Black Shadow | Souei

Chapter 9: Attack of the Ogres

The goblin's development of the village continued to progress with Kumiko helping to oversee the projects. Kaijin and the three dwarf brothers made clothing and tools and built more homes. The Goblin Lords under Rigurd, the Goblin King, worked out a system to rule the village. Things were progressing well.

Rimuru had Kumiko oversee most of the construction, as well as security and hunting, as she did previously. In regards to the resources that Kumiko had reported to Rimuru, he formed a few new units of goblins and wolves to scavenge for resources or mine for ore. Kumiko was also in charge of overseeing them, though for the most part they were self-sufficient. Rimuru said nothing, but he kept track of Kumiko and noticed a growing trend of her finding something to busy herself with every second she could. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, but it was different from the Kumiko that would find times to hide away on a tree through the day to avoid talking. Now it seemed like she wanted to do anything but that. Rimuru sighed sadly as he observed her. After Shizu's death, Kumiko refused to even mention to Rimuru about her problems. He assumed that she was worried he was still grieving, but he was worried about her mental health for bottling it up. She respected him too much to rely on him for her own problems, but at times it made him feel like a bad leader. She had been accompanying him since the cavern and had loyally remained by his side, yet he couldn't say a word to help her.

Rimuru was currently hitching a ride around the village on a wooden door carried by two goblins. Kumiko was nearby, but busy doing her usual duties. Once he had confirmed that there was nothing urgent he needed to address, Rimuru hopped off the door and started making his way back to his own hut. Kumiko noticed out of the corner of her eye and she watched over Rimuru from her distance until he made it safely inside.

"Kumiko-dono," the goblin lord she was talking to called out. She turned her head back to the conversation.

"My apologies. What were we discussing?"

"Ah, we were hoping to get approval for expansion into this area of the forest," he said, pointing to the north of the village.

"I will have the security units scout the area shorting, and then report it to Rimuru. Please wait before starting to clear the trees."

The two discussed a couple other minor issues, joined by a few other goblins and goblin lords. She addressed all of their issues and delegated them tasks to keep them busy. After Ifrit destroyed half their village, they were set back in being able to comfortably house their population. In the first few days, she had the goblins report to her first to give Rimuru time to grieve for Shizu. Afterwards, they reported urgent matters to Rimuru directly for fast results. They reported to Kumiko when they needed approval from multiple units and Rimuru or if they were unsure of something. Other than that, the goblins and artisans had free will to build and do as they pleased.

Kumiko was always efficient with her work, even though at this moment, she wished she took longer. Her first stop after addressing the goblin lords was to check in with the hunting team. They didn't all go out daily, but it was always a good idea to keep track of the prey in the area. She had permanently assigned a few warrior goblins with each hunting unit to protect them from aggressive monsters when necessary. The hunting units were trained mostly to avoid having to engage in fights with monsters, but it was always better safe than sorry. According to the reports she got, they had dwindled the prey to the north of the village and were hoping to head back to the western part where they had been hunting before. Kumiko denied their request, and told them to head east instead. The numbers of prey to the west were still recovering. She had also been getting reports or a large increase of prey in the east, so it should be safe to hunt there for the time being.

She headed next for the artisans. She left Kaijin, Garm and Dord to do their thing, since they knew to report to her if they were running low on resources. Since Myrd was in charge of the village construction, she mostly addressed him. It was a blessing that she could communicate with him somehow, though she still hadn't understood how. Myrd and her discussed various things ranging from the layout of the village to defenses. Myrd was in charge of the village design, but the layout sometimes needed to be checked for security purposes. Myrd addressed the need for expansion to the north, as the other goblin lords had mentioned. She assured him that she would have security scout the area and prep it for expansion. As for defenses, since they kept expanding, there was really no way to build physical defenses such as walls around the village quite yet. Instead, they focused on paths the villagers could take through the village to escape if there was a need to evacuate.