Tamaridu could not help but look forward to what the unfamiliar Lizardman who introduced himself as Owen had to say. After all, the other two guests had told him to become king and asked if he was the king respectively.
Tamaridu asked Owen, “Were you going to tell me to become king too?”
“Oh…”
Owen looked up when the word ‘king’ was uttered.
Tamaridu nodded like he had expected the reaction. However, Owen’s response ended up surprising Tamaridu.
“You would be king? Honestly, I’m not too sure about that. The future is unknown, right? But if you are thinking of becoming king, I’m here to tell you not to.”
A day ago Tamaridu would have been enraged at being told that he would not be king, but now, after conversing with the earlier two guests, he was more flustered than angry.
“Why? Why do you say I can’t become king? Am I not qualified?”
“Qualified? What qualifications are needed to be king?”
“That’s…”
Tamaridu frowned in bemusement.
Tamaridu’s Intelligence was 15, which was a little low for a tribal chief…
“The recognition of the other tribal chiefs?”
…But enough to find his own answer.
“Have you met that qualification?”
“I will soon. While they were no tribal chiefs, an Elf and a Human visited me today and said that I was good enough to be king. What do the Lizardmen think?”
“I’m not sure. I would try to stop you, but our chief may think differently.”
Tamaridu was puzzled.
‘Can a tribe and its chief disagree with each other? It would be hard to lead a tribe if what the tribe wants doesn’t align with the tribal chief’s wishes. Rumors about the Black-Scaled Lizardmen make them out to be so grand, but I guess their chief isn’t that good.’
Tamaridu’s Sociability was 22, and it could be seen as a bit insufficient for a tribal chief. Still, he was cultured enough to not voice his thoughts out loud.
Then Tamaridu said, “So, do you think your tribal chief won’t approve of me?”
“No, the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“My tribal chief will likely approve of your being king.”
Owen then muttered quietly so Tamaridu wouldn’t hear, “He would say that you can have all the fake glory. And he would also say that he would show you what real power is.”
“…Did you say something?”
“Nothing.”
Tamaridu’s thoughts became conflicted again.
“Anyways, the Elves, Humans, and even your tribal chief approve of me being king, but why do you think I shouldn’t? If I’m qualified, are you doubting my abilities?”
“It’s not a matter of qualification and abilities.” Owen shook his head and continued to say, “It’s better if you do not become king. I’m saying this for your own sake.”
“For my own sake? Are you saying it’s bad to become someone who would be served by everyone?”
“It might be.”
Owen nodded.
If what he said after that had not been so convincing, Tamaridu would have picked up his favorite ax.
“If your God does not approve.”
God. Tamaridu seemed dazed when he heard the word.
“The Boldly Rushing God…doesn’t want me to be king?”
“I think so.”
“But…”
“I think you’ve simply been playing ignorant. Do you not know the truth?”
Tamaridu remembered the messages from God he had forgotten, or to be exact, the messages he wanted?to forget.
For the past few days, Tamaridu had been continuously getting nightmares. In the dreams, Tamaridu would climb up the northern mountain and look down on the northern coast. It was an arduous journey—wild sweeping wind, Goblins that attacked him on sight, and a large boulder that rolled downhill toward him. In the dreams, Tamaridu overcame all of those hardships, but he always fell while struggling to scale the narrow one-way path to the top of the mountain.
Then Tamaridu would wake up from his dream with a startling realization. In reality, there was no mountain that high on the northern coast. And bad events didn’t only hit him in his dreams.
Bad things happened whenever Tamaridu heard the words north, Ogre, or king. A rock would hit his ankle, or he would step into a pit that surely wasn’t there when he looked. They were events that Tamaridu had tried hard to ignore. And that was also the reason he hadn’t run out of the tent and told his tribe to advance to the north after the Elf and Human guests came by.
“…Why doesn’t God want me to be king?”
“I would not know. I have my Blue Insect God, and you have your Boldly Rushing God. How would we know the will of the other’s god when we cannot even know the will of our own? I mean, I suppose I could take a guess…”
“Guess?”
Tamaridu, the tribal chief of the Centaurs, listened carefully to what Owen the storyteller had to say. Owen lit a cigarette that cleared his mind, which weren’t the herbs he usually smoked after using his Lightning Power. Owen’s relaxed and slower movements made Tamaridu anxious, but he kept silent because he was afraid Owen would end up not telling him his guess if Tamaridu urged him.
Owen took a deep breath with his cigarette and let out the smoke through his nose.
“There is a hierarchy among the tribes on this land. Am I right or wrong?”
“That’s right. Us Centaurs can call on and gather the Orc tribe and Dwarf tribe whenever we want. And the Ogres in the north enslave the Goblins.”
“Then would there be a hierarchy among the gods?”
“What?”
“In my opinion, I think your Boldly Rushing God is below the Endlessly Looking Down God.”
At those words, Tamaridu raised his front legs and stomped on the floor hard.
“You! Are you insulting the Boldly Rushing God?”
Owen shook his head and said, “I’m only talking about the hierarchy between gods rather than the tribes. Why are you getting angry?”
“But…!”
“And if you are to get mad, it should not be at me, but at the other god who conquered yours.”
Tamaridu, who seemed ready to strike Owen at any moment and was huffing and puffing, calmed his breaths.
“Do you really think the Ogre’s God has conquered mine?”
“If that isn’t so, how else would you explain it?”
Then Owen murmured, “There must have been some kind of trap. The Endlessly Looking Down God probably screwed the Boldly Rushing God over. And that’s why your god has no choice but to do what the Ogres’ god wants. Your god couldn’t encourage you to be king because of the Ogres’ god. Instead, they ended up having to prevent you from being king. What a shame.”
Tamaridu now understood all the dreams and hints he’d been getting.
“If what you said is true, what should I do?”
“If it’s true… Shouldn’t you do what the Ogres’ God least wishes for?”
“Least wishes for?”
“Become king, I mean.”
Tamaridu felt a hot fire burning inside his chest. The first two guests had just stoked the desire in Tamaridu’s heart. But Owen’s words were different. Now, being a king was not only a manifestation of Tamaridu’s personal desire, but also his duty and tribute to the Boldly Rushing God. It was the most sacred mission Tamaridu could fulfill. Now, Tamaridu didn’t want to be king, he hadto?be one.
Then Owen said, “The Centaur tribe and the Ogre tribe would have to fight each other if you want to be king, though, and that would break the alliance…”
“I do not wish to hear what you have to say anymore. Go back.”
“…Well, okay.”
“But I can’t let the precious wise man who awakened me leave empty handed.”
Tamaridu gave the pouch full of treasures that he’d received from the Human to Owen.
After Owen’s departure, Tamaridu began to prepare for battle. The Boldly Rushing God interfered with Tamaridu’s work throughout the process, but even the god could not stop Tamaridu, who had a sacred task to fulfill.
***
The northern coast.
At a place where mortal beings couldn’t peep into, a conversation that mortal beings couldn’t hear was taking place.
Solongos wore iron armor resembling that of a cataphract from Goguryeo, their face covered by a mask. Snow was heavily falling, but there was nothing Solongos could do.
Solonogos then said to Lim Chun-Sik, “I’m sorry, Lim Chun-Sik.”
“It’s okay, Solongos.”
Lim Chun-Sik was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts. The wrinkles on his face made him seem like a middle-aged man in his early to mid fifties, and he wore a pair of three-striped slippers. Solonogs couldn’t be certain whether Lim Chun-Sik’s character reflected his true self, or if it was just an appearance to match the player ID. But that wasn’t the important part. What really mattered here was that Lim Chun-Sik was a reliable leader worth following despite his appearance.
Then Lim Chun-Sik said, “It’s my mistake. I’ve been ignoring the weird Concept Bug Elf. I didn’t know they would get greedy and bring another player into this.”
“I didn’t expect it either.”
“You had to deal with Hegemonia.”
Snow piled up on Lim Chun-Sik’s forehead and protruding belly.
“I should be the one to apologize.”
“What?”
“Tamaridu and Kajin will have to fight soon, and if Tamaridu dies, you will lose an important priest.”
Solongos laughed.
“Haha. Lim Chun-Sik, I was apologizing for what happened, but I mainly apologized because my Tamaridu would kill Kajin.”
Lim Chun-Sik grinned at the comment.
“I don’t think so.”
***
Tamaridu gathered the NPC tribes under his command for battle, and upon hearing the news, Kajin began building barricades around a small Goblin village on the outskirts of his territory. Tamaridu didn’t mind.
‘Goblins are only slaves to Ogres anyways.’
Tamaridu planned to decapitate the Ogres’ leader, Kajin. It would be beneficial to attack the Goblins for looting purposes, but the goal of this battle was to destroy the Ogre tribe. Therefore, there was no need to attack a barricaded village. In addition, the Centaurs were pretty much all cavalry, and if the cavalry of the other tribes under their command were ordered to advance too, it seemed like they could easily get to Kajin’s village.
‘Kajin is putting his trust in the Goblins and only building an outer barricade. But if we follow the waterway, we can avoid the Goblin village and get to Kajin’s village.’ .𝘤𝘰
Tamaridu was confident his strategy was flawless. He did decapitate a warrior who said there was a problem, but the warrior was the only one who questioned his words. Tamaridu’s Strength was 58. A Strength that high was enough to make up for his lackluster Intelligence and Sociability as a tribal chief. It was also enough for him to unify the tribe’s will into one.
“Let’s go, warriors! This is the way to be king!”
Tamaridu took seventy Centaurs with him, along with thirty and sixty cavalries from the subordinate tribes under his command, which made a total of one hundred and sixty cavalries. They rode into the territory under Kajin’s rule. Tamaridu marched along the river, avoiding the Goblin village. However, he did not get very far.
“Chief Tamaridu! There are Goblins in front of us!”
Tamaridu hadn’t expected Kajin to think far enough ahead to account for his strategy. Kajin had predicted that Tamaridu would avoid the Goblin villages, and thus stationed Goblin troops on the pathway Tamaridu would take. But Tamaridu wasn’t worried.
“They’re Goblins! There are quite a lot of them, but just stomp on them with your hooves and it’ll be enough! Charge!”
And things went just as he said. There were around three hundred Goblins, but they didn’t have proper bows, and there were even some who weren’t armed. Their numbers were only made impressive with the inclusion of Goblin slaves rather than soldiers. The Goblins tried to run away, but it was a narrow hillside. Driven by bloodlust, Tamaridu and his warriors charged in between the Goblins, and a handful of Goblins tried to fight back to no avail.
Tamaridu believed he could defeat Kajin by riding the momentum of victory, not realizing that he had already fallen into Kajin’s trap the moment the Goblins showed up to block their advance. From the bushes, where it didn’t seem possible for someone to hide, the Ogres came rushing, breaking through the shrubs and trees as they went. They were each three and a half meters tall and weighed one ton. They were giants with short necks and protruding bellies.
Taken aback, the Centaurs and cavalries tried to avoid the charging Ogres. However, their feet were tangled among the dead Goblins as well as the few survivors, and slashing through the Goblins had left them drained. Some cavalries got off their disobedient horses and tried to run away, but the Centaurs couldn’t do that. Centaur were stronger than the Ogres when they could charge forward, but those who were trapped were weaker. Armed with hammers and clubs, the Ogres began to strike the Centaurs in the head.
Tamaridu was able to cut the heads of two Ogre warriors from where he was, but the third Ogre warrior was particularly burly. It was the tribal chief, Kajin. The two had never met before, but the moment their eyes met, they recognized each other. There was no need for conversation. The two charged towards each other. Their weapons collided and fell onto the ground. Then their fight proceeded with them fighting with bare hands.
Kajin eventually grabbed Tamaridu’s neck, and Tamaridu struggled to break free of Kajin’s grasp. Tamaridu’s Strength was 58, and had never lost in a battle of strength against anyone. Kajin dodged Tamaridu’s hand and got onto Tamaridu’s back. Tamaridu fell to his knees with Kajin’s weight pinning him down. Kajin didn’t use his hands, but instead used his wrists and forearms to strangle Tamaridu, and the moment Kajin believed he had gotten a good grip, he twisted his arms.
Crunch.
With his neck broken, Tamaridu collapsed to the ground.
Kajin shook his hands clean and got up. Then he marched further to break the neck of the next Centaur.
1. One of the Three Kingdoms of Korea from which modern Korea is derived.
Visit .𝒎