11 A fiend(1)

In the midst of a forest known as the Demonic forest, there are many different creatures inhabiting it.

In normal circumstances, even the wild and simple-minded goblins of this forest know that while there are some creatures that they can kill and capture, there are others that they can't, because even if some of those creatures are weak, they have many strong ones among them that will easily kill all the goblins if anything happens to their people.

The goblins have always learned from their mistakes despite not being that smart themselves, they understand which ones among the weak should they not meddle with.

If this was a normal forest with normal creatures in them, the goblins would have never cared if there's someone strong that could come to them later, they would just attack the weak and avoid the strong with not much thought, but in this specific forest, the goblins have known the furry of the strong ones.

In the past when the goblins found a young girl in the forest they attacked her and captured her to take to their village and "use" her. They did just that but the girl was too young and weak, dying defiled and leaving this world with enormous hate, disgust, and sorrow. For goblins that was a normal occurrence and it did not worry them that she died, they were careless and retribution soon came to them.

The girl they kidnapped was an elf and not just any elf, she was the daughter of a retired war general that was now living the life of a farmer, and with his old connections with the elven king, the old ex-general moved many that he had met when he was a war general, with the force that was under him they were able to easily locate her corpse, and with their magic, they could hear her last wish as a vengeful spirit. She wanted all the goblins in that forest to fear the elves so that none of them would ever dare come near an elf again.

Driven by his furry upon finding such a scene the elf ex-general did as his daughter wanted and made sure it was so, after hunting goblins for months the men who came to help had expected the old ex-general to have calmed down and given up on hid impossible task, the hunt continued and after some time the soldiers that came to help the ex-general could no longer follow him and had to go back to their own lives.

The elven ex-general however did not stop no matter how much time passed.

The problem is that goblins are said to be like cockroaches, no matter how many you kill you can never get them all, but that knowledge didn't stop the elven ex-general at all, and continued slaughtering goblins.

Years passed and the elven general was not able to find any other goblin no matter how much he looked for them, he knew there was a goblin hiding somewhere, so he never stopped looking for it.

This Elven ex-general became a legend not only among the elves of the demonic forest but for the elven race in general, there are even those parents that say that tell their children that if they don't behave well, they will be mistaken for goblins and the elven ex-general will come after them.

In this world, this story became a popular tale for the whole elven and the elven ex-general was given the title of Gobin Slayer.

People gave him that people because they didn't know of the many titles related to killing goblins this elven ex-general had.

It went to the point goblins in this forest begun to fear all elves, and avoid that look similar to elves and thus many races of the forest lived unbothered by the goblins.

But it all changed as the goblins have gained newfound courage and arrogance and are no longer afraid of elves, of course, that could only happen because they themselves no longer understand, why they even feared the elves in the first place, since the story of the elven ex-general happened very long ago and even the elves themselves started thinking of it as a fairy tale to scare children into behaving.

The same way elves and many races of the forest are not wary of goblins as they have not posed a threat for them for a very long time.

-In the elven city Greenleaf-

In the demonic forest's central area there is a huge tree that is so unnaturally big that it looks like it was planted by giants or even titans themselves. This tree is the center of both the forest and the elven city that surrounds it.

There's an elven man running very fast, and if a normal person were to look at him running, they would see nothing but a blurry figure pass at a very high speed.

Even though something that would be considered unusual in most places is happening right now, the elven citizens don't seem worried and are doing their own thing as if nothing happened, until one of the elven kids asked an adult.

"Why is that person running so fast?", asked the confused child.

"Oh, it's just one of the king's messengers, they run like that to bring important information to the king." Said an elven woman that seems to be the child's mother.

"Wow! They get to meet the king like the royal Knights, hunters, mages, and archers!! Mom? Do I only have to run real fast to be a royal messenger?", the child said excitedly at a job he believes to be easy and that could actually allow him a common person to personally meet the King.

"Hehe, No silly child, everyone that works for the king must be at least an intermediate-tier 1st class mortal like I told you before, so if you want to work for the king you must work really hard.", the mother laughed her childish cute thoughts of one day working for the king even though they are just common elves.

"REALLY?! Even someone that only runs around to give messages, must be that strong?!", the child was very surprised by his mother's words.

"*sigh* they do much more than just running around.", the mother sighed seeing how simple her child assumed the job was and now understood why her usually lazy son even thought of the job as an option, she doesn't know if she should laugh or cry.

"What?! It's not just that, then it's too much work, I don't want to be a royal messenger anymore.", the child immediately gave upon understanding there's more work involved.

"Feril my child, I don't know when you'll stop being so lazy.... You're such a smart child, why must you waste it being lazy?!", the mother got annoyed at her child's laziness.

After that Feril got scolded for hours because he's too lazy.

-Inside the king's Palace-

While Feril was talking to his mother about working for the king the royal messenger arrived at the palace's main chamber and reported to the king.

Right now in front of the royal messenger, there's the king with an empty throne beside him and four other people, two besides the king and two beside the empty throne.

"Your majesty I have come with an urgent report.", the royal messenger said to the king with a serious and tense expression.

Before the king could say anything one of the men beside him spoke.

"How urgent can it be for you to interrupt us just before we start an important meeting!", the young-looking elf man with who's standing looked annoyed as he said so.

This man is the king's royal advisor, Loyd, just like most elves he's a handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Why do you have to always act so dramatically about everything? Isn't it fine if we haven't started the meeting yet? Besides, there's still a person missing*Sigh*", the one answering Loyd is a black-haired elf with black hair and green eyes, he's Klaus, the best mage under the king and one of the men beside the empty throne.

Hearing Klaus' answer to him, Loyd was dissatisfied and said.

"Not everyone is as simple and lazy as you, even though you're a genius in magic, someone like you would never understand the need of being strict with your subordinates since you're always secluding yourself from everyone else."

Klaus immediately answered back.

"What you're doing is not being strict, you're just being unfair with them because you're in a superior position.... Not much can be expected from someone who's already been corrupted by human nobles."

"You dare compare me with the corrupted and scheming humans! You're already lucky your Majesty was kind enough to let you be here despite your clear disinterest in the well being of this kingdom!! Now you dare offend me! Who's been helping your Majesty dealing with all of it while you lazy out in some dark room instead of working!!!", Loyd who's offended by Klaus' words shouted in anger.

"Please don't make it seem like it's my responsibility to do your work for you, when I was younger and just started working in the palace I should have never helped you... And if you can do better work than me in deciphering the secrets behind the communication sphere, you're welcome to try, I wouldn't mind doing your simple tasks for you.", Klaus said while looking at Loyd with great dissatisfaction and some disgust.

Loyd was very pissed by what Klaus said and had his face red with some veins popping out, but before he could answer he was interrupted.

"Will you two cut it?!?! We are in the presence of the king!! Even more, there's an urgent report brought by our hunters how can you two be so childish, and inconsiderate towards your majesty!! Solve your differences somewhere else!", the one who said this is the man beside Loyd, he's another typical looking elf with blond hair and blue eyes, the difference being that he's wearing glasses, his name is Jin and he's the director of the information gathering division under the king.

Loyd and Klaus have been in bad terms for a very long time and this man Jin is responsible for stopping them from taking things too far.

Understanding that Jin is right both of them bow down to the king and immediately apologize while begging for forgiveness since it's an obvious crime to show disrespect towards the king.

""We apologize, your majesty, please forgive these unruly servants!!""

The king didn't say anything and simply moved his hand to signal that they can get up, and they did so and in their place in silence while looking daggers at each other.

"With this, it's been the 856th time they do this, you two are very lucky your Majesty is so forgiving.", the one saying this wasn't Jin but Sai the man beside Klaus, Sai has blond hair and brown eyes and is currently smiling mischievously.

*Sigh*

The king sigh in distress looking at the scene that has happened too often whenever Klaus and Loyd share the same room.

"Just finish the report, what is this urgent matter.", the king who has a golden hair and red eyes spoke in an imposing way, despite what just happened before his aura has not changed one bit, a man with an aura that makes others feel respect and loyalty towards him, this man is Adrian Van Demonic the second.

Even the messenger that no longer knew how to stand there after the unpleasant scene he just witnessed, now he felt that all he had to do was obey his king and speak, that instant as if he already forget what just happened, the messenger reported to the king with a look of admiration and understanding why this man is the king.

Right now both Loyd and Klaus are fighting with all their strength to stand as a massive pressure is put on them by the aura of Adrian! The amount of effort both are doing to not fall down is very visible as both are trembling non-stop and sweat is evident in their face despite the fact only a few seconds have passed since King Adrian's aura put pressure on them, both of them are aware of the fact their king is being merciful not humiliating them completely in front of a subordinate, cause if the king were to put a little bit of effort into it, he could instantly smash both of them just with the sheer force of his aura.

The problem is that if any of them falls before the messenger leaves the room, they will both lose their positions and status as members of the royal court and be reduced to peasants, that's a punishment they've escaped for a long time because of the king's kindness but it seems this time is everything or nothing.

"Yes, your majesty. The scouting squad that was sent to keep track of the movements of the goblins has found..... A... A... A.... A...", the messenger started stuttering while speaking as if he's afraid to say anymore.

The tension in the room raised and people grew more serious as they waited for the messenger to continue, while both Klaus and Loyd were cursing the messenger in their hearts for making their suffering last longer than necessary.

"It's okay to say it, take a deep breath then speak.", King Adrian said to calm down the obviously scared messenger.

The messenger did as the king said and took a deep breath inhaling air and then exhaling it.

"A fiend! They have found a fiend, your Majesty! The 5th scouting squad under commander Simon Cowell, have found an unconscious fiend in the southeast side of the forest close to goblin town number 19, about half an hour ago!", the messenger said very hurriedly and with a serious expression that also transmitted worry a lot of worry with an obvious hint of fear.

*Bam!*

Both Loyd and Klaus fell on the floor the moment they heard this, not only these two but everyone had a serious and chocked expression, this was something none of them ever expected to hear.

"Are you sure it's a fiend and not a Demon?!?!", at that moment Jin asked the question that was in the mind of everyone in that just heard the report.

"Yes sir! Commander Simon confirmed it himself! His exact words were 'This is without a doubt a fiend, those who've never seen one before will easily confuse them with demons, but a fiend is much much worse than any demon could ever be.', he also said that the fiend we found is extremely weakened to the point any of us could easily kill it.", the messenger continued to report what he knew about the situation.

The room once again fell into silence, none of them knew what to say, then King Adrian spoke.

"Keep it under tight surveillance! Move as many teams as necessary, if it makes any suspicious movements report immediately, and if it poses any danger to the soldiers exterminate it, in case the manpower is not enough to kill it retreat without a second thought! Now you may leave."

Under hearing the king's orders and getting permission to leave, the messenger answered the King with a 'Yes your Majesty' and left, but the king didn't stop there.

"Klaus investigate the source of this and inform me as soon as you find anything you consider relevant! Jin, you'll discover if any of the lords of the demonic forest are aware of this, don't forget to get information from our neighbors from mount crystal! Loyd go to the human kingdom of Palma and wait there for my orders! Sai, you and Dolce will take care of making sure this city is safe and able to resist chaos energy! If necessary work with Klaus!", King Adrian gave orders to everyone one by one without much a thought, this only made his subordinates acknowledge him even more as he was able to be firm and calm in a situation completely out of their expectations.

One by one they accepted their orders and left the king alone.

"I've kept my word and didn't attack without being attacked.... I hope my past promises don't endanger my kingdom and it's people... Am I making the right choice? is it really fine to not attack when I have such a chance?.... What would my father have done?.... I remember that he once told me that you never know if something is good or bad for you, only time can tell, after all, something that seemed good at first can show to be terrifying later and something that seemed bad can end up as a blessing later..... I hope this one is the latter...", King Adrian stayed there sitting in his throne while reflecting on his decisions and what they could mean to his kingdom.