That Time I Got Reencarnated as a Demon Lord (English)

09 - Problems on the Trip

Dwargon. Its full name is actually the Armed Nation of Dwargon and it is one of the most powerful nations in the world. The nation's strength is such that Dwargon has been considered undefeated in every war of the last millennium, even when it shares a border with the Eastern Empire.

This made Dwargon the mainstay of Western nations, serving as the main shield against the attacks of the Eastern Empire.

The Dwargon system, unlike most western nations, is quite liberal, accepting all types of creatures as long as they are intelligent enough to respect the laws of the nation and do not engage in battle within the nation. Furthermore, thanks to the exchange system, even the creatures that inhabit the Great Forest of Jura could get money to make their purchases.

In the end, Dwargon became a trading hub of the world where everyone, including intelligent monsters living in the Forest of Jura, would choose to travel in order to obtain the goods they desired.

"Quickly! Stop them coming from the side!!"

And the kobold traders within the Jura Forest, small and weak like goblins but dog-headed, were an example of those who made these trades. They crossed the forest, facing its dangers to exchange items that came from groups of monsters through the forest, coming from tribes of different races, exchanging them all in Dwargon.

"There's one on the other side too! You have to get him away before he catches up with us!!"

And, of course, these trips are too dangerous for the Kobolds, which is why the Kobolds hired their own bodyguards. That way the group would have someone who could protect their lives and their goods on their way to Dwargon.

"Damn!! Five of them are too many! We can barely face one of these things alone and it's still too much, but five...?"

But who would the Kobolds hire? What they would certainly like would be ogres, beings capable of defeating a dragon, but proud ogres would not sell their services to creatures as weak as the Kobolds. In the end, the race that had already refused to work for some Demon Lords would not work for the Kobolds.

"But why are five of the Blade Tigers together?!! They're territorial, they never work together!!!"

Lizardmen weren't an option either for a similar reason. They were too proud, thinking they were the descendants of dragons, so the group would never accept working for Kobolds. Also, outside of the swamp that protects them, lizardmen lose all their speed, their biggest advantage, and wouldn't be much stronger than trained goblins.

"We're seriously going to die here..."

This made the goblins, who understood what it was like to be weak, the only viable option among the main races of the Jura Forest that would accept working for the Kobolds. But goblins weren't that much stronger than kobolds, so there was no point in that... other than hiring their evolved forms. Hobgoblins and Goblinas had strength not unlike human adventurers, which would be perfect for keeping them safe on the way to Dwargon.

"They killed the horses... We have no way to escape..."

And this all brings us to our current situation.

Standing on the side of the bumpy road was a Kobold carriage, its dead horses just ahead. The front right wheel had broken, tipping the carriage and goods to the ground, making it impossible for the goblins and kobolds to escape.

What were they trying to run away from? That was easy, they were running away from monsters.

The Blade Tiger, one of the most dangerous beasts on the way to Dwargon, was the monster that attacked them. He resembled a saber-toothed tiger, had a red fur with a black part, a pair of white sabers protruding from his canine teeth and extending as far as daggers. Five of them attacked at the same time, an unheard of number for a territorial race, who usually keep their distance from each other. The only possible explanation for this number would be that it was the tiger's early mating season, and in that case, the Kobolds were just too unlucky.