Goblin Kingdom (Part 3)

Volume 4: Chapter 272 - The Three-Country Alliance (3/3)

The soldiers that have been driven into the proud fortress of the Three-Country Alliance, the Three Hawk FortressCruz Tiga Rus were all wounded. They have been fighting all this time against soldiers stronger than them individually while also being numerically disadvantaged. Naturally, the burden on every one of them was that much greater.

Despite that they continued to fight because of the man called Aldur.

He had a long, slender, and well-proportioned physique, but he was by no means a handsome man. He had brown hair and a pair of stiff and slackless eyebrows that radiated his strong will.

It was thanks to this man that the three-country alliance was able to exist this long despite being so helpless, yet it was also this same man who was currently in a predicament.

He paced about aimlessly in the fortress, his eyes darting here and there, but only a few called out to him. That was not because they feared this commander of theirs, but because they knew that he was deep in thought.

Of course, despite wanting to be considerate, they still had to salute to him when they happened into him for manner's sake, but they would naturally move out of his sight.

Aldur was grateful that they were so considerate, but it was precisely that that made him wryly smile.

"There are times when I want to drink with someone too, you know."

Aldur muttered as though he was talking about someone else.

He made his way for one of the rooms allocated to the commanders of the army.

"I'm entering."

He didn't bother waiting for a reply when he opened the door. On the bed was a man embracing his great sword while seated.

"You have business with me, Commander?"

The way he looked insisted that he was a veteran warrior. One of the holy knights, symbols of the late Germion Kingdom. A man who was once extolled as a hero. But now his eyes were dark and gloomy.

"Sometimes, I need a drink too."

"...I see."

And that sharp tongue he once had was now dull. Gulland quietly nodded.

Aldur sat himself on one of the chairs in the room, and took the liberty to open a bottle and start drinking. With just two men in the room, there was no one here to admonish him.

He drank the grape wine straight from the bottle, then handed the same bottle to Gulland as he wiped his mouth.

"I'll take you up on that."

Gulland didn't hesitate to receive the bottle, and then just Aldur did, he drank straight from it, then wiped his mouth.

"...They're strong."

After drinking like that for a while, Aldur said that out of the blue.

"...Yeah."

Aldur's drunken eyes could still vividly recall the sight of those goblins wreaking havoc in the battlefield, while Gulland nodded without the slightest change in his expression.

Aldur wryly smiled when he saw that.

"As expected of a hero, you're different from me. Perhaps you're the kind of guy who burns brighter the stronger the enemy?"

Drunk, Aldur said those words sarcastically, but Gulland just quietly listened, then he emptied the grape wine and sighed with a breath that stank of liquor.

"I... Couldn't protect anyone. Not my beloved wife, not the country I swore fealty to, not my subordinates who idolized me, not even the friends that offered me their friendship."