The kobolds were prepared as they ever would be. The cave was being trapped to an insane degree, they began to stockpile food, and weapons were being churched out at a steady pace, but the enemy is larger and giving them time to prepare an attack on my cave is unwise. I need to defeat him on my own, but before that I need to see if they can be reasoned with.
I stopped at the border of their main camp. Hobgoblin guards stopped me. “What human dragon wants?”
“I would like to talk to your leader.”
“Wait here.” One of the hobgoblins ran into the camp.
This was to be a diplomatic meeting. I needed to feel out his intentions. I couldn’t stand him keeping people as slaves, but we are both earthlings. We can talk about this civilly.
“We were wondering when you’d show up again.” Dick, the orc leader, comes to the gate to greet me. He has a wide smile on his face. Behind him walked a wolf as tall as a human.
“I wanted to talk to you. Peacefully.”
“Figured you would. After we had that misunderstanding. We didn’t know that another of our clubmates was in the area. Come, come. Follow me to my yurt.” He leads me through the camp and into a leather hut. The dire wolf follows in after me. We all sit down then the wolf speaks.
“We know we’re in your land. We know how you kobolds are always wanting to establish a homeland.”
It can talk? I look at it wide eyed and quickly inspect it.
Name: Suprem Nest
Level: 100/200
Race: Wolf, Dire wolf, Direwolf Alpha, Psychic dire Wolf
Skills: Mind magic(Master), Nightvision(Medium), Bite(Major), Common[English](Major)
It’s the white nationalist that the black nationalist was arguing with in my memory! They have teamed up. “How did you guys team up? You two hated each other back on Earth.”
“But we aren’t back on Earth anymore. The thing that separated us from being friends was a matter of black or white. Now we are of the same type and our philosophies align perfectly.”
The orc speaks “Enough reminiscing, cuh, how about an alliance. We have big plans. A country run by monsters. You being a monster automatically puts you in a position to ally with us. We will be America and you can be Jerusalum. Just sit in your homeland and focus on developing your people. We will handle the outside threats.”
“Outside threats?”
“Humans! Those racists bastards. They want nothing more than to enslave all monsters!”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“But I already have an unofficial alliance with the Kingdom.”
“Race traitor!” “Uncle Tom!” they both cry in unison.
“You two are both way too preoccupied with race. It’s very off putting.”
The orc stands up. “Are you asleep? Can you not see it with your eyes? This whole world is racist! Why do you think you were summoned as a kobold?”
“Randomly I guess.” I hadn’t put any thought into it.
“Wake up! It’s cause of your heritage. What are the stereotypes of dragon and kobolds?”
I rack my brain. “Back on earth dragons were characterized as greedy and powerful. Kobolds are greedy and thief-like.”
“What else from Earth was characterized as greedy?” He’s trying to bait me into saying my race, but this is taking a turn that I don’t want to go down. I redirect. “What about him? He was white and now he’s a wolf.”
“He wasn’t pure anyrace. He was a product of America. Part of the big melting pot. He was a mut then and he is a mut now.”
“I really doubt that that is how they picked our races.”
“The other club mates that we’ve met got to be human and go on some grand isekai adventure, but we’re out here Re:Monster-ing it because of our race. This whole world is racist. We just want to flip the script on it. Enslave the humans. Put monsters on top.”
“Racism isn’t an excuse to enslave people.”
“Why not?”
“Enslaving people is wrong. I fought hard to free my people from being slaves to a dragon. I want freedom for everyone.”
The wolf rubs a paw on it’s chin. “If you’re not using slavery magic then how do you keep so many kobolds in line?”
“I pay them, obviously.” it’s the only moral way to keep people in line that works. There are other moral ways, like if everyone agrees to work for the betterment of the community, but those ways never work in practice.
The wolf laughs at me. “Using capitalism to enforce order. What a kobold way of thinking.”
One more joke like that and this novel might get taken down. Shut up Eris, this is a transformative and educational look into real world issues.
“Isn’t capitalism just slavery with extra steps?”
“No, it’s not! Are you two so diluted by ideology that you can’t see reality anymore? Freedom is the greatest virtue and I will fight for that freedom.”
“We aren’t trying to make you less free. We are trying to make humans less free. Our goals align, yes?”
“No! They do not. Seeing you keep people as slaves is disgusting and I will fight tyranny like that wherever I see it.”
The air in the room grows grim.
“Then why not fight the humans with us? They have a greater number of slaves.”
“Freedom is my ideal. It is the only constant that every great hero has. It is the only constant want in every thing. Every living being wants to be free, a hero who only fights for a freedom like that will surely be loved by all. That’s just my ideal though. If I got stronger I could force my ideals on every country, but that would restrict their freedom. I’d be a husk of what I want to be. Human society is too large and too powerful for me to take the reigns of. I need to infiltrate it and slowly disseminate distrust for the instituiton of slavery. Then a revolution will naturally take place.”
“What a drago-”
“Shut it with your stupid joke. However, you two are not human society. You are a small group that I can take care of. I can fight for freedom now.”
“You think you can beat us?”
I see the orc slowly inching his fingers up towards the sword on his back. The wolf 's eyes are moving from left to right. He’s reading something, probably checking my status. I prepare for their attack.
Horns appear on top of the dire wolf’s head. Twisted demonic horns. They crackle with purple magic.
“Mind Manage!”
“Air Cutter!” The blade of air slices towards the horns. A bolt of dark energy flies towards me. The air cutter connects with his horns. It slices clean through. HIs spell hits me. I am knocked to the ground, my consciousness fading.
“Did you hit him?” I hear the orc ask as I slip away.