Chapter 5: Jung Hayeon
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 5: Jung Hayeon
He was the goblin who had charged into the enemy lines first during our initial battle, the one who had shown the most impressive performance, and the one who had evolved right alongside me after it was over. He was the warrior, Goff.
As Goff slowly approached, the goblins who followed him trailed closely behind. When he finally stood before me, he spoke.
“You’re quite something.”
Though we had both chosen to become warriors, his frame was somehow much larger than mine. It was the same for humans. Even if they chose the same class, their evolutionary or class advancement path would diverge based on their patterns of action. He had already been slightly bigger than me to begin with, but it seemed fighting on the front lines had given him an upward adjustment to his strength during his evolution.
“Kireuk. Kireuk… Kireuk kireuk!”
“Kireuk!! Kireuk!! Kireuk!!!”
Seeing the leaders of the two largest groups facing each other must have looked cool, because goblins all around us were starting to go wild. Some even began to sing at the top of their lungs. I remembered Goff not liking me very much, but it seemed my recent achievements had made him reconsider. His internal assessment of me had likely been upgraded from ‘opportunist’ to ‘a despicable but decent warrior.’
“I look forward to working with you.”
He then thumped his chest loudly. Assuming it was a goblin greeting, I answered his words by thumping my own chest in return.
“Kireuk!! Kireuk!!!”
The other goblins around us watched, needlessly thumping their own chests with one hand. Just like that, Goff turned and left. As fundamentally weak creatures, goblins live in groups.
With a few exceptions, it seemed most of them had been summoned from different places, but the way they naturally banded together was certainly different from humans. In a way, what we had here was an alliance of tribes, or a federation of clans. They didn’t interfere with one another, but they acknowledged and helped each other to survive.
I remembered my past Tutorial with the humans. Even in this extreme situation, they had fought and scattered to secure even the slightest advantage. Rape was a given, and I recalled many murders happening over something as simple as food. It might sound ridiculous, but looking at these goblins, they seemed more human than the humans.
I turned and watched Goff walk away. A few of his subordinates, likely having learned from our clan, were shouting with all their might.
“We are the Goff Clan!”
“The valiant Goff Clan!!!!”
Indeed, “the valiant Goff Clan” had a much better ring to it than “the despicable Blood Dagger Clan.” I glanced at the other goblins before turning and walking away.
I was heading to my tent. To be honest, it was embarrassing to even call it a tent, but the fact that it barely resembled one showed that goblins, just like on the continent, had a culture of their own.
In a situation like this, it was a relief to be on the goblin’s side. The tent was made of vines, large leaves, wood, and straw, but it had a certain form to it.
It was like a cruder version of the tents used by nomadic peoples.
Not only that, but they had hung the skulls of captured humans on tree branches to mark their territory, and they had even planted a crude flag. It was quite creative. I didn’t know who drew it, but there was a terrible drawing in front of my tent.
At this point, it was a perfect goblin settlement, just like the ones I’d often seen on the continent. As I started to drag the captured human inside, Mev casually began to walk into my tent with me. Seeing this, I spoke to her.
“What are you doing?”
“W-Well… I thought you might be lonely. Kireuk…”
The first thing that came to mind was the mating she had suggested before. With her hands behind her back, she drew on the ground with her foot, looking a little embarrassed. I wanted to tell her to get lost, but I couldn’t afford to lose a useful asset like a newly evolved ‘Goblin Archer.’ Considering she had hit her target with a dagger from the same distance as me, she was more talented than I thought. Her dagger-throwing was actually better than mine, even though I had practiced the skill for a year.
After some thought, I looked at Mev and spoke quietly.
“Not today, I have something to do. If you have any food, have the others bring it over.”
“Ah! Okay.”
She looked visibly delighted by my words. With that, I dragged the woman, who was bound in vines, into the tent.
Cute little things.
Someone had made a crude chair and placed it in the middle of the tent. I sat down and began to remove the gag from the human woman’s mouth. She was still glaring at me, but her body was trembling.
“Hmm…”
This wasn’t some strange manga where an orc brings a princess knight back to his lair to do wicked things to her. This was for experimentation. And confirmation.
First, I needed to see if this woman could understand my words. I could currently communicate with the goblins, but to my own ears, it sounded like I was speaking Korean. I didn't know how my words were being translated and heard, but if I could talk to humans, it would be incredibly useful.
“Hey…”
“?”
As I spoke, the woman’s eyes widened.
So she can’t understand me.
I had a feeling I’d unconsciously spoken as if I were talking to the goblins. I still remembered Korean. I looked the woman straight in the eye and slowly began to speak again.
“Can you understand what I’m saying?”
“H-How…”
Bingo.
First task, cleared. She must have thought I could speak the human language. Though terrified, the woman began to speak to me in a trembling voice.
“Wh-Where is this? And… and who… are you… How… how do you know our language? And how did we get here… Why… why did you attack us… And what is this… T-Tutorial?”
She began to ask one thing after another in a rambling voice, but there was no need for me to answer. I was the one in charge here; she was at my mercy. As I sat quietly in the chair and spoke, the answer came back immediately, just as I expected.
“Name.”
“Jung… Jung Hayeon…”
“Age.”
“T-Twenty-eight…”
It was useless information, but it was a procedure to check if she would answer my questions properly. Now that I had confirmed we could communicate, the first thing I needed to ask was whether I had truly returned to the past.
“When were you summoned here?”
“Th-That was… at night… I was resting…”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking for the exact year, month, and day you came here.”
“July 7th, 2016…”
It matched the day I came here exactly. I, too, was summoned on July 7th, 2016, so it was probably correct.
“From where?”
“From… from Jeonju…”
“The president?”
“Park…”
“That’s enough.”
So it wasn’t a parallel world like in the comics. She was definitely a person who had lived in the same era and country as me. I had already come to this conclusion in my heart long ago, but realizing that I had truly returned to the past in the body of a monster made my head spin. If I had to come back, I wish they had at least let me return as a human. It would have been much easier to meet Choi Seulgi.
“Have you heard stories from the others?”
“Y-Yes. The others also said they came here on July 7th, 2016… B-But how do you…”
The woman stared at me as if she couldn’t believe it. She must have been incredibly curious how a creature that looked like a monster could speak Korean, understand the concept of years, months, and days, and ask about cities and the president.
I figured there was only one conclusion she could reach. If she wasn’t an idiot, she would probably figure it out.
“You… were human. Were the other monsters all human, too? Do… do you know a lot about this place?”
I didn’t bother to answer. She had already reached her own conclusion. Just as a slightly awkward silence began to fall, Mev opened the tent flap and came over, carrying something to eat.
“Chieftain.”
“You can come in, Mev.”
“Okay!”
Mev entered energetically. She glanced at the woman sitting bound in the middle of the tent, then turned back to me and spoke again.
“I thought you didn’t eat humans? Kireuk…”
“It’s not a strict rule.”
“But since you asked for food, it looks like you really aren’t going to eat her.”
I didn’t answer Mev, instead observing the woman’s reaction. As expected, she couldn’t understand Mev’s words. From her expression, it seemed she couldn’t understand what I was saying either. I was definitely using the same language whether I was talking to Mev or to this woman, Jung Hayeon.
It seemed the words were interpreted differently depending on who was listening. This could be quite useful. Mev was still standing there blankly, so I spoke to her again. But something about the look in her eyes was unusual. It was the kind of look a wife gives a cheating husband.
“Just put it on the floor and go.”
When I spoke, Mev began to fidget. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she squeezed her eyes shut and spoke to me.
“Okay, Chieftain. But… but… do you have an unusual preference, too?”
It was a surprisingly absurd question. Of course, I could see why she would reach that conclusion. I had brought a human woman into my tent alive and had coldly rejected her, the one called the greatest beauty of the goblin tribe.
Back when I was human, there were goblins who would charge at human women as if they were in heat. They were probably what Mev meant by ‘unusual preference.’
Technically, I was also included in that category, but I wasn’t stupid enough to tell her the truth.
“It’s not like that.”
“Okay! I believe you.”
I didn’t know why she was so quick to believe me when we’d only known each other for a short time, but it was fine for now. I glanced at the plate—or what passed for one—that Mev had brought. It was crudely woven from leaves. The menu was as expected: a dead goblin and a large fruit. It wasn’t a fruit that grew around here; someone from another tribe must have found it while out hunting.
They must have traded it for the humans we captured. Fruit wasn’t a preferred food for goblins. In fact, it was a bit of a waste to trade it for a human. They must have traded for it for my sake. I was starving, so I picked up the goblin arm and brought it to my mouth. I used the knife I was holding to cut the large, watermelon-like fruit and tossed a piece to the woman. She immediately dove for it, pressing her face to the ground and starting to eat.
She probably hadn’t eaten anything all day.
“Th-Thank you.”
I wasn’t someone she should be thanking, but the fact that she did showed she had some sense. I watched the woman as she ate the fruit with her head bowed. With her hands tied, she had no choice but to bend over and bring her mouth to the food, but she was scowling, as it didn’t seem to be working well.
What I saw in her eyes was pure venom.
If she hadn’t been captured, she probably would have survived. For a while, the only sound in the tent was the sound of chewing. Then, the woman named Jung Hayeon spoke to me once more.