My base wasn’t too far off now, I can see it coming into view from the distance. Even if it’s only been a day, I’ll be glad to return to my loyal followers. Hopefully they were able to handle things without me for at least one day. I was excited to share with them what I learned after all, and I didn’t want to dea-

  And just as the thought was crossing my mind a whole tree started to fly through the air and landed nearby me. With a deep sigh I began to sprint back, the urgency of the situation dawning on me.

  As I returned back to the base, I was taken by surprised by what I saw.

  All around, I see the unconscious bodies of various of my goblins and kobold minions. They all looked exhausted, like they were recovering from an intense fight. Weapons scattered on the ground with several craters on the ground. I could only wonder over what could possibly happen over here!

  As I investigated the wreckage one of the kobolds seemed to regain consciousness as he struggled toward me while weakly calling me.

  “Ch-chief you’re back….”

  “Hey, what’s going on!? What exactly happened here while I was gone!?”

  He could only shakily point at an area where I had set as training grounds, with sounds of battle still going. With determination I ran, my claw at the ready on my weapon’s handle as I expected an intense fight.

  Once I entered at the source of the battle I stopped, what I saw before me made me lose all motivation as my grip on my weapon loosened. Before me I saw Mordred and the orcs, engaged in a tussle with the rest of my minions, who themselves were looking bruised and were barely keeping themselves standing.

  Mordred began to bark orders at the weakling minions, acting like some kind of drill sergeants in a military camp. “Alright everyone, this is a good warm up for training today. After this we can begin working on your endurance! ~”

  Part of me was expecting this sort of thing was going to happen while I was gone, but for some reason I was confident he wouldn’t do something this ridiculous. Was I proven wrong, I needed to stop this now!

  “Enough everyone!!”

  With the sound of my voice echoing the field everyone halted, finally looking in my direction. I was crossing my arms, my claw foot irritably tapping on the ground while I angrily looked at everyone.

  Mordred and the orcs looked at me with excitement in their eyes, while my weaker minions had the expression of exhausted relief on finally seeing me back. Mordred was the first to speak, clearly happy to have me return.

  “Boss you’re back! I hope your investigation went well! While you were gone, me and the orcs decided to continue the training you started with the little weaklings.”

  Mordred began to laugh loudly, the other orcs joining with him, clearly not realizing the anger building up inside me. I thus began to raise my claw as the ground around them began to shake. It was only then that the big guys stopped laughing, wondering what I was doing.

  “B-boss? ....” one of the orcs asked.

  They began to grow nervous as the ground around them shook more wildly, breaking away from their feet. It was then they finally started to understand how mad I really was, as Mordred tried to calm me down.

  “N-now boss, we can talk about this. We just wanted to help with your training, that’s all! We didn’t go too hard on them we swear!!”

  But it was too late, in the next second the ground gave away as Mordred and the orcs fell on the newly made hole, falling down only to find they were only half buried to the ground. They were struggling trying to move only to stop after hearing the next words that came from my mouth.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I’ll deal with you guys later.”

  Ignoring them completely now I began getting everyone who was exhausted and helping them recover. Luckily it seems Mordred was telling the truth, while it looked bad on the surface no one was showing any signs of serious injuries. Rather though they seemed rather traumatized over what they considered as ‘training’.

  As I was helping everyone out, V appeared yelling in pure joy seeing my return.

  “Mr. Vlad! Mr. Vlad, you’re back! I missed you!!”

  They jumped towards me, their arms hugging me tight and pinning me to the ground. It was then that all the anger I had built just now melted away. There’s just something about V’s optimism that always calms me down.

  “Yup I’m back and I got lots of things to share with everyone, how was everything while I was away?”

  V let me go as they proceed to recount everything that happened yesterday. Apparently while I was gone, the kobolds and goblins had continued to practice with their weapons like I encouraged them to. Mordred upon seeing this, thought it was a good idea he helped with their training, though one of them had reminded him that I had their training postponed.

  He laughed it off, saying it would be fine and that I wouldn’t mind. Oh, how wrong he was…

  V on the other hand didn’t know and thought I was approving it, so I don’t blame them. They were wondering why Mordred, and the orcs were stuck in the ground. I told them that I was simply going to be discussing a few things in private later and asked them to let them be. They didn’t seem to fully understand but nodded and happily left to help the others out.

  Now I was left alone with my half-buried minions, and I realized that I was being rather light with them. It was time I ‘properly’ reminded them who was in charge around here. Mordred and the others could only helplessly whimper for what’s to come.

  *

  Later, we all returned to the center of my base. Morded and the others silently following behind me, not saying a word. Not even looking at me as they nervously rubbed the back of their heads. They seemed to be physically fine at the very least.

  Choosing to ignore them I finally got everyone together as I proceeded to inform everyone about everything I learned. As I do, I can hear the usual three kobolds talking amongst themselves.

  “I wonder what the chief did to them. They’re so docile now…”

  “I don’t know but for once I’m glad he’s around. Those guys are crazier than even he his….”

  “Yeah… I think I have more respect for him now after this…”

  I continued recapping everything that had happened, for some reason they seemed surprised that it went well for some reason. I don’t know why; my disguise was perfect. I then proceeded to show them my new skill I had acquired, some of them seemed curious about that and seemed interested in wanting to learn but unfortunately the scroll had already disappeared. I then decided to make my declaration.

  “So now I have decided that I shall conquer this town!!”

  I was expecting for them to argue against it, just like the other declarations I had made before. But to my surprise my fellow kobolds seemed rather calm to my statement. In fact, they all looked like they were all expecting me to say it.

  “Exactly what we expected from our chief…” One of them said, seemingly in resignation.

  The goblins on the other hand seemed to be really nervous, which was the normal reaction I was expecting. One of them even voiced their thoughts.

  “A-are you sure sir? Isn’t that a little too risky?”

  One of my fellow kobolds walked to the goblin that was speaking and put his claw over his shoulder and shook his head. The goblin seemed to be understood and also showed the same look of resignation.

  As for Mordred and the orcs, normally they would cheer over my declaration but this time they stayed silent and nodded in acceptance. It seemed everyone agreed over my decision which was good, having them go along with it makes things a lot easier for me.

  Another of my fellow kobold began to ask a new question.

  “And how exactly are you planning to conquer the town chief? From what the other goblins have told me there’re adventurers like the ones who attacked them before who live there.”

  I answered his question with my signature laugh “Veehahahahaha I have a plan minion. You see during my infiltration I came across from what I can gather their strongest adventurer, a black bear Beastman named Damian. I plan to learn what I can about him and see what I can do to recruit him. He’d make a powerful minion and I desire to have him join me. ~”

  Hearing that statement, dread began to appear in the goblins’ faces as they began to panic.

  “D-d-d-did you just say Damian? As in the Quiet Black Beast Damian?!!”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. I don’t know why you all are freaking out; he was surprisingly helpful with my first quest and from what I can tell he’s really strong so yes, I want to recruit him.”

  They continued to panic, wondering what they should do, and their look of resignation had changed into fear. I was ready to try to calm them down, to ease their worry when V began to speak.

  “Uhm… Mr. Vlad. Did you bring a friend along the way here?”

  “No, I came back by myself why?”

  V then began to point at the end of my base “Because there’s a big fuzzy guy I don’t recognize standing way over there.”

  It was then that I noticed a familiar figure standing at the edge, his gaze piercing through my direction. The expression on his face was unreadable to me as always.