A Qualified Transportation Captain

Chapter 423 A Qualified Transportation Captain

The battle ended quickly.

"I originally thought it would turn into a protracted battle or a chase," Charles smiled with interest, "but I didn't expect it to end so quickly."

After saying that, he looked at Diana beside him and found that she was frowning. "What's wrong? Is something the problem?"

Charles quickly replayed the entire battle in his mind, searching carefully, but found nothing strange. Could it be that he had overlooked some hidden information?

Just as he looked suspiciously at the gnolls being herded together not far away, Diana finally spoke, "There's still a problem, and it's a pretty big one."

"What's the problem?" Charles asked.

"How to deal with it?" Diana sighed softly. "I really don't know enough about these guys. As soon as the tauren engaged in battle, their formation immediately fell apart. Almost every tauren rushed forward and fought the gnolls together."

"Huh? The minotaur's problem?" Charles was taken aback. He thought there was something wrong with the gnolls, since they were defeated so easily, which made Charles start to suspect that there might be something else hidden behind the gnolls.

Unexpectedly, Diana started talking about her own side's performance in battle.

"It was so chaotic. The entire front-end development battlefield was in complete disarray. Everyone had abandoned their posts."

The defensive formation we learned collapsed in an instant. Diana shook her head, her expression showing great dissatisfaction.

"They're also eager to fight," Charles said, offering timely words of comfort. He could understand the Minotaur's fighting habits to some extent.

"No," Diana said seriously, "if it were a human army charging in right now, then once the melee starts, a fireball will rain down from the sky."

"A giant fireball?" Charles exclaimed in surprise. "With both armies locked in fierce combat, will the enemy also use magical bombardment?"

Diana glanced calmly at the goblin. "When human armies are in battle, the vanguard is usually made up of mercenaries, and these people can be abandoned."

As she spoke, she pointed to the dejected jackals in the distance, "They used to be mercenaries."

"Moreover," before Charles could say anything, Diana glanced at him again, "sometimes the first to rush out aren't necessarily mercenaries."

The girl's eyes gave a clear hint, and Ciel nodded silently. In this world, when two sides are at war, they usually send out "cannon fodder" first to charge into the enemy's formation.

Cannon fodder can be composed of many types: slave soldiers, mercenaries, adventurers who have been gathered together, and even civilians.

If the front ranks fail to maintain their formation and fall into chaos, the enemy can easily seize the opportunity. Whether it's a magical bombardment or a heavy cavalry charge, it will impact the rear ranks, causing chaos throughout the entire force.

Fortunately, this time their opponent was a gnoll, whose strength was limited and who looked like a rabble.

When they fell into a trap and were locked in a stalemate, there was a clear problem with command, resulting in a disconnect on the battlefield.

This also gave the Sharl a clearer understanding of the combat capabilities of non-intelligent races.

Races like gnolls, minotaurs, or goblins aren't necessarily unruly in combat, but that requires extensive training. Without a reliable commander, allowing them to act freely, anything can happen.

Charles even thought of the "Osaka Legion," an army that traded with other forces and exchanged supplies. The bizarre things they did were something that could actually happen to these races.

If supplies ran out, they would secretly trade with the enemy, exchanging various supplies for each other.

If they know the enemy is strong, they start to slack off and do nothing. But once they learn that the enemy has been defeated, they immediately become energetic and chase after the enemy, afraid that they will not be able to gain any benefits.

If they were tired from marching, upon hearing the order to rest, they would rather sit on the ground and cook a meal than entertain even the slightest thought of attacking a weaker enemy so close at hand.

"I have to say, these guys still have a long way to go." Charles sighed softly. Fortunately, Diana didn't show any disgust. Even though she sometimes seemed frantic, her solution was simply to call Red Eye or Little John over and give them a proper sword training lesson.

Perhaps Diana also liked the atmosphere here. These silly, ordinary guys seemed like a headache, but they were simple-minded, obedient, and their leader was very supportive of her. The only problem was that she needed to spend a lot of time and effort on them.

"Let's go see those gnolls instead." Diana ignored Charles's words and walked to the side to prepare to ride the soldier ant. "I won't go see the gnolls; I need to check on the centaurs' situation."

"Since you showed great interest before, I'll leave it to you." With that, she rode away on her soldier ant.

Charles watched Diana leave, shook his head and sighed softly. Indeed, ever since he learned that the gnolls were coming on horseback, he had been very concerned. He had asked repeatedly about the characteristics of the horseback and the location of the gnolls, afraid that he might have missed something.

This interest also caught Diana's attention, but compared to Charles, the former president of the Crusades was clearly not interested in it.

"Red Eyes," Charles beckoned to his men, ordering them to bring over the gnoll leader.

"You're the leader of the gnolls?" Charles sized up the gnoll standing in front of him.

The guy looked disheveled, his equipment was tattered, and the originally decorative feathers now looked like messy stray hairs stuck on his body.

It must be said that the gnolls look really strange, with a dog's head on a body the height of an ordinary person, and covered in gray and black fur.

Moreover, these guys are different from the kobolds who like to mine. The kobolds are covered in small scales and are more closely related to lizardmen and dragons, while the gnolls are covered in body hair and look more like minotaurs.

"Goblin," Iron Fang said, his hands bound behind his back, yet still maintaining an arrogant demeanor, "take me to your master. I have important matters to discuss with him."

"Me? Master?" Charles opened his mouth. Looking at the other's posture, he thought this guy might say something like "Today's defeat is not due to the fault of the battle" or "There are no cowards who admit defeat, only dead jackals". But he didn't expect that the first thing this guy said was to look for "master".

Iron Fang sized up Charles, then maintained his attitude, "You are not qualified to capture me. I will only surrender to your master."

"I don't have a master," Ciel said, rubbing his teeth in an annoyed tone.

These words startled Iron Fang, who looked at the goblin in front of him again. He had to admit that this short guy with no hair on his head was dressed quite well. His clothes looked very warm, and the goblin was even wearing shoes, which surprised Iron Fang.

Goblins have shoes?

In the towns of Argonne, even beggars might not have shoes to wear, let alone goblins who are "mud soldiers".

"You don't have a master?" Iron Fang asked again.

His response was a deep nod from Charles.

This answer silenced Iron Fang. He turned to look at the minotaurs in the distance. The group of them were now gathered together and had started to dance a strange dance, making some kind of "woo-la-woo-la" noises. They paid no attention to the gnolls who had been left aside, as if they didn't care that the gnolls had escaped.

This situation left Iron Fang completely bewildered. As mercenaries, they used to carefully guard their prisoners after winning battles, because prisoners could be exchanged for more rewards from human lords.

But before guarding the prisoners, their first task was to loot everything from them, from weapons and equipment to personal belongings, and sometimes even their clothes, not to mention their shoes.

But nobody cared about the gnolls. They were simply tied up and herded together, their equipment and belongings left untouched. In contrast, the goblins seemed to value the serpent-chickens more. Many goblins were already surrounding the wailing serpent-chickens, trying to pull them up again or control them.

"Are we mercenaries not even as good as those big birds?" Iron Fang came to this conclusion in surprise.

"In a sense, that's true." Charles smiled nonchalantly, his hands behind his back.

They're just a bunch of gnolls, so easily defeated. To him, they're definitely not as important as the snake-chicken beast.

"Leader, leader!" A hurried call drew their attention. A goblin dressed in tattered clothes ran up to them on all fours and knelt down with a thud.

"You are—" Sharl looked at the goblin. The guy looked somewhat familiar, but his clothes didn't seem to belong to his own kind.

"I'm Baldy." Baldy pointed to his face with a fawning smile.

After looking at the other person's panel, Ciel slowly nodded, "It's you. I remember you."

He knew this guy very well. He had helped lead two teams before, which directly put his tribe on the road to great development. If it weren't for him, his tribe wouldn't have so many goblins now.

"Chief, I've done a good job bringing these guys here this time, haven't I?" Baldy said respectfully. "This time, could you let me stay?"

"Huh?" Charles was stunned. The goblin's words caught him off guard. What did he mean by bringing gnolls and that it counted as a meritorious deed?

So, you're a traitor who led the enemy here, and I'm supposed to thank you?

"Did you lure the gnolls here?" Charles frowned.

Although Broken Tooth had previously reported on the enemy's movements, Baldy's leadership along the way was also "indispensable".

"Chief, it's me," Baldy noticed Charles's expression and quickly waved his hands, "No, no—"

"I am not your leader."

"No," Baldy quickly lowered his head, "The gnolls told me that if I led them to the Goblin Kingdom, they would reward me with food."

After saying that, he turned his head and glanced at Iron Fang beside him. These jackalmen wanted to use the dried meat of the snake-chicken beast as a reward, but they didn't expect that he had already stolen and eaten several pieces.

"I know that you and your master were able to defeat Quetzalcoatl, so you are not afraid of these fools. Therefore, I brought them here and presented them to you."

"Me and my master?" Charles frowned again.

Everyone thinks I have some kind of master.

And you goblin, you're quite the transport captain, helping me transport people time and time again. First it was goblins and petrified lizards, now it's jackals and snake-chickens. If I release you, will you just bring the feathered serpent god next time?

"I only ask to be able to rejoin the Goblin Kingdom," Baldy said respectfully, kneeling.

Iron Teeth, standing to the side, gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "Sure enough, hiring an idiot like you as a guide was a mistake from the start."

"You foolish gnolls, knowing that Quetzalcoatl was defeated, still dare to invade our Goblin Kingdom." Baldy straightened up, glancing arrogantly at the gnolls, "You're even more foolish than forest grouse."

"Shut up, you idiot," Iron Teeth wanted to kick Baldy to the ground. "We came here to find Goblin."

"The masters behind Lin are those noble lords of the Kingdom of Fran, who then hired us."

"Hiring you?" Charles waved his hand, stopping the bald man's rebuttal. "You're here to see your employer?"

"Yes." Iron Fang nodded.

"Hiring gnolls—" Charles pursed his lips, then glanced at the gnolls whispering in the distance. He hadn't considered this idea before, since it didn't seem like there was any need for the tribe to hire a group of mercenaries.

"I don't have a master," he emphasized again, then began to ponder the gnoll's words.

Just as Charles was pondering this, a soldier ant quickly ran back from not far away.

"I just checked, it's alright," Diana said, sitting on her saddle and riding her soldier ants to the side. "At least the centaurs did a decent job, they caught those escaped gnolls, but there's been some trouble, several snake-chickens died."

"Is that so?" Ciel looked up, while Iron Fang and Baldy also looked up at Diana.

Baldy stared in shock at the girl sitting on the saddle. He knew she was human; after all, he had seen other humans come to trade "bubbling leaves" before.

However, this human doesn't seem like a goblin master; rather, he seems to be treating the "leader" like the centaurs used to.

Could it be that this human is also a subordinate of the leader?

Who was the leader's master, and what powerful force did he possess that enabled him to defeat Quetzalcoatl?

Unlike the silent Baldy, Iron Teeth wore a shocked expression, his mouth wide open, and a soft "woo-woo" sound came from his throat.

"Griffin, Griffin Knight—"