Chapter 62: Regicide

Sahusa the Great was not having a good time, contrary to popular belief.

It was not the fact that he was named after a myth of his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, or that the name automatically implied that he was a goblin ladykiller or that he had five arms. Of course, those made him irrationally angry as well.

But what really irked him was the bickering of the five goblin tribe leaders in front of him, which had been going on for nearly five days in a row now. And he, as the Goblin King, had to sit here and listen for hours and hours on end while surviving individual meetings with each of the tribe leaders in order to hold everything together.

King Sahusa sighed. It’s only been a year since I took over, and yet everything has gone to waste. Sahusa kind of regretted assassinating his father now. He had always thought that ruling as a king was the ultimate goal, but here he was, forced to slave away and listen to old farts grumble and argue with each other.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Sahusa was enraged now, his bottled fury bursting forwards as he stood up.

An arrogant hobgoblin crossed his arms, flexing his muscles and the skulls mounted on his shoulder.

Another scrawny old tribe leader pointed out.

A third tribe leader spoke.

Osir grunted as he slammed his fist on the table, causing the entire wooden surface to reverberate

Sahusa interrupted the conversation, raising a scepter in his hand that was completely covered in dense engraving. The scepter seemed to amplify his voice as it glowed. The tribe leaders tried to talk but realised that their voices could not be heard by anyone but themselves.

King Sahusa put his foot down, before storming off out of the meeting hut

He grumbled to himself as two servants immediately fell into line behind him, keeping pace as he pushed aside the cloth marking the entrance to the meeting hut, and stepped out.

The meeting hut was positioned on a cliff overlooking the valley between to Culdao Peaks mountains. He stormed down a stone path that was carved out of the valley’s slope, leading to a small palace that was embedded into the mountain in a large alcove.

Sahusa sighed loudly, stopping to take a look at the valley. The goblin city was large but was mostly made of mud, wood and stone mined from the mountains. They were dispersed through the long valley save for a central market area, where he could see thousands of goblins clamouring for the latest meat or cave carrots and mushrooms to eat, nearly trampling over each other or fighting non-stop.

His warriors were working around the clock to maintain the peace, but even he could tell that exhaustion would soon hit them. This is not sustainable; I must find a solution immediately.

King Sahusa’s eyes widened in shock. “Quickly assemble all my warriors for battle! We must-“ His words were caught in his throat as he could already hear the cries of his servants and the sounds of metal clashing echoing through the stone palace. “We must defend our territory, now!”

“Y-yes sir!” The warrior scampered off, while Sahusa walked into a separate room, his personal armoury where his father’s armour rested – a full steel armour stolen from a young human noble, complete with an arming sword.

Before he could put it on, however, the door to the armoury was blasted open, with more than fifteen goblin warriors under Osir’s command entering. They immediately tackled the king to the ground in a rush, pinning down and restraining him.

Sahusa shot back as he was forced to kneel on the floor.

Osir let out a hearty chuckle.

Sahusa was about to retort before Osir delivered a kick, slamming the jaw of Sahusa with force.

Sahusa struggled against his restraints as he was dragged unceremoniously through the hallway. The bodies of his servants and loyal warriors were strewn across the palace’s many corridors, the stench of blood and meat filling the air as more and more rebel goblin warriors entered the palace. The rebel warriors did not seem shocked by the turn of events, raiding and pillaging the palace and digging out all the valuable goods.

Osir scoffed as he marched ahead of his warriors.

They soon reached the balcony, where the true scale of the devastation caused by the rebels was made obvious to King Sahusa. Tens of thousands of goblins were embroiled in fighting and fleeing, with the battle raging all across the entire length of the valley. Everything was being pillaged while the loyal warriors of Sahusa’s tribe continued to fight for their lives.

The rebel warriors strung Sahusa up onto a pole, hoisting him up high over the valley. Osir grabbed the sceptre handed to him by a warrior before activating it and amplifying his voice over the entire valley, echoing off the slopes and mountains.

[] Osir declared through the sceptre, shouting over the land. The rebel soldiers cheered in response as they continued to fight, while the loyal warriors’ morale began to deplete rapidly as they saw their king captured.

The common goblins were also quickly surrendering, unwilling to fight any longer to the death against a losing cause. What reason was there to defend for a king that has already been captured?

[] Osir finished his speech.

A warrior asked, earning a slap to the face.

Osir ordered them to drag Sahusa down from the pole. Sahusa smirked as he knelt on the ground.