Casting the Bait
It was time to cast the bait.
Angela met the gaze of each person in turn as she continued.
"As you all just heard, the great Esper family has decided to hire adventurers to resolve this crisis. The reward is a full four times the usual rate — one cooper per goblin."
"...I'm sorry, what? One cooper per goblin?"
"Why would they suddenly—"
"Of course, this money isn't only for adventurers. All of you can claim it as well."
".......!"
At Angela's words, the villagers fell completely silent.
"Ahem. Due to this goblin surge, not only our house but the Sachsen Viscounty will be issuing a similar proclamation."
"We've never heard anything like that."
"Isn't that a lie?"
As if she had been waiting for exactly that, Angela answered with perfect calm.
"Of course you haven't. This information was originally scheduled to be announced three days from now."
Her manner was almost a perfect imitation of Head Maid Chloe in the garden.
"What I'm trying to say is not that there is no reward for hunting goblins. Quite the opposite — in this hard season, when it isn't even harvest time, this is a chance to earn money."
At her words, the village men's hands clenched tight.
In this impoverished territory, tenant farmers like them were never even given the opportunity to make money.
And in that situation...
One cooper per goblin isn't bad.
The thought flickered through every head present.
"So in the end you're just going to use us to kill goblins, aren't you? And not one or two of them — hundreds, you said? Money's money, but aren't people's lives more important?"
When someone pushed back, Angela answered without a moment's hesitation.
"Yes."
"Nothing in this world can replace a human life. But when, exactly, did I ever say I was telling this only to the people here?"
"Excuse me?"
"One cooper per goblin in bounty money. A reward four times the usual rate... This news is already spreading across the entire Esper Baronry. By tomorrow it will have reached every settlement around this village. And with this many goblins, you can't very well monopolize them all yourselves, can you?"
"......."
To her uneasy prey, Angela kept dangling the bait.
"They say happiness is best when shared. And if you lack people, you simply call for more."
"...Call for more? Who, exactly?"
Angela smiled as she answered.
"The people of the other villages. All of them."
She opened her mouth wider still and expanded the board entirely — so the prey could relax without realizing the bait was sitting inside a mouth.
"......!"
"As I understand it, each village has organized a youth militia. There are four villages in this area. Ten men from each of four villages already makes forty. Even if each man only takes two or three goblins, that would cover several days' wages."
At Angela's words, a few of them tilted their heads, clearly tempted.
Halfway there.
Now she only needed to pluck out the last little bones and swallow.
"...Nobles always think money solves everything."
A man with his head hung low was muttering. He was middle-aged, with hair missing in thick clumps.
Bingo.
Inwardly cheering, Angela fixed her full attention on him.
"When my daughters were taken by goblins, some fancy adventurer came and said he'd handle it — then left saying he couldn't even find the goblins and I should just give up on my girls. I get that you lot found the bastards I need to take revenge on, and I'm grateful for that, but..."
The balding man lowered his head further and pounded his chest hard as he spoke.
"...Still... fuck... like a goddamn coward... I'm... too scared... I don't want to go into that mountain..."
"You don't have to go."
"...What?"
At Angela's firm reply, the middle-aged man lifted his hanging head.
What did she just say?
Angela walked over to him and gently laid a hand on his shoulder.
"There is another way to save your daughters. With that desperate heart of yours. With that fearful heart. Go to the other villages and spread the word."
The man trembled from head to toe. Her dark, ominous eyes glittered behind her glasses in the reflected light, as if she were casting a spell.
"Spread the word... about what... are you talking about?"
Angela's full lips parted slowly, and a captivating voice seeped into his ear.
"Tell them to come slaughter those hated goblins. You are not the only victim. That young man over there who lost his fiancée and both his legs is one as well. And in the other villages too... I am an administrator for the entire territory. Of course I know which villages have suffered what degree of damage."
Having soothed the tearful balding man, Angela then turned to Belford, who had come back to his senses and was listening with wide, staring eyes.
"It is impossible to hear every individual story of every resident, but that pain eventually circles around and reaches the top. Whenever a crisis like this has struck, the great Esper family has always found a wise solution, and..."
She looked at the village chief — his face still streaked with tears, but now twisted with rage — and spoke with near-absolute conviction.
"...we have always overcome it by joining forces with everyone, regardless of status or race."
"...Angela, was it?"
The chief's son, Belford, ground his teeth as he opened his mouth.
"That is correct."
"What do we need to do?"
Angela answered with a bright, refreshing smile — just as the witch who had taught her always had.
"Gather the people with the fastest feet."
The prey had entered her mouth.
Against the wall at the back, the elf who had been leaning there with her green eyes brightly open finally closed them.
"As expected. The great Esper family."
In a narrow darkness where nothing could be seen—
—slurp slurp slurp slurp!
My brothers and sisters, whom I hadn't seen in days, were welcoming me.
You little bastards. You got caught by goblins and you've just been sitting here doing what, exactly?
"Woof! Woof!"
"Whiiine..."
At my thunderous bark, the lot of them bowed their heads. In the hierarchy, I stood far, far above them.
—gurrrgle...
Their little stomachs were growling like alarm clocks; they must have been starving. Conveniently, I was hungry too.
Fuck. I don't know why we got kidnapped by goblins, but we still have to eat to live.
Then it hit me — if these brats were here, that meant the goblins in this place were the ones who had murdered my parents.
These fucking pieces of shit. I'm going to kill every last one of them.
"Nnngh..."
First I had to get out of here before I could do anything else.
The latch on our cage was far too high. There was no way I could reach it at my height.
After a moment's thought, I bit down on the scruff of the nearest pup and dragged him over to the front of the cage door.
"Yip yip yiiip!!"
"Grrrr!!!"
He put up a fight along the way, but under my threat he went quiet. Using my brother as a stepping stool, I rose up on my hind legs and stretched out my front paws.
Fuck! Reach it! Reach, damn it!
—tap!
I felt my front paw touch the latch on the outside of the cage.
Heh heh heh... Now I just have to pull this off and I can get ou—
—KERRRRRK!!!!!!
Right before I could free the latch, a massive roar rolled through from beyond the door.
Fuck. We're screwed. Did they catch us?!
Then countless footsteps and shrieks echoed through the cave, and a swarm of goblins began streaming past the front of our cage.
A bad feeling settled over me.
What reason could they have to charge out like that?
Only one.
Angela's party, come to find the missing people, must have been trying to enter the cave.
"Yip! Yip! Yip!"
I barked in pure panic. There were too many goblins. Please. Please.
Don't come in! Run!
But deep down, I was also full of hope. With a forest-killing-machine elf and professional adventurer Master Angela on the team, even if a whole goddamn horde of goblins — the bottom-tier trash of any fantasy world — came pouring in, wouldn't they just carve them all to pieces and come rescue me?
It's still too early to move...
I quietly waited for my moment and climbed down from the brother I had been standing on. If I got caught mid-escape, a second chance might never come.
I waited for Angela's rescue.
I pricked up my ears and strained my hearing to the limit.
Please. Master Angela. Tasukete kudasai...
—CLAAANG!!!!
—Fwoooosh!!
—KRAAAAAAAH!!! AAAARGH!!!!!!
"?!?!?!"
A man's voice, raw and tearing, came from far away.
—Save me! Please save me!!! Don't leave me!!!! AAAARGH!!!!
—Kerrrk!! Kerrrk!!!
The horrible sounds that followed made my body shake on its own.
Angela was fighting the goblins.
Damn it.
My siblings had all backed into the rear of the cage, trembling violently.
Thud. Thud. The sounds of something being torn and smashed apart.
After the noise had gone on for a long time—
—sniff sniff.
A thick scent of blood filled my nose...
Ah.
There was goblin blood in it, yes — but human blood, too, clear as day.
I swallowed hard. I kept smelling.
Angela. Angela. Angela. Angela....!!!!!
...I couldn't smell Angela's.
Angela too... no way... was she captured and taken to...
...that cave with the giant mushroom...
My head went blank. Strength drained from my body as if I were melting, the tension snapped, and a cold, creeping terror washed over me.
And what followed was endless rage.
You...... FUUUUUCK!!! You goddamn goblin bastards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
A voice far too savage for a small puppy's body tore out of my throat. My fangs itched.
I jammed my mouth against the bars of the cage and bit down like a mad thing.
It was a meaningless act.
I just had no idea how else to vent this fury...
In the end I burned myself out and collapsed.
Lying on the cold cave floor, I thought of Angela's warm body.
I missed her scent. I missed the warm touch of her hand stroking me. I missed the heartbeat I used to hear up close.
That Angela....!
I can't just stay here like this.
I have to escape. No matter what it takes.
I looked back.
In the darkness, I glared at my whimpering brothers and sisters.
...There has to be a way.
A way to get out of here without the goblins noticing, and end up back in Angela's arms.
—step. step. step.
Right on cue, footsteps approached. A dog's hearing is sharp enough that I could tell whose they were immediately.
Goblins. And not just one or two.
On top of that...
—sniff sniff.
This is... some other beast?
The scent of goblins mixed with the body odor of some animal I couldn't identify.
Torchlight spilled toward the cage I was locked in, and a cluster of silhouettes came into view. Only then could I properly see what was in front of me.
Ours was not the only cage. Using my position as a reference, there were countless cages ahead and to both sides.
Looking at the dogs and wolves sorted by size and stage of growth, I realized — was this a goblin breeding pen?
—Kerk.
A goblin stopped in front of my cage. I remembered the pouch hanging from its belt. This was the one that had taken the ash tree seeds.
I carefully memorized its scent. You bastard. You're dead later.
"You said you caught one, and it's a little puppy?"
—Kerk!
"You stupid shit! It's way too young! You need one that's big enough to beat into shape! A pup this small just wastes food and has nothing to feed on!"
—Kerrrk...
.......?
What? Did I just hear human speech?
I poked my head out, and the snout of a massive wolf came into view.
—Grrrrrl.
Atop the brown-furred wolf sat a goblin in a torn black mask, holding a staff.
The goblin astride the wolf opened its mouth through the ripped fabric of the mask.
"Goddamn humans... and even an elf... How the hell did they find this place? The dogs I worked so hard to train are dead and it's a real problem... Damn it! I have no face left to show the great Lord...! You stupid useless bastards!!! I told you over and over not to leave any traces!!!!"
Hold on a second. How the hell are you talking?
Before my confusion could even fade, the masked goblin cracked its staff across the other goblin's skull.
—CRACK!!!
"Release the dogs! It's training time! Even if they're useless mutts, killing a few of them might cool me off!"
—Kerrrk!
Clutching its head, the goblin opened the door to our cage.
Fuck. What the hell is going on here?