Year 5009 after the system day 72 of the flowering season at the goblin kingdom.

"Call Zrix here," one of the small goblins who'd do any of the biddings of the goblin king ran in search of the goblin lord.

After a while, a green goblin returned clad in black armor while having a big ax on his back.

"A small one asked me to come, what's wrong king?"

"It seems they haven't returned, the shaman and the warlord, two great goblins."

"That old man with the staff? I'm sure he's alright, he compared to the rest of us was probably the wisest one with all the respect king."

"It's true that one was easily at the top especially with how dumb everyone is, I want you to order some goblin assassins and archers to scout the surroundings towards the border with the human territory where I sent them, but you will stay at the rear just in case they fall in a trap or something else happens."

"As you command King Vrag, I'll go at once."

"Good," feeling unease for the past days he went into thought.

'Is it possible someone as smart as the old man really fell for some trap? No, impossible he was the reason we almost beat the human a hundred years ago, he might be growing ancient, but he wouldn't fail for a simple trap like the ones the humans used to do.'

'What if it wasn't a simple trick? Perhaps... blonde girl... goddess Luna... a smart human? Smarter than the shaman? Impossible! They are filthy and while not dumb they weren't anything special, if it wasn't for the powerful heroes and the use of shiny weapons, we would have beaten them long ago!'

'This time for sure, now that the goblins are learning how to make their weapons shiny, we'll surely defeat the humans, but just in case the shaman perished somehow, I'll have to find a smarter goblin...'

"Goblin, go send a message to my sister the queen Gruag of one of the three kingdoms the one in the south from us, the middle one, don't get it mistaken, and tell her I asked for one of her smart goblins for a war to come in a year and a half, tell her the old man shaman died of age, take some others with you so you don't get murdered on the way there."

"Y-yes almighty king..." The small one went in search of some helpers leaving the king completely alone.

'Once I beat those humans I'll take their entire territory and make amends with my two brothers and sister, and together we'll form the biggest goblin kingdom in the world by uniting our 4 kingdoms, of course, to achieve it I'll first have to show them mine is greater so they submit to me,' he smiled satisfied with his goal.

'Still... where's the old man? He's been here since I was born, he even chose me back then during the goblin ceremony...'

Year 5009 after the system day 75 of the flowering season at the goblin kingdom.

"King, I've brought back what's left of the shaman from the looks of it he chose to kill himself with the annoying staff he used to walk with," he shows a very dried dark green body with a hole in the heart.

"What!? Why would he do something like that?" Vrag shouts angrily scaring those around him.

"From what the stealth assassins could tell there are some wooden walls near the border to the north, and the forest that used to be close by vanished leaving only charcoal behind, I'd assume the humans burnt it down."

The goblin king punched his stone chair leaving a big crack on the right side where his arm was resting.

"So that's what the black smoke some days ago was... to think someone as brilliant as the old man would suicide... was it to avoid dying to the flames? Unless someone tried to capture him... no normal human would be able to do so... a hero? 100 years passed so this should mean the heroes are back."

"Shouldn't we kill them before they get strong king?"

"We should but I need some more time to fully heal from this curse, a hundred-year curse from the last war, once that is gone we'll murder those filthy humans!"

"Till then we play safe is that it?"

"For now we'll increase our defenses and rebuild the forest but further away from us so if those filthy humans decide to burn it again it won't affect us this far, putting goblins on the lookout and killing any scout of theirs will also be beneficial."

"I understand king."

"You may go, and put those goblins working harder on weapons, training, and for those who went to level up tell them to avoid the north due to the shitty humans."

"I will!" As he walks to do what he was ordered the king goes into deep thought.

'To think humans this time around would be the first ones to do the first strike... they haven't done that for the past centuries... why now?'

'Did they perhaps go insane and are trying to go all out? It will certainly be fun to slay them if they attempt to come closer to us...'

An evil grin was shown on his face as he was sure to win any open field battle, and the main reason that he lost the great war a bit less than a hundred something years ago was due to Lumen capital castle stone walls and the heroes who were powerful, and tricky to deal with but now their long dead and compared to the past ones are still super weak to make a difference.

※※※

The epilogue of the war prelude arc

Year 5009 after the system day 90 of the flowering season inside Aurora tent with all the leaders.

"It seems like they haven't moved even after killing a few thousand of them, general," Mark mentioned while scratching his beard as he looked at a map showing as accurately as possible the territory they were in.

"Didn't expect the goblin king to be such a coward, but that is fine, we shall bring the war to them."

Zylph smiling coldly says," what is the plan oh great general?"

"That is simple, you go at them, provoke them as only you know, and then flee, meanwhile we'll extend our army and proceed slowly halting at the middle."

"Even if I do that and somehow make them come... wouldn't their numbers overthrow ours?"

"Worry not, for the next 20 days I'll do the adequate preparations with everyone's help, and once I'm done I expect you to have quite the provocative bait for the little king," Aurora smiled coldly at Zylph whose hands started tremble of excitement.

"I have quite fun plans, I suppose I can do as I please?" He asked while licking his bottom lip from right to left.

"Of course, Ryu and Mark gather all nature and earth elemental mages we'll make some interesting things, the rest of the army shall stick to help the farmers expanding the fields, we'll need as many resources as we can.

"Regarding the fields, they're been taking care as you requested, we also secured some water sources by digging deep enough the way you asked, well's were built and the river comes from the capital far from the goblins so we can rest assured that it won't be poisoned."

"It won't be poisoned..." Aurora started thinking deeply as a new idea popped up.

Everyone looked at the young girl who looked seriously into the ground inside the tent, and then turned her face to the map and placed her finger seeing how the river presented itself in it.

She then smiled slightly and took a paper which she then started writing on it, upon finishing words came out of her mouth," Mark, do take this message to general Angelica, tell her to execute this as it'll affect the enemy kingdom in front of her which should spice things up making the kobold kingdom be forced to act."

Mark upon taking the letter and reading it says," won't this make us have to fight two kingdoms at the same time?"

"Don't worry, I'll put some goblins doing the poisoning for us, we did capture a lot of them from the last war skirmish."

"What will we do once the kobolds arrive there?" The old man asked trying to understand how deep the plan went.

"We kill the goblins and tell the kobolds they've been poisoning our side of the river too, and then we'll ally with them."

"Allying ourselves to beasts!?" The Saintess shouted surprised at Aurora's plan.

"Why not my dear Saintess? It'll allow us to diminish both of the beast kingdom's numbers, after all, from the information we gathered we'll need both the kobolds and the orcs assistance to completely defeat the four goblin kingdoms, once we're done with that, kobolds and orcs are next, no matter how meticulous my guidance is, I can't possibly beat 6 beast kingdoms with this army."

"Ah... so you meant it like a temporary alliance, well in that case I don't mind."

"Even if you minded it wouldn't be your job to decide, I'm here to make the humans and the goddess Aria win, as such, everything and anything that will allow more of our soldiers to survive is the ideal," upon hearing that the Saintess expression dulled but realizing Aurora was right she bowed lightly out of respect.

'To put the Saintess of the Lumen kingdom in her place... this little girl never ceases to amaze me,' Ryu thought as he too agreed with the general since for him religion and war aren't necessarily the same despite the pope passing such an idea when it came to demons.

"Alfred tell your men to help with the usual activities I've done with every other soldier, it'll make them stronger as they'll certainly receive a lot of titles, the same goes for Zylph though in his case only for the next 10 days."

"Understood," both said clearly with confidence.

'To make my soldiers from different noble houses farming, fishing, and who knows what... though as long as they do become tougher that might not be so bad, plus it'll help our resources for the cold seasons that will arrive soon.'

'I wonder if my mercenaries will enjoy doing such disappointing tasks...' Zylph grinned holding back his laughter.

"Romeo and Sophie, I'll leave the poisoning by the goblins plan for the two of you, with your skills and the assassins, it should go without an issue."

"Leave it to us," Romeo smiled happily for being relied on while Sophie winked at Aurora.

"As for the orcs... being on prince Marty's side, they probably wouldn't hear my request, so I'll have to think a bit more on that section..." she once more looks at the map while everyone but the Saintess and Balthazar stay inside the tent.

"Shouldn't we just let his army fall to the orcs and goblins?" Balzathar asked after thinking for a while about how to remove that prince out of the equation.

"That would cause a lot of deaths on the human side," the Saintess replied harshly to him.

Aurora clicks her tongue and then says, "I do expect them to fall at some point since they wage war on their own, and the generals the prince have are all against me due to their successors dying during the annual tournament."

"It's not your fault, after all, they couldn't have possibly been a worthy opponent to the one."

'The one?' Saintess thought recalling having heard this man mention such words before and then she said," that was an unfortunate accident but within the laws of the tournament... war has a bigger weight..."

"In that case, there's something I can try, we provoke the orcs and make them fight the goblins and the humans, if they're going to fall anyway then at the very least they kill each other after Marty army retreats or falls completely."

'In terms of war management she's been truly excellent losing very few soldiers and having killed 4 thousand enemies so far, but morally speaking it makes me question my decision of blessing her... such a ruthless young girl,' the Saintess frowns thinking about it.

Balthazar noticing her expression says," don't doubt your actions now, you couldn't possibly have anyone better than this general to bring your goddess a victory, even if I hate you, I too wish to win, not for Aria, the pope, or you, but to give the disgraceful ones a place in this world, as we're humans too.

Upon hearing the words directed to her she breathes deeply and stares deeply at Aurora who's solely focused on alternative plans as the goblins could join the orcs in a fight against humans as far as she knows.

"Yes, I won't back down on my choice, and once the humans are the sole winners, I'll make an exception for the disgraceful classes to live on without issues..."

"That'd make this fight worth a lot more."

"Ah... I have a better idea related to the orcs," Aurora declared softly, making both stare at the general as they watch her smile innocently yet happily.