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Rain\'s knees almost buckled. "They\'re preparing for war? Here?"

~Chi~

\'Not just here. They plan to conquer all of the Barren Wasteland.\'

"How ambitious!" Rain exclaimed, but then he shook his head. "This isn\'t the time to admire them. Chi, aren\'t they deterred by the fact that the seadwellers are on our side?"

Chi shook her head. \'Apparently, their King fears nothing. They number around fifty thousand strong and believe they have the upper hand on land.\'

So they weren\'t deterred at all, Rain thought. The Hobgoblins had only sent one thousand the first time, so they wouldn\'t make the same mistake twice. This time, they would surely send their whole army.

\'There\'s also talk of avenging their slain General or something along those lines.\'

"Did you find out any weaknesses?"

Chi shook her head again. \'The Hobgoblin King has many children but no love for them. There isn\'t anything he desires other than total control over the Barren Wasteland.\'

Rain paced back and forth inside his house, his mind racing. "Are they marching here?"

Chi shook her head. \'They\'re taking their time to prepare for an all-out war. I don\'t know the specifics, but I heard from their soldiers that they plan to divide their army. One here and the other will marsh north to begin their conquest.\'

Rain was certain that, unlike before, this time the hobgoblins would definitely send more than 10,000 troops to deal with them.

~Chi . . .~

Rain forced a smile. "I\'m fine, Chi. And thank you for your hard work. Continue to patrol up north."

Chi nodded and went outside, leaving Rain to his thoughts.

Unlike what he and Lord Izumi had expected, this Hobgoblin King was determined and driven. Apparently, he didn\'t care about sacrificing everything just to conquer the Barren Wasteland.

At this rate, no amount of negotiation would work with such a creature. Rain was sure the Hobgoblin King would kill him on sight if he went there to negotiate. This type of creature was unreasonable and would stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

Rain had no choice but to fight back.

He immediately went to consult with Druger about the village\'s defenses. Though he had doubts, maybe his village could withstand the Hobgoblins\' attacks.

Rain found Druger overseeing the construction on the east side of his territory. They were starting to build connections to the ocean as soon as possible.

"Hey, Druger! Can I have a moment of your time?" Rain asked.

"Ah, Rain. What is it? Do you want to change something about the layout?"

"No, everything is fine with the buildings and all. There\'s something else I need to ask you about."

"Let\'s hear it, then, lad."

Rain glanced at the other villagers, busy with construction. "Let\'s go over there."

Druger\'s smile slightly wavered, sensing something was up.

When they were away from the villagers\' ears, Rain started, unsure how to ask his question. "Uhm . . . Hypothetically, just what if . .

. if there\'s an attack — could this village survive a siege by ten thousand Hobgoblins?"

Druger blinked. "Ahaa . . ." Then he doubled over in laughter. "Ahahahaha!"

Rain\'s mouth twitched, and he forced a laugh too. "Ahahahahaaa . . ."

Druger\'s face then turned serious and answered straight to the point, "Of course not! This village couldn\'t withstand such a widescale attack. It would be obliterated if that happened.

"Goblins are nasty creatures and weak, but they reproduce like rabbits and are dangerous in swarms. Hobgoblins are their evolved form — human-sized, more robust, and capable of thinking. Hundreds of them would pose no problem. A thousand, maybe manageable. But ten thousand, and you have a swarm!

"Numbers like that could easily topple towns, not to mention this village." Druger laughed loudly.

Rain couldn\'t even bring himself to laugh anymore.

Druger noticed Rain\'s pale face and immediately understood the whole situation. "D-don\'t tell me?"

Druger gaped, and Rain quickly put his hand over his mouth to prevent him from screaming.

This was no time to cause panic. If the villagers knew they were about to be attacked by ten thousand Hobgoblins, chaos would surely ensue. Right now, they needed to plan for this impending threat.

"Shh! Keep your voice down. This is no time to cause unnecessary panic," Rain whispered urgently, looking around to see if anyone had heard them.

Druger swatted away Rain\'s hand and looked him in the eyes. "When are the Hobgoblins coming?" he asked seriously.

"They\'re still preparing, and I have Chi continued to spy on them. But if I have to provide an estimate, I think it will be anytime within the month," Rain replied, assessing the situation.

The Hobgoblins were likely preparing their attack for years, amassing a large army that could potentially wipe out all the territories in the Barren Wasteland in one swoop. They had just met an unexpected setback because of Lord Izumi and the Seadwellers, buying them precious time to prepare. But now, nothing could stop them from advancing any longer.

"So they finally acted," Druger sighed.

"You knew?" Rain asked, surprised.

"It\'s not that I knew. As I told you, we don\'t know much about the north because we never venture more than a kilometer from town before. It\'s very dangerous, you know. But one day, I believe it was a year ago, you\'re not still here, of course — we spotted Hobgoblins outside of town. They didn\'t attack. I think they just surveyed the surroundings before they left.

"I found it strange because Hobgoblins never acted intelligently. As soon as they see something they could take as food, they would attack. But that group acted like they were following orders, so I suspected they might have some kind of a leader.

"But, I never expected a Hobgoblin King," Druger said, his tone grave.

"Is the King strong?" Rain asked.

Druger crossed his arms and thought seriously for a moment. "In terms of power, the Hobgoblin King is definitely not a match for Lord Izumi. However . . . he\'s a King, lording over all Hobgoblins, so he will surely have a domain.

That alone makes him tricky to defeat."

Rain remembered the domain of Lord Izumi and shivered. How was he going to break that?

"Lad, maybe you should call Lord Izumi right now?" Druger suggested.

Rain thought of it too. It was the safest route. But . . . "Lord Izumi and the rest are probably very busy right now, Druger.

They have their own urgent matters to attend to. Right now, they\'re probably fighting their own wars and defending their kingdoms.

"Think about it, if I called them here to fight, I believe they would hold a grudge against me because they would forego their important matters just to attend to me.

"I\'m not their king, nor are they my troops. We established this alliance out of mutual trust and respect, and I will definitely lose both if I call them right now."

"You do have a point, still . . ." Druger mused.

Rain continued. "Besides, I\'m thinking about the villagers. If Lord Izumi and the Seadwellers suddenly showed up and helped us out here, they would surely connect the dots, and our secret would get exposed. When they find out, I believe their confidence in themselves would plummet even more than before. We don\'t want that to happen."

Druger was silent, thinking.

Rain patted his shoulder and forced a reassuring smile. "This fight, we should do it ourselves. This is a fight we must win ourselves."

Druger stared into Rain\'s eyes. The young lad\'s voice was firm, but the fingers on his shoulder were shaking, the only betrayal of the boy\'s fear. Even so, Rain\'s eyes were determined.

For some reason, Druger felt at ease. Rain was young, very young in fact, compared to him, but his spirit was unbelievably resilient. He wasn\'t just a lord in name; he was truly becoming one.

\'Rain, lad . . . you\'re growing remarkably each day . . .\'

Druger took a deep breath and steeled himself. "Alright. If you\'re determined to defeat the Hobgoblins, I will help you. We will help you."

"Really?" Rain\'s face brightened.

Druger nodded. "The village and the townsfolk will help too, I\'m sure of it. After all, your territory is the first line of defense we have before they reach our town. We can\'t have them breaching this place at all costs."

Rain nodded.

"And with the townsfolk having just recovered the port town, their morale is at an all-time high. This is a good time to announce the impending threat to them."

Rain didn\'t comment. He was going to announce it sooner or later, so it was best to announce it now than later.

"We have a lot to do, Rain, lad. I believe we have to halt construction for a time and concentrate all our efforts on defense and traps, as well as making weapons for the entire townfolks."

Rain nodded. "Yes. But is our number going to be alright?"

"Including the village here and the townfolks, ruling out those unable to fight, I believe we have about 500 soldiers."

Rain didn\'t like those numbers at all. "F-five hundred against ten thousand?"

"Aye. It might sound like a one-sided fight, but don\'t forget, Rain, lad . . . you have those."