Well, the idiot was gone, but what now?
Just then,
Perfect timing.
I decided to gather everyone and hold a meeting.
The Hobgoblins —
The Dwarf,
The Kijin —
And me.
Twelve in total. The current key members.
For Construction and Manufacturing, Kaijin would speak as the representative.
Production was handled by Ririna.
For Politics, Rugurdo served as the head, with the three clan leaders overseeing the judicial, legislative, and administrative branches.
This department was still far from fully established, though…
A challenge for the future.
Military was Benimaru and Hakuro.
Intelligence was Souei.
Security was Rigul.
Right now, only six departments were operational.
Operational was a generous term — more like nominal. But we could flesh them out over time. For now, everyone was surviving without starving.
The fact that the Security department was also handling hunting-related tasks might be a problem, but still…
Come to think of it, Rigul had been doing a great job. You could call someone like him the unsung hero of the operation.
Honestly, as for the Military department, I doubt Benimaru even has a grasp of how many troops he has.
He'd only just been appointed, after all. Can't be helped.
Ririna had shown real resourcefulness. She'd brought back wild potato seeds and successfully cultivated them.
With their fast harvest cycle and high nutritional value, they were already contributing to improving our food situation.
Once we managed to establish trade with humans, I wanted to procure seedlings for all sorts of vegetables.
Construction and Manufacturing had been left almost entirely to Kaijin.
He was a blacksmith by trade, but with the arrival of Kurobei as a collaborator, he'd essentially become the general supervisor.
In terms of actual skill, their respective areas of expertise were clearly divided. Even so, Kaijin had reportedly left everything to Kurobei.
According to him, he was too busy coordinating everything right now, and once things settled down, he wanted to dive into crafting.
I hoped things would settle down soon.
Shion was my caretaker? I wanted to rethink that, but for now, assigning her anywhere else left me uneasy.
For the time being, I'd keep watch and wait.
And then, Souei.
That guy was something else.
I'd appointed him as a Ninja, and he took to the role way too well.
He created shadow clones and sent them out in every direction.
His abilities were supposedly reduced, but there were apparently no movement restrictions. Six clones, deployed without limits.
Even the reduced stats of each clone — when he said they were lower, it mainly meant HP and MP dropped to about a tenth. Movement speed and attack power remained unchanged, apparently…
His clones seemed to have better performance than mine.
Actually, all the Kijin were something else.
Like I said about Souei.
Its performance was roughly the same, but unlike me, she didn't need to consume anything — she could analyze through visual inspection alone.
Kurobei had awakened to the Unique Skill "Researcher," which was essentially a superior version of my ability as well.
It was specialized for crafting, but it was an incredibly convenient power.
Hakuro seemed to have awakened to perception amplified a thousandfold. In a straight fight relying on martial arts and swordsmanship alone, I wouldn't bet on winning.
Shion, as you might expect, had "Super Strength EX" and "Body Enhancement EX."
On top of that, she'd awakened to a specialization skill called "Berserker Rage" — the kind of ability you absolutely must never use.
She was someone you must never, ever anger.
Finally, Benimaru. The bastard had gone and learned "Black Lightning." What made it terrifying was that this was the one skill I definitely did not want turned against me.
I figured we needed to come up with countermeasures urgently.
It felt like my own skills had some kind of influence on them, but it seemed like each of the Kijin had completed their own evolution.
Right. Time to start the meeting.
"All right, let's hear the report."
At my words, Souei began his briefing.
Everyone listened in silence.
He'd sent six clones to various locations to gather intelligence.
1. The Goblin villages 2. The state of the swamp region 3. The Orc army's advance Two clones had been assigned to each area.
First, the Goblin villages — it turned out they had pledged allegiance to
The Lizardman who'd shown up earlier, right?
Serving that idiot — what a bunch of oddballs. Those who hadn't joined under his banner had apparently fled in every direction.
Many had fled toward the human nations, but they would likely become targets for subjugation. As long as they stayed in the forest and built settlements to live in, the humans wouldn't bother them — but if they encroached on human territory, they'd be met with force.
I didn't know humanity's military strength, but for goblins, they'd be wiped out in the blink of an eye.
That meant they had no choice but to go into hiding. Their future looked bleak.
I also got to hear about Gabiru in passing.
Apparently, he'd rallied Goblin warriors under his banner and organized an army of about 7,000.
That was quite a number.
It seemed he'd used the same pitch he'd offered us — promising protection from the Orcs — to finalize negotiations with the tribe. So he wasn't entirely useless in the head department.
However, the Goblins had apparently taken all their stored food and supplies with them. Even if they beat the Orcs, some of them would likely starve to death afterward.
They hadn't thought that far ahead at all.
The same went for the clan leader who'd accepted the deal, but I supposed the calculation was that it was still better than being slaughtered by the Orcs.
We weren't in a position to be moral about it either, though.
This town wasn't finished yet. But abandoning it this easily wouldn't be fun either.
If we let the Orc army's advance go unchecked, they'd ravage the surrounding forest, and we wouldn't be able to procure food anymore.
That meant we needed to repel the Orcs somewhere around the swamp region.
I asked about the state of the swamp.
The Lizardman chief had rallied warriors from each group and organized an army of roughly 10,000.
They were catching fish from the lake and had ample food supplies.
They were clearly holed up in the natural labyrinth, planning to pick off the Orcs in detail.
Were the Orcs really that dangerous an opponent?
I moved on to the Orc Tribe's advance.
The Orc army — 200,000 strong.
"Huh? 200,000?!"
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
Wait, wasn't the assault on the Ogre village only about 10,000…?
"So you're saying that was only a part of their forces?"
"That's right. After investigating, we confirmed it. Their total number is 200,000! They're heading south through a relatively wide invasion route toward the swamp region."
Hmm. I didn't have a good sense of the geography.
"Souei, do we have anything like a map?"
"A map? What is that?"
"Huh?"
"?"
"?"
"???"
What the hell?
Very few people here knew what a map was…
Kaijin, naturally, did know. But he said maps weren't distributed anywhere.
Apparently, in this world, maps were still treated as military secrets.
Hakuro, drawing on what his grandfather had told him, sketched the terrain around the Ogre village onto a wooden plank.
The lack of paper was rough.
Anyway, we brought in a wooden board and began drawing out the terrain around the town from memory.
Once I'd finished rendering my mental map, Rigul added the terrain he knew, and we incorporated the contents of Hakuro's wooden plank as well.
This way, combining everyone's knowledge, we managed to produce a reasonably decent map.
Before we could get to the main agenda of the meeting, two hours had gone by just making the map.
We took a break there.
I didn't need one, but the Goblins certainly did.
Shuna brought out meals on trays.
Then the women followed, carrying food as well.
I promptly transformed into my child form.
A break wasn't necessary for me, but food was important. I'd finally gotten a human body, and I wanted to savor the experience of eating.
…Shion's cooking, however, was a hard pass.
My mimicry of a human form had gotten pretty refined by now — I could transform while wearing clothes. With practice, you could really get the hang of it.
So, the meal was placed before me.
For some reason, Shuna sat down next to me. I needed to verify something…
It looked normal on the surface, but what about the inside? Due to the scarcity of seasonings, it was just stir-fried ingredients with whatever was available, but…
Who had made it? I could feel stares boring into me from the side.
Gulp. Why was I suddenly so nervous?
"Well, let's dig in!"
When I said that, nobody moved.
They clearly weren't going to touch their food until I took the first bite. I'd been hoping someone might go ahead of me, but it looked like I had to steel myself.
It's fine. This wasn't made by Shion!
But now that it came to this, maybe transforming into a child with a functioning sense of taste had been a mistake.
Thinking that, I reached for the food. There were no chopsticks — only spoons.
I scooped up a spoonful of soup and brought it to my mouth. Held it in my mouth. …It was delicious.
"This is amazing!"
The moment I said it, everyone moved at once.
Seriously, you guys — your main purpose was for me to taste-test for poison, wasn't it? Not that there was any poison in it…
And I was resistant to most poisons anyway…
Still, you'd think they could've at least considered my feelings.
Shuna was probably pulling the strings from behind the scenes, but still…
The instant I said it was delicious, Shuna lit up with a radiant smile.
She snatched the plate from me and tried to feed me with the spoon.
It was nice, and also mortifying.
Inside I was an old man, but my heart was young. My appearance was that of a little girl. Being fed wasn't really a problem.
And Shuna — she glanced over at Shion and let out a triumphant "Fufun!" as she beamed with pride.
Shion was grinding her teeth with tears of frustration in her eyes, completely dumbstruck by how good the food was.
Yeah, yeah. You — you need to work on your cooking skills. A lot.
Whatever you do, don't go thinking about adding secret ingredients or other nonsensical stuff!
Even without seasonings, she could bring out the natural flavors of the ingredients and produce something this good.
Whether Benimaru could endure being the test subject for her cooking experiments — well, that wasn't my problem.
Shuna was probably a genius at cooking too. Maybe she'd used "Analyzer" to adjust the flavors to perfection.
I didn't consider it a waste of talent. This was the right way to use it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first truly delicious meal I'd had in a long time.
The meal ended, and the break was over.
It had been a pretty good interlude.
Time for the main topic.
"This right here is a map — it shows the terrain in an easy-to-understand format. Look at this map while I explain."
At my words, everyone gathered around it.
I linked everyone together via Thought Communication to make sharing images easier.
I had Souei place a small wooden piece on the Orc army's position. It had been trimmed down and had "200,000" written on its surface.
The Goblins were still learning the concept of numbers, so they might not fully grasp it yet.
There was nothing to be done about that, so I pressed on.
The Orc invasion route.
The Great Forest of Jura had three viable military routes extending from its center.
One ran along the Ameld River, connecting from the Canaat Mountain Range. This route linked north to south.
However, it didn't run perfectly straight — the river curved eastward partway along. From the Eastern Empire, an army could move along the river.
But from the Orc Tribe's territory, there was no route suitable for moving a large army.
That was likely why they'd chosen to swing west through the swamp region and circle around the lake's perimeter.
To reach the Ameld River directly, the trees of the great forest would be in the way.
According to Hakuro, since there were Treant settlements along that path, the route through the swamp would result in fewer losses.
To the west lay the village of the Ogres, but the result had been devastation.
The Ogres were an upper-tier race, but they were few in number. That was probably why the Orcs had opted for the route through the more numerous Treant settlements.
Having defeated the Ogres, the Orc army had now advanced to the outskirts of the swamp region and was setting up their formation.
"But how are they feeding an army of 200,000? Where are they getting the food?"
At my question: "I investigated. Supply units were organized from the rear, transporting food. However, there weren't enough supplies…"
He hesitated there.
"This is just my conjecture, but… they appear to be eating the corpses of their comrades who died of starvation or in battle…"
He said something outrageous.
Ugh… were Orcs really that kind of species?
"That can't be…"
"They eat anything, sure, but surely not that?"
To those questions: "I don't have definitive proof. However, there were no corpses left behind wherever they passed.
Our village was the same — completely clean, nothing left.
There is one ability that comes to mind…"
With a grim expression, Souei gave his answer.
"Don't tell me… the Orc Disaster?"
Before Souei could answer, Benimaru spoke up.
"That's right. It hasn't been confirmed, but there's a possibility the Orc Disaster has appeared.
At the very least, we've confirmed the existence of high-ranking Orc Knights.
They were probably the ones who attacked our village."
To summarize what we knew, the Orc Disaster was a powerful Unique Monster with dominion-type abilities.
A creature that appeared once every several hundred years. The worst kind of demon that brought chaos to the world.
It was said to possess its own Unique Skill — the Hunger ability.
This fearsome power supposedly granted the user and their allies the ability to devour everything around them, like a plague of locusts.
Apparently, it wouldn't become that much of a threat until enough time had passed since its appearance…
But this time, it had already grown powerful enough to organize a knight corps. If it developed intelligence, there was even a possibility it could evolve into a Demon Lord.
Quite the troublesome monster.
I wished someone would just hurry up and take it out…
But there was no point complaining.
We proceeded with the meeting while keeping the existence of the Orc Disaster in mind.
We placed wooden pieces on the map to represent forces — including the 10,000 Lizardmen.
Behind them, Gabiru's Goblin corps of 7,000.
Arranging the forces on the map, the abnormality of the Orc army really stood out…
But more importantly — "Wait, this formation is perfectly set up for that idiot from earlier to launch a surprise attack on the Lizardman stronghold and take it in one fell swoop, isn't it?"
Right. Gabiru, the Lizardman envoy.
If he launched a raid on the Lizardman base while they were engaged in battle with the Orcs, the lightly defended headquarters could be captured in an instant.
And right in that ideal position sat the Goblin forces.
But there was no reason for him to attack the Lizardmen, who were supposed to be on our side.
It was just because they were holding their forces in a strange location that I'd gotten suspicious.
Even so: "Hmm. Indeed, that does appear to be the case."
Hakuro nodded. His eyes gleamed with a strange intensity.
But even if they took the headquarters, it would just get ravaged by the Orcs afterward, so there'd be no point, right?
Maybe I was overthinking it.
"I'm probably overthinking it. My bad, just a layman's idea."
I said that and was about to move on…
"No, it is entirely plausible. There is no other reason to hold a position there."
"That guy seemed pretty dumb, and he did look like the type to try to overthrow the chief and take his place."
The two members of the Military department offered their opinions.
He did seem dumb, sure — but was he really that dumb?
"Well, if there's even a chance of that, we should probably decline working with him."
That was the conclusion we reached.
We'd pass on partnering with Gabiru. But then what?
"I would still like to form an alliance with the Lizardmen. Our numbers alone are too few. We cannot simply stand by and watch them perish."
At Hakuro's words, everyone nodded.
I didn't object either.
"But even if we form an alliance, our numbers are far too small. Won't we just get used?"
I raised the concern that had been bothering me.
The Kijin exchanged glances, and Hakuro answered on behalf of them all: "Lord Rimuru, you worry too much! Each of us is worth an army of ten thousand — we shall not be underestimated!"
Way off base. No way was any single one of them worth ten thousand — but before I could say that…
"Lord Rimuru, allow me to go negotiate in person.
I will speak directly with the Lizardman chief and settle the matter.
Is that acceptable?"
Souei spoke up and awaited my answer.
Where was all this confidence coming from? Well, might as well let him try.
Having confirmed the situation with the map, I'd been able to form a reasonable prediction. That gave us breathing room, both in terms of time and mentally.
I decided to leave it to Souei.
"Fine! Then go negotiate with the Lizardman chief. And make damn sure we maintain an equal partnership!"
With those words, I sent Souei off.
"Ha ha! Understood!"
As he answered, he vanished, sinking into the shadows as though he'd been part of them all along.
Fast mover. He'd clearly already headed out.
"Everyone, make your preparations with that in mind!"
With that, I concluded the meeting.
A general course of action had been decided.
If the alliance came together, great. If not, well, we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.
No point overthinking it. What mattered was doing what we could right now.
And so, we made our preparations and waited for the next move.
But the Orc Disaster, huh. If it had truly appeared, it sounded like a seriously troublesome opponent.
Thinking about what lay ahead, I couldn't help but feel a little gloomy.