“Hey, Gi-san.”
The commander of the gate guards, Yuza, smiled with satisfaction at the seemingly flustered goblin.
The goblin was covered in scars, its skin was green, and it only had one arm. The way it walked while it carried a spear with its one arm was by no means how a low-ranking guard should be. The goblin was just tall enough to reach Yuza’s shoulders, but only one word was fit to describe it, vicious.
“Hey, don’t get flustered now. It’s not really a big deal that your name is similar to your boss, right?”
The goblin shook its head. Yuza never had that many subordinates from the start, but now they were even fewer. Those same subordinates looked at him.
“It’s a problem. Names, very, important,” the goblin said.
“I know that, but… I mean it’s hard to call you without a name.”
Patting the goblin that went quiet and tilted its head, Yuza nonchalantly walked out.
“Anyhow, let’s go do our rounds.”
The goblin nodded and they left together.
◆◆◇
Though not much time has passed, this city that has recently been renamed toFacing East(Garm Su) has become the capital of a kingdom like no other. It was once the capital of Germion Kingdom, the biggest military nation of the west, also known as the kingdom of the holy knights.
That kingdom that advocated for itself as a nation of humans fought against the goblins from the west and lost. It was a thorough defeat. The king, the crown prince, and all the holy knights that stood as pillars of the kingdom died in battle.
Having come this far, Yuza wasn’t about to lament the ugliness of humanity.
The sickening things he’s seen as a gate guard were already too much to count. The chaos shown by the people of this capital when it fell counted among those.
Adults that fled even if they had to push down women and children.
The guards that ran without even looking back at the people they were meant to protect.
The nobles that proved useless despite always putting on airs.
The superiors of the imperial guards that told his men to die.
Yuza was sick of everything. Because of that he cooped himself up inside his house, and it wasn’t until a former adjutant visited him that things changed.
He won’t deny that at that point he didn’t care anymore, but it was also true that he thought that things shouldn’t have turned out like this. That thing he protected wasn’t something like this. Those two opposing thoughts spurred him into action, and he found himself at the castle to take the exam to be enlisted, but what greeted him then wasn’t a goblin but an elven woman with a peaceful face.
“Ah, erm… I heard you guys were hiring some guards?”
Yuza wasn’t planning on rebelling against the goblins, but he also wasn’t planning on being subservient. Unfortunately, for some reason, he couldn’t talk straight.
“Oh, what wonderful news! I take it you worked as a guard before then?”
When the beautiful elf told him that, Yuza couldn’t help but blush despite his age. A testament to his character. At the same time, he remembered a rumor about there being elves among the whorehouses used by the nobles, but he quickly banished the thought.
“Y-Yeah. I was a senior officer of the imperial guards.”
The elven woman writing on the sheepskin asked him a few more questions, after which she told him to wait, an order that Yuza religiously followed. Truly, men were pathetic creatures.
When the elven woman came back and told him he could work as the commander of the gate guards starting tomorrow, he couldn’t help but cry out in surprise, a blunder he would never forget.
Still dazed, he left the gates and told the adjutant waiting for him that he would be the commander starting tomorrow. After that he went back to his house unsteadily.
10 days later after taking care of his personal belongings, Commander Yuza saw the newly enlisted guards inside the guard room, looking timidly at the 12 goblins lined up in an orderly fashion.
From then on the days passed in a blur.
At first, he didn’t know how to approach the goblins, but the goblins were simple creatures and meekly obeyed him.
“Our king said. Public order, must, be protected. But I, don’t understand.”
The goblin emitted a powerful aura as it approached him. Yuza didn’t know what was going on, but he nodded all the same.
“Things I don’t understand, I will, listen.”
Perhaps it was because the pressure from the snorting goblin that grasped his hands tightly got to him, but either way, Yuza reluctantly decided to use them.
They didn’t have enough hands anyway and needed all the help they could get.
“The king of the goblins ordered them to protect the public order, but these guys don’t know how to do that, so they’re here to learn,” Yuza explained to the newly enlisted guards watching from a distance.
After that he ordered his adjutant to assume formation.
The guards were inspected by a veteran senior officer and junior officer of the late Germion Kingdom’s imperial guards. It might not have been possible with just seven men to assume formation if they were eyeing a large group like a gang of thieves, but in this case, they only needed a basic formation.
The problem was the goblins.
“What are we going to do about the goblins?”
“Hah? Have them join the formation too. We don’t have enough hands as is.”
This was how Yuan always was. Because of that the adjutant couldn’t help but wryly smile and have the goblins join formation too.
Of course, he ignored the guards that cried out in fear.
After 30 days their formation finally started to take shape. Right from the start, Yuza called the scarred goblin ‘Gi-san’.
He seemed older than the other goblins and felt like a leader, so he thought it only apt.
He would rely on him whenever he needed to use the goblins. Of course, the goblins specialized in rough affairs.
Through the illusion of grandeur from being the capital of a great kingdom, more and more people have been moving to this city recently renamed, Facing East(Garm Su). Merchants who wished to make a name for themselves, the second and third sons of peasants, and adventurers with some skill.
It was well and good as long as the people that came were decent.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t always decent people that came to the city.
There were adventurer-posers who would form factions and then demand protection fees from people.
Bandits who would lurk in the night to prey upon stores.
Former nobles who sought for the lion’s share. There was no end to them.
Dealing with people like such as those was the job of the gate guards. Many times they had to exercise violence, but adventurers were humans too. In the face of the goblins that ruled this country, they couldn’t help but turn timid.
After all, most of the goblins in charge of maintaining the public order were battle-scarred. Anyone could tell that these goblins were warriors that have lived through many battles. The aura of a mighty warrior could readily be felt from them.
They were not something that the likes of delinquent adventurers could hope to contest.
As the commander of the gate guards, who has been tasked with the public order of Garm Su, it was only natural that he would rely on them.