Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Golden Goblin
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[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
[ Level Up! Check your status! ]
"Hahaha!! This place is a gold mine!!"
What a sweet experience farm.
I invested all 3 points from leveling up into Strength.
'Three levels just from clearing one goblin den!?'
It made sense, since there were quite a few goblins.
"Still, this is too sweet!?"
Honestly, I was hoping they would respawn.
If someone asked me to do it again, I'd shout 'Yes!' without a moment's hesitation.
But unfortunately, this world isn't a game, so the concept of respawning doesn't exist.
Monsters are born, but that's not the same as respawning, and they don't appear in the same place.
Some time after the caltrops began their hunt, the goblins' cries finally ceased.
"Burp. Thanks for the meal."
Now, all I have to do is cut off the goblin ears and head back.
-Grumble.
"…I'm hungry."
My body was screaming for food.
Come to think of it, I haven't eaten anything since I was possessed.
I hadn't eaten anything past lunchtime, I'd gone back and forth to the forest, and I'd moved my body to hunt, so it was only natural to be hungry.
-Grumble.
But I was starving.
As I was carefully cutting off the goblin ears one by one and putting them in my inventory.
"…I wonder if I can eat this?"
What's in front of me is meat, after all. Wouldn't it be tasty if I grilled it?
In the story, goblin meat isn't eaten, but the meat of some monsters is so delicious it's considered a specialty product.
"But what if I eat it and get a stomachache?"
Honestly, the sight of it is unsettling, and it looks like there are a lot of hygiene issues.
Is there anyone who could test it for me?
As I was thinking that.
-Kee… Kiiiek….
"Hm?"
Hearing a cry from the far end of the path of corpses, I looked up to see a single goblin, barely alive.
The goblin was trembling, struggling to get up, and that's when it caught my eye.
'That's it!'
I stood up and walked steadily toward the goblin.
-Kee, kiiieeek!!
As I approached, the startled goblin scrambled to back away.
'What's with it?'
Seeing how scared it was, I must have looked pretty frightening.
But surprisingly, I hadn't even swung my sword this time, so my clothes were clean without any blood on them. I don't know why it's so scared.
'Anyway, that's not what's important right now.'
I grabbed the goblin's head and held out the goblin ear in my other hand in front of its mouth.
"Hey, eat up."
It's not a person, but with such a good test subject right in front of me, there's no reason to refuse.
-Kiiieeek!!!
At that, the goblin thrashed its whole body, struggling desperately.
"Ahem. Look at this brat's table manners."
They say a beating is the best medicine for a disobedient child, so I prepared a dose right away.
-Thwack!
-Kiek!
After I smacked it on the head with my fist, the goblin quieted down.
It looks like it's about to die, but it's not dead yet, so it's fine.
"Here. Have a taste. Try it, try it."
"This is good for you, a real health food. I prepared it all just for you."
The words all parents say.
I borrowed them for a moment.
Even after all that, the goblin absolutely refused to eat, so I just shoved it into its mouth.
-Bleegh!
Then, not long after I put it in its mouth, the goblin immediately threw it up.
"Ugh, shit."
It must not have tasted very good.
With that, I've proven that goblin ears are not edible.
"Tough, isn't it? Just hang in there a little longer. I'll send you to your friends."
Even though I drew my sword right in front of it, the creature didn't resist at all.
I beheaded the goblin in a single stroke.
"Hoo~ That was tiring."
All I did was walk back and forth, scatter some caltrops, and dance a little, but don't people say that even just playing around can be tiring?
It's the same thing.
While picking up the caltrops, I opened my inventory and counted the number of goblin ears I'd put inside.
"Nineteen."
I killed exactly ten goblins.
Each one has two ears, so that should be twenty, but I fed one to the goblin, so that makes nineteen.
They definitely said one goblin was worth 2 copper, so I can assume one ear is 1 copper.
"Nineteen copper should be enough to last me until tomorrow."
I don't know the market prices, so I can't be sure.
"Who knows. If it's not enough, I'll just eat and sleep on the streets."
Or I could sneak into the academy and sleep in a dorm bed.
I've leveled up and earned some money.
Having finished cleaning up, I was about to happily head back to the Adventurer's Guild.
But…
"Which way was it again?"
Does this damned forest have some kind of barrier on it?
I get lost every time I come in!
Hoo… It's a good thing I'm a rational person. If I had anger management issues, I would have burned this whole forest down.
"Sigh. It'll be evening by the time I get there."
I should just start walking instead of wasting time like this.
Just as I thought that and took a step forward.
-Kyaaak!!
A scream echoed from somewhere in the forest.
'A person?'
What would a person be doing in this forest?
But on second thought, it's not that strange.
After all, I'm here in this forest to hunt goblins and I'm lost right now.
I've come and gone several times today alone, so maybe getting lost is the strange part, but how are you supposed to *not* get lost in a place with no maps and no paths?
Everywhere I look, it's all the same.
If this were Earth, a map app would have solved this in a jiffy.
That's why a person's scream is actually a welcome sound right now!
"I should go ask for directions~"
I don't know if the person who screamed is an adventurer or just a villager, but they must know the way better than I do, so I should ask them.
***
"Haaah~"
A man standing near a carriage let out a long yawn.
"Hey. Keep a proper watch."
"What for? There's no one around anyway."
"Don't you know we're the ones who'll be screwed if we get caught?"
"The employer said no one uses this road, so we don't have to worry. And if we get caught, it's the employer's fault for giving us false information, not ours, right?"
People who would turn on their employer at a moment's notice if things went south.
That's what mercenaries hired for money are like.
Unlike adventurers, they don't pick and choose their jobs, as long as they get paid.
There's no such thing as a separate mercenary guild.
Literally, they are people who gather for the reward money when someone is recruiting help.
Therefore, they are the kind of people who would betray and turn their backs on their employer at any time if it seemed they would suffer a loss.
"Keke. That's true."
The two mercenaries' current job was to guard a carriage.
To be precise, to guard a carriage with iron bars on the back.
They had been traveling since morning, so they stopped in a quiet, deserted forest to let the horses rest.
The reason the two men were on guard despite being in a quiet forest.
Was because this carriage was transporting slaves.
Monsters? The only monsters that appear at the edge of the forest are goblins.
Unless a whole den of goblins came out at once, the two men were skilled enough to handle them.
What they feared were people.
The Empire has a ban on slavery, so if they were caught in this situation, not only the employer but they themselves, the mercenaries, would have a bounty placed on their heads.
That must be why the employer hired mercenaries instead of adventurers.
"More importantly, there aren't just beastkin, but humans too. The employer is a real piece of work, isn't he?"
"And we're accomplices helping him."
The employer was a rather high-ranking noble.
That's how he was able to smuggle in slaves.
"Who cares? As long as we get our money, that's all that matters."
"Well then, shall we claim our bonus?"
One of the men approached the iron bars.
"Oh. You're gonna do it now?"
"If not now, when? We'll be arriving soon."
"Kehehe. Then pick a pretty one so I can have a taste too."
When the man opened the barred door, beautiful female slaves in pretty clothes fled from him into a corner.
"They're merchandise, so I shouldn't touch the virgins. Hey, you there. Come here."
The man pointed at the woman in the farthest corner, and she trembled, shrinking further into it.
"This bitch. When I tell you to come, you come. How annoying."
The man grabbed a handful of the woman's hair.
"Kyaaak!!"
"I thought I was escorting people, but have I been escorting a dolphin all this time?"
The woman, dragged out by the man, wanted to run, but the shackles on her hands and feet made it difficult to even walk properly, let alone run.
"H-Help me!!!"
"Scream all you want. If someone was going to come help just because you screamed, the employer wouldn't have sent us this way."
-Thud!
"Ugh!"
In that moment, someone pushed the man from behind.
The man, who had unexpectedly kissed the ground, scrambled up, fuming, and turned around.
"Hah—I was wondering who it was. If you want some so badly, I'll let you have a taste first."
He threw the woman whose hair he was holding back into the cage and grabbed the head of the woman who had just pushed him.
"Ugh!"
What was unusual was that the woman had perked-up ears on her head and a navy-blue tail behind her.
"I was curious what a beastkin tastes like. I guess I'll satisfy my curiosity now."
"You son of a bitch. I'll kill you."
"Saying that with such a pretty face isn't scary at all."
The man placed his hand on the beastkin woman's rear.
"Ooh, nice."
"Kuhk…."
"Y-You, what are you!"
Just as he was about to have some fun, a commotion from behind made the man turn his head in annoyance.
Then, a man with black hair and red eyes came into view.
"Excuse me, do you know the way to the Empire?"
"I don't know where you popped out from, but now that you've seen this, you'd better not think you're getting out of here alive."
"No, I'm asking if you know the way."
"Die!!!"
Behind him, the other man had already taken a fighting stance.
The man watching this assumed his partner would handle it and turned his attention back to the beastkin woman.
"Kuaak!"
The groan from behind was a voice he recognized.
Wondering what happened, he quickly turned back around.
Standing before him was the same man from a moment ago.
"Excuse me, do you know the way to the Empire?"
Behind him, the headless corpse of his partner lay sprawled on the ground.
***
What the hell is with these guys?
I just asked for directions because I was lost, and they pull out a sword without a word.
Isn't this what you'd call real anger management issues?
I accidentally killed one of them, but I didn't feel any guilt about my first murder.
'If I don't kill them, I'll be the one who dies. What's there to feel guilty about?'
Everyone puts themselves first.
If they had just come at me with their fists, I would have smashed their faces in, but since they came at me with a sword, I had no choice but to kill.
Therefore, this is self-defense.
Anyway, I killed one, but there's still another one left, so it's fine.
I walked up to the remaining man and stopped right in front of him.
"Excuse me, do you know the way to the Empire?"
I'm asking so politely, how hard can it be to just give me a few words of direction?
The man in front of me is already reaching for his sword, just like the corpse behind me did.
Seeing that, my face hardened into a scowl.
"You bastards have no kindness, none at all! A man is lost! Huh? Isn't it common decency to help someone out?!"
"Wh-What kind of bullshit is this?!"
Swish. The blade moved from right to left.
"Are you two twins? How can your attack patterns be exactly the same?"
They look different, but he attacks just like the man I just killed. You'd think they were twins, just with different faces.
Of course, I dodged it swiftly.
I considered just killing this one cleanly too, but.
"The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get."
-Thwack!
My fist connected with the man's face.
Thud. The man fell on his ass and looked up at me.
"I was already annoyed as hell from getting lost in this damn forest so many times. But to meet someone this rude on top of it? I'm fucking pissed."
"S-Spare me! I'll give you all the money I have!"
"You'll give me all your money?"
"Y-Yes!"
Oh… I thought you were just a thug.
But you were a Golden Goblin!?