Entropy's Servant

Chapter 12 - Monster King

Hello everyone, Astaroth here.
Unlike what you might expect, 'Goblinoid' is a term which encompasses a wide variety of Monsters. Classically, you might think of things like Goblins and Hobgoblins, but there are many more races which are attributed to the 'Goblinoid' category, including things like Orcs, Trolls and Ogres. Curiously enough, Kobolds are not Goblinoids, despite being cursed by Lady Gnome and sharing a similar figure to Goblins- perhaps the fur categorizes them differently?

"It's just as the scouts said..."

"These people are all stronger than the King..."

"I wonder why they've come here...?"

The group of Goblinoids in front of me, who seemed to have been picked for their intelligence, stirred as their mostly green, wretched faces gazed upon us. The group contained mostly the more intelligent Goblinoids, and I saw many Goblin Mages, some Goblin Elders and even some Trolls. Feeling slightly mischievous, I decided to single out the lone regular Goblin.

"You there. Goblin", I said, pointing a finger at him, then gesturing at the group around him. "Explain."

"Ah, uh, the King thought it would be rude not to welcome you, sir!", he shouted with an unexpected level of articulation.

"A King, is it?", I asked, an interested expression playing across my face. I was expecting a Monster King, but that didn't take away my curiosity.

"A King? Is that like you, Master?", asked Davna, who had taken on her humanoid form.

"In a way, I suppose it is", I said, "but it's not the same thing. Whereas I have the authority to rule over all Monsters and inherently not much more, a Monster King rules over only one species or perhaps a species group, but while under such a rule, the Monsters become several times more powerful, and in the case of less intelligent Monsters, often smarter as well. On that topic..." I turned to the Goblin, going through my knees a little to bring our lines of sight closer- an action which made its knees tremble in fear as it attempted to look at me, its eyes shaking. "You must spend a lot of time with the King, given you're far more intelligent than any other Goblin I've ever seen. Congratulations."

"That's, that's not true! If anything, the ones who spend the most time with him would be his Kobold harem...", he answered.

"Kobold... Harem...?", I asked, a disbelieving expression undoubtedly on my face as I called to mind a Kobold- small monsters, a similar stature to Goblins, but rather than green skin and a really ugly human face, a body covered with brown or white fur, paws for hands and feet and the face of a dog, complete with enhanced hearing and sense of smell- in a sense, humanoid dogs, hardly any smarter than Goblins either. After shaking my head to clear that mental image and muttering to myself "Well, everyone has their own preferences, I suppose...", I stood up to my full height and addressed the Goblin once again: "So, what's the purpose of this welcoming committee? If it's just to guide us to your King, just a single person would have sufficed, no?", prompting Charlotte and Tempest to silently nod behind me. Neither Davna, Navillus nor Lilith seemed interested enough to pay attention, however.

"That's, uh... To show you our sincerity and, and make you feel welcomed, I guess?", one of the Goblin Mages theorised, causing some nods and grunts of approval from the Goblinoids around it.

"Well, there's, there's that, and also, the King asked me to, to confirm your intentions, sir!", the Goblin shouted in what could be considered high spirits if one didn't know social cues.

"Confirm our intentions... is it?", I said, nodding to myself.

"The King is proactive, if nothing else", Charlotte admitted from behind me, her piercing gaze locked onto one specific Troll. I wasn't able to see the difference between this Troll and the rest, but something about it must've caught her attention.