I was quite in awe of what R’gis had managed to create within only a year. But then again, heroes were supposed to be extraordinary. It was his mission to raise the goblins to another level after all.

While I was watching the small town around us and the unusual goblin inhabitants of this little city in the middle of the forest, Enri was instead watching R’gis, a strange glow residing in her eyes. At some point she suddenly took a leap forward, jumping at the unprepared hobgoblin.

“E-enri???”, I exclaimed, reacting to slow to stop her.

“I have always wanted to fight someone of your level!”, the petite dragon girl exclaimed while her form started to change into that of a dragon. I could only watch with terror as a grown ass dragon pounced on the comparably tiny R’gis and all the plans I had already concocted in my mind shattered.

R’gis on the other hand seemed laid back.

“Chris, you won’t mind if I teach her a little lesson right?”, he asked me with a relaxed smile. Then he suddenly blurred and I felt an oppressive aura, far greater than the one Enri in her dragon form was radiating, explode from his meager figure.

The fight was over before it could even begin and Enri laid flat on the ground, her clothes having been reduced to small bits during her transformation. I simply rolled my eyes and asked if we could restrain her somewhere for the time being.

In the end the goblins carried wooden stocks over to the square that we were standing on and Enri was restrained within them.

“Now…uh…sorry for this accident. I have to admit that you have created quite something here. But…let’s talk about some…things of the future.”, I spoke while my expression turned more solemn.

“You mean something like an alliance?”, he asked with a knowing smile.

I gave him a deep look. He was truly very sharp reminding me of a certain princess.

“Yes.”,I admitted.

“I need allies to defend the northern border against the demons and right now the kingdom doesn’t seem like a reliable backer.”

He agreed with a serious and even somewhat grave look in his eyes.

“You are right…

The kingdom won’t be of much help to your cause. Even though the Haelia kingdom has been flourishing for more than a few decades now, this new wealth and development has led to internal dispute.

As per usual with u humans, there are multiple factions that are currently fighting for power, each of them following their own ideology and interests.

The rural nobles are becoming more and more restless as the capital becomes more liberal and allows demi-humans to have rights. They feel like it is an offense against the traditions of their ancestors and the gods that they worship.

This, coupled with their ambitions, makes it more and more likely for them to band together and get rid of the royals and the noble families in the capital.

Religion is also becoming more and more important for the commoners around the more remote parts of the kingdom while the royal family is seen as an enemy of their believe in human superiority. The nobles use that to slowly gather support and hope to overthrow the royals before the demons arrive at the border.

Even worse the kingdom’s army has become a complete mess and is divided between the royals, some pro royal families and the large chunk of religious fanatics among the lower standing nobles. With the soldiers being torn between their loyalty and their believes.

Once the demons attack, I doubt that this sort of chaotic military can really stop them.”

“You are extremely well informed.”, I said surprised. Many of the facts he had disclosed were things I suspected but wasn’t sure about while other factors were even worse than I imagined. If what he said was true, the kingdom would be close to no help once things became serious. Even if the nobles managed to control their own ambitions and work together with the royals in order to defend the border, this sort of feeble alliance would only work short-term and break once the pressure increased.

He grinned with a proud glint in his eyes.

“I have spent the entire last year gathering information. After all I am located in a forest right next to the capital. It is quite easy for me to catch the various messengers heading towards the capital and extract the information I need from them.”

I didn’t what to know what sort of method it was that he used to ‘extract’ this information, but I was sure that it wasn’t pleasant.

“I am willing to fight the demons with you.”, R’gis suddenly declared.

“But there are some conditions we both have to accept for that to happen.”, his eyes became sharp as he went into negotiation modus.

“The same is true for me.”, I said with a similarly tense voice.

“First of all,” R’gis began.

“We demand to be granted this forest as out official territory by the king. I am aware that he will most likely not agree to this and that you currently lack the influence to simply force the king to agree to this demand, but you have to promise that you will support us in this goal. In worst case I will need your help to overthrow the royals and install a more reasonable ally.”, he was prudent in his demands and reasonable in that he understood my current situation.

I agreed to his demand but added a little detail.

“We have a little advantage in this matter as I have made princess Maira my slave through the use of slave magic. In worst case I can just make her take over the throne and she will have to agree to any demand I make.”

R’gis looked like he had swallowed a fly.

“Y-you made the princess your slave? I’ve been trying to get control over some noble for months now!!! How long have you been here? A week? How the heck did you manage to make the princess your slave?!”

I grinned with a mysterious look in my eyes.

“We both have our secrets, right?”

He immediately realized what I was talking about.

“You… are right.

But that is great news. Using that princess, we could stabilize the situation in the kingdom and make use of the kingdom’s troops. It’s a lot better than having to hope that the royals don’t try to kill us because they feel threatened.”

“The other princess already tries that.”, I threw in with a wry expression.

He looked at me as if I was a walking miracle of sorts.

“How the heck did you manage to cause such a stir in a single week?”, he asked with a dumbfounded expression

I helplessly shrugged my shoulders.

“I did…”

R’gis grinned.

“There is one more thing. We goblins need females of other races to breed faster. So….we will need to claim all female prisoners of war.”, he threw me a sharp look, obviously trying to read my reaction.

I simply nodded. I was aware of this fact and I was pretty sure that there was a building somewhere in this little goblin town that R’gis hadn’t shown to us. A building housing the form of livestock that goblins liked to keep.

I wasn’t going to admit this though. By not admitting it I could pretend that I didn’t know it and by not knowing it I could avoid creating another great enemy for myself.

We continued to discuss some less important aspects of our alliance and after a few hours we were finally done. I shook R’gis hand once again.

“We will meet again once the demons have reached the border.”, I said with a firm grin.

“Right. At that time, I should have at least a thousand goblin warriors under my command. I will now start absorbing the smaller goblin tribes in the area and training them into a proper army. When the time comes they will be ready to kill some demons and bring back some females!”, R’gis confidently promised.

“I’m worried about your dragon though. It has been a few hours, yet she hasn’t woken up yet. Have I hit her to hard?”, he looked over to Enri who was still resting, restricted within the wooden construction.

I had to chuckle and shook my head.

“She woke up a few hours ago. That gall is a huge M so she is just enjoying being restrained.”

R’gis gave me an astonished look while Enri suddenly opened her eyes and stretched out her tongue.

“I couldn’t help it, being tied up just feels good.”, she grinned.

“I should get up now though…”, suddenly her body began to glow and change from. Then the wooden construction exploded into pieces as her body rapidly grew in size. The next moment a three-meter-tall, red glistering dragon was sitting within one of the partitions.

“Now let’s continue where we left off!”, her voice came out of the huge dragon jaw and her huge body pounced towards R’gis for the second time today.

“Enri, sit! Otherwise I won’t tie you up this evening!”, my dominant voice was carried through the entire farm and echoed back from the walls.

Her reaction was immediate and very humorous. Still midair, she once again changed size, returning to her normal loli size before landing right in front of me and pretending to be a dog. Even worse, since her clothes had been destroyed when she changed into a dragon, she was completely naked now.

I felt a serious headache and rolled by eyes.

“I will get you a collar and some chains once we are back in the city.”, she was too uncontrollable and explosive to let her walk around uncontrolled.

Of course, my words only served to make her even more happy. Darn these masochists even if you try to punish them it’s only a reward for them.

I gave R’gis an apologetic look and briefly said farewell while dragging along my stupid dragon doggo and Riina who had been exploring the town.

Then I was left alone with Riina and Enri as we walked back into the forest and towards our camp. Evening had once again after I had spent hours discussing future plans and dangers with R’gis. The familiar feeling of someone who was also from that other world had truly served to build of some sort of bond between the two of us.

Now that I was heading back to the rest of my party I realized just how much of a deal I had just made. This could influence the future of the kingdom and the war against the demons. In fact, this could have very well been the decisive moment that would seal the fates of hundreds of thousands of people

“Enri, Riina.”, I suddenly said with an unusually serious and cold expression.

“Don’t talk to anybody about what has happened today.”

Riina simply nodded as the seal’s power came into effect. She had been absentminded ever since we left the human farm in the goblin village.

Enri gave me a short look before nodding.

“Don’t forget to buy me the collar and chains though.”, she said with a weird mix of seriousness and amusement.