Chapter 286: Kolzim

P...prey?

Zandia narrowed her eyes. Though she and her fellow Centaurs were in a rather miserable situation, they weren’t so weak that just anyone could provoke them—and certainly not a goblin!

How dare these filthy, ugly little things try to walk all over them?

But speaking of filth, Zandia couldn’t help but carefully size up the goblin again. This little one was different from any goblin she had ever seen or heard of. Even here in the swamp, he looked clean and tidy, with only mudstains on his clothes and boots.

Such cleanliness was absolutely rare among the goblin race, and not even common among bear goblins or earth goblins.

Of course, Zandia wouldn’t know that in Ron’s party—which included a Half-Elf and a Vampire Descendant—excessive filth and mess were absolutely forbidden. Forget Delaford; even Sera was occasionally ordered to bathe. Operating on the principle of ’Since I had to take a bath, I’m going to make someone else take one too,’ the bath-hating Delaford had no hope of escaping Sera’s clutches.

To Sera, the goblin’s height and weight were no different from a child’s. Delaford’s attempts at resistance were limited to biting her hand, and such ineffective struggles naturally couldn’t change the outcome: the Goblin Hunter would be pinned to a wooden board by the sturdy Sera and scrubbed clean.

The goblin had once protested to the others, "She’s basically scrubbing me like a piece of laundry!" But his request for a replacement was rejected by everyone else. As long as Delaford wasn’t prepared to bathe himself, Sera would have to do it for him.

Sera, for her part, quite enjoyed it. But the goblin, who was suffering terribly, was forced to change his nature and start washing himself, lest he one day lose a layer of skin on that washboard. This change in Delaford’s behavior left Sera quite dejected for a long time.

And that was precisely why Zandia, the Centaur leader, was so surprised to see such a clean goblin now.

"Easy, easy!" Seeing their hostile stance, Ron quickly raised both hands to show he meant no harm. "We’re not here to fight. There’s no need to be so tense."

"Who are you?" Zandia didn’t let down her guard. Having suffered one blow after another, she trusted no one. "Bandits from around here? Robbers?"

"We’ll give you nothing but blood and death!"

"Listen to you," Aive snorted. "In the current Delusional Land, you’re the outsiders, understand? We’re the authorities here!"

Ron smiled and nodded, looking up at the Centaurs who stood several heads taller than him. "As my companion said, I am the Lord of Delusional Land. So, I should be the one asking the questions: who are you?"

"Just because you say you are?" A brawny Centaur behind Zandia laughed mockingly. "By that logic, I could say I’m from the Fairy Wilderness!"

"Do you have any proof?" Zandia shot her kinsman a harsh glare before turning back to Ron. "We came from the Gobi. We’ve never heard of any Lord here."

"From the Gobi? Did you pass through the town of Fromm?" Ron asked curiously. "Didn’t Mayor Viktor mention this? I was appointed by him."

"But that makes sense. After all, as you can see, this place hasn’t been fully developed yet, and I haven’t held an inauguration ceremony or anything. It’s normal that he wouldn’t have mentioned it to you."

In this world, the power of law was no greater than the power of tradition. If a faction had de facto control over a region, others couldn’t gain recognition and support with just a letter of appointment or similar documents.

"Come to think of it, that fat man did mention someone here who could take us in. Could that be you?" Zandia looked Ron up and down again. "We saw a trading post and a village on our way here, but our enemies are hunting our tribe, so we didn’t dare get close."

"Then I must thank you all for not dragging my domain into your conflict," Ron said, nodding at them. "We’ve been away visiting the southern city-states these past few days and weren’t in the territory. I would have been very regretful if my friends in charge had been unfortunately caught in the crossfire."

’Zandia couldn’t figure out what this human meant by "regretful." Was it concern for his own people? Or that he would have been forced to meet them on the battlefield?’

’He looked about the same age as her. The Centaur leader guessed it was the former—after all, his smile was very friendly.’

Centaurs were relatively keen in their Perception of other creatures’ emotional shifts. After confirming that the other party truly held no hostility, the vast majority of them put away their weapons.

All except for the Centaur who had spoken mockingly just moments before.

"Zandia, you can’t trust them! Didn’t you hear the human? He’s connected to that smiling tiger, Victor!" This Centaur turned to Zandia with a grim expression. "To this day, we still don’t know what role the town of Fromm played in the Split Tooth Tribe’s sneak attack on us!"

"They were likely accomplices, and so are these people!"

"Uncle Kolzim, don’t you think you’re being overly tense?" Zandia frowned. "Victor may have rejected us, but he was just looking out for his own town. Why would he collude with those bandits from the Split Tooth Tribe?"

"This Split Tooth Tribe you’re talking about... you don’t mean a Beastman Tribe from the Gobi Desert, do you?" Victoria suddenly spoke up. "I served as one of Mayor Viktor’s guards for many years. I can guarantee you he would never collude with Beastmen."

"Even other Beastmen despise the Beastmen of the Gobi Desert as savages."

"That’s true..." Zandia nodded. "Uncle Kolzim, you see? They’re saying the same thing. They probably aren’t colluding with the Split Tooth Tribe."

"Besides, if they really were in cahoots with the Beastmen, and they’ve already found us, then could the Split Tooth Tribe be far behind...?"

Before Zandia could even finish her sentence with a questioning tone, a thick stench of filth and blood, carried on the wind, charged into the nostrils of the Centaurs and Ron’s party like a cavalry assault. Close behind it came a cacophony of footsteps, voices, and battle cries!

"The Split Tooth Tribe! It’s the Beastmen!"

Zandia’s expression changed in an instant. Her kinsmen also fell into a panic. Although they barely managed to assemble under Zandia’s command, even Ron could see they were only pretending to be calm.

"They’re close enough for us to smell them!" one Centaur cried in terror. "What do we do? We can’t beat them!"

"Then we’ll have to fight them to the death!" the Centaur called Kolzim roared, glaring fiercely at Ron and his companions. "Zandia, don’t say I didn’t warn you as your uncle!"

"How could there be such a coincidence? It’s undeniable now—they’re the ones who led the Beastmen here!"

"Then... then what should we do now?" Faced with the sudden crisis, Zandia was at a complete loss. "Uncle Kolzim, I... I need your help!"

"Don’t you worry, niece. Leave this to me," Kolzim said with a confident smile. "Before your father passed, he entrusted you to my care precisely for situations like this!"

The brawny Centaur’s human torso brandished a Longsword and a round shield, while his equine body reared up on its hind legs. "Warriors! First, follow me and kill these collaborators! We’ll make an example of them!"