cried Aymer.

I heard the words, sure, but the pieces still weren’t really falling into place. All the same, I kept my eyes on the crayfish as it swept around me, following its movements until I saw an opening. Then I let my hand-ax fly. It felt like the right choice, given how frail the crayfish was, and I wasn’t disappointed. The axe collided dead-on with its target, crushing one of the crayfish’s legs and passing straight on through to damage the next behind it. I didn’t take out two whole legs, but that didn’t matter—I called back the hand-ax and immediately threw it for another go. The crayfish was still scuttling around as the hand-ax hit again, and it let out another bloodcurdling cry.

As the crayfish screamed, its remaining feeler reached up high, and then came hurtling towards me like a whip, its sharp tip looking to impale me like a spear through an unarmored chest. The movement was fast and accurate, and it launched its feeler a number of times, all the while scuttling quickly around me.

“Glad I took one of those out of the game early!” I shouted.

The crayfish wasn’t as accurate as Klaus with his spear, but it was relentless with its attacks. It took everything I had to keep moving and evading, but then I tripped, and the crayfish’s feeler headed straight for my guts...only to be deflected by my armor.

The pressure the crayfish put on me was so great I wasn’t sure how I would have gone against two of its feelers at the same time, but I didn’t stop to think about it. My armor’s deflection had left a small opening and I leaped in to capitalize on it. I took a big axe swing at the crayfish’s legs while it tried to retreat. And when I say big, I mean I was practically holding my axe by the pommel.

Crayfish legs shattered and broke under the force of my axe, and the monster’s agility evaporated. This opened another opportunity for me to attack and I pounced on it, lifting my axe high to bash the crayfish’s skull in...but at the same time, I felt another attack on my gut. My armor blocked it for me, of course, but the shock of the impact knocked my aim off, and my axe screamed its way through a small part of the crayfish’s carapace and jammed into the ground.

What the heck was that? Did it...kick me in the gut or something...?

Thoughts raced through my mind as I regrouped, and it was then that I noticed that the broken feeler I’d cut off was healing. The crayfish was growing a new one where I’d cut the old one off, and while it was just a thin white thing with some traces of red in it, it was still whipping at me wildly. It wasn’t as long as the undamaged feeler, and it wasn’t as armored either, but with each movement, I could see it... The feeler and the crayfish’s legs were growing back. Well,they weren’t exactly growing back so much as regenerating... In any case, with each passing moment the regenerating limbs lengthened.

It was at that moment that I realized this dragon might give me as fierce a battle as Grandma Maya had predicted. But regeneration or not, my task remained. The crayfish’s regenerative abilities had to come at the cost of its strength, so I would chop it up, and keep chopping it up, until it simply couldn’t regenerate anything at all.

I knew it wouldn’t be quite that easy, and that the crayfish would be lashing out at me the whole time, but my armor would take care of the worst of it... My armor was so helpful I had to wonder how in the world I would have handled such a massive crayfish without it.

“Lord Dias!” cried Aymer. “The dragon has started using its miasma! It’s attempting to weaken you with it, but it’s not working thanks to your amulet! It would seem that I’m being protected too, thanks to my close proximity to you!”

“Everybody, get back!” I shouted to the others. “Stay clear of the monster’s miasma!”

And with that, I went at the crayfish with even greater ferocity. With my armor defending me from any incoming attacks, I could focus on attacking the crayfish every which way I could. I completely lost count of how many times I’d swung my axe, and as the crayfish’s carapace began to crack and scatter across the battlefield, its mouth opened and launched a powerful stream of water right at me.

I hadn’t forgotten that it was capable of such attacks, and I’d tried to stay ready for anything, but I just never believed that water could hit you with such sheer force. My armor repelled the water, but even then I was pushed backwards. At the same time, my armor weakened.

My armor always reacted automatically, and its magical reserves were limited. Pushing back against such a tremendous torrent of water had forced it to expend a huge amount of its reserves. If I’d had a choice in the matter, I would have just taken the blast, but I didn’t have a say in what the armor chose to reflect.

All I could see was water spraying towards me and around me, and I was at a loss for what to do. Somebody shouted something, and then others shouted with them, but I couldn’t make out any of it through all the water. Just as my armor ran completely dry of its power, something wrapped around my waist and pulled me to the side, freeing me from the dragon’s water stream.

“Get over here, Lord Dias!” shouted Peijin-Do.

It was the frogkin who’d pulled me free, and he’d done so with some deft tongue work. He’d yanked me pretty dang good too, and I couldn’t help but wonder where that strength came from.

“Are you okay?!” asked Peijin-Do, patting my armor here and there. “Are y’hurt?!”

“Thanks for the save, Peijin-Do,” I replied.

That was enough to let the frogkin know that I was fine.

“Trust you t’get out of a blast like that without a scratch,” muttered Peijin-Do. “I guess you have your armor t’thank for that? But it looks like it’s all out of the magical power it needs to protect you... If that’s the case, I’ll juice y’up. And in the meantime, we’ll leave the dragon t’the others.”

Peijin-Do glanced over at the crayfish. The monster was now under attack from the lionkin and the goblins, who were giving it a real run for its money. The lionkin weren’t attacking so much as drawing the crayfish’s attention, putting their agility to use by baiting and dodging the monster’s feelers while the goblins did the real damage with their spears.

The crayfish seemed to notice that the goblins were the greater threat and spewed water at them, but the stream only served to help them—they dove headfirst into it and swam through it to close the distance. The goblins were in formation, all looking like a giant spearhead, their tails wagging to propel them with tremendous speed.

“There’s just no beating the goblins when they’ve got water to work in...” I muttered.

The goblins all burst out of the crayfish’s water stream and straight at it, spears at the ready. The crayfish screamed as the goblins stabbed through its carapace, but it wasn’t out of the fight yet. The monster twisted and turned and swiped at the goblins with its feelers.

When I saw how the fight was turning out, I knew that this was as good a time as any to finish things. I thanked Peijin-Do for his magical recharge and charged into the fray once more. The goblins had done considerable damage to the crayfish, and it was significantly slower now. Their spears were leaving bigger holes with each stab, meaning that the crayfish’s regeneration had slowed too.

It was a chance for victory that I was not going to let slip from my grasp.

The crayfish swiped at the goblins with its feelers, all of whom rolled into balls before being slapped and sent flying. All six of the goblins landed on their feet, one after the other, and without a scratch on any of them to boot. I guess it must have been those scales they were so proud of. And I could see why—none of them wore any armor, but they took the crayfish’s best like it was nothing.

“Lord Dias!” shouted Peijin-Do from behind me. “When I pulled you from th’water stream before, I boosted the strength o’my tongue and my hands with magic! But I gave you all I had—I won’t be able t’do that again! Be careful out there!”

By the time I heard him, I was already head-to-head with the giant crayfish, bringing my axe right up to its face. The crayfish responded by crossing its feelers defensively in front of itself, but those puny sticks weren’t going to stop my battle-ax, which plowed straight through them and into its shell proper.

The crayfish let out a bloodcurdling scream, at which point I felt something happen. I couldn’t place it, but the air seemed to change. The lionkin, who’d circled around behind me, started to gag as they tried desperately to put some distance between themselves and the crayfish.

“It’s the miasma again!” cried Aymer. “The dragon is releasing it in huge quantities because it knows it’s in great danger! This is far more intense than any of the other dragons we’ve seen! Your amulet’s protecting me, but this could be fatal for the others. You must get the goblins to safety!”

“Iberis! Peijin-Do! Get clear! Now!” I barked, raising my axe on high once more.

I heard their footsteps retreating into the distance and knew that they were safe. The fate of this battle sat on my shoulders now, and I let the weight of that responsibility fall with my axe. A bump grew from the crayfish’s head, and my axe collided with it, breaking the armored bump into pieces as it was knocked off course.

I couldn’t believe it. The crayfish had shown us that it could regenerate itself, but now it was showing us it could focus that ability into a single point. I thought it was a right pain in the ass.

I wrenched my axe out of the ground and, using that momentum, launched an upwards swing at the crayfish. The crayfish tried to respond by attacking me with its feelers, but the magic of my armor repelled them and my axe drove straight through the monster’s jaw, sending pieces of it everywhere.

I wondered why the crayfish hadn’t simply hardened its body again, but in a moment of clarity I realized that it might not be able to attack while it regenerated. Regardless, I lifted my axe up again and held it at the ready while pieces of stray carapace were flicked away by my armor. But just as I was about to bring my axe down, the monster launched another water stream at me.

I knew that my armor was pretty much spent, and that I couldn’t rely on Peijin-Do for another recharge, so I leaped backwards, letting the water stream propel me out of danger. I could tell from the first burst of water that the attack lacked force and weight over long distances, and so I let it throw me into a roll and put some distance between myself and the crayfish.

“Now!” shouted Iberis. “You think a little miasma’s going to stop us?!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the goblins were at it again, diving straight into the crayfish’s water stream in the hopes of landing another attack on our foe. The crayfish, however, had learned from experience and stopped the stream.

“Ha! You’ll have to do more than that!” boomed Iberis. “We’ve got spells of our own, crafted especially to save our own from torrents!”

The water at the goblins’ feet seemed to swirl and move all of its own accord, forming into a pillar that they dove in and used to race skyward. When they reached a right impressive height, the pillar slowly arced over the crayfish’s head, and the goblins flew downwards, attacking the monster’s head and body.

I hadn’t known that they could control water or create water flows, but the goblins sure had some impressive skills. The crayfish didn’t have any way to defend itself from attacks from above, so all it could do was shake and squirm to try and force the goblins off. This was easier said than done, however, because the goblins’ spears were in deep, and a few of their stabs looked especially damaging, because the crayfish’s movements grew very sluggish.

Unfortunately, the goblins were no better off. They’d launched their attack through a ton of miasma, and some of them let go of their spears and tumbled backwards, falling off the crayfish’s back. When I saw them struggling to hold on, I sprang into action. My armor was all out of charge, but there was no time to worry about it.

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, launching my hand-ax and swinging my battle-ax, and this time I managed to hit the crayfish square in the face, crushing its head under the weight of my blow. The crayfish would have blown me away with another water blast, but it didn’t have the energy for it thanks to the work of the goblins. I figured it had spread its miasma to buy it time to regenerate, but without that time it couldn’t shoot any more water. It couldn’t regenerate its feelers, and it couldn’t reinforce its carapace.

As the life faded from the crayfish’s eyes, it glared at me, and the two of us screamed as I let my axe come down once more upon its head.

My battle cry and the crayfish’s scream filled the air at the same time, but the monster’s outburst was cut short when my axe split its head clean in two. The energy faded from its body, and its miasma evaporated and disappeared. With the air clearing, the goblins regained their strength and were able to pick themselves back up. They pulled their spears free and circled the crayfish, stabbing it a few more times in the back and sides to make sure it was dead.

Even then, however, the crayfish remained still. It didn’t make so much as a squeak, and I let out a relieved sigh. The battle was over. I was drenched but otherwise uninjured. Aymer was in the same boat as me, naturally. The goblins were all exhausted but none of them were hurt. I turned to check on Peijin-Do and the lionkin, and thankfully they were all fine too.

There was some back-and-forth, but all in all, I feel like that dragon didn’t give us all that much of a fight...

It was right as this thought crossed my mind that a voice emerged as if from within the crayfish’s corpse. It was like the crayfish’s squeal, but it was different, as if it came from elsewhere.

“There’s another one?!” I exclaimed. “Everybody, get clear!”

I was so shocked that I practically screamed my orders. Everybody did as I said, but we were all on tired legs, and the fastest we could move was a slow jog. We could all hear the clicking and clacking of crayfish legs as the new monster crawled out from inside the one I’d just slain.

The crayfish had been very quick at the start of our battle, and if the new one had that kind of speed, it would catch us in no time even if we were on horseback. I knew what I had to do, so I stopped where I was. I would buy time so that Peijin-Do and the others could get to safety.

Peijin-Do saw me and shouted, but all the same he kept moving. The lionkin all gritted their teeth and followed suit. Iberis and his goblins all looked on the verge of tears, as if they couldn’t forgive themselves for what was about to happen. But all of them backed away, slowly but as fast as their legs would carry them. I watched them go, then turned back to face the oncoming threat.

“Grandma Maya told us that this would be a hell of a fight,” I muttered through gritted teeth, “and this is what she meant. But I haven’t forgotten what else she said: If I stand my ground, I’ll win this thing. So I’m going to stand my ground, and I’m going to make this happen.”

It was then that I noticed the goblins weren’t moving. Peijin must have felt it too, because he turned to them and shouted.

“Iberis! I know you don’t like it, but now’s the time for falling back! Stick around and you’ll only get in Lord Dias’s way!”

The lionkin paused for a moment, scared, and it was then that the sound of hooves echoed through the air. It seemed that the little critter monsters had been taken care of, and the rest of our forces were arriving to join us. But even then, all I could do was stare down the second crayfish as my brain scrambled to find a path to victory.

I knew that any horse that was hit by the crayfish’s water blast would be thrown through the air. There was every chance it could end in a bad injury, both for horse and for rider. But with Alna and the onikin with us, we could also get the goblins to safety... I struggled with the decision.

Should I call the horses to us, or should I order them to stay back?

Or perhaps Alna and the onikin could fire at the crayfish from a safe distance? Their arrows might well be sharp enough to pierce the monster’s fragile carapace. Could one well-aimed thrust from Klaus run through the crayfish’s brain? Or perhaps the cavekin’s stamina and axework might give us an advantage?

Is the best option for me to pull back with the others then?

Everything around me slowed to a near halt. It was like being in a dream, my thoughts moving at a pace far faster than the rest of the world. I considered every possibility I could imagine, and when my brain felt like it was going to burst, I felt it—a shaking from the bowels of the earth and a tremendous rumbling as something rushed towards the surface.

For a moment, I wondered if it was the coming of another giant turtle. Or was it a third crayfish? I didn’t think I could handle having any more to think about, and I was on the verge of screaming when the crayfish caught up to me, opening its mouth wide to crunch me within its jaws.

But before it could, a huge white shape exploded from the ground, directly underneath the crayfish. It was fluffy, fuzzy, furry, and far bigger than the crayfish—just its head alone was as big as I was tall! The two rounded horns on the creature’s head plowed upwards, right into the crayfish’s belly.

A fierce, heavy bleat roared through the sky. With it were two shocked cries—one from the crayfish, and one from me.

Peijin-Do, the lionkin, the goblins, Alna, the onikin, and even Sahhi cried out too, but so loud was the bleat of the white creature that their voices were like whispers, if that. The white creature let out a second deafening bleat and leaped skywards, carrying the crayfish with it and tearing it in half. The crayfish’s legs were squirming like crazy in a desperate attempt to escape, but by then it was already decimated. With its body crushed completely, the crayfish died as its body split and shattered, falling all over the place.

With pieces of crayfish still raining from the sky, the white creature—a baar of utterly gigantic proportions—gracefully landed from its incredible leap, and with dignity seeping from its every pore, it faced us.

“Baa,” it said.

Offering what felt like only the slightest acknowledgment in our direction, the giant baar then used its horns to once more burrow into the earth. The sound shook us down to our bones, but in a matter of seconds the baar was gone, leaving us to simply gape at its handiwork.

With the Fierce and Difficult Battle Over

As I’d assumed when they arrived on the scene, Alna and Klaus had wiped out the little critters that the crayfish had driven to the surface. It was pretty much a flawless victory, as none of our soldiers came away with anything more than scratches and bruises. With the battlefield cleared of enemies, they’d made their way to where I was to support me against the crayfish proper.

“This ain’t nothing like the magic and technology that we cavekin use,” muttered one of the young cavekin warriors, who was investigating the gaping hole that the giant baar had left in its wake. “I know it had to shovel through the ground to get here, but honestly there’s supposed to be much more in the way of evidence of that. None of the earth down there looks banged up or damaged, so all I can surmise is that maybe that giant creature used some kind of spell we cavekin don’t know about.”

“Hmm... But I haven’t heard anything at all about baars being able to use magic of that nature,” I commented. “I mean, it’s weird enough the thing just popped right out of the ground in the first place. Certainly doesn’t strike me as the work of an ordinary baar that just happened to experience the mother of all growth spurts.”

I looked around at the hole and the battlefield, which was strewn with pieces of crayfish. Aymer leaped from my armor to survey things for herself, but even after hopping around to investigate she didn’t have much in the way of answers.

“The twins have spoken of something living in the earth beneath the plains,” she said. “They said that trees don’t grow here because it’s sapping the energy from the earth. I wonder if perhaps it was that baar of unusual size that was living down there, drawing on the energy of the plains.”

“Something drawing on the energy of the plains, huh?” I muttered. “And then there’s that baar-thing that showed up when we felled those other dragons. Didn’t it tell us something similar? And come to think of it, when I last talked to the onikin about it, Zorg told me that whenever dragons appeared in the past, they’d used their concealment magic and fled. They never actually took them down.”

“Hmm? The onikin?” asked Aymer, confused. “What?”

“I asked about it when Zorg told me that the black ghee population was getting out of control. He told me that dragons are a somewhat regular occurrence on the plains, but the onikin always hid and waited for the threat to pass. He said that with enough time, the dragons would just leave... They seemed to think that the kingdom’s forces took care of things, but I don’t think that would have been possible during the war. So that got me thinking...just who was dealing with those dragons?”

I’d been curious, but it wasn’t something I could dig around and get an answer for, so I’d let it slide. With everything that had happened just moments ago, however, a possible answer just kind of slipped into place for me.

“So I’m thinking that it’s probably that giant baar that’s been handling the dragons,” I continued. “When I took them out in its place, it sent that baar-thing to us with tokens of its appreciation, like the sanjivani plant. The baar-thing told us that its master needed to heal its wounds, or something to that effect. Maybe its master was that giant baar, which had gotten injured in a big battle with a dragon before we arrived, and that’s why it was drawing energy from the plains.”

I took a deep breath to collect my thoughts, then continued, “If you consider just how long the plains have been like this, then you have to assume that every year, every time a dragon came along, the giant baar fought it and won. But it would have been hurt each time, so it always had to keep drawing on the plains for energy. Maybe it had gotten to the point where things were slipping away from it.”

Aymer sighed.

“I certainly see some sense in your theory,” she said. “Baars originate from these lands, and perhaps their continued existence is due to that giant baar we saw. That would make it a protector of the entire flock, and not unlike a god, I suppose.”

One of the mastis who was helping to collect all the scattered dragon pieces overheard and stopped to comment.

“Of course it’s a god!” boomed the young dogkin. “That’s the whole reason the temple worships baars, ain’t it? You can bet your bones I’ll be praying at the temple every day, offering my prayers to that baar who protects us all from dragons!”

The masti’s voice echoed across the immediate vicinity. All I could do was chuckle, really. The whole baar thing was Uncle Ben’s idea, and it wasn’t like he’d come up with it because he really thought there was a baar god. I thought I should try and explain that before it got out of hand.

After all, between Uncle Ben and me, we understood the importance of temples and their teachings, but we were both a bit skeptical when it came to the actual existence of higher beings. Naturally we felt a little bad about using any so-called gods for our own convenience, but we did so because we believed it was the right way to spread important lessons.

I mean, if there really were gods, then the world would have been a way more peaceful place to live in. My parents wouldn’t have been killed, the war never would have started, and the world as I knew it would have been a whole different place.

So while I thought that having a place for prayer and life lessons was important, I wasn’t the type to go for blind faith. Uncle Ben had come up with the baar idea on his own, but I felt pretty confident that we were on the same page. Still, I wasn’t really sure how best to convey that. And before I could, other voices around the battlefield started to speak up.

“The baar god aided Lord Dias in his time of need! All hail the temple!”

“I’m so glad I’ve been praying each and every day!”

“I only saw things from a distance, but boy oh boy... God is gigantic!”

“I saw it! I saw it! I’m going to tell everyone as soon as we get back!”

“That’s Lord Dias for you! The guy fights shoulder to shoulder with the gods themselves!”

“God loves Iluk Village! No, the whole of Baarbadal!”

“I was way up in the sky when it all went down, but damn that thing was huge!”

It was the mastis who were going the hardest about it, but I could even hear some of the domain guard and falconkin speaking up too. Even the onikin couldn’t hide their excitement, though I could tell by the unfocused looks in their eyes that they were still trying to process everything. Peijin-Do, the goblins, and the lionkin were wrapped up in the moment as well.

“Gonna have t’tell pa all about this!” ribbited Peijin-Do. “A domain made safe and secure by none other than an actual god! Grassy plains that need not fear any dragons! You can bet those resident applications are gonna come floodin’ in! But I gotta admit, I never thought I’d ever see such a thing with my own eyes... I’m on the verge o’tears!”

The goblins were quick to comment after.

“Whoa... Whoa...! Can you believe we just encountered one of the surface world’s gods?! Right after going toe-to-toe with an aqua dragon?! Our tale of adventure has just gotten itself the best ending ever, boys!”

“It’s a story that’s going to be told for centuries, maybe longer!”

“We gotta be back home, like, yesterday! I gotta tell my folks about this!”

“For a god of the surface to boast wool and not scales... Ha! Makes sense!”

“And talk about powerful, bro! That was a war god if I ever saw one!”

“Ha ha! Oh mighty god of war! God of the surface! Share our brave deeds with the god of the sea, I beg of you!”

Then there were the lionkin.

“Are you serious...?” uttered Sulio. “The gods actually...exist?”

“I’m joining all the others at the temple,” added Leode. “Every. Single. Day.”

“We just stumbled across the tale of all tales to take back to Lord Eldan...” said Cleve.

The excitement just would not die down. The onikin already had a deep bond with the baars, but they were going to treat them even better from now on. Some of the Iluk warriors said they were going to start taking their whole family to the temple.

Before I could say a word to stop it, it had already grown beyond anything I could stop. Aymer must have seen the look on my face, because she hopped up on my shoulders to offer me a few words of encouragement.

“All’s well that ends well, wouldn’t you say? It’s up to each individual what they choose to believe and whether or not they pray, and we can certainly rely on Uncle Ben to calm everybody down and point them in the right direction.”

Aymer seemed to think I was very lucky that Uncle Ben was my uncle, because he wasn’t the type to twist this sort of a situation to his own advantage. She said that rulers and governors of domains were fortunate when they had the backing of the local temples.

“Uncle Ben is extremely sharp and very capable,” she continued. “Even before this happened he had given the temple shape and started to recruit help. And to think he chose baars for us to worship... It’s almost as if he knew that this was going to happen! It’s truly astounding!”

I was on board up until that last bit, and I kind of just looked at her. She saw what was written on my face, and then she fell silent too. We stayed like that until Alna ran up to us.

“Dias! That’s two dragons in one day! Best believe we’re throwing a banquet tonight!”

One of the young cavekin was right behind her.

“Lord Dias!” he said. “This dragon material is fantastic! It’s light and delicate, for sure, but it’ll be very easy to work with—and it’s water resistant! We’ll be able to make good use of this for our future waterways and ships! The only downside is that we don’t have enough for a big ship, but beggars can’t be choosers, you know what I’m saying?”

The overall joy exploded from there and, well, it was like the definition of a perfect day. To everybody gathered, we’d had a great loot haul, we were throwing a huge banquet, and we’d literally just met a god.

And with that, everybody split up to see to their jobs with renewed vigor and then some. Some went about collecting scattered materials, some took apart the two crayfish, and some relayed messages back to Iluk. Aymer and I watched them for a bit, then pocketed our doubts about Uncle Ben and went about our own work too.

With the battle over, we returned to Iluk with a triumphant swagger in our step. All of us who had fought took off our armor, washed our bodies, changed into clean clothes, and assembled in the village square. The moment Peijin-Do arrived, his son was there to greet him.

“No fair, dad! I wanted to see god!”

Peijin-Do shot his son a wry grin, put his hand on the boy’s head, and knelt down to look him in the eye. He told little Doshirado that if he was a good boy, one day he’d see god too, and that the Beastkin Nation had its own gods. But even that didn’t satisfy little Doshirado, who stomped his feet until Peijin-Do picked him up and held him softly. It seemed like that was exactly what the little fella wanted, because his eyes narrowed as he smiled. I watched them as I held a hand out over our recently acquired carpet.

“A childbirth carpet, huh?” muttered Zorg. “Who would’ve thought it’d actually heal injuries though...”

People were lined up at the carpet, healing whatever scratches and bruises they’d received fighting them little critter monsters, and Zorg still couldn’t quite believe it.

“A childbirth carpet?” I replied. “When did you start calling it that?”

“Huh? Everybody’s calling it that,” Zorg shot back, looking shocked. “I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, but I can’t argue with the proof now that I’m seeing it with my own eyes. Does it heal animals too? Like say, horses for example?”

“I’ve never tried, but I reckon it would,” I said. “I don’t think the carpet discriminates.”

“Then let me try it out, yeah? Hey!” shouted Zorg, calling out to the other onikin. “Check for any horses with injuries! I don’t care how minor, just bring any wounded horses over!”

The onikin looking after the horses in a corner of the square brought over a horse that had a small cut on its chest. We had it stand on the carpet, and when it did the edges of its cut shuddered. Zorg wiped the blood away with a finger, and the cut was gone.

“Dias, I gotta ask,” said Zorg. “If any of our onikin get seriously injured or if our horses get hurt somehow, can we use this carpet to help them? When a horse gets badly hurt, more often than not our only option is to euthanize it. But if there’s a way to save them from that fate, I’ll take it every time.”

“We’re making a point of not using the carpet as part of our war strategies, but I don’t mind at all if it’s used in the aftermath of monster attacks, or unexpected accidents and the like,” I replied. “All I ask is that you send along somebody who can help to charge the carpet—it relies on magical energy to do what it does. But person, baar, horse, or goat, if somebody or something you care about gets hurt, you just say the word, Zorg.”

“A little magic for a lot of healing? That’s a good deal, Dias. But rest assured I’ll make it crystal clear to everybody back at our village that they’re not to come whining to you with any minor bumps or bruises... We’ll only come to you in times of emergency.”

All the onikin standing together with Zorg cheered, and I think they might have been even more happy at the carpet deal than when they saw a god with their own eyes. But that just made it all the more clear to me how much the onikin treasured their horses. It was only natural that they’d be overjoyed.

A little while later, Goldia trudged over to me.

“Dias, I’m here to talk about the materials you ended up with after the battle,” he said. “You sure you want me to sell practically all of it, then split the proceeds between everyone who took part in the battle?”

“Yep,” I replied. “We’re going to send one of the dragons’ magical stones to the king, as usual. The other dragon stone and the stones in the critters can be given to Narvant and the other cavekin. Everything else you sell can be split between our people—Zorg has already agreed to the deal on behalf of the onikin. It was their efforts to fight the little monsters that bought us time to take down the dragon, and I want them rewarded for their efforts.”

Goldia crossed his arms. He had his thinking face on, and he stayed silent for a moment.

“Look,” he said finally, speaking slowly, “that’s going to be a lot of coin. The materials aren’t that tough, and they’re not as useful as some of the other stuff we’ve handled, but they do come from an aqua dragon. Them living in the water means they aren’t seen very often, and there aren’t any tried-and-true methods for hunting them in the open seas either. What I’m getting at is, aqua dragon materials aren’t just hard to come by—they’re once-in-a-lifetime loot. Collectors will spare no expense.”

“What are you trying to say? That’s great, isn’t it? Everybody’s going to be well rewarded for their efforts, then. It’ll help make all the struggle worth it. Now, I’ll leave all the actual selling to you, but if you need any financial support, take the materials to Eldan and he’ll fix you up.”

“Ha! Handle a rare material the value of aqua dragon parts wrong and you’ll be up to your neck or drowning before you know it. The guild’ll be careful, and I don’t expect us to fall into the red. I’ll do exactly as you asked.”

And with that, Goldia trudged off in very much the same way as he’d come. By that time, all our beaten-up soldiers had healed themselves on the carpet and it was vacant, which the baars took as an invitation. Fran and the other five young baars all piled on and the little scratches on their faces from playing around and being outside all healed right up. Now, the carpet wasn’t to be used for such minor grazes—I mean, you could barely even call them scratches, let alone injuries—but I’d left the opening for them, so I figured it was at least partially my fault too.

This got me thinking about the baars who, at least in Iluk Village, were now in the position of seriously, actually being the messengers of a baar-like god. None of the baars acted like that was the case—they were still the baars they always were—and all of us with a long-standing connection with the baars still treated them like we always did. But the same couldn’t be said for our visitors, like Peijin, the lionkin, and the goblins, who now looked upon the baars with a certain respect and even reverence in their eyes.

So with this in mind, I didn’t feel like I could scold the young baars on the carpet. It would have killed the mood a bit considering we were about to throw a banquet celebrating both a dragon slaying and our encounter with a giant baar.

“Check this out!” shouted Narvant, stirring me from my thoughts. “Wine cooled to a delicious chill!”

His explosive voice sounded very pleased, and when I turned to it I found the cavekin carrying a pot that he must have kept in the storage cellar. I wasn’t the only one who heard him, however—for all of the people who’d been fighting under the heat of the summer sun, chilled wine was a godsend. Naturally, people flooded to Narvant in an instant.

“We’ve got honey-infused fruit juice over here!” Senai called out, and then, mimicking Narvant, she added, “Cooled to a delicious chill!”

“Delicious as it is refreshing!” added Ayhan.

The twins had enlisted the help of a few dogkin to help them carry their pot from the storage cellar. All our fighters who weren’t big drinkers were quick to head over to them with cups in hand. While everybody was getting their drinks, the grandmas put out food with some assistance from the dogkin, and carpets were laid out for everybody to sit on. The banquet started in earnest from there, and it wasn’t long before the village square was lively and boisterous.

The residents all ate, drank, sang, and danced. And because we’d slain two dragons, the cooks had gone all out on the food. It was fancier than usual, and there was way more of it.

As for the drinks, there was a good stockpile in the storage cellars, and no matter how much people drank it seemed we’d never run out. We had cooled tea, and to my surprise we had chilled herbal tea as well. Alna ordered that it be served to those who were especially tired or hurt, and when that resulted in screams, Alna doubled down and personally made sure that people drank their fill.

Our new magic carpet healed injuries, but even then it was possible that people had gotten poisoned or infected like I had when I’d fought the wind dragons. That was what Alna was worried about, and I think Fendia and the paladins too, because they helped her pass it around and made sure people drank it.

Everybody was in a joyous mood, and the goblins all sat together in a circle with cups of cold wine. They all drank down their cups in turn, starting with their leader, Iberis. They did one round, then another, then a third, and then they all collapsed onto their backs, starting with their leader, Iberis. Klaus ran over to them in a panic.

“Ah, they’re just sleeping,” he said, relieved. “But their cups are so small, they didn’t actually drink all that much... I suppose it’s just a case of the goblins not being able to hold their drink? Which makes sense, when you think about it—I mean, they wouldn’t drink in the ocean, would they? And maybe they were pacing themselves at the welcome party we threw for them? I guess this time they were just swept up in the atmosphere... They must have been eager to celebrate too, huh?”

A moment after he spoke, a number of young cavekin swiftly moved in to care for the goblins, gently lifting them up and carrying them to the yurt we’d put up for them. The cavekin knew liquor inside out, so I had to imagine they were pretty good at looking after drunks. I had every faith in them, as did everyone else, and so the banquet went on.

In time Francis and Francoise came to join us, taking the young baars on the carpet by the scruffs of their necks and placing them on their backs. Then they walked on over to the plates we’d prepared especially for them, piled high with the white grass that they so loved.

About a Month Later in Mahati—Eldan

The news spread across Mahati like wildfire: Dias had once again fought dragons and emerged victorious. Not only that, but two of them—and aqua dragons, no less. What’s more, he had been aided by a god of massive proportions, and a temple had since been erected to spread its new teachings.

As the news crossed the entire domain, none were happier than Mahati’s own lord, Eldan. He was nothing if not pleased to learn of Dias’s recent achievements, but he was even happier to hear of the new teachings that had arisen from them. For Eldan, there was joy...and there was relief.

In the royal capital, the popularity of the modernists was on the uptick and gaining fast, but their teachings did not fit well with Eldan or his domain. The modernists preached discrimination and subjugation of the demi-human people, and Eldan could not allow such beliefs in his home. Further discrimination would only bring about a crueler world than the one he had wrested from his father, the former Duke Kasdeks.

But even knowing this, Eldan had been at a loss for what to do. He hadn’t the slightest how to push back against the modernists. But then, just like that, the answer seemed to fall into his lap with Dias’s most recent escapades. It was as if a helping hand had graced him from the heavens.

The arrival of a god in Baarbadal and a temple worshipping it would not solve Eldan’s problems in one fell swoop. However, having Dias as the face of the new temple was a huge advantage—the man was a national hero and a dragon slayer, and he counted even a fundamentalist priest among his own relatives. This would do more for Eldan than he could have ever done on his own.

When Eldan’s mother had sent Sulio, Leode, and Cleve to Baarbadal, she had done so largely on a whim, but this decision, too, proved most meaningful. They were envoys who had fought by Dias’s side during his recent battle and seen the god for themselves firsthand. This lent the news more credibility.

As thanks for Mahati’s support, Dias had sent Eldan a portion of aqua dragon materials. Eldan thought it likely that not even the king himself had something so valuable hidden in his treasuries. Aqua dragon materials were worth mountains of gold, and while Eldan was thankful for the gift, he was far more thankful for the fact that he could make his support of Dias’s new temple official.

And if the modernists had anything to say about Eldan’s decision, he would respond thusly:

How could I offer anything other than total support after receiving a gift beyond almost any known value? For me to choose anything else would require that I reply to Duke Baarbadal with a gift of a similar value—a value I assume your temple will shoulder.

But the temple under modernist control was known for its greed, and Eldan knew they would never take on that responsibility. Instead, they would give him his freedom, at least for the time being.

“And now this horrid burden that has plagued me is finally gone!” Eldan cheered.

His shouting came suddenly, and unexpectedly in a place like his office, but Juha and Kamalotz said nothing, knowing full well the burden of which Eldan spoke. All the same, the sheer force of the young duke’s voice caused all the papers neatly placed on his desk to go flying.

About the Same Time, in the Beastkin Nation

The most recent news of the day—centered around one of Sanserife Kingdom’s frontier domains—shocked the people of the Beastkin Nation. It was amazing to hear that a new god had appeared in the kingdom, and conversation buzzed as people tried to look into the veracity of the stories they’d heard. But it was not long before the population came to accept the stories as truth and welcomed them.

One reason that the news was so quickly accepted was culture. In beastkin lands, there were already countless gods. For every tribe and every race there were different gods, different faiths, and different legends. These myriad legends often featured multiple gods, at that, and beastkin scholars could not settle on an accurate total number, try as they might.

So for many in the Beastkin Nation, one extra god in the mix was nothing to complain about. For others, the fact that the news had originated from none other than Peijin-Do was a decisive factor. He was a merchant to his core, but he was known for regularly putting people over profits, even at his own expense.

Peijin & Co. boasted many shops across the lands, serving all varieties of goods. There was no denying Peijin-Do was a frogkin who knew how to make money, and it put him on good terms with his fellow merchants. At the same time, his propensity for generosity earned the trust of his many customers.

More importantly, all of this pointed to Peijin-Do being a man who did not often lie. His words came from a place of honesty, and so if he reported to the king himself that he had seen a god appear to the north of Baarbadal, then that was enough to convince most.

The final reason that the news was accepted and welcomed by the beastkin people was because it had happened in Baarbadal. Rumors had already been spreading about the place—it was friendly to beastkin and demi-human alike despite being in a human nation. Even its lord was married to a demi-human and proudly boasted two demi-human children. It was also earning a reputation for the way in which humans and beastkin lived and worked in harmony.

Many had already heard of Duke Baarbadal’s recent feats and how, during the earth dragon invasion, his forces had fought to aid the Beastkin Nation, saving many of their people and asking for nothing in return. Duke Baarbadal was a man of character, and he was even on friendly terms with the councillors Kiko and Yaten. It was hard for many to believe that he was a domain lord at all, given what the beastkin knew of the kingdom’s other people of high standing.

So was it any wonder that the beastkin people were open to the idea that a new god had appeared in Baarbadal and that it acknowledged the efforts of a duke who sought harmony between races? To them, the new god had smiled upon Dias because he had brought people together, and his nation was one in which everyone supported one another.

Many even believed that this was a chance for the Beast King’s authority to spread farther east and deeper into Sanserife proper...

In any case, it was this news that spread the reputation of both Duke Baarbadal and “the Big Baar” throughout the Beastkin Nation.

About the Same Time, in Sanserife’s Royal Capital

Rumors had swirled through the royal capital of late. Some said that the recent increase in dragon activity was the work of some conspiracy. They said that it was the nation’s heroic savior, Dias, who was fighting to see the people behind it crushed. They were convinced that the king was involved too, as Dias never failed to send a magical stone to the king with each new dragon slain. Another rumor even spoke of a god appearing before him.

Most of the rumors had no basis and were little more than tales told over drink, but the slaying of dragons was fact. The king himself had acknowledged them, stating that Dias had indeed slain multiple dragons, including the aqua dragons spoken of most recently. The problem was that further rumors grew out of these truths, making the facts very difficult to pin down.

For rumormongers and lovers of tall tales—of which there were many—the truth mattered little. It was the stories they lived for, and the stories they enjoyed. But some took these rumors far too seriously—including some among the nobility—and this made for issues. These nobles knew that the first prince had aligned himself with the temple modernists, and they believed that Dias—a nouveau riche if ever there was one—stood in defiance of the nation’s current teachings. He did not respect the temple modernists.

Richard, Helena, and Isabelle had all been able to keep their own followers under control, but there was no such control over those who had formerly served the now disbanded factions of Diane and Meiser, and their voices grew louder. However, as minor nobles and mostly social outcasts, their influence was trifling at best, and they settled into a disparate, if annoying, collective.

Still, these nobles refused to be quiet. They used every connection they had to make contact with others, attempting to draw allies to their cause. It was their hope to found a new faction, but in these efforts they failed.

Some among them, however, achieved an audience with the king.

Alas, their words fell on deaf ears.

“Dias is allowed his authority,” declared the king. “He is a duke, and a duke is allowed to act as he sees fit. He may snub the temples if he so wishes. He may snub even the prince. And should he choose to build a temple of his own, he may. A duke is allowed certain freedoms, and that includes getting carried away or getting up to a certain amount of...mischief. That is what it means to be a duke, and should you have any complaints, then your recourse is to show such fealty that you are awarded equal rank.”

Rather than admit defeat, these nobles somehow then earned an audience with the prince in question.

Once again, their words fell on deaf ears.

“Call Dias’s behavior ‘snubbing me’ if you will,” said the prince, “but it is far more bearable than having the likes of you waste my precious time with your stupidity. I leave matters of faith to the temple.”

In desperation, they bought themselves time with Duke Frederick Sachusse.

“When my lands were on the very brink of falling to the enemy, where were you?” asked the duke. “Did you know that while he was still a commoner, the duke risked life and limb to save my people? To save me? Did you know he was fighting on the front lines? I may never have as much gratitude for anybody as I do Duke Baarbadal.”

Then it was over to Count Erling Sigurdsson.

“What in the world do you expect me to do? I’m just a count! What good could it possibly do you to pit a count against a duke? While it is true that we have our differences, I daresay the bigger problem is your attitude. And for the record, Princess Helena is currently working very hard on a theatrical play based on the aqua dragon slaying and a song praising the new god. I ask kindly that you refrain from disturbing her.”

While the nobles could not know if the count or the duke spoke from the heart, no amount of complaining or money could change either man’s stance. In any case, one had distanced himself from the temple’s modernists, and the other from Prince Richard—what were the nobles even hoping to achieve in approaching the duke and the count?

Despite these setbacks, the loud, belligerent, and misguided nobility maintained their failed crusade. As they failed to secure allies, they ran out of steam, and most believed they would fade like a candle at the end of its wick. But it was at this moment that an individual approached them, saving them from their otherwise inevitable extinction.

About the Same Time, at the Great Temple in the Royal Capital

“Drat... How does a mere frontier lord muster up so much attention...?”

The room was, in no uncertain terms, opulent. It was decorated with gold and silver in abundance, its floor covered edge to edge with hide and carpets, its tables stacked to the ceiling with wine bottles and glasses. The men in the room all wore priestly attire and held glasses of wine in their hands. Some were grouped at the shelves, others lazing on the sofas, but none of them held themselves in the way expected of a priest.

“But was it really the work of the duke? Are we certain it’s not mere rumor?”

“News came by way of the guild. They’re handling the sales of the aqua dragon materials... They have some connection to the duke.”

“That damned guild! Again?! They’re nothing more than a gang of orphans!”

“Don’t forget Bendia... I was wondering where that washed-up loser went, but to think it was the frontier...”

“The man’s pilgrimage ended in failure. I doubt he’s capable of anything of worth.”

“But it does stink of his touch, if you ask me...”

That was as far as any meaningful conversation got, because soon the wine was talking for them. Spirits rose, thoughts dulled, and in the end the priests lost their senses almost entirely in their drunken revelry.

A Few Days After Slaying the Aqua Dragon—Dias

“So I was thinking, Uncle Ben,” I said. “With us spreading these all new teachings, which is to say, the baars’ lessons, won’t we end up running straight into the modernists at some point?”

A few days had passed since we fought the giant crayfish, and I was at the temple. I’d thought to ask Uncle Ben this question because our temple was really lively now—the villagers flocked to it.

“We might,” replied Uncle Ben, his gentle smile showing that he wasn’t worried. “But I’ve already worked out what we’re going to do should that happen, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Now, it’s true that the old teachings are a bit outdated, but the saint knew this was the case and had prepared for it. The real pity of it all is that he never had a chance to put those contingencies into action. Still, it did give me a chance to learn a whole lot and devise teachings that better suit the times. Let’s not forget that I’ve been on a pilgrimage myself, which is an advantage for us. And with you constantly receiving the blessings of the god here, and having met the almighty face-to-face, we’re in a good place, Dias.”

“So that’s your thinking, huh?”

Uncle Ben’s pilgrimage had been no easy journey by any means, but he hadn’t actually reached the holy lands or brought anything back with him. I wasn’t sure his pilgrimage was actually all that much of an advantage. Still, I figured that Uncle Ben being Uncle Ben, he saw something that I didn’t.

Then there were Fendia and the paladins, who had served as priests for many long years. They didn’t have any reservations about where Uncle Ben was taking us, so I figured that yeah, we probably were in a good place. And besides, I didn’t have any particularly good ideas of my own, so I figured I’d just trust Uncle Ben to steer us in the right direction. With that load off my shoulders, I reached up high, gave my back a good old stretch, and let out a sigh.

Then I spun and started back towards the village so I could see what was going on there.

Afterword

As usual, I’ll begin with thanks.

Thank you to everyone who had supported the story all this way and to everybody following my work on Shosetsuka ni Naro. Thank you for all the letters too! Thanks to all of my editors, the typesetters, Kinta for the illustrations, and the book designer. Thanks to Yumbo, their assistants, and their editors for bringing the Frontier Lord story to life in manga form.

I really, really can’t thank you all enough! You’re the reason we have volume 11 and the reason we’ve reached 1.7 million books sold!

In this volume we met with all new characters! They might not look like goblins, but the name does come from the goblin shark. Now I know what you’re thinking. “But they don’t look like goblin sharks either...”

You’re just going to have to forgive me for that one.

The goblins are going to be key players moving into the future. We’ve got water, we’ve got seas, and Baarbadal’s going to need allies to get there. In that sense, you can almost group the goblins into the same category as Eldan... I think together we’ll see them do some wild stuff out there in the world.

The aqua dragon that the goblins helped Dias fight was modeled on a Japanese spiny lobster. You can actually write its name in Japanese in two ways: 伊勢海老 is more common, but you can also write it as 竜蝦. 竜 happens to be the character for “dragon,” so yeah... Turns out it’s a dragon.

I mean, yeah, okay, I hear you.

“Who’s going to get that joke?”

But we had dragonflies in the past, right? So I figured I could slide this gag in there too. As for whether we’ll see another aqua dragon down the line, that’s top secret, but I’m sure we’ll see dragons of some sort or another. Imagining how Dias might take down another dragon is great fodder for the imagination too.

So, the next volume... Volume 12. We’re going to see more work from Uncle Ben and his priestly partners. The arrival of the giant baar has sent waves across the entire continent, and things are starting to stir, even outside of Baarbadal.

We’ll also see the movements of a group who’ve had their eye on Baarbadal... That’s sure to be something.

In any case, thanks as always for joining me on Dias’s journey, and I hope you’ve had a blast!

I hope to write you all again at the end of volume 12!

Fuurou, Early spring 2024

Bonus Short Story: Travelers from the Deep Blue Sea

Watching Over Everyone by the Lake—Dias

The day after we fought the two giant crayfish, Iberis set out early in the afternoon for the lake we’d visited with Alna last summer. He’d had his eye on doing some fishing. The goblins were used to hunting fish by diving in the water, so none of them had ever fished the human way before. When I explained to them how I usually caught fish, Iberis thought it would be a hoot, so I took him out to try.

The rest of Iberis’s gang were all still resting and recuperating after the battle, or otherwise looking after the livestock they didn’t have access to back home. They were all having fun or relaxing in their own ways, and so it was just Iberis who wanted to go fishing. It wasn’t just the two of us though. There were Senai, Ayhan, and a bunch of other kids too. While Iberis was standing with his fishing rod at the edge of the water, the kids all peppered him with questions about the ocean.

“The ocean is vast, let me tell you,” said Iberis. “And there’s more than just fishkin living there. It’s home to countless creatures and peoples. There’s no such thing as nations over there—we function more in terms of territory. Most of the ocean’s inhabitants live where the flow or temperature of the water meets their needs. But also, the ocean is as deep as it is wide—and maybe even deeper still. None of us even know just how deep the ocean’s deepest trenches go, because none of us have been to the bottom. It’s a whole other world of unknowns even to us.”

The kids were glued to Iberis’s every word. This was a place they’d never heard of and never imagined—a place as deep as the ocean ever got, so deep that no surface dweller could ever dream of reaching it. And yet even the goblins, who could move as freely in the water as they could on land, weren’t capable of getting there. I was cleaning my own fishing gear while I was listening, and I thought this was really strange, so I asked Iberis why that was.

“No light gets down that far,” replied the goblin, “and our gills don’t work that deep either. If you push yourself to go any deeper, the water gets so heavy it starts to crush your body. It’s a pressure all its own, and even our strongest warriors don’t last more than an instant before they want out.”

All the fishkin at first thought that the deepest parts of the sea were like the wasteland—uninhabitable—but sometimes the tide brought with it creatures from the deepest depths.

“Big mouths and bigger heads, and you’d be hard-pressed to call them animals as we know them,” said Iberis. “The shrimp don’t look like shrimp, the crabs don’t look like crabs, and I don’t think anything could survive down there without magic or miasma. Some say that the deepest part of the ocean is the only place you can experience true silence.”

With no way of understanding what kind of world existed down there, the fishkin could only imagine how animals survived down there. Naturally, this made for lots of far-flung theories, crazy ideas, and hopes and dreams. And even though they knew it was impossible, some fishkin still did their utmost to plumb the depths in the name of exploration.

“Those explorers are adventurers not unlike me and my buddies,” explained Iberis, “but I reckon we’re at least a little more realistic. If you ask me, it’s much better to explore a place with potential—like the surface—than it is to push against the wall of the impossible and hope that you’re the one who’ll crack it open.”

Iberis then flashed the kids a grin.

“Whoa! That! Is! So! Cool!” cried Senai.

“Adventurers are awesome!” cried Ayhan.

All the other kids joined in as well to express their amazement, and Iberis’s grin grew wider.

“Now, you might hear what I’m telling you and think that the ocean is a dangerous place, but it’s not always so bad. In the ocean you’ll find beautiful sights the likes of which would take your breath away.”

Iberis described seas that sparkled a jade green in color and oceans so clear they were transparent. He said that in the deep blue oceans lived creatures that only enhanced the natural beauty of the places they called home.

“You know what coral is? It grows from the ground like plants on the surface, and while it’s a living creature, it doesn’t move. It’s hard as rock, and it comes in all sorts of vibrant colors. There’s red, yellow, blue, purple, and there’s coral that’s a color I can’t even describe. It groups together like trees in a forest, and it’s such a beautiful sight I don’t think any scholar or poet could express such a thing with words alone.”

But according to Iberis, in addition to the coral were fish, jellyfish, turtles, crabs, and shrimp sharing the same environment, all of them in vibrant colors of their own.

“They dance in the water like it’s their stage,” said Iberis, “and you can only ever see such sights in the ocean. So if you ever find yourself down my way, rest assured that I’ll give you a tour you’ll never forget!”

The kids’ eyes all lit up when he said that. All of them wanted nothing more than to see that indescribable beauty for themselves. Iberis had done a truly bang-up job of tickling their spirit of adventure, that’s for sure.

“Hmm... Come to think of it, when adventurers get to their destinations, they usually have a gift for the princess they meet,” muttered Iberis. “That’s just adventuring 101. So look, I know this isn’t anything especially impressive, but I want all of you here to accept these in the spirit of my pledge to you.”

Iberis reached down for the pouch at his waist and pulled from it what looked to be a red branch—so pure a red I didn’t think there was any other color mixed in. It was bright and glossy but felt not unlike glass; it twisted very much the way tree branches did, but at its tips it faded to almost white. It was beautiful, like a jewel.

Is that coral?

I was thinking about actually asking my question when Iberis picked up a nearby stone and broke the branch without so much as a second thought. Then he calmly took the best bits and handed them out to each of the kids. I was worried that just destroying the thing would devalue it, but it seemed to Iberis that giving an equal amount to each kid was far more important. Admittedly, I felt a bit awkward about it, but the kids didn’t care one bit.

“Wow! Thanks! It’s so pretty!” cried Senai.

“Thank you! I’ll never lose it!” Ayhan cheered. “I’ll treasure it forever!”

All the other kids were just as quick to express their gratitude. Seeing them all so happy made Iberis even happier than them, I reckon. Then he glanced over at me with a mischievous glint in his eye that asked if I wanted a piece too. I just shook my head—this was about the kids, not me.

Iberis burst into laughter at my response, a full-throated laugh that showed off all the pointy teeth in his giant maw. I hadn’t ever seen him smile or laugh like that before, but right then his fishing rod almost bent in half, and it creaked like it was going to snap.

“Ah! Ahhhh!” he shouted, gripping the rod tight in his hands. “Is it a fish?! Have I caught a fish?! Look at the ferocity of the thing! I can feel the desperation through the string and the rod! It’s feeding straight into my hands!”

The fish was a big catch, and it struggled against the rod with everything it had. Unfortunately for the fish, though, Iberis knew life in the water better than any of us, and it was all too easy for him to read the fish’s movements and keep it under control. This was a battle, and one Iberis knew he was going to win.

“Whoa! It’s got some kick, this one!” he shouted. “As strong as anything from the ocean, I reckon! And... Now!”

That was when Iberis gave the rod a quick, powerful tug. The fish at the end of the line came flying out of the water and—perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not—landed right in the woven basket we’d prepared especially for any caught fish.

The kids exploded into excited cries and laughter. Having seen Iberis at work, they all wanted a go and snatched up my fishing rod before racing off a little ways to find a place to catch a fish of their own.

“Make sure you don’t fall in!” I shouted as they ran.

“We won’t!” the kids shouted back.

And having killed his fish while the kids were distracted, Iberis was already back to casting his line.

“Well, I guess if we’re out here fishing, there’s no better time to talk about what the best eats are, huh?” he chuckled. “The ocean is full of countless bounties, my friends, and it’s a vast world of flavors out there. But there is one fish in particular that is especially delicious...”

And in just a few moments, our traveler from the deep blue sea had the kids hanging on his every word all over again. The kids simply adored these stories of worlds beyond their own, and our basket filled with fish as Iberis regaled us. By the time sunset hit, everyone was filled to the brim with the spirit of adventure.