Partners [Tensura X Oc]

Chapter-15 Preparation

I could hear small commotions arise among the crowd. A hundred must have seemed like an awfully small number. I saw Shuna make her way to the front, serving as their voice.

Shuna: "YN-Sama isn't that far too few people? And I didn't hear my name called, either. What is the meaning of this?"

The meaning? I have a valid reason for making Shuna stay here. This whole operation was focused on speed. We'd only have a hundred and change on our side, although Ranga could probably command a few more. I wanted speed, and that meant infantry would stay home. Shuna and her lack as a tempest wolf's man would be a liability.

Plus, I was still only working with around six hundred hobgoblins, evenly divided by gender. Around a third were assigned to Rigur's security force, another third devoted to the construction effort, and the rest were women and children unsuited for physical labor. My force was small, yes, but how much could we spare, really? 

YN: "Shuna, I'll need someone to lead the rest of the people here. If we have to negotiate with treants and dryads later, Rigurd's gonna have a hell of a lot on his plate, right? Your presence would do a lot to give the women and children some peace of mind, too."

Shuna: "In that case, I will live up to the role."

She said, which was a relief. She did have a influence over the town, I might even say that she is most popular only second to me and Rimuru and I thought it was a good role for her.

Shuna was still giving Rimuru and Shion glances, so I'm sure she still has a few questions, but she seemed accepting enough now. Which was fine by me.

Rigur: "YN-Sama, why did you not call upon me?"

YN: "Rigur, I want you to command the remaining security forces and beef up your patrols outside town. You know how crazy this forest is right now. If something happens after we head off, I'm leaving you responsible for them all. Make me proud!"

I had both Rigur and Rigurd nodding at my reply. A number of powerful magic beasts, the kind that usually dwelled deeper in the forest, had started showing up here and there closer by. With that in mind, it was pretty easy to have them see things my way. So with everyone on my side, we all began to prepare.

After the speech, I received word from Souei.

Souei: 'YN-Sama, do you have a moment?'

Rimuru had asked him to help us get an alliance going, but what happened?

Souei: 'I was able to meet with lizardmen chief. He seemed willing to accept the alliance, but he asked for you to personally come to see him, my lord...'

Hmm. That was surprising. It wasn't even half a day since our conference ended, and he had already extracted a promise from the guy. Talk about capable!

YN: 'Sounds good. We're gonna fight this at marshes anyway. So, you're already there?'

Souei: 'Yes, my lord. [Shadow Motion] made the voyage to the marshes rather smooth sailing. It allows me to immediately travel to any individual I personally know, but tracking down the chief's exact location took me some time...'

As he put it, Souei used [Shadow Motion] to reach the marshes, then deployed his army of [Replicants] to scope out the area. Gobta could only travel via [Shadow Motion] for as long as he could hold his breath, so Souei outpaced him. It appeared that his physical corpus was already back. I wondered if having a Replicant contact the lizardman chief was really the best thing. The mere fact he could control multiples at once still astonished me.