NOVEL FROG Ch 3. Replenishing Treasures
When I arrived at the fancy room, full of treasures and ornaments , sitting on her throne, with the back facing a wall that was just a giant window, was the Demon Lord. Beside her, was a cheerful looking person that I haven't seen before on my days working in this castle: a Harpy.
“To make it easy to understand, you’ll be going with Phlum to replenish the goblins’ treasures.”
“Huh? And how does that even work? You’ll just give income to the adventurers who kill them.”
“Non non little human. You're getting it all wrong.”
The one who answered my question wasn’t the Demon Lord but Phlum, a smiling harpy with blue and purple feathers. Her hair was all messy and her eyes were big, green and deep. You could even see one of her fangs peeking out when her mouth was closed, just like one of those moe characters. She was clearly the hyperactive type.
“If we give treasure to the monsters, we’ll be giving them a purpose. Monsters with purpose will slowly become aware of themselves, making them stronger and smarter. They could even evolve.”
“But again, if they were to be killed by adventurers we'll be facing stronger adventurers, and that would be bad for our Lady...”
“Non non little human. You're getting it all wrong again.”
“Huh?”
She said, shaking her finger while her other hand was on her waist. She is being condescending, it's really annoying, even more characters can be annoying too...
“The power of a Demon Lord can be measured by the strength of monsters and adventurers they rule. Only a weak Demon Lord would rule weaklings and wouldn't let them grow. That can only be because she is afraid of being taken out, and our Lady isn't like that.”
“Oh, but if they were to try something funny, we’ll just wipe them out. I don’t want the peace of this castle to be bothered. But I have to admit that it is really boring when everything is peaceful, that's why you’ll be going out to replenish the goblins' treasures.”
An evil grin was drawn into the Demon Lord’s face while she was saying that. I don’t know what she is plotting, but stronger monsters could attack the nearby villages. If that happens and a party of the strongest adventurers comes looking for revenge, this Lady will wipe out more than just their party. Maybe even the whole country… It seems like the balance of this world could break at any moment.
That being said, we went to replenish the goblins’ treasures. There were eight spots marked on the map when we departed, each of them was a goblin camp. There were towns near some of them, so the odds of some people being attacked by the goblins we were going to supply were not precisely low.
“How are you doing with this new life little human? I heard a weird story of you being nearly killed by our lady. Hahaha~”
“Yeah… She threw me against the wall with one of her kicks when I was about to lick her feet. I still don't get it.”
“You are a funny little human. Hahaha~ ”
We went from camp to camp talking about stuff like that, it seems like she is the talkative type, not like our Lady. Phlum was laughing and smiling while running through the fields, she seemed really happy while doing so. She looked really beautiful, you could even fall for her.
We gave swords, shields, jewels and coins to the goblins. Some of them started practicing how to use the weapons, I couldn't help but worry about that. Phlum doesn't seem to care and just laughed at how dull the goblins’ movements were.
We continued doing our quest walking through the fields of grass and flowers. We were on the top of a hill when Phlum suddenly stopped.
“What's wrong Phlum?”
“Hey little human… Can we go to that city over there?”
She asked while pointing to the heavily fortified place. High and thick walls surrounded the city and from time to time you could see a tower with watchmens on it. Over the main gate, there was a big stone sign with the name of the city: Riverfall.
Phlum eyes were filled with hope. She looked like a child asking for a new toy from her parents, so I couldn't deny her request. But I needed to know the reason behind her request, so I asked her.
“Why do you want to do that? Wouldn't it be dangerous for you?”
“Non non, little human. I’ve done it plenty of times before, I just need to cover myself with this cloak and that will do the work, these soldiers are really bad with the check in. Hahaha~”
I decided to ignore that she needed just a cloak to go in, and the fact that she had done this multiple times, I even decided to ignore the part about the useless guards. Seriously, what are you guys doing in your work time, useless people?... I just asked her again the reason behind going to that (not so dangerous) place.
“Oh didn't I tell you, little human? a little bird told me early that they are selling this new Parfeit stuff and it seemed pretty tasty, so we should go and enjoy some sweets after our hard work.”
Well I’ve been snitching some coins from the goblins’ treasures, so I could just drop them near the adventurer’s guild. That’ll help them deal with the new threats growing in the woods.
“Okay, let's go enjoy some sweets.”
“Then let's begin our date, little human. Hahaha~”
She said with a bright smile on her face.