"Is there something I can help you with?" Shire smiled at Evita from across the table. "What would you like to drink? Chrysanthemum tea or honey water?"
"Er..." Evita hesitated. She wanted to say that plain water would be fine, but when she remembered the honey water she’d had before, she couldn’t help but swallow.
"Chrysanthemum tea it is, then." Shire stood to brew tea for them both. "This is a specialty from the Southern Saruo Islands. I’m sure you’ve never had it before, so it’s a perfect opportunity to try it."
He quickly poured a cup of pale yellow tea for both himself and Evita. "Drink it while it’s hot, and be careful not to burn yourself. If you find it a little bitter, you can add some honey."
"Thank you." Evita held the teacup with both hands and took a small, tentative sip. ’She had no idea where this archipelago he mentioned was, but it must be very far from here.’
After drinking a few more sips of tea, Evita gathered her thoughts and asked tentatively, "I would like to know if you would agree to our people migrating to your territory."
"Migrate?" Shire sipped his tea, then raised an eyebrow. "If you’re insistent on doing so, it’s not as if I can stop you. After all, you have a tradition of following the Unicorns."
"No, it’s better to make things clear with you first." Evita looked at Shire, who was leaning back contentedly in his chair. Her own expression was a little tense. She had personally witnessed him defeat an Ogre Mage, and she had seen so many goblins in the Fortress, not to mention a Giant, a Ghost Witch, little goblins, Soldier Ants, and a Tree-man. She knew that if they migrated against his will, it would undoubtedly provoke a conflict, and her people would be the only ones to suffer defeat.
"Oh, my apologies." Shire noticed her gaze and glanced down at the chair beneath him. "This chair is too small for you. If you’d like, I can have a bed brought over for you."
"No, no, that’s not what I meant!" Evita waved her hands frantically. She knew what he was referring to; the goblins all slept on such beds, which were padded with soft fur. This was unlike the Centaurs, who slept directly on the ground, at most laying out a deerskin.
The first time Evita saw one of those beds, she had even grumbled to herself. ’She couldn’t possibly imagine that this so-called evil race, which ought to be sleeping in forest burrows and rolling in the mud, was actually living a more refined life than the Centaur Race.’ To top it off, the goblin in front of her even refilled her teacup.
"Seeing you has given me an idea, though. I could make a different kind of chair for you," Shire said, refilling his own teacup. The piece of furniture he had in mind was a low couch, something like a chaise longue, with a railing around it that would be perfect for a Centaur to recline on.
"Thank you, but that won’t be necessary for now." Evita fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "The Centaur Race is not a people who enjoy conflict. We’re migrating partly to follow the Unicorns, and partly because our race is facing a crisis. That is why we hope you will agree. We can trade goods with you in exchange for your approval."
"A trade of goods?" Shire smiled. "And what, exactly, can you offer?"
"We..." Evita gathered her thoughts. "Our people raise Big-horned Deer, and we also cultivate some tubers. What’s more, we Centaurs are all excellent archers, able to hunt a great deal of game."
"To be frank, we goblins aren’t lacking for food," Shire replied immediately. "I imagine you can’t offer very much of those things anyway, as you need them for your own survival. Moreover, once you migrate, your deer and crops will be greatly affected. After all, the tubers can’t exactly walk over here with you."
More than those supplies, Shire was interested in the Centaurs’ Archery.
He recalled a time when he was training a few goblins to shoot Hand Crossbows. Evita had been watching from the side and had quickly become disdainful of the goblins’ skill. From a great distance, she drew her bow, nocked an arrow, and hit the target dead center.
Shire couldn’t forget the sight of the proud centaur girl holding her head high, her hooves going CLIP-CLOP as she walked away.
’If the other Centaurs’ Archery is on a similar level,’ he thought, ’I could form a ranged unit. That would perfectly compensate for my current shortcomings.’ Right now, he only had a few goblins using Hand Crossbows, while the majority were melee troops equipped with Long Spears and Sword and Shield.
"You’re right. What we can offer is indeed limited," Evita admitted frankly.
"So, do you live on just venison and tubers?" Shire asked with a smile, genuinely curious about the daily life of the Centaurs.
"We generally eat roasted venison and other game. Tuber cultivation is very difficult, so we can’t just live on them."
"Is that so?" Shire’s interest was piqued, and he leaned forward slightly. "I’ve roasted venison myself. It has very little fat, so if you roast it for too long, it becomes dry and stringy. It’s not very tasty."
"Ah, we place a chunk of fat on top of it." At the mention of cooking venison, Evita brightened up. She put down her teacup and began gesturing as she explained the Centaur method.
"Fat? Where do you get the fat?" Shire latched onto the word and immediately questioned her.
"We farm Shape-shifting Monsters and get the fat from them."
"Shape-shifting Monsters?" Shire froze. ’Weren’t those the "inheritance" the Heart Stealer left me? Those seventeen large chests I later gave to the Storm Brotherhood?’
"That’s right. Our Centaur people have been farming Shape-shifting Monsters for a long time. They’re very interesting creatures; they mimic nearby objects and wait for prey to take the bait. As long as you don’t touch them, they remain completely still."
"And what do you do then?"
"We wrap the tubers we cultivate in some deer entrails, stick it on a branch, and feed it to them."
"Isn’t that dangerous?" Shire remembered that those things could extend long pseudopods to attack their enemies.
"No. We hide behind an enclosure and extend the food directly to their mouths. Once the Shape-shifting Monster has eaten, it won’t continue to attack."
"Well, that’s one way to do it..." Shire was surprised they could manage them that way. "So, do these Shape-shifting Monsters have a lot of fat?"
"Loads. A Shape-shifting Monster only has two large tearing muscles near its mouth; the rest is all fat. Once you peel off the outer skin, it’s just glistening white blubber."
Shire smiled at her. He had already made up his mind to accept the Centaur Race. Buck Teeth was getting plenty of Tree-man Fruit from the Tree-man, but they were short on oil. If the Centaur Race could bring their Shape-shifting Monster farming techniques, it would effectively relieve the pressure on their oil supply.
Besides, these Shape-shifting Monsters were different from Magical Beasts. Strictly speaking, they were a type of organism that wasn’t contaminated. The Fearsome Claw Bear and the Cyan-Eyed Dragon Snake he’d encountered before were animals that had mutated after being tainted, and their bodies had emitted wisps of black energy. But those seventeen "large chests" had shown no signs of that.
’In that case, there’s no risk of contamination from eating them,’ Shire calculated under his breath. He was beginning to regret his previous arrangement. ’If I had known, I would have kept a few Shape-shifting Monsters to raise.’
"So how do you butcher them, and how do you breed them?" He asked with great enthusiasm as he refilled Evita’s teacup.
"They’re very easy to butcher," Evita said with a smile. "You just have to replace the tubers with a type of herb that makes the Shape-shifting Monsters drowsy. After they eat it, they fall into a deep sleep. Then you just tie them up and stab a special spot on their back a few times. The Shape-shifting Monsters immediately lose their shape-shifting Ability and quickly go limp."
"I see." Shire smiled and nodded. ’It sounds a lot like killing a squid or certain fish. As long as you sever the main nerve connections, the Shape-shifting Monster can’t fight back.’
"Also, we normally feed them entrails and tubers, which the Shape-shifting Monsters digest completely, so cleaning them is very convenient. As long as you don’t feed them anything hard... if you do, they’ll spit out the indigestible parts. And if they spit up too much, they’ll squirm off to find a new place to mimic."
"How interesting." Shire was already picturing a Shape-shifting Monster farm in the Fortress. He was very interested in these "fat forest pigs." "So how do they reproduce? You can’t just kill them and then go out to catch more, can you?"
"I don’t know much about that part," Evita said, tilting her head in embarrassment. "I only know that Shape-shifting Monsters have males and females. The males have a single eye, while the females have multiple. And they do mate. Their appearance changes a bit before they do... some others in my tribe know more about it." Her knowledge of farming Shape-shifting Monsters was indeed incomplete.
"That sounds very promising." Shire smiled and took a sip of tea. He calculated that if he raised Shape-shifting Monsters in the Fortress and simultaneously planted tubers in his territory, the yield would be enormous. For one, the little goblins could use the Wind of Nature to accelerate the tubers’ growth, compensating for the Centaur Race’s agricultural deficiencies. On top of that, he had the blessing of the God of Earth and Life, which would also stimulate the growth of both the Shape-shifting Monsters and the tubers.
’What’s that? You think the Life God wouldn’t be willing to bless a Shape-shifting Monster? Are you kidding me? The blessing I earned has nothing to do with what the God of Earth and Life wants or doesn’t want.’
"So where do you keep the Shape-shifting Monsters? Do you just build a few thatched huts for them?" Shire asked, his interest piqued.
"Of course not. Shape-shifting Monsters don’t like to be in brightly lit places. We raise them in an underground stone chamber," Evita said with a smile.
"An underground stone chamber?" Shire’s eyes narrowed the moment he heard those words. "You have an underground stone chamber where you live?"
"Yes, a rather large one. That’s where we farm the Shape-shifting Monsters."
"Is there anything else in that stone chamber?" Shire asked casually, though he already had a feeling this was the very place he was looking for.
"Not much. Just some white stones that we use to build our huts," Evita said with a smile, taking a sip of her tea.