“I would like to get started but before that, I would like to ask do you have a name for this place other than the encampment that it used to be,” I asked all the council members. One of the shortest goblins I've seen answered in a straight manner, “It’s Hilfort village.” I gave the goblin a head nod and gathered myself for a moment before starting.
“There are many things that have happened since we last met. I am now part of a nation and unfortunately, the human lands are quite unstable right now which means that people want to take what belongs to me. There will be an army coming to take over my nation and I would like to hire skirmishers to take part in this fight.” The response I got for my words was unimpressive, to say the least.
“But perhaps we are jumping ahead. There seem to be some problems between us that would be better taken care of now than push back and let fester. So please be open about your concerns.” The goblins looked at each other with worry and I was glad that I had been around them enough to learn their facial expression.
“Your nation's borders are up against our territory, and some would argue you have taken some as we consider our territory to be to the river, but your nation's border extends a bit past the river.” Said one of the goblins who had previously been under my command during the goblin war.
I gave him a slow nod. “I do apologize for that. There were some circumstances that were out of my control, but I did try to control the gaining of land as much as possible. If I didn’t try to control it, the nation’s borders would have swallowed your entire territory. But that doesn’t excuse anything. As a form of apology, I would be willing to agree to a non-aggression pact between our two communities.” There was a moment of silence. I could see some excited facial features that everyone tried to hide.
Stebs Soot was the first to speak. “Are you in a position to offer such a pact to us?” He asked and I answered with an affirmative. For the next half an hour we put the pact into writing. It was a simple one, but the goblins wanted to add some clarifications, mostly so no misunderstanding caused the pact to be broken.
I was the one who wrote simply because the goblins weren’t capable of doing as well as I did even if I was still a novice at writing this language. In this world normally this wouldn’t be counted as a legal document at least for other nations. But in the end no matter how you wrote it or how many people you made sign it, it only truly mattered if people were willing to follow the agreement.
When the handshake finished, I was temporarily pulled into some sort of hazy world that was quite dark. A few moments later I could see other people appearing from the smoke looking as confused as I was.
The people to appear were the council members the ones that had taken the oath and received the clan administrator trait. There was a moment of silent confusion before in front of everyone appeared the pact that I just agreed to with the goblins.
David looked at me and I asked. “Was this required for getting the skirmishers?” Everyone looked at me waiting for an answer and I didn’t make them wait. “It is a part of that, yes, but I never expected something like this,” I said while looking at everything around us.
After a few moments, I started to feel a pulling force trying to drag me out of this space. “It looks like we're out of time, but I expect that you all agree. I will also try to push them towards making a trade deal with us, but I would want to leave the details to some of you to deal with.”
There was another moment of pause and after a nod from David who then promptly disappeared one by one everyone quickly vanished, I was the last to leave. When I got out of that space the goblins were looking at me weirdly. “Sorry about that can we now please continue.” Everyone agreed so we sat back down and after a moment of contemplating about what had just happened, I continued.
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“I can see that this has alleviated a lot of your concerns so let me alleviate some more. I would like to get fighters who are good at throwing spears. I plan to not use them in any melee. The enemy shouldn't have any ranged fighters that will be open to attacking your fighters. While I can’t guarantee that everyone will survive there should be minimal losses possibly even none for your fighters.” I tried to sound normal but I got a bit passionate by the end.
Most of the council members were already nodding but Stebs Soot wanted some more details. “How many of our fighters were you hoping to get?” He asked while being deadly serious. “I am looking for 300.” Before I could continue some of the goblins started to shout at me calling me an idiot while some were completely dumbfounded and just stared at me open-mouthed.
Stebs Soot was eventually able to calm everyone down. “That is almost one-third of our population. We would lose a lot of hunting time and almost every project we have will need to be put on hold. We would even need to pull fighters from our defensive borders making us a lot more vulnerable. That number is simply not possible.” He spoke with finality in his words, but I wasn’t going to give up.
“I will not need them for long. Your fighters would be a part of an ambush and would not need to be in use for long. A week to gather your fighters then two days to wait and battle. That is all I ask. There would be a lot of iron weapons available after the battle and a large portion can be yours. But that can just be a reward. Name your price and I will try to make it happen.” This time I didn’t try to hold back any of the passion I was feeling.
It did have an effect and after some silent discussion with the goblins, they finally asked me to give them some time to discuss. I was happy to hear that and hope that we will be able to come to an agreement but even more, I hoped that I would be able to afford whatever they came up with. I was escorted far away. Obviously, they suspected that I might be able to hear what they discussed if I was too close and to be fair they were correct.
I spent the next few hours just looking at goblins doing their jobs and glancing up to see the sun rising towards midday. Just a bit after midday I was invited back into the council tent. I could see that some of them were worried, but some were also expectant and hopeful. I sit back and waited for the price.
“You will get your 300 skirmishers, but it will be a high cost.” Announced Stebs Soot. I had expected them to accept and that it would be a high price. I was glad to see he had become a proper leader and while this deal would most likely hurt, I was glad for my friend.
“We want access to your nation's market. We want the knowledge of how to make bronze and how to farm the way you do. When a strong monster challenges our territory, we want to be able to call for your help and that your nation will respond with proper force. We want a reduced price of food when we buy from your national market by 50% for the next three years.” There was a pause, and I could see the worry in Stebs eyes.
“After you have won your war, I want a conversation with you. You would help us to the best of your ability to solve any problem we might discuss. You would not have to do anything just your wisdom will be enough.” I could hear the seriousness behind those last words.
So, there was something else that the goblins were worried about. Luckily that could wait for a little while at least. I was concerned but I was not going to push it. Other than that, the demands were quite reasonable at least to me.
I couldn’t see any big negatives. Even the food prices wouldn't be bad because they didn't have anyone else to sell to. They were just trying to secure their future. I still took the time to think about every angle but in the end, I agreed.
There was another meeting in the dark and smoky world. This time there was a lot more pushback. The biggest problem for most wasn’t the food price but that we would help defend them from monsters. While I thought that it would be difficult for us to guarantee this with our low manpower that apparently wasn’t the problem. They thought it would be a waste of time and resources to help them. When I explained how good a strong monster kill would be for us everyone eventually agreed.
After I talked some more with the goblin counsel about my requirements from the goblin fighters and what plans I had we eventually stopped to get some lunch. The food quality had risen a lot since the war. It was downright delicious. I left soon after telling them that I will be back when I needed the fighters to start gathering.