Chapter 201
201 Make them obedient, please! part After breakfast, Ryu left the place having enough with the feeling of being useless.
He couldn’t deny it felt good being showered by attention and everyone working hard in front of him to get on his good side, but he knew it wouldn’t last forever.
He wanted to enjoy the feeling some more, but at the same time, he didn’t have any time to waste because there was an important task only he could perform now and that task was to take charge of the goblin village while Bardun was out on a mission.
Ryu went directly towards Bardun’s house, it was one of the biggest buildings in the village because he was the goblin with the biggest amount of wives. He knocked on the door, but then remembered how goblins didn’t have such habit and simply walked in.
“Excuse me”
Ryu said as he stepped in.
“Did you do something wrong?”
Lauda, one of Bardun’s wives asked with more curiosity than worry.
“Not really, I don’t think so”
.....
“Then why are you apologizing?”
“Because I just entered another person’s house”
“Humans are weird”
Lauda giggled in a charming way that most humans would believe it to be a threat upon their lives, goblins had a growling sound to their voice that just couldn’t be turned off after all.
“I’m here on Bardun’s request, where is Thoba?”
“She’s taking care of the younglings, right now I’m in charge of this house. If you have something to ask of me, I’m right here”
“Wow, you are a lot more talkative than Thoba, I thought goblins didn’t like to do much talking at all, and you speak very well too!”
“Why do you sound so surprised? our new maid is great at teaching and I am great at learning”
“Maid, what maid?”
Just as Ryu was voicing out that question, Athela’s former maid appeared in tattered clothes bringing a tray with beverages. There was little about her past snob attitude, but she didn’t look unhappy, it was the first time Ryu saw her with a smile on her face.
It was only after she retreated that Lauda replied to Ryu and explained him how did she end up being a maid. After Ryu refused to take a goblin wife, Bardun wasn’t obligated to marry the maid but he did take care of her.
He offered her a job, a room that accomodated her needs and her conditions were pretty good, especially compared to those of humans.
While in human society maids were expected to work all day, everyday, goblins had no such thing as schedules. They were all naturally hard working creatures and most of them didn’t have a specific job, any goblin was more than happy to jump in and help whenever it was needed, but they weren’t forced to work if they didn’t feel like it.
There were a lot of benefits to their system, but there was also a huge disadvantage.
Ryu had been thinking long about the fact that goblins were fast learners and were capable of sharing the knowledge efficiently. They didn’t need to explain things most of the time, they simply observed how everything worked and they did whatever they could whenever they could to improve or repair things.
But that didn’t apply to more specific lines of work, they were unable to cook meat before they met Ryu and handling fire was considered a dangerous task so they appointed a few people to be in charge of any work that required the use of fire.
It sounded a bit deranged to Ryu, but after realizing that goblins lived in the forest and fire was a great threat to their environment, it made sense to be so cautious.
“Lauda, I’ve been tasked by Bardun to take charge of the goblin village while he’s outside. Do you think they’ll listen to me?”
“What do you mean? of course they will”
“How can you be so certain? I’m different”
“Different how? you’re a goblin, you’re one of us. No one can deny that fact, they’ll follow your commands just like they followed Bardun’s”
Ryu sighed, still unsure about it. He had been thinking on different ways to improve the village, but he was scared to make changes that could make Bardun angry, but what worried him the most was not being up to the task that he entrusted him.
“I have some requests then”
Ryu said, without much confidence, as if testing Lauda’s mood after hearing it, but she remained unfazed.
Ryu then went on and asked her to build a solid wood platform on top of trees, he didn’t provide much explanation as to why did it have to be made, but lauda didn’t ask about his reasons. He also asked for a meeting with every single goblin in the village, to announce the changes he was going to be making.
While it felt like he was being disrespectful towards Bardun, Ryu was worried that goblins may eventually be targeted by humans. They were about two to three days from Celarent, this seemed like a long distance when in reality they were closer than any human city and the only reason it took so long to go from one place to the other was because of the increasing density of the forest.
Things needed to change.
As lauda was making preparations for the gathering, a different kind of meeting was taking place in Ryu’s house.
Anne, Athela, Mia and Sera were discussing about their agreement.
“I’m telling you, I don’t need to go first, but I don’t want to go last either”
“No, no, it should be settled by luck. Why don’t we draw sticks?”
Anne and Athela were arguing in a peaceful and friendly manner.
“Why don’t we let Mia decide?”
“Uh?”
“Let her take care of everything, after all, she’s the only one that will remain to be a part of mister Ryu’s life no matter the outcome. If Ryu chooses Anne, I don’t think she’ll be letting me anywhere near mister Ryu, on the other hand, I don’t think he’ll take Athela’s offer of taking more than one wife”
Sera said, trying to remain calm, but she felt as if she was fighting for her very life.
“What makes you think that way?”
“He’s had many chances of taking more than one woman, I’ve been there. It’s not that he lacks desire, but he’s different from other men”
“I hear Bob also refused a second wife”
Mia barged in.
“And how is it allowing Mia to be in charge of everything going to solve things?”
Anne asked, still not knowing the charming Mia was actually a succubus.
“Actually, I agree. She can be the judge, because she will know who among us is the most compatible to be in a relationship with him”
Athela replied while Anne still had question marks written all over her face.