Episode 3: Goblin Tribe (2)
Episode 3: Goblin Tribe (2)
-KWAGAGAGANG!!
As I swung the Great Sword toward the last one, I finally felt the surroundings grow quiet.
"Was that the last one just now?"
I swung the Great Sword through the air to wipe off the blood, then sheathed it on my back again.
"Knight-nim, thank you..."
The village women who had been trapped in the cage came out one by one and expressed their gratitude.
"Did you not see the Knight Commander and the noble?"
A hesitant village woman pointed toward a tunnel where the dark, deep entrance at the back of the settlement was visible.
"They were captured with us at first, but the goblins seemed to take a liking to the two of them for some reason and took them inside that tunnel. They should be safe..."
"It's alright, I'll go check. Since I cleared out all the goblins on the way here, you should head straight to the village."
"Yes! Thank you, Knight-nim! When you visit the village next time, I will definitely repay you."
After that, the captured villagers left one by one, offering their thanks.
"Mister Knight!! Thank you!"
The captured children also approached me to say their thanks.
I carefully patted the children's heads.
"Hurry and follow your mothers."
Afterwards, I quickly looked around the cleaned-up Goblin Settlement, but the Commander the knight mentioned and the kidnapped noble were nowhere to be seen.
'They must be inside that tunnel after all.'
The tunnel's terrain wasn't extremely narrow or wide, but it felt deep even at a glance.
'Using a sword would be difficult in terrain like that.'
I pulled the Great Sword I had slung on my back and stuck it into the ground, then moved my steps toward the inside of the tunnel.
**
"I told you not to go!!"
"You were the one who said it was fine since you were bored and followed along so well, and now you're saying this!!"
A filthy prison deep within the tunnel.
There, a girl in knight's attire and a woman wearing an anachronistically elegant outfit, both with their bodies bound, were bickering.
"If it was going to be this dangerous, you should have told me in advance! This isn't a place you go to because you're bored."
"No, you're the one who said the goblins were pushovers and to just trust your own people, did you think we'd get our asses kicked this pathetically?"
The two bickering people were oddly identical, as if they were the same person.
Elysia von Edelrite.
A child of a prestigious knight family but with little actual interest in knighthood, a girl who just enjoys bossing people around using her high status as the Knight Order Commander.
And her sister, Alusia von Edelrite.
She, being of the same lineage, also enjoyed living a life of idle leisure under her high status.
"No, the problem in the first place is those knights holed up in the capital doing nothing. What are they doing now that the noble Elysia-nim has been captured and brought to a dirty place like this?"
"Right, those bastards are the problem!! Shouldn't they mobilize the kingdom's entire army right now to save us? If our purity gets taken by filthy bastards like goblins, Father won't just sit still, you know?"
"Right!! Those bad bastards!"
Their quarrel was brief, and soon the target of the two shifted from each other to the knight order that wasn't coming to save them.
-BANG!! KWAGANG!!
"KIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEK!!!"
The two, who had been passing the time by cursing the knight order, heard the agonized scream of a goblin coming from somewhere.
"What is that sound? Are they fighting amongst themselves over who gets to devour us first?"
"That's a possibility. Seeing as they captured only us, their eye for beauty is certainly accurate."
"For now, I'd choose to commit suicide rather than be eaten by those things. You go first."
The older sister, Alusia, subtly pushed her sister with her foot.
"Ah, don't push me!! You go first, unni. Just the breath of those filthy bastards grazing me would put me in a bad mood."
"Are you crazy? Just prepare to bite your tongue. I don't even want to imagine doing it with a goblin. Ugh."
-BANG!!! KWAGAGAGANG!!!
"KYAAAAAAAK!!"
The intense sounds of destruction and the goblins' screams kept getting closer and closer to the two.
"Do they desire us that much? They're really going at it."
"Hey hey, they're coming in. Get ready to bite your tongue."
"Got it, unni. The brave Edelrite 9th Knights Order Commander Elysia, preparations complete."
The two stuck out their tongues and focused their gaze on the door where the sound was coming from.
The idea of biting your tongue to die is closer to superstition, but these two weren't the type to look up such information.
-BANG!!! THUD!!!
The sound grew closer, and sweat beaded on the foreheads of the two.
"Gulp."
Along with the sound of the younger sister Elysia swallowing her saliva,
-TOOKWAAAAANG!
Not the entrance they were focused on, but the wall next to it was shattered.
A huge hole instantly appeared in the shattered wall, and soon a massive shadow was cast from there.
-THUD
"The door was over there."
The figure that appeared through the destroyed wall was a man of massive build, Van.
"Unni!! It's a person!! He must have come to save us!!"
"As expected of the knight order!! Has the news already reached Father? That's fast!"
The two smiled brightly and showered countless praises upon the knight order.
"Are you two the noble who came with the Knight Commander?"
Van ripped off the prison bars with his bare hands, entered, and stood before the two.
Van's massive build completely overshadowed the two, and Alusia and Elysia gulped and stared clearly at the man.
"Unni, I've finally met my prince, it seems...."
"Don't spout nonsense, he's my prince. That flowing black hair, that reliable build, the sculpted beauty felt even in the darkness... Finally, my destined partner!!"
Van realized his tied hair had come loose, roughly twisted it up and tied it again, then freed the restraints binding the two.
-KWAJAK!
Of course, it was less 'freed' and more 'shattered by brute force.'
"Can you both walk? It's not far to the exit. Since I dealt with most of the goblins on the way in, evacuate quickly."
Van said, taking their hands and helping them up.
"Excuse me, Prince... This maiden, the strength has left her legs, she simply cannot walk..."
But immediately, Alusia plopped down in her spot and began her act of a frail maiden.
"Ah... My destined one... I too, perhaps due to the tension, the strength in my legs..."
Not to be outdone, Elysia also immediately plopped down, going a step further and making a gesture as if hugging her chest.
Van looked at the two for a moment with an expression that seemed to find them pathetic.
"Nobles are something else."
Shaking his head in resignation, just as Van was about to lift the two up,
-DOOM DOOM DOOM!
A massive tremor was felt behind the three.
Van abandoned his posture of trying to lift the two and shifted his gaze forward.
"Feels a bit different for a goblin."
He then clenched both fists and took a stance, preparing for the approaching battle.
The sound grew closer, and what arrived before the door was
An orc with an axe in one hand, red eyes, and a build that wouldn't lose out compared to Van's.
"An orc... So that's why the goblin bastards followed it."
Orc.
At a glance, they look similar to goblins, but compared to the tiny child-like build of goblins, they are a demon tribe whose size surpasses that of an average adult male.
Their intelligence, ability to utilize tools, combat sense—while not at the level of higher demons—still made them a sufficiently powerful demon tribe.
"You... bad person... hurting my... subordinates... and stealing my food..."
With its halting speech and hideous appearance on top of that, the faces of the two behind Van changed to look terrified.
Van glanced at the two like that and opened his mouth.
"Stay right there. I'll deal with this and be right back."
Van clenched both fists and stood facing the orc.
**
-PWEAK!!
-BUUUUNG PWEAK!!
After dodging the orc's widely swung axe, I shot a Liver Shot into its exposed left ribs.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAK!!"
I stepped in toward the orc staggering with a pained scream and continued the assault.
Alternating between my right fist and left fist, I pummeled a ruthless combination into the exposed face of the bastard.
-PWEAK!! BBAK!!
Along with the sound of the orc's skull caving in, its eye socket collapsed.
-BANG!!
A heavy Body Kick followed even before the blood could spray.
-KWADDEUDEUK!
With the sound of ribs breaking, the orc dropped the axe it was holding, and its body was sent flying through the air before crashing down.
'Shall I finish it off like this?'
I was about to rush at the fallen orc, but the orc, judging it had no chance, scrambled up on the ground and then ran off deep into the tunnel.
"Staying true to its instincts."
'For now, I need to get these two safely evacuated outside, then chase it down later or something.'
Leaving the fleeing orc behind, I went back to where the two were.
"The orc bastard ran away, so use this chance to evacuate outside."
Seeing my returned figure, the two made expressions as if they had believed in me all along and applauded.
"As expected, we knew Prince-nim would win!"
"My destined partner would never lose to a lowly demon tribe~"
The two, who just moments ago said their legs had given out and they couldn't walk, had somehow already gotten up from their spots.
"Standing just fine, I see. Run outside at full speed just like that."
When I gestured toward the outside, the two looked at each other once, then plopped right back down in their spots.
"Ah... Seeing the hero made me feel relieved, but my legs have gone weak again~"
"Uh... Looking at my destined partner makes my heart race so much I simply cannot walk!!"
The two began their act again.
I sighed and looked down at them.
'Should I just leave them and go?'
'Yeah, they'll crawl out on their own.'
I concluded it would be fine to abandon them here, since I'd already cleared out most of the goblins inside the tunnel, and I planned to chase down and finish off the orc anyway.
Honestly, they were also a bit bothersome.
-KWAANG!!! DUDUDUDUDOONG!
A powerful impact sound and the sound of the tunnel shaking came from somewhere.
-KWAAAAANG!! DOONGDOONGDOONG!!
The sounds repeated.
This was clearly not a natural sound, but an artificial one.
And soon, along with the shaking sounds, cracks began to appear in the tunnel ceiling along with falling dust.
"This is why I hate high-intelligence demon tribes. Monsters that follow their instincts are easier."
The orc that had fled deep into the tunnel had probably given up on clinging to life and was attacking the walls to collapse the tunnel.
Its mindset was likely, 'If I'm going to die anyway, let's all go together.'
The tunnel, looking like it would collapse any second, began to shake violently.
'This won't do.'
"KYAAAAAK!"
I just hoisted the two over my shoulders.
"Prince-nim's shoulders are so broad and cool!!"
"Be quiet and hold on tight. We're running."
And I ran like mad toward the tunnel exit.
I had to be faster than the collapsing speed.
I'd be fine even if buried under this much dirt, but for these two clueless nobles, it would mean instant death.