Van woke up and followed Luna to the training field where they will begin their exercise. He was a little nervous because he was also going to meet the troop of goblins that day as well for the first time.
As he walked out onto the field, he was led by Anna to the front of a large group of about forty goblins. He was surprised to see not only his father but Kella and about three harpies in front of the group. The group itself consisted of about thirty or so regular goblins and about ten hobgoblins, one of which seemed to be the leader of the group who was talking to his father and Kella at the moment.
Turning around as if just noticing Van, Alv waved him over and began to introduce him to his new troop.
“Van, I don’t think I need to introduce you to Kella, but she will be joining you from now on. I would like it if you took her on as a knight of yours, her experience and knowledge I believe will come in handy as you learn to lead your group of goblins.” Alv said good-naturedly, with Kella not bothering to give her introduction since they already knew each other, and instead, the two exchanged some quick pleasantries and then moved on.
Turning over, Alv then introduced the rest of the people Van will be leading. “This here is the sergeant of this troop. She doesn’t have a name, but you can name her if you want. She will be assisting you as well and will teach you alongside Kella on what you need to know.” pointing at the hobgoblin sergeant who also introduced herself.
“A pleasure to meet you, young master, er-, I mean master.” she quickly corrected herself in a surprisingly soft and gentle voice, that still carried clear and loud and with confidence. “I look forward to working under you. If you have any questions or need anything for us to do, don’t hesitate to ask,” she said, standing straight and giving a salute by banging a fist to her chest.
Van took a close look at the soldiers presented to him. Most of the goblins didn’t wear or carry any real weapons, nor look professionally trained, he was beginning to worry what good were a bunch of goblins that were only about a head above his waist could do without proper training or equipment. Beat his enemies with cuteness? The most they had were some cloth to cover themselves and sharp sticks that one could crudely call spears. But if he thought about it, their training and equipment were up to him and was just another test to see if he could properly take care of them.
Almost as if reading his mind his father added. “Don’t worry about feeding them, it will be on the house while they are here.”
Which gave a small shiver down Van’s spine as the weight and responsibility fell on him.
Still looking, he noticed that the hobgoblins fared a little better, with proper clothing, if you could call it that, and stone weaponry and tools. They carried themselves a bit better or at least tried to.
Finally was the sergeant, who carried herself professionally like a truly trained soldier with the gear to match, looking stunning by comparison. A few inches taller than the other hobgoblins who probably could only reach about his chest height. She looked straight ahead with vigor and determination in her eyes, so much so they felt almost piercing. Back straight and long black hair down and out of the way, she exuded martial confidence, like she was prepared to show her worth at a moment's notice and carried herself lightly on her feet but with a firm grip on the ground.
She had a mix of dark fur and leather armor with a large black metal chest piece that had the house's insignia on it, A black sun wreathed in gold on a black field. She carried a bow, spear, shield, and saber as well what looked like a dagger strapped to her thigh and a few smaller ones strapped to her skirt which covered what seemed to be a tattoo of a wolf between two lines wrapped around her other thigh. She wore a belt pouch around her waist, long boots, and greaves that reached her knees. Her face was smooth like most goblinoid races and a little cute, but that did not hide the fierceness that lay underneath or the lithe and clearly trained body under her armor.
She looked like an amazon or valkyrie in miniature, ready for war.
“And these,” Alv said, pointing at the harpies, “are for your air support, if you ever need them.”
The harpies consisted of one raven harpy and two crow harpies. The raven harpy wore what appeared silk-like clothing and wielded a staff and the crow harpies wore light leather armor with crossbows and a long dagger. These were regular harpies, so they had wings on their backs instead of for arms and had largely womanly figures and normal women-like faces.
“Now that that’s taken care of, it's time for you to lead them.” Alv then patted his son on the back, good-naturedly. “Good luck,” he said, turning and leaving Van to figure things out for himself.
Looking at the rescinding back of his father, Van turned back to the forty-plus people now under his care and command. Kella gave him a somewhat amused look, but largely stood still and looked professional, waiting for orders.
Blowing some air out of his mouth, Van tried to relax as he took everything in and tried to figure out what the best thing to do next was. Giving it some thought he ordered Kella and the sergeant forward. The two followed his order promptly and stood in front of him, waiting expectantly for his first orders to them.
“Alright… first things first. Since the two of you are going to be the leaders of this group, I’m going to blood bind you. This will not only allow me to have a connection with you two, but will also make both of you a little stronger.” he said, though inwardly he worried if he was doing the right thing.
“It would be an honor,” Kella said, surprisingly demure.
The hobgoblin seemed to gasp a little and her eyes went wide at her amazing good fortune. “It would be an honor!” she said somewhat excitedly as if she couldn’t believe what was happening to her.
Van nodded, and with a will and some blood manipulation, forced the blood to flow out of his finger and float towards the two. They accepted the blood in their mouths and swallowed, and soon after he felt a connection to them.
The hobgoblin then all of a sudden took to her knee, voice a little shaky and full of emotion. “I swear to serve my master till my dying breath! Mind, body, and soul! Thank you for this great honor!”
Van was taken a bit by surprise, but tried to accept her words gracefully and told her to rise, which she did with great fervor. Kella on the other hand had that strange amused look back on her face but now carried herself in a way that seemed to be far more respectful of him.
Looking up, he found himself the center of attention by his group of goblins and harpies. Their gaze almost unwavering and pointed at him, their interest in him clearly piqued.
Van gave a slight cough and tried to move things along. “Er- right… well,” he then looked towards the sergeant, “what do they call you? I can’t just call you sergeant every time I want to get your attention.”
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“Master can call me whatever he likes, I will accept any designation.” the hobgoblin said.
“Hmm…” Van said thoughtfully. “Were you known by anything or had a nickname of sorts?” he asked.
The hobgoblin shook her head. “Before I was just called you. When I became a corporal we were either given numbers or colors. This is because names give power, and we will feel beholden to anyone who names us.”
Van thought about it for a moment, then sighed at how complicated everything had to be. “Alright… I suppose I have no choice… I will name you…” he had to think about it for a bit… “I name you Isa, it means strong-willed,” he said.
And just as he expected, he felt a stronger connection form between him and Isa, her body growing a few inches and fuller, not to mention a little stronger. A few minutes later it was as if he was looking at a slightly different hobgoblin, who immediately got on her knees and started singing his praises and her thanks.
“Enough of that, please, get back up. I did this more for me than for you,” he said, a little annoyed and embarrassed.
“Still! If you order me to jump into a volcano I will! If you order me to fight to the death I will! If you-”
“I Get IT!” Van said, cutting her off. “Just… please answer a few of my questions…” he said, trying to change the subject and doing his best to ignore all the eyes now on him harder than ever.
She immediately stood up straight and looked at him with even greater fervor than before. “Anything! Ask me anything and I will answer it!”
Van inwardly cringed a little, wondering if what he did was really a good idea. “How long have you been training for? How old are you? And what’s your experience in leading and training others?” he asked.
“I’ve been training for five years! I’m six years old! And I have worked harder than anyone else before to get where I am today, becoming one of the very few hobgoblins who are sergeants and all the training that entails!” she said proudly, puffing out her chest in pride.
“I… see…” Van said, reminded that goblins and hobgoblins age at a different rate than most people and that they remained mostly youthful all their lives. “And do you think you would be able to train these goblins behind into a proper fighting force?” he asked.
Isa stood straighter and in a voice filled with confidence said, “I will make them the best fighting force in the world or die trying!”
Which made Van a little worried and gave a silent apology to the group of goblins behind her whose face’s paled a little. “And… how would you train them?” he asked, hoping to steer the now very zealous hobgoblin into something more humane should it require him to.
Isa told him and he was surprised by how manageable it was, or at least for someone his size and strength, not so sure by goblin standards, so he just gave a quick glance towards Kella who gave a slight nod of her head. With that signal, he just agreed to whatever Isa said and hoped for the best.
“There is one thing that has me a bit worried though,” he said, looking now at both Kella and Isa. “If we were to go into battle and a few goblins were to die, how would we replace them?” he asked.
“I believe your father has donated a few dozen eggs for such an occasion master,” Kella answered.
“Eggs?” Van asked, confused.
Isa nodded proudly, sticking out her chest. “We goblins have many methods of reproduction!” she said with pride. “We can give single births like humans do or can give birth like bunny’s where we can get impregnated multiple times. We can give birth to hard eggs like a chicken. And we can give birth to wet eggs, like frogs or something to that effect. Each method has its pros and cons.”
Van’s eyes widened, “seriously!?”
Isa nodded happily. “When we give birth singly like a human, our children turn out stronger. If multiple times, not as strong but far quicker. With wet eggs we can give birth to batches, but then there is the problem taking care of them all.”
“And finally the favorite method, hard egg births, were we give birth to a large hard egg. These are the best kind of births because they can go into hibernation for long periods of time. They can also suck in the ambient mana to grow bigger, allowing a goblin to be born essentially as a fully grown adult. Over the centuries we have developed many different methods of egg cultivation to help produce good quality goblins en masse!” she said with great pride.
Van felt a little weirded out by this conversation or that pride that a goblin had about the fact they talked about their birthing process like a farmer about how many chickens they could raise.
“If it weren't for the fact that wild goblins give off a bad smell and, were at the bottom of the food chain and kill off others of other tribes, we goblins probably would have ruled the world!” she continued on.
“I… see…” he said, looking at the other goblins who he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised were also nodding their heads with pride to what Isa was saying. “What else can you tell me?” now a little curious.
Isa beamed and began. “Well, you are very lucky to have us as your goblins! We Alcranian goblins are the best in the world! We are the tallest type of goblins and the most beautiful and longest-lived as well! We can also do what other types of goblins can do, out of all the other goblins we are the most superior!”
She then continued on about red goblins, blue goblins, snow goblins, and many more different types of goblins around the world and what they are best at. Like how reds were very martial and good at blacksmithing, blues were good at magic and healing, greens were the shortest and were good hunters and were also known as wild goblins and many more.
“And that’s not all!” Isa continued.
Making Van wish he never asked at all.
“We Alcranian goblins are the reason why Alcray exists today! You see, a long time ago after a great war, Alcray was all destroyed! In order to help build it back up again, Alcraze adopted the first of a kind crazy notion to integrate many different monster kin races to help with the lack of manpower. One of these races were, of course, goblins! We were tasked with helping clear out all the feral undead and other horrors that plagued the land. And when we died… they ground up our bodies to be used as fertilizer!” she said with pride. Making Van do a double-take.
Puffing out her chest once more she continued. “Our bodies were used to help bring back life to the many dead lands of Alcray. You could even say you are standing right on top of the corpses of our ancestors right now!”
Van looked down worriedly.
Isa then gave a more wistful look out towards the distance. “In a way, our ancestors turned this barren land into one that is teaming with life. Their sacrifice gave everyone else the ability to rise and prosper on this land. We Alcranian’s hold them all dear in our hearts for what they did for us.” then continued some more.
Van gave another glance towards Kella, who shrugged as if to say that that’s just how they are.
After a few more minutes of this, and finishing up talking about the heroes of Alcranian goblin kind, Isa finally seemed to have finished and even got a rousing applause from the other goblins, much to her embarrassment.
“Well… umm…” she said, a little embarrassed about going on a rant about how great goblins were. “Do you have any other questions?”
Van was a little afraid to ask, for fear that she might go on another rant, but decided it couldn’t hurt to ask anyway. “Umm… so we have the eggs right? How long will it take for them to hatch and how long for a goblin to mature to be able to train and fight?”
“Hmm…” Isa said thoughtfully, thinking about it carefully. “It takes about one week to lay an egg, about two to four months for an egg to hatch, and about six months to a year for the goblin to mature. three months to six after birth the goblin can start training, once mature she can start giving birth. This can happen sooner if the goblin hatches full-grown and also depending on the amount of mana it is given while still an egg. All of this of course is doubled for hobgoblins.” she said.
Van was surprised by how quickly goblins could replace themselves, and also noticed something not adding up. “Does that mean that you were born a goblin before becoming a hobgoblin?”
Isa smiled. “Yup, I worked really hard to get where I am today.”
“Hmm… and where do we get more eggs when we run low on them?” he asked.
“Well… you could always buy them from others or…” she then slowly lowered her gaze to Van’s crotch before moving back up.
Van got the message. “Alright… I think these are all the questions I want to ask for now, so… do you two think you can take over while I check up on Luna and the others?”
Isa saluted happily. “Leave it to me! I will train these girls to the point they could conquer an entire nation!”
Kella nodded. “Don’t worry about us, I’ll give you a report by the end of the day and we’ll go over later what you are expected to do and how. After that, I will start teaching you what you need to know on how to lead your troops.”
Van gave his thanks and left the two to their devices. Nervous, but also a little excited about the future and what could be possible with an army of his own.