On a pleasant afternoon, the warm sunlight shone on the wheat fields of Maiko Village, where many villagers were harvesting the ripened wheat.
Along the streets of the village, children played and frolicked, while the elderly villagers gathered together, chatting about family matters.
Suddenly, a sound of hurried footsteps came from the road outside the village leading to the castle.
Clop, clop, clop.
The sight that greeted their eyes was Lord George, Sergeant Catherine, and Knight Marcus, riding their white steeds at the front of a procession.
Following closely behind them was a squad of twenty-four cavalrymen, well-equipped and full of spirit.
At the rear of the procession were infantrymen clad in leather armor, some holding spears, others carrying bows on their backs, some wielding long swords and wooden shields, but the one thing they all had in common was their formidable aura, just like the cavalry.
The villagers of Maiko quickly stopped what they were doing and bowed to Lord George and his companions as they passed.
Once the expeditionary force had moved on, the villagers began discussing the actions of their lord.
"Did you see those cavalry? The armor and the steeds they ride, they looked so gallant! It made me want to enlist," said a young man with brown hair, wearing simple clothes, excitedly.
"With your conditions, I suggest you stick to farming," his companion next to him shook his head, advising him to give up on unrealistic fantasies.
Meanwhile, the young women of the village discussed the appearance of Lord George, whom they had just seen for the first time.
"Is that Lord George? He really is as handsome and martial as the rumors say."
"Yes, yes! I wonder what kind of woman could catch his eye."
"It must be a noble lady of high status. By the way, do you know why Lord George is going on this expedition?"
"I don't know either. Maybe Village Chief Kien knows something."
Soon, more and more villagers approached the village chief, asking about the reason for Lord George's expedition.
The old village chief, troubled by the constant questioning, finally gave in and shared his guess. After all, the situation was urgent, and George had not informed him.
"Ahem... everyone, please calm down. Perhaps the lord is coming because of something happening in the south."
A villager immediately asked, "Village chief, what's happening in the south?"
"A monster attacked the patrol team in our territory."
Upon hearing this, the villagers were immediately thrown into an uproar.
"I thought I saw a cavalryman covered in blood at noon. So, he must have encountered a monster."
"Ah... will that monster attack us?"
"You fool! Didn't Lord George just lead the team to deal with the monster?"
The old village chief coughed again, signaling the villagers to calm down.
"Everyone, trust Lord George. Under his leadership, the monster will surely be eliminated. Now, go back to your work."
While the villagers were still astonished by the appearance of monsters in the territory, Lord George and his party had already arrived at the southern edge of the territory.
Near the forest, traces of the earlier carnage still remained. Blood splattered on the ground, with severed limbs and internal organs scattered about, and a few dead horses lying further off.
In addition, all the human bodies and other remains had been dragged into the forest by goblins.
These brutal goblinoid creatures had shown no regard for wasting anything, even human corpses, which were likely used as reserves for food.
Upon seeing this, Catherine was filled with anger and said, "These vile green skins dare to treat my soldiers like this! I will make them pay for it."
Marcus, ever the calm one, said nothing, but the way he gripped his sword tightly showed his restrained fury.
As the lord, George was similarly furious, but he suppressed his emotions and gave an order: "Catherine, send scouts to quickly explore the terrain and locate the enemy. Everyone else, rest here."
"Yes, my lord."
Soon, three lightly-armored soldiers, equipped with some camouflage, walked into the forest.
The rest of the soldiers sat down to rest, and the cavalry dismounted, tying their horses to a nearby fence.
Earlier, Marcus had mentioned that this forest was not suitable for mounted combat, so the cavalry dismounted and replaced their lances with long swords. Of course, even on foot, their combat strength still far exceeded that of the infantry.
After about two hours, just as George was beginning to think the scouts had failed, the three light-armored scouts emerged from the forest.
George immediately approached and asked, "What is the situation?"
One of the scouts immediately saluted and replied, "My lord, we have located the enemy's tribe."
"Good." George unfolded his map and asked the scout to point out the location.
"My lord, it's here," the scout said, pointing to the center of the forest.
"How many goblins are there? How many extraordinary beings?"
"My lord, there are about a hundred goblins. As for the extraordinary beings..." The scout hesitated for a moment, "Because their leader is extremely alert, we only discovered one extraordinary goblin warrior."
"Hmm... So, there may be other extraordinary beings as well."
"Yes, I am terribly sorry, my lord. We scouts failed in our duties," the scout said, lowering his head in shame.
George patted the scout's shoulder to comfort him and said, "There's no need to apologize. You've done well. Return to the team."
"Yes, my lord."
Turning to Catherine and Marcus, who had arrived beside him, George asked, "What do you think?"
Catherine looked at the forest and said, "My lord, I think we should stick to the original plan."
Marcus, unusually agreeing with Catherine, said, "My lord, I also believe we should continue with the plan. Based on my knowledge of goblins, they likely do not have any new extraordinary beings. Even if there are new ones, they will not exceed first-tier positions. This is the limit of their species."
Catherine added, "Exactly. That's why these vile green skins are always at the bottom of the wisdom races."
The intelligence of goblins was infamous throughout the continent, with their low level of intelligence being so difficult for even the orc empire to tolerate. Occasionally, goblin tribes were expelled by the empire.
In such a tribe, the chance of extraordinary beings emerging was even more remote, which was why Marcus was confident that there were no extraordinary goblins.
Seeing that both of his subordinates agreed, George gave the order: "Everyone, form up. We march to eliminate the goblins!"
The soldiers quickly got up, and under the direction of their squad leaders, they lined up and followed George into the forest.
The dense trees blocked the sunlight, leaving only a few rays of light filtering through the gaps.
In this dim environment, no one knew whether something might jump out from the shadows ahead.
George kept his map open, using the faint light to check the direction, ensuring they were headed in the right way.
Catherine and Marcus stood beside him, vigilantly watching for any potential enemies.
The goblin tribe was not far from their position, and after walking for another fifteen minutes, they finally arrived, undisturbed The outskirts of the goblin tribe.