Chapter 53: 53

“What utter nonsense is that?”

“Like I said, the civilian militia are refusing to…….”

“Fuck, do you think my ears don’t work? They have a reason why they’re saying that, right!? Why are the people who came here willingly suddenly refusing to go?”

The young man fidgeted as he failed to answer. He only learned that the civilian militia had refused to go out, he had never considered asking them why they didn’t want to go. He had simply come running here because he thought that the leader would want to hear about this as soon as possible.

Riff could tell that this was the case by the young man’s complexion. In other words, it was confirmed once more how incompetent and ignorant his comrades were. Riff held back his sigh and spoke.

“You seriously…… Damn it, go learn why they don’t want to go.”

“Understood.”

The young man was downcasted as he turned around.

“No, wait. Just tell the heads of each of the civilian militia to come here themselves.”

Riff quickly changed his command. He could tell by the young man’s demeanor that he most likely wouldn’t learn their reason properly either. The young man left the house hastily while failing to understand the subtle meaning behind his leader’s change of command.

‘Damn it. This party can’t get anything done without me!’

Riff scratched the side of his head temperamentally.

5 men entered shortly after the young man ran out. They were the heads of each village’s civilian militia. Among the heads, two of them had lost their hometowns to the goblin army. Once they found out that their friends, parents, spouses, and children were killed, their chests were filled with rage. They’ve been longing to exterminate the goblin population from the world.

Riff managed to keenly grasp what was going through their heads.

‘There’s no reason to pour oil on the flames.’

He immediately put on the most forlorn expression he could muster on his face. Since Riff’s previous occupation was a lumberjack, his features were rough. There was also nothing as genuine as a rough man’s forlorn face.

Brother, Riff began to speak. Riff and the heads of the civilian militia were in a relationship where they referred to each other as brother.

“I heard the news…… I cannot say anything but offer my sympathy.”

“You have nothing to say? Did you just say that you have nothing to say?”

The neck of one of the men who had lost his village was burning red.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve already said everything you wanted to say!”

“Brother, please calm down. I don’t know why you’re upset, but surely…….”

“You don’t know why I’m upset? Did you just say you don’t know why I’m upset!?”

The heads pointed their fingers at Riff angrily.

“You said that we’ll receive a large share if we raid the dungeon! That we’ll turn our lives around! But look at what happened! The Demon Lord retaliated after we got enticed by you. Rather than turn our lives around, you’ve ruined them completely! Completely! ……We shouldn’t have upset him!”

“This would have never happened if you didn’t drag us into this. It’s all your fault!”

Riff closed his mouth. He was dumbfounded.

‘What are they, kids?’

No, did they never consider the possibility of them suffering losses the moment they decided to go against a Demon Lord? They even went as far as to threaten a couple of villages under the pretext of acquiring provisions. Did they never consider the chances that those villages would go to the Demon Lord and ask him for his help?

“So what do you want me to do?”

Riff spoke in a cold tone.

“Should I apologize? Will that help calm you down?”

“What? You ill-mannered bastard.”

“Manners is something you can shove up your ass. I lost half of my comrades to that Demon Lord bastard as well.”

Riff growled. His desire to be reasonably courteous had disappeared.

“Did you think that by trying to rob a Demon Lord, he’d be like ‘Oh adventurers, oh humans, please take all of the gold I’ve gathered.’? Cold air must be going in your lungs. Has no one taught you that you have to resolve yourself to lose something if you want to take something else?”

“Hah, you’re worse than a dog! Your true face has been revealed now!”

“You fucking nimwits are the ones exposing your true faces.”

Riff pulled out his handaxe that was on his waist and threw it on the ground. The edge of the ax’s blade dug into the wooden floor. This sudden action made the men flinch. Riff used that opportunity to take a step forward and shove his face towards the civilian militia heads.

“How long has it been since you guys decided to follow me. You guys seemed delighted by the opportunity to get your hands on some gold; and yet, now you guys want to turn tail? Huh? Men should never go back on their words even if they die, right? Ha, the fact that you guys think you’re the only victims here disgusts me so much that I don’t think I can call you brothers.”

“No matter what you say, we won’t go to the dungeon.”

A man met Riff’s gaze and spoke.

“We don’t know which village is going to be targetted next. Even if we become rich, there’s no point if we have no home or family to return to. If you want to go, then go. We’re going to protect our homes.”

He has to change the topic.

Riff racked his brain. The flow of the conversation wasn’t going well. It was obvious that the civilian militia would prioritize their villages. If Riff’s hometown were in danger, then he would have tossed everything aside and ran home as well. What’s sadder than a lonely wanderer? Wandering without reason after having lost one’s family and comrades was a fate that all men feared.

Riff searched for a scapegoat, a target which he could direct their anger towards.

“Brothers, people would think that I had committed a crime punishable by death if they were to see this, would they not? Think about it. Who was it that had destroyed your villages?”

“What an obvious question. It’s obviously the Demon Lord. You’re the one that made that gentleman furious.”

Gentleman! Riff’s chest was filled with anger. They called him a gentleman! For some reason, these guys seemed to hate the Demon Lord but they also strangely respected him at the same time. That son of a bitch who asked us to spare him while in tears, brazen-facedly lied to humans, and cowardly struck us from behind!

Riff wanted to pick his ax up and slam it into the man’s skull. However, he left his emotions as emotions and talked coldly.

“Isn’t that interesting? Are you guys not curious about how the Demon Lord somehow only targeted your villages?”

“……What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that you all know nothing, brothers. Ha, if you have heads, then use them. There’s no way that Demon Lord bastard would have been able to only attack your villages if some son of a bitch didn’t tell him!”

Their eyes opened wide in shock.

“T-Then?”

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“There’s a traitor! There’a traitor among us humans! It’s obvious. One of the villages that had given their provisions to us probably went begging to the Demon Lord.”

Riff grinned.

“No, it might not have been only one place, but all of them.”

“Those sons of bitches!”

The civilian militia heads became enraged.

“I knew it!”

“They sold off their fellow humans just so they could save their own necks!”

Riff played along with them appropriately. Before long, instead of it being the Demon Lord or some other person━Riff being included among those other people━they firmly established another relatable enemy. The people who had sold them out. From Riff’s perspective, the civilian militia that threatened other villages and stole their provisions were also traitors, but there was no need for him to fan the flame by bringing that up.

“Brothers. One’s revenge will not be late even if a decade were to pass. That’s not what’s important right now.”

Riff spoke in an almost whispering tone.

“At any rate, those traitors have no troops in their villages. If we were to go up against them, then we’d come out victorious 10 out of 10 times. They’re acting up like this because they believe in that Demon Lord bastard, so if we get rid of him first……. Yeah? Wouldn’t it be as easy as snapping a chicken’s neck to take care of those traitors afterward?”

“But, brother. They say the goblins number in the hundreds.”

The man’s face was mixed with anger, sadness, and more than anything else, concern

“No matter how well armed we are, we can’t defeat hundreds of goblins.”

“Hah, why would we have to waste our time fighting those goblins?”

“What?”

Riff patted his chest in frustration.

“Shit. Didn’t I tell you to try using your heads for once? Look. Have hundreds of goblins ever grouped up together before?”

“Ah, we thought that was weird, too.”

The man furrowed his brows.

“Those goblins usually group together with their tribes and their tribes alone, so, at most, they’d have a force of 50 goblins. What could make hundreds of them gather…….”

“It’s all because of the Demon Lord. Demon Lords bring together and lead monsters. In other words, if the Demon Lord is gone, then those goblins will disperse and fight among each other like before.”

Therefore, Riff uttered and raised his finger.

“The Demon Lord has no other choice but to move together with the goblins in order to command them. His mobility is slow because he has to lead hundreds, so we’ll use this opportunity to rob his empty dungeon.”

“Wait. Stop trying to twist the focus of the problem. We’re asking you what you’re going to do if a village gets attacked while we’re gone?”

“Ha, seriously…….”

The corners of Riff’s mouth twisted grimly.

“Brothers, where are you using your heads for? I’m saying that you should relocate all of your village people to a single village. If we do that, then we’ll have hundreds of people in a single village, right? If there’s that much, then they should be able to fend off hundreds of goblins for a couple of days and we can use that time to pillage the dungeon before joining back up with the village.”

Riff pulled out his handaxe from the floorboard. He then started to spin the ax around impressively as if it were a pencil.

“The goblins would gradually get worn down after trying to attack the village for a while, wouldn’t they? While they’re focused on the village, we’ll come in from behind and tear up their rears. Do you think they’d be able to do anything if they’re attacked from both sides?”

“Ooh!”

The men applauded. Riff’s suggestion sounded reasonable to them. Riff judged that he had succeeded in persuading them as he continued. He intended to mix in some words here to grab their hearts.

“This is what they call the Hammer and Anvil tactic. The village will be the anvil, while the adventurers and civilian militia will become the hammer and slam down on those goblin runts. You’ve heard about this tactic before, right, brothers?”

“I’ve definitely heard about it! Yeah, all right. That sounds good.”

Like hell you’ve heard of it, Riff smirked on the inside.

“The most important part of this tactic is speed. Hurry and gather your weapons. Okay? We’ll leave in an hour after we’ve gathered in the plaza. All right?”

Each of the men voiced their agreement. They walked out confidently after having resolved themselves to get revenge on the traitors after they’ve plundered the dungeon. Riff saw them off at the door.

Riff then returned to his chair and sat down. He had a splitting headache. Once he turned his gaze, he saw that the female mage had been paying absolutely zero attention to the commotion as she was silently reading a book. Mages are all crazy. This was what Riff thought. Ever since he was a child, he had always hated magic for some reason and ever since he was deceived by Demon Lord Dantalian’s so-called black magic, he hated it even more.

It happened while he was calmly getting ready to go to battle. The wooden door opened and the young adventurer from before returned.

“L-Leader.”

“Fuck, you shitty dog.”

Riff found himself swearing whenever he saw this young man. What news was he hear to tell him while stuttering like that this time? Riff spoke in a tone that genuinely sounded as if he were requesting the youngster to not anger him any more.

“What? Huh? What is it now?”

“A third village. Another village was destroyed…….”

“Damn it.”

It was bad news.

If he wanted the Hammer and Anvil tactic to work, then he needed enough villagers to act as the anvil. If a village that could have been used as manpower is destroyed, then the tactic loses that much ground as well.

Riff let out a sigh.

“Haah, which village was it this time?”

Riff’s expression could only turn confused once he heard the name of the village.

It was the name of a village that didn’t have a civilian militia━one of the traitorous villages that they had assumed latched on to the Demon Lord.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. I might slow down this week because a couple of my classes suddenly decided to give us big projects. It’s like weekly assignments weren’t enough. I did hear that a lot of the students have been doing their assignments really poorly, so the professors are probably doing this because of that. In any case, I’ll try to balance my assignments with translating, but it’ll definitely be a challenge.

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