Chapter 104: The Little One
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 104: The Little One
“Is it a snack? Kkireuk!”
“No! There are young Green Skins, too! Kkireuk!”
The goblin mothers’ words were slightly chilling. I waved at them, and they eventually backed off, having read the atmosphere and realized these little ones were not, in fact, snacks. Seeing the goblins swarm around us, Kim Yoora looked a little anxious, but she didn’t cry or try to run away. Instead, she seemed to be relying on me quite a bit. She openly looked around, even waving back at the goblin mothers who were gesturing at her.
The other human children and the young Green Skins were the same. I figured they were reacting this way because there were other Green Skins their age in the clan. In other words, seeing Nicole and the other children living and laughing here had put them somewhat at ease.
Seeing children like themselves living here, they must have felt that, at the very least, no harm would come to them. The clan’s children, led by Nicole, also seemed curious about the newcomers, constantly looking around.
Soon, the children ran over to me and placed their hands over their chests.
The amusing thing was that Nicole was glaring at Kim Yoora, who was nestled in my arms.
“For Blood Dagger!”
“For Blood! Dagger!”
It seemed she hadn’t forgotten to shout, though. The other children of the clan followed Nicole’s lead, shouting with all their might, while Kim Yoora watched Nicole with a curious expression. I couldn’t be sure why Nicole was so wary of Kim Yoora, but I assumed it was because I was holding her.
Of course, I still remembered Najin, and I cared for Nicole because of him. To the outside world, Najin was a warrior who had lost his honor, but in my mind, he was a benefactor who had saved my life.
Because of that, I had unknowingly paid a little more attention to Nicole, and she, in turn, followed me well. She probably felt that I favored her greatly. It seemed she thought of me as a godfather before a chieftain. I figured she was feeling jealous that I was holding Kim Yoora. It was like a first daughter feeling jealous of a second who had suddenly appeared one day.
Seeing this, I dismounted from Ibar and patted Nicole’s head with my free hand, but she just kept puffing out her cheeks and staring at Kim Yoora.
“A human! A human! Hmph! I don’t like humans!”
The other children, likely seeing a human child for the first time, gathered around as if they were looking at a monkey in a zoo. The human kids who had played with young Green Skins before waved and tried to talk to them, but naturally, the clan’s Green Skins didn’t answer the human children’s words.
Watching them, I carried Kim Yoora into the tent. I wanted to ask if she had any information we could use. The human prisoners we had were Lee Wanyong, a magician who seemed to be an executive, the other survivors, and finally, Kim Yoora and the children.
The ingredients were sufficient. The most perfect approach would be to plan the attack on the small city of Somorah based on the information I gathered from them. When I entered the tent and set Kim Yoora down, she began to quietly watch me. By this point, she seemed convinced that she was probably safe.
“What’s going to happen to us?”
But naturally, she would be curious about their future. Kim Yoora knew this was a village of green-skinned people. She seemed to sense that her friends would come to live here, but she was curious about what would happen to the humans.
“Well…”
To be honest, I hadn’t decided anything. I had never really considered the idea of humans and Green Skins living together. For now, since I had protected the children, I wouldn’t harm them. Although my sense of being human had faded considerably, I had once been human myself, so the thought of hurting children made me uncomfortable. Should I send them back, or let them live here in our clan? I couldn’t help but ponder it.
Seeing my expression, Kim Yoora spoke again.
“Please let us live here, too.”
“…”
Her unexpected bluntness made me chuckle slightly. I knew she had guts, but for a little kid, she was quite bold. If she were on Earth, people would have said she was born to be a general.
“This is a clan where Green Skins live. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to a human town.”
“No. If we go back to a town now, it’ll be the same as before.”
It was obvious they would just be sold back into slavery. I glanced at Kim Yoora. She didn’t avoid my gaze and continued to look right at me.
“Hmph…”
Feeling a little pressured, I was the one who had to look away.
“We kill humans. We even eat them.”
“I don’t care.”
“The day may come when you and your friends have to kill humans.”
“I don’t care.”
This was different from Jung Hayeon’s obsession with survival. This look in her eyes, I thought, was also different from Baek Ahyeon’s.
‘Responsibility.’
What this little one had was a sense of responsibility. I could see it in her eyes—the responsibility to protect the younger siblings who came with her, the desire to protect the young Green Skins they had raised with their own hands, the ambition to be with them. It was no wonder the captive young Green Skins followed her. Kim Yoora was definitely shining.
“…”
“I’ll think about it.”
As if to say, ‘Don’t ask any more,’ I cut her off by saying I’d think about it. She bit her cute little lips in disappointment. It was a rather childish gesture. Seeing it, I let out a dry laugh.
“Alright then, shall we hear your story, one thing at a time?”
“Yes.”
“You can speak freely.”
“Yes.”
There was a moment of silence. But then, as if she had made up her mind, Kim Yoora slowly began to speak.
“My family lived in a village a little ways from the small city. My mom, my dad, and me. There were three of us.”
This was Kim Yoora’s story. Her family had lived in a small city far from the East. Her father would occasionally go into the forest to hunt magical beasts, and her mother lived by doing some simple farming. Kim Yoora had lived there until she was exactly nine years old, when one day, the Black Thorn bastards suddenly stormed the village. After that, she said, the city was completely destroyed. Kim Yoora recounted the story in a remarkably calm voice.
“I don’t know why the war started. But Dad told me to run. Mom did too. So I don’t know how my dad died. I just heard a scream.”
She was incredibly composed. It wasn’t a topic that should have been easy to talk about, yet she was reciting the contents of her mind as if reading from a book.
“Mom held me and kept running. We got out of the city and fled into the mountains, but we were soon caught by people. Mom was stripped naked and her head was cut off. When I closed my eyes and opened them again, I was in Somorah.”
“I see.”
Seeing her eyes redden as she spoke, it seemed she wasn’t as calm as she appeared. Of course, there was no way she could maintain her composure. She probably wanted to burst into tears. I realized this little kid was holding it all in.
“Yes. After that, I learned many things. The things a slave has to do, the right mindset. They hit us if we didn’t listen. I was beaten almost every day. When it was bad, they didn’t even give us food. There were also many friends who disappeared and never came back.”
“More and more friends were put in the room, and the greenies came into the room too. The underground was very cold at night, so we would all huddle together to sleep. That’s why I was really happy when the greenies came.”
I didn’t bother asking what she had learned or what she had seen. I didn’t particularly want to know. What was slightly puzzling was the story about the Black Thorn Guild completely destroying a small city. I remembered them as not having the power to invade other small cities, so they must have received help from Hadum. I realized once more that the two cities were more closely related than I thought.
In any case, Kim Yoora continued to speak for a long time, telling stories that were helpful and stories that weren’t. Among them was a story about how she had to stop the young Green Skins from fighting each other over the scarce food, and another about a friend who didn’t listen and was thrown away with their arms and legs cut off. It was so appalling that even I was left speechless.
What I focused on was the place where they had been kept.
Kim Yoora had clearly said they were in a place where no light came in. That meant it was highly likely to be underground. I didn’t know how to get there, but I figured there must be a door leading to the basement in the Black Thorn Guild. I thought the other slaves and Green Skins were probably trapped there as well. The breeding was likely happening underground, too.
“Before we got on the cart, I saw some men who looked like the green uncles here. They were carrying heavy luggage.”
“I see.”
“After that, we got on the cart, and we were on our way to some strange place when we met you, sir. That’s all. W-Was that a little helpful?”
After she finished speaking, the little one glanced at me, her expression showing how desperately she wanted to know if her words had been helpful. She was afraid of being abandoned. No, what she was truly afraid of was returning to that hellish place. Seeing her, I felt a pang of pity and stroked her head.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
And then.
Suddenly, Kim Yoora’s face began to crumple. The expression of the little girl who had smiled and spoken of her past with a blank face finally shattered.
All that was left in its place was an ordinary twelve-year-old child who just wanted to play.
Reddened eyes, a trembling mouth.
Tears streamed endlessly from her large eyes, and soon, a crawling voice escaped her trembling lips.
“Th… Thank you… hic… Th… Thank you.”
I had no idea what she was so thankful for, but soon Kim Yoora began to cry loudly. In the end, I had to wait until she cried herself to sleep on one side of the tent before I could step outside.
We weren’t exactly the good guys, but those bastards over there were just as much trash. The situation was so absurd it made me laugh.
I had planned to destroy the city, thinking it was an opportunity for explosive growth. But now, for reasons beyond just their breeding and enslavement of Green Skins, I believed this city deserved to be wiped off the map.
Of course, my thoughts were hypocritical. Every human I had killed must have had their own story, and not all of them would have been evil. It was the same now. I was always prepared to cut down humans for my own benefit.
No words could ever justify it.
However.
I break what I don’t like, and I pay back what I’ve suffered. That reason alone was more than enough for their city to be completely annihilated. Having made up my mind, I immediately sent a communication to Baek Ahyeon.