The Remarkable Goblin
“…A-class heroes really are on another level. You see fresh news every single day.”
I was eating toast while scrolling through the hero news in the morning.
As always, the articles about heroes were almost all about the top-tier ones, with hardly any coverage of the lower ranks.
Was this just the natural consequence of A- and B-class heroes being treated like celebrities?
“…Tsk.”
Forget all that. What bothered me today was that Baek Eun-hwa, my A-class fox, was still acting like a total pushover.
Should I be a bit stricter with her?
Of course she couldn’t reject every incoming article, and the truth was that the other A-class heroes weren’t doing their jobs properly…
That was exactly why Baek Eun-hwa kept working so hard.
But every time I saw these stories, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling.
There was a limit to how much one could act like a doormat.
Especially with burnout already on the horizon—how long could she keep pushing when she’d carried so many issues since childhood?
It was only natural that someone who’d been sleep-deprived for weeks, months, and years would eventually face a massive problem.
I figured Baek Eun-hwa’s current state was the same.
“…For now, though, I have a few more days of counseling with her.”
I’d have to talk to her then.
As her counselor I couldn’t just keep scolding her every time a headline appeared—surely that would only make things harder for her.
So first… I erased the thought from my mind, sat down to write my report, and listed today’s tasks.
With that settled, I looked at my phone.
A new message caught my eye.
[Horn lol]: Counselor-nim…! When can I come in for counseling today?
“…Hmm.”
Today was the day I’d be meeting our most obedient little Eodeokshini yet.
Batori, who listened even better than usual.
Of course my heart felt lighter than ever.
*
“Counselor-nim!”
The moment I stepped into the café, a bright smile lit up the face of the tiny goblin girl with black-and-white hair.
As always, she had an incredibly cute appearance.
How anyone could have such low self-esteem when she looked like that was beyond me.
After all, I was pretty confident in my own looks.
That only made it harder to understand her.
“You didn’t wait long, did you?”
“No, I got here just five minutes ago. Hee hee…”
“Really?”
Even the untouched drink on the table told me everything I needed to know.
Anyway, today was our regular counseling session with Batori.
Lately there’d been so much to handle because of Baek Eun-hwa and Saran, but with Batori it was different…
I hadn’t been able to help her with much of anything recently.
“How have you been? I see your rank improved since last week, so I’m guessing you’re doing great.”
“Hee hee, I’ve been doing well. How about you, Counselor-nim? At least you look a lot better than when you were on that trip last time.”
“Hoho, is that so?”
“Yes, you looked absolutely exhausted…! That’s why I was worried, but when you said you were fine, I got even more worried…”
“Hmm…”
What I always felt when talking with Batori lately was that I was starting to understand why I preferred younger girls.
Of course, it was only a feeling for now.
Even with Baek Eun-hwa I never let my strange emotions toward my counselee turn into anything more.
“Batori, it’s great to see you doing so well. Your progress toward your goal is clearly visible, and I can tell you’re happy about it too.”
“He, hee hee…”
Her strangely beautiful hair that shifted between black and white, her adorable yet mature appearance despite her small stature.
Even though she was short, she carried an unmistakable adult charm.
At the same time, her low self-esteem made her slightly wrinkly in a funny way, and the way her cheeks lifted when she was praised was adorable, while her over-the-top reactions to everything were endlessly entertaining.
“Batori, should I order you a churro?”
“If you want one, Counselor-nim…”
“Hmm, then I’ll order one.”
It was only natural that I felt like buying something for her when she looked so happy like that.
I was a bit bored myself, and Batori seemed to love candy.
After ordering the churro, we kept chatting about our daily lives.
“If things keep going like this, C-class should come easily. For promotion, though, you still have to rank up and work harder, right? With your current speed, I think you’ll hit C-class without a problem.”
“Ehehe…”
The most important part was always her hero activity results.
Batori, who was still only D-class, had one simple goal: to reach C-class.
She didn’t have any other targets set yet.
But even without that, the real problem with Batori from the beginning was learning how to use her power as a hero, so aiming for C-class alone was probably enough.
“Batori, is there anything difficult about being a hero lately?”
“If you mean anything really hard… umm… No, nothing comes to mind.”
“Really?”
I’d secretly assumed there must be some tough parts, but the answer I actually heard was completely different from my expectations, and I was surprised.
I’d known for a long time that Batori’s self-esteem was extremely low and that I understood her personality well.
Naturally I’d worried, but it was actually a good thing that she had no problems at all.
After all, I already knew how important self-esteem was to her.
“Ah, just… recently things have been going well, but even if they keep going this smoothly, I wonder if I’m really okay… Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Hmm…”
The answer wasn’t that anything was wrong; it was more like exaggerated worry.
I hadn’t expected her to say something like that, but her life really was going too smoothly.
As Batori herself said, things were coming together too easily.
Her days were running like a broken record—perfectly smooth.
I had to worry a little that something would eventually trip her up.
“Indeed, your work is going very smoothly.”
“Right…?”
“It’s been almost two months since we first met. You started at E-class and are rising straight up, so it makes sense that it feels this way.”
“Hee hee…”
Straight rise.
Normally it took a long time to climb from E-class to C-class, but for Batori it was half that time, maybe even less.
Things were unfolding like a perfectly written script, after all.
It was only natural that I’d worry a little when progress was this perfect.
Unlike Batori, I never had any bad high-school experiences, graduated university successfully, and never faced any real difficulties while keeping good grades—wouldn’t that mean I should have been fine too?
Of course there were good parts, but life was a rollercoaster, after all.
Eventually it would fall.
Of course I had to worry.
“Of course I’m happy that things are going well because of Counselor-nim. It’s the first time in my life that everything has gone this smoothly.”
“I see.”
“If I just listen to what you tell me, I can see how things work out… Ah, of course your ability helps, but you also set the goal for me, Counselor-nim. To become a C-class hero and more… You even mentored me through Saran-unni. Meeting someone at B-class level is extremely rare…”
Batori held her warm coffee carefully as she spoke.
It was summer; did it feel all right to drink hot things like that?
Well, regardless of her small size, she was much sturdier than me, so there was probably no problem.
“…Hee hee, hearing you say that makes me think my worries are completely unnecessary…! Just listen to Counselor-nim and keep working hard from now on, right?”
That was the end of the little goblin’s worries.
She wrapped up her thoughts with a tiny unnecessary concern.
Batori’s stories were all easy to understand, and at the same time I felt proud of her.
In the end, everything I’d advised her on, she had solved herself.
She’d handled it well, so the worries had appeared. If she hadn’t, she would still be stuck at the first problem like Saran or Baek Eun-hwa.
Batori who had been clinging only to her self-esteem problem was now worrying about far more than that.
That meant she was changing a lot.
She really was a wonderful goblin.
“Batori, shall we stop with all this boring talk and go have some fun?”
It was only natural for me to say something like that to her, wasn’t it?
It felt a little like buying her a churro for the cute Batori from earlier.
Well, what I called fun was probably just… nothing special?