by Fuse
“Yes, my lord!” Rigurd nodded at the idea.
They had mentioned they were affiliated with a group—the guild, they called it—that provided assignments. Maybe the guild could help us out, if Kabal provided an in. I was expecting more pushback, really, but none made itself known. Kabal and his friends were certainly kind to us before, at least. No stereotyping or the like.
I figured I could sell a few hunks of magisteel I had left to raise the money for the guild’s help. They might turn down passing monsters, but they couldn’t turn down the right price—that, or I could just have the dwarf brothers negotiate on our behalf. An orc lord would threaten the humans as much as us. We had a lot of chips to bargain with.
In fact, if we knew that humans would play a key role in this, perhaps we should send a message out ASAP. If the lizardmen were already goners, the orcs would very likely be going after human kingdoms next. And whether they could “feed” off humans or not, two hundred thousand orcs would be a life-or-death threat to pretty much any nation out there.
For now, we needed more information. That was my watchword as I continued the conference—but suddenly, Soei stiffened, wincing.
“What is it?”
“Well,” he began, “one of my Replication clones has made contact with someone who insists upon communicating with you, Sir Rimuru. What do you think…?”
“Contact? And they name-dropped me, even? Who the heck…?”
I still didn’t have many acquaintances in this world, really. Was it Kabal, maybe, speak of the devil? Nah. It took them several weeks to travel here from their home base, they said. Over a month’s round trip. Not possible.
“This contact has not given me a name, my lord. She simply seeks to send you a message, and she is quite adamant. She is a dryad.”
Everyone’s eyebrows whipped up in surprise. A pretty well-known monster, I guess.
“No!” Rigurd exclaimed. “It has been several decades since a dryad has last made itself known, has it not?”
“They have practically vanished! Why would one appear now?!”
To the hobgoblins, they were all but mythical figures. And judging by the ex-ogre Soei’s response, they must’ve been pretty high level. One who had spotted and made contact with Soei, despite how gifted he was at concealing his Replications. That proved the caliber we were dealing with. Better not get this dryad angry, then.
“All right. I’ll meet with her. Guide her over here.”
It would appear my thought was correct. Not long after I gave consent, the conference room door opened to reveal a new figure. It had not lost a second to the Soei Replicant, even when he used Shadow Motion to guide him back.
Calling her an “it” would be rude. She was a woman, and a beautiful one. Her hair was green, her skin light, her figure well toned—chiseled, even, like a Nordic goddess. Her luxuriant lips were a shade of light-blue, matched perfectly with her deep-blue eyes. She looked about twenty years old by human standards, but human she definitely was not. She was semitransparent, and any observer could tell that her body had no weight or actual physical presence.
Dryads were, indeed, descended from the fairy races, as close to a form of spiritual life as one was likely to ever witness. I later learned they served as the guardians of the treants, the living tree people that were another high-level presence around the forest. In terms of ranking, they were easily A or better—up there with Ifrit, and no doubt a terrifying presence for Rigurd and the hobgobs.
But what did she want?
The conference table was enveloped in silence. The dryads, long-lived though they were, rarely left their holy sanctuaries. They were heralded by some as the wardens of the whole Forest of Jura, and only a few lucky ones would see one for themselves. They were fabled to exact divine punishment upon the wicked—those who damaged the forests.
Benimaru and the other ex-ogres reacted much the same way as Rigurd. But the dryad didn’t let it faze her. She sized up the room for a moment before locking her eyes upon my figure.
“My greetings to you, Leader of the Monsters, and your followers. I am Treyni, a dryad. It is nice to meet you all.”
She smiled, like a bud sprouting into a flower. That was all it took for me to wonder, Am I being too wary of her, perhaps? She had a fairylike beauty, that was absolutely true.
“Um, you too. My name’s Rimuru. We can keep it casual here, okay? None of that ‘Leader of the Monsters’ crap.”
I hated nicknames enough on Earth. I didn’t want any here, so I made sure to do away with it before the rest of the room could introduce themselves.
“So,” I said, still trying to overcome my embarrassment, “what did you want to see me for?”
“Thank you. I have come here to discuss the events taking place in this forest—events which, I imagine, you all are aware. As one of the Forest of Jura’s appointed wardens, I cannot allow this series of calamities to go unaddressed, and so I have appeared before you. I do so because I hope to join in your conference.”
She nodded in turn to each of the participants before turning back to me.
Treyni, huh? A named monster, then. High level, no doubt.
“But why here?” Benimaru dared to ask. “Surely there are races more powerful than the goblins you could have turned to for assistance.”
“This is the most powerful outpost in the nearby region,” the dryad replied. “The others no longer exist, their people now affiliated with the lizardman known as Gabil. The treants are incapable of moving from location to location and thus interact little with other races. If they were blighted by an outside enemy or natural disaster, there would be little they could do to defend themselves. We dryads are granted permission to travel to the outside world only in these spiritual forms, and I regret there are but few of us… If the root cause of all this were to attack the treant community we share our lives with, we lack the numbers to provide them an effective defense. That is why I wish to tap your strength, if I may.”
She closed with another cheerful smile.
In contrast to her astounding looks, the way she spoke was oddly calming. They must have been a long-lived race, indeed—she must’ve seen a lot over the years. The issue was whether she could be believed. Someone as strong as Ifrit—several of them, living in this community or whatever—not even they could handle the orcs. Did she want to use us as bait, maybe? Or was there some other goal?
“You speak of a ‘root cause,’” Hakuro said. “Does that mean you know what is happening in the forest now?”
“I do,” Treyni responded without hesitation. “An orc lord is invading it with a vast force in tow.”
The freely given revelation plunged the conference room into silence once more.
“Should we take that to mean,” Benimaru finally said, “you have confirmed the orc lord’s presence?”
“You may. And if they were to turn their sights upon our community of treants, we have no effective way to resist them. They cannot move from where they are rooted, and their mystical magic can do little against an orc race unafraid of death. We could perhaps sear them with flame magic, rendering them into ashes, but that could backfire upon the tree people, and none have mastered it anyway. And anything more powerful than that—anything that could strike an entire army at once—would wipe the treants out with it. That…”
Treyni paused, sizing us all up before once again focusing her gaze squarely upon me.
“In addition, we have found that a high-level magic-born is working behind the scenes to support this orc lord. As dryads, we must prepare for this. We are unsure which demon lord might be behind them all, but we are not interested in letting these intruders do whatever they like with our forest.”
Her eyes seemed to sparkle even more as she spoke. As one of the most powerful creatures of the forest, Treyni exuded a presence in the room that was electric. It was like energy coursed across her entire body.
“Well, we’d like to help, but what did you want us to do, exactly?”<
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“I would like you to defeat the orc lord,” Treyni immediately replied.
This rendered everyone speechless. “Whoa,” I protested, “this monster is, like, crazy-ass strong, isn’t it? Why would someone like me have to take him on?”
Treyni responded with a quizzical look. “But the ogre mages here are intending to fight against the orcs, though, aren’t they? And you plan to contribute to the effort yourself, right? You were the one who extended a hand to save all those defenseless goblins, not long ago. I had thought you would show similar kindness to us and the treants.”
She smiled again.
I wasn’t sure what sources she was tapping, but Treyni seemed to know a remarkable amount about what happened in this forest. She must have looked at my assorted exploits in this world and concluded that I was a sort of omnipotent good samaritan. Perhaps the secluded lives the dryads led caused them to assume the best of everybody they met.
Did it ever occur to her that we—okay, I—might stab her in the back? The smile made it impossible to tell, but as our eyes met, I could feel it in my gut—this was no liar in front of me. I decided to trust my instincts.
If her story was true, we really did have an orc lord on our hands, as well as a high-level magic-born lurking around behind him. I didn’t know exactly how I could contribute to the cause yet, but if she trusted in me, I might as well repay the favor.
I took a deep breath. But before I could speak:
“Of course! To our leader, Sir Rimuru, the orc lord is no more of a threat than a passing cockroach!”
Shion stole my thunder, a bold look of determination on her face. Geez. I’m not a god or anything. Wish she could’ve conferred with me first. And why’s it already a given that I’m the one doing the orc slaying around here?
Before I could protest, Treyni gave me another smile. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Then it’s just as I have heard. I wish you great luck against the orc lord, then!”
And that was that.
I had been more or less pushed into the orc lord–slaying role by Shion, but that didn’t mark the end of the conference. We kept going, while Treyni joined us for the rest.
On the map, in the marshland area, was a wooden board with LIZARDMEN written on it. Behind it, another one marked GOBLINS. In front of it was the spot where the two different orc contingents were going to cross paths. Putting it all down on the map like this made the sheer size of the orc force stark in our minds, but my eyes were turned elsewhere.
“You know,” I said, “if that idiot from before decided to stage an attack on the lizardman HQ right now, he’d seize it pretty darn quick, wouldn’t he?”
Indeed. Gabil, the so-called lizardman envoy. If he decided to raid the lizardmen’s home turf while their main force was busy tangling with the orcs, he’d be greeted with only skeletal resistance. The caverns would be his in the blink of an eye. And the goblin forces were already in perfect position for it.
“You’re sure these are the right positions, Soei?”
“I am, sir,” Soei said. “The goblins are encamped in the plains by the foot of the mountain range. If they deploy their forces from there, they will do so right in the spot indicated.”
I trusted him at his word—but why were they just sitting around there instead of joining up with the other lizardmen? That was the thing. But I had to remind myself that I was making some pretty big assumptions, too. Gabil had no reason to attack his fellow lizardmen. The odd way he chose to position his forces gave me pause, but there was little reason to dwell on it, I thought.
“Ah, maybe I’m overthinking it. I’m kind of an amateur at this, so—”
“…No,” interrupted Hakuro, eyes sparkling. “I think you may have a point. If the main lizardman force is deployed directly in front of them, it would be easiest to try to strike from the rear. But the orcs clearly don’t have the time to try to circle behind them, and even if they attempted such folly, they could easily be attacked and routed from both sides while their lines are stretched thin. There is no reason to keep an army here.”
“But what would the point be?” Benimaru countered. “Even if the goblins defeated the lizardmen, all they’d have waiting for them is death at the hands of the orc onrush.”
“Perhaps. But Gabil seemed to style himself as a leader. He may want to seize the position of chief for himself.”
“It is possible. And really, I see no other reason for him to position his forces here.”
Gabil was certainly confident. Dreaming big. But was he really that brazen? “If that’s what you think,” I said, “if you think it’s possible, then that’s all the more reason why we can’t team up with him.”
Nobody offered any disagreement.
“Do you believe Gabil may be rebelling against his own people?” Treyni asked.
“Yeah, it looks possible, the way this map is showing it. He offered to have us join his army, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea anymore.”
“…I see. Perhaps there is someone compelling him to do this. I will investigate.”
I appreciated the gesture. But if she was covering Gabil for us, what should the rest of us be doing now?
“I would very much like to forge an alliance with the lizardmen,” Hakuro said. “By ourselves, our numbers are too low. I would hate to leave them alone and defenseless, besides.”
Nods around the table. Nobody seemed to have any concerns about that.
“But whether we have an alliance or not, we’re never gonna outnumber the orcs,” I countered. “You sure they wouldn’t just treat the offer like an insult?”
The hobgoblins seemed to view that as a problem. The ogre mages laughed them off. “Sir Rimuru, you worry far too much!” Hakuro commented. “Each one of us is as powerful as an entire army. I highly doubt they would look down upon the likes of us!”
I thought he was giving himself far too much credit. It sounded like something Gabil would say, really. But apparently, he meant it.
“I will go and negotiate with them myself,” Soei said. “Is it all right if I speak with the lizardman chief on your behalf, Sir Rimuru?”
I sized him up as he awaited my reply. He certainly seemed confident. I wasn’t sure where it came from. But he seemed worth relying on.
The map had just told us to expect a clash between orcs and lizardmen before long. Assuming that was true, we had more time to save this town than I first thought. Having a general idea of the near future helped everyone else calm down a bit, too.
“Right. So we’re gonna take two different tacks. I’ll lead an advance force over to the lizardmen, and we’ll bash up the orcs together. We’ll try to win the battle, but if it starts looking bleak, that’s when we’ll go to Plan B—where, basically, we abandon the town, regroup where the treants are, and focus on defending them. We’ll probably need to call upon human aid if it comes to that, so I’ll contact Kabal the adventurer and have them help us rub out the orc lord. He’s just as much of a threat to them as he is to us, so I’m sure they’ll step up to help. Of course, this is all dependent on forming an alliance with the lizardmen. You’re gonna be key to that, Soei. Make it happen.”
“Yes, my lord!”
Soei nodded back at me. I had faith he’d come through, certainly.
“Right! In that case, feel free to talk to the lizardman chief whenever you can. Just make sure we’re both equal partners in this alliance. Nobody’s serving anyone else!”
“I understand,” he said, then promptly disappeared, as if fading into the shadows. He works fast, doesn’t he?
“Good. Now, if Soei messes up his job, we’ll jump right to Plan B. I want all of you to be prepared for that, should it come to it.”
The rest of the room nodded in agreement.
“Thank you all for accepting my sudden request,” Treyni said, bowing low in my direction. “I will do my best to ensure this relationship is beneficial to us both.”
“Oh, no, uh, same to you,” I stammered.
So we had our orders. It’d be great if we could form that alliance, but if not, we’d have to think on our feet a little.
“By the way, Sir Rimuru, have you any interest in contacting Gabil again?”
“Hmm… Good question, Hakuro. I think I’d like to save that for Plan B, when we get to seeking human support… Hmm, but the kingdoms are gonna need time to mobilize their forces when push comes to shove, huh? You think maybe we could just tell them there’s an orc lord out there for the time being?”
“It sounds like a good idea, my lord. I will leak word to the kobold merchants. They will spread it well enough after that.”
“Thanks.”
That should work for now. They’d probably want some solid evidence about the orc lord’s birth before joining forces with us, besides.
Rigurd was already outside of our conference-room hut, carrying out my orders. Even as goblin king, he still ran around all day like a chicken with its head cut off. Things were starting to happen. It was beginning to make me nervous, but there was no point stewing over it. We had to do what we could, and right now, that meant we had to prepare.
An orc lord, though, huh? Sounded pretty tricky. Stealing people’s skills sounded awfully unfair, not that I was really one to talk. But I had been sweet-talked into confronting him, and I couldn’t disappoint Treyni now. I wasn’t at all sure about my chances, but I had made the agreement, and I’d go at him with everything I had.
If I screwed this up, I’d have no chance of carrying out the promise I made to Shizu. I had to think about the future, even if the thought depressed me a bit.
The orcish army stormed across the forest, feet stamping against the soil; entire trees toppled along the way.
