A Greatsword Knight Is Romance and Chivalry
I hid in the tall grass, spying on the creatures. "Scouting is scouting, but... this is a total mess."
The goblins had formed a patrol squad and were even attempting some kind of tactics. I'd been watching with a sense of caution, but my tension quickly drained away. "Even if their lord has high intelligence and can come up with strategies, what good is that when the goblins carrying them out have the brains of rocks?"
They were clearly supposed to be on reconnaissance, yet it looked more like they were just fooling around. Some were staring off into the distance, others were smacking their own comrades, and a few had even flopped down for a nap. "Was it wrong of me to expect anything from goblins?"
If their tribal lord saw this, he'd probably clutch the back of his neck and collapse. Well, for me it was nothing but good luck.
I stayed hidden in the grass a while longer, calculating a route that would let me slip past. As long as I didn't enter their patrol radius, infiltration seemed easy enough. "First, I'll have to circle around to the north."
I moved north, staying clear of the patrol lines, until I reached the western forest. "Found it."
Once I arrived at the western woods, their main settlement came into view. "Good grief, the goblins built a wooden castle?"
What I saw was genuinely shocking. Crude as it was, it was unmistakably a wooden fortress. The goblins had actually constructed a building. "At this point, calling it a mere tribe feels wrong."
If I captured their lord and sold him to the mages, wouldn't they pay a fortune? A lord intelligent enough to build a wooden castle! The mages would probably line up in droves, gold coins piled high. "Though that's impossible right now."
Killing him was one thing, but capturing him alive was out of the question. "Unlike the patrol goblins, the security around this wooden castle is tight."
I even spotted goblins rotating shifts on guard duty. Since it was the lord's castle, their discipline was on another level. "They've even built walls."
The silver lining was that the walls weren't made of stone but wood. There were no nearby stone mountains, and operating a quarry would have been nearly impossible for goblins, so it made sense. "Approaching any closer seems impossible."
Unfortunately, the area around the wooden walls was completely open ground. The moment I tried to get near, I'd be spotted immediately. If I wanted to approach, I'd have to wait until nightfall. "Their lifestyle looks surprisingly clean, too."
It was hard to believe these were the same goblins that usually scattered feces everywhere. There wasn't a single bug in sight. At this rate, the reason I reformed my armor is gone. Still, it was better than getting covered in filth.
Wait a second...
As I examined the wooden castle closely, I noticed something unusual. The castle is built right against the forest? It seemed they'd constructed it directly beside the woods, and the security facing the forest was noticeably lax. Since they emerged from the western forest, they probably treat it like their own backyard. That's why the guards are so relaxed.
If I were in their position, I'd have made the same call. No need to waste effort guarding an area that didn't require it. "I can infiltrate through there."
Since I had no intention of fighting them right now, it was a solid plan. I slipped into the forest, climbed a tree, and observed the wooden walls. "Not that many guards."
The goblins were spaced far apart on watch, and some were even yawning. Must be boring. Staring at an unchanging forest all day is pretty grueling.
Even humans found guard duty tedious, so it had to be worse for goblins. With their low intelligence, they struggled to suppress their instincts even more than people did. Now, how do I draw their attention?
I rummaged through my inventory for something that might work and found the perfect item. They have a hard time controlling their instincts. That includes their greed for food.
Goblins were weaklings in the wild, so they were almost always starving. Whenever they had the chance to eat, they stuffed themselves as much as possible. I decided to exploit that trait. "Minced orc flesh."
Orc meat had a very strong gamey smell. Just being near it could make you feel like you were choking on the stench. But for goblins, it was a rare delicacy they couldn't get enough of. To creatures with poor senses of smell, that heavy odor was basically just seasoning.
Whoosh—! Whoosh—!
I hurled the chunks of meat over the wall like a pro baseball player. "Krrk?!" "Smells delicious! Krrk!" "Mine!"
The effect was outstanding. The goblins immediately abandoned their posts on the wooden wall and went crazy over the fallen orc meat. "They're as stupid as I thought."
Watching them show zero suspicion, I could only shake my head. Bragging about successfully luring such brainless creatures wouldn't earn me any praise.
"The inside is cleaner and bigger than I expected."
It was the kind of line that made you expect a purple giant to show up, but sadly there was no purple giant. I carefully scaled the wall and settled into a dark corner. After checking that no goblins were passing nearby, I moved cautiously, memorizing the layout. "They built this pretty efficiently."
The barracks and supply depots were placed as close together as possible, and most buildings were simple rectangular blocks. It was a structure designed for rapid reinforcement in an emergency.
As I grew more familiar with the layout, I started hearing the sound of a speech from somewhere. "W-what the...?!"
I slipped past the goblins and entered one of the buildings. A few goblins were inside, but I kindly sent them off to meet the goddess of death. Then the speech reached my ears, so I crouched down and began spying through a window.
"Krrk! We have reached this point after living through a great era! Don't you all know it? Our current position!" "U! U! U! Krrk!" "U! U! U! Krrk!" "Some of you probably can't forgive me! After all, I killed several elders who fed and sheltered you!"
A large goblin standing on a small platform was shouting at the top of his lungs. "Why does that goblin's mustache look so familiar...?"
Not only that, but the banner spread across the platform featured an ominous symbol—a red background with a cross. "That goblin is a dangerous goblin."
He looked like the type who'd send even his own kind to the gas chamber. I shuddered to think what he'd do to humans of a different species. That goblin would probably keep captured humans as slaves for life.
Compared to goblins, humans were excellent human resources. He must know that too. Time to wrap up the reconnaissance and get out of here.
Staying any longer seemed too risky. I slipped out of the building and retraced my steps, erasing my presence as I went. To deal with these goblins, you'd need at least five gold-rank mercenaries minimum.
Gold-rank mercenaries could use magic or aura. I had aura too, but without the proper training method to control it, it was useless. I needed to obtain a training method, but they weren't easy to find. Since they were basically the livelihood of knights, it was understandable, but still disappointing. A training method is essential if I want to become a true female knight.
On top of that, there was full plate armor, a horse, a personal code of chivalry and beliefs, and finally a formal knighting ceremony. The path to becoming a true knight was arduous—especially for someone starting from the bottom.
"But there's a way to solve all of that."
Overwhelming might. If you were strong enough, making money became easy. That would make acquiring equipment simpler, and nobles would start paying attention too. If I can get a noble to write me a recommendation letter for the knighthood through a deal, I might actually get knighted.
Then I could truly become a knight. For me, it was possible. After all, I had the System.
Shout it out! God Status Window! I silently praised my status window in my mind.
While I was busy being a total fangirl, I completely cleared the walls and returned to the western forest. "The sun's starting to set already."
I'd taken down hundreds of goblins, witnessed their wooden castle, and even seen that suspicious mustached goblin. Today had truly been an eventful day.
Thud—! Thud—!
As I was leaving the western forest, I heard the sound of wood being chopped nearby. They're cutting trees in a forest like this?
Right next to a wooden castle swarming with goblins, some brave soul was logging? Just to be clear, it wasn't goblins. They were too weak to swing logging axes.
"It's people?"
When I approached the source of the noise, I saw humans chopping wood. Goblins with fierce expressions were patrolling around them like overseers. "Do it properly! Krrk!" "These guys are weak! Krrk!" "I want to go embrace a female! Krrk!" "Endure it! The lord said human females are only for warriors! Krrk!"
So that's how they built the wooden castle—they'd captured people and were using them as slaves. They're turning the men into labor slaves and the women into sex slaves?
As expected, the only good goblin is a dead goblin. There weren't many goblins assigned to guard duty. It looked like I could slaughter them all right here and now without issue.
"Starting with this one!"
I separated the head from the body of the goblin who'd been yelling about wanting to embrace a female. Since a beauty like me was the one to kill him, it must have been a satisfying death.
"Krrk! Intruder!" "It's a female! Catch her! Krrk!" "It'll take you a lifetime—no, an entire era—to catch me!"
Right now, I was a goblin slayer. "Exterminate all goblins!"