Log Horizon - Shiroe's sister

Chapter 54

"Conversation~"

Thinking thoughts

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Akiba's first expedition army returned with victory. This was named the East Expedition Army in the future as the west also sent out an expedition army to deal with the 'Suzaku Gate's Ghost Festival' incident at the same time.

The expedition army did not defeat the goblin king, they only trapped the invasion army in the Sand Leaf peninsula and wiped them out. The whole war ended one week after Crusty's forces defeated the goblin general.

Shiroe and Crusty were looking out for reinforcements from 'Seven Falls' all this while, but there were no signs of them until the very end.

The fortress 'Seven Falls' they were watching closely should still have several thousand monsters inside.

This was about a fifth of the whole goblin invasion army, but the numbers were not a big threat.

To measure military powers by numbers was a concept from the old world. In this alternate world, where the difference in fighting power varied a lot, they could be as strong as a soldier or as mighty as a tank, so numbers were not an absolute gauge for military might. The Akiba expedition army's success proved this point.

The goblin king was still in the 'Seven Falls' along with several beasts of colossal proportions. The goblin shaman should be waiting inside as well.

It was more important to determine the threat of the remaining forces rather than their cold hard numbers.

They didn't leave 'Seven Falls' alone because it was hard to tackle. Even if there were some stubbornly strong monsters, the Round Table Council judged that with the strength of the Adventurers, it was just a matter of time before they raided them.

One of the reasons they postponed the raid was because they prioritized signing a treaty with 'League of Freedom Towns Eastal' first.

The Round Table Council also had other considerations.

The Round Table Council set suitable rewards and announced a ton of quests, the contents of the quests included patrolling the northeast communities as well as raiding the remnants of the goblins.

Monsters like goblins were easy enemies for party-level groups, so there was no need to send out large armies to deal with them. Minori's party with their levels around 30 was able to fight them on equal grounds, which was the best evidence for this.

So, the raiding quest was more suitable for beginner-and mid-level Adventurers instead of high-level veteran players. They were happy to take on these missions and many of them set out from Akiba to accomplish them. They roamed the forests and hills of the northeast region, making the People of the Land feel the Adventurers were active again.

By reducing the strength of the forces outside the citadel, 'Seven Falls' would also strengthen their defences. If you took out the goblin king, the goblins would go out of control.

The goblins, who lost their leader, would spread out and raze the land, this was the main argument of Shiroe's that convinced the Round Table Council. Put simply, the action of sealing them in was the preparation of raiding 'Seven Falls' in the future.

Shiroe just felt they should make full use of the current situation, but the people called his tactics villainous which left a bad taste in his mouth. Shiroe insisted there was no black or white in tactics, but there seemed to be plenty of holes in this self-assessment.

Shiroe did not know that most of the Adventurers in Akiba thought Shiroe was the mastermind who forced Princess Raynesia to go to the battlefield. That meant he conned the naive and beautiful princess and sent her out to fight with his honeyed words, giving off the impression of a very shrewd man. With this system, whenever the princess gained sympathy with her beautiful and kind demeanour, Shiroe's reputation would take a hit.