IDWTBTHQ Chapter 93 - Not Mad, Just Disappointed

The village of Grayrock, now called Goblinia, had changed completely in the last six months, to the point of being unrecognizable. What had once been a small group of houses located in the middle of a bucolic landscape of woods and meadows was now a big town bustling with activity and surrounded by intensely cultivated fields. That said, the extreme expansion hadn't exactly made the place more pleasant, as many of the town buildings were little more than wooden shacks and crude barracks, piles of rubbish clogged the muddy dirt roads and the air was filled with an acrid smell of filth and unwashed bodies.

However, despite all of this, Trakk still loved Goblinia. Whenever he looked at the ramshackle bunch of wooden houses and the thousands of goblins filling them up, he saw something more than a dirty, overcrowded town: he saw the promise of a future for the goblin race.  A future where they wouldn't be just a bunch of savages, but a civilized race on par with the humans and the beastmen. This was especially true at night, when the crude appearance of the town was hidden behind a veil of darkness and the lights of torches, bonfires and lanterns shone like jewels on black brocade. That spectacle was one of the reasons why the General didn't mind working until late, and in fact he often intentionally left some work for after sunset whenever possible.

Trakk glanced to his window, watching the shadows grow longer as night approached, and with a wistful smile he looked forward to the sight of Goblinia at night.

Then, without missing a beat, he suddenly spoke even though no one else could be seen in the room.

“Welcome back, Arag.”

For a moment there was no response, but after a second a shadow moved from behind a closet, and Arag stepped into the light. He was missing two limbs and his body was covered in recent scars, but despite that he still moved with his usual grace and agility.

“How do you always manage to know when I'm in the room?” He asked. “Not even aura masters are able to find me.”

“If I told you, I'd have to kill you.” The General replied in a half joking tone as he turned to the spider goblin. His expression then became serious. “I assume that you have a very good reason to leave the forest, so give me your report immediately.”

The General  had gone straight to the point, without losing time with pleasantries and useless talks, just like Arag liked it. Not that it made it any easier to tell him what had happened in the forest.

“I have followed the Blue Terror as he travelled through the forest, as you  ordered.” Arag explained, deciding to give his tale some context before dropping the bad news. “He has won against the Piraca and the Rantul and has taken their leaders as hostages, forcing them to use their powers to aid him. He has also made an alliance with the kobolds, leaving them alone in exchange for weapons and armor. And the number of ogres under his command has also greatly increased. I counted at least one hundred, but it's likely that there are many more.” He paused, took a deep breath and then resumed his report. “I kept following the Blue terror until four days ago, when he led an attack against the human-Vex outpost in the Ashwood Hills and killed everyone there, both humans and Vex.”

There was a brief silence as Arag gave the General time to process what he had said, but Trakk seemed completely unsurprised.

“I know about the attack.” He said. “Marquis Eisen told me. Apparently the Vex Queen was able to use her telepathic powers to witness the death of her subjects at the hands of the orcs.” He smirked. “Having her confirm the existence of the orc army actually improved our diplomatic relations for the time being, so you could say that this particular cloud had a silver lining. However...” He lost his smile, as his expression suddenly became as cold as ice. “Our position would be even better if one of my underlings —and I'm not making names here— would have warned the human scouts of the attacks and allowed them to escape instead of letting them take the outpost by surprise.”

Arag's self control was too powerful for him to even think about something like “Oh shoot”, but the General's gaze did put him to the test. He still managed to look completely unfazed, but it took everything he had.

Seeing this lack of reaction, Trakk clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Don't play dumb with me, Arag.” He said. “You had to know about  the attack. So why didn't you warn the humans?”

“I needed the humans to stay there as bait.” Arag finally admitted. “That is why I did not warn them.”

“What?” Trakk asked, raising an eyebrow. “A bait for what?”

“For preparing a trap to kill the Blue Terror with.” The spider goblin explained. “I awakened the King of the Ashwood Hills and led it towards the oni while he was busy chasing the humans. I know that dragons are extremely territorial towards those who they perceive as potential rivals, and I hoped for the Blue Terror to be powerful enough to be seen as one. And I was right. As soon as the King sensed the oni’s presence, it immediately went to confront it.” He paused and then added: “I thought that if the oni were to die, then the war would have ended since he is the only one capable of leading the orcs as a unified force.”

The General stared at him in silence for a few moments, as if he couldn't believe his ears. Then, with a sigh, he started massaging his temples.

“Yes, you would think like that, wouldn't you?” He muttered. “Attacking the king to end the game then and there, with no consideration for the wider picture. If all we had to do was fight the orcs, then your actions would be warranted.” He gave the spider goblin a blank stare. “However right now we're playing a bigger game and the war against the orcs is just one aspect of it. While we certainly need to defeat them, we also need them to actually invade Medelan in order to prove ourselves useful and trustworthy allies to the people of this kingdom. So defeating them in an indirect way, without anyone to witness it, would actually be far from optimal in this case. ” He paused, took a deep breath and asked: “Anyway, there is no use crying over spilled milk. Let’s just get to the bottom of it. Has the dragon killed the oni?”

“No.” Arag replied.

“Ironically, that’s a relief.” Trakk said. “So, what happened exactly then? Did the oni manage to run away?”

“No.” The spider goblin said, with a hint of uneasiness breaking through his stoic demeanor. “The oni killed the dragon and managed to steal part of its power.”

A long, uneasy silence followed this revelation. Trakk didn't show any visible reaction, but the air in the room became much more tense.

“So...” The General said, with a voice so cold it could have frozen boiling water. “Not only you arbitrarily decided to sacrifice our allies in order to kill the oni —which by itself was a suboptimal decision— but your plan also failed and made the oni stronger in the process. Did I get everything right?”

Arag nodded but remained silent, bracing himself for what he saw as an inevitable explosion of rage. However, much to his surprise, the Goblin General didn't seem mad, just tired and somewhat disappointed. He sighed and sat at his desk, grabbing a pile of documents.

“Well, your actions definitely made things worse, but luckily not unsalvageable.” He said, shuffling some papers. “The oni being stronger is not good, but we can deal with it. So we'll pretend that your involvement in this event never happened and never speak of it again.” He stopped checking his papers and gave the spider goblin a sour look. “Now, don't mistake this for mercy. You made an idiotic mistake and I'm giving you the chance to learn from it because I value your talents, but I won’t tolerate any further failure like this. Am I being clear?”

“Yes boss.” Arag promptly replied.

“Good. If that's all, then go back to the forest and resume your mission. Stick to the Blue Terror like a flea, watch over his movements and actions and come back to report only when he’ll be coming to invade us.”

“Yes boss.” Arag nodded.

“Very well. Off you go then.”

The spider goblin nodded and sneaked away, disappearing into the night. Meanwhile, the General continued to process his paperwork, but while he did so a part of his mind was going over the news he had received.

The Blue Terror getting stronger was a problem indeed, but luckily, as he had told Arag, it was something that could be dealt with by using a bit of ingenuity.

“Cutting a viper’s head is not the only way to kill it.” He said to himself with a smirk. “You can also cut its tail right behind the head to achieve the same result!”

While it was true that defeating the Blue Terror would have basically neutralized the threat posed by the orc army, the opposite was also true, since no matter how individually strong the Oni was, without his army he would be left vulnerable to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Sure, that was easier said than done, but Trakk felt reasonably confident, mostly due to the sheer might of his allies.

And he wasn't talking about the humans.

He wondered if anyone else had done the math and realized just how potentially dangerous the Vex truly were, but he doubted it since he couldn't see the humans being so friendly and relaxed otherwise. He even doubted that the Vex Queen herself had realized it, since she seemed to lack the mindset to think about things like conquest and domination… though in this case he was glad that this was the case, because otherwise she would pose a threat greater than even the Blue Terror with his army of orcs and ogres.

Still, it was better to keep an eye on her and work on making a plan in case she ever developed some dangerous ambitions.

Just to be safe.

With an amused smirk he resumed his work, looking at his paperwork while his mind flew towards the future, trying to discern the most advantageous course of action in the sea of possibilities.