Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

"As expected of Rena. Your gut feelings are incredible as always," One of the Valkyries, Emilia, said in admiration as she stared at the red goblin corpses and the goblin champion's corpse.

"Yeah, Surena. My bad, it turns out that your concern is right," Jean apologized to Surena as he scratched his neck.

"It's fine," Surena replied to him, but her gaze stuck to the figure that reacted to the goblins' unexpected ambush first.

"That cloaked person, who is he?" Surena motioned with her head, pointing at the person talking to Lyan.

"Hm? The one beside the rookie? If I'm not mistaken, the guildmaster said that they are the staff sent by the guild to assist us. Well, you saw how he easily slashed the knee pits of the goblin champion, right? His skills are the real deal," (Jean)

"And that rookie. He faces the goblin champion head-on without giving any effort to avoid his attacks. He got quite the guts unlike his appearance, don't you think?" Emilia said with a chuckle.

"You're right. I wonder who he actually is," (Alice)

"....." (Surena)

After finished harvesting the goblins' ears, the right group went back to the place before regrouping with the left group in mind. When they reached the gathering point, they happen to arrive together with the left group.

"Yo! You guys got more golds (Goblin Ears) as well!?" Jean asked them.

"Yeah, we got quite a lot. But the damage is considerable as well," The Brave Rings' leader shows them red goblin champion's big ears.

"A goblin champion variant!?" (Jean)

"Yeah. And three of them at the same time, together with a large group of red goblins and red hobgoblins. Since they appeared so suddenly, and their unexpectedly individual strength, we got quite the damage. We managed to have no casualties, but there are lots that got injured. 3 of us lost their arm, 2 lost their leg," The Brave Rings' leader said grimly.

(So no one died, huh... As expected of Mythril-ranked parties, I guess...) (Lyan)

"That's quite the luck you have there... We only got one goblin champion, but it got dealt with rather quickly. The remaining are the horde of red goblins and red hobgoblins, but we dealt with them easily as well. Almost none of us are injured," (Jean)

"That's good news. Now we'll just have to proceed to the cavern, the chance of having the goblins ambushing us from inside and outside the cavern is now low. We'll have the injured and several others watch out the outside and rest, while the others advance to the cavern and quickly destroy the lair. Any objections or questions?" Asked the Brave Rings' leader.

"The scouts of your group. Have they returned yet?" (Surena)

"The scouts? They haven't... But they should be returning about now, though... Don't tell me..." (Brave Ring's Leader)

"They're dead, probably. But we don't have the time to find their corpses. You there, show him the corpse," (Surena)

!?!?!?!?

Before they leave their battlefield before, Surena asked Jean to have one of his men to bring the hobgoblin assassin's corpse to show it to the Brave Rings' leader.

Looking at the corpse of a hobgoblin wearing an assassin's attire, the Brave Rings' leader narrowed his eyes.

"So this is the goblin assassin that the guild's scouts mentioned, huh... I guess letting the scouts disperse to scout the perimeter is a mistake, huh... The total of scouts who came together with us are 9 people, and none of them seem to return. So we've lost 9 people, huh..." The Brave Rings' leader muttered.

The scouts are mercenaries that are proficient in scouting and nimble in movement. But unlike others, their combat strength is not as high as theirs.

Since the scouts are came from all of the parties except of the Valkyries, all of them are their friends and their comrades-in-arms. The mercenaries can't believe that their friends from their party just died. The Brave Rings' leader also grieved for that fact, but he understand that this is not the time to grieve.

"Take caution! Be wary of your surroundings! We'll put more people to guard the cavern's entrance. Except for the Valkyries, each party must leave four people to guard the entrance and the injured. The rest will continue to advance inside the cavern, is everyone fine with that?" (Brave Rings' Leader)

The leaders of the other parties agreed with a nod.

"How about you, Rookie? What do you think?" The Brave Rings' Leader asked Lyan.

Lyan shifted his gaze towards the middle-aged man. His eyes are sharp, his face is grim, and his body is big.

"I heard that you're the one who noticed the goblin champion's presence first before the others. You're the one who killed this hobgoblin assassin as well. What do you think? Should we leave more people outside, or should we enter together?" (The Brave Rings' Leader)

"Hm..." Lyan gives a thought a moment and nods.

"I guess four people each party are enough. More people might make it disadvantageous for the ones that advance inside the cavern, after all," (Lyan)

"I see. What do you think, Small General?" The Brave Rings' Leader shifted his gaze towards The Valkyrie's Small General.

"I agree with him. Let's not waste our time, the sun's going to set soon," (Alica)

"You're right. Let's go!" (Brave Rings' Leader)

Following the strategy they just discussed, they left a total of 17 people at the entrance including the injured. The cloaked group that known by the elite group as the guild's extermination staff didn't leave any of their members at the entrance. Considering the amount of injured and the fact that the 9 scouts got wiped out, it's a bare minimum of people to guard the entrance.

In case anything happened, one of them has a notifying flute ready to notify the ones advancing inside the cavern.

"Rookie. Since you're not any part of any parties, I'll at least leave it to your decision whether you want to join the advance team or will you guard the cavern entrance with the others," (Brave Rings' Leader)

"I'm going to-" (Lyan)

"He's going with us," Surena cut his words.

(Eh?) (Lyan)

"Eh?" (Brave Rings' Leader)

"She's right. We'll need him inside, so he's going with us," Alice followed Surena's words.

"I-Is that so? Then forget my words, Rookie. Sorry for that," (Brave Rings' Leader)

The Brave Rings' Leader then left and went to the front of the rows.

(Eh...? I didn't even get to choose my own choice?) (Lyan)

"Sorry, Rookie. But it looks like our leader doesn't have any intention of having you lazing around at the entrance," Another member of the Valkyries, Emilia, said as she tapped Lyan's back.

"Seems so," Lyan replied with a wry smile.

"Well, isn't it fine? You'll get more share of goblins' ears if you join the advance team, after all. You're here for gold as well, right?" (Alice)

(Not really. I'm here because of the Madam unnecessarily mentioned my name to the guildmaster) (Lyan)

"You're right," (Lyan)

"Hm~ Is that so~" Emilie uttered with an amused smile on his face.

"There's a passage here! We're entering!" A voice of a member of the Brave Rings' sounded.

"I guess it's time. Let's go, Rookie," (Surena)

Just like the plan, they entered the passage and went straight to the goblin's lair while leaving the 17 people at the entrance. Along with the subjugation of the lair, nothing unexpected like what happened outside the lair occurred.

There are only five goblin champions inside the lair that greeted them, but none of them are variants. The Crimson Talon's leader, Jean, killed one of the goblin champions alone, while the other four got killed by the Valkyries and the leaders of the Brave Rings and the Golden Thrill.

Lyan only assists them from behind, and prevents the goblins and hobgoblins from disrupting the flow of battle while observing their battle.

It's already night, and it's already dark outside when they finished killing all of the goblins inside the goblins' lair. But unlike the lair that Lyan subjugated with the Madam and the others, the treasury room of the current goblin lair only has average weapons inside it.

There is nothing inside the breeding room of the goblin lair as well. So the only things they acquired from subjugating the lair are the goblins' ears and a decent amount of weapons.

Since traveling back to Arkansas city might be too dangerous because of the distance, they decided to camp inside the cavern with several mercenaries assigned to watch over the cave entrance and the passage towards the goblin's lair. There are some beasts like boars and rabbits inside the lair that looks like the source of the goblins of the lair eat, using them, the elite team got their dinner prepared.

"So I got the first shift, huh... Well, it's not like I'm capable of sleeping soundly in a place like this anyway, I guess," Lyan uttered under his breath.

(To think that the subjugation inside the lair will be so anticlimactic... Who would have thought, huh...) (Lyan)

____________________________________________________________________________

Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore

Occupation: Gold-ranked Mercenary

Money: 49,722,600 Elnes

Weapon: None

Equipment: Black leather cloak, One-handed Sword

Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, Shadow Hobgoblin, Papilio Slime, Galewing Butterfly, Rock Golem

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