Chapitre 12: Winterseed -XII-

[ Your followers are disturbed ]

[ Thirty of your followers have collapsed due to fear ]

[ Your followers pray for your divine intervention in the matter ]

[ Your followers are escaping towards the north ]

A series of red prompts flashed before Rowan's retina, indicating the precarious situation of his territory.

"What the heck is happening?" Rowan wondered as he jumped out of bed, ready to go outside and see what was going on.

As he reached for the door, he could hear the sounds of hurried footsteps outside his hut as the villagers ran helter-skelter, screaming and praying for help.

Just from the hurried footsteps and the fearful tones of their voices, Rowan could tell that it wasn't a simple situation. He couldn't help but become even more curious to find out what was happening.

Rowan was very close to the door when Brandon and Roland, one of Rowan's new captains, abruptly rushed into his hut with worry etched on their faces.

Roland, middle-aged and tall with a huge body, was imposing. Although Rowan had only known him for less than a week, he had already noticed how strong and reliable he was. Roland is also one of the fastest learners of the [Sword Master] skill.

Right now, he was dressed in a ragged robe, and a small sword was strapped to his waist.

When Roland and Brandon saw that Rowan was okay, they let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Young lord, sorry for barging in without knocking. We were in a hurry to ensure you were safe and forgot to inform you of our entrance. I sincerely apologize," Roland quickly said.

Rowan nodded. He wasn't really concerned about their abrupt entrance; he had already expected the soldiers to storm his hut before heading towards the source of the distress to keep him safe. At this moment, he was more concerned about the source of this commotion. Without wasting time, he sought answers from both of them.

"We don't know what is happening yet, young lord. But two of our captains and their soldiers are headed in that direction to protect the villagers. I also sent two of my men to watch out and report to me immediately," Roland responded promptly.

"We should head there as well. Who knows if it's an ambush by those pathetic Glenwood soldiers?" Rowan suggested, and without waiting for their response, he began heading outside.

"Young lord, it doesn't look good out there. You should stay indoors. We don't want anything happening to you," Roland said, rushing towards Rowan to stop him.

"Roland is right. If they capture you, it will be the end of our village. But if you are alive, our village will have hope of revival," Brandon added.

As Roland and Brandon tried to stop Rowan from leaving, two young soldiers arrived in front of the hut, panting heavily from running.

Roland recognized the two soldiers as part of his squad, sent with the others to scout for danger and report back.

Stepping outside, he asked, "What is the report?"

"Greetings, young lord. Greetings, Capta—" the two young men began, bowing and greeting Rowan with respect.

"Spare the formalities and get on with the report," Rowan said impatiently, prompting them to speak faster.

The young men nodded and began their report, starting with the almost unimportant details of their journey and how they got the information.

It turned out they hadn't reached the location of the chaos before discovering the cause from escaping villagers. No wonder they arrived so early.

"Goblins!!" When Rowan heard the source of the commotion, he couldn't help but yell in shock.

"Yes, my lord, there is only a small group of them, but they are very strong. We fear there is a bigger group ready to strike soon!" the young men said with shaky voices.

"This is very bad! We haven't made enough preparations against those vile little creatures. How are we going to survive this?" Brandon panicked. Just by his tone, one could tell how terrified he was of goblins.

Even Roland, a fearless soldier, had a worried look on his face as he observed Rowan, waiting for his response to the situation.

As for Rowan, he was deep in his thoughts, recalling past events on Earth; back then, goblins were one heck of a monster for an FF-rank territory to handle. In fact, they were nicknamed the doomsday of FF-rank territories by gamers.

Even some F-rank territory lords would find it difficult to handle them!

Goblins are crafty little creatures with strength equivalent to a full-grown adult man. To be precise, one of them could craftily take down someone as huge and strong as Roland!

They are even more hazardous when they are in a group.

Unfortunately and fortunately, Rowan didn't get to face this monster as an FF-rank Lord in the game because his territory was way stronger than that when he started gaming. Even his weakest soldier back then could single-handedly take down a group of fifty goblins.

However, now that he was an FF-rank lord, he couldn't help but imagine the destruction those vile creatures would bring to his territory.

'That won't happen on my watch! Those ugly little bastards will regret attacking my territory today!' Rowan thought.

"We are going there immediately!" he declared with a stern voice.

Brandon and Roland exchanged worried looks. They were aware of the immense danger ahead and didn't want their beloved village head to get involved. However, seeing how determined he was, they couldn't help but let him be while rushing behind him.

As Rowan made his way towards the south where the chaos was taking place, he saw many villagers running in his direction. He saw women running with their babies, teenagers trying to rescue their crushes and escape with them, the elderly moving as fast as they could—everyone was escaping.

With this amount of disorderliness, he would end up losing more followers to other territories than to the goblins.

"Roland, organize your men and station them at the north border to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the village! I will accompany the other captains to take care of the danger in the south while you ensure the escapees are safe."

.....

AUTHOR NOTE: For those questioning why Rowan doesn't use Beast taming. Not that it is BEAST taming, not MONSTER taming