Murphy's musings were disrupted by a goblin scout's report, and once again, his attention was drawn to the contents of the report.
A wild female knight has appeared! Anyone familiar with some run-of-the-mill novels would know, if you turned this world into a card game, when the opponent summons a female knight, our goblin squad has to be on its toes.
But Murphy harbored an inexplicable expectation for this world, hoping to hear a different answer. Murphy looked at the breathless goblin scout and asked, "Why do you report such matters?" The goblin stared back at Murphy, his eyes full of confusion- the first time Murphy had been able to precisely interpret a gaze- and he was extremely sure about his interpretation. The scout's message was simple: Who the hell are you?
Wasting no words, Murphy casually threw a deterrence skill over, causing the goblin scout to collapse on the spot, weeping profusely, and began to spill the beans like bamboo tubes pouring out. Turns out, a solitary female knight had fallen into the goblins' trap, meant to capture wild dogs. After bravely taking down dozens of goblins, she collapsed from exhaustion, taken captive by the remaining goblins who dispatched a scout to ask whether there were special handling methods for such a situation.
Astonished by what he heard, Murphy asked with a puzzled face, "Don't you have a straightforward process for this sort of circumstance?" The Goblin Chieftain hastily apologized, "Humans have been appearing less frequently over the past few years, even if we captured one to toil in human mines, humans prefer capturing zombies instead of fast goblins, so we treat any human we capture by accident with great care."
"Treated well? How so?" Murphy asked, intrigued.
"Normally, upon seeing a human, we'll run. If they chase us into our cave, we use our advantage in height to trap them in dead corners in the cave, starve them for three days before hurling them outside and they vanish on their own," said the Goblin Lord, sounding somewhat proud as if he was explaining a natural law he had discovered himself.
"So, you've got no other thoughts about these humans? Like, eating them or, uh, using them as labour?" Murphy wondered, guilty for his sinister thoughts.
"No, our ancestors' experience tells us humans don't taste good. Also, humans are smart and keep coming up with ways to escape. For one human labourer, we'd need three goblins to supervise, and the consumption of our food would not pay off," replied the goblin.
It all made perfect sense, even Murphy couldn't find fault with it. But he was still puzzled. He looked down at the weeping goblin scout and asked the final bug in this sudden event, "The female knight was captured by you guys on purpose, so you had to ask the lord if there were any special processes, I get that. But she didn't intend to enter your cave, so why capture her?"
The sobbing goblin scout explained they were inspecting their traps, as per custom, when they found the female knight who had accidentally wandered in. Next, the scout said in the common demon language, an exceedingly familiar phrase to Murphy's ears, "She happened to come." Murphy was shocked at the broad application of the "She happened to come" theory, even in this alternate world, and its impact had even gone as far as letting demons stir up unnecessary trouble. After pondering, Murphy decided to personally meet with the female knight, as he'd need a suitable guide to the human kingdom.
---
"Everyone, one more time, state your identities. I'll go first. I'm Murphy, the young merchant, here at the goblin lair to purchase some beast fur," Murphy was doing the final rehearsal.
"I'm Murphy's cousin, Tyre, in charge of... in charge of accounting matters." Tyre, already hidden from his demonic traits, appeared as a handsome young man of 16 or 17. He was, however, still unfamiliar with his new identity.
"I am Byron, responsible for driving and other manual labor, currently recovering from injuries." The "cybernetic Byron" who could now walk normally so as not to blow his cover was assigned the role of a reticent, injured stranger. After half a day of rigorous practice, the cyborg started to feel somewhat human. As saying goes, the more you do, the more mistakes you make, but if you keep a low profile and strive to slack off, the risk of being exposed will be greatly reduced. Looking at the cyborg still in its break-in period, Murphy thought that a skeleton soldier driving a slime mecha would be the perfect description for this scenario.
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The trio began their journey following the Goblin Chieftain and the scout to the desolate hills. As for the lords who hadn't been assigned tasks, Murphy let them return to their territories to maintain order, ready to be dispatched at any time. Murphy reminded them to go back to their territories and till the ground, dig up and clean up a bit, checking whether the old folks left behind anything like mineral resources, and stressed that unless an accident occurs, the lords' meeting will be held normally at court next month.
Murphy gave special instructions to the Vampire Lord to educate his tribe against fraud once back in the Red Mountains, no matter what, especially telling them not to buy smuggled crucibles, they are both expensive and low quality. The demon lord will provide better ones, for free no less.
After settling all that, Murphy separately gathered the Werewolf Lord and Ghost Lord, demanding them to form several joint patrol teams, specifically robbing human smugglers in demon territory. Murphy's requirement was simple: humans get out, leave the goods behind, if crucibles are found, send them directly to the Vampires, the rest to the court. Once the trade route is open, sell them back to the human kingdom. What a foolproof scheme!
To prevent the accidental release of the female knight by the time they arrived in Goblin's territory, Murphy forcefully activated an unused teleportation array with massive amounts of magic. The group finally reached the desolate hills before noon.
As its plain name suggests, the desolate hills were indeed barren. The impoverished land caused the trees to grow disoriented, low hills full of goblin excavated caves. The only product were various kinds of beasts that had a predator-prey relationship with the goblins, some even reached level ten, could be considered formidable opponents to the goblins.
The crew walked on the road towards the cave, the malnourished trees were unable to provide sufficient cover, the high sun causing Tyre and Byron to wilt. Noon was equivalent to midnight for demons, in this era, save for mages who knew light spells or soldiers who could back each other,few humans chose to venture out at midnight.
Patting the heads of the two demons, Murphy advised, "Now you need to think of yourselves as real humans, during the journey, we need to act well and avoid exposing our true identities." After saying that, Murphy added in his mind, "If we're discovered, we might just cause an international incident in this alternate world."
At the entrance of the cave, summoned by Byron were two disguised skeleton horses and a nearly completely damaged horse carriage body as well as two bundles of beast fur and some travel supplies provided by the goblin forming the last piece of the puzzle of this makeshift merchant team.
Walking into the cave specifically designed to imprison humans, Murphy commented how thoughtful the demons were. Goblins who were usually only about a meter tall had deliberately heightened this cave to two meters, this consideration alone made the prison camp seem almost humane.
Murphy led the way and in the innermost cell of the cave, met the alternate world human he had been eagerly awaiting. At first sight, Murphy unconsciously voiced his genuine praise, "Great Scot!" The succubus pedigree existed even in female knights, what a loss of talent.
Becoming aware of the footsteps, the despairing female knight saw that the newcomers were two youths and a middle-aged man, her hopes of rescue flared once again. Yet the young man leading them appeared to be pondering something, displaying no signs of action, raising suspicion in her mind. The other two seemed a little out of spirit, their gazes were lackluster, standing on the spot, perhaps due to the long journey.
After a brief silence, the female knight somewhat pleadingly said to the people in front of her, "Don't just stand there, please do something." Murphy sighed lightly, noting that these weren't the lines he wanted to hear. He turned to the goblin scout who had earlier recited his script, "Let her be, I've finalized the treaty with your lord." The goblin scout silently approached, stepping into the female knight's line of sight, and then whispered a few faint but firm words that echoed in the narrow cave and into Murphy's ears,
"Gah, just kill me! You damned demon!"
Murphy felt a sense of satisfaction, indeed, a genuine female knight.
The Goblin scout unlocked the cell door, Murphy signaled Tyre to go and untie the female knight. Tyre prodded the knight's face, confirmed her human identity, and nodded at Murphy to signal that everything was going smoothly. Murphy turned towards the freshly freed female knight and said, "You're indeed human. I can take you home, no need for thanks, I do charge for the service."