Demon males must first prove their strength on the battlefield. The first battle is also a coming-of-age ceremony that proves one’s manhood. Therefore, those who couldn’t become soldiers due to aptitude tests tend to be looked down upon as half-breeds. Gami was often mocked in his youth as well.
For those who couldn’t stand on the battlefield due to height restrictions, the goblin soldiers were a place where they could prove themselves.
“Who commands the goblin soldiers? This one isn’t a goblin soldier, right? Are they managing well?”
Gami focused his eyes on the one commanding the goblin soldiers.
Since the goblin soldiers were newly created, there were no commanders with battle experience. Necessarily, commanders had to be recruited from regular soldiers, but it would be problematic if they looked down on the goblin soldiers as runts.
“The commander is Three-Thousand Dragon General Gedol. He was reluctant at first, but now he’s proud of them as his unit.”
Zolm pointed to the commander leading the goblin soldiers. He was a tall demon with green coloring.
A Three-Thousand Dragon General was a commander who could lead three thousand soldiers. If Zolm had entrusted them to him, it was reassuring.
“But only three thousand? I thought there would be four thousand.”
Gami was satisfied with how the goblin soldiers had turned out, but not with their numbers.
“There are still more goblin soldiers who have finished training, but I decided to organize a thousand of them into a separate unit. Look over there.”
When Zolm pointed toward the soldiers conducting exercises, there was a unit mounted on something other than horses mixed in with the cavalry units.
The creatures supporting their bodies with two large hind legs were covered in brown scales all over, with large claws on their hind legs and sharp fangs in their heads. They were medium-sized dragons called raptor. Armed demon soldiers rode on their backs.
“Gami, those are the raptor you were selectively breeding. They’re called dragon cavalry. Training is going smoothly – a thousand could be deployed in actual combat.”
Since the selective breeding and training of pterodactyls had gone well, Gami had applied the same method to raptor, wondering if they could serve as horse substitutes. Their numbers seemed to have increased over these two years.
“Dragon cavalry is good, but are goblin soldiers riding them?”
When Gami looked closely, the soldiers riding the raptor were smaller than regular soldiers.
“At first we had regular soldiers ride them, but this way is better. Well, just watch.”
Since Zolm nodded confidently, Gami continued to focus on the raptor. The bipedal dragons began to run. The raptor moved their large, long legs powerfully, accelerating rapidly. Ahead of them was an obstacle made of wooden materials. Its height was as tall as a house roof. It was quite high, but the raptor approached at full speed, kicked off the ground, and leaped. The airborne raptor easily jumped over the obstacle, landed on the ground, and ran through as if nothing had happened.
“As you can see, raptor are agile and highly mobile. I realized that the lighter goblin soldiers could better utilize their strengths. However, compared to horses, their cruising distance and carrying capacity are lower. That aspect is a trade-off.”
As Gami nodded at Zolm’s words while watching, the dragon cavalry continued jumping over obstacles one after another. Among them was a dragon cavalryman mounted on a red raptor. Compared to other raptor, it was significantly faster and had superior jumping ability. Since the raptor’s size was the same as the others, it must be due to the difference in the rider.
“The one riding that red one is a guy called Thousand Dragon General Regis. He’s not a goblin soldier but he’s skilled. He draws out the raptor’s abilities well. He also has command ability, so I’ve put him in charge of the dragon cavalry.”
Zolm pointed to Regis, the red-bodied demon.
“But if you’re taking dragon cavalry, feeding them will be a big problem. raptor only eat meat.”
Zolm mentioned the dragon cavalry’s weakness.
Since raptor were carnivorous, unlike horses whose feed could be fodder or grass from anywhere, their feed costs would pile up.
“Azalea-sama, please arrange for raptor feed.”
“Understood, Lord Gami.”
When Gami made the request, Azalea wrote in her notebook again.
Goblin soldiers and dragon cavalry. While observing the two units, Gami nodded greatly.
After being satisfied with the completion of the goblin soldiers and dragon cavalry at the Seventh Training Ground, Gami next headed to his own mansion, located slightly west of Lowburn’s center.
Though called a mansion, it wasn’t an ordinary private house but had originally been a workshop for wood processing. A large workspace had a small private house built attached to it like a parasite.
Gami stopped his carriage in front of the mansion, parted from Azalea and the others, and returned home for the first time in a long while.
Opening the door of the small private house and entering, he found desks and chairs arranged, with books packed in lined shelves.
Though he was returning home for the first time in two years, the room didn’t have a speck of dust. Azalea and the others had probably come regularly to clean it.
Gami passed through the well-maintained room and headed to the adjacent workspace. Opening the workspace door, he found massive wooden boxes piled up and various tools and implements scattered about.
This was where Gami researched and manufactured various tools and weapons. This area hadn’t been cleaned, and when Gami stepped inside, dust swirled up. He had instructed them not to clean this room alone, as it would make it impossible to know where anything was placed.
Gami dove into the luggage, getting covered in dust as he opened wooden boxes.
“It should be around here somewhere… Found it!”
What Gami retrieved from among the luggage was a blueprint. The paper showed a drawing of a large cylindrical tube with a ship hanging beneath it.
This was a weapon Gami had devised. Though he had never tested it in actual combat, he had repeated experiments several times. Using this weapon, he should be able to blow away the circular hills that served as embankments.
But even if this operation succeeded, whether they could win the war itself was uncertain.
Gami had already fought several virtual battles in his mind. But the results weren’t very promising. The situation was simply too severe.
First, it was painful that Gangaruga Fortress was under water attack and couldn’t move. Furthermore, the lack of troops to send reinforcements to northern Juneva was also problematic.
If there were no water attack and reinforcements could be sent from Juneva, attacks from three directions – Lowburn, Juneva, and Gangaruga Fortress – would be possible. In that case, the enemy couldn’t concentrate their forces at one point, and the reinforcements attacking from the west would have had a much easier time. However, since Juneva and Lowburn couldn’t move, the reinforcements led by Gami would have to fight the human coalition army head-on.
“The problems are Hurion’s Sun and its captain, Fulgus’s Moonlight and the princess, and Lionel’s Lily of the Valley…”
Gami counted the formidable enemies on his fingers.
Being a coalition army, the enemy had assembled their pieces. A total force of 450,000. Particularly the Sun Knights led by the Kingdom of Hurion and their captain Gildevaren, the Moonlight Knights of the Fulgus Empire and Princess Gudelia who was said to be an outstanding magic user, possessed forces that couldn’t be underestimated. And Saint Romelia of the Kingdom of Lionel was the opponent who had dealt Gami his defeat at the Battle of Semed Wilderness two years ago.
On the other hand, Gami’s pieces were 150,000 soldiers, six large dragons, six thousand armored giant soldiers, three thousand goblin soldiers, one thousand dragon cavalry, five pterodactyls, and the untested weapon before his eyes.
“I’m one piece short…”
Gami muttered and scratched his cheek.
No matter how many times he thought about it, he didn’t have enough pieces. It would be nice if he could use Garios, but he couldn’t make an unmoving dragon move.
The only other option he could think of was sending assassins. But this lacked certainty.
“Still, I have to do it…”
Gami muttered and devised strategies for victory.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
