"I've let Bor in on the plan," Welf announced right as the army arrived at the mines.
"You did what?!" Konrad demanded.
That shook him up from the stupor he was in, still working out the details of his plan.
And it might have crumbled altogether now.
"Why'd you do that?"
The blacksmith raised a finger to his mouth, hushing him before answering.
"What do you mean, why?" he asked. "Bor was there when you rescued that dragon. He'd be rather upset if you killed the one helping us avoid goblins and escape with the captives."
"Oh, right, right."
It's been a few weeks, and so much has happened since—Konrad forgot all about it.
Yes. The original story was that he let the dragon go and found an ordinary, average, human girl named Maple on his way out. But that was before Helena arrived from the capital.
Was he becoming senile, or too overworked, forgetting such an important detail?
This body might've been too young, but his soul?
"So as I was saying," Welf continued, grabbing his shoulder to snap him out of his existential crisis. "Our squads will guard the rightmost tunnels. Tell the dragon to attack from there."
"Got it," Konrad nodded, focused again, and calming down. "You beat a hasty retreat, and—"
"Make sure you run past us before getting stuck with her," the blacksmith suggested.
That part was easy. He still couldn't figure out what he'd do after.
And as he was busy coming up with ideas, his mind-shield crumbled.
Maple was quick to take advantage of it and wouldn't shut up.
'Yeah, I could collapse a tunnel behind us.' Her thoughts were louder than his own. 'And will make love to you so hard, even the earth would tremble. They'd think we're fighting.'
"Keep your dirty ideas to yourself, idiot," Konrad blurted out.
His face turned red as his eyes met Lily's.
Forget about faking a kill—the demoness would've murdered them both if he went along with her. Not that he hated the idea—she was part of his harem and all, but—
"You're an open book, sweetheart," the girl claimed, rolling her eyes. "And a naughty one, too."
With how hot his face felt, she didn't even have to read his mind for this one.
"S-sorry, I'm—anxious 'bout this thing," he mumbled, trying to salvage the situation. "I still don't know what I'll do for a corpse. Illusions won't cut it if people want to use the materials."
"Why not skin her alive?" Lily suggested with a sadistic smirk.
A little fang peeked out between her bright red lips, her cat ears twitching, giving Konrad the chills. In a good way—if his being a pervert was something he could consider good.
From how much her grin widened seeing that reaction, she must've approved.
'I can shed a few scales, or even a tooth, I guess,' Maple offered, but her thoughts were much less enthusiastic. 'I'd be a pain, but I can regenerate them from your mana—'
Which, in turn, gave her immense pleasure, as Konrad had found out not so long ago.
He let out a sigh.
"At least I'm not the only pervert here," he noted to himself, agreeing to the plans. "Let's line up and advance," he shouted to his men. "The sooner we exterminate these goblins, the better."
Konrad was to lead the largest group in a tight shieldwall formation down the main chambers.
On paper, it was half of their strength, but in reality, they were all but decoys.
The small task forces led by his four commanders and sergeants were taking care of the goblins. He only distracted them with his impenetrable wall while keeping his men safe.
Right now, he was no more than a figurehead, a juicy target presented to the monsters.
And that was exactly how he planned to run things during the tournament as well.
He knew nothing about armies, strategies or tactics, but everything about logistics.
He also knew how to surround himself with talented people. It was much better to let them do what they were good at than to pretend he knew everything.
Otherwise, he would've only repeated blunder after blunder.
But being the main general, the enemies still targeted him, and he'd still make the final calls.
In a sense, he was in control—without sweating the details—and he was fine with that.
A hands-off approach. As long as he could trust his men, that was all he had to do.
"We start with the leftmost chamber, and go clockwise, clearing them all one by one," he issued the orders. His orders? No. But they already rehearsed the plan down to the smallest details.
Bor's small squad rushed to scout ahead.
Welf covered the tunnels on his right side, and the veteran knight and Kade on his left.
"Stay alert, but try to appear careless," he muttered as they lit their torches. "These little fuckers love to ambush, but won't show their faces if we appear too strong."
This wasn't a problem the last time, when only a few tiny parties entered the salt mine.
The beasts even got a drop on Bor's scouts back then.
"We'll leave no survivors this time," his commander swore revenge in their names.
But when they arrived with such a large force, they had to be creative.
"I'll turn half of us invisible," Konrad said, making his men-at-arms appear smaller. "But that's the only magic I'll use today, and I won't help you in the fighting itself—unless things go bad."
And, of course, he already knew they would.
'I'm inside,' Maple announced. 'And boy, there are a lot of goblins here.'
She snuck in through a ventilation shaft from the other side of the hill.
'Did you say there were two hundred of them? Make it four. Though there might be even more elsewhere,' the dragoness commented. 'Can I play with them? Or scare them your way?'
'Let the men do the work,' Konrad sent her a mental message. 'Look for a place we can ruin.'
'Mmhm, you could ruin me everywhere,' the dirty leaf purred.
And of course, it was his ankle that Lily kicked in response, not hers.
'Be noisy once you're near. So I can bypass our forward patrols in time,' Konrad replied, cutting off their telepathic channel. He didn't want to get any injuries, even before their fake fight.
And arguing with a jealous demoness would've been pointless.
The next thing that flew towards him wasn't her legs or palms, though.
It was a slingshot and some arrows.
They arrived to fight goblins, after all—and finally, they were here, too.
"Ambush," a knight by his side shouted, and the formation shifted.
Or rather, it doubled in size.
Konrad dispelled his invisibility, and the little beasts realised their mistake. With their gurgling language, they shouted curses at them, but were too late for a hasty retreat.
Welf and Bor's scouts were already ahead of them, blocking their escape.
"Keep a close formation and advance," Konrad barked. "The blocking force will be the anvil, hammer these little shits against them. Don't let them infiltrate or flank our ranks."
Compared to the previous encounter, they swarmed the goblins, not the other way around.
The men appeared calm, too, and well organised.
But if everything went according to his plans, that would soon change.