Chapter 21 – The Continued Bad Relationship (1)
‘What is this?’
The guess that someone was fighting was indeed correct. As Irilia rushed over, she was taken aback by the scene before her.
Strictly speaking, it was less of a battle and more of one side being attacked unilaterally.
“Goblin!”
Patrick, who had run up behind Irilia, was horrified. The enemies attacking a group of exactly five people were numerous small-bodied monsters, easily over a dozen.
“—!”
The riled-up creatures, already excited and brandishing their weapons, went into a frenzy upon spotting Irilia’s group. These green-skinned beasts, treated as a cross between monsters and demons by the people of this world, immediately lunged at them without a second thought.
‘Where do these pests think they’re going?’
With a flash in her eyes, Irilia made a single gesture, and the approaching goblins all collapsed in unison.
A shard of stone that popped up from the ground without warning caused the goblins charging blindly to trip and lose their balance, falling down. When they attempted to get back up, one of their hands or feet would sink into the ground, burying them. Confused, as if the land itself was turning against them, the goblins squealed and screeched.
“Ugh, these stupid bastards.”
Grimacing at the sight, Patrick realized that all he had to do now was to take the goblins’ lives with the swords he and Rina held before the incapacitated monsters could rise again.
In effect, Irilia had taken care of the attackers with just a flick of her finger.
“I-Ian, look over there! It’s the adventurers!”
Thanks to the goblins’ attention being diverted to that direction, those who were under attack found a moment of relief.
In the midst of groaning from various injuries, the boy named Ian’s eyes widened as he saw them.
To those who had been fighting desperately, Patrick and Rina, wielding swords, seemed to have swiftly taken down several goblins.
“From the looks of it, they don’t seem like proper adventurers. Are they villagers?”
Patrick, still holding his sword, approached the reckless teens.
Still reeling from the fact that they’d barely survived, they hesitated at the approach of a stranger.
“I get the situation, but don’t be too wary. We are people who received a direct request from the city mayor. It’s about the disappearances happening in this area. Looks like we just found the culprits.”
After giving a nod to Rina and Irilia, Patrick sheathed his sword to reassure them. It was certainly effective; at the mention of the mayor’s name, Ian’s eyes widened.
“They might have had five more victims if we had been a bit late. What on earth are you doing wandering around such a dangerous place at a time like this?”
“W-We were just looking for Dune…”
“Dune. I’ve heard that name.”
One of them, unable to withstand Patrick’s gaze, spoke in a creeping voice. Rina, upon hearing the name from his lips, recalled it from her memories.
“One of the missing people.”
“And my father.”
Ian bit his lip at Patrick’s mutterings. While the backstory was somewhat revealed, the pain in one of Ian’s legs kept him from standing straight.
“Your injuries are quite severe. You might not realize it, but even a trivial wound can easily take a life. I understand your intentions, but it was reckless. You and your friends could have very well died.”
“But we couldn’t just do nothing and stay still…”
“You think you’ll be able to come to your senses only after losing everyone around you?”
When Patrick scolded Ian for not understanding, he snapped in frustration. Ian and his friends, as well as Rina standing nearby, flinched.
“Damn it.”
Realizing the tense atmosphere, he seemed to regret his words, his eyes widened before he shook his head and sighed.
“They seem to know something more. Let’s treat their wounds and hear them out.”
The awkward silence that followed was broken by the bright and clear voice of the girl. Ian, glancing at Patrick, turned his gaze toward her.
She was a silver-haired girl with a hood pulled over her head, much smaller than him.
*
“It seems the villagers have no knowledge about the goblins. There wasn’t even a mention of them in the reports sent to the town hall.”
“W-We just found out ourselves…”
“Considering that, you handled the goblins surprisingly well. As if you learned how to deal with them beforehand. Hmm, is that a coincidence?”
Patrick tilted his head. Goblins, being relatively smaller than humans, have their own fighting methods. The main approach is to deny them access in open spaces using long-range weapons like spears. The effectiveness increases with distance.
However, this was too common-sense and obvious a tactic to be called a perfect solution.
‘Indeed, against real adventurers…’
Ian gulped at Patrick’s demeanor. He felt that, no matter how they tried to cover it up, their lies would be exposed to him.
“Oh, just bandage your wounds and tie them up properly.”
Moreover, that wasn’t the only problem.
While Irilia took out treatment supplies from the large bag she was carrying, she seemed to get annoyed at having to attend to their wounds, simply tossing bandages and medicine at them without much care.
Ian and his friends were taken aback by the maid girl’s sudden change in attitude from previously demure.
‘Why is she barefoot?’
Ian finally noticed that she was barefoot, causing him to shudder.
Although her dressed-up maid outfit included cute decorations and was made from luxurious material, her small white feet touching the ground were perfectly clean and unstained.
“Is there really something deeper that connects to the origins of this situation?”
“Yes. It’s true there’s a connection with the goblins we just encountered.”
As Irilia attended to her own wounds using the bandages and medicine that Ian and his friends had thrown to her, she pointed toward the deeper part of the forest to Patrick and Rina.
The ground she stood on continued to warn and assist her even at that moment.
‘Could it be related to the curse? But those goblins can’t be all of it.’
Irilia realized that the goblins who had charged at her were also tainted, like the werewolf from last time.
However, since they were born with the curse already embedded in them, that curse was rooted deeper than the corrupted werewolf. While their depth was greater, their fluidity was weaker.
What tormented this land that was warning her was not something so trivial.
“We have no choice but to go check it ourselves. Hey, you all should return to the village. You’ve done enough.”
Patrick sent Ian and his friends back to the village. They seemed reluctant to follow, but Ian grabbed his friends’ arms and pulled them along.
‘Not now.’
Ian had already made up his mind. The others, realizing this, had no choice but to return to the village in a dejected state.
“Then let’s go.”
Once their figures had completely vanished, Irilia smirked and moved the ground again. The board they rode on slid across the earth as it made its way toward their destination, and soon they arrived at the place that Irilia had designated.
It was a large cave near a valley in the forest and an open area nearby.
“I can’t believe this.”
Seeing it, Patrick was speechless, as were the other two.
What filled the area was a horde of armed goblins. Inside the cave, countless goblins scurried about like ants in an anthill.
‘This can’t be. There’s no way so many goblins could move in this area without being noticed!’
Patrick struggled to regain his composure in the face of such an unprecedented situation. The mere idea of a sizable gathering of goblins was utterly absurd.
“Look at that one. Its skin color is different from the others.”
At that moment, Irilia, who was kneeling to lower her body like Patrick and Rina, pointed her finger somewhere.
There was a goblin with a beard shouting at the others, holding a staff and dressed in proper clothes, looking distinctly different from the others.
“I think that goblin is of an untainted bloodline. Though rare, some goblins do possess reason and intellect. Of course, the demon kin don’t consider those goblins their kin.”
Patrick muttered upon seeing that. It wasn’t necessarily an impossible existence.
‘I don’t think so.’
But Irilia’s eyes sparkled. She sensed the intense curse she had felt from the werewolf last time emanating from that goblin, unlike the others with green skin.
‘There’s something with that goblin and in that cave.’
She narrowed her target further.
Feeling the insidious and unyielding presence that was irreconcilable with her own, the last surviving power of the tower, she furrowed her brow subconsciously.
