Chapter 34: The Queen’s Motives

At the goblin camp, three days before the departure.

The moon slowly left the sky alongside the darkness as the sun slowly overtook the moon's duty and make its mighty presence visible once again. Early in the morning, the goblins continued to work hard for me, I stationed some goblins in the hunting zones of the monkeys to harass them and whittle down their number little by little, their transportation will be the carriages that are now going out of the mud wall they just built.

The camp just got built yesterday, the facilities made out of lumber are not built inside the wall so that it will not hinder the construction of the wall, this is just possible because of the Bayanihan concept, they will use cube-shaped logs to transfer the facilities right about now.

Oh now that I deviated a little, let me explain this little concern of mine, I ordered the goblins to make a wall made of mud instead of just me and Eleanor making one using magic because it takes 10,00 units of mana (according to [Guide]) to make a passable wall of this size, take note of the word passable, that means a wall that can be used in houses and the such, to build a heavy duty wall that is used in war, thousands more mana will be required and if you're thinking about the wall Ellie made a while ago, it is just used to protect two people not three hundred fifty plus individuals okay?

Going back, the physical resistance of the monkeys, of course, has its strength and weaknesses, pros are that any part of their body that has fur cannot be pierced or stabbed, and not even blunt damage can do the job, however, the downside is that the places not covered with furs such as the face, ears, palms and the soles of their feet are just like any normal skin, thus it can be damaged and quite severely too.

[You told them to stab the enemy in the face?]

Yeah, why?

[That's brutal.]

What do you mean? That's the only way to kill them you know.

[Well yeah... But can't you just incapacitate them?]

Who am I? A stupid hero with pacifistic tendencies that cannot kill people because "I want to show the beauty in the heart of humanity uwu??"?

[No... But... Sigh, I guess you're right.]

Of course, I am, Haha! Anyway, I also ordered them to plunder the equipment of the monkeys but never use the weapons after they harassed them and killed almost all of them, of course, how do I taunt him if I don't let it be known to that monkey that someone is taunting him right? Thus I make it so that my warriors will not wipe out the hunting units and not use their weapons, though of course I did not say the reason and it will be used when the final battle started anyway, so they do not have to worry.

The soldiers finally disappeared from my sight going into several directions as I saw another set of goblins taking out the carriages I specially emptied for an integral part of my plan.

The next day, outside of the goblin camp, two days before the departure.

The carts that were prepared a day earlier are already being attached to the saddles of the wolves that will pull them, there are about six of them and they will be operated by the people I instructed to harass the monkeys. Remember that the monkeys are not very good at scouting and they will probably realize all of these movements of mine just about now when I decided to openly provoke them.

The carts will be transferred to the other side of the landmines area, but don't worry because there's a map on the exact location of the landmines, that includes the trees I make them chop to lure the enemy, so they will be able to dodge the landmines with ease. These maps will be destroyed to prevent leakage and if they ever tried to step on a marked spot and got bombed by the storm orb coated with the earth that I set in there, that will be their fault already.

But of course, this move still caused the suspicion of the goblins around me, after all, I am loading empty carts with nothing but the coachmen of the wolves and making it camp in the area in which the landmines are in its also quite far from the base reach, but I don't want to disclose information to people, who knows, that spider might convey the keys in my plans to the monkeys.

Oh and through Kabuto's unique skill, Eleanor said that she's already in place for her "job" and is just on standby waiting for the go signal.

With a "Then wait for my words." I ended the conversation.

Hmm... Just a little more.

This conversation happened on the day before the departure.

On the day of the Departure, just as I was going inside the commander's quarters to get a little me time, I noticed an unassuming pure white spider the size of my palm in the upper corner of my eyes, the spider who started to make a string and slowly but surely descended the table of the commander-in-chief is identical to the one I crushed in the settlement back then.

I rolled my eyes a little, damn I don't want to do that, it's gross, but I wanna look cool so I can't help it.

"You have to wait for a day okay? I have things to do."

I did not wait for a reply as I contacted Kabuto.

"Master."

The usual serious voice rang out inside my head.

"Order the Goat cavalry to go and depart to the location you have discovered."

"Yes, your will shall be fulfilled."

With that conversation, I ignored the spider who obediently curled itself up into a ball but looked at it for a while and picked it up as I scanned it, all of its body is white except for the feet part that is pitch-black in color, I tilted my head as I exerted some force in my fingers but immediately stopped.

"Better not."

With a shake of my head, I said and went back outside, my time canceled. I might rake in some benefits by having a little good conversation with that spider, but I still decided to bring the ball of brisk limbs and use it as the ball that it is, I can hear it grunt several times when I toss it into the air, seems like its complaining, but then the mother of this spider is annoying me to no end so it's a fair trade I must say, so I ignored the ball's complaints.

[You do know that that logic is not acceptable right?]

Being satisfied with my flawless (?) thinking process, I immediately looked for Lyra and Philo, of course, one of the goblins is the one who will find them, that's a basic way of preserving authority, after some short minutes of waiting, two individuals, a goblin and a nian are in front of me.

"Your orders, My Lady."

They said in unison as Lyra kneeled whist Philo lowered his head.

I looked at my subordinates who always have this undying passion when it comes to following my words down to the letter, after a short while of admiring their growth for the past month, I started to state my orders.

"Lyra and Philo, the departure of the other leader of the  monkey rebels that I will use as one of the points necessary for my success in this Hero's Test is about to happen..."

I started to explain their mission and their roles in the war, well their role is quite simple you see, I want them to kill the scouts that the rebels of the monkey tribe that will soon expand their range of activity, the reason for this action of theirs is simple, one of their strongest will not be around for a while, meaning that they will be more vulnerable to attacks and they don't want that to happen no matter how strong they are in their minds, thus they want to have a wider range of information network so that if there is a potential enemy, they can be informed way beforehand and after they got informed, they will be able to decide whether to defend their ground in a defensive stance ( if the attacking force is an army or a pack of monsters) or to send troops towards the threat ( if the monster is just a single individual), monsters that are deemed to be an Avengers Level threat will then be handled by the other leader who got left behind to hold the post.

That is the logic of their action, but logic such as this one no matter how good it is still needed to be backed up by skill. Kabuto communicated this movement of them to me and I first said that he have to take care of them himself so that the provocations of our side towards the monkey rebel leader who was left behind will intensify, but he suggested that Philo and Lyra will be enough for this operation because of how they are so bad at concealing their tracks, no they are not bad they did not just bother to erase the branches they destroyed, the stem of the fruits they ate or the containers of their already prepared rations, basically they are fraud of a scouting unit.

The fact that they are yet to discover us despite the wall already erected is already a clear citation of how much of a bum they are in terms of intel. gathering. Going back, the monkeys are expected to recklessly increase their range of monitoring and the mission of Philo and Lyra to kill them will have two purposes: first is to drive away the spies from the spot we laid the landmines in, and second is like I side to taunt the other leader into attacking us and diving straight into the landmines.

I explained all of this as such, but of course, they will have their doubts, they are not the same undead the usual fantasy world has that does not have a will of their own after all, the first one to ask a question is Philo.

"Master, it's not like I am doubting your brilliant self, but why did you order the goblins to carry empty carriages? In a place too far away too."

I smirked a little as I smugly answered his question.

"Well... let's just say that I will pull off a shitmove with those carts."

Philo is still confused and cannot reply to anything back, well understandable, he is not the most intelligent of my subordinates after all, so I just waved his doubts out with a "You will understand soon.", Lyra is the next to ask me things but all of it is just the specifics of the mission, well nothing different from earlier, they will kill off all of the spies but one and they will let that one escape, no problem about that part.

After a little bit more questions, the meeting has finally come to an end, I tossed the palm-sized spider ball into the air the moment I went back into the commander-in-chief quarters, the spider went back to his former shape, it then vomited some green-colored slimy stuff and finally glared at me, but then the spider suddenly quivered a little and said.

"Phew that was rude, My Lady."

A voice of immense elegance and confidence resounded instead of the usual brisk sound of the spiders' mandibles, but I am certain that this person is the one that fucks around me for a while now, so I am not even a little bit tranced.

"I am not your lady, spider queen."

The spider walked towards me and then stopped when its already in front of me, a smile can make out from its jittering mouth.

"Well, not until now."

A little bit of chuckle was heard as the spider in front of me bowed, or knelt, either way, it gestured a stance of subordination.

"I, the queen of spiders pledge my loyalty to the Hero Prospect Sophia, from this day on, I shall live according to her will and die if she so desired."

Several emotions burst out of my heart, for a moment, all of my brain cells thought of multitudes of possibilities that this bombshell just created, but of course, this simulation took only half a second, and no change of expression was even traced from my face

"I see, why?"

I asked casually, leaning my face near the spider's three pair of eyes.

"Wait, you're too close My Lady... Ignoring me? Whatever, anyway, the answer is simple, because I am weak."

I finally retraced my face because the arachnid stinks like hell as I replied.

"That's pretty hard to believe for someone who controls a net of information that extends to every corner of the forest."

I can hear the spider sighing as the queen of arachnids replies, the feeling of shame in her tone is evident.

"Yes, that is right, I do have that 'strength' but I cannot defend myself. I am just a glorified stalker that deceives monsters that I am a 'queen'."

I am quite shocked about this revelation, first of all, if you are talking about spiders then a lot of defense mechanisms can enter our brain... poison, mandibles, etc. but this queen just said that she got stripped away of all of these abilities. There must be...

"So you gained the ability to communicate with arachnids forest-wide as long as you birthed it but got stripped away of your fighting abilities huh? Fair trade I must say."

The spider in front of me nodded, and then the spider queen said.

"It is a fair trade, so? What will be your answer? You already know the benefits of having me right?"

The two front legs of the spider rubbed together like that of a greedy merchant, But I smirked as I said.

"And so is the cons."

I paused for a little while and continued.

"But of course, as  you said, I also know the pros, thus to prove your loyalty I have an order."

I explained my suggestion briefly to her, I have a sprouting smile on my face as I do so.

"Huh? Really? Just that to accept me? Then consider it done. Keep this spider for the confirmation of the success of my preliminary test."

The call between us ended with me being a little dazed, surprisingly, or not really, the spider queen agreed to my demand quite easily.

Well, who would have thought that the show will start sooner than I expected?