Текст книги "Overlord Volume - The Two Leaders"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

“Enfi!”

Enri immediately scooped up the toppled Enfi, crying out as her face turned pale. Cona quickly rushed over, and peeled Nfirea’s eyes open with his fingers.

“…He’s just asleep. If you leave him like this until noon, he should be all right.”

“Enfi… what am I going to do with you?”

Enri was thinking that she should return Nfirea to his own bed. So she hefted him onto her back, and began heading out, leaving behind such conversational gems as “Shouldn’t their positions be reversed?” “Nemu-san, you can’t say these things… “ “Ani-san, you…”

After the wheat was harvested, the tax collectors would come around the village.

Enri was obviously worried about how she was going to explain the presence of the goblins in the village.

Should she say they were summoned beasts, or that they were her henchmen, or maybe she should say…

Enri had the feeling that they were always concerned about her.

It wasn’t limited to worrying about her safety, they were thinking about her feelings too. What could she do for these goblins?

What could she do for these rowdy and reliable new members of her family…

♦ ♦ ♦

Using the still-clean back of her hand to wipe off the sweat trickling down her neck, Enri bundled up the weeds she had just finished cutting. The large pile of shredded plant matter gave off the fragrance of freshly-cut grass.

Her body was tired from working long hours in the field and the way her sweat-slicked clothes clung to her body made Enri uncomfortable.

To lift her mood, Enri stretched herself out.

As she did, her eyes swept across the sprawling fields.

The wheat they’d planted had grown slowly but steadily, and as the harvest season approached, the wheat would slowly turn golden. Although a wheat field painted gold was a beautiful sight, the weeding work before that was both essential and annoying. If it wasn’t done, that golden field would also be a very lonely one.

Her labour now was entirely for the sake of the harvest to come.

She straightened her body to let her stiff muscles loosen, and to let her tightly-wound body relax. The wind felt refreshingly cool on her skin that had been overheated from long hours of field work.

The wind also brought the sound of a commotion from the village to her ears.

It sounded like something banging on something, and shouts for getting people to combine their strength as one. These were sounds that had never been heard before in the village. At this moment, the village was working to turn all manner of plans and ideas into reality.

Of these plans, the ones with the highest priority were the wall surrounding the village, and the construction of the watchtowers. It went without saying that all these were projects were intended to turn the village into a fortress.

Carne Village stood at the edge of the Great Forest of Tob, and the forest was the home of many wild beasts, or in other words, dangerous territory. It would be impossible to live in peace without the protection of sturdy walls.

However, Carne Village was laid out in neat rows of houses radiating from a central square in all directions. Without anything like a wall in place, anyone could easily enter the village. Until recently, the village had been peaceful and the wild beasts did not enter, even though it was right next to the forest.

That was because the mighty creature known as the Wise King of the Forest had continually expanded its sphere of influence, and as such, no beast dared move around in the forest near the village. So the village defenses were comparable to a wall of steel.

And then, all this changed due to human intervention.

The knights of the Empire attacked the village and killed her parents. As a result, nobody in the village held on to the hope that things would go back to the way they used to be.

In contrast, the goblin troop leader, Jugem, had proposed the fortification of the village as a countermeasure against such a scenario. Once he mentioned that the goblins would be unable to protect the village if it was attacked again due to lack of their number, the motion immediately received unanimous approval from all parties concerned. This was because even now, many of the villagers were still having nightmares that woke them from their sleep.

The first step was to dismantle the unoccupied houses and use them to build a wall. Of course, those materials were insufficient on their own, so they would have to enter the forest to cut down trees for lumber. Since entering the forest’s depths might mean encroaching on the Wise King of the Forest’s territory, their harvest area had to proceed along the outskirts of the forest toward the distance.

Naturally, the goblins were the ones who provided security for the wood-cutting villagers.

As a result of them taking on that task, the villagers’ distrust of the goblins had almost completely disappeared. Part of that was because human knights, who were of the same race as themselves, had attacked them. Even if they were of the same race, they had tried to take the villagers’ lives. In contrast, the goblins worked under Enri to contribute to the village, even though they were of a different species. The decision of which side to trust was no longer one which could be easily settled by deciding along racial lines.

And the most important reason was that the goblins were strong. They could serve as warriors to take on the duties of sentries, and when people were hurt, the goblin priest Cona could heal them.

It was difficult to despise goblins like these.

In this way, the goblins managed to establish themselves in the village in just a few short days and quickly became an indispensable part of village life. This could be seen from the house the goblins lived in; no consideration had been made of the fact that they were from another race, and a large house had been built close to Enri’s own home in the middle of the village.

Although the villagers and the goblins had worked together on the village defense plan, there simply weren’t enough hands to make the work go quickly. As such, in the beginning they had only built simple fences.

As fate would have it, the Wise King of the Forest, who kept the monsters at bay from the village, became a follower of a certain black-armored warrior and abandoned its territory. Although they had managed to complete the fences with great effort, the villagers could not take joy in their accomplishment, but instead sighed about their rotten luck.

However, a sturdy wall now defended the village.

The cause for this turn for the better was the labor wrought by the stone golems that had been brought to the village by the beautiful maid that served the village’s savior ― Ainz Ooal Gown.

Golems were inexhaustible constructs; when given an order they would silently execute it, and their strength far outstripped that of a human being. Although their lack of dexterity meant that they could not perform certain tasks which required precision, their participation in the work had enabled it to proceed with an unbelievable speed. With the effort of the unsleeping and untiring stone golems, the construction of the wall practically flew along.

They could accomplish the tasks which the villagers and goblins could not, such as chopping down trees and transporting them in large quantities, digging pits, or laying the foundations for the walls. What should have taken years to accomplish in theory had instead been finished in a matter of days, and the constructed wall was even bigger and sturdier than expected.

It wasn’t just the walls either; even the construction of the watchtowers had been sped up. Their current task was to complete the watchtowers on the eastern and western flanks of the village.

“Ane-san, I’m done here.”

Enri’s thoughts were interrupted by the goblin assisting her in the weeding, a goblin called Paipo.

“Ah, thank you.”

“No, no, it’s nothing Ane-san should thank me for.”

Although Paipo waved his dirt and grass-stained hands to ward off Enri’s thanks, Enri still felt that she owed the goblins a debt that could never be repaid.

After losing her parents, Enri was in a dire situation, where tending her family’s plot by herself would be impossible. She wanted to ask the other villagers for help, but given the overall lack of manpower in the village, it was already hard enough for every household to take care of their own crops. With the help of the goblins, that problem was easily resolved. In addition, she was hardly the only one the goblins had helped.

Turning to the direction from which her name was called, Enri saw a busty woman standing by a field. Beside her was a goblin.

“Thank you so much, Enri-chan. Because of Goblin-san’s help, the field work’s almost done.”

“Really? That’s wonderful. It was their idea to help out with the village chores, so if you want to thank someone, you should thank them.”

“Ah, I’ve already thanked Goblin-san. He said that he was only your subordinate, so he hoped that I would thank Ane-san as well.”

Hearing the word “Ane-san” made Enri furrow her brows, which was quickly followed by faked laughter to drive it off.

The goblins themselves had suggested that they should help the households who had lost farmhands in the attack, and the woman before her was one of those people.

There was no way the villagers would shun the contributions of the goblins. In Carne Village, the opinion of the goblins was so good that statements like “goblins are even better neighbors than humans” were commonly heard.

“Speaking of which, are there any other goblin-sans around? I wanted to treat everyone to a meal as thanks.”

“The others should be patrolling the village or helping the people who just moved into the village. But since obaa-san asked, then I’ll make sure to tell them.”

“Then I’ll leave that to you, Enri-chan. When the time comes, I’ll make sure everyone gets to enjoy a feast made with all my skill. In the meantime, I think I’ll make lunch for Goblin-san first.”

“Really? Then, since I’ve been invited, it would be rude to refuse. Ane-san, though I’m sorry that I can’t join you, I’ll be having lunch at Morga-san’s place.”

Enri nodded, and the woman headed back to the village with the goblin in tow.

“If the newly-arrived people realised that you guys are not bad people, that would be great.”

“Well, a lot of them didn’t look happy to see us. After all, in their hearts we should be the enemy.”

“Apart from our village, treating demihumans as the enemy is the norm, right…”

“That’s why we’re sending so many people to help the villagers with their work. It’s not easy.”

“But, but we’ve cleared up a fair bit of their suspicions. I just saw how they can greet you normally.”

“About that, well, quite a few of these people are like the villagers and have memories of family members who were attacked and died. Or rather, the memories they bear might be even heavier than that.

Although Carne Village had been devastated by the attack, about half of the villagers managed to survive. On the other hand, a lot of the other villages which had been attacked by knights had lost a large portion of their people.

When Carne Village began taking in immigrants, many of the ones who came were survivors of those villages.

The two of them fell into silence.

Enri stretched her waist once more and looked to the sky. Although the lunch bell hadn’t rung yet, it seemed like it was about time. They had worked enough of the field to take a break as well.

“Then, shall we have lunch?”

Despite his scary looks, Paipo managed what was instantly recognizable as a smile.

“That would be great, Ane-san’s meals are always delicious.”

“Oh, they’re not that great,” Enri replied, slightly embarrassed.

“No, no, I’m serious. Helping Ane-san in the fields is one of the most hotly contested positions among us. That’s because we get to eat your delicious lunches.”

“Ahaha, then should I make lunch for everyone as well? Like breakfast?”

There were quite a few reasons why it would be hard to. For instance, there was a difference between lunch for three and lunch for twenty. Just slicing the vegetables would become a chore in itself. In addition, she had to make sure everyone had sufficient portions, which would be a tiring task. That said, in comparison to the amount of hard work the goblins had put in and the praise they had received in turn, it was nothing at all.

“Oh, no, we couldn’t impose on you for that. Plus, enjoying Ane-san’s handmade lunch is something like a special privilege for the one who wins the right to help you.”

Enri could only smile back in response to the diminutive demihuman. Although she knew the goblins decided who would take the job via rock-scissors-paper, Enri didn’t know if she was cooking something that actually deserved all the praise.

“Then, shall we break for lunch?”

“Ah, it’s wonderful…”

Paipo’s words were interrupted halfway as he looked to the distance with his keen eyes. With a deep breath, the formerly relaxed and cheerful little demihuman became a veteran warrior in an instant. Enri followed Paipo’s eyesight into the distance.

What they were looking at was a goblin riding a black wolf. They seemed to glide across the plain as they approached the village at high speed.

“It’s Kiumei…”

Of the goblin troop that Enri had summoned, twelve were level 9 goblins, two were level 10 goblin archers, one was a level 10 goblin mage, one was a level 10 goblin priest, two were level 10 goblin wolf riders and one was a level 12 goblin leader. In total, there were 19 goblins.

Kaijali from this morning and Paipo who had helped with the chores were level 8, while Kiumei, who was wearing leather armor and carrying a lance, was a level 10 goblin wolf rider.

The goblin riders’ job was to patrol the plains and act as scouts. The riders periodically returning to the village to deliver reports was a common sight.

”…Looks like it.”

However, Paipo’s tone was very somber. It made her think that something bad had happened.

“What’s wrong?”

“…He’s back a little early. He should have been prowling the forest today… did something happen?”

After hearing Paipo’s explanation, a surge of unease rose in Enri’s heart, and she feared that some bloody disaster awaited them.

While the two of them waited in silence, the large wolf Kiumei rode on arrived in front of Enri. From its rapid breathing, she could guess how much of a hurry he had been to get back here.

“What’s the matter?”

Hearing Paipo’s question, Kiumei bowed to Enri from on top of his wolf while replying, “Something’s happened in the forest.”

“…what?”

“I’m not too sure, but I think it’s like before. A whole bunch of unknown guys are moving towards the north.”

“Are they knights?”

Enri unwittingly interrupted the two of them. Even though she was powerless to change anything, she still could not ignore the conversation. She still could not forget her fear when the village had been attacked.

The “whole lot of unknown guys heading north” they talked about was referring to the tracks they found of thousands of people on the march to the north. Although the prints were similar in size to those of humans, they were made by bare feet, so in the end they had concluded that those people were not humans.

“I don’t have any conclusive evidence, but I think it’s different from that time. If you ask me, I’d say something’s happening deep inside the forest.”

“Is that so.”

Hearing that, Enri couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

“…Then, I’d better go report to the boss.”

“All right. Thanks for your hard work.”

“It’s a pleasure to serve.”

After waving to the two of them, Kiumei spurred his wolf on and departed. Enri and Paipo watched him enter the slowly-opening village doors.

“Then, shall we go back, too?”

“Yes, let’s.”

After washing their hands beside the well, Enri and Paipo had just reached home when they heard a young girl’s voice.

“Welcome back, onee-chan.”

Along with the voice came the sound of rock grinding against rock. Following the sound to its source, Enri saw Nemu turning a millstone behind the house.

A pungent smell came from the millstone. Although it was similar to the smell that had clung to Enri’s hands just before, it was several times more intense, enough that one could smell it from some distance away.

Nemu was used to the smell, which was all well and good, but Enri’s eyes almost teared up as the odor assaulted her. Paipo, standing behind her, seemed unaffected in comparison. It remained to be seen whether that was because the smell only had an effect on certain species, or because it would be terribly rude to make a face like that to his mistress’ little sister.

“I’m home. How’s things? Did you grind it up like I told you?”

“Mm, I did. Have a look.”

Following Nemu’s line of sight, she saw that the herbs that she had piled up before she had left the house had been reduced to a small handful.

“Aren’t I great? There’s not much more left.”

Before she had left the house, Enri had asked Nemu to help her grind the herbs into a paste. That was because some herbs had to be dried to be preserved, but others needed to be shredded to be preserved.

“Uwah, Nemu’s been working really hard!”

Enri opened her arms to praise Nemu, and a smug expression blossomed on Nemu’s face. Whether she had been praised by Nfirea, or simply because she wanted to help her sister out, Nemu had diligently and quickly accomplished her tasks.

Herbs made up a major portion of Carne Village’s income. It could be said to be the one specialty export that didn’t require much manpower for a frontier village .

Given that it was a crucial method for them to obtain valuable currency, all of Carne Village’s residents knew at least a little about herbs and where they grew.

Enri silently considered for a moment. The herbs from Carne Village were incredibly profitable. However, they could only be gathered within an extremely short window of time before the flowers bloomed, and could only be treated as a temporary income at best. Although all the places they knew had been fully harvested, if they just delved a little bit into the forest, they might be able to find clumps of herbs which had not yet been touched.

Of course, those woods were where the wild things were, and they were hardly a place where people like Enri could just stroll into for a picnic. However, now they had the goblins and Nfirea's broad experience as a herbalist. If only she could get their help, they should be able to make a great deal of money.

After some hesitation, Enri spoke of her plan to Paipo.

“I want to go to a new place to pick herbs, could you come with me?”

Logically speaking, there was no need for Enri to go herself. All she needed to do was to ask the goblins, who could take care of themselves, to go into the Great Forest on her behalf. However, the goblins she had summoned had a strange weakness.

That was to say, they had no aptitude at all for herb-picking, butchering animals, and that sort of work.

Similarly to how they handled cooking, even if one handed goblins a sample of a herb, they would not be able to match it up with identical herb in front of them. The surprising thing was, it was as though they were born unable to do that sort of thing, or even learn it, as if someone had removed the capacity to do so from them.

Therefore, if they were assigned to pick herbs, the goblins needed to have someone else with them.

“It should be all right, but it might be a little difficult for Ane-san to come with us.”

“Hm? Why’s that?”

“Well, like Kiumei said, there’s some kind of change in the depths of the forest. If that’s the case, the inside of the forest would be in a state of chaos now.”

Seeing the surprised expression on Enri’s face, Paipo patiently explained himself.

“Even the cautious ones would want to expand their territory. If that’s the case, then for a while, their territory is going to overlap with the others, and that’s going to cause all sorts of havoc. Simply put, the chances of meeting a monster’s going to increase, and so will the danger. And if you’re unlucky, you might even run into something outside the forest. Ane-san’s fearless and cool, but there’s no need for you to personally walk into danger.”

“Is that so…”

Although she wasn’t quite sure about the fearless and cool part, that was probably the goblins way of talking her up among themselves, Enri thought.

“There was also that big movement earlier. What happened there?”

“I don’t know. Originally, we should have sent someone familiar with the Great Forest’s conditions to investigate. …but if we go, the village’s defenses will be weakened…. ah, got it! Why not hire adventurers to check it out?”

“That could be difficult,” Enri said, knitting her eyebrows. “According to Enfi, the cost of hiring an adventuring party is very high. Although the lords of E-Rantel will subsidize some of those costs, it’ll be very hard for a village like us to pay for adventurers out of our own pocket.”

“I see…”

“Collecting lots of herbs and selling them afterwards should help with one part of that problem… otherwise, all we can do is sell off the items we got from Gown-sama.”

She had received two horns from Ainz Ooal Gown. Although one of them had disappeared after she used it, the other was safely hidden in Enri’s home.

“Forget about that, Ane-san. We’d rather you just blow the horn instead.”

“Of course, there’s no way I’d sell it.”

Enri didn’t want to become the sort of despicable person who would sell off a gift given out of goodwill. There also existed the possibility that it might not even be possible to sell it off, so she decided not to do so. Even now they were still benefiting from the generosity of the maid who had brought the golems to the village. She would never commit such an ungrateful deed.

“But that’s going to be problematic. The herbs can only be gathered in this season, so although it’s a bit dangerous, I still have to…”

Enri smiled to Nemu, who had a worried expression on her face. She didn’t want to hurt the last surviving member of her family, nor did she want to pass up this chance to make lots of money. Although, when she considered her priorities, that was clearly a mistake. Rather, she should bet her life for the good of the entire village and repay the goblins who considered her their mistress.

I need to earn more money and see what kind of gear I can buy for the goblins. Full body armor looks like it could protect very well. Speaking of full body armor, there’s that gentleman in the black-colored armor… what was his name again?

Although she didn’t know how much armor and weapons cost, she was fairly certain that it wouldn’t be a small sum. At this moment, Paipo held out his hand in front of Enri, indicating that she should hold on a little.

“Erm… although this is just my personal opinion, maybe you should talk it over with the boss? Ane-san doesn’t need to make the decision so early. I don’t want to be scolded by the boss because I opened my mouth without thinking. Plus, I think Ani-san would like to get his hands on herbal ingredients too.”

Just as Enri’s troubles were filling her head, an adorable gurgling sound came from beside her. Turning to look, she saw Nemu looking at her with a frown on her face.

“Onee-chan, I’m hungry, let’s go eat.

“Mm, sorry. Then, wash your hands after we pack up. I’ll go get things ready.”

“Kay~”

Nemu’s response was full of energy. After taking apart the millstone, she scraped the accumulated green paste into a small urn. Enri returned to the house, wondering what she should make for lunch.

Part 2

Enri stood before the Great Forest of Tob. Of course, she was not alone. Beside her were the assembled members of the Goblin Troop.

The goblins were equipped with chain shirts, round shields and sturdy machetes, which hung from their belts. They wore brown-colored tunics under their armor and furred leather boots on their feet. On their belts were bags for small items. One could not say they were under-geared.

The fully-armed goblins made their final checks of their personal equipment. They topped up their waterskins and made sure their machetes were sharpened.

Everyone was well-geared, but they carried little baggage. That was because the plan was to swiftly complete their work, and not to mount a long expedition in the forest.

Not everyone in the troop was assigned to Enri’s protection. Their objective was to thoroughly scout the surrounding area and further verify the information the goblin wolf riders had collected. That is to say, they were to carefully observe the current situation within the Great Forest. In order to protect the village, the goblins had decided to scout its surroundings and the hinterlands.

Only three goblins would accompany Enri.

Them, and one more person: Nfirea. He had made his preparations too, dressed in suitable clothing for collecting herbs in a forest. With Nfirea around, the herb harvesting trip would definitely be a success.

Perhaps he had sensed Enri looking at him, and turned around, asking “What’s the matter?” Although Enri had waved her hands as though to say “nothing, nothing,” one of the surrounding goblins took notice and drew closer to Enri’s side.

He was a goblin whose body was so muscular and athletic that it would be hard for bystanders to think that he was a goblin. His torso was protected by a crude, but practical breastplate, and the greatsword he used was sheathed on his back.

This was Jugem, the leader of the goblins, named after a fairytale goblin ranger called ‘Jugem Juugem’ by Enri. As an aside, there were other named knights who did battle alongside the goblin ranger, and their names were also used for the other goblins.

“There shouldn’t be anything wrong… what’s the matter?”

“No, really, it’s fine! I was just looking at him.”

“That’s great, after all, once you’re in the forest, you can lose your life over even a tiny slip. If anything’s wrong, anything at all, you tell me.”

“That’s right, Ane-san. Just like we agreed before, we’re all scouting the forest, so if anything happens and we can’t get there in time… it’ll be okay, right?”

Jugem’s brutish face contorted with what looked like an expression of worry, and he glanced at Enri’s face. Seeing that, Enri smiled and replied to him.

“It’ll be fine. We won’t go too deep, and they’ll protect me.”

“That’s good to hear…”

Jugem followed Enri’s line of sight to the three goblins ahead of them. Then he shouted.

“Oi! You punks! You’d better not let Ane-san take so much as a single scratch, got it?!”

“Got it!”

The three goblins, Gokoh, Kaijali and Unlai, responded with a hearty shout.

“And Ani-san, you’ll be taking care of Ane-san too, right?”

Enri suddenly noticed that Kaijali, for no apparent reason, was flexing his muscles in a front double biceps pose.

“You mean I should take over from here?… kah! Of course! You can count on me to protect Enri!”

For a moment, Enri imagined Nfirea showing his shiny teeth as he radiated self-confidence through his smile. His attitude now was very different from his usual one, and to be honest it felt kind of gross. However, that was probably just his excitement about trekking into the forest.

Just like a little boy, Enri smiled, feeling like she was his big sister.

“Thank you, Enfi. I’ll be in your care.”

Strange, is he doing a side chest pose now…? What’s with that?

“Ahhh, that again… oh, about that, I prepared a bunch of alchemical items that I made myself, so leave it to me!”

After seeing Nfirea’s second sparkly smile, the smile fell off Enri’s face.

“Uh… mm. You go do that.”

“Ah, well, it’s been settled… although. Honestly speaking, even if we weren’t doing this dangerous job, this…”

Jugem turned to look at Enri, showing her a sour expression. Enri was starting to get a little annoyed after hearing this question again after answering it so many times in the village, but because he was only asking out of concern for her, she couldn’t just ignore it.

“That might be true, but the fact remains that without the herbs, we can’t get any money…”

“How about animal skins? We can get those.”

“That’s not a bad idea, but herbs are the most valuable.”

Animal pelts and medicinal herbs were in completely different price categories. The difference was comparable to that between the heavens and the earth. Granted, some especially rare animals had skins that were worth a fortune, but those were few and far between.

“If Ani-san could share his…”

“We’re combining the accounts of the Bareares and ourselves. We work together and split the benefits. We can’t just take it all for ourselves.”

Helping each other in difficult situations was a keystone of village life – as such, it was only expected that eighty percent of their income would be earmarked for the community’s benefit. This was also why greedy and selfish households could not be established, because such behavior would never be permitted. Self-sufficiency was a strict requirement.

The two of them started looking away from Nfirea, who was quietly saying, “Kaijali-san, please read the mood and stop making those weird poses…”

“If that’s the case, then it’s definitely… and like that too… well, if you lived with Ani-san, you could certainly pool the wealth… but… looks like nothing’s stopping that…”

Jugem’s words gradually lost their force. He knew that he couldn’t stop Enri from entering the Great Forest.

Although Enri didn’t want to make things difficult for Jugem and the others who cared for her, she would not be swayed from her course.

After all, she had decided to venture into the forest despite knowing its dangers because she had heard Jugem say, “We can’t repair our gear”.

Whetstones helped, of course, but caring for and repairing metal weapons required the services of a professional blacksmith. Which meant that a subtle danger threatened all the goblins. If their equipment deteriorated, it would mean their lives would be in danger. The maintenance of their battle gear was essential.

What could she do for them, who had pledged their lives to protect hers? She couldn’t just hide in safety and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Just as they had given their all for her, she too had to do everything she could for them. That was Enri’s decision.