Be Careful What You Wish For (5)
The sound came like field mice rustling through dry grass. Their fishy breaths seeped into the low-hanging air of the early dawn. Beyond the darkness outside the wooden palisade, dozens—no, perhaps hundreds—of yellow eyes gleamed. It wasn’t even a festival, yet the bastards had shown up in force. I clicked my tongue. I had heard that goblins were sensitive to the scent of females, but I never imagined it would be this bad.
“U-uncle…?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”
“B-but that sound…”
The girl’s shoulders hunched like those of a frightened puppy. She clearly already knew about goblins. It was understandable. Humans at least provided minimal care if they planned to sell their captives as slaves. Goblins offered no such mercy. To them, you were either food or a breeding vessel. Still, there was no time to linger on such grim thoughts—the scrape of rusted metal against the palisade was already echoing in my ears.
“Tsk. They’ve gotten close already.”
“……”
“Hide inside the cart for now. I’ll go out, kill every last one of them, and return.”
“Uncle…”
“I’m busy. We’ll talk later.”
When I stepped outside, the goblin horde came into view. Their formation, if it could even be called that, was the very opposite of order. They shoved and trampled one another; those who were stepped on immediately sank their teeth into the necks of those who had stepped on them. Pure chaos. Yet there were easily over a hundred of the creatures.
Could I truly kill them all alone?
I was quietly calculating my odds when a goblin slightly different from the rest approached me.
Excellent! My subordinate!
I tilted my head. The creature wore a crude crown carved from what looked like a half-shattered skull and a pathetic necklace of threaded bones. Its larger frame and ornaments marked it as the leader. I hadn’t expected it to speak—much less that I would both understand its language and be able to speak it in return.
What’s with the sudden praise?
Did you not bring the female from the wagon for me, chief of this den? Excellent. Most excellent, my subordinate!
Female? You mean the girl behind me?
That’s right! Offer that bitch to me! Then I shall seat you in the position right below mine!
I see. Even after leaving the den, I was still considered one of their own. If I handed the girl over, I might survive. Though I had learned martial arts, I was only at the second-class realm right now. Victory was far from guaranteed. Coldly and realistically, handing her over and biding my time would be the smart choice.
“Fuck off.”
What does that mean?
I drew my sword in a clean arc.
“It means die.”
First strike wins. I’ve always liked that saying—especially when the opponent isn’t even worth a proper fight.
A chilling silence fell. The creatures blinked their ugly yellow eyes, struggling to process what had just happened. It didn’t take them long. No matter how stupid, they could still recognize that their leader was dead.
Kieeeeeeek!!
Krrrrrrk!!
“So they’ve lost even the last scraps of intelligence and can only howl like beasts. What a truly repulsive race.”
Sometimes the burden of suppressing one’s instincts grows so heavy that the urge to simply let go becomes overwhelming. Who could blame the desire to make things easier? Yet seeing them like this only hardened my heart. I wanted to remain human, not become one of these monsters. And so today, once again, I follow my own path of chivalry.
It seemed it hadn’t been mere coincidence that I had comprehended the Blue Sky Boundless Sword Art and the Blue Sky Great Connection Divine Art.
The unbound sword of the blue sky that flows freely like clouds across the heavens. That was the first technique that had come to mind in this world. And even though it was nothing more than that, I had already grasped its forms and was wielding them with my own hands.
Was it innate talent? Or the assistance of the system? I couldn’t say for certain. After obtaining the martial arts of the Namgung clan, I had tried recalling other techniques… but unfortunately the same phenomenon never repeated.
Was there some limitation? Or was this simply my current ceiling? Either way, it was a joyous realization. It meant I could grow even stronger than I was now.
Once again my dantian began to pulse. A blue haze soon enveloped my entire body. Here, I would display the power of the Blue Sky Great Connection Divine Art that had reached two-star.
“Some might call it unfilial.”
No matter how wicked their nature, raising a sword against parents or neighbors was unthinkable. That was why I pursued not justice, but chivalry. I would walk the path I believed right without hesitation.
Soon the horde of over a hundred goblins surged forward like a wave. In response, I detonated my internal qi.
Kieeeeeeek!!
“Hup!”
Slice!
The three goblins that had charged ahead without fear were cut down in an instant. But that was all. There were still far too many left. They trampled the corpses of their own without hesitation and continued their advance. Yet even as the demonic wave surged endlessly toward me, my heart remained perfectly calm as I swung my blade.
There was no longer any trembling. I simply cut what needed to be cut before my eyes.
The sword cleaved the air. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say it scattered like the wind. The blade swept in like a gentle breeze, leaving blue trajectories that slaughtered every goblin before me in the blink of an eye. When the blood of dozens of their kin spilled in mere moments, the horde faltered—but only for an instant. Their yellow eyes, already tinged with madness, grew even more vicious as they charged straight at the enemy before them.
Blue Sky Boundless Sword Art proficiency has risen to E-rank!
Blue Sky Great Connection Divine Art proficiency has risen to E-rank!
“The lofty clouds that flow through the high blue sky cannot be grasped, and even if one tries to block them, they cannot be blocked…”
It looked like this dawn was going to be quite long.
At the grotesque screams and the clamor of metal clashing outside, Rina squeezed her eyes shut. A single tear slipped from between her tightly closed lids. It was terrifying. Too terrifying. She just wanted to go home…
Unfortunately, the heavens seemed unwilling to grant that wish, continuing to send trial after trial upon both the girl and the uncle.
Will uncle be all right…?
For a moment, doubt crept in. What if the real reason he had saved her was to hand her over to his own kind? But the suspicion did not last long. Though they had only spent a short time together, she knew he was not that sort of person. Of course she had been wary at first. He was a goblin, after all. Yet after hearing his unexpected answer, her thoughts had changed.
Let me ask you the opposite. Can you truly claim that every elf is good and never walks the wrong path simply because they are an elf?
She had been unable to offer any reply. There were certainly elves who committed sins. At the same time, she had felt so ashamed of herself for asking such a question that she wished she could crawl into a mouse hole and disappear.
Would an uncle like that abandon her? It was impossible. The doubt vanished, and the girl’s trust in him became firmer than ever.
The sounds have stopped. Is it… over?
How much time had passed? When the horrible, grotesque noises finally ceased, Rina rose from her hiding place. She had followed the uncle’s instructions and stayed inside the cart, but curiosity eventually won out. She pushed open the wooden gate in the palisade.
Creak.
Wood scraped against the ground. Only after the small noise faded could Rina take in the sight before her.
“…No!!”
Countless goblins lay dead, blood scattered everywhere. Yet quite a few were still alive and moving. Their single purpose was clear: to mercilessly punish the filthy traitor who had betrayed and slaughtered his own kind.
More than ten goblins were swarming him at once, yet the uncle did not move a single inch.
Kill him!! Kill the traitor!!
We must kill him no matter what!!!
Was something wrong? The moment that thought crossed her mind, the uncle’s figure blurred and vanished.
Crunch! Boom!! Clang!
The crude, rusted iron weapons flying in from every direction were instantly repelled by something immensely powerful and shot into the sky. The goblins, having lost their target, could not withstand the recoil and began stumbling into one another. Then, toward the writhing mass of goblins tangled like ugly, twisted desire, a blue haze descended like a falling comet.
BOOM!!
A tremendous explosion. There was no way mere goblins could evade the wrath of the heavens. Severed limbs and sprays of blood scattered in all directions.
“Hoo…”
As he slowly steadied his breathing, a profound silence settled around him. Rina had watched the entire scene from beginning to end. The faint blue haze rising from his body seemed to carry the very energy of the lofty heavens.
Could it be… that the heavenly emissary her grandfather had waited so long for—the one sent by the skies themselves—was this very person? It was nothing more than a small misunderstanding, a fleeting delusion. Yet as he flicked the blood from his blade, he murmured softly.
“…This is the Blue Sky.”
With those words, he drove a stake through the heart of her misconception.