Quickly, the butler guided me and Grok to an empty room on the second floor of the mansion, and left us alone so we could talk privately.
“Now, Grok you said you’ve lead forces of goblins in battle, right? What exactly did you do with them?
“Did you only fight side by side with them, order them from away, or did you personally train them, and make sure they had everything they needed, be it be equipment, food, water, clothes, etc.” I asked Grok, and after a few moments of thought, he started speaking.
“I have trained other, less experienced, goblins, but they were just new warriors and hunters who didn’t even know how to properly hold a spear or a knife, and after a few weeks they were transferred to someone more experienced to get further training.
“And the battle where I lead 30 goblins like I said before was just a simple training mission against a small monster den, so I didn’t have to worry about keeping them fed for long as, by the end of the day, the den was cleared out.
“I would’ve liked to take control of a force in an actual war, against people and properly trained soldiers, but the last time a war like that happened was when I was only 13, and it didn’t last longer than a few weeks anyways, so I never had the chance to participate in it.
“But even though I’ve not had the chance or the drive to improve myself on how to keep a force supplied for long periods, I still know a few things about keeping a force of warriors supplied.
“Like how to keep your important supply points from getting sabotaged, and if I am leading a small force and am cut off from the rest of the army, how to gather enough food in the field, and how to keep most weapons in usable condition.” Grok said, and... I could work with that, seeing as my knowledge about war was just watching alternate history videos talking about how Hitler could’ve won WW2, anything he had to offer me in terms of knowledge, however lacking it may be, was better than anything I could come up with by myself in a reasonable time frame.
And I could always rely on Rifu-san to try and guide me in the correct direction if something we were doing was ever a bad idea.
“Grok, I know I just dragged you into this room, but you don’t have anything to do today, right?”
“No, why do you ask—actually, why did you ask about my military knowledge? What do you want from me.”
“Hmm... Grok, how old do you think I am?”
“How old I think you are? You gave yourself—I mean, you have the title The Eternal One, so, I assume you’ve got to be at least a century or older right?” He asked, and I shook my head.
“Wrong. If I were a 100 years old or older, do you believe I wouldn’t at least have some idea of how to keep troops supplied? And thus, have no need to ask you such questions?
“I mean I wouldn’t have need for ways to keep an army supplied, or at least conventional ways of keeping an army supplied that you would know of, as any army I had would’ve consisted solely of undead, but, if I was a century or older, I would’ve at least had an army of undead, or a few armies, so, tell me, why would a deity with thousands of undead under his command need the help of another deity to capture a village of only 100 goblins? And why would I need the help of some adventurers that came out of nowhere to deal with a weak demon?” I asked Grok, and for a few seconds he seemed surprised and confused at my question, but after a bit of thinking, he answered.
“...You... wouldn’t?” He said, and I wished I had a body I could use to give a cheeky smile, sadly though, I needed to actually construct that body, and not wait for it to drop from the heavens, and I had yet to begin a project such as that.
“Correct!” I said loudly, swinging my arms wide.
“I wouldn’t have had the rely on The All Mother for any help to conquer your tribe if I had a century to build myself a venerable army of undead, but sadly, as you might’ve realised by now, I’ve been only alive for a few decades.
“I’ve not bothered to count how many winters I’ve lived through, as I didn’t ever think I’d need to know the exact number, but I’ve probably been alive for... 20 winters or so, maybe 25 but no more than 30 winters, and those 20 years has not been enough for me to familiarise myself with the world I’ve found myself in, but I believe I’ve done a good job with what little information I had starting out.
“Afterall, at the moment of my... “birth” if you will, I was just a soul that had somehow managed to find its way into a random corpse lying on the ground with no memories of its past life.
“The only thing I knew was that I was. I existed for some reason, and that was enough for the young me, but soon enough my body slowly rotted away, and I had to find a new one.
“Almost as if it was instinct, I spread my soul across the corpse I had found myself in, and in exaggerated movements, walked forwards, searching for corpses to make my own, and, thankfully, most animals in the forest ignored me as my first form was quite small and it had already started rotting by the time I had come across it, but thankfully, I soon found a new corpse, and from there on, every few days to a week, I would change bodies.
“Sometimes I was a hare, its fur as white as can be, sometimes I was a dove, skipping across the ground, and using my lacking understanding of my wings to glide from hills and trees to the ground, other times a fox, a deer, a bear—anything and anything in the forest really.
“For my first few years, I mindlessly kept walking forwards with my new bodies, searching for a new corpse to slide into when the one I was in eventually rotted too much for me to continue using it, and I got into fights with the animals of the forest, sometimes killing them and getting a fresh corpse to use, and sometimes having to escape with broken bones or half-eaten bodies.
“But never did I give up, and stopped walking forwards. And after a few years, I realised that I had more control over the corpses I was inhabiting than I had thought.
“I could meld them to my will—add new bones, cover them in flesh and give myself new limbs as good as any, or even attach plants to my bodies, giving my weaker, but more flexible and useful, muscles and bones a bit of protection.
“After more years, I realised that my power was not merely the power to meld things onto my body, but a power over souls. I can even remember the first time I grasped the soul of another being, and looked at its intricate design for hours upon hours, and as the design of souls change a bit from being to being, and a lot from species to species, so I had many designs from a variety of beings and races to experiment with on my own soul.
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“And last year, I realised that I could make undead.
“This wasn’t a result of the countless hours of experimentation I did on my soul and body, but the result of pure chance. An accident, even.
“But at the end of the day, I could control another body. Meld it as if it was my own, and experiment with it.
“But I never had the chance to actually make even a small force of undead as, whenever I tried to, my forces would be attacked and destroyed by local packs of animals and sometimes roaming monsters, and, so, I choose to try and make myself stronger first, and then build an army.
“But before I could advance my plans properly, I was approached by some spirits, who lead me to a particular dryad and... well, you know the rest of the story. We are here, after all, and I’ve only now started to build myself a proper army of undead and golems, but even though I now have more than a hundred undead and golems under my control, they are still not perfect... though, that’s a problem for me to solve, not for you.
“The problem I need you to help me solve is the problem of advancing my goals in coming here, to Lublin and to the town up the river, Prady.
“As you know, we came here because I want more followers, and want to improve your tribe’s village further so it can benefit me, and my plans, more, but as people don’t grow on trees, and my patron doesn’t feel like allowing me to dilly dally for a few hundred years, and wait for your people to grow into an entire kingdom, we will have to take advantage of others’ misfortune, and convince the people of Prady to leave Teria to come down south, and settle into your village.
“...And preferably convert themselves into being my followers along the way.
“But to do that, we have to actually get them to Lublin first, and from there, I will pay Ryuji—the head of the caravan of Ent people that came to your village a few weeks ago—to transport them back to your village.
“And that is where you come in. We will use your knowledge of supply lines to build a network hidden in the forest of Prady to channel people from their villages into Lublin and onto Ryuji’s caravan.” I finished and waited for Grok to finish digesting everything I had told him, and speak up.
I didn’t think he was actually a follower of mine, as... why would he be?
But me admitting that I was younger, and thus weaker, than I was trying to get people to think was probably still a shock to him.
And, while I didn’t think of the goblins as tools, it was better to let him think that way as I didn’t believe people would actually believe him if he tried to convince them I was evil, and it seemed like a more believable story for me to be using them for a goal set by my patron, and thus, if I ever broke the character of “The Eternal One” I could have a reason to do so.
Because, while most deities probably wouldn’t care if a few followers died, I would because my “goals”, whatever they may be, required those people to live... even though I didn’t really have any devious “goals” to accomplish, and the favour I owed to Rifu-san could probably be completed by me and me alone in 2 years or so after I set southwards.
...Though, I was most likely going to bring a few dozen undead, golems, and goblins with me when I was going to set south as you never know when they could be actually useful, and I’d rather have some backup in case something inevitably went wrong rather than wishing that I had brought some backup with me.
“I think I understand what you want me from me, Eternal one... but what I don’t understand is why you are asking me. Surely, The All Mother or your other allies are more than capable of helping you, are they not?”
“Yes, The All Mother and my other allies are more than capable of helping me and, if anything, they are dozens if not hundreds of times more experienced then you in the subject, and with their help, I could come up with a more than satisfactory map of supply lines I want to build, and be done with them in a few weeks.”
“Then, why ask me?”
“Because The All Mother is more of a teacher than a helper to me. Sure, after a few weeks, I’d have a more than satisfactory map of the supply lines I want to build throughout the forests of Prady, but she wouldn’t help me in any step of the way, only guiding me through the process, and pushing me to the correct assumptions I’d need to come up with to be able to build good enough supply lines.
“Which is not what I want. Sure, with her help, I’d be able to become one of the best supply manager you’ve ever seen, but I don’t have the weeks, if not months, of time to spend learning from her, and would much rather having a half decent outline of supply lines I could start building by the end of the week rather than having a more than satisfactory one in a month.
“And as for my other allies... Ojciec Lasu would be more than willing to help me as well, but as you’d understand, I do not wish to owe ten favours to every other deity I meet, so, I will not be asking for their help unless absolutely necessary.
“Gram is another option, as I have ways of connecting with my undead over long distances, and I would be able to brainstorm a plan with him, but I do not have any undead capable of speaking back in your village right now, and the golems I left back there would be all but unable to create such an undead.
“Perhaps I could ask Ryuji, but he’d probably be the worst option out of all 4 of my “big” allies to ask for help in this subject, as the best he could offer me would be books written in a language I’ve never seen written by a frustrated general and intended to be read by nobles who literally know nothing about war, and while I do not have large amounts of knowledge to draw upon on the subject... I am at least better than the nobles for which that book would be written for as I actually realise that keeping your soldiers fed and rested are great ways to increase their morale, a greatly increase your chances of winning a battle.
“Which leaves me with you, Grok, the only goblin I know that could at least have some knowledge about wars and supply lines, and as you’ve said, you know a few things about those, and as you’ve gone out of your way to join this little expedition of mine, I assume you are willing to set aside our history, at least for now, and lend me hand, right?” I asked Grok expectantly, and he nodded.
“Yes, Eternal One, I am willing to set aside our... “history”, but I also have a request to make of you if you’d be willing to hear me out.” He asked, and while I was 100% sure I knew where this was going, I wanted him to say it loudly, and nodded, motioning for him to continue.
“I want my father, Krone Grone, to be forgiven, and released out of prison.” Grok said after a few seconds of silence, and I started giving his request some thought.
Sure, Krone had been the priest of a deity that I could probably deem as my “enemy”, as I’d be surprised if The Great One would be willing to sit down and have a cup of tea with me while we talked about or differences and came to an agreement, but after the surgery done on him which cut of him from using his mana, which I still don’t understand the mechanics behind, he should be unable to contact his god through any skills or spells, but that doesn’t really matter when he’s a clear threat to mine, and Gram’s, legitimacy.
Sure, he can’t really hold a candle to my grasp over his tribe’s religion after I get a Priest and uplift a few Acolyte’s, but he can still be a big problem to Gram, and perhaps even get a few people, who are still followers of their old deity, to support him, and maybe even lead a rebellion against me and Gram.
“...Grok, I assume you know I can’t give him back the ability to use mana, right? Not because I am incapable of doing so, but purely because your father is a threat to both mine and Gram’s legitimacy, and no matter how much time passes, he will remain as a threat. You understand that, right?” I asked him, and Grok nodded with a painful expression.
“I understand, Eternal One, but... is there really no way for him to gain access to his mana again?”
“Hmm... Grok, is your father as pragmatic as you?” I asked, looking for a possible way for his father to gain back control of his mana, and perhaps even be helpful to me, as having an experienced necromancer under my command would be undoubtedly useful.
“As pragmatic as me? What do you mean by that?” Grok asked, seeming confused.
“Grok, I am not sure about your allegiance to me, as you can probably understand. And to be completely honest, I do not care that you may not be a 100% loyal to me.
“Afterall, I didn’t ask for you, or any of the priest candidates I took with me or any goblin in the village, for their eternal devotion to me, and I could not care any less about how many followers I truly have as long as those who are not my followers don’t actively try to sabotage me, and those who are my followers continue to help me.
“And you stand before me, not following my orders and wishes fully, which makes me assume that you are at least a bit pragmatic as you’ve gone out of your way to try and make a deal with me.
“For your temporary loyalty, and strategical knowledge, I call in a favour from Gram and use my political power to free your father.
“And my question is, if given the chance, would your father be open for a deal most interesting?”