Green Monster Epic

"Chieftain, everything is proceeding according to plan."

The middle-aged hobgoblin Oliver, standing before Allen, bore the same face as the Oliver in the town hall, but his expression was markedly different.

Before Allen's desk, the valuable magical necklace that Moriarty had gifted to Oliver glinted with a cold luster, illuminating Allen's sharp eagle eyes.

"Well, then you can focus on 'recovering' from your illness!"

Picking up the necklace from the desk, Allen casually tossed it to Oliver. He didn't really care about such trinkets. As long as Oliver was clean, efficient, and sincere in his work, he wouldn't begrudge the youngsters a few benefits.

"Yes."

Catching the necklace Allen threw, Oliver responded with a mixture of trepidation and joy, bowing deeply.

In the following days, Moriarty and his dozen or so companions visited Oliver repeatedly, only to be turned away each time. Clearly, Oliver was deliberately avoiding them. The more time that passed, the more anxious Furen and the others became. Every day that passed increased the risk of their northern city's affairs being exposed.

Moriarty was incandescent with rage. Not only had he spent a considerable sum, but he had also confidently assured Furen and his group just days ago that everything was settled. Who would have thought this greenskin would suddenly pull such a stunt, slapping Moriarty's old face and destroying his reputation!

"...Sir, what do we do now?"

Furen leaned in behind Moriarty and whispered the question.

"You ask me what to do? What else can we do?"

Moriarty roared, agitated, "If we don't get the grain back this time, we're all doomed!!!"

"We'll just block his door today. I don't believe Oliver won't come out!"

"..."

The goblin warrior guarding the town hall couldn't bear it any longer. He slammed his heavy battleaxe twice heavily on the ground, creating a dull thud: "This is an important area of my fortress, no noise allowed!!!"

"Anyone who dares to disrupt the normal activities of my tribe will be regarded as an enemy and dealt with according to the rules of my tribe..."

The goblin guard's cold and forceful methods finally restored peace to the small square outside the town hall. However, Moriarty and his companions did not give up, still hiding on the second floor of the tavern across from the hall, staring intently at the crowds entering and exiting the hall.

"Open the door!! Open the door!!"

"Boss, we're here to buy rice!! You're not going to refuse business, are you...?"

In front of a closed grain store in the western district of Nasir Fortress, a noisy crowd of a dozen gnoll females carrying old rice sacks or woven baskets had gathered. Some waved their fists and pounded continuously on the heavy door panels, while others shouted impatiently.

In the past two days, the grain stores scattered throughout the residential areas of Nasir Fortress had been closing one after another. As the grain reserves of some families in the city were depleted and they prepared to buy rice, this situation gradually spread among many residents of the city.

As time went on for another two days, more families ran out of food, and the problem could no longer be concealed. In a wilderness tribe that had not completely emerged from ignorance, the common tribesmen generally did not have much stored grain. Gnoll and troll families that could store a month's worth of grain were considered good at managing their households, while more families only had a few days' worth of rations.

After all, many residents did not have stable jobs and would often take their wages after finishing a day's work and buy a few days' worth of rations. In addition, with the current stable supply of food in the grain stores, the natives, lacking foresight, had not thought about buying more grain to store, etc...

"Smash it!! If we don't smash it open, my family will have to go hungry again today!!!"

"Smash it!!"

Someone began to incite the crowd, and soon the situation became uncontrollable. As the first person smashed a door panel, the other gnolls who followed immediately swarmed up without any scruples, and in no time at all, they smashed open the door of the grain store.

What came into view was an empty granary, a mess of empty grain bags, and two or three rats scurrying around after being disturbed.

When the grain stores in the city had been gradually closing, there had already been rumors that the tribe was short of grain. Everyone didn't believe it at first, after all, there were so many merchants coming and going, as long as you had money, wouldn't buying grain be just a few words away?

But now that everyone saw such a scene in the grain store, even if it was just a rumor, they would probably have to take it seriously!!

Soon, a dozen grain stores in the western district were smashed open one after another, without exception. The almost identical situation in the stores confirmed the previous rumors. This commotion also affected the territory of the trolls in the eastern district. As the situation from the eastern district spread among the residents, this originally peaceful city finally began to experience unrest.

"I ask you, where are the Jadrell people!!!"

Maggot Eye, having smashed everything he could around him, exuded a gloomy aura, glaring at the group of trembling gnoll chieftains below, waiting for them to give him an answer.

"I put him in charge of the grain. Where did the grain go???"

"Speak!!! Did you all, you bunch of rice buckets, embezzle it all into your family's pockets???"

The tribe was in turmoil, and some people dared to rob in broad daylight, right under Maggot Eye's nose. Even if Maggot Eye didn't care about the lives of the dirty ghosts at the bottom, this matter could shake his rule, so he had to personally ask a few questions.

This question, and then an investigation, revealed the things hidden inside, making Maggot Eye wish he could tear the bunch of bastards apart and swallow them into his stomach.

The entire tribe's strategic reserve for a year, all embezzled by this group of rats. When Maggot Eye led people to inspect the dozen or so huge granaries, he opened them and saw that they were empty, with not even a few rats. In his anger, several unfortunate servants guarding the warehouse were slapped into meat paste by Maggot Eye on the spot.

Although Maggot Eye was angry, he also understood that such a huge amount of grain reserves could not be easily embezzled by a mere grain supervisor, nor could it be done in a year or two. Behind this Jadrell guy, there were likely more rats hidden.

It was just that this bastard Jadrell had suddenly disappeared, and even the two previous grain supervisors before him had also disappeared, leaving Maggot Eye temporarily unable to investigate further even if he wanted to.

The more this was the case, the more serious the situation was likely to be. At this time, Maggot Eye looked at the group of seemingly timid bastards below, all with questioning and suspicious expressions.

"Leader, I heard that the troll grain supervisor in the east, Ms. Furen, also seems to have disappeared. Perhaps these two did it together!!"

Someone hid in the crowd and spoke weakly, clearly, in terms of shirking responsibility and shifting attention, the gnoll chieftains here were all experts.

"The troll tribe in the east is just like our tribe, the tribe's reserve grain has also been emptied!!"

"Serves them right!! Let the bastards starve to death!!"

At least, after hearing this news, Grubeye's rage showed signs of stopping, and he muttered with a hint of schadenfreude.

"Get out of here!!! Give you one day to find that bastard Jader! Otherwise, I'll use that thing on your shoulders as a chamber pot!!!"

He had vented what he needed to vent. He couldn't really kill these guys in front of him, otherwise the tribe would be even more chaotic. The most urgent task now was not only to have people find Jader, the instigator, but also to take the opportunity to knock on the doors of these guys' families, squeeze out some food to appease the starving, useless rabble at the bottom.

The crowd quickly dispersed, no one wanting to face the ferocious leader's anger, fearing that they might lose their lives by accident.

The food shortage problem was rapidly expanding. Although the middle and high-ranking trolls and gnolls had taken out some food to put on the market, it was just a drop in the bucket with hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

At the same time, the Greenfield Tribe in the direction of Fort Mure suddenly blocked the passage between residents. Except for merchant caravans holding passes, even adventurers were temporarily restricted from moving freely through the Chasm's Bottleneck.

Helpless, Grubeye and Tim, the legendary elder who was in charge of the Snowme Tribe's overall situation at the moment, could only turn their attention to the passing caravans, half-coercing and half-begging them to cede some of their grain to help the tribe tide over the current difficulties.

But strangely, the seemingly numerous passing caravans mostly carried only enough grain for their own teams' consumption, and the amount they could cede to the gnolls and trolls was very small.

But thinking about it, it was not surprising. After all, the food supplies for the three powerful tribes of Fort Mure and Fort Nasir were a big business in themselves, and trading companies without a certain scale and background certainly couldn't handle it. Because the profits were substantial, the trading companies established by the three tribes usually cooperated with several large trading companies to supply food on a long-term and stable basis. Even if other trading companies wanted to get involved, they simply couldn't under the manipulation of those with ulterior motives.

Originally, if there was no stable trading channel, the profit of bulk commodities like grain was not very attractive to ordinary long-distance trading caravans, because grain was about quantity, long-term stability, and accumulating small profits.

Over time, basically no other trading companies would consciously transport large quantities of grain to the Cator Mountains, so even super-large trading companies as powerful as the Oakleaf Merchant Company and the Nature Merchant Company could not procure enough grain for hundreds of thousands of people to use in a short period of time.

Fulen and Jader, the two supervisors in charge of managing the food of the two races, ultimately failed to escape capture. The group of trolls and gnolls who had been waiting in Fort Mure in despair were caught by their colleagues who had been waiting for a long time the moment they passed through the Chasm's Bottleneck and returned to Fort Nasir.

Without giving Fulen and Jader any chance to explain, dozens of solemn-looking, cold-eyed troll and gnoll warriors immediately surrounded them from all directions when they saw their targets. Sharp daggers coated with deadly poison were hidden in the shadows of their bodies.

The first to notice something was wrong was the troll Moriti. Being slightly older, he walked the slowest, so he fell behind the group, but he also discovered the figures of the warriors rapidly approaching them. But before he could issue a warning, a sharp dagger had already cut his throat. In the short moment of his fall, in his pupils that were gradually losing their light, he finally saw the familiar figure of a colleague who had once raised a glass with him.

"Ah..."

"What are you going to do..."

The shouts and rebukes of Fulen, Jader, and others were drowned out by the chilling murderous intent. The passersby around them fled in panic at the sight of this scene. Soon, the main entrance leading to the canyon was immersed in a pool of blood.

The suddenly appearing troll and gnoll warriors acted very quickly. In just a few minutes, they slaughtered more than a dozen influential leaders in the two races. In order not to leave any survivors, they even made sure to add another stab to the vital points of the corpses lying in the pool of blood.

Soon someone came to clean up the battlefield and threw the dozen or so corpses onto a cart that had been prepared in advance, slowly transporting it towards the city. Before long, the bloodstains at the city gate were also swept and washed away. As the traces left by the passersby and livestock on the ground increased, no one knew what had happened here earlier.

In the end, when the news of Fulen and others' deaths reached the ears of the tribal leaders such as Grubeye and Tim, it was another story: Moriti, the former food supervisor, and other corrupt leaders tried to bribe the city gate guards to escape the fortress, but were finally intercepted by the garrison commander and his men when they left the city. In the end, Moriti and more than a dozen others who resisted stubbornly were all beheaded by the brave warriors of the two races.

After that, there was the purge of the families of the corrupt leaders such as Moriti and Fulen. The amount of grain and money seized was immeasurable, which eased the food crisis in Fort Nasir.

Account books that had been prepared long ago were searched from the homes of these dead people and sent to Grubeye and Tim. Looking at the string of numbers of income and expenditure, Grubeye, who was originally a little relieved, became furious again and smashed the utensils beside him that had just been repaired.

The grain hoarded from the homes of these few corrupt elements alone was enough to slightly alleviate the food shortage problem in the city. At least the tribesmen at the bottom would no longer go hungry for two or three days, which shows how huge the money these guys had embezzled was.

Of course, what was seized from these families was more of high-value luxury items such as money and jewelry. In the past, Grubeye might have been secretly pleased, and his collection would have increased, but now these dead objects were of no use to the crisis facing the tribe, which really made people unhappy.

More than a thousand people from a dozen families, including infants less than a month old, were not left alive. They were cut in half in front of the fortress gate. The corpses of Moriti, Fulen, and others were directly hung above the city gate for passing merchants and residents to watch, which shows the pain and anger in the hearts of Grubeye and Tim, the tribal rulers.

At the same time, Grubeye and the other high-ranking officials did not hide their crimes, and they were all posted, which shifted most of the people's dissatisfaction. In addition, the bloody means of dealing with these guys temporarily cleared up the chaotic scene in Fort Nasir and restored peace.