I wondered if I could trust Carlos. He might have given the orders, but also told the parties involved to remain silent about it. In any case, I didn’t have any reason to follow them and I only owe explanation to the people of the fortress if I cause them trouble. Still, that could be a good chance for me. I want to know how those guys operated and how they wanted to cause me trouble.

  “Alright. Lead the way.”

  Carlos looked a bit surprised. He even blinked a few times, and that was enough to tell that he was expecting some resistance when it came to me going with them. I just kept a blank expression the whole time.

  “Okay, follow me, then.”

  Carlos began to lead the way and his friends waited for me to go after Carlos. I just kept my arms crossed and then waited for them to go first. Just like they didn’t like someone with a bow walking behind them, I didn’t want a bunch of guys with swords so close to me.

  Five minutes later, we reached what seemed to be some sort of training ground. It was essentially a field where the grass was pretty short since people trained here and their steps kept the grass short. Everyone that came to this place with us was sitting on the grass or standing with their arms crossed, at least the ones that survived until now.

  The people who were talking amongst each other suddenly stopped when they saw me and I could see their glare, but I just kept looking straight ahead and not minding them. I could tell that most of them already had made up their minds about what kind of person I was.

  “Everyone, I brought Sean to talk with us. Please, let’s not assume anything before we hear things from his perspective, alright?”

  “You can’t ask that from us, Carlos. Some of our allies died, and it is clearly because of him.”

  “No, it was because of their incompetence. They lazily avoided the traps in the terrain by going through the beach. Thanks to that, their smell spread fast thanks to the sea breeze. One wouldn’t have to be a genius to know that the goblins made their fortress at such a distance from the sea to catch fools of guard like that.”

  Things got eerily silent after my words. I could feel the weight of every eye on me, and the tension in the air seemed to grow thicker with each passing second. I couldn’t deny that I was being a bit too harsh, especially to those who had lost their lives, but it was the truth. They had died because of their own careless mistakes. They should have known better than to ignore the obvious dangers of the terrain, but they chose to take the easier route, only to be caught in the goblins’ trap. It wasn’t my fault they underestimated the enemy, or their surroundings.

  I glanced around, seeing some of them clenching their jaws or clenching their fists, clearly torn between their grief and the undeniable logic of my words. The silence hung in the air, like a storm waiting to break. I wasn’t sure whether it was anger, shock, or a mix of both, but I wasn’t about to back down now. I knew I wasn’t wrong.

  “At the same time, you guys decided that you would scout the area ahead. Since things worked well for you all, since you worked in large groups, you probably assumed that sending a group of warriors wouldn’t be a problem. Scouting work isn’t something that people carrying heavy items should do.”

  Honestly, I felt a bit uncomfortable in this place. Why did I have to point out their mistakes? Was it just to shut up their complaints? Even that seemed a bit cheap and more troublesome than it was worth it.

  “Let’s not be harsh, Sean… You are talking about people that died, you know. We all made a bunch of mistakes, so I can understand your point of view. However, pointing that out and blaming the dead won’t solve anything.”

  I decided to stay quiet for some time and see how they were planning to follow things up from here. Just telling everyone that they made mistakes wouldn’t make me accomplish my goal, after all. I needed to get a good read of this group as a whole.

  Some people looked troubled since they could understand my points, others looked even more annoyed. It looked like the second group wanted to dispose of me no matter what, or at least make me unable to do what I wanted. The second option should be more plausible since nothing good would come out if people in our group started to kill each other.

  “Sean told me that the number of enemies was too high for him alone to be of any help to the scouting group and I find his logic sound. If you have anything to ask about that, then you should ask him.”

  “You are a hunter, right? Couldn’t you have at least tried to approach to split the attention of the goblins? That should have increased the chances of the scouting group.”

  “I didn’t know of their plans, so I wasn’t aware if they were being attacked or doing something else. I didn’t know their routes either, so I could have fallen for a trap or caused more trouble for them.”

  “You could have at least checked things and seen what you could have done to help.”

  “You were part of the second scouting team, right? If you weren’t busy tailing me, you could have helped them instead.”

  Once again, an uncomfortable silence fell over the group. The guy who had spoken up was the same one I’d overheard at the restaurant, complaining about the lost chance of becoming the leader of this group. His words had been filled with bitterness, and now, as he stood there without responding, my suspicion seemed to be confirmed. He wasn’t just frustrated with the situation; he had personal stakes in the dynamics of the group.

  I could feel the urge to unmask him, to call him out in front of everyone. Exposing his ambitions and grievances might be the leverage I needed to turn the tide in my favor. If I put him on the spot, it could shift the group’s attention away from my own actions and onto his. The focus would shift, and I could regain control of the talk. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how risky it could be.

  If I called him out and it backfired, it would make me look like I was grasping for an excuse. I’d seem like I was trying to avoid responsibility by digging into his past complaints instead of dealing with the real issue at hand. Worse, he could easily spin it as me lying to deflect blame, making me look like the instigator rather than the one just pointing out the facts. It wasn’t the kind of move that would earn me allies, it would only make me seem petty and opportunistic.

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  I weighed the consequences carefully. The silence dragged on, and I decided to hold my ground for now. There would be other chances to expose weaknesses. For now, I needed to stay focused on the bigger picture.

  “If no one else has anything to ask, then I will. Sean, would you have helped the group if they had informed you of their plans?”

  “No, I would have pointed out the flaws, but I wouldn’t have helped them with their plan. I didn’t know them, so I wouldn’t have any reason to help them with their crazy plan. Besides, did you tell them to go check the fortress first thing in the morning? Were you worried that I would go back on my word and then get in the way of the plan to destroy the fortress?”

  “... No, I told them to go earlier to find the goblins’ actions as much as possible and to find the best time to attack them. I suppose we all made a lot of mistakes for not realizing that each one of us had roles, and it is hard for mages, warriors, and priests to do the job of scouting.”

  The crafting classes wouldn’t do much better as well, but I thought that at least they wouldn’t make a lot of noise and wouldn’t feel overconfident thanks to the extra defense and power that the other classes had.

  Things got silent again, and I took a good look around at those people. Around one third of them seemed really annoyed at my words, like I got in the way of their plans, while the remaining two-thirds agreed with Carlos and realized that blaming a single person for all this mess would be stupid.

  “I was planning to start a poll here to see everyone’s opinions on this matter, but I don’t believe that it is necessary. We don’t have all day, and it is time to plan how we are going to attack the fortress tomorrow. Do any of you have something against this?”

  I was starting to understand how this group worked… It seemed that most people liked and followed Carlos because he was a team player that considered everyone’s opinions. While I thought that such a way of doing things only made some decisions take too long, I could understand that it could be necessary if they wanted to focus on the greater good of the group.

  At the same time, those who wanted to take his place were the ones who were also against me. I didn’t accomplish much so far and I couldn’t be much stronger than them, but it seemed that they could tell that I had the advantage in a fight against them. They didn’t like me or Carlos because we were threats to their goals of taking the reins of things. Without a rival leader and someone who could challenge their will, they could control the group as much as they wanted.

  To me, that was a waste of time. What were they planning to do with that influence? Take over the fortress? It didn’t seem like they had considered things that much further ahead, like the fact that some people of the oldest groups should have survived and could be much stronger than us. I didn’t know if those people would return to check on us, but they certainly would have the power to deal with anyone that causes such troubles.

  “Sean, what can you tell us about the camp? We didn’t obtain much information today, unfortunately. Please, tell us everything. We don’t want to lose any more people.”

  I could only nod silently. I didn’t want innocent people to die either. I wasn’t terrible enough that I would risk letting such people die so that I could gain more experience and reap more benefits. In the end, I told them everything that I knew. About their defenses, the types of monsters and their weapons. How things looked inside and that I had found at least one goblin that seemed stronger than the others. According to the crystal, that was a boss monster. It was easy to tell how troublesome the creature could be given that title alone.

  Thanks to Sean’s explanations, everyone began to focus on the task ahead and then forgot for a moment what happened earlier. If they wanted to avoid more deaths, then everyone would need to work hard, after all.

  “I see… I don’t think that we can avoid what needs to be done. The goblins are smart and they probably will remember this if we let some of them live. I don’t like this, but even the goblin children and women will need to be put down if they can use weapons as well.”

  A lot of people lowered their gazes. Thanks. I was expecting to hear a lot of people complaining, but surprisingly enough, no one went against that. They already lost some of their allies, and they could tell what would happen if the goblins could grow and multiply. It would be more trouble to them and to the next wave of prisoners.

  At that moment, I realized what I hadn’t considered. The next wave of prisoners would be arriving in less than twenty days. That meant more bodies, more people who would need to be accommodated, and, in turn, more tension. I wasn’t planning on sticking around for that long. There was a whole mess of things I needed to sort out, and staying here would be a bother. But that raised another question. Would we even be allowed to stay behind when that time came?

  I glanced around at the group, wondering if any of them had thought about the influx of new arrivals. After all, there weren’t many rooms available for rent. The fortress wasn’t exactly built to house a constantly growing population, and I doubted they’d have the space, or the patience, to accommodate everyone, especially when tensions were already running high.

  The thought of having to leave before that wave of prisoners arrived was appealing. But where would I go? What kind of chaos would ensue with all the new arrivals, and how would that affect our current situation?

  “We don’t have the numerical advantage. They outnumber us five to one, so we will need some other weapons against those numbers. We have magic and a lot of healers, so we can win a war of attrition, but our goal here is to not lose a single person and then decrease the number of enemies, it will be fine if we retreat to finish off the enemies later if things become too dicey.”

  I wanted to sigh. As expected, Carlos was very cautious. Still, I couldn’t complain since I wouldn’t be the one suffering. The frontline would and they would be useful to me during that time… I could at least do what needs to be done to make them survive.

  “Do you have any idea, Sean? You are the one who has the most experience dealing with them. What can we do to minimize our losses?”

  I crossed my arms and went silent for a moment. I never fought in groups, so I never considered that. Not many ideas were coming to mind, though.

  “If you want to decrease the losses no matter what, you can use money for that.”

  “Use money?”

  “Yeah, there are those things that people used to clean their weapons. They smell like they can burn well. Use those alongside the mages and that should make a lot of fire spread more efficiently.”

  Carlos held his chin while considering that. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing mages in action, but for some reason, I assumed that they could do that, to use fire magic.

  “All the warriors have shields, but if you make spears and assume a defensive formation, you can still cause a lot of damage while protecting yourselves.”

  “We are going to do that tonight. We already discussed this.”

  “Really, I guess you guys can do it if you try. Finally, even if you don’t know how to use it well, if one hundred people used bows at the start of the battle, the goblin will, at the very least, suffer a lot of damage. Go buy some bows and arrows.”