Another clear morning, in the deepest part of the Imperial South Mountain Range, sunlight shone on the palace that had grown many vines.
In the past, a high-ranking knight who had defected along with dozens of other knights had gathered a force here and declared himself king.
Since they were all officers who had received formal military education, they quickly trained the other bandits and villagers they had recruited into capable soldiers.
At their peak, they even possessed an army of several thousand soldiers whose quality was not inferior to the Imperial Guard.
At that time, they ran rampant north of the Imperial Capital, and even when the Elasian Empire sent large armies to encircle and annihilate them, they used the terrain to defeat the national regular army so thoroughly that they fled in disarray.
If they were still here, they would probably be proud of this legendary experience.
But unfortunately, these people, along with that army that was not inferior to the national regular army, had all turned to dust in history.
Some had even become food in goblins' mouths.
However, although vines had grown all over that palace, it was not without an owner.
And although that once-mighty bandit gang had turned to historical dust, this place had not fallen into silence...
Sitting on the throne, a massive black goblin looked spiritedly at the [Goblin Kings] prostrating beneath it and said:
"Kuri kuri! (Hurry up and train your subordinates! The opportunity will come at any time!)"
The [Goblin Kings] prostrating beneath it all responded in unison:
"Guri! (Yes, Your Majesty!)"
Looking at one of the relatively larger goblins, the Goblin Emperor asked:
"Lili? (Prime Minister! How many high-tier goblins have been transferred from various places now?)"
That large goblin, upon hearing its question, showed an expression full of smiles and replied:
"Jili! (Quite a few! About five thousand! Among them are many [Heroes] and [Prophets]!)"
Hearing that large goblin's answer, the [Goblin Emperor] nodded.
"Kaji! (Good! You must do well in leading and training the high-tier goblins!)"
With that, the [Goblin Emperor] stood up, swept the cloak it had stripped from that bandit leader's corpse, and declared loudly:
"Kaka! (Alright! All of you return to your posts! The opportunity to turn this country into our paradise will come at any time!)"
The emotions of those [Goblin Kings] were also stirred up by the [Goblin Emperor's] words, and they loudly answered:
"Guri! (Yes, Your Majesty!)"
After answering the [Goblin Emperor], the [Goblin Kings] all excitedly ran out of the palace to throw themselves into their training over the past few days.
However, only that [Goblin King] who managed the high-tier goblins appeared somewhat dejected after leaving the palace.
Actually, just now, it had concealed some very important matters from the [Goblin Emperor].
The reason it didn't speak was that revealing something it didn't understand would destroy the [Sage] persona it had cultivated over many years.
As the wisest [Goblin King], one step away from becoming emperor, its wisdom could rival that of ordinary humans.
Sometimes even those human strategists captured by the [Goblin Emperor] couldn't see problems as deeply as it could.
But now, it was trapped in unprecedented confusion.
It didn't know why—this week, almost no new high-tier goblins had been sent from various regions.
Logically, at least dozens of powerful high-tier goblins should come from various places each week...
But now, the number of arriving high-tier goblins hadn't suddenly decreased—there had been none at all this week!
Logically... this shouldn't be the case...
It really couldn't figure it out...
Because it, who prided itself on wisdom, really couldn't understand what had happened, its mood was terrible.
In its bad mood, it decided to go for a walk at the mountain pass.
According to the [Goblin Emperor's] prohibition, to prevent goblins from leaving the mountains to raid surrounding human settlements and thus attracting human attention, the mountain pass was forbidden territory for ordinary goblins.
It was quiet there, perfect for clearing its mind.
Soon, it reached the mountain pass.
Feeling the cold wind blowing from ahead and the quiet environment, it immediately felt much better.
However, its mood had barely improved when something that made it furious suddenly happened!
A blood-covered goblin walked in from outside the mountain pass!
That goblin was clearly an ordinary goblin, definitely not a high-tier goblin coming on the [Goblin Emperor's] orders!
So there could only be one possibility—this goblin was originally from here!
Yet it had returned from outside, covered in blood?
What did this mean?
This meant this guy had broken the prohibition! It had privately left the mountains to rob human villages!
Thinking that this small raid might cause humans to become suspicious of the entire Imperial South Mountain Range, it wanted nothing more than to severely punish the [Goblin King] responsible for that goblin!
But then it reconsidered—now was a time when unity was needed, and if the higher-ups had conflicts, it might be detrimental to future grand plans.
Moreover, their leader, the [Goblin Emperor], was a goblin who had difficulty accepting bad news. If it learned that a goblin had broken its prohibition, it would probably vent its anger on these [Goblin Kings] who were closest to the [Goblin Emperor].
So it immediately made a decision—no matter what this goblin who broke the prohibition said, it had to die here!
After deciding to kill this goblin, it took out a giant axe from behind and approached the blood-covered goblin step by step.
However, when that goblin saw it, it charged toward it as if going mad.
As if what it saw wasn't a threat of death, but hope for life.
For it, seeing a goblin in the mountains was truly enormous encouragement.
The reason was simple—this goblin was the only survivor from a southern mountain cave.
And along its journey, it hadn't seen a single member of its kind.
At that time, it had been outside the mountain scouting a village, preparing for the next day's raid.
However, when it returned to the cave, it saw a scene that filled it with despair!
Large numbers of adventurers walked out of the cave talking and laughing, and on their bodies—were the corpses of goblins from its cave!
They threw those goblin corpses onto carts like garbage.
At that moment, it knew—this cave was definitely finished.
However, at that time, it didn't have much emotional reaction.
The cave it had stayed in before had also been destroyed, but goblins had no concept of "home," and finding a new goblin cave in these mountains wasn't difficult.
It was just a goblin cave—it could completely find another one to continue living!
However, it discovered—no matter how it searched, it couldn't find any caves with goblins!
Although it found quite a few caves, almost all of them were empty.
And many of the empty caves had air filled with thick smells of blood and gunpowder.
After passing through dozens of such caves in succession, it finally understood.
Humans had conducted large-scale extermination against them!
Goblins were group-living creatures; without a community, there was no way to survive.
For it, only the Imperial South Mountain Range remained!
Thus, it embarked on an arduous pilgrimage.
This road was quite long and quite dangerous.
On this road, it experienced pursuit by adventurers and encirclement by armies.
However, as if it was not meant to die, it escaped from all these desperate situations.
After countless hardships, it finally arrived at this holy land belonging to goblins.
As an extremely vengeful creature, it had to tell the [Goblin Emperor] this news!
Have the [Goblin Emperor] severely punish those damned humans!
However, now it was confused.
Why would that seemingly strong member of its kind raise weapons against it...