The Thief's Usefulness
When wicked monsters appear, it is the Hero Party's duty to put them down. So we stopped where we were and resolved to wipe them out.
The goblins' trail was absurdly easy to find.
They clearly had no idea how to cover their tracks. Then again, even humans rarely know how unless they're professional hunters, so it stood to reason.
Still — this was the path back to their nest. Shouldn't they at least hide the traces?
Something about this feels off.
It ought to be simple enough. And yet I couldn't shake the sense that trouble was waiting for us.
"I never expected a cave out here."
Camilla muttered, tugging her pointed hat lower. The grass kept slapping her in the face, and she looked thoroughly annoyed about it.
What we found was less a cave than a dugout burrow. We took cover in a thicket a short distance away. Charging in blind was never a good idea.
"It's less a tunnel and more a little hole. Barely big enough for a person to squeeze through."
"The goblins probably dug it themselves. Like ants."
Goblins were tiny by nature, so even a cramped space would serve them well enough. And if they needed more room, they could always put their captured human slaves to work.
"Ugh… look over there. Those must be the brood mothers."
All sorts of "decorations" hung near the goblin den.
Humans, arms and legs bound. Every one of them had dead eyes — whether they'd given up on living or simply couldn't move from the way they were trussed, they lay scattered like discarded cargo.
Raped by the goblins, no doubt. Their bellies weren't swollen yet, so conception still seemed some ways off.
Disgusting.
That goblins had wretched tastes was a well-established fact. But carving up corpses for decoration felt like overkill even for them.
A provocation? Or a threat?
"Ah — over there!"
"Scouts? Fall back deeper into cover."
They weren't scouts, as it turned out. They'd come out for something far more sordid.
A girl roughly the size of a goblin was being dragged from the narrow entrance, hauled along like a piece of luggage.
Being scraped naked across the gravel should have drawn screams of pain — but that capacity seemed long gone. Hard to scream when blood is pouring from your throat.
"These filthy things… I can't take any more of this!"
Wait — what is she doing?
Elisa shot to her feet and nocked an arrow. The goblins' eyes snapped toward us, but she released the string as if it were nothing.
"Kyaaaak!!!"
Fwaaaash—! The arrow blurred for an instant, then buried itself in the shrieking goblin's open mouth — so deep the tip punched clean through the back of its skull.
"Ghk! Kyaaaak!"
"You idiot! What are you thinking, jumping out like that?!"
"Scared of a handful like that? I could wipe them out by myself!"
Pababababash! As if determined to prove it, she began loosing arrows in rapid succession.
One after another. Each tip split the air and punched through a goblin's eye or throat. An arrow that didn't miss was an arrow that killed.
Deadly accuracy. Lethal force. Against goblins whose only armor was scraps of leather and torn grass, it was firepower they simply could not withstand.
But you made a mistake.
For someone who was supposed to fight from the rear, Elisa had pushed far too far forward.
And just like that — as if someone had kicked a beehive — goblins came pouring out of the little burrow in a swarm. Elisa's arrows dropped two or three at a time and clogged the entrance, but they couldn't stop the advance entirely.
"Kieeeeeeek!"
"Intruders!"
"Kill them! Kiiill them!"
The rest of the party rushed out to save her — only for goblins to burst from nowhere and seize them by the ankles.
"What the hell?! Where did these come from — and this many?!"
"It's an ambush! They already knew we were coming."
"No — Elisa would never have missed something like that!"
There had to be hundreds of them, armed with crude weapons, their frames roughly one and a half times the size of an ordinary goblin. Stronger, too, no doubt.
Is there another Demon King watching the Hero Party besides me?
Heizen Urk, most likely. He'd have used surveillance magic and teleportation to stage the ambush.
The plan had been to goad the whole party and close a net around us. He'd only managed about a quarter of it.
"Stop being a nuisance and get lost!"
Goblins that had been lurking among the trees and brush came howling in, and even Sloan found them a genuine annoyance.
Her sword strokes cleaved five at a time, but they kept coming undeterred — and every so often they would shrewdly open a little distance, drawing her off in another direction.
…Looking closer, he must have strengthened them.
The stronger the brood mother, the stronger the next generation of goblins. He'd captured powerful female adventurers and bred them over and over.
Was this a trap? Knowing the Hero Party would pass this way… then he might be nearby himself.
Stationing elite troops like these meant he had something he wanted.
And the numbers! They were multiplying far faster than Sloan could kill them. There had to be hundreds more inside the burrow. On top of that, the space was too cramped for a mage to simply sweep them with area magic.
He prepared thoroughly. How many weeks did he spend setting this up? Without tunnels connecting to other places, these numbers don't make sense.
The surprise teleports were genuinely brilliant. Not only had they isolated Elisa — they kept appearing on staggered timing, targeting the mage and the healer.
A few of them even popped up behind me and swung clubs. I dealt with them without much effort, but at this rate even I was going to have problems.
"Where the hell…! These pieces of trash!"
Goblins were intelligent enough to craft tools, so they hid behind cover and lunged the moment Elisa went to nock another arrow. She kicked them away with those long legs of hers, crumpling jaws left and right — but simply getting that close to an archer was already a victory for them.
What do I do? Our Elisa… the party can't help you. Use magic and you'll get caught in it too. The Hero's sword strokes are fierce but honest — they don't have the speed.
Every time Sloan's blade swept through, five goblins died. More than five filled the gap.
Which meant the only one who could help her was me. I quietly spread mana through my body. Dying here would be inconvenient. You people still need to help me kill Demon Kings!
"Elisa! Hold on! I'm coming to help you right now!"
"I'll go."
"No. I can handle this many in no time."
She was right — no number of goblins could stop Sloan. A fighter strong enough to kill Demon Kings would free Elisa soon enough if she just pushed a little harder.
But if Heizen Urk was behind this, he wouldn't allow that. He'd keep drawing Elisa farther and farther away, and send his strongest subordinates to pin Sloan down however they could.
Which meant only someone who could hide — only me — could resolve this.
Only me.
I can't just help her straight out, though.
I intended to stage something more dramatic. I'd let the situation get truly desperate without outside help — and only then would I attack in earnest.
So that not just Elisa, but the entire Hero Party would come to depend on me. Once they did, they wouldn't be able to turn their backs on me.
And right on cue — the supporting actor makes his entrance.
Kuuuuuung—! With a heavy vibration, a green mass of muscle that easily topped three meters appeared at the widest mouth of the burrow.
Elisa trained her bow on it at once — but the ogre's body shimmered, and the distance between them suddenly collapsed. Teleportation magic again.
"An ogre…? Why is that thing here?!"
Of course goblins were pack animals. Unifying numbers like these required a powerful leader.
That powerful leader — the ogre — held a wooden spear in one hand. Given its body length, the spear was roughly three meters long as well.
"Elf. Breeding stock."
The ogre that had appeared from nowhere swung the spear shaft. Elisa tried to throw herself back — but several goblins suddenly materialized nearby and she couldn't.
Puuuuk! The horrific impact of that bulk transferred straight through. Elisa's body flew like a bird! An ordinary person would have been reduced to a handful of bloody pulp by that single blow.
"Kh—"
In the instant before impact, Elisa managed to open a little distance, which let her glance the blow somewhat. Even so, she sailed several meters, slammed into the ground, and bounced several times — and in the process lost her bow and arrows.
"M-my bow…"
"Elisa!"
Elves, they say, use only one bow their entire lives. The string is made from their mother's hair, or something like that.
Watching her try to get up and retrieve it even with a broken arm, I thought I understood what that meant.
"You — breeding stock!"
The ogre didn't finish her off. It sent the goblins instead. With her arm broken, there was no need to deal with her personally.
The goblins bounded forward in high spirits, unaware that every step was carrying them toward death.
Casually, still cloaked in stealth, I slipped in among them.
A strong goblin is still just a goblin.
Once. Twice. I swung my dagger without putting any real force behind it. Seogeok— Goblin bodies split clean in half. Bone and flesh parted as smoothly as if I were deboning meat.
"Kyaak?!"
"A m-mage! Magiiic!"
"Kieeek!"
Caught by the sudden assault, the goblins screamed and scattered in every direction. Kind of them to dismantle their own encirclement for me. I reached Elisa's side without much difficulty — and picked up her bow while I was at it.
"Are you all right?"
"You… how?"
"As I said — I've got a lot of little tricks. This much is child's play."
These goblins were fairly elite, true enough. But in the end they were still lesser creatures. Confronted with something they couldn't understand, their first instinct was to run. Magic especially set them off.
"Get lost!"
Fear bred fear. Sloan finally tore through the goblin encirclement and came charging our way. Goblins beyond counting tried to bar her path —
"Become one, O sharp spear."
— and icicles over a meter long came flying from behind, skewering the goblin horde in an instant.
"Yooou!"
Ah, right. That one seemed reasonably strong. The moment my stealth dropped, the ogre came charging at me like a madman. Sloan behind it, me in front. Of course it would try to kill the easier target.
"If something like that could catch me, sure."
You're a Demon King's underling, aren't you?
Dodging didn't require any special stance. A light duck under the sideways-sweeping spear shaft was enough — and my small frame compressed the whole motion nicely.
"Huh? Huuh!!"
As a last resort, it went for a thrust. The terror of Sloan at its back must have driven it to an attack it wasn't used to. A normal swing would have killed most people, after all. Which is why the form was sloppy.
No force needed. Before the spear could fully extend, I threw my dagger and planted it in the thing's eyeball.
"It huuurts!"
The spear's motion canceled naturally. Wracked by the sudden agony, it thrashed and clawed at the dagger with its hands. Of course I didn't just stand there watching. I closed the gap in a flash and sliced through its ankle. The dagger tore through flesh with ease, spraying blood.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
A sweet scream. Being a Demon King myself, watching someone take a wound seems to put me in an almost unbearably good mood.
Yes! Howl! Beg me to spare you! The ogre staggered and dropped to one knee. Its remaining eye still burned with fight, so I put out that one too.
"Uwaaah! Uwaaaaaah!!! My eyes! My eyes!!"
The ogre clutched its face with those thick hands and wailed. But every subordinate that might have helped was long dead or fled.
"I-I'm sorry…. I'll never — never do anything bad again…. P-please spare me!"
A giant over three meters tall — but with both knees on the ground and its head bowed, its face came down within reach of my hand. I drove the long dagger into its cervical spine and twisted it slowly, making the suffering last.
"Ghk! Kyaak!"
Hoo. That hand-feel is exquisite. Killing something bigger than myself always feels good.
At last the blade punched out through the back of its skull. Even then, the thing's life hadn't fully left it. Stubborn vitality. Of course it would die soon enough. Perfectly set up for a little more torment…
"Nice one, Vali."
Seogeok—! But my entertainment didn't last. Sloan strode up and took the ogre's head clean off.
Ah. That was stupid of me. I should have just killed it outright without hesitating. Did that look strange?
From now on, I'd have to hide my feelings better. Slip up and the whole plan could go sideways.
"Elisa, are you okay? Your arm… it's broken. I'll heal you right away!"
"Y-yeah…"
"The goblins scattered in every direction. Natural enough, with the pack leader dead. They won't last long anyway. Goblins only get weaker the more they split up."
Once healed, Elisa got back to her feet. She stared at me hard, then bit down on her lower lip.
I saved her — don't tell me she's about to get snippy now? If she does, plan or no plan, I'm smacking her one.
But to my surprise, Elisa bent at the waist toward me.
"Thank you, Vali."
Just those few words. And the ugly feeling that had been pressing down on one corner of my heart simply vanished.
You know how it is. When you see another side of someone, the judgment you'd formed about them shifts.
Hearing a word of thanks from Elisa — whom I'd always taken for nothing but sharp-tongued — eased the irritation that had been building up, just a little.
"Not at all. I just used a few parlor tricks. Anyone could manage this much…"
Still, I didn't forget to tease her.