A Day of Goblins and Debts
The forest with morning sunlight lying low was not much different from yesterday.
The light seeping between the trees looked the same, and the damp scent of earth was the same. Every time the wind stirred the leaves there came a soft rustle, and somewhere a bird called out briefly.
I tightened my grip on the sword hilt, then loosened it a little again.
Ah, have I already gotten used to this?
It was still far too early to say I had grown stronger, yet it felt awkward to claim I was completely the same as yesterday.
The feel of dirt underfoot, the sound of bushes shifting—both were growing a little clearer, bit by bit.
Kaya spoke low, eyes on the undergrowth ahead.
"Left."
The word was short, but certain.
We turned our gazes at once. The lower part of the brush was trembling faintly. Two small shadows. Low screeching cries rose with them.
Ordinary goblins.
"I'll take them first."
Mari gathered flame at her fingertips.
The moment a short jet of fire shot out, one of the goblins inside the brush screamed and burst free.
"Kyaek, kyaeek!"
The second one followed right behind.
I drew a breath and stepped straight in. Yesterday my body would have locked up with tension first, but this time my feet moved forward on their own.
The goblin's dagger scraped past to the side. Instead of meeting it head-on I twisted one step and let it slide by.
Clang!
My wrist rang a little, but less than yesterday. Gripping the sword tighter, I drove straight in.
Garen had said it.
Once you've decided to go in, don't hesitate—push all the way through. That's an adventurer's sword.
The iron blade carved across its neck.
Swish.
One goblin collapsed with head and body already separated.
Demacia!
A short laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
In that same moment the other one tried to close on Kaya. A pale light flashed from her fingertips; the goblin squinted, and Mari's second flame slammed home.
Boom!
The goblin toppled backward.
I closed the distance and finished it.
Drawing the iron sword free and steadying my breath, I found my heart calmer than yesterday. My hands shook less, too.
Mari glanced at me.
"Better than yesterday."
"Right? Looks like Garen's teaching is actually helping. From now on I'll take the lead!"
"Don't get cocky."
"When you get praised, answering is just common courtesy!"
"What are you even saying. You're still miles off."
Kaya let out a small sigh, yet the corner of her mouth lifted a fraction.
"That just now was fine. Not trying to block it was good too."
"Hehe. That, too, is all thanks to Teacher Garen's lessons..."
"Maybe he's grinding you from morning just to turn something worse than a beast into a person."
"Wow, then that's actually moving?"
We pulled the mana stones from the corpses, dropped them into a leather pouch, and pushed deeper in.
After that the fights kept coming.
Once all three of us moved as one. Kaya found the goblin traces, Mari shoved first with fire, and I cut down whatever burst out.
Another time two fleeing goblins split behind separate trees; I read the direction first, chased, and killed one. Mari burned the other. Kaya's short calls from behind kept us from crossing paths and let us finish cleanly.
I couldn't remember every detail.
Goblin screams, Kaya's low precise orders, the ring of steel, the smell of blood, dirt kicking up underfoot—those things simply repeated at similar intervals.
Yesterday each one would have felt heavy. Today it was far easier than the day before.
By the time sunlight had begun to slant a little through the trees, the mana stones inside the leather pouch had built up a respectable weight.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and said,
"Not bad."
"What isn't."
"We're really going to make a lot today, aren't we?"
"True enough."
Kaya answered shortly.
Mari kicked a blackened goblin corpse once and said,
"Today's pretty easy."
"Right? All thanks to me~"
"Shameless. I'll roast you too. Get over here."
"Aii... kidding, kidding~"
I was a little buoyant.
At last it felt like we were properly earning money.
Just like the early grind in an RPG—farm the same monsters, pocket the coins, level up, and slowly stack skills—this was exactly that. We were hunting goblins on repeat, collecting mana stones, making coin, and even the Heavenly Demon Physique and other passives were accumulating, however slowly.
This is the good life.
I couldn't call it completely leisurely yet, but at least today we weren't being dragged around.
Near the end of the morning the last fight broke open.
Three ordinary goblins and one warrior type.
No shaman, but the moment a warrior mixed in, the whole feel changed. It stood behind the regulars with its blade held low while the others spread to the flanks.
"I'll take the left."
I spoke first.
Kaya gave a short nod.
"Don't push too hard."
"Yes."
Mari's flame erupted first.
One ordinary goblin cooked dry inside the fire; the other two split left and right at the same time.
I drove straight at the one that had dug in on the left. Its dagger flashed upward from below, but I didn't flinch.
I laid my sword flat to let the dagger slide off, shoved my body inside, and cut.
Swish.
The warrior goblin closed immediately.
It was thick-bodied like the one we'd met yesterday. It didn't waste its blade either, calmly aiming for my legs or arms. My heart picked up a little, but it wasn't the desperate scramble of the day before.
Shoulders and hips first, not the hands. Don't block—deflect. Once you're in, go all the way.
Garen's lessons flickered through my mind in short bursts.
Clang!
Kang!
I was shoved back once. My wrist went numb.
...This is way more doable than yesterday.
I angled the sword and guided the warrior's blade aside, then stepped half a pace deeper.
Its yellow eyes flickered for the briefest instant.
In that same breath Kaya's light flashed from the side.
The warrior goblin squeezed its eyes shut.
Nice flash.
Mari drove flame into the opening.
Boom!
Its body locked for a heartbeat.
I shoved the sword home.
Thud!
The warrior goblin's breath broke weakly and it dropped to its knees.
I twisted the blade free.
The last one had charged Mari and was already down, wrapped in fire.
A short silence.
Only then did I let out a light breath.
"Whew..."
I bent my knees once and straightened. My arms felt heavy and my wrists ached, but a smile still came.
"We were pretty good just now, right?"
"...A little."
"Yeah."
"Kaya... that actually got me."
"That last part really was solid."
"Hehe. My goal is Goblin Slayer."
"You sure pick useless goals."
"It's not useless!"
"Both of you, shut it."
Mari yanked the mana stone from the warrior corpse and tossed it my way.
"Here. You take this one."
"Oh, thanks. We made a decent haul today, yeah?"
"Should be."
We decided to head back around then.
We reached the guild before the sun hit its peak. Luce, standing at the reception desk, widened her eyes a little when she saw the mana stones we laid out.
"You brought in quite a few today."
"Right? Things went pretty well."
Mari spoke up from beside me.
"You make it sound like you did it all yourself?"
"No way~ Everyone worked hard for these."
Luce smiled softly as she sorted the stones that had spilled across the counter one by one.
Sixteen dull gray-green ordinary goblin mana stones. Rough-surfaced, lightless things the size of two or three finger joints, like pebbles.
Beside them sat two warrior-type goblin mana stones. Greenish-brown rhomboid crystals, a little harder than the ordinary ones, with faint red veins showing inside like hairline cracks.
Luce flipped through the ledger and calculated.
"Base reward for clearing goblin remnants on the northeast outskirts: two silver coins. Sixteen ordinary goblin mana stones: thirty-two copper. Two warrior goblin mana stones: eight copper. All together, five silver and four copper."
"Ooo...!"
Hearing the exact numbers, I swallowed for no real reason.
We really made a lot, didn't we?
Yesterday's take hadn't been small either, but today was clearly different. This was no longer just covering meals—it was a real means of supporting ourselves.
"Hehe."
"What. Why are you smiling so weirdly."
"Goblins are my life partners now. Let's wipe them all out!"
"Ugh, so loud."
Mari plucked one of the two warrior stones from the counter and pushed it toward me.
"This one's yours, like I said earlier."
"Huh?"
"The one who worked hardest today gets it."
Kaya simply nodded.
"You finished the warrior type too. Take it."
"...Thank you! I'll keep working hard!"
I looked down at the warrior mana stone.
Faint red veins glimmered inside the greenish-brown crystal. It was a little larger than an ordinary goblin stone, and its presence felt far heavier.
Ah, this feeling of being recognized. I'd almost forgotten it. I only tasted it briefly in the early days of part-time work, then lived as if it never existed... sex.
"Even a performance bonus... damn..."
"Ugh, what are you muttering about by yourself."
Mari gave me a faintly contemptuous look from the side.
I ignored her and ran the numbers in my head.
Subtract the value of one warrior stone in advance and sixty copper remained.
Split three ways, twenty copper each.
Add the four copper from the warrior stone, and what landed in my hand was twenty-four copper.
And adding yesterday's share on top of that...
I tapped the figures with a finger beside the ledger.
Three silver, three copper.
Exactly thirty-nine copper in total.
The soft clink of coins knocking together in my palm was not light. All the hard work in the forest that morning had turned into a few thin pieces of metal.
"I'll settle the tab first."
"Yes, how much will you pay?"
"As much as I can for now."
Luce opened the credit ledger and read the lines one by one.
"Public bath, four copper. Sunset Hearth basic meal, four copper. Dinner, eight copper. One change of clothes, ten copper..."
I nodded the moment she finished that much.
"I'll clear all of those."
Four copper, four copper, eight copper, ten copper.
Each time a coin slid onto the ledger, Luce's pen scratched a line through another entry.
I watched every single one of them disappear for no good reason.
Public bath.
Meal money.
Beer money.
Clothes.
They had seemed like nothing much, yet watching the lines vanish left a strangely satisfying feeling.
The sensation of hunting goblins into the dirt and then wiping out debts one by one with the money made my heart thump harder than expected.
Romance: pass.
Luce pointed to the next line.
"One pair of leather bracers, one silver and four copper."
"I'll put as much as I can toward that too."
Everything paid so far totaled twenty-six copper. Thirteen copper remained in my hand.
I pushed that straight back across.
Luce adjusted the ledger.
"Leather bracers credit: thirteen copper repaid, three copper remaining."
"Whew, almost done."
"Yes."
And the final line.
Iron sword. Five silver.
I stared at that entry for a long time. The numbers standing out so clearly on the page looked bigger than they should.
Luce asked carefully,
"Shall we leave the weapon as is?"
"Yes... that's still a long way off."
I gave a short laugh.
Still, it was fine.
Bath money, meal money, beer money, clothes money—all cleared. The leather bracers were almost paid off too. What remained now was three copper on the bracers and five silver on the iron sword.
Hmm... looks like I'll have to dry out every last goblin. My mouth's already watering~
Rewinding the clock a little, to the realm of the gods.
Crack!
The moment that sound rang out, the Supreme Dragon Stellar could not lift her head. Cold sweat dripped steadily from the tips of her horns.
The Evil God Cherno looked down on the scene and opened his mouth.
"Whoa... fuck, what the hell did you just do?"
"Ah... aah. N-no... th-that is... I'm so sorry!!!"
Stellar slammed her forehead to the floor almost on reflex.
—BOOM!!!
The crash rolled out so hard it almost seemed the floor itself had cracked.
Cherno didn't even glance at the sight. He only twisted his head and roared as if tearing the air.
"Celestia!!!!!"
A moment later, dazzling light gathered itself into the shape of pure irritation.
The Light God Celestia sighed first.
"I told you not to make such a racket."
"Look at the shit this bastard just pulled! You think I can keep quiet about this?!"
Cherno jabbed a finger at Stellar.
Celestia answered in that politely snide tone of hers.
"What nonsense is it this time."
Then her gaze landed on Stellar, and her expression froze solid.
"......Ha."
"Right? I'm barely holding it in myself right now."
"Who even brought this useless garbage lizard here?"
"Oh right! This bastard volunteered, didn't he?"
"Then it's even worse."
Celestia smiled. For a light god it was far too cold—just the thinnest curve of her lips. Her eyes stayed ice-still, unmoved.
"Shall we kill it? Shall we?!"
"Ha... just hit the reset button, yeah?"
"We can't do that kind of reset."
"I know, I'm just saying. Just saying!"
Cherno barked, then suddenly let out a long, drained sigh like all the air had left him.
"Ha... what do we do."
"Indeed. What do we do..."
Stellar kept her head pressed to the floor and cried out,
"I'm sorry!!"
The two of them glanced at each other for a second. Then they spoke at the same time.
"We'll watch for now."
"We'll watch for now."
And just like that the light folded, the darkness folded.
All that remained was Stellar's cold sweat.