And then, all this changed due to human intervention.
The knights of the Empire attacked the village and killed her parents. As a result, nobody in the village held on to the hope that things would go back to the way they used to be.
In contrast, the goblin troop leader, Jugem, had proposed the fortification of the village as a countermeasure against such a scenario. Once he mentioned that the goblins would be unable to protect the village if it was attacked again due to lack of their number, the motion immediately received unanimous approval from all parties concerned. This was because even now, many of the villagers were still having nightmares that woke them from their sleep.
The first step was to dismantle the unoccupied houses and use them to build a wall. Of course, those materials were insufficient on their own, so they would have to enter the forest to cut down trees for lumber. Since entering the forest’s depths might mean encroaching on the Wise King of the Forest’s territory, their harvest area had to proceed along the outskirts of the forest toward the distance.
Naturally, the goblins were the ones who provided security for the wood-cutting villagers.
As a result of them taking on that task, the villagers’ distrust of the goblins had almost completely disappeared. Part of that was because human knights, who were of the same race as themselves, had attacked them. Even if they were of the same race, they had tried to take the villagers’ lives. In contrast, the goblins worked under Enri to contribute to the village, even though they were of a different species. The decision of which side to trust was no longer one which could be easily settled by deciding along racial lines.
And the most important reason was that the goblins were strong. They could serve as warriors to take on the duties of sentries, and when people were hurt, the goblin priest Cona could heal them.
It was difficult to despise goblins like these.
In this way, the goblins managed to establish themselves in the village in just a few short days and quickly became an indispensable part of village life. This could be seen from the house the goblins lived in; no consideration had been made of the fact that they were from another race, and a large house had been built close to Enri’s own home in the middle of the village.
Although the villagers and the goblins had worked together on the village defense plan, there simply weren’t enough hands to make the work go quickly. As such, in the beginning they had only built simple fences.
As fate would have it, the Wise King of the Forest, who kept the monsters at bay from the village, became a follower of a certain black-armored warrior and abandoned its territory. Although they had managed to complete the fences with great effort, the villagers could not take joy in their accomplishment, but instead sighed about their rotten luck.
However, a sturdy wall now defended the village.
The cause for this turn for the better was the labor wrought by the stone golems that had been brought to the village by the beautiful maid that served the village’s savior ― Ainz Ooal Gown.
Golems were inexhaustible constructs; when given an order they would silently execute it, and their strength far outstripped that of a human being. Although their lack of dexterity meant that they could not perform certain tasks which required precision, their participation in the work had enabled it to proceed with an unbelievable speed. With the effort of the unsleeping and untiring stone golems, the construction of the wall practically flew along.
They could accomplish the tasks which the villagers and goblins could not, such as chopping down trees and transporting them in large quantities, digging pits, or laying the foundations for the walls.
What should have taken years to accomplish in theory had instead been finished in a matter of days, and the constructed wall was even bigger and sturdier than expected.
It wasn’t just the walls either; even the construction of the watchtowers had been sped up. Their current task was to complete the watchtowers on the eastern and western flanks of the village.
“Ane-san, I’m done here.”
Enri’s thoughts were interrupted by the goblin assisting her in the weeding, a goblin called Paipo.
“Ah, thank you.”
“No, no, it’s nothing Ane-san should thank me for.”
Although Paipo waved his dirt and grass-stained hands to ward off Enri’s thanks, Enri still felt that she owed the goblins a debt that could never be repaid.
After losing her parents, Enri was in a dire situation, where tending her family’s plot by herself would be impossible. She wanted to ask the other villagers for help, but given the overall lack of manpower in the village, it was already hard enough for every household to take care of their own crops. With the help of the goblins, that problem was easily resolved. In addition, she was hardly the only one the goblins had helped.
Turning to the direction from which her name was called, Enri saw a busty woman standing by a field. Beside her was a goblin.
“Thank you so much, Enri-chan. Because of Goblin-san’s help, the field work’s almost done.”
“Really? That’s wonderful. It was their idea to help out with the village chores, so if you want to thank someone, you should thank them.”
“Ah, I’ve already thanked Goblin-san. He said that he was only your subordinate, so he hoped that I would thank Ane-san as well.”
Hearing the word “Ane-san” made Enri furrow her brows, which was quickly followed by faked laughter to drive it off.
The goblins themselves had suggested that they should help the households who had lost farmhands in the attack, and the woman before her was one of those people.
There was no way the villagers would shun the contributions of the goblins. In Carne Village, the opinion of the goblins was so good that statements like “goblins are even better neighbors than humans” were commonly heard.
“Speaking of which, are there any other goblin-sans around? I wanted to treat everyone to a meal as thanks.”
“The others should be patrolling the village or helping the people who just moved into the village.
But since obaa-san asked, then I’ll make sure to tell them.”
“Then I’ll leave that to you, Enri-chan. When the time comes, I’ll make sure everyone gets to enjoy a feast made with all my skill. In the meantime, I think I’ll make lunch for Goblin-san first.”
“Really? Then, since I’ve been invited, it would be rude to refuse. Ane-san, though I’m sorry that I can’t join you, I’ll be having lunch at Morga-san’s place.”
Enri nodded, and the woman headed back to the village with the goblin in tow.
“If the newly-arrived people realised that you guys are not bad people, that would be great.”
“Well, a lot of them didn’t look happy to see us. After all, in their hearts we should be the enemy.”
“Apart from our village, treating demihumans as the enemy is the norm, right…”
“That’s why we’re sending so many people to help the villagers with their work. It’s not easy.”