“Fweee~!” A loud whistle rang out.

  “Kueee~!” A streak of gray whistled by Vincent’s head, landing on his outstretched arm.

  “Good work, Emet.” He affectionately scratched the storm falcon’s beak after giving Emet a treat.

  It had already been a few days since Vincent had set off on his mission. He packed minimally; he chose to travel with only a small pack and a bundle strapped to the back of his horse. Initially, he only planned to visit the site of the recurring attacks, but with Emet’s help, he was able to locate trails left behind by the goblins.

  Vincent pulled out a map and began to measure the smoke trail up in the sky. “Emet has already confirmed the goblin raiding camp is the source of the smoke, but I can’t just return before verifying their numbers. Out in that direction should be a hillside, so I won’t have much cover if I were to try to approach the camp from the south…” He murmured to himself while Emet cocked it’s head back and forth as if to study the map.

  “Kuee~?”

  Vincent looked up at the bird before saying, “You can rest for now. In a while, I’ll need you to run an errand for me.” Emet nodded as if in understanding and flew off, leaving Vincent behind to ponder on his approach.

  “Even if they’re a raiding party, they are too arrogant. They decided to camp near the site of their ambushes, are they really that dumb?” Vincent said as he submerged himself into the forest. Hidden from view of the road, he set up a temporary camp and tucked himself in until night. He ate a small meal composed of a few pieces of dried bread and meat.

  When the sun had fallen, leaving only the light of the moon to illuminate the forest, Vincent began his operation. He conducted a final check on his gear before setting out towards the location where the smoke was rising. Along the way, he looked up to see a silhouette of a bird flying low in the tree canopy and felt confidence seep into his limbs.

  In under any circumstances, reconnaissance required stealth and a keen eye. This wasn’t the case for Vincent because even from so far away he could hear the boisterous laughter coming from the camp. The camp was alive with dance and drumming as the goblins’ shadows danced against the flickering flames.

  Vincent had been keeping an eye out for any sentries; even if they were only goblins, they shouldn’t be dumb enough to leave themselves defenseless. Just like he expected, a few slumped bodies were leaning against the trunk of trees about 100 meters out from the camp. Vincent smiled derisively and proceeded past them. It wasn’t because he was a pacifist that he allowed them to live, but because his mission was to gain an accurate understanding of the goblin raiding parties’ strength; killing a few will only alert the rest, and it may even complicate the matter when the subjugation party was dispatched later on.

  Soon, Vincent had come just fifty meters of the raiding camp’s crudely formed walls. They were only high enough to reach up to his chest, so there wasn’t any problem in seeing inside the camp. What he could see wasn’t unexpected, piles of goods strewn about the ground, piles of weapons and armor lay in one corner, and a stock of dwindling foodstuffs were near the central campfire.

  Vincent noted down the gear available to the goblins as he began to count heads. A typical raiding party for goblins would be about 30-50 heads. It was normal for a raid leader to be the strongest of the bunch. So Vincent kept his eye out for the largest goblin and also for any signs of orders being given out amongst the many heads present within the camp. There were also makeshift tents set up which obstructed his counting, but for the most part, this part of the mission went smoothly.

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  “Forty-one…” Vincent finished counting and was just about to retreat when he heard a loud sound that startled him. It wasn’t because the noise was particularly loud, but by the fact that sound originated from behind him. He tensed up and immediately dashed into the undergrowth, melding into the darkness like an extinguished flame.

  “Fucking greenskins.” A voice growled from a ways off. “Why the hell do we gotta go to them?”

  “Shut up, Fjord. Do you want them entering our village? See our women and children?” Another voice angrily berated the first and shut up the first voice.

  “Quiet, both of you. We should call out to the camp; I don’t want them to think we’re bad guys.” A third voice chimed in.

  Very quickly the three owners of the voice came into view. They looked like robust men and wore heavy cloaks to stave off the late-summer night’s cold. Why were there human’s interacting with a raiding camp? Just what were these men doing by showing up here in the dead of night? Vincent wasn’t stupid, his eyes narrowed as he perked up his ears.

  Back in front of the camp, the three men were escorted inside by a group of half-drunk and jeering goblins.

  “Hey watch it!” A man yelled as he recoiled away from a spear a goblin had pointed at him.

  “Raid Captain Druznox, we are here in good faith to do trade with you, and this is how you treat us, like prisoners?” Another man angrily growled at the crowd of goblins.

  “Snrrr~ Human no like joke? Hur Hur Hur!” A low grumbling rumbled out from the depths of the biggest tent in the camp. The three men seemed to shrink away after hearing the voice, but still stayed standing. Just then, the tent flap flung open and revealed a hulking figure that even shocked Vincent.

  “Snrrr~ Druznox feel no good. Fast deal. Human leave.” The hulking hobgoblin spoke out in broken common tongue before barking some orders to his subordinates.

  “Yes! Yes! We must hurry and complete this trade, and then we can both be happy!” The leader of the trio nervously rubbed his hands as he bobbed his head up and down subserviently. “Fjord, Wyatt, both of you go get the supplies.”

  The other two vigorously nodded their heads before hastily retreating back to the road. They looked as if they had just escaped an execution. The leader of the trio then continued to say, “Raid Captain Druznox, may I inspect the goods that you have offered for trade?”

  The Druznox flexed his muscles and cracked his knuckles, a show of intimidation before relenting and allowed the man to pass. “Look good. Snrrr~! Very good.”

  Vincent also managed to catch a glimpse of the items that were brought out. These weren’t your everyday average commodities. Amongst the pile of goods, Vincent was able to discern a few rare stuffs like blood silk and also pieces of jewelry. Even if he recently transmigrated to this world, he had been exposed to the luxuries afforded to nobility; it was natural for him to recognize those things.

  “How can you say these are good stuff?” The man seemed to shake with anger as he picked up a few products. He picked up a jewel and said, “This piece of tin? It’s already lucky if I were able to sell this in the marketplace.” He then pointed at a piece of wood sculpture that looked life-like. “That piece of wood is all scratched up, did you damage it when you were fighting? How can I sell this wood if it’s all cut up? And that red fabric, is that stained by blood from the fighting? This is no good!”

  Vincent was left flabbergasted at the shamelessness of the man and then impressed at the amount of balls it took to lie straight to a hobgoblin raid leader’s face. Druznox was also puzzled as he scratched his head.

  “Human stuff no good?”

  “It’s all worthless!”

  “No trade?” Druznox’s tone began to shift.

  “…” The man fearfully took a step back before quickly saying, “No! You have the wrong idea. I’ll still do trade, but you have to give me a better deal. You damaged the goods while fighting so I can’t make much off this.” He quickly scanned around the area and pointed to another pile of stuff, “If you throw in all of that, I’ll do the trade.”

  Druznox looked at the trunks of worthless clothing and nodded. Very quickly the trade was finalized, and the trio walked away with a plethora of luxury goods. The goblins were also satisfied with theirs as they began to break open caskets of ale and fresh meat. The jolly atmosphere resumed unbeknownst to them a shadow had already stalked off, following the three men as they left for the road.